OTTAWA – A tariff-free deal, achievable by making Canada stronger and more self-sufficient, thus providing leverage for negotiations: this, in a nutshell, is Poilievre’s thinking, which emerged during an interview with journalist Vassy Kapelos on CTV‘s Sunday program “Question Time.” The Conservative leader outlined his plan if he were prime minister instead of Liberal Mark Carney, in the midst of the protracted trade war with the United States, ignited by US President Donald Trump since his election.

“We used to have that privileged access to the American economy, and in exchange for that, we could provide more continental security that would make both our countries more secure and stable” Polieivre said. “That’s the deal that I would go for…”.

As is well known, Canada and the United States have been negotiating a new economic and security agreement for months, with Prime Minister Mark Carney and his team insisting on prioritizing reaching the “best deal” rather than a timely pact. Late last month, Carney announced Canada’s elimination of many of its tariffs, hoping to trigger a similar response from its American counterpart. This has so far not happened. And according to Poilievre, that move was a sign of Carney’s weakness, which Trump immediately “smelled”.

“I think that the key back home, though, is to become more self-reliant, strong and stand on our own two feet, so that we have the leverage to negotiate” Poilievre told Kapelos, underlining that Carney has “unfortunately negotiated out of a position of weakness” also determined by the “anti-development Liberal policies” such as the oil and gas sector emissions cap, the industrial carbon tax, and Bill C-69, the Impact Assessment Act, which many Conservatives have dubbed the ‘no more pipelines act’. “If we were building pipelines and port expansions and moving our resources to the Pacific and the Atlantic to faraway markets, then we could go to the Americans with the ability to say we have other options” Poilievre said.

Many topics were covered in the interview, including the Conservative leadership review scheduled for next year. “I don’t believe in magic” Poilievre said when Kapelos asked him if he had a “magic number” in mind for the minimum level of support he hopes to achieve. But the journalist pressed him again, asking if he has a number he think he need to reach to remain leader, and he replied: “I don’t. No.”

Here, the full interview from CTV’s YouTube channel (the pic above is a screenshot from this video)