By Ray Rivers
March20th, 2026
BURLINGTON, ON
OPINION
Poilievre is a virtual unknown in international circles.
Pierre Poilievre, fresh from his recent leadership victory, spoke before the Economic Club of Canada last month. The party pundits, to a person, claimed that he had finally re-invented himself and become a less confrontational and a more thoughtful politician.
So the next step in that rebranding process was to make international headlines. Unlike Carney, Poilievre is a virtual known in international circles. So he trundled across the sea to the UK to demonstrate his new re-invented self.
The Brits have a long standing, legally binding, policy to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The country prides itself on having cut its carbon emissions by more than half amid an impressive deployment of wind power. But when Poilievre addressed an audience there it was clear that his re-invention was a hoax. Criticizing the Brits as green grifters and falsely claiming that their net-zero policies had driven energy and food costs up and paycheques down is not how you win friends.
Poilievre standing in front of the US Stock Exchange
Arriving back on this continent he met with the auto industry south of the border who told him what we all know – that the 1964 auto pact had been a great deal for the big three automakers and a boon for Canada. But what they didn’t tell him was that the US Senate had long wanted to kill the auto pact for the same reason that Mr. Trump has now placed a 25% tariff on Canadian cars. He wants cars sold in the US made there, and not here.
Undeterred by that reality Poilievre made a speech in Windsor last week regurgitating the 1964 auto pact as his new policy. He also stated that he was convinced he could win over Mr. Trump with his numbers. But Mr. Trump doesn’t care about numbers – he makes them up all the time. He makes his decisions by intuition, the feeling in his bones. And Trump’s bones have been telling us for over a year that tariffs on imported autos are here to stay and American cars will be made only in America.
Poilievre wasn’t invited to Washington because nobody there thinks he is relevant.
The reality is that the big three auto companies are leaving Canada, at least for now, and we need to attract replacements for them. That is something else that the Tory leader doesn’t get. He doesn’t understand that was the other reason why Carney went to China – to being the search for Chinese auto companies willing to set up shop here. And that is partly why we are importing Chinese EVs – to demonstrate to the those firms that there is a viable market for them to build their vehicles here.
For all his travels, Poilievre wasn’t invited to Washington because nobody there thinks he is relevant. They view him as a lightweight with no credentials and no credibility. His lack of a resume is only part of the problem though. The truth is that despite the economic war with our neighbour for the last year, Poilievre still doesn’t get it. And that in anyone’s book is the definition of a slow learner.
Poilievre on the Joe Rogan podcast, one of the most highly watched in America.
Poilievre still doesn’t get that there has been a rupture in the global economy. So he persists on looking in the rear view mirror, mis-reading Milton Friedman’s dated theories and dreaming of the auto pact of yesteryear. Free trade with the US is dead because Mr. Trump wants to use trade as an economic weapon to control Canada. That was the lesson Carney delivered to the crowd at Davos.
But then Mr. Poilievre is not the sharpest axe in the woodshed. Having complimented the PM on his Davos speech, one would have hoped he’d also read and understood it. But it seems the only thing he really learned was how to repeat Carney’s trademark phrase – ‘maitres chez nous’. Now if only he could understand what that means.
Ray Rivers, a Gazette Contributing Editor, writes regularly applying his more than 25 years as a federal bureaucrat to his thinking. Rivers was once a candidate for provincial office in Burlington. He was the founder of the Burlington citizen committee on sustainability at a time when climate warming was a hotly debated subject. Ray has a post graduate degree in economics that he earned at the University of Ottawa. Tweet @rayzrivers
Background links
Poilievre’s Auto Pact – Auto-Pact – Speech to Economic Club – Trump on Canadian Cars – Poilievre’s Washington Problem –
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I’m actually pleased that Pierre respected the Canadian tradition of refusing to criticize Carney when he was abroad. Other than that most of the comments on this thread are interestingly biased in the other direction.
Earlier this week a new guest speaker on CTV stated that if Energy East and Keystone been built along with an additional pipeline in coastal BC Canada would now be exporting 10 million barrels and that our fiscal budget would be balanced.
Imagine.
Immediately the CTV host stated that the connection had been lost. No doubt that guest speaker will not be returning.
This morning the TC Energy CEO stated that a year the Major Projects Office is not materially expediting projects and commented that Mexico had recently approved a pipeline in seven months with a robust environmental review.
