OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said the Liberal government’s electric vehicle sales mandate is akin to “banning rural life” as he promised a nationwide pressure campaign to scrap the policy.

Poilievre took a pause from his Albertan byelection campaign Thursday for a press event in Saskatchewan in which he lambasted the Liberal policy — colloquially known as the EV mandate — as an attack on farmers and rural Canada.

He also promised to launch a media and pressure campaign against the mandate implemented by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calling for all vehicle sales in Canada to be zero-emission by 2035.

The mandate set incremental targets beginning with an EV sales target of 20 per cent by 2026, before increasing to 30 per cent by 2030.

Poilievre went so far as saying Thu

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