Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canada should focus on making the country strong and self-reliant, as threats of cumulative U.S. tariffs loom.
Speaking at a
press conference in Ottawa on March 2, Poilievre said Canada needs to “take back control of our economy and become strong, self-reliant, and sovereign.”
“We must bring home our jobs, our resources, our production, our supply chains,” he told reporters. “We must not only harvest our resources, but … we must build LNG [liquefied natural gas] plants and ports that can get those resources to overseas markets.”
The Conservative leader’s comments came as the first round of U.S. tariffs are scheduled to go into effect on March 4.
U.S. President Donald Trump had initially signed an
executive order on Feb. 1 to
impose 25 percent tariffs on Canadian goods and 10 percent tariffs on oil and gas on Feb. 4. The tariffs, tied to border security to stop the flow of illegal immigrants and drugs such as fentanyl, were
paused for 30 days, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Trump that Canada would beef up its border security plan by appointing a “
fentanyl czar” and listing
drug cartels as terrorist organizations.
Although Ottawa subsequently implemented those measures, Trump said on Feb. 27 that the tariffs would go ahead as
not enough was done to curb drug smuggling. In addition to those tariffs, the Trump administration has also threatened to impose several other tariff measures on Canada on various dates.
Poilievre said Canada should retaliate with its own tariffs if the United States decides to proceed. However, he noted that because Trump tends to change his plans on tariffs, Canada cannot rely solely on retaliatory tariffs as a response.
To make Canada stronger, Poilievre said the federal government should immediately repeal the “no-pipeline law C-69” that “has blocked mines, pipelines, power dams, [and] LNG plants” from developing.
Bill C-69, now known as the Impact Assessment Act of 2019,
allows Ottawa to impose environmental assessments on resource and infrastructure projects such as pipelines and mine development.
Other actions needed for Canada to be less dependent on the United States, he said, include
lowering taxes on work and investment, removing red tape and taxes that hamper home building, and convening the premiers to agree on removing as many
exemptions as possible from the
Canada Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) in order to boost interprovincial trade.
Poilievre said he was the one who called on the Liberal government to act on those recommendations a month ago, prior to the federal government’s Feb. 21
announcement saying it will remove more than half of the federal exemptions in the CFTA, from 39 to 19. On Feb. 28, Transport and Internal Trade Minister Anita Anand
said she met with her provincial and territorial trade counterparts and that “all governments committed to completing a review of their remaining exceptions.”
Carney and Brookfield
During the March 2 press conference, Poilievre took aim at Mark Carney, the current frontrunner in the Liberal leadership race, saying the former central banker needs to “come before Canadians” and “explain why he lied” about his role in moving the headquarters of Brookfield Asset Management from Canada to New York.
Carney had
told reporters on Feb. 25, following the second of two Liberal leadership debates, that the formal decision to move Brookfield’s head office from Toronto happened after he ceased to be the chair of the board.
Carney had also held
multiple roles before running for Liberal leader, including as U.N. Special Envoy for Climate Action and Finance and as co-chair of the
Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero. He had said he resigned from all of the roles in January after entering the leadership race.
His
reply to reporters on Feb. 25 quickly drew fire from the Conservatives, who pointed to an October 2024 Brookfield
press release that indicated the firm had moved its head office to New York while Carney was still serving as chair, as his
departure from Brookfield’s board didn’t take place until Jan. 16, when he announced his candidacy for Liberal Party leadership.
On Feb, 26, Tory MP Michael Barrett
posted on social media a letter written by Carney, dated Dec. 1, 2024, telling Brookfield shareholders of the move.
At a leadership event in Oakville, Ont., on Feb. 28,
Carney told The Globe and Mail that there were several elements to the transaction and that it was complicated.
“I should have been more precise in my answer,” he said. “I think the core, though, is, what are we actually talking about? We’re talking about the technical change to where the head office is. No difference to any employment.”
The Epoch Times previously contacted Carney’s campaign office for comment but did not hear back by publication time.
Poilievre said Carney “was very precise” in his reply to the Globe.
“He said, and I quote: ‘The decision, the formal decision of the board, happened after I ceased to be on the board,’” Poilievre said.
“That is a very precise statement—precisely the opposite of the truth,” he added. “The formal decision happened in October 2024, three months before Mr. Carney left.”
Chandra Philip, Matthew Horwood, and Noé Chartier contributed to this report
