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What's Poilievre's trade pitch to Americans · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Conservative leader Pierre Polyev headed to the United States today,
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: bringing a delegation of Windsor-area Conservative MPs to Detroit to
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: push his plan for a Canada-U.S.
• 0:10
  Speaker 2: Trade deal.
• 0:11
  Speaker 3: We must put Canada first and fight for tariff-free trade
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: right across the border. That means putting country ahead of party,
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: and that is what Conservatives will do today. We'll pitch
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: business leaders and workers on our plans in the hope
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: to build momentum for a real deal.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: Polyev said he'd be meeting with the International Brotherhood of
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: Electrical Workers and visiting two car manufacturers to.
• 0:34
  Speaker 2: Make the case for a tariff-free auto pact.
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Joining me now to discuss this trip is Ontario Conservative
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: MP and Labour critic Kyle Seaback.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: Mr. Seaback, good to see you again. Thanks for coming in, sir.
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: Happy to be here.
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: What's your leader hoping to achieve with this trip? Because
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: I don't know if the auto sector people he's talked
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: to are happy with the tariffs either. So what's success
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: look like here?
• 0:51
  Speaker 4: Look, success is raising the awareness of our plan for
• 0:54
  Speaker 4: the tariff-free auto pact, which actually is the only plan
• 0:57
  Speaker 4: anyone's talking about that has the potential to reshore production,
• 1:02
  Speaker 4: auto production, not only in the United States, but also
• 1:05
  Speaker 4: in Canada. It's a very simple plan. It's one we've
• 1:08
  Speaker 4: explained many times. And one I think it's a win-win,
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: which is something that I think Donald Trump should be
• 1:14
  Speaker 4: looking more for these days.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: But look, the automakers want it.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: The autoworkers want it. Canada wants it. It's the White
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: House that doesn't want it, right? So we can all
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: advocate for it. Everyone can advocate for it. But how
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: do you get Donald Trump to agree to this when
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: he sees, in spite of all of the evidence, tariffs
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: as a key to American prosperity?
• 1:33
  Speaker 4: Well, look, I think if I were to say something
• 1:36
  Speaker 4: to President Trump, I'd say the auto industry is so
• 1:39
  Speaker 4: integrated that the idea that you can somehow pull it
• 1:43
  Speaker 4: out of Canada and put it into the United States
• 1:45
  Speaker 4: is just not possible. For example, every F-150 trucks being
• 1:50
  Speaker 4: manufactured in the United States, a lot of those engines
• 1:53
  Speaker 4: come from Canada. And There's all kinds of just-in-time delivery
• 1:57
  Speaker 4: of components that go into vehicles and supply chains in
• 2:00
  Speaker 4: Canada that end up in vehicles being made in America.
• 2:03
  Speaker 4: So rather than trying to rip that all apart, which
• 2:07
  Speaker 4: will take a very long time if it's even possible,
• 2:10
  Speaker 4: look at a tariff-free auto pack that will repatriate production
• 2:14
  Speaker 4: in the United States and in Canada.
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: It's just a better way of doing it.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: But he does not want it repatriated to Canada, right?
• 2:20
  Speaker 2: Like Howard Lutnick beamed into the Canada-U.S.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: Business meeting that Eurasia Group had a year ago and said,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: you're not going to make cars in Canada.
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: You're going to have to do something else.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: And they've made it clear their goal is to reindustrialize
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: the American heartland by deindustrializing southwestern Ontario in particular. So, like,
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: I agree with your assessment. It is borne out by
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: fact and cost. But that is just not the goal
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: of the Trump administration. So how do you get them
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: to shift when these arguments have been made nonstop since
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: he became president? Sure.
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: Look, any negotiation is about give and takes.
• 2:54
  Speaker 4: So you have to find some things that the United
• 2:56
  Speaker 4: States would be interested in exchange for other things.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: A great example, actually, would be diesel. Right.
• 3:01
  Speaker 4: Imagine if Canada was in the position having expanded its
• 3:05
  Speaker 4: oil and gas industry so that we could be the
• 3:08
  Speaker 4: partner providing more affordable diesel to the United States right now.
