LILLEY: Poilievre vows Canada will never be the 51st American state
In an exclusive interview, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canada needs a leader with 'brains and backbone' to deal with Trump.
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In the wake of Donald Trump repeatedly saying Canada should become the 51st state, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says it is a further sign that Canada needs new leadership.
In an exclusive interview with the Toronto Sun, Poilievre said Trump is seeing the weakness in the Trudeau government, currently in disarray, and he’s trying to take advantage of that weakness.
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“That’s why we need a strong, smart prime minister who has the brains and backbone to first and foremost say to President Trump, Canada will never be the 51st state. We will be an independent, proud, sovereign country, as we always have been,” Poilievre said.
That doesn’t mean Poilievre believes Canada should take a combative stance against the American president. In fact, while Poilievre admitted there are problems with illegal immigration from Canada to the United States and troubles with illicit drugs, he said those are problems we should want to fix ourselves.
“I want to secure our border, not to please President Trump or any American, but to save our own families,” Poilievre said.
He pointed to the deadly toll fentanyl has taken in Canada, more than 47,000 people have died from overdoses of this deadly drug.
“That’s more than died in the Second World War fighting for Canada. I mean, it is astonishing how deadly the liberalization of drugs under this NDP-Liberal government has been,” he said.
While most fentanyl crossing the American border comes from Mexico, Canada is seen as a growing problem including by the current Biden administration. There are concerns that have been raised and acknowledged by people like Alberta Premier Danielle Smith about fentanyl super-labs popping up in Alberta and British Columbia as part of international crime syndicates.
“We need to lock up the drug kingpins and shut down their money laundering networks for Canada. I mean, even if Trump weren’t saying this, we should do these things,” Poilievre said.
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The Conservative Leader has made criminal justice reform central to his platform, including a promise of jail not bail for repeat violent offenders. The Trudeau Liberals have weakened Canada’s criminal justice laws for years, including with criminal code changes that have made bail the default option, the one judges and justices of the peace are required to give.
“Criminals should be in jail so that law-abiding citizens can feel safe,” Poilievre said.
As for working with Trump on his tariff threats, Poilievre believes he could do a better job than Trudeau has been doing. When Trudeau hasn’t been in hiding, like he has been this last week dealing with his internal political strife, he has been putting his foot in his mouth.
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Last week, Trudeau made headlines across the United States for a speech he made in Ottawa where he claimed Americans had failed women by failing to elect a woman as president and lamented that Donald Trump beat Kamala Harris.
It wasn’t a very bright move.
“We are blessed to live next door to the greatest military and economic superpower the world has ever seen which President Trump will soon again lead,” Poilievre said.
“The president has raised some reasonable concerns about the broken liberal border and our military, and I would respond by saying, we do need to reinforce our border with drones, helicopters, boots on the ground, and other high-performing technology to keep drugs and guns from crossing, to stop human trafficking.”
It sounds like common sense, which is sorely lacking in Ottawa.
The Trudeau Liberals had been hoping the re-election of Donald Trump would lead to a Trump bump for their political fortunes. That hasn’t happened, at least not according to any public polling that is available.
The latest poll from Ipsos puts the Poilievre Conservatives at 44% support to 21% support for both the Liberals and the NDP. That same poll found that 34% of Canadians across the country thought Poilievre was the better bet than Trudeau, at 22%, to deal with the incoming Trump administration.
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Poilievre led Trudeau on that question in every demographic group and in every region of the country except Quebec.
“President Trump has always put America first. Well, I will always put Canada first,” Poilievre said.
After years of a Trudeau government that has appeared to put the Liberal Party or international organizations and aspirations first, it’s refreshing to hear a leader say Canada and Canadians should come first.
Canada desperately needs an election and a new government. But thanks to NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, we won’t be getting one anytime soon.
Canadians can rest assured though that when that time comes, the Poilievre-led Conservative Party will be a government in waiting, ready to take over and right what is wrong with this country.
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