Poilievre visits New York to pitch closer Canada-U.S. ties

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre told an American TV audience Thursday that Canadians are united in their mission to fight U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs.

In an interview with CNBC, Poilievre pitched a stronger North America and said he wants Canada and the U.S. to work together to confront rivals abroad.

“America has legitimate grievances with other countries around the world, and those rivals and risks are slowly mounting,” he said.

CNBC’s hosts asked Poilievre if he believes Prime Minister Mark Carney was “acting in good faith” in the latest round of trade negotiations, which ended on Aug. 22 when Canada walked away from the table.

Since then, Trump and several top administration officials have claimed Canada introduced last-minute demands that made a deal impossible in the hours before a deadline imposed by the president.

Carney told Canadians that his negotiators were “not prepared to compromise Canada’s sovereignty or undermine our key industries.”

Poilievre calls for more transparency from Carney ahead of countertariffs

Poilievre told CNBC he would not “attack my prime minister on foreign soil.” When pressed to allocate blame for the breakdown in talks, he pointed out that America hit Canada with tariffs first “and everything escalated thereafter.”

“My mission here is to fight for my country, not to score political points domestically,” he said.

Returning to a message he first brought to an American audience in March, when he visited Texas and New York, Poilievre said he believes the long-standing friendships between Canadians and Americans are the strongest tool for ending the trade dispute.

When asked how Canadians are feeling about the escalating tariffs, the Tory leader said, “We feel a little bit wounded. We’re kind of confused as to how it is, suddenly, that Canada ended up in the crosshairs.”

“We could build an incredible North American fortress with the resources that we have on this continent, but it’s going to take a collaborative, positive relationship to do it,” he said.

Poilievre’s positive-sounding message about the Liberal government’s handling of the trade file came on the same day that some members of his caucus were sharing very different takes on social media.

“Mark Carney killed the deal for political gain. Then he lied about it,” Conservative MP Roman Baber posted on X Thursday.

Jamil Jivani, who has twice travelled to Washington, D.C., to meet with top Trump administration officials – including his longtime friend, Vice-President JD Vance – also weighed in with a video posted on social media.

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In it, Jivani said the Liberal government is “exploiting a crisis for its political benefit, to act like it’s above accountability and scrutiny,” and claimed it did the same thing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“And you have people who should be offering an alternative to the Liberals instead going out there to appease people in positions of power,” he said.

Jivani argued that “we have 11 years of evidence that Liberal policies are failing Canada.”

A press release from the Conservative party about the stateside trip said Poilievre would meet with business representatives, “but his main audience is the American people, to whom he will appeal for free trade and co-operation.”

The party said he planned also to honour the victims of the 9/11 attacks and highlight the contributions Canadians and Americans made together in the aftermath.

A spokesperson for Poilievre’s office said he will visit the 9/11 memorial museum Thursday evening. He is not attending the official commemoration ceremony in New York City on Friday, which is not open to the public.