A Conservative government would take a “respectful and firm” approach to dealing with Donald Trump, Pierre Poilievre said on Sunday as he began his first campaign as the party’s leader in an election that’s likely to be dominated by the U.S. president.
Speaking in Gatineau, Que., about an hour before the election was officially called, Poilievre said the Liberals have weakened Canada over nearly 10 years in government.
He said he will insist that Trump respect Canada’s sovereignty and end the tariffs. A fresh set of U.S. tariffs are set to come into effect on April 2, while the campaign is underway.
Poilievre accused the Liberals of driving jobs and investment out of Canada, killing natural resource development projects and weakening Canada’s military and border.
“All of that plays into the hands of President Trump,” he said. “He’s been very blunt that he wants a weak Canada that he can target, and the lost Liberal decade has made our economy weaker and more divided, just like Trump wanted.”
Poilievre has been working to distance himself from the Republicans and Trump, but one of his provincial allies did him no favours with a recent interview in the U.S.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith recently told right-wing outlet Breitbart that she has asked the Trump administration to put tariffs on pause until after the federal election because the trade war is benefiting the Liberals in the polls.
“I would say, on balance, the perspective that Pierre would bring would be very much in sync with, I think where -- the new direction in America,” Smith said in the interview.
Asked about her comments on Sunday, Poilievre avoided directly responding to anything Smith said, but pointed out that Trump recently told Fox News he thought it would be easier to deal with a Liberal.
The Conservatives have seen their double-digit lead in the polls evaporate in recent weeks as Trump and his trade war have become a top issue for voters.
Poilievre has shifted his overall messages as Canadian pride surged in the face of Trump’s repeated threats to annex Canada. He’s putting less emphasis on the notion that “Canada is broken” and striking a more positive tone, vowing to “restore Canada’s promise” -- the notion, he said, that “anyone from anywhere can achieve anything.”
He proposes to do that by lowering taxes, making life more affordable and tackling crime.
Poilievre also repeated his pledge to scrap the so-called carbon tax for good and said he would take steps to boost resource projects and jobs.
“With change, there’s hope,” he said. “So I say to the struggling single mother who worries how she will feed her kids: hope is on the way. To the 35-year-old still living in his mom’s basement but dreaming of owning his own place and starting a family: change is on the way.”
After the news conference, Poilievre made an official campaign launch in his home riding of Carleton, where he’s been an MP since 2004.
He and his wife Anaida and their two children, six-year-old Valentina and three-year-old Cruz, stepped off the campaign bus to greet a crowd of around 200 supporters, staff and volunteers.
The crowd also included a handful of Conservative candidates, whom Poilievre thanked. Among them was Barbara Bal, the candidate in Nepean who recently learned she will be going up against Liberal Leader Mark Carney, who’s trying to win a seat in the House of Commons for the first time.
Bal, who told a fellow supporter she’s not worried about a “David vs. Goliath” matchup, declined an interview.
Jane Castellano and her husband Warren Winter stopped to take photos in front of Poilievre’s bus, which is emblazoned with another of the campaign’s slogans: “Bring it home.”
The couple is volunteering for the Conservatives for a third election and hoping this one turns out differently. It doesn’t sit well with Castellano that the Liberals, with Carney as their new leader, suddenly seem to be borrowing policy from the Tory playbook.
“We’ve been to the rallies and everything that they’re are talking about, they’re copying him -- and he’s been talking about it for years,” she said.
Michael Milsom, a farmer who lives in Poilievre’s riding, said Sunday was his first time at a political event. He’s not happy with the “well-intended, but I think misguided” direction the Liberals have taken the country in over the last decade.
He will vote for Poilievre, he said, but he isn’t certain his MP is going to be the next prime minister after April 28.
“Six weeks ago I would have said yes, hands down,” he said.
“I truly hope they have a few surprises for us, that they run a positive campaign. I think it was a mistake to be all negative. They have their work cut out for them now.”
Poilievre wrapped the day with an evening rally in north Toronto, where an energized crowd cheered the leader, booed his Liberal rival and waved Canadian flags.
Poilievre praised his hundreds of supporters as hard-working, patriotic people and said a decade of Liberal government has driven up costs and crime.
He said things would not change under Carney, calling him Justin Trudeau’s “economic adviser and hand-picked successor.”
“They are the same Liberals, with the same ministers, the same MPs, the same advisers, the same policies and even today, making the same promises they’ve been breaking for over 10 years.”
Calling Canada a “great nation,” Poilievre said a Conservative government would bind it together with “common values and shared aspirations.”
“We will be a nation that builds homes for its youth, makes goods for itself, trades from Canadian to Canadian, that honours its history,” he said.
With files from Rianna Lim in Toronto
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2025.
