The federal leader of the official opposition, Pierre Poilievre is touring through Alberta this week.

We had the chance to get his thoughts, not just on Canada, but how they would affect Albertans as well.

The leader of the Conservative Party of Canada says if they were in power, they would hammer down the debt with a three-pronged approach.

"One, I'd bring in the dollar-for-dollar law, the common sense rule that requires politicians in Ottawa to find a dollar of savings for every new dollar of spending.  That would require ministers to go into their departments, root out waste and programs that don't work or aren't needed in order to free up money for other initiatives rather than just adding more to the debt or the tax burden as the NDP and Liberals have been doing since Trudeau took office.

"Secondly, I would defund the CBC and save a billion dollars."

"Third, instead of targeting law abiding firearms owners with a $5 billion dollar buyback of guns that are in the hands of lawful licensed owners, I would end that and put the money into re-enforcing our borders to keep illegal firearms from coming across the border from the United States. These common sense changes will bring home lower costs, lower taxes and powerful paycheques," he says.

 As far as combating crime, including rural crime and the recent spike of violent crimes in Calgary, Poilievre says it's time to get tough on repeat offenders.

"By ending the Liberal-NDP policy of catch and release for repeat violent offenders. Right now, we have a wave of violent crime crashing over the entire country. Everywhere in Canada we see the most brutal, heinous crimes have become a regular daily event. A 16-year-old stabbed to death just yesterday [Wednesday] on public transit. A man out for a cup of coffee in downtown Vancouver with his daughter and his wife stabbed because he asked a guy to stop blowing vape smoke in his family's face...the killings on the C-Train in Calgary, this is not the country we lived in eight years ago. This is absolutely unrecognizable," he says.

He claims the cause is obvious.

"Trudeau and the NDP brought in catch and release for repeat violent criminals. They get arrested at 9 a.m., they're out on bail by 10:30 and they commit another crime at noon, and they're released on bail again at 4 p.m. and then they're arrested before midnight having done their third crime in the same day. Why not just keep them in jail?

They've reduced penalties for serious gun crimes, so criminals are no longer afraid to be caught using guns illegally because they know they'll be out on bail or parole within days. So, we need to end this and I'm going to bring in serious penalties for repeat violent offenders. Jail, not bail, for those criminals that have a long rap sheet and that will put an end to this violent crime wave."

 Poilievre also weighed in on the staffing shortages gripping the country within the health care community and finding ways to put immigrants that were doctors and nurses in their countries of origin to work in Canada.

"We have a shortage of 40,000 doctors across Canada. The good news is we have 19,000 immigrant doctors that could fill half of those vacancies, but they can't get a licence by the medical body. So, here's my solution. I want a national blue seal licencing standard that would allow foreign trained doctors to take exams and tests to prove they are qualified.  And if they pass, they would automatically be licenced right across Canada," Poilievre says.

"We have a red seal for the trades. So, if you're an electrician... you come from Ukraine you can take the red seal exam and prove your qualified and go off and be an electrician anywhere in Canada. But we don't have it for the professions and that's why so many talented and well-trained doctors, nurses, architects, engineers from other countries are under-employed and making minimum wage.  So, I would give them a simple process that would, within 60 days of applying to work within their profession, they would get a yes or no based on their test and abilities." 

"I'd back up 30,000 small study loans so that immigrant professionals can take time off work to study up to the Canadian standards, get a high paying professional job and repay the loan. And I'd make it possible for future immigrants to begin licencing in their profession before they even arrive in Canada."

 When faced with the question of food security and the massive increase of Canadians using food banks, he thinks it can be fixed in two ways.

"We have to bring home powerful paycheques and lower prices. This 40 year high in inflation is driving record numbers of Canadians to the food bank. Where food prices are higher because of the carbon tax, when you taxed the farmers, the fuel of the farmers who produce our food and the truckers who deliver it you're going to have more expenses for food. So, a Poilievre government will axe the carbon tax, cap spending, cut waste to bring down inflation and taxes so that hard work pays off with powerful paycheques that afford good food."