(LifeSiteNews) – People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier said Canada cannot “win” in a trade war with the United States and urged Canadian officials to try to renegotiate a deal rather than enact “silly retaliatory tariffs.”
“Is it that difficult to understand? WE’RE NOT GOING TO WIN A TRADE WAR WITH THE US!” Bernier wrote on X last week.
“We’re hurting our own economy ten times more than theirs with these silly retaliatory tariffs and giving Trump just another pretext to escalate the dispute.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has routinely cited Canada’s lack of action on drug trafficking and border security as the main reasons for his punishing tariffs.
A little over a week ago, Trump announced he was giving Mexico and Canada a 30-day reprieve on 25 percent export tariffs for goods covered by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on free trade.
However, Ontario Premier Doug Ford, despite the reprieve from Trump, later threatened to impose a 25 percent electricity surcharge on three American states. Ford quickly stopped his planned electricity surcharge after Trump threatened a sharp increase on Canadian steel and aluminum in response to his threats.
Bernier said that Canadian officials need to stop “all forms of retaliation” and instead take Trump at his “word and tell him we accept his idea of having reciprocal tariffs, and that the best situation for both countries is therefore to lower all tariffs.”
“We should tell him that we’re willing to put dairy supply management on the table and get rid of the sky-high tariffs that protect this unfair system. We should tell him that we are open to lower or eliminate any other tariffs in the context of reciprocity,” he noted.
Bernier also said it is important for Canada as well as the U.S. to sit down and reopen the North American Free Trade Agreement and “have a wide-ranging discussion over all these issues.”
“That is how to disarm the situation and find our way to a deal,” he added.
Immediately after Trump said he would impose tariffs on Canada, all of the country’s premiers, including Danielle Smith of Alberta, announced that U.S. alcohol would be banned from liquor stores. Ford went as far as ordering all the alcohol cleared from shelves.
Bernier mentioned one of the “key reasons” he supported the election of Trump was that he “has been opposed to these pointless and costly foreign wars and has promised to quickly end the U.S. proxy war with Russia in Ukraine,” unlike Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre.
It is not yet known how new Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will deal with Trump’s tariff threats, but he’s not expected to make waves as a general election
