{"id":501657,"date":"2026-02-26T21:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501657\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T21:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T21:44:20","slug":"canada-u-s-relations-pierre-poilievre-pitches-vision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/501657\/","title":{"rendered":"Canada-U.S. relations: Pierre Poilievre pitches vision"},"content":{"rendered":"

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canada needs to create more leverage in its negotiations with the United States, and argues that despite the ongoing trade war between the two countries, Canada should not substitute the U.S. with China. <\/p>\n

In a speech focused on becoming \u201cstronger at home\u201d to increase leverage abroad, Poilievre laid out his vision for Canada-U.S. relations in a speech at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto Thursday. <\/p>\n

\u201cEconomic strength is national strength,\u201d he said. \u201cEnergy security is national security. Self-reliance is sovereignty made real. And sovereignty is not declared, it is built \u2014 decisively, deliberately and without excuses.\u201d <\/p>\n

The trilateral trade agreement between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, known as CUSMA, is up for review this summer. American news outlets Bloomberg and The New York Times, however, are reporting U.S. President Donald Trump is mulling walking away from the deal entirely. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe must divide the problem into what we control and what we do not control,\u201d Poilievre said. \u201cAnd most important of all, we cannot allow others to control us.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cWe must not allow President Trump to distract us from the work we need to do here at home,\u201d he added, listing the need for low-cost energy, unblocking resources and homebuilding, a strong military, and digital sovereignty as elements of his plan to strengthen Canada\u2019s leverage. <\/p>\n

\"\"Pierre Poilievre Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre speaks at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto on Thursday February 26, 2026.THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Chris Young Canada should not substitute U.S. for China: Poilievre<\/p>\n

Amid a now-year-long trade war, Prime Minister Mark Carney has pledged to diversify Canada\u2019s trading partners and insulate the economy from the United States. <\/p>\n

Despite years of tense relations and concerns over foreign interference, Carney travelled last month to China to ink new trade deals with the global superpower. This week, he\u2019s headed to India to do the same. <\/p>\n

As Carney seeks to deepen ties with China \u2014 including announcing on his trip in January a deal on electric vehicles and agriculture tariffs \u2014 Poilievre argues that the Asian superpower should not become a substitute for Canada\u2019s long-held relationship with the United States. <\/p>\n

\u201cCanada\u2019s prosperity and security are inseparable from a stable relationship with the United States,\u201d Poilievre said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat 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 \u2014 a regime the prime minister himself said was the biggest threat to Canada just a year ago,\u201d he added, referencing Carney\u2019s statement from last spring\u2019s federal election campaign that China is the \u201cbiggest security threat\u201d facing Canada. <\/p>\n

\"\"Pierre Poilievre Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre chats with guests at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto on Thursday February 26, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Chris Young <\/p>\n

Poilievre pointed to Chinese interference in Canada, including electoral interference, as a reason to \u201cmake the mistake of confusing engagement with dependency.\u201d<\/p>\n

In Commissioner Marie-Jos\u00e9e Hogue\u2019s report tabled last January following the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference, China was listed as the \u201cmost persistent and sophisticated foreign interference threat to Canada.\u201d India was the second. <\/p>\n

\u201cCanada should pursue diversified trade and global engagement,\u201d Poilievre said. \u201cConservatives stand in favour of a free-trade agreement with India and deeper ties with other countries.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cBut diversification must be grounded in realism,\u201d he added. \u201cNot all partners are interchangeable.\u201d <\/p>\n

Poilievre in his speech also discussed the rise of China as a global power, arguing that \u201csome of\u201d Trump\u2019s correction of the global trading system was overdue, but that the president erred in targeting Canada in the process.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat President Trump says about Canada is wrong,\u201d Poilievre said. \u201cOur trade surplus does not represent exploitation of the United States of America. Quite the opposite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poilievre said Trump\u2019s threats to make Canada the 51st state are, whether \u201ca joke or not,\u201d \u201cunacceptable,\u201d adding there is \u201czero chance\u201d of that happening. <\/p>\n

\u201cCanada and the United States have built probably the greatest partnership any two countries have ever built in the history of the world,\u201d Poilievre said. \u201cThat partnership remains profoundly in the interests of both our peoples and both our countries.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to distinguish between governments and people,\u201d he added. \u201cPoliticians come and go. People remain.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018What Donald Trump says about Canada is wrong\u2019: Poilievre on trade tensions Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre disapproves the claims of Canada taking advantage of U.S. in trade and says Trump \u2018ignores the sacrifices\u2019 of Canadian troo <\/p>\n

Poilievre takes aim at Trump <\/p>\n

Late last month, Poilievre delivered a rousing election-campaign-style speech to a packed room of party members in Calgary, before securing 87.4 per cent support in his leadership review.<\/p>\n

In that speech, however, he did not mention the U.S. president by name. In his keynote address on Wednesday, Poilievre took direct aim at Trump. <\/p>\n

He argued Canada\u2019s historic relationship with the United States, and that country\u2019s position as the \u201cgravitational centre of the global economy,\u201d led to Canadian complacency. <\/p>\n

His plan in negotiating a deal with the U.S., he said, would include: <\/p>\n

An end to steel, aluminum, autos, and lumber tariffs; A new tariff-free auto pact to protect North American production with shared protections against vehicles from China;Full exemption from \u201cBuy America\u201d rules; and A relaunch of the Keystone XL pipeline.\"\"Pierre Poilievre Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre chats with guests at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto on Thursday February 26, 2026. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Chris Young <\/p>\n

\u201cThe best leverage we have is to be united here at home,\u201d Poilievre said, adding he\u2019s proposing an all-party CUSMA working group of parliamentarians \u201cfor the benefit of Canada above the benefit of party.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked during the question-and-answer period following the speech \u2014 moderated by former deputy Conservative leader Lisa Raitt \u2014 why he does not appear more angry with the United States, Poilievre said the focus should be on what Canada can control. <\/p>\n

According to the latest polling from Nanos Research released this week, Trump and U.S. relations is the second top issue amongst Canadians, following jobs and the economy. The issue has remained among the top three concerns for Canadians for more than a year. <\/p>\n

Poilievre, meanwhile, continues to lag in the polls, with the Liberals several points ahead of the Conservatives, and Carney far exceeding him on the preferred prime minister question. <\/p>\n

Three formerly Conservative MPs have also crossed the floor to the Liberals since November, with Alberta MP Matt Jeneroux joining Carney\u2019s caucus last week after months of speculation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says Canada needs to create more leverage in its negotiations with the United States,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":501658,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[45,49,48,46,47,44,714,1215],"class_list":{"0":"post-501657","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-canada","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-economy","12":"tag-national","13":"tag-news","14":"tag-politics","15":"tag-trade"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501657","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=501657"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/501657\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/501658"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=501657"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=501657"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=501657"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}