Canada

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre appears to have a new speech writer: the pharmaceutical lobby.

As the corporate lobby mounts an attack on the NDP and Liberal government’s new pharmacare program, Poilievre has been cribbing from their deceitful talking points.

The pharmacare program will provide free birth control and diabetes medicine to Canadians—and potentially pave the way for broader drug coverage under a universal, public, single-payer system.

That’s got the pharmaceutical and insurance industry panicked, since it would eat into their multi-billion dollar profits by lowering the exorbitant price of drugs.

They’ve turned to stoking fear and spreading outright lies about pharmcare, including by funding think tanks and institutes to amplify their attacks.

Despite once describing them as “crooked Big Pharma,” Poilievre has allied himself to their campaign.

Parsing his recent commentary in Parliament and interviews amounts to a quiz of “Who said it? Pierre or Pharma?”

The "who said it" section with side-by-side quotes from PP and lobbyists in the article is very demonstrative.