Ottawa, ON – Yesterday at the G20 summit in Johannesburg, Mark Carney was asked when he last spoke to the US President about the tariffs affecting thousands of Canadians – an entirely reasonable question given a trade deal with the US was Carney’s signature electoral promise just months ago. His response to those suffering under the weight of US tariffs Carney has failed to remove? “Who cares? I don’t have a burning issue to speak with the President about right now.”
Instead of standing up to Washington in a moment of “existential crisis” and delivering on his promise to negotiate a “win” and “handle” Donald Trump, Canada’s Prime Minister dismissed and derided thousands of job losses as none of his concern. While Canadian workers face a burning issue every day – keeping the roofs over their heads and food on the table, Mark Carney just couldn’t be bothered.
Automotive workers have borne the heavy burden of Carney’s failures. On October 14, Stellantis announced that 3,000 Canadians jobs will head south to Illinois. A week later, General Motors said they are ending electric van production at CAMI Assembly plant, putting 1,200 out of work at their Ingersoll plant.
Just last month, Quebec truck manufacturer Paccar was forced to lay off 300 workers because of additional American tariffs on commercial trucks, bringing total job cuts to 725 in their Sainte-Thérèse plant. These followed TFT Global laying off 245 workers in Oshawa and Magna cutting 49 jobs in London, among others.
US tariffs tripled on our softwood lumber industry since Mark Carney took office, with sad but predictable results. This summer, 150 workers were laid off by Western Forest Products in BC and 150 more workers from Interfor’s Ontario plants.
Carney not only failed to get a long-awaited deal on softwood lumber. Under his government, the situation has gotten worse across the board. Despite flying over 150,000 kilometres, the equivalent of nearly four times the circumference of the earth, not a single tariff has been reduced or removed. In fact, the only results Mark Carney has delivered for Canada since he took office is more tariffs.
To add insult to injury, the Liberals stubbornly cling to growth-killing policies like the ZEV mandate and industrial carbon tax which add even more pressure on those trying to invest, move and build in the face of unjustified American tariffs.
Carney’s flippant attitude in South Africa matches his results for Canadians. The Prime Minister term has been marked by a series of unilateral concessions without real results in return. If nothing else, the tariffs which put thousands of Canadians out of work should be a “burning issue” for him, and all those entrusted to lead our nation. Conservatives will always fight for Canadian workers. Liberals have made it clear they don’t care – we do.