Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre took a bold and unwavering stand for Canada in this message to President Trump and fellow Canadians. The text follows below or click here for the video.
President Trump stabbed America's best friend in the back. My message to the president is this: Canada will fight back. We will defend our people and our economy, and we will put Canada first.
There is no doubt that our economy will suffer, but so will yours, President Trump. In fact, you are already paying the price, with trillions of dollars erased in stock market value over the last month due to these threats. Already, Americans are paying higher gas prices as, at midnight, a new American gas tax kicked in on U.S. working-class taxpayers and motorists.
Your workers will soon start losing jobs—jobs they had upgrading Canadian raw materials, which, by the way, you were getting at an incredible and ridiculous bargain. Your businesses will be selling fewer products to your closest neighbor. And that's only the beginning.
While Canadians are slow to anger and quick to forgive, once provoked, we fight back—and we will fight back.
Now, I'd like to speak to the millions of Canadians who are anxious today after learning that President Trump has attacked our economy.
To the auto workers, the forestry workers, the steel and aluminum workers, the mining and energy workers, the truckers, the farmers—to all of you who get out of bed before the sun rises and do the labor of the nation—you are afraid right now, and I understand.
I want you to know that I will fight for you. I will fight for your job. I will fight for your family. I will fight for your future. I will fight for your chance at owning and paying off a home. I will fight for your retirement, and I will fight to put Canada first.
Before these tariffs, you must have been asking yourself: How could things get any worse? Before these tariffs, you were already suffering. You wondered how you'd pay the rent or eventually dream of buying a home after housing costs had doubled over the last decade—rising faster than in any other G7 country.
You've downgraded your diet as food prices have risen 37% faster in Canada than in the United States over the last five years. You might be one of the two million people—a record-breaking number—lined up at food banks, a number that has more than doubled.
Before these tariffs applied, you've likely noticed that your paycheck is not keeping up with record inflation as Canada's GDP has grown less and lower than any other G7 country over the last decade. You might have noticed that your company has already been moving jobs to the United States as greedy and self-serving CEOs put their share prices ahead of your job. A half-trillion dollars net has left Canada for Trump's America under the current Liberal government.
And now this.
But I'm here with a message of hope. We will overcome this attack on our economy, and I have a plan to do it.
First, we must retaliate, targeting American goods in the following order: A) Goods that we can make ourselves. B) Goods we don’t need. C) Goods we can get from elsewhere.
Second, counter-tariffs must not be a cash cow for the government. Almost every penny of the tariffs collected should go to tax cuts, with a small sum set aside for targeted relief to workers hardest hit by the trade war. None of the money should go to new government spending and programs. We must not allow politicians to dishonestly use this crisis to once again launch a debt-fueled, money-printing, spending spree that will drive up inflation and further destroy the working class—hitting the poorest people the hardest.
Third, we must immediately pass a “Bring It Home” tax cut on work, investment, energy, and home building. The idea is to neutralize the cost of the tariffs with lower taxes and incentivize massive new investment in building things here in this country. The obvious place to start is to get rid of the Liberal carbon tax, then axe the sales tax on new homes. We need to reverse the Liberal capital gains tax hike and slash income tax so that hard work pays off and you bring home more of each dollar you earn.
Fourth, we must immediately repeal the Liberal “No New Pipelines” law—C-69—a law that not only blocks all pipelines but stops mines, refineries, export plants, and all kinds of other energy infrastructure. This law makes us hopelessly reliant on one customer: the Americans—a customer we cannot count on anymore. We must greenlight LNG plants that Liberals claim have “no business case” so that we no longer have to sell 100% of our gas exports to the Americans. Instead, we can sell to Asia and Europe and help break European dependence on Putin—turning dollars for dictators into paychecks for our people.
Fifth, you know what industry Donald Trump does not control in Canada? Home building. It is a homegrown industry. We must get rid of all taxes and red tape to unleash the biggest home-building boom this country has ever seen—bigger than the post-war boom when our heroes were coming back. We need to build homes faster than ever, and that means removing the bureaucracy, the red tape, the taxes, and the gatekeepers. And I will make it happen. That will also boost the demand for softwood lumber, helping loggers who are already suffering after Biden hit them with tariffs.
Sixth, let's get our provinces together to knock down trade barriers so that we can lower prices and boost wages for our people.
Seventh, we must secure our borders and rebuild our military to assert our sovereignty and strength in the world.
All these things—axing taxes, building homes, unleashing construction of our resources, fixing the budget, stopping crime—were Conservative priorities before the tariffs. Now, they are even more necessary.
But none of these things have happened in the last 100 days since Trump first launched his tariff threats. Look behind me—Parliament has been closed. Liberals shut it down to focus on their political battles. So, the job-killing carbon tax is still in place. The sales tax is still in place on new homes. The no new pipelines law is still in place. The massive inflationary deficits are still in place. Not one law has been changed. Not one tax has been cut. Not one action has been taken to free us from the grip of Trump and the U.S.
We need change, and we will get change.
It will be tough. Building Canada was tough, and so are Canadians. We will bring home the country we know and love and restore its promise. Canada will be self-reliant, sovereign, and stand on its own two feet.
We will build on the great legacy and vision of John A. MacDonald—uniting our country east to west. We will reward work, unleash entrepreneurs, harvest resources, make our own goods, trade with each other, build homes for our youth, rebuild our borders and military, honour our history, and raise our flag.
What binds us together is the Canadian promise—that anyone from anywhere can achieve anything. That hard work gets you a great life in a beautiful house on a safe street, protected by solid borders and brave troops 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—because Canada is worth fighting for.
For our people. For our land. For our home. For our country.
Let’s bring it home.
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The question was: Have the Liberals done enough on fentanyl, and is that a good justification for Trump’s tariffs?
The answer to both questions is no and no. No, the Liberals have not done enough on fentanyl, but not because they should have been doing it for Trump. They should have been doing it for Canadians. We've lost 50,000 people to fentanyl—that’s more than died in the Second World War. That is because of weak borders, soft laws, and the radical liberalization of drugs that the Liberals experimented with and want to continue.
I would ban these drugs, add 2,000 CBSA border guards, and implement more surveillance towers, scanners, and drones to interrupt the illegal entry of fentanyl into our country. And I would treat fentanyl dealers for what they are—mass murderers—and they will get life sentences when I'm Prime Minister. But let’s be clear: that is not a justification for tariffs. We have guns, drugs, and illegal migrants coming from the United States to Canada—we have never tariffed the Americans for that.
If the President wants to fight fentanyl, I agree with him. But I would do it not for President Trump—I would do it for Canadians, so that not one more mother gets the knock on the door from a police officer telling her that her son has died in a back alley.
Parliament should have been open for the last two months—but it wasn’t. That’s a question for the Liberals. They’re the ones who shut down Parliament, and that’s why we haven’t had these debates.
Let me be clear: I am Canada First. I am only for Canada. I’m fighting for the interests of this people and this country. And if that upsets foreign leaders, including the American President, I’m fine with that because I have one job—to fight for this country.
We will never be the 51st state. We will be self-reliant, sovereign, and stand on our own feet. We will be an independent and sovereign country, and I will always stand up for our flag and our people.
Thank you so much.