Poilievre says China is no substitute for the United States as Canada grapples with Trump

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said trade with China is no substitute for trade with the United States and Canada should build on its leverage to secure a tariff-free trade deal with our neighbour to the south.

“Canada’s prosperity and security are inseparable from a stable relationship with the United States,” said Poilievre, during a speech at the Economic Club of Canada in Toronto on Thursday.

“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 said a year ago was the biggest threat to Canada.”

Poilievre said U.S. President Donald Trump’s comments and trade actions have understandably upset Canadians, but that his words should “not distract us from the work here at home.”

“The most effective response to uncertainty is not outrage,” said Poilievre. “It is results.”

Poilievre outlined several new ideas during his speech to Toronto’s business community, including a strategic energy and mineral reserve, an all-party working group ahead of this year’s Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) review, a proposed new tariff-free auto pact with the U.S. and new tax rules that would force Canadian industry to repay tax subsidies on intellectual property that leaves the country.

Poilievre also called on Canada to re-assert its sovereignty in the Arctic and make defence procurement “fast, agile and inventive.”

Poilievre added the federal government should grant six-month approval times to major projects.

Prime Minister Mark Carney departed on a trip to India, Australia and Japan on Thursday, as his government focuses on global trade diversification. Ahead of the trip, government officials said they expect several memoranda of understandings to be signed and there will be a formal launch of negotiations with India for a free trade deal.

Poilievre said Canada’s problem isn’t so much foreign markets keeping us out, but our inability to get exports to market.

“Our problem is not that these countries block our products from coming IN but that our own government blocks our products from getting OUT,” said Polievre. “Signing meaningless communiques and more stagecraft masquerading as statecraft won’t fix that.”

Poilievre’s speech comes as his party faces a challenging political landscape. A recent Angus Reid poll this week puts the Liberals in 12-point lead over the Conservatives. That same poll also showed Canadians’ views of the U.S. have a hit a new low, with just 21 per cent holding a favourable view of the country.

Carney has also secured three floor-crossers from the Conservatives in recent months and with his personal approval ratings so high, rumours persist that the governing Liberals could call a snap election to secure a majority government.

Poilievre has also recently had to distance himself from Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, who told an American right-wing news outlet that some in Canada were engaging in a “hissy-fit” of anti-Americanism that was counterproductive to reaching a trade deal. Poilievre told reporters Jivani “speaks for himself and I speak for the party.”

Poilievre’s party remains united behind him as leader, after he secured 87.4 per cent of the vote at the Conservative convention last month.

National Post

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