Peace River – Westlock MP Arnold Viersen, has shared his reaction to Justin Trudeau announcing this week he is stepping down as prime minister and Liberal leader once a new party leader is chosen and proroguing parliament until March 24.
Viersen says Trudeau’s decision to prorogue parliament is frustrating, given the Conservative Party’s desire for an election.
“As Conservatives, we’ve been calling for a carbon tax election for a number of months now,” explains Viersen. “We even wrote a letter to the Governor General asking her to call an election given that the entire House of Commons, including 26 liberals, are saying they do not have confidence in this prime minister,” he continues. “I think him stepping down was somewhat inevitable, however, rather than proroguing parliament we were looking forward to a carbon tax election.”
Even though the Liberal Party will select a new leader very soon, Viersen says he thinks the Liberals will continue to stick to the same playbook.
“I don’t think a new leader for the Liberal Party will change anything. The Liberals have been committed to the carbon tax for a number of years. Every Liberal MP supported the carbon tax.”
“The carbon tax will go up again on April 1 regardless of who the leader of the Liberal Party is, so we are saying it’s time for Canada to turn a corner, put a bow on these nine years of darkness and bring hope back to this country.”
Viersen says the Conservative Party is still dedicated to bringing down the current government through a non-confidence vote but is unsure if the NDP will follow through with their promise to bring one forward.
“I think it’s only the NDP that are a little waffle-y on this, but at this point, they are saying they will vote at the end of March to vote non-confidence. So the prorogation should end, we should come back to parliament and there should be a non-confidence vote kinda within the first week.”
Should the non-confidence vote go through and trigger an election, Viersen says he and the rest of the Conservative Party are very prepared to begin campaigning.
“We’ve been pushing for an election for a while so we’re ready to go,” says Viersen. “We’ve got candidates nominated across the country and we’ve got money in the bank ready to run a campaign so this just means we have to wait another three months before an election.”
Despite the wait, Viersen says he is excited for the next election.
“I am looking forward to running again in the upcoming election and having the support of the good people in Peace River – Westlock.”
