# Conservative leader says Canada ‘will bear any burden’ to protect sovereignty
Surrounded by hundreds of supporters wearing red and white, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre firmly repudiated U.S. President Donald Trump’s 51st state threats and said Canada “will bear any burden” to protect its sovereignty during a rally in Ottawa.
“Sometimes it does take a threat to remind us what we have, what we could lose and what we could become. The unjustified threats of tariffs and 51st statehood of Donald Trump have united our people to defend the country we love,” Poilievre said.
The Conservative leader’s “Canada First” rally took place on Saturday afternoon at the Rogers Centre, steps away from Parliament Hill. The event also happened on the 60th anniversary of Canada adopting the red-and-white maple leaf flag.
In the background, Trump’s threat of sweeping tariffs and continual talk of annexation have shifted Canadians’ focus in recent weeks, polling shows, with the Conservatives’ long-held double-digit lead narrowing.
Poilievre said Canada has leverage it can use against the United States, such as critical minerals and uranium.
He also laid out his tariff response plan that includes dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going toward reimbursing businesses and workers affected by American tariffs on Canadian goods.
“Not one penny will go to government spending,” Poilievre vowed.
The Conservative leader also delivered a sharp message to the U.S. if it proceeds with tariffs: “You will turn a loyal friend into a resentful neighbour, forced to match tariff-for-tariff and to seek friends everywhere else.”
“Both our economies will weaken, leaving less money for defence and security, and our enemies will grow stronger,” Poilievre said.
Later in his speech, he said Canadians “are slow to anger and quick to forgive, but never confuse our kindness with weakness.”
“We will bear any burden and pay any price to protect the sovereignty and independence of our country.”
Current_Rutabaga4595 on
I’m no fan of this guy, but at least he’s forcing the Canadian right wing to do the right thing with this and oppose Trump.
JoyofCookies on
That was the pivot? That weak, low-energy attempt at a rallying cry to unify the country was a pivot? He spent the hour doubling down on Trump-like rhetoric, still going off about the carbon tax when every Liberal leadership candidate has rejected it, and still castigating his political opponents despite calling for unity?
Poilievre been rambling on about how this country has been broken and that Canadians—not Americans—are to blame because we are stupid. It makes the love of country he’s trying to parrot seem to be nothing more than empty rhetoric given that he’s spent the last year, and even up until a few weeks ago pontificating about how weak we are as a country’s
Poilievre wasn’t able to shed the partisan attack dog image in this speech, and he was far from prime ministerial. Don’t trust him to not get steamrolled by Trump.
Carney senpai please save us
Why_Cant_I_Slay_This on
This guy is a total President In Name Only simp and is just lying to everyone exactly how PINO does every day.
LordLadyCascadia on
I don’t envy the position Poilievre is in. If you look at Trumps approvals in Canada, they’re overwhelmingly negative, but Conservative voters specifically are almost split evenly between approve/disapprove. It’s a very tricky thing for Poilievre to manage the fact that the opinions of his core voters don’t align with the opinions of the average Canadian.
Poilievre will probably keep his criticisms of Trump vague and indirect, and that l should work well enough for him for now, but idk how it will work out as PM when you have to take clearer stances. He might be kind of set up to fail assuming he wins the next election. (Even with the polls tightening, I still think he’s the favourite)
financeguy1729 on
The great paradox of the global right is that they look upon at Trump, the MAGA movement, even the New Enlightment movement, but you can’t just copy the nationalism and do Germany first or Brazil first, at least with regards my limited knowledge of history, the way the global fascists did in the 30s.
The leading fascist country at the time didn’t have a glorious past, so the German fascism was a lot more saying: “We are great people with great potential (genetics), and only if we stopped being such cowards, we could show our potential to the world”.
Here in Brazil, the Vargas dictatorship was heavily inspired by Hitler, and even liberal and socialist intelectuals helped his work of creation of national identity. The 1930s fascism was something anyone could copy.
The Trumpism is very different.
The MAGA movement has a very specific idea that the Americans are born to lead and they should abandon their neoliberal slave morality and use it to conquest and make the world bend their knees.
As an non-American, I agree with at least a good chunk of what they say: the U.S. is really a special country born to lead.
But this puts a big contradiction at the heart of anyone trying to make a right wing party these days, either as an U.S. ally (you are just a poor free-rider getting handouts from the U.S.) or if you’re from the global South, you’re literally inferior.
It’s really hard to win elections when your ideology basically says “you guys are all suffering because you are not like the Americans”, because although it might be nationalist, it is revolutionary: you need to build a new national identity.
Funnily enough, the two chaps I think navigate this tension the better are PM Meloni and president Milei. Because both have populations who believe in their glorious past, they can point to that and say “Hey, if you just recover our roots, we can be more like the Americans”
It’s harder to do that if you’re Canadian.
Some folks know how to navigate
datums on
I’m being diplomatic when I say this –
He is, and has always been, a traitorous rat-fucking weseal that should be kept as far away from the levers of power in Canada as humanly possible.
WifeGuy-Menelaus on
Fuck “Canada First” and fuck anyone that peddles any “X First” sloganeering, all birds of a feather even if they are presently shitting on eachother
schmaxford on
Genuinely outstanding how poorly this is being received in arr Canada. Two months ago they would have been so jazzed with a speech like this from Poilievre.
