Ottawa, ON – Today, the Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition and the Conservative Party of Canada, and Shuvaloy Majumdar, Conservative Shadow Minister for Canada-United States Relations, sent the following letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney calling on him to secure the good deal he promised Canadians:

Prime Minister, 

This week, it was reported that your government is preparing to make even more concessions to President Trump in exchange for only partial relief from American tariffs.

Let us be clear right off the top: you told Canadians that ‘no deal is better than a bad deal.’ Yet for the 26,700 manufacturing workers who are out of work this year, the auto workers who have lost shifts from Ingersoll and Oshawa to Brampton and Sainte-Thérèse, or the 15,000 forestry workers out of jobs in BC since 2022, the status quo is a bad deal. 

For the past year and a half, you have backed down to one American demand after another while getting nothing in return, with concession after concession. You dropped the Digital Services Tax and Netflix tax, removed Canada’s retaliatory tariffs and handed the United States half of the net toll revenue from the Gordie Howe International Bridge before Canada has even recovered its construction costs. Worse, you have lost ground with American tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum doubling and broadening and tariffs on lumber tripling. 

Before you concede anything else, Canadians deserve a good deal. That means: 

  • Zero tariffs or duties on our softwood lumber, as Prime Minister Harper secured within 79 days of taking office;
  • An end to sectoral tariffs on steel and aluminum that currently apply to all exports, including almost all products that contain Canadian steel;
  • A tariff-free auto pact, similar to the 1965 Canada–US agreement, where a car from a CUSMA partner can be sold duty-free for every car the same manufacturer produces in Canada, on a dollar-for-dollar basis; and
  • Full exemption to ‘Buy America’ rules on infrastructure projects at all levels of government.

Our message is clear. We want the win and the “good deal” you promised fifteen months ago. No more pursuing policies of a managed decline at home. Our geography is North America. You conceded that your wait-and-see approach failed by reversing course, to now negotiate on terms you did not decide. No more caving. 

Canadians are paying the price of this cost of waiting. Tens of thousands unemployed. A recessionary and flatlining economy, laden with uncertainty, with no major decisions and no objective plan for growth.

Prime Minister, you’ve had the support of Conservatives to build our domestic strength, establish new leverage, and use the leverage Canada still has to secure a tariff-free deal.

For example, we have proposed unblocking our resources and committing to a Strategic Energy and Minerals Reserve that is only available to countries who have agreed to provide tariff-free market access. This would strengthen Canada’s hand by making secure access to our critical minerals a reward for free and fair trade.

We have proposed, all along, policies that would unleash our resources and our industrial base, harden our borders and secure our land, policies that would confront forced-labour products in our markets and the regimes that seek to reorganize the free markets we have built. 

We proposed a plan to actually and objectively strengthen Canadian economic and national security, to negotiate with Washington and the world, a good and comprehensive deal for our people. A country that is strong at home for unbreakable leverage abroad.

Canadians deserve a government that has the backbone to fight for our workers, our families, and every inch of our sovereignty.

Take our plan. Take the credit. Just deliver.