Trump’s stated preference for a Liberal win shows why Canadians should vote Conservative, Poilievre says

Pierre Poilievre says Donald Trump’s stated preference for a Liberal win in the next federal election confirms that the Conservatives are the best option to take on the U.S. President and his aggressive trade policies.

The Conservative Leader was at a campaign-style event in Sudbury, Ont., Wednesday when he was asked about Mr. Trump telling Fox News this week that he thinks it would be easier to deal with Canada if the Liberals were to form the next government.

The timing of the next election has not yet been announced, but it is widely expected to be called within the next few days.

“It’s clear that President Trump wants the Liberals in power because they will keep this country weak,” Mr. Poilievre said, adding that the government has a poor record on housing and the economy.

He also criticized Prime Minister Mark Carney over the fact that Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. moved its headquarters from Toronto to New York last year while Mr. Carney was chair of the company’s board.

Mr. Carney’s team has described the move as technical in nature and said it did not affect the company’s Canadian operations.

Mr. Poilievre accused Mr. Carney of “moving jobs to Trump’s hometown.”

“That’s exactly the kind of weak, compromised, conflicted leadership that Donald Trump wants, and it’s why he endorsed Mark Carney yesterday. What Canadians need, though, is a leader who’s tough and firm and stands by his convictions. A leader who will make Canada strong, self reliant and stand on its own two feet, a leader who will put Canada first,” he said.

In an interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham that was broadcast Tuesday, Mr. Trump was asked whether his policies and rhetoric against Canada risk hurting the Conservative Party and will help the Liberals get re-elected.

“The Liberal Party is going to win now in the next election, most likely, and they were down and out,” Ms. Ingraham said.

“I don’t care,” Mr. Trump replied.

Ms. Ingraham countered that a Liberal win could make Canada “more hostile” to the U.S. and could lead to Canada working more closely with China.

“The Conservative that’s running is stupidly no friend of mine. I don’t know him, but he said negative things. So when he says negative things, I couldn’t care less,” Mr. Trump replied. “I think it’s easier to deal, actually, with a Liberal, and maybe they’re going to win, but I don’t really care. It doesn’t matter to me at all.”

Since Mr. Carney was elected Liberal Party Leader on March 9 and sworn in as Prime Minister on March 14, Mr. Trump had seemed to dial down his comments about making Canada the 51st state. However, he repeated that view in the Fox News interview, saying Canada “pays very little for defence” and doesn’t respect the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade that he signed in his first term.

“USMCA is good, but they cheat. You know, an agreement is good, but they cheat. And Mexico cheats also,” he said, without providing specific examples.

At one point in the interview, Ms. Ingraham challenged Mr. Trump on his stand toward Canada.

“You’re tougher with Canada than you are with some of our biggest adversaries. Why?” she asked.

“Only because it’s meant to be our 51st state,” he said, before repeating some of his past criticisms of former prime minister Justin Trudeau and his team.

Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne told reporters that while he hadn’t heard Mr. Trump’s remarks, he said Canadians are looking for steady leadership during a time of national crisis.

“The American President is known for having opinions on many subjects,” he said on his way into a meeting of the cabinet committee on Canada-U.S. relations on Parliament Hill. “What we need now is seasoned, serious people at the helm of this country.”

Mr. Trump’s comments are at odds with past comments from his close ally, tech billionaire Elon Musk, who is leading the President’s efforts to cut government spending.

In a December post on X, the social media platform Mr. Musk owns, he said he agreed “100″ per cent with U.S. billionaire investor Bill Ackman, who said in a post that Mr. Poilievre “is extremely impressive. He should be Canada’s next leader. The sooner the better.” Mr. Musk, who has Canadian citizenship through his mother and attended Queen’s University in Kingston, has also praised some of the Conservative Leader’s videos.

Mr. Poilievre did not distance himself from Mr. Musk when he was asked in January, prior to the escalation of trade tensions with the United States, whether he accepts Mr. Musk’s endorsement.

“The fact is that it’d be nice if we could convince Mr. Musk to open some factories here in Canada,” he said.

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has accused Mr. Musk of interfering in Canadian democracy. More than 375,000 people have signed an NDP petition calling on the Prime Minister to revoke Mr. Musk’s Canadian citizenship.