Where’s The Plan?

November 26, 2024
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Ottawa, ON – The United States is the greatest economic and military superpower in the history of the world, and they are our neighbour. The US is responsible for $1.2 trillion of our trade. We trade almost twice as much with the Americans as we trade with the rest of the world. Combined trade with the US is 40% of our economy.  

Yesterday, President Trump made an unjustified threat of a 25 percent tariff on Canada’s already weak and shrinking economy. Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland were surprised, even though President Trump had been talking about it for years on the campaign trail. Just a few days ago, Freeland said Canada will be fine. Apparently, neither she nor Trudeau were following what the incoming president was saying. And now, we must be honest about our unprecedented weakness.

After nine years of Trudeau, our GDP per capita is smaller than it was when he took office. We have the most indebted households. We’ve had the worst housing inflation. Food prices have risen 37 percent faster in Canada than in the United States. Our economy is teetering on the brink of collapse. And now we face this renewed threat.

Canadians need a plan. To start with, Pierre Poilievre is calling on Trudeau to put partisanship aside, and in the spirit of Team Canada, to accept that he cannot go ahead with quadrupling the carbon tax to 61 cents a litre. This was an irresponsible policy to begin with, but combining this crippling tax increase with potential tariffs from Donald Trump would push our economy into a tailspin.

Secondly, Trudeau has to cancel his energy cap, which would see Alberta and Saskatchewan produce 35 percent less energy at a time when we need those jobs. The incoming American President says he wants to cut gas prices in half and the only way to do it will be to import more clean Canadian energy.

About a week ago, Justin Trudeau admitted that he broke our immigration system. His own published documents show there are 4.9 million visas and permits issued to people here temporarily who are supposed to leave by December of next year. We asked what the plan was to track their departures, and yesterday his Immigration Minister said he’s just going to take people at their word. He also admitted that two ISIS terrorists were allowed into our country.

Justin Trudeau has also demolished our military with poor decisions, botched procurements and wasted money. One thing he could do today is announce that his planned billion dollar cut to the military is canceled, and then present a real plan to reallocate money away from lower priorities towards rebuilding our military and reinforcing our military security over North America.

Finally, Conservatives don’t want to stop drug overdoses to please Donald Trump. Conservatives want to stop drug overdoses so that there’s not one more mother with her face buried in a pillow sobbing that she just lost her kid after 47,000 other Canadians have died. That’s more than we lost in the Second World War, and it represents a 200 percent annual increase in drug overdose deaths after Justin Trudeau’s radical liberalization of drugs.

Justin Trudeau must put partisanship aside, not just for the sake of Team Canada, but for the sake of our people and fully reverse his liberalization of drugs by banning them and prosecuting those who traffic in them. He must secure our borders against the illegal importation of fentanyl. That is necessary now more than ever.

President Trump has the right to put his workers and his nation’s security first. Pierre Poilievre will also put Canada’s workers and Canada’s security first. Canadians need a Prime Minister with the brains and the backbone to stand up for this country. A Prime Minister that will rebuild our security, our military, and our economy. Let’s bring it home.