MAGA’s Favorite Canadian Politician Pierre Poilevre Vows to ‘Retaliate’ If Trump Starts ‘Trade War’: ‘It Has To Hit Hard’
Canadian Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre, who is popular among many American conservatives, vowed to “retaliate” if he is elected prime minister and President Donald Trump starts a “trade war” with his country.
Poilievre sat down over the weekend with CTV News where he told anchor Todd Battis that he was prepared to take on Trump.
Trump had teased stiff tariffs against the country during his month of simultaneously challenging its sovereignty. The president has referred to outgoing Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the “governor” of his country and Canada as a potential 51st US state.
Poilievre, known in the US on social media for his battles with the Canadian media, has found popularity with Trump supporters who view him as a sort of Trump from the north. The favorite to replace Trudeau in the fall told Battis he would not think twice about taking Trump head-on to protect Canada’s economy.
Battis said, “We are a week away now from American tariffs with almost all certainty. There’s a real concern, and I’m sure you’ve heard it in this region about the potential impacts. Wondering if you can tell our viewers one specific thing. If you were in power that you would do to respond to those.” Poilievre replied:
Look, President Trump is a dealmaker. He wants to win, but we’re both going to lose as Americans and Canadians if we get into a trade war. So what I would say is, how do we position the decision for him so that he understands that America can only win if it allows open, unbridled free trade with Canada? So I would retaliate, and I would target products and services that A, we don’t need. B, we can make ourself, and C, that we can buy elsewhere so that we maximize impact on the Americans while minimizing impact on Canadians.
Secondly, I would have to pass an emergency, bring it home, tax cut on work, investment, making stuff in Canada, energy, home building so that we can stimulate more economic growth here.
Three we need to become more self-sufficient. That means knocking down barriers, more interprovincial free trade. We have freer trade with the Americans today than we do with ourselves. We have to knock down those barriers, build pipelines, LNG liquefaction facilities to sell our stuff to the world without having to go through the Americans.
Poilievre concluded, “If they’re going to be an unreliable trade partner, we’ve got to find ways to sell more to ourselves and more to the rest of the world.”
Watch above via CTV.
