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Pierre Poilievre on the Role of Government, Freedom, and Affordability

Dec 27, 2025 56m 40s 35 insights
This week, we're releasing a special episode of TKP with Pierre Poilievre. While we don't often tackle politics on the show, we are trying to improve political discourse by offering a platform for both sides to speak with depth and nuance. This episode covers the economy, media, free speech, immigration, corporate subsidies, and more. (And before you ask, the same invite was extended to both Pierre and Prime Minister Mark Carney). ----- Approximate Timestamps:
Actionable Insights

1. Focus on Controllables to Reduce Worry

Reduce stress and anxiety by focusing only on what you can control, recognizing that worrying about uncontrollable events is pointless and unproductive.

2. Embrace Unbridled Free Speech

Allow unbridled free speech as the best defense against disinformation, enabling good ideas and true information to clash with falsehoods, trusting that truth will ultimately prevail.

3. Limit Government to Essential Services

Government should only perform functions that people cannot do for themselves and require collective force (e.g., military, policing, basic infrastructure, providing necessities for the vulnerable), and should not interfere with what free people can do.

4. Prioritize Truth Over Expediency

Tell the truth about difficult issues, even if it carries an electoral cost, rather than lying or making up stories to win elections and betraying people afterward.

5. Reinstill Hope to Counter Despair

Actively work to reinstill hope in people, especially youth, to counter the narrative that things cannot get better and prevent them from lowering their expectations.

6. Prioritize National Self-Reliance

Put your own country above all else by unlocking resources and funding a strong military to preserve sovereignty and avoid over-dependence on other nations for defense.

7. Maintain Hope Through Resilience

Maintain hope by observing and drawing inspiration from the resilience of people who face daily struggles but refuse to give up, using their fight as motivation.

8. Empower Indigenous Economic Self-Reliance

Unleash enterprise opportunity and allow First Nations to build their economy through business and self-reliance, rather than relying on court cases or government bureaucracies.

9. Reduce Government Spending, Bureaucracy

Decrease government spending and the creation of new bureaucracies, as they drain money from the productive private sector without yielding productive outcomes.

10. Reduce Deficits to Boost Economy

Reduce government deficits to lower inflation, decrease the cost of living, and free up capital for the productive private sector.

11. Create Free Enterprise, Low-Tax Environment

Cut taxes on investment, income, and energy specifically for activities within the country (e.g., reinvestment, energy use in Canada) to foster a competitive, free-enterprise environment for businesses, rather than providing subsidies to favored companies.

12. Eliminate Capital Gains Reinvestment Tax

Eliminate capital gains tax on reinvestments made within the country to encourage the building of factories, infrastructure, and new products, acting as ’economic rocket fuel'.

13. Unlock Resources for Global Leverage

Unblock the production and transportation of natural resources to both domestic and overseas markets to create economic leverage in international negotiations.

14. Diversify Export Markets for Leverage

Develop alternative international markets for resources to gain leverage in negotiations with major trading partners, advocating for fair trade and tariff removal.

15. Offer Mutual Benefits to Allies

Offer mutual benefits to allies, such as supplying resources (oil, critical minerals) and contributing to continental security, to strengthen relationships and achieve tariff-free market access.

16. Prioritize Drug Treatment, Recovery

Focus on comprehensive drug treatment and recovery programs that aim for complete abstinence, including counseling, physical exercise, group therapy, job placement, and housing, rather than providing more drugs.

17. Impose Severe Fentanyl Dealer Penalties

Implement strict legal measures, including murder sentences for those caught marketing or producing significant amounts of fentanyl (e.g., over 40 milligrams), to deter its distribution and save lives.

18. Remove Repeat Criminals for Safety

Focus on identifying and removing a small group of repeat criminals from the streets to significantly reduce crime and restore public safety.

19. Cut Foreign Aid for Domestic Needs

Cut foreign aid and bring money home to address domestic issues like food insecurity and childhood hunger, prioritizing the country’s national interest.

20. Align Immigration with Infrastructure Growth

Ensure population growth from immigration does not outpace the growth of housing, healthcare, and jobs to avoid shortages and integration difficulties.

21. Promote National Pride for Newcomers

Actively promote national pride and the idea that living in the country is a privilege, encouraging newcomers to identify as Canadian first.

22. Boost Youth Employment and Wages

Eliminate temporary foreign worker programs, unblock resources to create high-paying trades jobs, and cut taxes on job creation to improve employment prospects for young people.

23. Streamline Home Building, Affordability

Speed up permits and remove taxes on home building to make housing more affordable and allow people to own homes and start families.

24. Reject Government-Provided Media

Do not allow government to be the provider of media, as free citizens are capable of creating and operating their own media outlets.

25. Avoid Business Subsidies

Do not use government subsidies to prop up businesses, as developed capital and credit markets provide sufficient funding sources.

26. Favor Freedom, Democracy Globally

Adopt a general posture that favors freedom and democracy over tyranny and dictatorship, as it is in the country’s interest to have more global freedom.

27. Self-Care Before Helping Others

Prioritize taking care of your own country’s needs first, similar to putting on your own oxygen mask on an airplane, because you cannot effectively help others if your own country is not secure.

28. Promote Media Decentralization, Competition

Foster more independent media voices, decentralization, competition, freedom, and choice in media to counter government concentration of power and influence.

29. Instill Hope as a Strategy

Provide people with hope, as it can be a political strategy to win elections by convincing them that things can get better.

30. Prioritize National Identity

Put your country first and prioritize national identity to foster unity and shared freedom among citizens.

31. Efficient Full-Body Workouts

Incorporate kettlebell workouts for a full-body routine in 15-20 minutes, or use bodyweight exercises and bungee cords for efficient workouts while traveling.

32. Adopt Disciplined Diet

Become more disciplined in your diet, potentially adopting a ‘hardcore’ approach like the carnivore diet, to overcome previous weaknesses for certain foods.

33. Embrace Being Underestimated

Find advantage in being underestimated, as it can lead to surprising victories and achievements.

34. Prefer Strong, Independent Coffee

Seek out independent coffee shops and prefer strong, undiluted coffee like Turkish coffee or espresso, avoiding watered-down or milky options.

35. Seek Peace in Desert Environments

Explore desert environments for their beauty, peacefulness, and dry air, as a source of personal tranquility.