Apr 13, 2025 · 1h 21m · knowledge-project
Pierre Poilievre: What I Want to Build (and Break) To Fix Canada
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In an in-depth interview on The Knowledge Project, Canadian Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre outlines his vision to fix Canada by curbing government spending, accelerating natural resource development, slashing red tape, and restoring national unity around individual opportunity.
How this conversation actually went
Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Shane holds 18.1% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
Shane as informed peer 2.9 Guest teaching 2.3 Guest disagreement 1.9 Shane pushing back 1.4
speaking balance: gold is Shane, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 3:19 Poilievre forcefully rejects Trump comparison
Poilievre immediately and flatly rejects Parrish's question comparing him to Donald Trump, pointing out stark background and policy differences.
Hardest push from Shane ▶ 1:12:58 Parrish pushes on concrete government accountabilityParrish refuses to let Poilievre give high-level answers on government abuse, repeatedly asking 'how do we do that?' and drilling into AI oversight.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 56:32 Poilievre educates on repeat criminal statisticsPoilievre lays out detailed statistics on 40 offenders committing 6,000 offenses in Vancouver to illustrate the mechanics of current bail laws.
Shane holds their own ▶ 1:08:54 Parrish leverages intelligence background on national capabilitiesParrish draws directly on his past work in Canadian intelligence agencies to frame the discussion on defense, tech leadership, and cultural risk aversion.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Shane as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Shane pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Personal Background, Political Purpose, and Trump Comparisons | 2 | 2 | 3 | 2 | Parrish opens by asking Poilievre about public comparisons to Trump and his personal motivation. Poilievre rejects the comparison firmly, emphasizing his humble upbringing and distinct Canadian outlook. | |
| Uniting Canada, Moving Past Identity Politics and Shared Identity | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | Parrish asks how an adversarial opposition leader can unite the country and brings up historical assimilation. Poilievre critiques identity politics and calls for uniting around shared Canadian identity. | |
| Fatherhood, Special Needs Parenting, and Deepened Empathy | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | A collaborative and personal exchange where Poilievre opens up about raising his nonverbal daughter and building empathy for working families. Parrish shares his own experiences as a single father. | |
| Policy Differences: Carbon Tax, Bill C-69, and Reinvestment Tax Cuts | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | Parrish presses Poilievre on how his policies differ from the Liberals' recent policy pivots. Poilievre attacks the sincerity of the government and outlines stark differences on Bill C-69, carbon taxes, and capital gains incentives. | |
| Sponsor Messages: Google Chrome Gemini and Indeed | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Following the sponsor break, Parrish prompts Poilievre to explain how natural resources drive the broader national economy. Poilievre details how resource exports bolster currency purchasing power and tax revenues. | |
| Philosophical Opposition to the World Economic Forum | 2 | 3 | 4 | 1 | Parrish asks why Poilievre opposes the World Economic Forum while his political opponents engage with it. Poilievre critiques top-down global governance, arguing everyday workers possess superior practical judgment over global elites. | |
| Free Markets, Government Waste, and the Canadian Dream | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | Parrish challenges Poilievre on whether free-market policies imply gutting services for vulnerable citizens. Poilievre argues massive bureaucratic expansion and money printing hurt the poor by transferring wealth upward to the rich. | |
| Fiscal Responsibility, Dollar-for-Dollar Rule, and Halting Inflation | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Parrish inquires about balancing the budget while safeguarding public services. Poilievre outlines a dollar-for-dollar spending rule, cutting external consultants, and reducing inflation through fiscal restraint. | |
| Accelerating Development Approvals and Attracting Capital | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Parrish advances his theory that Canada must offer a better business environment than the US rather than merely equal. Poilievre agrees, elaborating on pre-approved shovel-ready development zones and faster permit turnaround. | |
| Slashing Red Tape and Regulatory Growth Restrictions | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Parrish discusses regulatory inertia and asks about regulatory reduction quotas. Poilievre details his plan for a 25% cut followed by an auditor-general-enforced two-for-one deregulation rule. | |
| Closing the Canada-US Productivity and Capital Gap | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Parrish asks Poilievre to demystify Canada's lagging productivity gap with the US. Poilievre breaks down capital investment per worker, citing specific numbers and contrasting Canada with Ireland's economic turnaround. | |
| Responding to US Tariffs and Rebuilding Continental Defense | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | Parrish questions the prudence of tit-for-tat retaliation against an economically larger partner like the US. Poilievre defends retaliatory deterrence while advocating for renegotiations tied to joint continental defense commitments. | |
