Maxime Bernier pitches sweeping tax cuts during campaign stop on P.E.I.
'We need a big tax revolution' to keep businesses in the country, says People's Party of Canada leader
The leader of the People's Party of Canada pledged to "abolish" the capital gains tax, along with a slew of other programs if his party forms the next federal government.
Maxime Bernier made a campaign stop in Prince Edward Island on Wednesday, holding a news conference outside the Summerside Tax Centre.
While making no new announcements specific to P.E.I., Bernier pitched himself as a business-friendly candidate who wants to bring more investment to Canada in the face of a trade war with the United States.
He said he would lower personal and corporate tax rates and cut taxes on investments.
"Canada is a champion for handing out subsidies to businesses, but that's not working. We are simply taking money from some taxpayers and businesses and giving it to other businesses," he said.
"In this crisis situation we are in, we need to be bold. We need a big tax revolution."
Bernier's visit to the Island comes on the heels of stops by Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in Charlottetown and Borden-Carleton on Tuesday.
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Bernier called tax cuts proposed by Poilievre and Liberal Leader Mark Carney "tiny," saying they do nothing to help Canadians in the long term.
Carney previously said he would cancel a proposed hike in the capital gains tax, which applies to the profit made from the sale of capital assets like stocks, bonds and real estate.
Poilievre has also promised to defer capital gains taxes if the proceeds are reinvested in Canada.
"It's better than nothing, but it's almost nothing," Bernier said Wednesday. "What we need are significant, more ambitious tax cuts to allow Canadian families to keep up with the high cost of living."
Bernier said a PPC government would eliminate the roughly $50 billion budget deficit in its first year, and find surpluses to make his proposed tax cuts in the second year by eliminating $60 billion in federal programming.
He proposed nixing corporate welfare, foreign aid to Ukraine, CBC/Radio-Canada, equalization payments to provinces, what he called "wasteful" Indigenous programs, and subsidies for diversity, equity and inclusion and multiculturalism.
Canadians go to the polls on April 28.
With files from Raphael Caron