Canada Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre holds a news conference in a hotel ballroom in Ottawa, on Sunday, Dec. 1, 2024.  (ustin Tang/The Canadian Press via AP)

Poilievre said that he would accelerate approvals to build oil refineries, liquefied natural gas plants and nuclear facilities, and increase its electricity surplus with the U.S.

He also told Peterson that Canada sells its oil and gas to the U.S. at “enormous discounts,” which he characterized as a “ripoff,” in which “Canada is ripping itself off.”

A Poilievre-led government would also embark on “the biggest crackdown on crime in Canadian history” and that “habitual offenders will not get out of jail anymore,” the Conservative leader said.

On foreign affairs, the Canadian Conservatives’ 2023 policy document states that it would, as government, “take the required steps to renegotiate the Safe Third Country Agreement with the U.S. to close the gaps relating to illegal entries in Canada,” and that the Conservative Party recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Canada’s embassy in Israel is currently in Tel Aviv.

Leader of Canada’s Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, speaks during at a rally in Edmonton, on March 27, 2024, in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

In a statement released in response to Trudeau’s resignation on Monday, Poilievre said that “this changes nothing” and that a Conservative Canadian government would “take back control of our border, take back control of immigration, take back control of spending, deficits and inflation. Take back control of our streets by locking up criminals, banning drugs, treating addiction and stopping gun smugglers.”

The Conservatives, added Poilievre, “would secure borders, rearm our forces, restore our freedom and put Canada First.”