| Energy Independence, LNG Exports, and First Nations Equity | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | Parrish asks how Canada can avoid vulnerability to US market shifts. Poilievre lays out energy corridors and LNG export advantages to Europe and Asia, emphasizing equity ownership for First Nations. | |
| Dismantling Interprovincial Trade Barriers | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | After Poilievre highlights interprovincial trade barriers, Parrish pivots back to trade dynamics with the US and points out that Poilievre omitted China's role in US tariff motivations. Poilievre agrees and frames North American cooperation against Chinese interference. | |
| Media Independence, Free Expression, and Repealing Bill C-11 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Parrish raises concerns about government subsidies influencing media objectivity. Poilievre pledges to repeal Bill C-11 and champions open online distribution platforms over state-curated traditional broadcasts. | |
| Sponsor Messages: Google Chrome Gemini and Indeed | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | Parrish challenges Poilievre on free speech boundaries, asking about hate speech and how AI models might alter information curation. Poilievre emphasizes the criminal code's existing incitement bans while cautioning against ideological censorship. | |
| Reforming the Criminal Justice System: Bail, Sentencing, and Border Control | 2 | 3 | 3 | 1 | Parrish introduces widespread public anxiety around rising crime. Poilievre details repeat offender statistics in Vancouver and outlines his policies to repeal Bill C-75, abolish house arrest for violent crimes, and introduce three-strikes rules. | |
| Addressing the Opioid Crisis and Fostering Recovery | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Parrish asks whether loss of economic hope drives addiction and crime. Poilievre agrees that lack of opportunity plays a major role and advocates for expanding recovery and treatment facilities. | |
| Licensing Foreign-Trained Healthcare Professionals | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Parrish asks how the federal government can improve healthcare within provincial jurisdictions. Poilievre advocates for a standardized national testing standard to license qualified immigrant doctors and nurses rapidly. | |
| Upholding the Canada Health Act and Accelerating Drug Approvals | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | Parrish asks about safeguards for universal healthcare against privatization and touches on military modernization. Poilievre commits to the Canada Health Act and advocates reciprocating advanced foreign drug approvals. | |
| Overcoming Risk Aversion, Celebrating Success, and Canadian Heritage | 5 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Drawing on his intelligence agency background, Parrish discusses Canada's technological strengths and laments a culture of tall-poppy syndrome. Poilievre agrees, arguing Canada must celebrate entrepreneurial and historical achievements. | |
| Regulating Artificial Intelligence, Safeguarding Privacy, and Accountability | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | Parrish presses Poilievre repeatedly on what concrete enforcement looks like when holding government accountable over AI regulations and power abuses. Poilievre points to public transparency and voter scrutiny as key safeguards. | |
| Restoring Public Trust by Refocusing on Government Competence | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | Parrish asks a nuanced question regarding the competitive risk of unilateral climate policies. Poilievre explains carbon leakage and argues for targeted tax cuts on low-emission domestic production to displace dirty foreign imports. | |
| Concluding Remarks: Addressing Misconceptions and the Vision for Success | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Parrish concludes by asking Poilievre to address common misconceptions and articulate what success looks like in four years. Poilievre speaks about leading with empathy and restoring social mobility for the next generation. |
Statements from this episode (49)
Poilievre: Comparisons to Donald Trump are unfair and inaccurate
“No, I don't think so. I don't, I mean, we don't really share anything in common. I mean, he comes from an extremely privileged background. He, you know, he was born into a very wealthy millionaire family, and I was born in very humble beginnings. There's a lot…”
Poilievre: Immigrants to Canada Must Leave Foreign Conflicts Behind
“If you come to Canada, sure, bring your culture, bring your language, your food your traditions, but the problems from abroad have to stay at home. We bring here a place where we leave all that behind and unite for our flag.”
Poilievre: Government Division Led to Protests Targeting Jewish Institutions
“I think there's been, I think the government has tried to encourage people to divide into different camps, and that has metastasized onto our streets with these horrible protests that target Jewish places of worship and schools and businesses and I think that'…”
Poilievre: Conservative government will completely eliminate Canada's carbon tax
“So I will get rid of the entire tax for everyone and for real.”
Poilievre: Liberal re-election will drive investment to US and halt pipeline construction
“I think if we go, if the liberals are reelected, you will see a continued outpour of investment to the United States. You will see that we do not build LNG plants, pipelines, or any other self-reliance projects that will break our dependence on America.”
Poilievre: Conservative plan offers zero capital gains tax for domestic reinvestment
“One idea that I think a lot of your listeners would find interesting is that I want to pass what I call the Canada first reinvestment tax cut, zero capital gains when you reinvest in Canada.”
