Pierre Poilievre addresses Conservative caucus ahead of policy convention | FULL

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre addressed the national Conservative Party caucus ahead of the party's policy convention on Thursday.

Poilievre highlighted high housing costs, inflation and the rising cost of living, laying the blame for those issues squarely at the feet of Trudeau's Liberal government.

"After eight years of his government where the cost of living is rising faster than at any time in modern memory, work doesn't pay. Interest rates are rising faster than ever in monetary history," he said.

The Québec City meet-up is the first policy convention since Andrew Scheer was leader and the party met in Halifax back in 2018. And it may be their last convention before the next general election, which is almost two years away.

Voting results obtained by Global News offer some insight into the Conservative grassroots' priorities ahead of the convention.

The top priority – with 90 out of 173 Conservative electoral district associations (EDAs) – was reforming the bail system, which the proposal refers to as a "catch-and-release" system, echoing some of Poilievre's rhetoric in recent months.

Among the more prominent policy resolutions is a pledge to "streamline" firearms classifications based on technical criteria, and to re-institute mandatory minimum sentences for the criminal misuse of firearms– a contentious issue that has already been before the Supreme Court in multiple cases. The policy received votes from 69 Conservative EDAs.

Protecting free speech in "the public square"– another issue frequently raised by Poilievre, largely in response to Liberal legislation around media and the internet – received the backing of 59 EDAs.

The data, which was publicly accessible on a Conservative website and provided by a source to Global News, suggests nearly 60 policy resolutions will be considered at the convention.

For more info, please go to https://globalnews.ca/news/9917775/british-lord-to-give-keynote-at-conservative-convention-as-poilievre-pushes-common-people-message/
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