Beyond threatening tariffs to get what he wants, starting trade wars with allies to make a point to enemies, Donald Trump is about to fundamentally alter the American economy.
His planned changes through deregulation, fast tracking of permits for energy projects — be they oil and gas or electricity — and his push to make America the centre of the artificial intelligence movement all have great promise for the U.S. economy.
We need a new government that will step in a make Canada competitive in this field and the only person making any sense right now is Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.
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In a series of statements and videos posted to social media, Poilievre is laying out a clear path to Canadian prosperity that includes not relying so heavily on the American economy. No matter what we do, the United States will always be our biggest trading partner but through laziness, and bad policy decisions, we have become overly reliant on them — and Poilievre says we can fix that.
In responding to the Trump tariff threats, Poilievre not only said we should retaliate on tariffs dollar for dollar, as most politicians said, he also laid out plans for adjusting our economy going forward.
“We must immediately scrap the Liberal anti-energy laws C-69 and green light job-creating projects now. That includes LNG plants, pipelines, mines, factories, port expansions, so that we can get our products to overseas markets without going through and profiting the United States,” Poilievre said Sunday.
“It was insane for us to block our industries before this crisis. It is a fatal mistake now.”
Poilievre said we shouldn’t be listening to the “special interests, politicians and, worst of all, corporate lobbyists” who profit from shutting Canadian industries. That’s what we have been doing for years, allowing groups — often funded by wealthy American and European foundations — to set policies that have shut down or at least hinder our most important industries, especially in natural resources.
Poilievre also said that we need to fix our trading system inside Canada. Far too often, it is easier to trade across the border than inside our own country.
“We need to knock down interprovincial trade barriers to have truly free trade across our country. We are in this state because we sell twice as much to the Americans as we sell to ourselves,” Poilievre said.
“These interprovincial barriers are destructive. They kill jobs, they drive up consumer prices, and they cost the average family $6,000 a year.”
Unlike other politicians, Poilievre is clearly looking forward and trying to think of what Canada needs to do to be competitive beyond the tariffs. Compare that to Mark Carney, the perceived front-runner in the Liberal leadership race, who wants to make the carbon tax worse.
Last week, Carney said he would scrap the consumer carbon tax but hike it on businesses; he then denied that this would raise prices. So much for being a brilliant economist; of course, it would raise prices that you and I pay.
Even worse, Carney said he wants a carbon tax on imported goods from countries with climate plans that don’t meet his standards. That would include the United States, Mexico and China – Canada’s three largest trading partners – making imports from those countries more expensive.
By comparison, Poilievre wants to make Canada stronger and wealthier.
“We are the second-biggest landmass in the world — 41 million brilliant people. The third-biggest supply of oil. The fifth-biggest supply of natural gas, the biggest supply of uranium and potash. We have the biggest supply of fresh water anywhere on earth. The fifth-biggest supply of farmland. We should be the richest nation on Earth,” Poilievre said.
He’s right, and thankfully someone is thinking about making Canada stronger and wealthier moving forward.