Stephen Harper says Justin Trudeau didn’t announce his resignation due to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s economic threats but from Canadians and the Prime Minister’s own party after nine years of mismanagement by the federal Liberals.
And the former Conservative prime minister said the country’s economic numbers back it up as he set the record straight, despite Trump’s claims.
“I know Donald Trump will like to believe that he’s pushed Mr. Trudeau out of office, but let me assure you, it was Canadian public opinion and ultimately Mr. Trudeau’s own party that pushed him out of office,” Harper told Gabe Groisman, a U.S.-based podcaster, this week.
Harper, in power from 2006 to 2015, said while there is clear animosity between Trudeau and Trump, ultimately Canadians have the final say on who the country’s leader will be.
“As much as I’m glad to see Mr. Trudeau leaving, this is not Mr. Trump’s decision. It’s the decision of Canadians, ultimately it was the decision of Mr. Trudeau’s own party.”
Speaking about Trudeau’s trip to Mar-a-Lago in late November to meet with Trump and discuss the incoming president’s concerns about Canadian trade and the 25% tariff threat, Harper said the Prime Minister was in a “no-win position.”
“If he went, as he did, it would look like he was grovelling, and he did,” Harper said. “On the other hand, if he didn’t go, it would look like – and he’d been invited – he was not paying attention to Canada’s most important relationship and one that he had some repair work to do.”
Harper explained it was Trudeau’s time to go because Canadians became fed up with his far-left policies.
“One of the terrible things about this government has been not just its economic policies, but it’s pursuit of a woke agenda that has really denigrated the country’s culture and history and institutions, and I think Canadians, if anything, they’ve reacted more strongly against that than even the economic results,” Harper said.
And he’s glad that Conservative Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre is ready to form the next government.
“Right now, Pierre is leading by 25 or more points,” he said. “That gap will narrow, of course, but (it) would be a miracle for a new Liberal leader to win (the next election).”
Meanwhile, Harper said he was shocked by Trump’s claim that the U.S. subsidizes Canada to the tune of billions of dollars.
“It is true that Canada presently has a modest trade surplus with the United States,” he said. “The reason … we do is because you buy so much of our oil and gas. In fact, you buy it at a discount to world markets. It’s actually Canada that subsidizes the United States in this regard.”
He suggested maybe Canada should sell its oil and gas to other markets.
Harper also zeroed in on Trump’s assertion that the U.S. also contributes vast amounts of money to Canada’s military defence.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about,” Harper said, explaining there is a shared defence of North America, which is in America’s interests.
“You want Canada to be a neutral country? I just don’t understand that.”
And if Trump threatens to make Canada the 51st state, Harper’s advice to Poilievre if he becomes Canada’s next leader is to take a different approach to our relationship with the U.S.
“I don’t think the American people are hostile to Canada or want to see Canada conquered, or as Mr. Trump said forced economically to join the United States,” he said. “I just don’t think that’s an agenda, but if it is … then Pierre Poilievre – and frankly our entire country – has a lot of thinking to do about where where it goes from there.”