Poilievre calls out Carney’s China ties after Liberal India claims

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OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told Canadians on Tuesday that they should be more worried about Liberal Leader Mark Carney’s ties to China, amid allegations that India meddled in Poilievre’s favour in the 2022 Conservative leadership race.

Poilievre dismissed the newsworthiness of a Globe and Mail article Tuesday outlining the allegations about India, but said at a housing announcement in Vaughan, Ont., that he was glad the story broke when it did, because it raised the issue of Carney’s own questionable foreign dealings.

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“There’s something that’s really been worrying me,” Poilievre told reporters, saying he believed Carney was too connected to China, which is increasingly seen as hostile to Canada.

“What did Mr. Carney, in his role as Trudeau’s economic advisor, offer to China?” Poilievre asked.

The Conservative leader said Carney has some explaining to do about a $276-million loan Brookfield Asset Management secured from the Bank of China last November, when Carney was pulling double duty as Brookfield’s chair and the head of then Liberal prime minister Justin Trudeau’s task force on economic growth.

Poilievre alleges Carney personally flew to Beijing for “secret talks” with the deputy governor of the Bank of China, at a time when Chinese intelligence was actively targeting Canadians inside and outside the country.

This lines up with a timeline given by Chinese Ambassador to Canada Wang Di, who said last week that Carney was in Beijing in October for a financial conference.

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Poilievre added that Carney’s refusal to publicly disclose his financial holdings with Brookfield makes the situation even more concerning.

“How do we know (Carney’s) not going to act against our interests in favour of his financial interest? Why didn’t he stand in front of a microphone and confess to Canadians that he owes the Chinese Government that kind of money?”

The Liberal campaign dismissed Poilievre’s insinuations as smoke and mirrors.

“This is a desperate attempt by Pierre Poilievre to distract from the fact that he refuses to get his security clearance at a time of crisis for Canada,” Carney spokesman Guillaume Bertrand said in an email to the National Post.

This isn’t the first time Carney, a longtime advocate of deepening Western economic ties with China, has come under scrutiny for cozy relations with the country’s communist regime.

Carney was also in Beijing last March, joining other U.S. business executives for an audience with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

A source with top-secret clearance told the Globe and Mail that intelligence shows Indian agents were active during Poilievre’s 2022 leadership campaign, raising money and getting out South Asian voters, as India was intent on becoming closer to politicians of all parties. The source said it was not necessarily done with the knowledge of Poilievre or anyone in his inner circle.

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Poilievre easily won the Conservative party leadership on the first ballot, netting more than 68 per cent of available points.

The source said that the information was never shared with Poilievre because he doesn’t have a top-secret security clearance.

Carney said he found it “downright irresponsible” that Poilievre continues to hold out on getting a security clearance, when asked about the Globe and Mail story at a defence spending announcement in Halifax.

Poilievre is the only leader of a major federal party without a top-secret security clearance.

Poilievre said on Tuesday that he still has no plans to obtain the security clearance, telling reporters that doing so would hamper his ability to freely criticize the Liberal government.

“What I will not do is commit to the oath of secrecy that the Liberals want to impose,” said Poilievre.

Politicians are prohibited from publicly discussing information they learned through top-secret briefings and reports.

A Conservative party spokesperson told National Post that the Conservative campaign has two security-cleared individuals on staff who are authorized to receive reports from a government task force monitoring possible ongoing election interference.

National Post
rmohamed@postmedia.com

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