Tougher laws on crime and the end of the carbon tax took centre stage for Pierre Poilievre during a pair of Vancouver Island stops Tuesday.

The leader of the federal Conservative party was in Nanaimo this morning meeting workers and touring K2 Stone Manufacturing at Duke Point before heading to Parksville and a visit to Macon Industries, a company which designs and fabricates exploration drilling products and gold mining machinery.

British Columbia has its own carbon tax, but Poilievre warned of the impacts of a climbing federal carbon tax and its impacts on Canada's economy.

"The trucks that bring you your supplies or take your products to market would no longer afford to roll on our streets," he said. "And of course, they would get a phone call from Donald Trump telling them to leave Canada altogether along with many other businesses, and take the jobs and the growth down south where there is no carbon tax and where other taxes are falling."

Poilievre said axing the carbon tax would boost Canada's economic growth by $30 billion a year, and suggested Canadians would feel the effects of lower heating bills and grocery bills. For businesses like K2, he said, products would get to the yard more affordably and to market more affordably.

Speaking about related energy policy, the Conservative leader said his plan is to speed up and green-light natural gas projects including liquefied natural gas, saying B.C. would see the benefit from export business and be able to ship more quickly than U.S. Gulf Coast ports.

Poilievre also spoke on a few other topics, such as crime, promising tougher sentences for prolific offenders and drug traffickers, and plans to "rebuild" Canada's military as part of a vision for a "warrior culture, not a woke culture."

That was echoed during his Parksville stop.

B次元官网网址淚 think Vancouver Islanders are ready to have a common sense Conservative government that will crack down on crime, axe the taxes and incentivize more home building," Poilievre said. B次元官网网址淲e need to bring home CanadaB次元官网网址檚 promise. We had a promise in this country that if you work hard, you get a powerful pay cheque and affordable food and homes and safety."

A federal Conservative government will repeal bills C-5, C-75 and C-83, he said, and pass a law called "Jail, not Bail", which would deny bail, parole, probation and house arrest to anyone with "a long rap sheet", Poilievre said.

B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e gonna do away with the NDP/Liberal hug-a-thug, catch-and-release laws,B次元官网网址� he added. B次元官网网址淟aws allow the same small group of offenders to be released again and again and again.B次元官网网址�

He said he wants to see an election as soon as possible and believes the most important issue will be B次元官网网址渃hange, we need a change.B次元官网网址�

Also in Parksville, Poilievre promoted the idea of investment in Canadian infrastructure and drastically reducing the approval time for new mining operations. He said Canada has trade agreements with "almost two billion people in the world".

B次元官网网址淲hat we need, by and large, is infrastructure to get our products to market," Poilievre said. "LNG plants, pipelines, better ports, thatB次元官网网址檚 how weB次元官网网址檙e going to get our products to Asia.B次元官网网址�

Poilievre's next stop on his pre-campaign tour will be an axe-the-tax rally tonight in Powell River.