Pierre Poilievre Defends 'Root Causes' Comments, Slams 'Liberal Pseudo-Intellectuals'

Pierre Poilievre isn’t backing down from his comments about the “root cause” of terrorism, no matter how many “Liberal pseudo-intellectuals” he offends.

The Conservative MP, who was mocked online last week after repeatedly telling CBC host Evan Solomon that the “root cause of terrorism is terrorists,” doubled-down with a statement in the House on Friday.

“Yesterday, a small army of Liberal pseudo-intellectuals had a collective spasm after I said that terrorists are the cause of terrorism,” he said. “The Liberal leader had touched off the debate when he said that the Boston bombings happened because someone feels completely excluded," Poilievre said.

Liberal leader Justin Trudeau was targeted by the Tories after he told CBC’s Peter Mansbrige that as prime minister he would look at the “root causes” of terrorism in the wake of an attack.

Trudeau, who was interviewed about an hour after the Boston bombings, said there is “no question” the attack happened because someone feels “completely excluded” and “at war with society.”

But Poilievre isn’t buying it that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the brothers believed to have pulled off the attack, were excluded at all.

The MP listed a number of ways in which the Tsarnaev brothers were included by the United States, from the asylum granted to their family to the high-quality education they received in a “state-of-the-art school” with an “amazing 11:1 student-to-teacher ratio.”

Poilievre said Trudeau “excluding these facts” shows that he is, as the Conservative party attack ads suggest, in over his head.

“Let us follow the facts, not Liberal ideology, and let us target the root cause of terrorism,” said Poilievre. “They are called terrorists.”

While Poilievre’s bumper-sticker response took on a life of its own on Twitter (see below), it appears the young MP may be trying to impress his boss.

National Post columnist John Ivison said Monday thatPoilievre is a virtual lock for a cabinet seat if Prime Minister Stephen Harper shuffles the deck this summer.

It seems Poilievre may soon have a more impressive platform from which to go after Trudeau — and the “pseudo-intellectuals.”

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.ca
Author: The Huffington Post Canada