Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre leaves the stage after speaking at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto on Thursday.Chris Young/The Canadian Press
Canada needs to increase its leverage in trade talks with the United States, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday in a speech that also stressed this country cannot turn away from the Americans in favour of China.
Mr. Poilievre’s speech to a business crowd of about 300 in Toronto, at an event hosted by the Economic Club of Canada, represented a direct attempt by the Conservative Leader to address his party’s perceived weakness in contending with the economic challenges posed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
He called Mr. Trump “wrong” for his past suggestions that Canada is taking advantage of the U.S., as well as the U.S. President’s playing down of the role Canadian and other NATO soldiers played in Afghanistan.
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“And let’s be clear about another thing: The President’s talk of 51st statehood, whether it is a joke or not, is unacceptable,” Mr. Poilievre said. “It goes without saying there is zero chance of Canada ever being part of the United States.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who departed for India on Thursday, has made trade diversification a key plank of his economic approach.
Since the trade war began, Mr. Poilievre has focused mostly on domestic affairs. But on Thursday, he moved to lay out his vision for handling the trade dispute with the Americans and how Canada can shore up its own economic strength and self-reliance.
The Americans have placed punishing sectoral tariffs on Canadian industries such as steel, aluminum and autos, and trade officials are set to review the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, amid reports that Mr. Trump may be looking to exit the deal or pursue bilateral agreements instead.
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Mr. Poilievre said his party is seeking an end to tariffs – though he didn’t specify how that could be achieved – as well as a new tariff-free auto pact to safeguard North American production, with shared protections against vehicles from China.
In a fireside chat with former Conservative MP Lisa Raitt that followed his speech, Mr. Poilievre said Americans have made it clear they don’t want Canada to become a “backdoor entry point” for Chinese vehicles or parts.
“We ultimately have to recognize that our auto industry requires integration with the United States of America. We are not going to be competitive otherwise,” he said.
U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer this week said a potential deal with Canada must include higher tariffs and increased access for American markets.
Speaking briefly to The Globe and Mail on Thursday, Mr. Poilievre called Mr. Greer’s remarks a “starting negotiating position.”
“We’ve got to build leverage and bring that unbreakable leverage to the negotiating table, and we can succeed,” he said.
This week, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said a potential deal with Canada must include higher tariffs and increased access for U.S. markets.Kylie Cooper/Reuters
In his speech, the Conservative Leader reiterated his calls for Canada to do more to promote low-cost energy, including speeding up permits for oil and gas and electricity projects, cutting red tape on housing construction and rapidly building a new pipeline to the Pacific.
But he also proposed a new strategic energy and mineral reserve, and requiring anyone who offshores taxpayer-subsidized intellectual property to repay the public contribution.
He stressed that Canada should not abandon its long-standing relationship with the U.S., arguing that the American people “are not our adversaries” and that survey data show strong American goodwill toward Canada.
“That insight captures a reality deeper than any temporary dispute. Canada’s prosperity and security are inseparable from a stable relationship with the United States,” he said.
Canadians also need to leverage their relationships with Americans and reach out to American leaders to fight for free trade and security co-operation, Mr. Poilievre said.
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Last week, he distanced himself from Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, who recently took a trip to the U.S. to meet with officials there and told a U.S. media outlet that Canadians were undermining their relationship with the U.S. by throwing a “hissy fit.”
While his party supports trade diversification – including a full free-trade agreement with India – closer ties with China are not a replacement for the U.S., Mr. Poilievre said.
“That is why we should not declare a permanent rupture from our biggest customer and closest neighbour in favour of a strategic partnership for a new world order with Beijing – a regime the Prime Minister himself said was the biggest threat to Canada,” he said to applause from the room.
“China is not a substitute for the United States of America.”
In his recent speech in Davos laying out a vision for modern-day multilateralism, Mr. Carney also spoke of a rupture – but in much broader terms.
Without directly naming Mr. Trump, he said there was a major change in the rules-based international order, to which there was no going back.
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Mr. Carney also called on middle powers to work together to build a new order rather than waiting for the old one to be restored.
“And it means reducing the leverage that enables coercion – that’s building a strong domestic economy. It should be every government’s immediate priority,” Mr. Carney said.
In Thursday’s speech, Mr. Poilievre criticized Mr. Carney’s call for a new middle-power alliance. Canada already has free trade with numerous middle powers, Mr. Poilievre said, and the issue is that Canada doesn’t do enough to take advantage of those deals.
Mr. Poilievre also proposed an all-party working group focused on the USMCA to “act in good faith for the benefit of Canada above the benefit of party.”
Still, he cautioned this does not mean the end of opposition, which is there to scrutinize government decisions.
“Canada’s destiny will never be written in Washington, Beijing or anywhere else, but by Canadians here at home.”
Next week, Mr. Poilievre is scheduled to deliver a speech at the Centre for Policy Studies, a centre-right think tank in London. He is also expected to travel to Germany.