Canadian Conservative leader joins Trudeau in attacking Trump over tariffs

It was a capacity crowd Saturday for the Canada First Rally at the Rogers Centre in Ottawa, with hundreds of people being denied entry to the building because of a lack of space. “Why didn’t they book a larger venue?” asked one woman, obviously frustrated after waiting more than an hour to get into a venue that only seats 1,000 people, with another 1,000 in two overflow rooms. They had all come to hear how Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre plans to “rebrand” his party in the wake of a resuscitated Liberal Party that appears to be headed to anoint Mark Carney as its next leader, with some polls even suggesting the former governor of the Bank of England would bring his party into a tie with the Conservatives.  According to an email from the Conservative Party, 133,000 people watched the speech on X and another 10,000 viewed it on YouTube. 

In a speech lasting an hour and ten minutes, which might have been the longest speech he has ever delivered outside of the House of Commons, Poilievre threatened to match President Donald Trump tariff for tariff, even as he asked Americans, “which other country would you rather have near you?” Poilievre had been under pressure by some in his party to deliver a tougher message on Trump’s threats to slap a 25 percent tariff on all Canadian goods or to outright annex its northern neighbor. Poilievre has been reluctant to do that because so many of his grassroots supporters are also fans of the American president and the work he is now doing to fight DEI, Critical Race Theory and government bureaucracy, so Poilievre trod through his spoken material as if in a minefield.

“Sometimes it does take a threat to remind us what we have, what we could lose, and what we could become. The unjustified threats of tariffs, the 51st statehood of Donald Trump, have united our people to defend the country we love. And strength means leverage. America has leverage, and we have leverage. Retaliation is only the beginning. Yes, we need to retaliate. If they put tariffs on our steel and aluminum, I will put tariffs on their steel and aluminum,” Poilievre said to applause. Trump provided Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada a 30 day reprieve from the tariff after Trudeau promised to bolster border security during an emergency phone call that included a pledge from the prime minister to implement a $1.3 billion dollar six-year border plan that was updated to include 10,000 “frontline personnel” and a border czar. Trudeau has delivered on the latter promise but not the former.

But Poilievre was quick to find commonality with the US. “There's something else I'd like to say to our American friends: we've always loved you as our neighbors and friends. There was no country with whom we'd rather share a border, the longest, undefended border in the world. We know America is the biggest debt that our military superpower the world has ever known, and we've been a good neighbor. We fought on the same side of the same wars. We paid with Canadian lives and treasure, to fight for America avenging the 911 attacks. You have your agreements with us. We have our view. But I would ask you this question. Which other country, would you rather have near you?” Poilievre asked.

When it came to rebranding the Conservative pitch for an imminent federal election, Poilievre emphasized a “bring it home” tax cut along with his recurrent pledge to “axe” the carbon tax, which he said Carney is not serious about eliminating but merely “changing.” He claimed there was no widespread agreement that "the Conservatives were right" about cancelling the carbon tax, opposing an increase to the capital gains tax and selling more liquid natural gas around the world. 

“We will be a self-reliant, sovereign country that stands on its two feet. We will reward work, unleash entrepreneurs, harvest our resources, make our own goods, trade with each other, build homes for our youth, rebuild our borders and military, honor our history and raise our flags together. What binds us together is the Canadian promise that anyone from anywhere can do anything, that hard work gets you a great life in a beautiful house on a safe street wrapped in the protective arms and a solid border defended by brave soldiers under a proud flag to preserve that flag, and its promise. We must work together, fight together and win together. That is what it means to put Canada first," Poilievre said. 

Poilievre also spoke about how it was not “easy” to make and sustain a country like Canada, from building a trans-national railway to the present day. “Do you think it was easy” Poilievre asked before describing Canadian history in two world wars and in the aftermath of 9/11. "Making Canada was hard," he said.

Poilievre also addressed the fentanyl crisis in Canada, something that Trudeau and the Liberals have tried to minimize by claiming only one percent of the drug enters the US through Canada. The Conservative leader said, “40 milligrams is enough to kill 20 people, we will walk up and throw away the murderers who are killing our families … You know, it shouldn't have taken President Trump to get the Liberals to wake up that there's a Fentanyl crisis in this country. I'm not doing this for him. I'm doing this so that there's not one more Canadian parent that has to collapse on the ground on learning that their child has died in a back alley somewhere.”

Outside of the building, Immigration Minister Marc Miller trolled Conservative supporters and said he had brought coffee and donuts for Poilievre just as the Conservative leader had done for the Freedom Convoy when it was protesting Trudeau vaccine mandates three years ago in Ottawa.