Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that removing internal trade barriers across Canada would offer more benefits to Canadians than any setbacks caused by U.S. President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war, as he made his pitch to voters during the final debate before the April 28 election.
Carney has committed to establishing free trade between Canada’s 10 provinces and three territories by July 1, aiming to dismantle long-standing interprovincial trade barriers.
"We can give ourselves far more than Donald Trump can ever take away," Carney said. "We can have one economy. That is within our grasp," he added.
He also argued that Canada’s relationship with the U.S. has fundamentally shifted due to Trump’s tariffs.
If reelected, Carney said he would move quickly to begin trade talks with the Trump administration.
"We are facing the biggest crisis of our lifetimes. Donald Trump is trying to fundamentally change the world economy, the trading system, but he’s trying to break us so the U.S. can own us. They want our land, they want our resources, they want our water, they want our country,” Carney said in his closing statement. "I am ready, and I have managed crises over the years. We will fight back with counter-tariffs and we will protect our workers."
Trump’s trade war and threats to make Canada the 51st state have infuriated Canadians and led to a surge in Canadian nationalism that has bolstered Liberal Party poll numbers.
Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is imploring Canadians not to give the Liberals a fourth term. He hopes to make the election a referendum on Justin Trudeau, whose popularity declined toward the end of his decade in power as food and housing prices rose and immigration surged.
But Trump attacked, Trudeau resigned, and Carney, a two-time central banker, became Liberal Party leader and prime minister last month after a party leadership race.
"It may be difficult, Mr. Poilievre, you spent years running against Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax, and they are both gone," Carney said. "I am a very different person than Justin Trudeau."
Public opinion has changed. In a mid-January poll by Nanos, the Liberals trailed the Conservative Party by 47% to 20%. In the latest Nanos poll released Thursday, the Liberals led by 5 percentage points. The January poll had a margin of error of 3.1 points, while the latest poll had a 2.7-point margin.
"We can’t afford a fourth Liberal term of rising housing costs," Poilievre said.
Poilievre accused Carney's Liberals of being hostile toward Canada’s energy sector and pipelines. He accused the Liberals of weakening the economy and vowed that a Conservative government would repeal "anti-energy laws, red tape, and high taxes."
"We need a change, and you, sir, are not a change," Poilievre said in one exchange.
