Trump tariff threat should unite, inspire Canada: Poilievre

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OTTAWA — The best way to fight the Donald Trump tariffs is to make Canada less reliant on the United States, Canada’s opposition leader said Sunday.

Speaking to reporters Sunday morning from a downtown Ottawa hotel ballroom, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre said that with the U.S. president threatening to launch his trade war against Canada this week, it’s important for Canada to retaliate and use the proceeds to cut taxes and bolster Canada’s economy against the tariffs.

“Regardless of what the president does, we can’t rely on him and we can’t rely on the Americans anymore,” he said.

“We’ve learned our lesson from 10 years of helplessness, we need to take back control of our economy and bring home a strong, self-reliant and sovereign nation.”

Poilievre called out the Trudeau Liberals for refusing to market Canada’s natural resources to the greater world, and turning away allies begging for us to sell them our oil and gas.

“The Liberals are trying to cover up the fact that they’ve been very good for President Trump,” Poilievre said. “They’ve given Trump everything they wanted, despite the song and dance the Liberals are putting on.”

Poilievre pointed to the nearly $500 billion of investment that’s left Canada during the Trudeau administration, and their refusal to approve new pipelines and energy projects — creating a situation where the only country Canada is able to export oil and gas to is the United States.

“(The Liberals) said that LNG (liquid natural gas) plants do not have a business case, so now we must sell 100% of our LNG exports to the Americans for four dollars (per MMBtu (metric million British thermal units,)) when we could be selling it in Europe for $14.”

Reacting to comments Trump made in an interview on Friday with a UK magazine criticizing Poilievre for not being a “MAGA guy,” the Tory leader was in full agreement.

“That’s true — I am Canada first,” he said.

“Canada will never be the 51st state, I will always put my country ahead of all others.”

Poilievre said that Trump would no doubt be happy with Mark Carney as PM.

“Mark Carney did exactly what Mr. Trump asked for — he moved his company’s headquarters to Trump’s hometown six days after the president threatened tariffs on our country. Carney supported carbon taxes on Canada, supported blocking pipelines in Canada, while he invested in American coal,” he said.

Poilievre said that with Carney economically advising Trudeau over the past number of years, a Carney-run Canada would be nearly identical to the Trudeau years.

“Trump would love to have a weak prime minister like Mark Carney, who will sell out our country and drive jobs and money abroad.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com
X: @bryanpassifiume