The guy has been so slow to react it doesn’t come across as particularly sincere.
9 Comments
# Conservative leader says Canada ‘will bear any burden’ to protect sovereignty
Surrounded by hundreds of supporters wearing red and white, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre firmly repudiated U.S. President Donald Trump’s 51st state threats and said Canada “will bear any burden” to protect its sovereignty during a rally in Ottawa.
“Sometimes it does take a threat to remind us what we have, what we could lose and what we could become. The unjustified threats of tariffs and 51st statehood of Donald Trump have united our people to defend the country we love,” Poilievre said.
The Conservative leader’s “Canada First” rally took place on Saturday afternoon at the Rogers Centre, steps away from Parliament Hill. The event also happened on the 60th anniversary of Canada adopting the red-and-white maple leaf flag.
In the background, Trump’s threat of sweeping tariffs and continual talk of annexation have shifted Canadians’ focus in recent weeks, polling shows, with the Conservatives’ long-held double-digit lead narrowing.
Poilievre said Canada has leverage it can use against the United States, such as critical minerals and uranium.
He also laid out his tariff response plan that includes dollar-for-dollar retaliatory tariffs, with 100 per cent of the proceeds going toward reimbursing businesses and workers affected by American tariffs on Canadian goods.
“Not one penny will go to government spending,” Poilievre vowed.
The Conservative leader also delivered a sharp message to the U.S. if it proceeds with tariffs: “You will turn a loyal friend into a resentful neighbour, forced to match tariff-for-tariff and to seek friends everywhere else.”
“Both our economies will weaken, leaving less money for defence and security, and our enemies will grow stronger,” Poilievre said.
Later in his speech, he said Canadians “are slow to anger and quick to forgive, but never confuse our kindness with weakness.”
“We will bear any burden and pay any price to protect the sovereignty and independence of our country.”
I’m no fan of this guy, but at least he’s forcing the Canadian right wing to do the right thing with this and oppose Trump.
That was the pivot? That weak, low-energy attempt at a rallying cry to unify the country was a pivot? He spent the hour doubling down on Trump-like rhetoric, still going off about the carbon tax when every Liberal leadership candidate has rejected it, and still castigating his political opponents despite calling for unity?
Poilievre been rambling on about how this country has been broken and that Canadians—not Americans—are to blame because we are stupid. It makes the love of country he’s trying to parrot seem to be nothing more than empty rhetoric given that he’s spent the last year, and even up until a few weeks ago pontificating about how weak we are as a country’s
Poilievre wasn’t able to shed the partisan attack dog image in this speech, and he was far from prime ministerial. Don’t trust him to not get steamrolled by Trump.
Carney senpai please save us
This guy is a total President In Name Only simp and is just lying to everyone exactly how PINO does every day.
I don’t envy the position Poilievre is in. If you look at Trumps approvals in Canada, they’re overwhelmingly negative, but Conservative voters specifically are almost split evenly between approve/disapprove. It’s a very tricky thing for Poilievre to manage the fact that the opinions of his core voters don’t align with the opinions of the average Canadian.
Poilievre will probably keep his criticisms of Trump vague and indirect, and that l should work well enough for him for now, but idk how it will work out as PM when you have to take clearer stances. He might be kind of set up to fail assuming he wins the next election. (Even with the polls tightening, I still think he’s the favourite)
The great paradox of the global right is that they look upon at Trump, the MAGA movement, even the New Enlightment movement, but you can’t just copy the nationalism and do Germany first or Brazil first, at least with regards my limited knowledge of history, the way the global fascists did in the 30s.
The leading fascist country at the time didn’t have a glorious past, so the German fascism was a lot more saying: “We are great people with great potential (genetics), and only if we stopped being such cowards, we could show our potential to the world”.
Here in Brazil, the Vargas dictatorship was heavily inspired by Hitler, and even liberal and socialist intelectuals helped his work of creation of national identity. The 1930s fascism was something anyone could copy.
The Trumpism is very different.
The MAGA movement has a very specific idea that the Americans are born to lead and they should abandon their neoliberal slave morality and use it to conquest and make the world bend their knees.
As an non-American, I agree with at least a good chunk of what they say: the U.S. is really a special country born to lead.
But this puts a big contradiction at the heart of anyone trying to make a right wing party these days, either as an U.S. ally (you are just a poor free-rider getting handouts from the U.S.) or if you’re from the global South, you’re literally inferior.
It’s really hard to win elections when your ideology basically says “you guys are all suffering because you are not like the Americans”, because although it might be nationalist, it is revolutionary: you need to build a new national identity.
Funnily enough, the two chaps I think navigate this tension the better are PM Meloni and president Milei. Because both have populations who believe in their glorious past, they can point to that and say “Hey, if you just recover our roots, we can be more like the Americans”
It’s harder to do that if you’re Canadian.
Some folks know how to navigate
I’m being diplomatic when I say this –
He is, and has always been, a traitorous rat-fucking weseal that should be kept as far away from the levers of power in Canada as humanly possible.
Fuck “Canada First” and fuck anyone that peddles any “X First” sloganeering, all birds of a feather even if they are presently shitting on eachother
Genuinely outstanding how poorly this is being received in arr Canada. Two months ago they would have been so jazzed with a speech like this from Poilievre.
The guy has been so slow to react it doesn’t come across as particularly sincere.