I am working on a project on the national project list and I can validate the comment of the TC Energy CEO. Nothing is moving certainly not at “speeds never seen before” as Carney has repeatedly said. Yet the media refuse to acknowledge and cover this
To date Canada is not winning with Carney at the helm. His macro approach even if does work will not materialize for decades. Certainly, investment has not been “catalyzed”
His continued disdain and abhorrence to deal with the Americans is reckless and puts our national economic well-being in jeopardy. Trade with our southern friends continues to diminish and will not be meaningfully replaced with trade from elsewhere.
At least Poilievre had the class to support the PM abroad in the Rogan interview while we can’t say the same from our arrogant self-serving PM in his interview last year with John Stewart in which he trash talked Poilievre.
Finally, if attracting stellar MP’s like Idlout with the recent revelations I have read spout her expense and family issues pan out is Carney’s approach to obtain a razor slim majority have the decency to call a federal election.
With total government spending estimated at 43% of GDP which according to Chat GDP is well above that of the PRC lets finally sink Canada into oblivion with a Liberal super majority.
PS. I am not rewarded for my commentary.
You make it sound like it’s the federal government alone spending that 43.6%. You guys are so biased you can’t read the truth in the data. Here it is, as a quote. At least try for the truth next time.
“A new Fraser Institute study shows that combined federal, provincial, and municipal government spending now equals 43.6% of Canada’s entire economy – and the size of government (as a share of GDP) has grown in all ten provinces since 2019”.
Reread I replaced with “all levels”.
Just imagine the bleak future for our grandchildren.
I am sure you realize that the feds collect a whole lot more tax money than the provinces and then redistribute it “fairly”. LOL. Thats what my friends in Western Canada tell me!
Canada is economically unsustainable.
Apparently 40% of folks that in the highest 1% income level have already left the country. The best and the brightest. They see it.
No wonder the GDP per capita has collapsed.
With total government spending at these levels how on earth can the plebes working multiple low wage jobs manage to survive.
The perfect tax farm!
More than a decade of Liberal incompetence and now Carneys macroeconomics will put the finishing touch on a total economic failure.
Ray Rivers surely has been intoxicated by the Carney cool aid. Reading this article is like reading the beginning of a horror novel where the villain is the seemingly most trustworthy individual at the scene, yet nobody realizes it even though he is saying it out loud but with high minded flowery language …..the Davos speech. All while pointing at someone else as the likely villain, Poilievre!
The truth becomes really evident for anyone willing to think clearly about it though.
First, Carney stated that our long standing trading relationship with the US is ruptured (assumingly because a moronic wannabe dictator is currently inhabiting the White House in the world’s most powerful democracy).
Really?? A country that shares most of our values and systems and at least 150 years of open trade! A country with whom we trade 75% of our exports, making 50% of our GDP! A country in which a significant number of US citizens disagree with their new moronic president and have demonstrated it clearly through their institutions and citizens who have thwarted the worst of Trump’s attempts to tariff Canadian products one year on(as evidenced by the fact that we still enjoy CUSMA level tariffs on 90% of our exports to the US. I wonder why, perhaps because they need us as much as we need them!
And according to Carney, we are going to diversify that trade to the other 190 or so countries we (already) do trade with, thousands or miles away on different continents….and we’ll start with China, our second largest export market, at a whopping 4% of our exports!!
China, an actual dictatorship, that has kidnapped our citizens, and cancelled canola exports from Canada at least 3 times in recent history to extort us for whatever they please and they have stolen our technology and interfered with our elections and government on many occasions….brilliant start.
Despite this history, Carney agrees to accept a small number of EVs into the country in order to reinstate that latest disruption to Canola…..maybe. A move that will certainly threaten our own $140 Billion auto industry, given the cost advantages of the Chinese dictatorship….none of our democratic social expenses, human rights regulations, environmental regulations or carbon taxes, legal protections etc….if you don’t work in China, you don’t eat. Impossible for any democratic country to compete with China Inc.
Oh, and our 4% trade with China is one way….we send them commodities, with no value add and they send us 12% of our imports all with value add.
More surprising was Carney’s suggestion that this could lead to Chinese manufacturers setting up auto production in Canada. Seriously, our entire industry is founded on sales to the US as we don’t have enough customers in Canada to support the industry that we already have. In fact all of our industry in Canada is targeting the US market….we are a cheap and reliable supplier to the US and also a valuable customer. Our proximity to the US is one of the main attractions for foreign industry to set up in Canada, although Americans are not likely to be amicable to Chinese vehicles at any time, for the same reasons we shouldn’t.
It should be obvious to anybody that thinks about it ….competing with China economically is futile for any DEMOCRATIC country. They aren’t even a real country, but rather a giant corporation led by a real dictator. China has devoured western manufacturing with the help of our own oligarchs willing to thwart our own values, and exploit Chinese citizens, to maximize their profits.
