OTTAWA—Big signs of the red and white and “Canada First” were the main themes of Conservatives’ rally coinciding with the National Flag of Canada Day on Feb. 15 in Ottawa.
Canadians would “bear any burden and pay any price” to protect the sovereignty and independence of their country, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said at the rally.
“Let me be clear: we will never be the 51st state,” Poilievre said.
It was a different theme from just a few months ago, when the Conservatives’ main focus was on getting rid of the carbon tax, fighting the rise in crime, and other domestic issues. Although those items are still a focus, the messaging on Feb. 15 was noticeably tailored to the new situation: where Justin Trudeau will soon no longer be prime minister and U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs are looming large for Canada’s economy, coupled with continued remarks from the president about Canada becoming a 51st state.
“You will turn a loyal friend into a resentful neighbour, forced to match tariff with tariff and to seek friends everywhere else,” Poilievre said of the consequences if the United States moves forward with tariffs.
“Both our economies will weaken, leaving less money for defence and security, and our enemies will grow stronger.”
The Conservative leader spoke before hundreds of people adorning red and white and waving Canadian flags at the Rogers Centre in downtown Ottawa.
Poilievre told the crowd that the threat of tariffs had “united our people to defend” Canada. “Sometimes it does take a threat to remind us what we have, what we could lose, and what we could become,” he said.
Speaking directly to Americans, Poilievre said the country had a choice of whether to carry out an “unprovoked attack” on Canada’s economy and cause prices to rise in the United States, or to see the countries increase trade further and team up against threats such as fentanyl and terrorism.
“You have your grievance with us. We have ours with you. But I would ask you this question: Which other country would you rather have as your neighbour?” he said.
Carney Liberal Contest Front-Runner
Poilievre also targeted Mark Carney, whom the polls currently indicate as the front-runner in the Liberal leadership race.Carney, a former of Bank of Canada governor, has proposed a plan to remove the consumer carbon tax and instead bring forth an incentive program that rewards Canadians while making “big polluters” pay. Fellow leadership contender and former Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland has also said she‘ll abandon the consumer carbon tax, while Karina Gould, another leadership contender and former cabinet minister, has said she’d halt the hike for the carbon tax scheduled this year.
Poilievre said Carney’s plan is to pause the carbon tax and “hide it out of sight so that you won’t see it for the duration of the election period,” before bringing forth a “much bigger tax that has no rebate whatsoever.” He added that his climate policies would “decimate our industries and destroy the jobs of our workers.”
The Conservative leader said that while media outlets had suggested the party should change its “Axe the Tax” platform in response to U.S. tariff threats, the crisis had “proven Conservatives right on everything.” Poilievre said Liberals had been forced to change their stance on issues like carbon tax, the capital gains tax hike, the threat of fentanyl, and border security.
“Imitation is the highest form of flattery, but you cannot believe [the Liberal Party]” Poilievre said. “It is not realistic that we would believe a party, 60 days before the election, suddenly reversing itself on absolutely everything.”
Carney has criticized Poilievre’s plan to scrap the carbon tax as being “misleading,” saying he doesn’t have an effective climate change policy.
“Let me be clear, if we were only to remove the carbon tax, we'd create two problems. First, Canada’s emissions would not decrease as rapidly as before. And secondly, most Canadian households would be worse off because of the end of the rebate,” he said while campaigning in Halifax on Jan. 31.
Policies
The Tory leader also repeated some of his latest policy proposals, among them increasing Canada’s energy self-reliance and removing internal trade barriers, while boosting security and military spending. Trump’s first round of threatened tariffs has been focused on getting Canada and Mexico to stop the flow of fentanyl and illegal immigrants through their borders into the United States. He has also criticized countries, including Canada, that don’t meet their minimum defence spending requirement of 2 percent of their GDP.Poilievre noted how Eastern Canada imports oil from other countries because of lack of pipelines to get oil and gas from the Western provinces. He said he would remove the Impact Assessment Act, calling it the “No New Pipelines Act.” The federal legislation requires additional environmental assessments, which Alberta has objected to, saying it creates unnecessary burden for resource projects. The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2023 that the legislation was unconstitutional, and the federal government amended it in response last year. Poilievre said he would also streamline mining projects in the Ring of Fire region in Northern Ontario.
He also promised to increase military spending and NORAD capabilities by adding two extra heavy icebreakers for the Navy and 2,000 more Canadian Rangers, and pay for it by cutting foreign aid to “dictators and terrorists.” He said the Canadian Armed Forces would be given the tools they need to defend Canada, and be “guided by a warrior culture, not a woke culture.” He also repeated that he would impose life sentences for “fentanyl kingpins,” while sending the military to the border to boost security.
He also repeated his past policy that Canada should retaliate against U.S. tariffs “dollar-for-dollar,” and use the proceeds to reimburse the businesses and workers impacted by the tariffs.
Poilievre also said his government would create a Blue Seal Professional Licensing Standard recognized in each province to allow doctors, nurses, and engineers to work in all provinces, and bring the premiers together to remove internal trade barriers. He vowed to create a “Tax Reform Task Force” made up of entrepreneurs, inventors, farmers, and workers, who would design a tax cut on energy, work, homebuilding, and investment.
Additionally, Poilievre criticized the “radical post-national ideologies” that threaten the country’s sovereignty, and vowed to “end cancel culture and stop the war on our history.” In order to do this, Poilievre proposed building new statues and monuments to pay tribute to people like Canada’s first Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, and increasing penalties for those who desecrate statues.
A Conservative government would also reinstate the Canadian Navy’s marching anthem “Heart of Oak,” finish a monument paying tribute to Canada’s Afghanistan veterans, bring back Canadian historical figures like Terry Fox to passports, and restore in-person Canadian citizenship oaths, he said.
