OTTAWA – As Canadians brace themselves for President Donald Trump’s “Liberation Day” of reciprocal tariffs on Wednesday, one political chief in Canada believes it may spark the beginning of a brand new period of Canada-U.S. relations freed from cross-border taxes.
Maxime Bernier, who served as overseas affairs minister in former Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative authorities and now heads the right-wing Folks’s Occasion of Canada (PPC), advised Fox Information Digital in an interview from Halifax that it’s “completely” the time for Canada to take away all tariffs in opposition to the U.S.
He mentioned the 25% duties the Canadian government, beneath then-Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, imposed on the U.S. in early February to counter Trump’s 25% tariffs in opposition to Canada “received’t damage the People – it’s hurting Canadians.”
New Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney mentioned in a assertion following his March 28 name with the president – the primary contact between each leaders since Carney was elected Liberal chief by his celebration almost three weeks earlier than – that Canada would implement retaliatory tariffs in response to Wednesday’s U.S. “commerce actions.”
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President Donald Trump, left, and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. (Getty Photographs)
The PPC chief mentioned that Trump must be advised that “the true reciprocal response” to tariffs is “zero on our aspect, zero in your aspect.”
Bernier mentioned that as a substitute, Carney and his most important rival, Conservative Occasion Chief Pierre Poilievre, are being “faux patriots utilizing a dollar-for-dollar commerce conflict in opposition to Trump” and telling Canadians: “That’s the very best factor to do.”
“We can not impose counter-tariffs,” mentioned Bernier, who additionally served as business minister within the Harper authorities.
“The People are 10 occasions greater than us. We received’t win a commerce conflict,” he mentioned, underscoring that retaliation will result in a recession in Canada.
Former Canadian Conservative politician Tony Clement, who served alongside Bernier in Harper’s Cupboard, advised Fox Information Digital that “from an financial perspective,” eradicating Canadian tariffs “makes lots of sense” and “might come to that sooner or later, however the public isn’t there proper now.”
“From a perspective of the emotional wounds of Canadians created by Trump and his annexation speak and tariffs, I’m unsure {that a} political voice would survive if it went down that public-policy route,” mentioned Clement, a former Canadian business minister within the Harper authorities.
Maxime Bernier, chief of the Folks’s Occasion of Canada, meets along with his supporters at an election rally in Borden Park on Saturday, Sept. 11, 2021 in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto by way of Getty Photographs)
“The temper of the folks is outrage. I’ve by no means seen folks in Canada this incandescently mad at the USA,” he mentioned, who’s campaigning within the Toronto space for Poilievre’s Conservative Occasion forward of the April 28 basic election. “There’s full mistrust of no matter Trump says as a result of it will possibly change inside 24 hours.”
He mentioned that each Poilievre and Carney have highlighted the significance of eradicating “the specter of tariffs for an extended time period – when you can belief Trump to be a bona fide negotiator.”
Eliminating Canadian tariffs, with out a quid professional quo from Trump, may “present weak point to a bully,” added Clement, who, previous to coming into federal politics in 2006, served as a Cupboard minister in former Ontario Premier Mike Harris’ Progressive Conservative authorities.
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Canadians maintain an “Elbows Up” protest in opposition to U.S. tariffs and different insurance policies by U.S. President Donald Trump, at Nathan Phillips Sq. in Toronto on March 22, 2025. (REUTERS/Carlos Osorio)
Within the assertion launched following his latest dialog with Trump, Carney mentioned that each leaders “agreed to start complete negotiations a couple of new financial and safety relationship instantly following the election.”
Conservative strategist Yaroslav Baran, who served as communications chief for Harper’s profitable Conservative 2004 management marketing campaign, and director of conflict room communications for the Harper-led Tories throughout the 2004, 2006 and 2008 federal election campaigns, advised Fox Information Digital that beneath the United States-Mexico-Canada Settlement (USMCA), “commerce in items and companies must be tariff-free” between Canada and the U.S., excluding carveouts on the Canadian aspect for dairy, eggs, poultry and softwood lumber.
Nevertheless, Baran added that he “can’t see the removing of all Canadian tariffs on U.S. merchandise so long as the U.S. has tariffs on Canadian merchandise.”
Autos in line to cross into the USA on the Canada-U.S. border in St-Bernard-de-Lacolle, Quebec, Canada, on Thursday, March 6, 2025. President Donald Trump exempted Canadian items lined by the USMCA from his 25% tariffs, providing main reprieves to the U.S.’ two largest buying and selling companions. (Graham Hughes/Bloomberg by way of Getty Photographs)
Bernier acknowledged that whereas Trump’s tariffs will damage Canadian exporters to the U.S., “the answer is to have a extra productive financial system with actual free-market reforms” in Canada via such measures as reducing company taxes, selling inside commerce and fostering development within the nation’s oil and gasoline business, all of that are featured within the PPC’s election platform that features the institution of a “Division of Authorities Downsizing” to abolish “ideologically motivated packages that promote wokeism,” not in contrast to the Elon Musk-led Division of Authorities Effectivity.
The PPC chief additionally mentioned that Canada must be prepared to “put every little thing on the desk” beneath the USMCA “proper now” and earlier than the trilateral commerce deal is scheduled for a joint evaluation subsequent 12 months.
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In keeping with Bernier, that ought to embrace ending the “cartel” of provide administration that units quotas and costs, and protects Canada’s dairy, poultry and eggs sectors from overseas competitors, which he described as “a communist system” that finds Canadians paying twice the worth of these agricultural merchandise than People do within the U.S., and which additionally imposes duties – starting from 150% to 300% — on U.S. imports of the identical merchandise past limits agreed to however but to be reached beneath the USMCA.
Through the renegotiation of the North American Free Commerce Settlement in 2018 that led to the USMCA, the primary Trump administration sought to have Canada’s provide administration system eradicated.
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