Juno News - Poilievre takes tariff-free trade pitch straight to Americans

00:00:00.000 Conservative Party leader Pierre Polyev is in New York City doing the media circuit calling for

00:00:10.460 tariff-free trade between Canada and the United States. Polyev appeared on CNBC. This follows the

00:00:17.280 Trump administration's decision to slap a 50% tariff on about $27 billion worth of Canadian

00:00:24.420 goods including wine and dairy all you have also spoke about what canada needs to do to unlock

00:00:32.020 its economic potential let's listen we we can be the richest country in the world we have the

00:00:36.740 longest oceanic close line we're fourth in oil reserves fifth as a natural gas producer third

00:00:42.340 in uranium first in potash uh we have the fifth biggest supply of farmland anywhere in the world

00:00:48.420 per capita what we need to do is unleash free enterprise uh by cutting taxes on work

00:00:53.700 investment, home building and investment. We need also to have the fastest permits anywhere in the

00:01:00.580 world, open up more competition. I've proposed getting rid of capital gains tax whenever

00:01:06.640 an investor rolls over their investment back into Canada. These are all things that I'm talking with

00:01:12.220 our prime minister about. And I know that his mission is also to bring back investment to the

00:01:17.740 country so uh we can and be and i believe will be the richest country anywhere on earth and one of

00:01:23.980 the ways that that can happen to the benefit of both of our separate countries is if we get back

00:01:29.300 to tariff free trade i mean if we believe in free markets then we have to believe in free trade you

00:01:33.680 agree with that i respect you for not saying we have our opposition party goes abroad trash as

00:01:38.520 trump on a daily basis but it's nice that you actually have a little bit of class paul you

00:01:43.880 also told CNBC that tariff-free trade benefits workers on both sides of the border. He'll be

00:01:49.100 attending 9-11 ceremonies while in New York City. Our guest today is political strategist and

00:01:54.140 communications expert, Georgian Burke. Thank you. Nice to see you, Mark. Nice to see you as well.

00:01:58.940 Let's listen to one more clip where Pierre Paulyab is speaking to the panel at CNBC. Let's listen.

00:02:05.780 Well, look, let's be honest. The administration hit us with tariffs first and everything escalated

00:02:11.400 thereafter. And my mission here is to fight for my country, not to score political points

00:02:18.460 domestically. Politics ends at the border. And what I think we need to do now is leverage the

00:02:26.020 single biggest asset Canada has in the U.S., which is our friendship with the American people

00:02:30.540 who overwhelmingly love Canada. And my message to them is we can save money and jobs for both

00:02:36.380 our people, if we get back to two-way tariff-free trade, that will bring down the cost of living

00:02:41.640 for Americans. It will grow paychecks on both sides of the border. So let's knock down those

00:02:46.740 tariffs and focus on building a stronger North America. I think the media in Canada has largely

00:02:51.700 ignored the fact that Polyev is down there. Now, if he had taken a shot at Carney, then they would

00:02:56.540 have jumped up and down, but they didn't. My question to you is why now? Why is Pierre Polyev

00:03:01.940 the united states at this particular time well i would say um you know he has to do something to

00:03:10.580 bring the discussion back to something that resembles a rational discussion i believe that

00:03:17.460 his position has always been what he said the problem is i and i can't explain this why he's

00:03:23.540 felt constrained to be so quiet about it but i am guessing that now with uh polling and i'm not

00:03:30.580 not talking about political polling, I'm talking about opinion polling of Canadians being so

00:03:34.020 anti-American. It's very worrisome for the long run because those numbers get back to the people

00:03:39.540 in the Trump administration, in the government, in Congress, who are gobsmacked seeing these numbers

00:03:45.280 saying, since when do Canadians hate us? We don't feel that way about them. So he's got to go there

00:03:50.420 and talk about that friendship, that long friendship, try to repair the damage that's been

00:03:54.920 done, frankly, by the liberals, frankly, by Mark Carney and his group who have gone around bad

00:04:00.960 mouthing the president of the United States, by extension, the American people, bad mouthing his

00:04:06.640 own opposition leader publicly, no matter what border he's on or at, crossed or whatever. So

00:04:14.080 he actually has to do this. And maybe some will say, and it's probably true that he's also got

00:04:20.200 to do it because, frankly, he's having some problems in his own party. There's a lot of

00:04:25.180 controversy now. There are people that are upset. There are people saying, you know, we're not

00:04:30.060 getting anywhere. We can't win another election like this. So maybe that's part of his calculus,

00:04:35.740 although I don't know how talking to the American people will get him votes, so I'm not sure that's

00:04:40.160 really the main impetus behind it. That's interesting. So you think that his trip to the

00:04:46.760 United States is largely an attempt to shore up support from his own party.

