A Poilievre Government would “scrap the Liberal plastics ban, including the ban on straws, grocery bags, food containers and cutlery, and other single-use plastics.” – Pierre Poilievre, April 18th, 2025
“We’re going back to plastic straws. These things (paper straws) don’t work. … It’s a ridiculous situation.” – Donald Trump, February 11th, 2025.
A Commentary by Niagara At Large reporter/publisher Doug Draper followed by a News Release on Plastics by federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre
Posted April 19th, 2025 on Niagara At Large
From Doug Draper – For Pierre Polievre and his kindred spirit, Donald Trump, in the United States, it appears that “freedom” – a word they both like to twist around a lot on whatever planet they choose to live on – is (to paraphrase a lyric from an old song) ‘just another word for bringing back plastic straws.’
To borrow another phrase these soul brothers both commonly use to gift wrap whatever crack-pot idea they want to inflict on the rest of us, what “Common Sense” does that make?
A bird chokes to death of discarded plastic straw
Just four days before Earth Day, and years after one scientific report after another has highlighted the threat that plastics and micro-plastics continue to pose to our environment and to the health of humans and other living creatures on this planet, here is Conservative Leader, Pierre Poilievre, making a campaign announcement this past April 18th that if he becomes Canada’s next prime minister, he will “scrap” everything the Liberal government has done and is still planning to do to phase out single-use plastics, including those plastic straws that he and his political counterpart to the south seem to covet so much.
In the case of Trump, as hell bent as he is to take his country back to the 1950s when DDT and no end of other chemical pesticides were in common use and when smokestacks belching filth loomed over the land, you could almost anticipate him picking up a pen and signing an executive order to bring back plastic straws.
Donald Trump, just as he likes it, with plastic straw and soda
So there he was a few months back, complaining with pen in hand, about those paper straws not doing as good a job as the plastic ones he’d rather use to wash down those grease bombs he gets from some fast-food joint with a soda.
But for Poilievre, the pitch for plastic straws appears to have far more to do with his ongoing record of support for a petro-chemical industry that produces all of that single-use plastic, along with no small amount of the carbon gases that contribute to the climate crisis.
And like all other issues he has raised before and during this federal election election, Poilievre can’t help identifying the Liberals’ efforts to phase out single-use as yet another reason why, after a “lost Liberal decade,” our country is so “broken” and everything from the cost of groceries to housing has become so unaffordable.
There is hardly ever a word in Poilievre’s narrative about the record profits corporate grocery chains have been racking in, especially during the pandemic, or about charges of lucrative speculation and greed driving up the cost housing, or the countless billions of dollars that a growing frequency of severe floods, droughts, wind and ice storms and wildfire fueled by climate change is costing us.
But he’s sure promising to bring back those plastic straws alright.
Now here is a slightly abbreviated version of Poilievre’s April 18th News Release on scrapping the Liberal’s efforts to phase out single-use plastics –
Montreal, Quebec – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre promised today that a new Conservative government will stop Mark Carney’s proposed Liberal food tax and scrap the existing Liberal plastic ban. Poilievre will:
- – Stop proposed new labeling and packaging requirements that will raise the cost of fresh produce by as much as 34% and cost the average Canadian household an additional $400 each year. – Scrap the Liberal plastics ban, including the ban on straws, grocery bags, food containers and cutlery, and other single-use plastics, letting consumers and businesses choose what works for them.
- – Protect restaurants, grocers, and low-income Canadians from one-size-fits-all packaging rules that disproportionately affect those who can least afford it.
- “After the Lost Liberal Decade, many Canadians can barely afford to put food on the table. And now Mark Carney and the Liberals want to make it even harder with a new food packaging law that will raise the price of food–again,” said Poilievre.
“A new Conservative government will keep food prices down by scrapping the Liberal plastic ban and stopping Carney’s new Liberal food tax.”
After a decade of out-of-control spending and massive tax increases, families are spending $800 more on food this year than they did in 2024, and food banks had to handle a record two million visits in a single month. In Montreal, 44 percent of CEGEP students are experiencing some form of food insecurity, while places like Hawkesbury Kingston, Toronto and Mississauga > have all declared food insecurity emergencies.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, Liberals have made life even more expensive and inconvenient for Canadians by banning plastics – including everything from straws to bags to food packaging. The current Liberal ban on single-use plastics will cost Canadians $1.3 billion dollars over the next decade.
Now Mark Carney wants to make it worse by adding complicated and costly new food packaging rules that will drive up the price of food even more–in effect, a new Liberal food tax. Plastic food packaging makes up 1/3 of all plastic packaging in Canada.
The proposed Liberal food tax will cost the average Canadian household an additional $400 each year, waste half a million tonnes of food <https://cpma.ca/docs/default-source/corporate/2019/cpma-executive-summary-of-technical-report.pdf>, decrease access to imported fruit and produce, and increase food inflation. The Chemistry Industry Association of Canada has also warned that this tax will put up to 60,000 Canadians <https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/trudeau-turns-his-back-on-canadian-workers-805512829.html> out of work.
“The Liberals’ ideological crusade against convenience has already driven up food prices and the last thing Canadians need is Mark Carney’s new food tax added directly to your grocery bill,” said Poilievre. “The choice for Canadians is clear, a fourth Liberal term that will make food even more expensive or a new Conservative government that will axe the food tax and bring back straws, grocery bags and other items, to make life more affordable and convenient for Canadians – For a Change.”
To watch a video of Trump panning paper straws and ording return of plastic ones, click on the screen immediately below –
To read the full text of Poilievre’s news release on plastics, click on – https://www.conservative.ca/axe-the-food-packaging-tax/?utm_content=National
Plastic pollution – information sheet – Canada.ca
10 Reasons Why Plastic Straws Should Be Banned | imPASTAstraws
Donald Trump signs order shifting US back towards plastic straws
Plastic Straws Are Bad for Your Health. Here’s Why – Newsweek
For more information on plastic pollution, click on – Exposing Problems From Toxic Chemicals in Plastics
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