(AFP) – Canada’s Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre on Wednesday escalated his criticism of Donald Trump, outlining plans to confront a US president he said cannot be trusted to honor agreements. Hours before Trump was set to unveil sweeping tariffs that could punish the Canadian economy, Poilievre addressed an audience of business leaders in downtown Toronto, the epicenter of Canada’s financial industry.
Polling ahead of Canada’s April 28 election indicates Poilievre has struggled to establish himself as a forceful counter to Trump, whose trade war and repeated threats to annex Canada have shattered bilateral relations. Poilievre said if elected to replace Liberal Party leader Mark Carney as prime minister, he would immediately ask Trump to launch negotiations on a new trade agreement. “I will propose that both countries pause tariffs while we hammer out that deal,” Poilievre said.
But, he added, Canada cannot assume Trump will keep his word. “How can we trust that he’ll honor any new agreement when, let’s be honest, he violated the last one, the one he negotiated.” Trump has previously called the current North American free trade agreement, which was renegotiated during his first term, “the best agreement we’ve ever made.” He now accuses Canada of taking advantage of the United States in trade.
Poilievre said Canada should be able to “withdraw” from defense, border security, and trade commitments in response to Trump “breaking his word.” “If and when he decides to break the deal and tariff us again, we will hold up our end of the bargain only as long as he holds up his.” At the start of the year, Poilievre appeared on track to be Canada’s next prime minister, as polls gave him a commanding lead over then-prime minister Justin Trudeau. But Trudeau’s resignation and Trump’s threats have upended the race.
Carney, a wealthy former investment banker who led both the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England, has argued his experience prepared him to lead Canada through the economic crisis. The public broadcaster CBC’s poll aggregator on Wednesday gave the Liberals a 90 percent chance of forming a majority, a stunning turnaround.
But Poilievre blames Trudeau’s economic policies for making Canada vulnerable to Trump and says Carney is not the solution. “A resume is not a plan,” he said, seeking to undermine Carney’s economic experience. Prominent Canadian investor and Poilievre supporter Mark McQueen argued that, regardless of Carney’s background, the Liberal attachment to big government would hinder economic progress. Carney’s “resume does not make up for intestinal fortitude,” he told AFP after Poilievre’s speech. There are “bureaucrats across this country who gum things up… Governments are not in the business of progress, they’re in the business of managing ministers.”
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