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: But we have lots of things actually that the United
• 3:13
  Speaker 2: States needs. We've talked about this many times.
• 3:15
  Speaker 4: You know, critical minerals, rare earth metals, all of these
• 3:18
  Speaker 4: things are things the United States needs if they're going
• 3:20
  Speaker 4: to reindustrialize. And Canada can be a huge partner in
• 3:23
  Speaker 4: all of that. So it's putting all these pieces together together.
• 3:27
  Speaker 4: to create a win-win for both countries, which I think
• 3:30
  Speaker 4: the auto pact is a big part of that.
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: But do you think the nature of this presidency is
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: focused on win-wins?
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: Let's look at diesel.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: Rather than look to the traditional allies of the United
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: States to deal with or stop some of the trade
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: actions he has taken, he's signing a deal with Vladimir
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: Putin that will ultimately fund diesel. hostilities against Ukraine, right? Like,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: that's not a win-win by any stretch. That is pure
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: self-interest to try to lower diesel prices before the midterms.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: I mean, isn't that the nature of what we're dealing
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: with here?
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  Speaker 4: It is the nature of what you're dealing with. But
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  Speaker 4: there's ways to find that someone can win. And I
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  Speaker 4: think the challenge that we've had and the challenge Mark
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: Carney seems to be having, remember, he promised he was
• 4:13
  Speaker 4: going to have a tariff-free deal with the United States.
• 4:16
  Speaker 4: In fact, he ran on that in the election. He
• 4:19
  Speaker 4: then said after the election that he would get a
• 4:21
  Speaker 4: better deal. And he hasn't found the way to do that.
• 4:25
  Speaker 4: I don't know what the magic answer to all of
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  Speaker 4: that is. I think we're all wondering what is the
• 4:28
  Speaker 4: magic answer.
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  Speaker 1: Well, nobody's found a way to get a good deal
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: with this administration.
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  Speaker 4: We have to find a way to make sure that
• 4:35
  Speaker 4: the Canadian auto industry is protected while using other leverages
• 4:39
  Speaker 4: that we have, whether it's in oil and gas, whether
• 4:41
  Speaker 4: it's in rare earth minerals, whether it's in critical minerals.
• 4:45
  Speaker 4: all of these things to get to the point where
• 4:48
  Speaker 4: the president thinks it's a good deal.
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  Speaker 2: But this is the magic question, right?
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  Speaker 1: Because, like, you know, the prime minister campaigned on what
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: he campaigned on and said that he would, you know,
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: try to get a win for Canada, try to get
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: a better deal and try to get to zero tariffs.
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: I think things have changed since those.
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: Words were uttered, though, right?
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  Speaker 1: It's now very clear that tariffs are a feature of
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: this administration, not a bug. Getting to zero tariffs on steel, aluminum,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: auto seems like it will not happen as long as
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Trump is in the White House. So it's getting it
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: to an acceptable deal of some sort.
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: How do we do that?
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  Speaker 1: How can Canada, given that the deal that is being
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: violated right now was signed by this president, how do
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: you sign anything with them and count on this president
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: to live up to it?
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean, that's a very different question.
• 5:33
  Speaker 4: How do you get him to agree to an agreement
• 5:35
  Speaker 4: he already agreed to without violating? I don't think anyone
• 5:39
  Speaker 4: has the answer to that. What's really hard is for
• 5:42
  Speaker 4: the opposition to try and say, this is what we
• 5:44
  Speaker 4: would do differently, explicitly, when we don't know what's actually
• 5:48
  Speaker 4: ever been on the table. This is the first time
• 5:50
  Speaker 4: that such a large trade agreement between any country has
• 5:53
  Speaker 4: has been shrouded in so much secrecy. I even asked
• 5:57
  Speaker 4: the Canadian ambassador at committee once, I said, when was
• 6:00
  Speaker 4: the last time you exchanged substantive offers with the United States?
• 6:05
  Speaker 2: And he wouldn't answer that basic, simple question.
• 6:07
  Speaker 4: When he knew when the last time was, the Americans
• 6:11
  Speaker 4: surely knew when the last time it was. So it's
• 6:13
  Speaker 4: not a secret that should be kept. And yet they
• 6:16
  Speaker 4: kept that secret. And they're doing all of this in secret.