And how would it be even remotely possible to replace US trade with the other middling countries that we enjoy such little trade with ….for example, from the largest of our exports after China to smallest…Britain 3.6%, Japan 1.9%, Mexico 1.1%, South Korea 1%, Netherlands 0.9%, Germany 0.8%….and many many more smaller ones. Yes, elbows up…..we used to sell our goods to Walmart, now we’re pissed at Walmart so we are going to sell to 7-Elevens!!!
So why would our brilliant economist leader be so seemingly bad with mathematics and geography and so willing to take this ridiculous tack? Well he isn’t really bad with either, he’s just more political and devious than he lets on.
Carney, as the UN Ambassador for Climate Change and an associate, and surely significant investor, of Brookfield, a company very involved in transitional green energy solutions….solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, etc… has undeniable business interests in China because that is where most if not all of these devices are made….cheaply. Secondly he can paint Trump as the villain for the ills of Canada’s economy and project that same nonsensical rhetoric on Poilievre, who so far is the only reason why Canada has been able to hold this Liberal government in anyway to account.
The Davos crowd loved the green energy stuff in his speech despite what it has done to their own countries energy costs and what little it has done for the environment for the same reason Carney does. Seems a lot of them are also heavily invested in the Chinese green energy business, all needing massive government subsidy despite these products being so virtuous in free energy production and having been built with slave level wages and all the other cost benefits of Chinese dictatorship. Ironically, China doesn’t even use these things meaningfully themselves, instead getting 58% of their electricity from coal with no carbon tax in sight…while polluting our world with 30% of its GHG emissions. Expect that coal usage to go up now too as they need to power all the new EVs coming on line, data storage and AI…..and green energy solutions for the Davos crowd.
Our green leaders are polluting our world, out of sight and out of mind, through China, and claiming false virtue for it back home and penalizing us for their failure to hold China to account. And our PM, as UN Ambassador for climate change, is at the head of the table. He WILL destroy Canada’s economy in pursuit of his green energy agenda, and if you don’t believe that read his book, Values, in which his commitment is AT ANY COST….except, of course, to China on which his green energy business interests rely.
The only thing truly ruptured is our societies ability (willingness) to understand, reason and discuss facts objectively. Instead we have this sort of nonsensical partisan conjecture posturing as journalism and perpetuating the tribal nature of discourse in Canada. Particularly troubling when the author has a post graduate degree in economics that suggests he should know better.
Doesn’t this belong on cbc.ca?
Political bias is on full display here. A junior-journalist hit piece rather than a balanced article one would expect from an experienced credible scribe. Do better Ray.
Editor’s note. It was an opinion piece – nothing more than that. Not something to get all lathered up about.
Good morning to my Canadian friends from southern California. We will be leaving tomorrow to Utah, Idaho and Wyoming for some spring skiing and back to Canada for early April.
I have to thank Ray for his sometimes “off the wall” articles, as it’s become a bit of a game, I read them, sit on it overnight and run through multiple options of comments.
When your party has no positive results to report, then the next best thing to do is take aim at the opposition or create and fear monger about some foreign leader or advisory. It’s done over and over because it generally works for a percentage of the population.
So, since Ray has not been able to report on positive results from the Carney government, you know, job losses are up, GDP per capita on the decline, food inflation up, crime up, health care wait times up, housing starts down, I could go on but that’s not the point.
On a more positive note over the last 11 years, I have researched and found that play ground equipment is much more interesting for kids and far safer. Carney could claim credit for that?
Cell phone costs are way down. I use Freedom Mobile and have a North American plan for $35/mon with more data than I’ll ever use. Why not claim credit for that, it’s awesome.
The Liberals have one of the best “Narrative Factories” the world has ever seen outside of China, North Korea or Russia – more on that latter.
I have to admit, the liberals should be proud of attracting floor crossers, especially ones like Lori Idlout who recently used government money to expense her private business expenses, should fit in quite well with her new party. Oops that was just an error, sorry. I won’t go into the issues with her son criminal charges, its not fit to print.
On a positive note, we do have a tax break at the first tier income level, looking forward to getting home to crunch those numbers next month. We have two new government bureaucracies, one for major projects and another for house, that’s progress. No results, but let’s put that in the parking lot for now, as we know activity is more important than results.
Why keep on attacking Pierre? I don’t see the Liberals attacking Don Davies or Blanchet.
For a guy that the Liberals claim is “not relevant”, another narrative out of the Liberal Narrative Factory, he spoke this month in the UK at a Margaret Thatcher event, then in Germany and on the Triggernometry Podcast -735,000 views . He was on Mansbridge’s podcast, 60,000 views.
