Tory leader Pierre Poilievre is calling for self-reliance in the wake of a Canada-US trade war, while parrotting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promise “to fight” back against the Trump administration.
President Donald Trump after months of threats on Tuesday at 12:01 a.m. ET imposed a 25% tariff on Canadian goods and a 10% tariff on energy and critical minerals. Trudeau retaliated with $30 billion in tariffs on US products, rising to $155 billion in 21 days.
Poilievre at a press conference Tuesday said he believes the path forward for Canada is by cutting taxes and red tape here at home.
"The idea is to neutralize the cost of the tariffs with lower taxes and incentivize massive new investment in building stuff here in this country," he said.
Pointing behind him at the closed doors of the House of Commons chamber, Poilievre slammed the Liberals for shutting down parliament for months on end despite the country going through a tariff war.
"Look behind me, these doors have been closed for months now," he said.
Poilievre said "we must retaliate" against Trump's tariffs.
“At 12:01, President Trump stabbed America’s best friend in the back,” said Poilievre.
“My message to the president is this: Canada will fight back. We will defend our people and our economy, and we will put Canada first. There's no doubt that our economy will suffer, but so will yours.”
Addressing the president directly, Poilievre said, “President Trump, in fact, you're already paying the price with trillions of dollars erased in stock market value” and an increase for working-class Americans at the pump.
“Your workers will soon start losing jobs ... and your businesses will be selling fewer products to your closest neighbor. That's only the beginning,” Poilievre told Trump.
“While Canadians are slow to anger and quick to forgive, we will fight back.”
“There is no justification for these tariffs,” said Poilievre, repeating remarks made by Trudeau an hour earlier.
Poilievre said “no, the Liberals have not been doing enough to fight fentanyl,” but at the same time, it should “no [be done] for Mr. Trump.”
“We should have had the House open for the last two months, and that’s why we haven’t had debates.”
“I’m not working for Mr. Trump. Whether or not he likes me is none of my business.”
“I don’t care about what other politicians in other countries think about me.”
Speaking to Canadians, Poilievre said “before the tariffs went into effect, I couldn’t imagine how things I could not have imagined that things might get worse.”
“Before the tariffs, things were already very difficult for you,” he said, introducing a seven-step plan for Canada's success in the wake of the tariff war.
Poilievre said “counter tariffs must not be used as a source of revenue for government” and instead they should “be committed to reducing taxes and supporting workers hardest hit by the trade war.”
“We must immediately reduce taxes on work, on investment, on energy and on housing construction,” he said, naming the Trudeau Liberals' costly carbon tax, which is set to rise again April 1, sales tax on new housing and new capital gains tax hikes," he said.
Poilievre also said Ottawa must repeal Bill C-69, federal legislation banning pipelines.
“We need to greenlight LNG projects, including LNG Quebec, and also give other projects a green light," said Poilievre.
“I am pro-pipeline.”
Poilievre emphasized the necessity of “retaliation” by targeting American goods, put money made on counter tariffs towards tax cuts and relief programs for Canadians “hit the hardest” by the tariff war and “we must immediately pass the ‘Bring it Home’ tax cut on work, investment, energy, and home building.”
“Let's get our provinces together to knock down trade barriers so that we can lower prices and boost wages for our people,” he said.
“We must secure our borders and rebuild our military to assert our sovereignty and strength in the world.
When asked about emergency support packages, Poilievre said “we will launch programs for Canadians hurt by these tariffs,” he said, but promised they wouldn’t be like the Liberals’ COVID-19 era stimulus packages that drove the country into seemingly irredeemable debt.
