Poilievre pledges to draw a ‘red line’ in Trump negotiations as US launches tariffs

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre on Wednesday intensified his rhetoric against President Donald Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariffs, which he calls a violation of an existing Canada-US free trade deal.

Trump is expected to put the tariffs into effect Wednesday afternoon. He earlier announced reciprocal tariffs against any country in the world that has tariffs against the US White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt on Tuesday night showed reporters a printed list of steep tariffs from India, Japan, the EU — and the 300% dairy tariff imposed by Canada.

Poilievre speaking at a press conference in Toronto outlined how a Conservative government will battle the US president in a tariff war.

The Tory leader promised a Conservative government “will launch a keeping Canadians working fund, targeted temporary loan program for businesses that are directly hit [by tariffs], helping them keep workers on the job.”

“Canadians feel angry and betrayed and anxious after the president's unprovoked attacks on our sovereignty. We're left wondering how we can end the paralyzing uncertainty and what the future holds,” said Poilievre.

“We don't know what today's tariff announcement will bring, how long they will last, or what they will do, but whatever President Trump does, a bunch of things remain undeniably true.”

“One, these tariffs are unjustified. Two, they will hurt people and businesses on both sides of the border and three Canada will obviously never be the 51st state.”

Poilievre emphasized the need for a “strong and effective” plan moving forward, including an “immediate response,” and then action on “tackling the dispute after the election, hopefully to bring it to an end,” and third, a long-term plan for Canadian prosperity.

“Perhaps most important of all, we need a long term plan to build our economic fortress in Canada, so we are never vulnerable to these kinds of threats again,” said Poilievre.

“Our immediate response must be targeted, reciprocal tariffs, targeted narrowly at those American goods we don't need that we can make ourselves or buy elsewhere to maximize impact on the Americans while minimizing impact on ourselves.”

“We must be prepared to protect jobs. Keeping Canadians working should be our top priority, and that's why we need to focus on that.”

“If a worker loses his job, it's much harder, longer and actually more expensive for the government to try and get him back into employment than it is to try and keep him working in the interim period while this dispute is on.”

The second part of the Conservative plan is to “try to end this trade dispute” by “accelerating renegotiations of CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement), bringing in a new deal on trade and security.”

“Why wait? Why not get it done now? Why not end the uncertainty that is paralyzing both sides of the border and that is also costing us jobs?” said Poilievre.

“Today, we should set a firm date to finalize a new deal, and I will propose that both countries pause tariffs while we hammer out that deal.”

Poilievre earlier said he will not put the Supply Management Agreement, the government-controlled, quota-based monopoly on dairy and poultry, on the table for discussion.