Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer called the federal Liberals “the ultimate economy busybodies” Thursday morning in his first significant public speech at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto.

“They are the ultimate economic busybodies — always turning up uninvited, always trying to be the centre of attention, always in the way and always causing more problems than they solve,” Scheer said.

His lengthy address focused on a key message: that there’s “more to society than government” and that government should play a smaller role in society.

“Now, we’ve all heard that Ronald Reagan quote about when Liberals see something move they tax it, if it keeps moving they regulate it, and when it finally stops moving they subsidize it. So we ask ourselves the question — why don’t just stay out of the way in the first place?”

Scheer said if Liberals “stayed out of the way” they would feel “so much less important.”

“Conservatives are happy to create that opportunity and then get out of the way but to a Liberal, they always have to be in there because if they did that they wouldn’t really have a role to play, they wouldn’t like that … it would kind of be like airbrushing them out of a selfie.”

He said in addition to the federal carbon pricing plan, “income taxes are up, payroll taxes, the last budget slapped new taxes on Uber, beer, wine, got rid of the transit tax credit, the prime minister has made taking public transit more expensive.

“Just last night we learned the Liberals are planning on taxing the internet. I wonder what Al Gore would have to say about that.”

Wednesday night the Globe and Mail reported that a Liberal-dominated committee will be calling for a 5-per-cent tax on broadband Internet services to fund Canada’s media industries.

“In the months ahead we’ll be putting forward specific policy proposals based on these Conservative principles,” said Scheer, wrapping up his speech.

Staying true to character, Scheer offered a few lighter lines throughout his address, and poked fun at Trudeau’s age.

“Now I’m on the younger scale when it comes to politics, I’m certainly much, much younger than the prime minister and I think it’s finally time my generation has a voice.”

In the Q&A portion of the event, moderator Adrienne Batra, the editor in chief of the Toronto Sun, asked how Scheer would reach out to new Canadians. “One of the things Conservatives like to talk about is ‘the lie of the left’ that we’re not a big tent party, it’s a group of angry white guys … with all due respect to the angry white guys in the room,” she said.

“We have some angry white women too,” Scheer quipped.

Batra also asked Scheer to define what the Conservative party stands for. “I think, fundamentally, the Conservative Party of Canada believes that there is more to society than just government,” he said, adding that Conservatives trust the private sector and want to leverage the volunteer sector and business community.