The Official Opposition is putting pressure on the Liberal government to actually lead Canada and deal with President Donald Trump’s 25% tariff threat rather than sneakily rig the leadership race.
The Liberals’ four leadership candidates, Mark Carney, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s economic adviser, Chrystia Freeland, former finance minister, Karina Gould, former Liberal House leader, and former Liberal MP Frank Baylis on Monday night had the first of two debates.
Freeland, Gould and Baylis all said explicitly they wouldn’t go to Washington to negotiate with Trump in-person. Carney refused to say whether he would.
Earlier that same day, Trump from the Oval Office confirmed his administration is “on time with the tariffs,” which are set to go into effect March 4.
“It seems like that's moving along very rapidly,” he said.
Trump in February gave a 30-day reprieve to give Canada’s government time to put into action a plan to deal with its border and fentanyl issues.
Conservative Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman is demanding the Liberals focus more on the imminent tariff war and less on trying to “sneakily coronate Mark Carney.”
“We’ve had nearly a month to prepare ourselves for this threat, and what have the Liberals been doing to put Canada first? Nothing,” wrote Lantsman in a statement Tuesday.
“While Canada stares down the barrel of crippling tariffs, the Liberals have instead been busy playing back-room games and party politics to sneakily coronate Mark Carney.”
The Liberals instead could have taken Trump seriously and reconvened Parliament, she said.
Trudeau on January 6 announced his “intention to resign” and rather than call a snap election and let Canadians decide, he prorogued Parliament until March 25.
To give the Liberals time to select a new leader, he said at the time. The winner of the March 9 Liberal leadership contest will automatically become the next prime minister. It will be up to them to lead Canada in a tariff war against the US, and they will also decide when to call an election.
Lanstman said in addition to reconvening Parliament so the government could function in its full capacity as Canada stares down the barrel of a trade war, the Liberals could have cancelled their carbon tax to make life more affordable for Canadians and “scrapped their no-more pipelines Bill C-69 so that we could begin building pipelines that go east-west, not north-south, and get our energy to markets abroad bringing home production and self-reliance.”
"Instead, all month they have tried to trick Canadians into forgetting that Carney is the person who advised Trudeau to follow his disastrous policies that doubled housing costs, doubled food bank lineups, doubled the national debt, and made our economy weak and vulnerable in the face of Trump’s tariff threat,” wrote Lantsman.
“But instead of working for Canadians, the Carney-Trudeau Liberals are working for themselves.”