Labour Day is not typically a date that conservative politicians have circled on the calendar.  Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre is an exception. Today he released a 60-second television ad that makes an appeal to working-class voters. It is part of a broader strategy on the part of the front-running Conservative Party to follow the growing trend of center-right parties reaching out to working-class voters and subordinating its appeal to corporate Canada.

On this Labour Day long weekend, The Hub has put together five examples where the potential next prime minister has shown his support for Canadian labourers in speeches and his tour.

1. During Question Period in the House of Commons

“We need tradespeople who can actually build stuff again, so we’re going to make sure—unlike Liberals who turn their nose up at working-class tradespeople—we’re going to make sure that trades and apprenticeships get the same support from government that universities and professionals do. We’re going to accelerate bringing in more tradespeople from abroad, and we’re going to make sure that young people are told that working in the trades is every bit as honourable and prestigious as working in a profession. Our tradespeople are the backbone of this nation.”

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2. At a visit to a sawmill in Sacre-Cœur, Quebec

3. In a keynote speech at an event hosted by the Greater Vancouver Trade Board

“My common sense plan to axe the tax, build the homes, fix the budget, and stop the crime is a bottom-up free enterprise agenda, not a top-down state capitalism agenda. It is not about politicians and CEOs working together for their own interests. It is about unleashing the power of free enterprise so that workers, entrepreneurs, and consumers can exchange the voluntary purchase of goods for dollars, of investment for interest, and of work for wages. It is about putting people back in charge of their lives.”

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4. Speaking with the Canadian chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers union

5. During his remarks at the annual conference of Canada’s Building Trades Unions

“It’s worth recognizing that while most Canadians are suffering, it is the working class that is suffering the most. The working class has been turned into the working poor. The policies of Mr. Trudeau and Mr. Singh are disproportionately bad for wage earners…”

“People who live off their wages, well, their purchasing power goes down; they suffer a real pay cut, and that is what has happened to our working class. You represent the wage earners and the future pensioners. Their wages and pensions have lost purchasing power. Meanwhile, big government, big business and big capital have gotten rich by the inflationary policies of government. It is a transfer of wealth from the have-nots to the have-yachts.”

See here for more.

This is The Week in Polling, your Saturday dose of interesting numbers from top pollsters in Canada and around the world, curated by The Hub. Here’s what we’re looking at this week.

Canadians are split on the government’s decision to raise Gazan refugee cap

Due to the war in Israel and Gaza that has occurred since October 7, the Canadian government has announced they will be increasing the number of Gazans who are able to be processed for temporary visas, now allowing 5,000 Gazans to immigrate to Canada. This decision only regards Gazans who have relatives in Canada. Canadians are split as to whether to support this decision or oppose it.

The Canadian government allowed Egyptian Ahmed Fouad Mostafa Eldidi and his son Mostafa Eldidi into Canada years before being arrested for allegedly being in the late stages of planning a terrorist attack to happen in Toronto. It was later found that Eldidi was permitted into Canada after he was allegedly featured as an assailant in a gruesome ISIS video. The government claims that they were unaware of the video’s existence.

Still, the government says that his security screening for his citizenship to be granted resulted in a “favourable recommendation.” More than 60 percent of Canadians are not confident that the government of Canada is thoroughly screening immigrants from the Middle East.

American politicians are not confident in the government either. Six U.S. Senators, including Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, recently warned the Canadian government that this decision could give Gazans with ties to Hamas easy access to the United States.