Poilievre: Canadian Resource Trades Jobs Can Pay $200,000 to $300,000
“These jobs can be two, 300,000 dollars a year.”
Poilievre: Commits to 15% Income Tax Cut for Average Canadian Workers
“So I'm committing to lower income tax by 15% on the average worker and senior.”
Poilievre: The World Economic Forum Promotes Top-Down Technocratic Control
“I just think it it's an organization that has a very top-down mentality. I don't believe in top-down. I don't believe that there's this sort of group of globetrotting experts that can tell us how to live our lives, that can, you know, who can tell us which ind…”
Poilievre: Mark Carney Claimed in 2021 There Would Be No Inflation
“Like, you know, Mr. Carney, for example, told us in 20, 21, don't worry about inflation. There won't be any inflation. We should print even more money. Well, he was totally wrong. Like, utterly wrong.”
Poilievre: Canadian government spends $21B on consultants, double from 10 years ago
“For example, the government's now spending twenty-one billion dollars on consultants. That's twice what they were spending 10 years ago.”
Poilievre claims 25% of Canadians in poverty and food bank lineups doubled
“Now 25% of people are in poverty. Food bank lineups increased by over a hundred percent. One in four of our kids is going to school undernourished.”
Poilievre: Deficit spending drives inflation that harms the poor and enriches the wealthy
“When the government Spends money it does not have. It drives enormous inflation, and that always hurts the poorest people. The rich are not only inflation-proof, they're inflation-positive.”
Poilievre Plans Dollar-for-Dollar Rule Requiring Equivalent Spending Cuts
“I would bring in a hard dollar-for-dollar law that says any new dollar spending needs to be met with an equal dollar of savings.”
Poilievre Plans to Cut Canada's Foreign Aid Budget
“I am going to cut back on foreign aid. I don't think that we should be sending seven or eight billion dollars out of our country at a time when we can't house our people or provide drinking water and First Nations reserves.”
Poilievre cites $500 billion net capital outflow to the US over decade
“In the last 10 years, there's been a net outflow of five hundred billion dollars of investment to the U.S. From Canada, and that's partly because our taxes are extremely high.”
Poilievre: Canadian building permits rank second slowest in the OECD
“We have the second slowest building permits in the OECD, and it takes us 17 years to get a mine approved, three times longer to get approval for a housing development in Canada versus the UK or the US.”
Poilievre promises to repeal Bills C-69 and C-48 to speed project approvals
“And of course, we're going to get rid of the, you know, development law, C-sixty-nine and C-forty, Eight, so that we can rapidly approve massive natural resource projects, nuclear plants, data centers, the associated power stations to feed them electricity.”
Poilievre commits to 25% federal regulation cut and two-for-one rule
“So our commitment is cut 25% and then bring in a two for one rule overseen by the auditor general, not by the government.”
Poilievre: 23,500 fast-tracked infrastructure projects produced zero documented environmental issues
“23,500 projects got done from concept to completion and
In two years and the environment commissioner, an independent officer went out and did a full study and review and couldn't find a single environmental problem that had resulted from it.”
Poilievre: Canada generates $53 USD per work hour versus $78 in US
“And so today we generate 53 dollars USD for every hour we work as Canadians. The Americans generate 78 dollars.”
Poilievre: Canada receives $15k investment per worker annually versus $28k in US
“In Canada, we get 15,000 dollars of investment per worker per year. In the States, it's 28,000. We're way behind even the OECD average. We get 65 cents of investment per worker For every dollar an OECD average worker gets.”
Poilievre: Ireland's GDP per capita is twice that of Canada
“Now Ireland's per capita GDP is twice Canada's.”
Poilievre: Canada must retaliate against U.S. tariffs for deterrence
“I do think you need to retaliate, because if not, there's no deterrent value. The offending country, in this case, it's the U.S. Administration, needs to know that there's a cost for its producers in tariffing Canada.”
Poilievre outlines day-one plan to pause tariffs and renegotiate CUSMA
“On day one, what I would propose to the president is let's put the tariffs on ice. Let's sit down and renegotiate the Kuzma in a very quick turnaround. And in the meantime, let's be tariff free.”
Poilievre plans national energy corridor with pre-approved pipeline zones
“So I intend to get these shovel-ready zones to create a national energy corridor with pre-approval for pipelines.”
Poilievre: Canada's cold weather makes LNG liquefaction 25% cheaper
“We have an enormous advantage there too, because our cold weather makes it 25% cheaper to liquefy.”
