Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is again urging the prime minister to sign a tariff-free trade deal with the United States, following a video by Mark Carney Sunday calling Canada’s former strength, built on its bond with America, a “weakness” that must be corrected. In his own video released on Monday — paralleled with Carney’s address, seeing both leaders sitting in offices and addressing the camera directly — Poilievre took aim at both the prime minister’s domestic and foreign policy. He said Carney has “squandered Canada’s leverage” in negotiations with the United States, despite having promised he’d reach a deal with U.S. President Donald Trump and his administration by last summer. “While I have announced a detailed plan to build our leverage to fight for tariff-free trade, a year after he became prime minister, no one has any idea Mr. Carney’s plan to save the over-two-million Canadian jobs that rely on trade with the U.S.,” Poilievre said. “These workers cannot eat speeches or videos or announcements,” he continued. “Now he claims he’ll replace the U.S. with other countries. So, let me ask you this: how many new trade deals with other countries do you think he has negotiated his year in office? Zero.” Canada and the United States have been in a protracted trade war since Trump slapped a slate of tariffs on Canadian imports last February. While many of them have since been scrapped, steep levies remain on key Canadian sectors, such as steel, aluminum, and autos. In last April’s general election, Carney ran on a promise to be the best person to deal with the U.S., while Trump-proofing the economy. Now, the trilateral trade deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, commonly referred to as CUSMA, is up for review this summer. In his address on Sunday, Carney said: “The U.S. has changed and we must respond,” before launching into his Liberal government’s record, and invoking the “Canada Strong” plan he announced during the 2025 election campaign. Poilievre, in turn, accused Carney of repeating “the same speech that he’s been giving for the last year about the U.S.,” and of trying to “distract from his costly failures by pushing fear.” “He recycled the same promises and reused the same old lines,” Poilievre said, before taking aim at Carney’s record on inflation, tax reform, and housing, among others. “The rhetoric simply does not match the results,” he said. “Illusions are not reality.” With files from CTV News Ottawa bureau chief Graham Richardson
