Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says on Monday he wants to pressure the Trump administration into a deal granting Canada unfettered access to the U.S. market.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Prime Minister Mark Carney has broken his promise to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump and find resolutions to the ever-expanding trade war.
Speaking in Calgary Thursday, Mr. Poilievre called Mr. Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods “unjustified and unjustifiable,” adding that any countertariffs imposed by Ottawa must be narrow in scope.
That means targeting things that will hit Americans hard while limiting hardship for Canadians, including goods that can be made here or sourced elsewhere, he said.
Doing so would increase the pressure on the Trump administration to strike a deal that will grant Canada unfettered access to the U.S. market, Mr. Poilievre said.
“Mark Carney promised that he would handle Donald Trump. That’s a quote. He said that he would negotiate a win with Donald Trump. He said that the deal would be done by July the 21st and then he said it would be done by August the first. Those promises were not kept,” Mr. Poilievre said.
“He has made concession after concession to President Trump. He’s been bending over backwards for the President and, so far, has gotten nothing in return.”
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Mr. Trump began levying higher import taxes on dozens of countries on Thursday, even though months of tariff threats have begun to damage the U.S. economy.
Just after midnight, goods from more than 60 countries and the European Union became subject to tariff rates of 10 per cent or higher.
Products from the EU, Japan and South Korea are taxed at 15 per cent, while imports from Taiwan, Vietnam and Bangladesh have been hit with 20-per-cent tariffs. Mr. Trump also expects the EU, Japan and South Korea to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S.
Mr. Poilievre made the comments at the headquarters of EnQuest Energy Solutions Inc., an energy storage business, as he announced his party’s intention to introduce a motion in the fall for something called the Canadian Sovereignty Act.
He said the act would encourage economic development, reward companies that invest in large projects, protect Canadian innovation and get shovels in the ground on major nation-building projects between now and March 14, 2026 – the anniversary of Mr. Carney taking office.
By then, Mr. Poilievre said, his party wants to see shovels in the ground on two new oil pipelines to a Canadian coast, a road to the minerals-rich Ring of Fire region in Ontario and a new greenfield liquefied natural gas project.
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The act would also scrap various policies that Mr. Poilievre said stymy economic growth, including the tanker ban off Canada’s West Coast, the industrial carbon tax, the oil and gas emissions cap and the electric vehicle sales mandate.
“Here in Canada, nothing gets done because Liberals ban things from getting done,” he said, accusing Mr. Carney of “ragging the puck” on taking action.
And while Mr. Poilievre said the federal government’s Bill C-5 – which allows cabinet to expedite approvals and construction of projects of national interest – is “better than nothing,” it would do little for the energy sector if other policies are not quashed.