Pierre Poilievre has accused the Liberals of giving Donald Trump "massive leverage" in the ongoing tariff dispute by repeatedly blocking Canadian energy projects.
The Conservative leader argued that the actions supported by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, former-deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland, and economic advisor Mark Carney have forced Canada to deal with the United States to get our energy to market.
"I think the first thing that President Trump should do when he gets into the Oval Office is to send a big bouquet of flowers to the Liberal government in Ottawa," Poilievre said during a press conference in Delta, BC. "By blocking pipelines and LNG plants in Canada, the Liberals have forced Canadians to sell almost all of our energy to the United States, giving President Trump massive leverage in making these tariff threats."
He argued that had the Liberals allowed the Energy East and Northern Gateway pipelines to go ahead as planned and approved LNG plants, "we wouldn't have to give almost 100% of our hydrocarbons to the Americans at discounted prices.
Poilievre said that in a parallel universe where Canada had the infrastructure, the country could have simply "gone around the Americans" and diversified its direct customer base to include Japan and Europe.
"Freeland supported killing the Energy East pipeline," he added. "Carney testified in the Industry Committee that he was against the Northern Gateway pipeline ... while his company buys pipelines in the Middle East and Brazil. How unpatriotic is that?"