And yesterday on Rogan’s podcast 1,322,000 views! I know, I know, all the left are getting their shorts in a knot over this one. And also yesterday, speaking in New York City on US – Canada relationships.
Math always tells the truth, let’s see, in the last two weeks: 735,000 + 60,000 + 1,322,000 = 2,117,000 views and counting in podcast interviews alone!
Sounds relevant to me? Narrative busted, “back to work in the Narrative Factory boys and girls”, I’ll wait for the next.
Michael, what I have seen for quite a while is that you alone are a one-man know it all Narrative Factory, and the rest of you Conservative, for sure Ray critics, that have to show up piling on here in the Gazette comments section, sound the same.
The problem with Pierre is that he doesn’t really know who he is. He is not a recognized Leader. And that problem is shared by everyone else in the US and elsewhere. Carney is in charge and recognized as performing far ahead as the Conservatives in the polls. It is apparent that Mike does not read these polls and the results.
Your self confessed problem Mike, is that you admit you have to thank Ray for something to read, so you can sit on it overnight to have something to run through your Talking Factory shift, fabricating the multitude of your comment options.
I see the rest of your friends lined up singing from your same Narrative Song Sheets.
Awesome, and thank you, I now know I’m over the target, otherwise no one would take notice.
Tom
The PM’s current support has little to do with Carney’s popularity. The Liberals & their bought mainstream media have done and continue to do excellent work in vilifying the United States & the child Trump continues to enable that. Many Canadians in my lifetime just love to hate America. They feed on it as our economy tanks & our social nets are in peril.
Carneys support has nothing to do with accomplishments which are barely measurable in economic terms or his governments incoherent foreign policy on Iran, China, & India.
Hail Mary’s with his cult buddies in the EU & Brookfield business contacts in the Mideast resulting in mostly worthless MOU will not improve affordability or materially improve our economy.
When Trump is gone maybe voters will realize how disastrous this decade plus of Liberal Government has been. This is why the flow of taxpayer funded subsidised refugees continues.
Government spending from all levels is at 43% of GDP without 5% NATO spending factored in. Let that sink in Chinada! No room for private money!
Boy, this is quite the left wing rag. The “Davos Elite” are back at it. They’re calling anyone who puts Canadian workers first a “slow learner.” But while Mark Carney and the Liberal establishment talk about “Net Zero” from 30,000 feet, Canadian families are dealing with the reality of Net Zero growth in their bank accounts. Let’s look at the facts!! Mark Carney’s vision? A “transition” that looks a lot like de-industrialization. By pushing aggressive carbon taxes and ESG mandates, the “High Priest of Davos” is making Canadian energy and manufacturing uncompetitive. It’s not “thoughtful” to tax our own industries into oblivion while our competitors ramp up production. The Liberal solution to the auto crisis? Importing state-subsidized Chinese EVs. Why are we dismantling our own energy sector only to become a “viable market” for a geopolitical rival? We shouldn’t be “demonstrating” our market to China—we should be building our own capacity right here in Canada! Let’s call the “Green Transformation” what it is: The Great Green Grift. Billions in taxpayer subsidies handed to multinational corporations while we pay more for gas, heat, and groceries. We don’t need more “experts” spending our money; we need more projects getting built and more paycheques growing. The critics say the Auto Pact is “yesteryear.” Wrong. What’s timeless is the need for Canada to be indispensable. While the US moves toward protectionism, Canada shouldn’t be begging for scraps. We should be leveraging our energy, our minerals, and our skilled workforce to make sure “America First” requires “Canada Always!!” Poilievre isn’t “mis-reading” the room—he’s reading the room that the elites have ignored for a decade. It’s time for a “Maitres Chez Nous” (Masters in our own house) approach that actually means something: Canadian resources, Canadian workers, and Canadian common sense!!!! Enough of this insane globalist left wing BS…..the last decade under liberal leadership has devastated Canada and it’s time to recover!!
Wow what a one sided Liberal based article …………..
And perfectly timed to attack Pierre Poilievre–an ongoing narrative in the “bought and paid-for” media, following a widely praised appearance on Joe Rogan. Even Marco Mendicino and Christie Clark, two Liberals, even gave the appearance a positive review on CTV yesterday (can’t have too much of that, can we?). In addition, Poilievre gave a well received speech on Canada-U.S relations at the Foreign Policy Association in New York. Meanwhile, as the affordability crisis and a stagnant economy create hardship for Canadians, where is Carney–on vacation in Rome!!!