us and canada relations Canadian Election: Where Do Candidates Stand on US Relations?

[Ana Silva]

US–Canada Relations – Time to Stand Firm or Find Common Ground?
Canadian Politics

As tensions rise with the U.S., especially in the wake of new tariffs and bold rhetoric from Washington, Canadian leaders are drawing battle lines—or building bridges. The question in this election: Do we confront or cooperate with America?

Here’s where the candidates stand:

• Pierre Poilievre (Conservative): "Canada will never be the 51st state of the U.S."

• Mark Carney (Liberal): “Our response to these latest tariffs is to fight, to protect, and to build.”

• Jagmeet Singh (NDP): "Trump’s an economic arsonist. We’ll defend Canadian workers."

• Jonathan Pedneault (Green): “The United States is no longer an ally; they have become a threat.”

• Yves-François Blanchet (Bloc): “We need our own counter-tariffs against American products.”

• Maxime Bernier (PPC): “This relationship is too important to let it collapse. We must repair it.”

Some leaders are advocating for strong retaliation to protect Canadian industry and sovereignty. Others warn against escalating conflict, arguing for a more conciliatory approach to safeguard trade and diplomacy.

Let’s talk about it:

• Should Canada stand up to U.S. protectionism or avoid an all-out trade war?

• Which leader’s vision of US–Canada relations makes the most sense to you?

• Is it time to rethink our reliance on the U.S.—or rebuild the partnership on firmer footing?

Drop your thoughts below. Canadian Election: Where Do Candidates Stand on US Relations?

[SpankyMcFarland]

We need to do both where appropriate and play for time. If the tariffs spike inflation or the rare earth conflict with China leads to a full-blown manufacturing/financial crisis then Trump is probably going to have to be less belligerent with us. There isn’t a huge constituency down there that wants an economic war with Canada esp. if more pressing issues have to be addressed. 

[CdnFox]

13 hours ago, SpankyMcFarland said:

We need to do both where appropriate and play for time. If the tariffs spike inflation or the rare earth conflict with China leads to a full-blown manufacturing/financial crisis then Trump is probably going to have to be less belligerent with us. There isn’t a huge constituency down there that wants an economic war with Canada esp. if more pressing issues have to be addressed. 

Poilievre had the correct answer. We needed to radically and massively increase investment in Canada driven by a large number of major nation building projects.

Carney was smart enough to steal that answer but unfortunately he doesn't know how to make it happen.

He needed to kill the anti Pipeline and anti-tanker bills completely, immediately begin discussions with first nations about how fast tracking would work while still Consulting them in the process, send a clear message to the provinces that these major projects would be happening and it was expected that they would cooperate and then go to industry and say we are open for business, Trudeau and his minions are gone, let's build a Trans Canada Energy Corridor to move our oil gas and electricity.

It's roughly what he campaigned on. But like I said he knew what to say but not how to do.

A thriving Canada could have afforded to put Export tariffs on a number of our key energy exports and also approached other countries with regards to introducing or expanding their auto manufacturing to canada and basically threatened to kick the us car manufacturers out. 

 we could have been doing this from a position of power.  Boycotts have already done a lot of harm and have the states tugging on trump's paintlegs with the midterms coming up, if gas prices were high and electricity expensive and rare earth elements frozen and us auto makers facing loses, and canada NOT crashing and attracting investment, the situation would be very very different