00:04:52.540 Did I hear you correct?

00:04:53.620 No, no, that's not what I said.

00:04:54.900 I said the opposite.

00:04:55.680 I said it might be a factor, but I don't actually think that it's the real factor

00:04:59.980 because you don't go to the United States, go on CNBC, he'll be on Fox Business this

00:05:05.560 afternoon.

00:05:06.900 You don't go there to do that, especially when the media is not going to report these

00:05:12.600 stories.

00:05:13.000 They just noticed today, I think it was CTV, just, oh, look, he's in the United States.

00:05:18.560 He's in New York City doing media.

00:05:21.000 And he had already done media.

00:05:22.700 And they actually showed the media that he had already done it.

00:05:26.020 It's like they didn't know it was happening.

00:05:28.080 The fact is that they're not going to report on it.

00:05:29.920 Canadians will not hear about it.

00:05:31.440 He's actually talking to the American people on this.

00:05:35.220 He wants them to know that Canadians, at least on the opposition side, would like to see a deal.

00:05:41.400 They would like to see free trade restored between the two countries.

00:05:45.520 They would like to see tariff-free.

00:05:46.660 He wants to see tariff-free trade.

00:05:48.240 I understand that.

00:05:49.420 Donald Trump may disagree with that, that he's not totally interested in a completely

00:05:53.140 tariff-free trade, but there's a way to get a deal that is tolerable for everybody that

00:05:58.440 will restore some civility between the two countries and allow businesses to know how

00:06:04.160 to plan.

00:06:04.660 The biggest problem our businesses have right now is uncertainty, which is why 42% of them

00:06:10.880 are making plans to leave the country yeah a lot of them have already left the that's right

00:06:16.080 somewhere around 10 000 a month yep which is uh horrific and these are younger people

00:06:21.980 yeah my age they're like uh not my age either i know my two sons moved moved away from canada

00:06:29.280 my two daughters moved away from canada and i have one son left who's looking to leave and i mean

00:06:35.060 it's very sad but they just feel that there's no future there okay so the media is going to look

00:06:40.580 at this possibly, I mean, if they're looking for any opportunity to attack Pierre Polyev,

00:06:45.740 they're going to say he's kowtowing to the Americans, that he's down there at a time when

00:06:51.280 we've got our elbows up. He's going down there, appearing to want to bridge the gap. And it's

00:06:57.520 running counter to the narrative that we're seeing from certain politicians in Canada,

00:07:02.760 whether it's Carney or Doug Ford or Wob Canoe. These people want to shake their fist at Trump

00:07:08.360 and go dollar for dollar and all this stuff so you know is it possible that he'll be seen as

00:07:14.020 basically swimming upstream in terms of the messaging that the americans are getting from

00:07:18.960 canada well he'll he that's how it will be portrayed in our media uh you can be sure of

00:07:25.880 that uh however um if anybody i'm sure he's going to take those clips and they're going to be

00:07:31.900 circulated through his social media channels. And, you know, some of us have already used the

00:07:38.140 Joe Kernan, Joe Kernan, is that his name? Yeah, sorry, Joe Dernan. We've already circulated his

00:07:45.740 clip. And we'll continue to do it because I really want Canadians to hear what the others,

00:07:51.100 what our opposition leader is saying, and maybe make a compare and contrast between

00:07:55.900 what the prime minister is saying and how he is talking about this situation in the U.S.

00:08:02.860 I don't think that there is anything there that is contrary to what Canadians should want.

00:08:09.020 The question will be whether or not they listen to it and they say, oh, well, you know, maybe we

00:08:14.300 should be thinking like this. He didn't praise Donald Trump. He didn't attack Donald Trump. He

00:08:19.820 He talked about Canadian businesses and American businesses, Canadian citizens and American citizens.

00:08:26.300 They're the people that are being directly hurt by this.

00:08:28.940 It isn't these politicians who aren't going to be hurt by whatever they do.

00:08:31.760 They're all going to be just fine.

00:08:34.020 It's regular people who are the ones that he's concerned about.

00:08:37.040 And I hope he's getting that point across and Americans are consuming it.

00:08:40.500 A lot of Americans do watch these particular shows that are business-focused people,

00:08:46.200 and it doesn't hurt to have him there.

