By Don Urquhart, Times Chronicle

In Osoyoos this morning, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre announced his plan to slice through red tape, eliminating up to 25 per cent of the red tape menace within his first two years should he defy polling and be elected Prime Minister. 

Explaining his plan, Poilievre said he will introduce a “two-for-one” law arbitrarily mandating that “two regulations be repealed for every new one imposed”. 

Sounding akin to cost cutting being undertaken by Donald Trump and his DOGE red tape warrior Elon Musk south of the border, Poillievre said he will also require that for every $1 in new administrative costs, $2 must be cut elsewhere.

“This will significantly ease the administrative burden on taxpayers and businesses, waking up our economy from the red tape-induced slumber it has been in,” Poilievre said, adding that removing this burden will enable Canadian businesses to better compete globally.

He went on to  claim that federal regulatory requirements on businesses have ballooned to over 149,000 – nearly 20,000 more since the Liberals took office. 

“The burden is staggering: in total, government red tape costs businesses at least $51 billion annually,” he intoned.

The Conservative party leader who has seen his polling fortunes on a precipitous decline in sync with a sharp rise in support for the Liberal Party under Mark Carney has led a struggling campaign after the Donald Trump trade war threw him off the anti-Liberal strategy he has relied on for the past two years. 

Struggling to pivot on multiple occasions Poilievre has appeared increasingly desperate to find messages that resonate and are heard by Canadians who are overwhelmingly absorbed by the trade war and have been shifting their support to Carney under the belief he is the most capable to deal with Trump.

The latest data from the CTV, Nanos Research, Globe and Mail poll tracker puts Carney’s Liberals at 45.9 per cent of decided voters – more than 10 per cent ahead of Poillievre’s Conservatives at 34.9 per cent. The other parties remain virtually flat.