Former PM Harper praises Poilievre's experience, ascent in huge Edmonton rally

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's political experience and his climb to the top of the party's ranks makes him aptly positioned to lead Canada, former prime minister Stephen Harper says.

"Political experience — elected accountable political experience — and the capacity for growth with that political experience, that is what Pierre has demonstrated for two decades," said Harper at a Conservative campaign rally Monday, packing an estimated 12,000 people in an industrial warehouse south of Edmonton.

"That is the single most important characteristic a prime minister needs." Harper, Canada's prime minister from 2006 to 2015, said Poilievre's experience, including his time in Harper's cabinet, should outweigh the resume of the political newcomer in Liberal Leader and Prime Minister Mark Carney, who served as the governor of the Bank of Canada during Harper's time in office.

"I am the only person who can say that both of the men running to be prime minister once worked for me," Harper told the crowd.

"And in that regard, my choice without hesitation, without equivocation, without a shadow of a doubt, is Pierre Poilievre."

Harper, who received a boisterous applause at the campaign's first Alberta stop and largest so far, didn't take a position on the Conservative Party's 2017 and 2020 leadership contests, but he did endorse Poilievre in 2022.

Harper said that while Canada faces a grave threat in U.S. President Donald Trump, "the bulk of the problems that afflict our country" are a result of 10 years of Liberal policy-making.

"Falling living standards, declining employment and housing opportunities, rising crime, the growing divisions between our regions and our people — these were not created by Donald Trump," Harper said.

"I believe that the challenge this country faces today from the United States — as real and serious as it is — should not be another excuse for Liberal failure."

Poilievre, joining the former prime minister on stage, said Harper was a much-appreciated mentor and that a Poilievre-led government would follow in Harper's footsteps. "Always and everywhere he was solid, competent, honest, decent, down to earth," Poilievre said of Harper.

Speaking in Terrace, B.C., earlier Monday, Poilievre promised a "one-and-done" approach to resource project approvals if he becomes prime minister.

Poilievre said his plan was to speed up approvals for major resource projects and he told reporters he would create a one-stop shop that would see one application and one environmental review for each project.

Poilievre said the idea is about "ensuring efficiency without sacrificing standards."

"It's not about reducing our environmental or public safety protection. It's about merging them into one simplified step instead of overlapping processes," he said.