Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to show some “backbone” as trade negotiations ramp up with the United States.
In a letter to Carney shared with reporters, Poilievre and his Canada-U.S. relations critic Shuvaloy Majumdar said that Ottawa has given in to several of Trump’s demands in the last year.
The pair cited scrapping the digital service tax, removing Canada’s counter-tariffs and cutting the United States into a deal to share net toll revenue from the recently opened Gordie Howe International Bridge.
Poilievre and Majumdar argued against Carney’s previous claim that no deal is better than a bad deal by pointing to job losses in manufacturing-heavy Canadian cities that rely on cross-border supply chains.
“Canadians deserve a government that has the backbone to fight for our workers, our families, and every inch of our sovereignty,” they said in the letter.
A new round of 50 per cent U.S. tariffs on a range of Canadian goods is set to take effect on Aug. 19. Trade talks between the nations have intensified ahead of that deadline.
The Opposition Conservatives laid out a series of items in Sunday’s letter they want to see in a renegotiated trade pact with the United States, such as an end to U.S. tariffs on lumber, steel and aluminum and a Canadian exemption to “Buy America” rules for infrastructure projects.
Poilievre and Majumdar also call for an auto pact reminiscent of the 1965 agreement between Canada and the United States that would allow a car to be sold duty-free in Canada for every vehicle the same manufacturer produces north of the border.
The Conservatives reiterated their call to strengthen Canada’s negotiating position with the creation of a strategic reserve of critical minerals, which would be open to countries that provide tariff-free access to their own markets.
Canada and Mexico both indicated last month that they want to see CUSMA, the trilateral North American trade pact, extended for another 16-year term. The United States instead opted to let the agreement move to rolling annual reviews.
The United States has cited the supply management system that protects Canadian dairy as a key trade irritant, and U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly complained about the level of U.S. dairy farmers’ access to Canada’s market.
Carney said Thursday his government is loyal to the supply management system as Dairy Farmers of Canada urged the government not to offer concessions regarding its industry in trade talks.
The dairy group has also said Canada has already made several concessions, only to be met each time with fresh demands.
The Conservatives also argued the time for concessions is over.
“Before you concede anything else, Canadians deserve a good deal,” Poilievre and Majumdar wrote.
