Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the Prime Minister to release details of the failed trade deal with the United States and reconvene parliament. “We need to see the deal that we rejected. Canadians have not seen it,” said Pierre Poilievre in Windsor, Monday. Poilievre said he reached out to the Prime Minister Mark Carney, but has not directly spoken with him. “We’ve called for the Prime Minister to release the text, reopen Parliament and tell Canadians what his plan will cost them and higher prices and job losses so that we can make a real judgment about where we go from here.” Poilievre said he would have negotiated differently with the U.S. Administration by proposing the 1965 Canada-United States Automotive Products Agreement, also known as the Auto Pact, a historic bilateral trade agreement that eliminated tariffs on cars, trucks, and automotive parts moving between Canada and the United States. “It would have required automakers to make one car in Canada for every car they sell in Canada, but likewise do the same in the US,” he detailed. “That would have led to the doubling of auto production for both our countries, which is precisely what the President claims he wanted.” Poilievre agreed the federal and provincial governments need to continue a united front. “The Canadian people have suffered enough. And we have to come together support the families who are facing the growing challenges of this escalating trade dispute.” Suspended trade talks Carney suspended trade talks with the United States on Friday after accusing the U.S. administration of introducing measures in the final hours of negotiations that restricted Canada’s ability to do deals with other countries. At a news conference Saturday, Carney told reporters the U.S. had also added terms near the end of negotiations that restricted Canada’s protections of language and culture. He also said the U.S. offered to lower tariffs on autos in exchange for other concessions, but said the offer didn’t include medium and heavy trucks. In an interview with the New York Times on Saturday, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said the Americans offered, in part, to cut the 10 per cent tariffs on softwood lumber, and lower steel and aluminum tariffs from 50 to 25 per cent. Greer also told the paper the U.S. offered to suspend the additional 50 per cent tariffs that U.S. President Donald Trump had threatened a month ago, paused earlier this week, and then ultimately enforced Saturday once talks fell apart. Spokespeople for both the prime minister and LeBlanc’s offices declined to comment on Greer’s claims, deferring instead to Carney’s remarks to reporters from Saturday. In a post on his Truth Social account, Trump returned to mocking Canada as another U.S. state, saying “Canada wants the benefits of being a state, without being one.” With files from The Canadian Press
