Poilievre would change law, require leadership candidates disclose conflicts
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is vowing to amend the Conflict of Interest Act to force all party leadership candidates to disclose their financial holdings within 30 days of becoming candidates.
Poilievre shared his plan Friday in Toronto, Ont., targeting Liberal leadership frontrunner Mark Carney and his alleged conflicts of interest.
“Trudeau’s adviser Mark Carney has found a sneaky loophole without revealing to Canadians his massive, multi-million dollar foreign holdings, and he isn’t even required at the point of becoming Prime Minister to reveal these holdings,” Poilievre said. “He has 60 days to share the information with the Ethics Commissioner, and then another 60 days for a total of 120 before some of that information goes public.”
Poilievre claimed without such measures Carney would have time to sidestep scrutiny by moving his existing holdings into a “blind trust” while his trustee kept him invested in “all the same things.”
“So he could go on and govern for years, quietly and subtly, knowing what investments he has and making decisions that profit himself at the expense of the Canadian people,” Poilievre continued. “He could affect vital regulatory decisions, national security, international trade, all to his own benefit, all against the benefit of the Canadian people.”
To prevent such conflicts for politicians, Poilievre pledged that if elected his government would introduce legislation requiring “all future prime ministers and ministers to sell assets that create conflicts of interest.”
The amendments to the Act would also require official Canadian party leadership candidates to disclose their financial holdings within 30 days of entering the race. These disclosures would be made publicly available within 60 days.
“There’s nothing in the law that prevents Mr. Carney from doing the right thing. Today, he could voluntarily disclose to Canadians all of his holdings, and then people could judge for themselves,” Poilievre said. “He could offer to sell them all so that he wouldn’t be in a conflict of interest. But he’s being sneaky. He continues to hide.”
Carney did not respond to True North’s request for comment. His campaign has also prevented True North and other independent media from asking him questions at various events.
“Mr. Carney has become very well known for using his political power to become more and more wealthy. After he became an advisor to Justin Trudeau, suddenly, Brookfield, his company, was in the running to help in a multi-million dollar government pension incentive,” Poilievre said. “He used his political influence to try and get governments to subsidize heat pumps from which he could profit, and he’s been advising Justin Trudeau for five years on the economy, all while he’s been moving money and jobs out of our country.”