Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre officially announced his “Axe the Tax” tour of Prince Edward Island at a gas station just outside of Charlottetown on Wednesday.
The opposition leader is on the island ahead of an evening anti-carbon tax rally, continuing his focus on the cost of fuel.
“A Pierre Poilievre-led, common sense, Conservative government will axe the tax, to bring home lower prices for everyone,” said Poilievre.
Just 15 minutes away, at nearly the same time, federal Liberal Health Minister Mark Holland made a joint announcement with local politicians, lauding the success of a recently-expanded drug coverage plan between the feds and province.
“So this is huge movement, it’s great learning as we look to improve health outcomes, and in partnership with provinces and territories across the country,” said Holland. “It’s an example of what partnership can do for us.”
There may be a lot of federal shoes pounding the pavement, with both the prime minster and deputy prime minister having visited the island within the last month.
Senior Liberal caucus members are also going to P.E.I. next week for the 2023 federal cabinet retreat, but a political science expert says, despite that, he doesn’t foresee an election this fall.
Rather, University of Prince Edward Island political scientist Don Desserud says all this is more likely a practice run for an election in fall 2024.
“They know they’re going to get a good reception, all the parties will, quite frankly, and they can see how their team is operating and start to put together the election strategy they are going to need down the road,” said Desserud.
Though he said it is possible an election could be called anytime, if the governing Liberals sense an advantage.
There has only been one federal conservative MP on P.E.I. since the late 80s, but Deeserud said there are so few ridings on the island it’s hard to use that past to try and predict the future.
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