Canadian leader tells nation Trump tariff war can help domestic trade

Prime Minister Mark Carney has said he will cut out the red tape for internal, domestic trade for Canadian businesses while dealing with US President Donald Trump.

Speaking at an election debate in Montreal, he said the US tariff war could be a blessing in disguise for Canada.

Canada has long had interprovincial trade barriers, but the former Bank of England governor has set a goal of free trade within the country’s 10 provinces and three territories by July 1.

“We can give ourselves far more than Donald Trump can ever take away,” Mr Carney said.

“We can have one economy. This is within our grasp.”

Mr Carney said the relationship Canada has had with the US for the past 40 years has fundamentally changed because of Mr Trump’s tariffs.

If re-elected, Mr Carney plans to immediately enter into trade talks with the Trump administration.

“We are facing the biggest crisis of our lifetimes,” he said in his closing statement. “Donald Trump is trying to fundamentally change the world economy, the trading system, but really is he’s trying to break us so the US can own us.

“They want our land, they want our resources, they want our water, they want our country.

“I am ready and I have managed crises over the years… We will fight back with counter tariffs and we will protect our workers.”

Mr Trump’s trade war and threats to make Canada the 51st state of America have infuriated Canadians, leading to a surge in nationalism that has bolstered Liberal poll numbers ahead of the April 28 vote.

Conservative rival Pierre Poilievre is imploring Canadians not to give the Liberals a fourth term.

He had hoped to make the election a referendum on former leader Justin Trudeau, whose popularity had declined at the end of his decade in power after food and housing prices rose sharply and immigration surged.

But Mr Trump instead attacked the former Canadian leader who resigned with Mr Carney becoming Liberal leader and prime minister after a leadership race.

“It may be difficult, Mr Poilievre, you spent years running against Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax, and they are both gone,” Mr Carney said.

“I am a very different person than Justin Trudeau.”

In a mid-January poll by Nanos, Liberals trailed the Conservative Party by 47% to 20%.

In the latest Nanos poll released on Thursday, the Liberals led by five percentage points.

“We can’t afford a fourth Liberal term of rising housing costs,” Mr Poilievre said.

Mr Poilievre accused Mr Carney’s Liberals of being hostile toward Canada’s energy sector and pipelines.

He accused the Liberals of weakening the economy and vowed that a Conservative government would repeal “anti-energy laws, red tape and high taxes.”

During Wednesday’s French-language leaders’ debate in Montreal, Mr Carney reminded the nation that he has only been prime minister for a month.

“We need change. You do not embody change,” Mr Poilievre said to Mr Carney.

Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-François Blanche, whose party is losing support to Mr Carney’s Liberals in Quebec, agreed, saying the Liberals are the same party, the same ministers and the same politicians and a new leader does not change that.