Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre confirmed that if elected he would be looking to pinpoint strategic trade areas with the U.S. to target with retaliatory tariffs, even going so far as matching them dollar for dollar.
The Conservative leader said he would pitch to U.S. President Donald Trump that “America can only win with open and unbridled free trade with Canada.”
Poilievre told CTV News Atlantic’s Todd Battis that he wouldn’t hesitate to slap retaliatory tariffs on as many U.S. goods as necessary in an interview that addressed his stance on the issue for the first time
“I would retaliate and I would target products and services that a) we don’t need b) we can make ourselves and c) that we can buy elsewhere so that we can maximize the impact on Americans while minimizing the impact on Canadians,” said Poilievre on Friday.
Poilievre pledged to implement an “emergency bring it home tax cut on work, investment, making stuff in Canada, energy, homebuilding so that we can stimulate more economic growth here.”
He also said that he would break down barriers faced by interprovincial trade so that Canada could become more self-reliant.
“We have freer trade today with the Americans than we do with ourselves,” said Poilievre. “We have to knock down those barriers” and build more liquid natural gas pipelines and facilities to enable great global export.
When asked if he would take a dollar-for-dollar approach regarding retaliatory measures, he confirmed that he would.
“It has to hit hard,” said Poiievre, stressing the importance of being very surgical about what products to place tariffs on.
Trump announced that his proposed 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports could take effect as early as Feb. 1.
Poilievre noted that Canada’s economy has long been basking in the glow of the massive economic superpower and strong military of the U.S. but that the time has come to stop relying so heavily on our neighbour to the south.
Additionally, he discussed seeking alternative routes to get Canadian exports to market without relying on the U.S..
“Right now we are importing oil from the Americans and the Saudis in the east at world prices and we’re selling it to the Americans at discounts in the West. It’s a crazy business model,” said Poilievre. “We need pipelines. We need LNG plants and we need to approve resource projects quickly so that we can become self-reliant and start making things here in Canada.”
Poilievre went on to say that he would “strongly support an east-west pipeline” where western Canadian oil could be sold to refineries located in the country’s east.
“The alternative is that we continue to sell at a discount in the west and buy it at a premium in the east and lose money, millions of times every single day,” he said. “It’s economic suidice and stupidity.”
Poilievre pledged to repeal the Liberals’ Bill C-69 to expedite energy projects, which he called an “anti-development” bill that can take “an estimated 19 years to get a mine approved.” The law, commonly referred to as the “No More Pipelines Act” by its opponents, provided the government with sweeping regulatory powers over new energy projects.
“We have the fifth biggest lithium supply in the world but we don’t mine lithium. We have the sixth biggest supply of natural gas on planet earth, we don’t export a single cubic foot of it overseas,” he said. “We have the most uranium, the most potash, the list goes on but because our laws are designed to block projects from proceeding, businesses don’t put their money here.”
According to Poilievre, Canada has lost half a trillion dollars in net investment from Canada to south of the border.
“My goal is to have the fastest permits for mines anywhere in the developed world,” he said.
The Canadian Chamber of Commerce reported that around $3.6 billion in goods cross the border daily and that about 2.3 million Canadian jobs are tied to U.S. exports.
