Poilievre vows to retaliate against U.S. tariffs, roll back capital gains tax increase

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre will soon lay out his own strategy to confront U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to Canada as part of a broader economic agenda that, if he becomes prime minister, will include a promise to roll back the capital-gains tax increase.

 

Mr. Poilievre told The Globe and Mail in an interview that he believes Canada must respond with tariffs of its own to counter Mr. Trump’s promise that he’ll levy 25-per-cent tariffs on Canadian goods.

 

“The Canadian government must retaliate with highly targeted tariffs against American goods coming into Canada. That I can say right now,” he said.

 

A meeting involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial leaders ended Wednesday with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith refusing to sign off on a joint statement on Canada’s response plan. She blamed Ottawa’s unwillingness to rule out export levies or restrictions on energy exports as part of possible retaliatory measures.

 

The premiers are also calling on Ottawa to prepare a bailout package for affected sectors.

When asked for his thoughts on both issues, Mr. Poilievre said he had no specific announcements to make – yet.

 

“Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll be laying out more of my agenda and my strategy to confront President Trump’s unjust threat against the Canadian economy,” he said.

 

But, he told The Globe that he made the decision to announce his promise to rollback the capital gains tax increase this week because of Mr. Trump’s manoeuvring.

 

Then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland announced changes to the capital-gains tax regime in the past federal budget, raising the portion of gains subject to income tax.

 

She framed the move as an effort at generational fairness, but it met with pushback from small businesses and entrepreneurs who said it unfairly punished them.

 

The opposition Conservatives voted against the increase, but Mr. Poilievre had yet to say directly that he would repeal it.

 

Mr. Poilievre said he was concerned that if investors didn’t know for certain that the tax increase would be cancelled should he form government, Canada could lose billions of dollars in investments.

 

“With President Trump potentially imposing tariffs within weeks, that is absolutely unacceptable and reckless,” he said.

 

“So I wanted to signal to the market now that they should not pull the money out of Canada.”

 

Polls currently suggest Mr. Poilievre’s Conservatives will form government in the next election.

 

While that’s not scheduled until October, 2025. Mr. Trudeau’s decision to prorogue Parliament and announce that he’ll resign as leader upon the election of his replacement, however, has sped up the likelihood Canadians will go to the polls as early as this spring.

 

Ms. Freeland is expected to be among the leadership contenders. The Globe has previously reported that she may renounce the capital-gains changes as part of her efforts to distinguish herself from Mr. Trudeau. She quit as finance minister on Dec. 16.

Mr. Poilievre said he also waited to announce that he would commit to a rollback because he wanted to cost out the implications of doing that against the new measures he wants to promise to Canadians.

 

The Parliamentary Budget Officer has estimated that the changes would bring in about $17.4-billion over five years for government – money the Liberals and provincial governments were counting on. However, the legislation required to make the changes died when Mr. Trudeau prorogued Parliament, creating uncertainty as to whether the move – which the Canada Revenue Agency is already implementing – is in fact going to go ahead.

 

Mr. Poilievre said that he intends to put forward a costed platform in the next election, and will not promise any new measures that will increase the deficit, currently pegged at $61.9-billion for the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2024.

 

“So I wasn’t about to make a commitment until I was sure that I had a costed plan to bring down the deficit while eliminating this tax increase, and I have now done that homework,” he said.

 

Mr. Poilievre said he’ll be cutting back what he called “corporate welfare” to make sure reversing the tax hike doesn’t add to the deficit.

 

 

 

 

This article was first reported by The Globe and Mail