Poilievre: BC to Asia shipping takes 11 days versus 20 from US Gulf Coast
“So then the second thing is it's 11 days to ship to Asia from BC. It's 20 days from the U.S. Gulf Coast.”
Poilievre: Canada Lacks Harmonized Trucking Rules Between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick
“We don't have harmonized trucking regulations across the country, so you're going over the border between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. There's a weight weight regulation difference. So, you know, you can't move products seamlessly between those two provinces…”
Poilievre: Federal Government Will Transfer Revenue Gains to Provinces Removing Trade Barriers
“I'm committed to sit down with the provinces and say, look, I'll make you a deal. We can calculate how much GDP boost we get every time you knock down a trade barrier. And that means more federal revenues. I will give you those revenues. So if, say, Saskatchew…”
Poilievre: Trump Tariffs on Canada Only Strengthen China
“Trump tariffs against Canada actually only strengthen China because they weaken both Canada and the US.”
Poilievre pledges to completely repeal the Bill C-11 internet censorship law
“I would repeal C-Eleven. That's the censorship law, which gives extraordinary powers to the CRTC to control what content Is seen to boost certain types of content that they deem to be Canadian in nature, although there's no real definition of that, and then di…”
Poilievre: Traditional media faces unprecedented competition, not falling demand
“The existing media is not threatened by rising costs or diminishing number of people interested in reading news. Their challenge is there's massive increase in competition. There's actually more media today than there ever has been.”
Poilievre: Media Subsidies Interfere With Objective Political Reporting
“I think it makes it very difficult for media to make a judgment without keeping the back of their head which politician is going to pay the biggest subsidy.”
Poilievre: Criminal Code Bans Hate Without Harming Free Speech
“The criminal code already bans incitements to violence and incitement to genocide, other utterances that are designed to instruct a violent or hostile attack against a particular group of people. That is in the criminal code already, and that has not harmed fr…”
Poilievre: University of Ottawa Hired Convicted Paris Terrorist as Professor
“The University of Ottawa had hired a guy as a professor who had committed a terrorist attack in Paris before he came to Canada.”
Poilievre: Bill C-75 mandates releasing accused under least onerous conditions
“Bill C-seventy-five is the liberal bail law, and it requires judges release the accused under, quote, the earliest opportunity under the least onerous conditions.”
Poilievre: Vancouver police arrested the same 40 offenders 6,000 times
“In Vancouver, the police had to arrest the same 40 offenders 6000 times. 40 guys. Each one of these guys was arrested on average once every two days. A 150 times a year for one guy.”
Poilievre pledges three-strikes law barring parole for repeat violent offenders
“I will be repealing the catch-and-release law, C-seventy-five. I'll repeal house arrest for serious offenses. I'm going to be bringing in a three-strikes-your-out law. If you get convicted of three serious violent offenses, you will be permanently ineligible f…”
Poilievre: Conservatives will preserve scheduled Canada Health Transfer funding increases
“So we're going to preserve the funding. There's a funding increase that's baked into the Canada Health Transfer right now. We're going to preserve that.”
Poilievre: 20,000 immigrant doctors and 32,000 immigrant nurses cannot practice in Canada
“So we have, for example 20,000 immigrant doctors, 32,000 immigrant nurses who can't work because they don't have a license in Canada.”
Poilievre: Bureaucracy Delays US- and EU-Approved Drugs from Reaching Canada
“We have lots of advanced medications and treatments that are available in the States and EU that are not available yet here because our bureaucracy is so slow.”
Poilievre: Canadian passport will restore historical heroes and end statue removals
“That's going to be part of my goal is to, you know, we're going to put all our heroes back in the passport, for example no more tearing down statues. I think we should build new statues.”
Poilievre: Society must treat successful entrepreneurs as heroes, not bandits
“I think we need to tell our young people that entrepreneurs are heroes. That's the guy who mortgages his house and doesn't have a good night's sleep for four years because he's trying to build something from scratch that has a 10% chance of success. And then i…”
Poilievre: Non-consensual AI intimate imagery should be banned and criminalized
“I think we do need to ban and criminalize the unapproved use of other people's images in, in intimate acts.”
Poilievre: Government regulations and instructions on AI companies must be public
“People need to know what rules are government imposing on the AI companies and what instructions are they giving the companies? All of that should be publicly known. We don't want sort of backroom manipulations to be allowed.”
Poilievre: Canadian housing costs doubled after federal government housing programs began
“Like, you know, so they bring in the, a monstrous housing program 10 years ago, and say, well, the government's going to get back into housing, and that's going to make it affordable. Well, and the housing costs double, and an entire generation can't afford a …”