One of the most outrageous announcements that we have heard during this campaign is Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre's plan to drop the ban on single use plastics if elected. 

This during Earth Week and at a time when climate change is as much of an existential threat as Donald Trump. We will survive Trump but if we donSA国际影视传媒檛 act to slow global warming, we will not survive climate change. Dropping the carbon tax without alternative measures did the planet no favours. 

We have been so preoccupied with the threat from the south that our endangered environment has dropped from our radar altogether. 

PoilievreSA国际影视传媒檚 stance on this issue only echoes what Trump said when first elected. He dropped the American ban because he thought sharks could "chomp their way throughSA国际影视传媒� single use plastics. That is ignorant. Any child in kindergarten has a better understanding of the complexity of the issue.   

It was horrifying, then, to hear Poilievre threaten to drop the ban after all the work done by the previous government to eliminate single-use plastics. 

Poilievre said that the ban was only implemented to help the wealthy (weSA国际影视传媒檙e not sure of this relationship or his logic) and was just an example of government overreach. 

Considering the struggle we have had with forest fires, droughts, floods and extreme temperature fluctuations, it is no wonder the government exerted control. The real surprise was that people did not take this initiative themselves. 

As misguided as this policy was, there's also Poilievre's claim that UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine, was a terrorist organization. This demonstrated a complete lack of awareness of how many people from this agency had lost their lives trying to transport relief goods like food and medical supplies to Palestinians. 

To add insult to injury, we saw the video of Poilievre raising a solidarity fist with supporters of Israel, which means that under him, a ceasefire would be impossible. We would expect this from Trump, but not from someone in Canada. 

Poilievre has taken too many pages from TrumpSA国际影视传媒檚 playbook including his hard line stance on immigration and life-long imprisonment of repeat offenders. The constitutional challenge this poses is equal to that of what we see being played out in the United States right now.  This brings into question his ability to have the heart that makes most Canadians proud. 

Elon Musk once said empathy is the downfall of society SA国际影视传媒� are we borrowing from his playbook too? Indeed, many Canadians are tired of listening to Poilievre's negative attack messaging. It's tiresome and annoying. We want real solutions to real problems. 

Full disclosure: I have voted and did not vote for either of the two main political parties, even though I think Mark Carney will make a great prime minister.  

If we doubt that Poilievre is following too many of Trump's leads, let's remember that former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is now publicly endorsing Poilievre, visited Trump in the White House a few times when Trump first took office in 2016.  Harper was not prime minister and was likely providing information on Canadian affairs. Is this an endorsement or a threat? The relationship between these two parties is frightening.   

How the Conservatives have treated the media - and even the public - during this campaign is another example of overreach driven by paranoia. The Conservatives would not allow the media to travel with them and placed them in cordoned off areas at the rallies where only a select few were allowed to ask questions.  If they tried to shout out their queries, Poilievre labelled them as protestors. This is crazy. 

Further, he would not allow his candidates to participate in public forums or answer questions again from the media, which is only trying to keep the public informed. What is this party or this person so afraid of? The only thing this tightly-controlled campaign demonstrates is that Poilievre operates from fear, control, negativity and weakness. Donald Trump would squash him like a bug. 

Election day on April 28 is only days away. Vote. This is the most substantive election of our lifetime affecting not only us, but generations to come. We are their gatekeepers, their lifeline. Make your voice heard. 

Let's move forward from a place of unity and strength. We will need it. 

SA国际影视传媒擭ancy Vail is a longtime Yellowknifer concerned with social justice.