Pierre Poilievre in Timmins to host town hall meeting

Pierre Poilievre holds townhall in Timmins The federal conservative party leader, Pierre Poilievre, holds a townhall meeting while visiting Timmins in northern Ontario.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre spent the day in Timmins on Wednesday.

The leader of the official Opposition in the House of Commons told CTV News he was in the city to meet with northerners to find out how they feel on issues such as the proposed amendments to the country's gun law.

Poilievre said it is important for him to visit northern Ontario to find out how people feel about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's plan to amend the country's gun laws.

He is not in favour of it and he said he thinks northerners do not like it, either.

“The NDP/Liberal coalition is banning hunting rifles, which is an attack on the northern, Indigenous and rural way of life," Poilievre told CTV News.

"I’ll reverse the hunting rifle ban, instead bring in tougher criminal penalties for violent offenders who repeatedly do crime.”

Poilievre sent out an open invitation to the public to meet with him during a town hall meeting at the Senator Hotel and Conference Centre, saying the gun law is not his only concern.

“My plan is to make government affordable so life’s affordable,” he said.

“Get rid of the carbon tax to lower energy prices and remove red tape so we can develop our resources, our mining, our forestry that produce the income to fund our health care and education.”

When asked if he supports funding safe injection sites, Poilievre said he favours providing access to more medication and treatment to help people recover from their addiction to opioids.