Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has penned a scathing letter to the prime minister ahead of his meeting with the U.S. president this week, saying Mark Carney has been a disappointment on the trade file and needs to come back from this trip with some wins for Canada.
In the letter, which was shared with CBC News, Poilievre said Carney promised to “negotiate a win” for Canada and deliver some tariff relief this summer, but that didn’t work out as planned.
Carney and U.S. President Donald Trump blew past a self-imposed Aug. 1 deadline for a deal on the border and fentanyl-related tariffs and the so-called Section 232 tariffs on steel, aluminum, autos and other Canadian products.
Trump has only ramped up the pressure on Canada since then, with new tariffs on lumber and furniture and higher rates for some existing ones — a sign that talks are going in the wrong direction, Poilievre argues.
“U.S. tariffs on Canada are twice as high as when you were elected saying you would get rid of them. You promised ‘elbows up,’ but then caved on dollar-for-dollar counter-tariffs, the Digital Services Tax and more while winning nothing in return for Canada,” Poilievre said.
“No more losing. It is time for you to deliver the promised wins,” he said, while demanding Carney get Trump to lift tariffs off softwood lumber, steel, aluminum and autos and “get rid of Buy American rules that discriminate against Canadian builders” — goals the government is already trying to accomplish.
Carney and a number of cabinet ministers are set to meet with the U.S. president at the White House on Tuesday for what the Prime Minister’s Office describes as a face-to-face “focused on shared priorities in a new economic and security relationship between Canada and the U.S.”
Poilievre said Carney should lean on him and other Conservatives “to help you keep your promise to ‘negotiate a win’ on tariffs with the U.S.” — an apparent reference to his recent offer to meet with U.S. lawmakers and Trump administration officials on Canada’s behalf.
Earlier this year, Poilievre said these trade negotiations are best left to the prime minister of the day.
“I am always happy to help because we all must put Canada ahead of our parties,” Poilievre told Carney.
Poilievre’s letter didn’t say what he would do differently from Carney and his negotiation team to try and secure an agreement with Trump.
How likely is a trade deal as Carney is set to go to Washington?
All of the trade agreements the president has brokered to this point, including those with close allies like the U.K., include some form of tariffs — and the Section 232 tariffs have been applied to all relevant goods coming from every country on Earth.
Carney has argued Canada has a relatively good deal with Trump, given most of the country’s products still trade into the U.S. tariff-free under Canada-U.S.-Mexico Agreement (CUSMA) exemptions — an arrangement that has given Canada one of the lowest effective tariff rates in the world.
“Let’s be absolutely clear: Canada currently has the best trade deal with the United States,” Carney said in August when he moved to lift some of the retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, while keeping those on American steel and aluminum in place.
“While it’s different from what we had before, it is still better than that of any other country.”
And while Poilievre claims Canada is “losing” with Carney, government sources speaking to CBC News and Radio-Canada say they are cautiously optimistic the prime minister can broker some steel tariff relief when he meets with Trump this week.
Laura Dawson, an expert on Canada-U.S. relations and the executive director of the Future Borders Coalition, said it’s unlikely Carney will leave D.C. empty-handed this time around.
She said Carney wouldn’t be going for a second Oval Office meeting in less than six months without the expectation of delivering some progress on the trade file.
“I think this is a time to be optimistic. I see motion in all the right directions,” Dawson said in an interview.
Canada is determined to get the Americans to lift some of the Section 232 tariffs before the CUSMA review process begins next year, she said.
“I think they will have something to announce, and it is going to be something that the president will be broadly supportive of, and he will be glad to have someone of Mark Carney’s stature there with him to announce whatever this is,” she said.
