Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre says if elected as prime minister, he will unite the country by building more pipelines and giving Alberta more control over its energy sector.."We need to treat and the West as full partners, and give Albertans the same rights and freedoms within Confederation as every other province has," Poilievre said. "And that includes allowing the development of our clean and responsible energy sector here.".On Monday morning, Poilievre took a break from attending the Calgary Stampede to sit down with the Western Standard's Cory Morgan to talk about Alberta's sovereignty, energy independence, and the country's agricultural sector..Poilievre said the best way to unite the country would be to put an end to the "pay up and shut up" attitude Ottawa had for western Canada. To do so, he would repeal Bill C-69 and Bill C-48, which would lift some environmental restrictions on building new pipelines and end the moratorium on oil tankers..He would also remove the carbon tax to "allow for our energy sector to succeed, while incentivizing the continued environmental advances that the sector has been making over the last decade."."If you get the gatekeepers in Ottawa out of the way, then we will be able to produce not only bigger and more powerful inflation-proof paychecks for Western Canadians, but it will unify the country," he said..When asked about the cancelled Energy East pipeline, Poilievre said while he couldn't "promise you that industry is going to come forward with another proposal to run another." But he said Canada "needs" the Trans Mountain pipeline to be built.."The problem is that we live in a country now where nothing can get built. Whether it's just a building permit to build a normal, detached house, or a major mining enterprise, you can't get a permit," he said, noting that the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development ranks Canada 35 out of 36 nations for the time it takes to get a building permit.."What we need to do is become the fastest place in the developed world to approve building permits. For projects of all sizes. You can protect the environment and health and safety, while having faster and more predictable decisions," Poilievre said..When asked about the farmer's protests in The Netherlands over a government proposal to reduce emissions, Poilievre said it's "incredible" that Canada relies on other countries for fertilizer when "we have our own here.".Poilievre said that reducing fertilizer will also "drastically reduce the output per acre," lower incomes for farmers, and make food more expensive, "particularly for the vulnerable."."I think people around the world are speaking out against this gatekeeper agenda that attacks energy, food supply chains, and countless other essentials that we need to survive and thrive as a species," Poilievre said. "I'm going to defend the ability of farmers to use environmentally responsible fertilizers that feed our people and make food affordable for every Canadian."."We should have affordable food. We have among the most abundant supply of arable land on Earth. Let's use it to feed our people," he added..When asked about Bill C-11 and the issue of freedom of expression in Canada, Poilievre said he would repeal the bill if elected as prime minister. "In the previous parliament, it was called Bill C-10, and it had the same censorship concept," he said. "That's why I fought hard in the last parliament to delay the passage of C-10, so it never actually made it through the Senate before Trudeau called the election.".Poilievre finished by saying Canadians feel like they have lost control of their lives because of, "bossy governments taking people's money and telling them what to do."."Let people make their own decisions with their own bodies, money, businesses, and families, and get the state out of the way. Government should only do what people can't do for themselves, and the rest should be left to communities, families, and entrepreneurs, so that they can fulfill their potential with as little interference as possible."
