The following is a transcript of the Hon. Pierre Poilievre’s remarks from March, 4th 2025. These remarks have been edited for length. Check against delivery.
At 12:01 am today, President Trump stabbed America’s best friend in the back.
My message to the President is this: Canada will fight back. We will defend our people and our economy, and we will put Canada First.
There is no doubt that our economy will suffer. But so will yours, President Trump. Already Americans are paying higher gas prices. Your workers will soon start losing the jobs they had upgrading Canadian raw materials or selling to Canadian consumers.
And it is only the beginning. Canadians are slow to anger and quick to forgive. But once provoked, we fight back. And we will fight back.
Now, I would like to speak to the millions of Canadians who are anxious today, after learning that President Trump has attacked our economy.
To the auto workers. To the forestry workers. To the steel and aluminum workers. To the mining and energy workers. To the truckers. To the farmers. And to every Canadian worker who got out of bed before the sun rises and does the labour of the nation.
I will fight for you. I will fight for your job, fight for your family, I will fight for your chance at owning and paying off a home, and I will fight for your retirement.
And I will FIGHT to put Canada First.
Before these tariffs came in this morning, you must’ve been saying to yourself that you could not imagine things getting any worse.
Before these tariffs, you were already suffering.
You wondered how you would pay the rising rent or ever buy a home after housing costs have doubled over the last 10 years, rising more in Canada than in any other G7 country.
You’ve downgraded your diet, as food prices rose 37% faster in Canada than in the U.S. over the last 5 years. You might be one of the 2 million people, a record breaking number, already lined up at food banks—a number that had more than doubled before these tariffs even applied.
You likely noticed that your paycheque is not growing fast enough to keep up with the record inflation, after Canada had the worst economic growth in the G7 in the last 10 years.
Maybe you have already started to notice your company moving jobs to the U.S. before the tariffs, as greedy and self-serving CEOs put their share prices ahead of your job and a half-trillion dollars of investment left Canada in the last 10 years.
And now this.
But I am here with a message of hope.
We will overcome this attack on our economy.
And I have a plan to do it.
First, we must retaliate, targeting American goods in the following order:
- Goods we can make ourselves
- Goods we don’t need
- Goods we can get from elsewhere
Second, counter-tariffs must not be a cash cow for the government. Almost every penny of the tariffs collected should go to tax relief, with a sum set aside for targeted relief to workers hit hardest by the trade war. None of the money should go to new government spending and programs. We must not allow politicians to dishonestly use this crisis to go on another debt-fueled, money-printing spending spree that will drive up inflation and further destroy our working class and hit the poorest people the hardest.
Third, we must immediately pass a Bring It Home Tax Cut, lowering taxes on work, investment, energy and homebuilding. This will neutralize the effect of the tariffs and unleash massive investment in making our economy self-reliant. The obvious place to start is by axing the Liberal carbon tax, then axing the sales tax on new homes, then axing the Liberal capital gains tax hike and slashing income tax, so hard work again pays off.
Fourth, we must immediately repeal the Liberal No-Pipelines Law to get projects built. We must greenlight LNG plants, mines, pipelines, and refineries that will bring home jobs and paycheques, make us less reliant on the Americans and help us sell more overseas.
Five, you know what industry Donald Trump doesn’t control in Canada? Homebuilding. Homebuilding is a homegrown industry that creates millions of jobs. Let’s unleash the biggest homebuilding boom ever by immediately removing all red tape and taxes on housing construction so we can bring homes our workers can afford. That will also help our softwood lumber sector that has been under attack by Liberal environmental threats and Joe Biden’s softwood tariffs.
Six, let’s get the provinces together to knock down trade barriers and become one national free market economy, so we can bring home lower prices for Canadians.
Seven, we must secure our borders and rebuild our military to assert our sovereignty and strength in the world.
All these things—axing taxes, building homes & pipelines, fixing the budget, stopping crime—all of these things were great Conservative ideas before the tariffs. They are absolutely necessary now.
But none of these things have happened in the last 100 days since the tariff threats emerged.
But look behind me: Parliament is closed.
So….
The job-killing carbon tax is still in place.
The sales tax on homes is still in place.
The No-Pipelines Law is still in place.
The massive, inflationary deficits are still in place.
Not one law has been changed, not one tax has been cut, not one action has been taken to free us from the grip of Trump and the U.S.
We need a change. And we will get a change.
It will be tough.
But building Canada was tough. But so are Canadians.
We will bring home the country we know and love, and restore its promise.
Canada will be self-reliant, sovereign and stand on its own two feet. We will reward work, unleash entrepreneurs, harvest our resources, make our own goods, trade with each other, build homes for our youth, rebuild our borders and military, honour our history and raise our flag.
What binds us together is the Canadian promise.
That anyone from anywhere can achieve anything—that hard work gets you a great life, in a beautiful house, on a safe street, protected by solid borders and brave troops under our proud flag. To preserve that flag and its promise we must work together, fight together and win together.
That is what it means to put Canada First.
Because our country is worth fighting for. For our people. For our land. For our home. For Canada. Let’s bring it home.