00:08:47.500 and i assure you the administration will be very well aware of what he says which is my next

00:08:53.020 question because there is no real relationship i mean polyev is a non-factor as far as this

00:09:01.020 administration goes i think there was a shot taken at polyev from uh trump i want to say a couple of

00:09:08.780 years back yes um and that came and went you know uh is it possible that now with polyev down there

00:09:18.860 it's going down to 9 11 is the uh ceremony that's going to be held that maybe his profile will be

00:09:25.100 elevated in the trump administration that they'll see him as maybe a guy that they can deal with

00:09:29.900 more so than the the current administration well i hope they do because that would be actually

00:09:36.060 factual that that uh he is more interested in seeing what's good for the canadian business

00:09:41.980 world and canadian citizen than making political points and i think he said that that was his

00:09:48.380 very carefully curated slap at mark carney without mentioning his name because everyone knows that

00:09:54.860 what carney did every time he went there and every time he talks about this is all political all the

00:09:59.980 time. Pierre actually would like to see this agreement reached because he understands that

00:10:07.520 without it, there's a big problem. Someone sent me a piece of information this morning that I

00:10:13.780 wasn't completely aware of. I kind of knew it, but now I know it. 85% of the products that are

00:10:19.360 made in the United States are purchased by whom? Americans. 85%. So to say that Canada is the U.S.'s

00:10:27.800 largest trading partner? No, Americans are the U.S.'s largest trading partner. Canada buys,

00:10:34.220 you know, whatever they buy, a percentage of that last 15%. And there's other countries that are

00:10:38.900 obviously trading with the United States, but Americans are their own best customers. Canadians,

00:10:44.140 I don't know if they can actually say that, right? They're struggling to sell their products in the

00:10:48.740 country. And they can't even trade across borders within their own country without restrictions and

00:10:54.380 and and barriers so this is a canadian problem this is something that canada has to deal with

00:11:00.940 and they need to stop putting false information out there about whether the united states really

00:11:05.840 needs canada or not if 85 of what they produce is already bought within the united states and

00:11:11.200 the other 15 is split between everybody else in the world well okay maybe maybe canada needs to

00:11:17.120 get a reality check on this gretchen whitmer the governor of michigan came out i showed you that

00:11:23.520 clip but he wants an end to the Enbridge pipeline what we call line five going through her state

00:11:30.700 through Mackinac saying that it's a ticking time bomb 73 year old pipeline that is a disaster

00:11:38.700 waiting to happen we've heard precious little from our media I mean anytime Trump says anything

00:11:44.280 they jump all over him and the administration and say you know the end of the world he's

00:11:49.120 a terrible guy but i mean this is a critical piece of infrastructure shipping energy to ontario

00:11:57.760 um what do you make of this uh i make of this that she's run that she's no longer the governor

00:12:04.560 she's not running she can say whatever she wants and she is showing what she actually is i don't

00:12:10.240 know why anybody ever thought that she was a moderate this is a person who doesn't who would

00:12:17.600 put this nonsense about leaking oil into their water. I mean, I don't know. I've never heard

00:12:23.340 this before. If it's true, well, okay, go to Enbridge and say, clean it up. Okay. But this

00:12:30.780 is a new thing to me. I mean, like, why didn't she talk about it when she was governor? All of a

00:12:34.280 sudden now she's talking about it. I don't believe her. Okay. I don't believe her at all. She would

00:12:39.780 have to prove to me that that was the case. And if she says that Enbridge isn't responding to her,

00:12:44.800 well okay that's nonsense you mean the governor the governor current governor she's not yet

00:12:50.040 former governor current governor of michigan calls you mr president ceo of of embridge and

00:12:56.420 you don't respond that's nonsense i'm sure it would never happen so she is like most of the

00:13:02.920 left wing democrats a pathological liar and she's making this up um maybe to try to boost

00:13:11.100 the Democrat that's running, to give them an issue to run on. The guy that's running against

00:13:16.680 that candidate, his name is John James, great guy, former Congress, or currently a congressman,

00:13:22.800 running for this governorship. A great guy, smart guy, conservative Republican. And also he's doing

00:13:31.500 very well against her, very, very well against the candidate that's running in her place.

00:13:36.280 and uh you know maybe they're worried so maybe they're trying to throw us a spinner into this

00:13:41.640 uh governor's race otherwise i can't see any reason for her to do this well it would strike

00:13:46.500 me that the messaging would be at cross purposes i mean you've got democrats in michigan for

00:13:50.680 instance sympathetic to canada saying you know why are we doing these tariffs against our friends

00:13:55.600 to the north and then to have something like this come along and saying that pipeline

00:13:59.960 is leaking oil. I didn't say she was smart. I never said that. She must think that this has

00:14:07.460 some value. Somebody must have told her it's got some value. But the fact is that it is dumb

00:14:12.840 because so many people in Michigan have lives that depend on their relationship with Canada

00:14:19.340 and the US. I mean, like they work very closely together in so many industries. So are we going

00:14:23.420 to throw something else into the mix that's going to make it even worse? They might look at her and

00:14:27.200 say, could you sit down and shut up? I mean, maybe they will. I don't know what Michiganders

00:14:31.460 are thinking, but if I was there, I would be like, shh, quiet, stop talking, right?

00:14:36.200 Yeah. Well, Doug Ford has stopped talking. I mean, this guy's never shy about blasting Trump

00:14:41.320 every chance he gets. But when it comes to Whitmer potentially trying to shut down this

00:14:46.520 critical piece of infrastructure, he says nothing. I mean, does this strike you as odd?

00:14:53.880 Yes, it does. Well, maybe odd. Maybe it's on brand for him. I don't know. The truth is that if he actually was so concerned about this, he's brought this line five up before, by the way, but from a different perspective, right?

00:15:09.400 Maybe now he's kind of thinking, I probably shouldn't have said anything because now I've

00:15:14.700 opened Pandora's box on this. Hopefully he'll continue to remain silent. He's honestly better

00:15:21.760 off saying nothing. Even if he was to say, oh, she's wrong, I don't know that that would be

00:15:26.320 helpful because his credibility in the United States is next to zero. I don't know if he

00:15:31.360 understands that. Certainly the administration hears anything he says, they immediately tune

00:15:35.520 him out um you know he did that to himself getting back to palya for a minute should he attempt

00:15:42.240 or send feeders that maybe already has uh to meet with trump should he attempt to have some kind of

00:15:49.320 contact with the president um so i'm kind of a purist on this stuff as you know mark uh he's

00:15:56.340 the opposition leader and i'm not sure that it's totally appropriate for him to meet directly and

00:16:01.600 publicly with Trump. There are people in the administration he can talk to. There's nothing

00:16:06.660 that says he couldn't talk to the Commerce Secretary. There's nothing that says he couldn't

00:16:09.460 talk to the Trade Rep. There's nothing that says he can't talk to the Treasury Secretary.

00:16:14.120 There's nothing that says he can't talk to the leadership in Congress, which, you know,

00:16:18.720 is very important. And there are people that Trump listens to, and they're an equal arm of

00:16:23.280 the government to the executive branch. And if he had a back-channel conversation with Trump,

00:16:28.760 I wouldn't be opposed to that. I just don't think that it's, I think everybody needs to know what

00:16:34.760 their lane is. Unfortunately for him, his lane is not the prime minister of Canada. Maybe

00:16:39.960 unfortunately, in fact, for Canada, that's the case. So I don't think we'd be in this mess right

00:16:44.140 now because he is a person who values trade. He's, I don't think he's a jingoistic Canadian,

00:16:51.260 which is what kind of seeing now this crazy anti, they think it's pro-Canadian, but it's

00:16:56.480 actually only anti-American behavior. So I think that it would be different, but he's not in that

00:17:03.160 position right now. So he has to be careful. It does not mean that he could not get a message

00:17:07.960 to Trump, as I said, maybe in a back channel privately, but certainly there are many people

00:17:13.960 that he can talk to, many, who will be able to directly take his message from out of his mouth

00:17:19.780 to the president's ear. There is not a question about that.

00:17:22.840 it is interesting how we many canadians define themselves on how anti-american they are so

00:17:30.120 the more anti-american you are than that by you know by definition makes you more canadian

00:17:36.520 well i bought you know i i once said to someone i said i finally after 38 years of living in

00:17:42.200 canada figured out what it means to be a canadian i'm not an american that's their answer and if

00:17:47.560 that is their answer, they really need to do some deep introspection and decide what it means to be

00:17:53.400 Canadian. I might know better than they do because of the kind of work that I was involved in for

00:17:57.800 most of the time that I lived in the country. It's a great country. People are wonderful people.

00:18:02.520 It's got great potential. But when you have leadership that constantly puts down your

00:18:06.920 greatest potential, your resource industries, which can provide the wealth that you need to

00:18:11.560 do all of the other things that you need to do and provides the opportunity for indirect jobs

00:18:16.920 to those industries to grow and be successful,

00:18:19.860 I don't know, I don't understand

00:18:21.580 why people would not want that,

00:18:23.480 why they would not say a government

00:18:24.860 that doesn't stand for that,

00:18:26.040 we don't want that government.

00:18:27.460 Georgiane, thank you so much for coming on the show.

00:18:29.240 Great to chat with you once again.

00:18:30.160 My pleasure.

00:18:30.980 Great to see you, Mark.

00:18:32.340 If you enjoyed the show

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00:18:43.340 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:18:44.480 We'll see you next time.

00:18:46.920 Thank you.

Juno News - September 11, 2026

Poilievre takes tariff-free trade pitch straight to Americans

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