• 6:19
  Speaker 4: So we actually don't know what's being offered, what's been
• 6:22
  Speaker 4: asked to say whether or not the government is behaving
• 6:25
  Speaker 4: in certain parts of the thing naively or inappropriately, right?
• 6:30
  Speaker 4: We don't know because no one has an idea what the.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: Deal is, what was actually on the table.
• 6:34
  Speaker 1: Well, I think we know broadly the timeline of when
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: things were going back and forth in that week when
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: Dominic LeBlanc and Janice Charette were all in Washington leading
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: up to that Friday in August. I don't remember the
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: specific date.
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: But before that, it had been almost eight months. Sure.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: And that's because things got put into the deep freeze
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: when the U.S. decided to end talks on the pretense
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: that it was the Ronald Reagan ad that Doug Ford did.
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: And this is the thing, because I take your point,
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: like normally when there is a trade negotiation, you have
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: various working texts, and you see things in public disclosure.
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: But this is more of a leverage play by the
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: dominant partner than it is a classic negotiation, right?
• 7:13
  Speaker 4: No, I don't think that's true because Mexico has been
• 7:16
  Speaker 4: in Washington often.
• 7:18
  Speaker 2: They are actually exchanging things back and forth.
• 7:22
  Speaker 4: And Mexican delegations are going back to Mexico City and
• 7:25
  Speaker 4: explaining that you know, to unions and others where things are.
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: We've been doing that through the advisory council. People have
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: been read in on some of this, not to the
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: detail they would like.
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: Absolutely not. We're doing something completely different.
• 7:37
  Speaker 4: We've got a prime minister and ministers who are holding
• 7:39
  Speaker 4: their cards completely before their chest, revealing nothing. No industry
• 7:44
  Speaker 4: actually knows where things are. I remember having conversations with
• 7:47
  Speaker 4: the auto industry and saying, you know, with some of
• 7:49
  Speaker 4: my contacts in the unions, where are things as it
• 7:52
  Speaker 4: looks like we're getting close to a deal? I got
• 7:54
  Speaker 4: three different answers on where they were on tariff on autos.
• 7:59
  Speaker 4: So it's this lack of transparency from the prime minister
• 8:03
  Speaker 4: that makes it particularly difficult for anyone to critique or
• 8:07
  Speaker 4: analyze what's going on.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: But the central flavor, the common flavor of what's happening
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: with the Mexicans and what's happening with the Canadians is
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: that the Americans are looking for concessions, that they put
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: a deal in place and now they're trying to squeeze
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: both sides. I mean, You know, President Shainbaum has had
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to militarize her border, do a bunch of different things
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: just to keep them calm and not have escalatory tariffs.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot more nuance to the Mexican-American
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: negotiation than just they're talking and exchanging. There is a
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: bunch of leverage being exerted there by the Americans as well.
• 8:39
  Speaker 2: Look, Donald Trump's trying to exert leverage everywhere. Yeah. Yeah,
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: that's what he's doing.
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: So, look, last quick issue, Stelco. I know the argument
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: from Mr. Polyev has been sue them. And we know
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: that the industry department has it with their legal team
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: and they're going to figure out what next steps are.
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  Speaker 1: The New Democrats have argued for nationalization, that maybe the
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: government of Canada should either buy or take ownership in
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: some capacity. The Ontario NDP is supporting.
• 9:05
  Speaker 2: That as well.
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: Do you see that as a viable option, the nationalization
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: of Stelco in an age where the government is buying
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: and building pipelines?
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: No. Governments don't run things particularly well. You can look
• 9:15
  Speaker 2: at the pipeline.
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  Speaker 4: I think it tripled in cost when the government took
• 9:18
  Speaker 4: it over. The timelines went backwards three, four, five, six,
• 9:21
  Speaker 4: seven times. Governments don't run businesses particularly well. But I
• 9:25
  Speaker 4: do want to step back. Actually, our leader didn't say
• 9:28
  Speaker 4: it's our position that they should sue. We said the
• 9:30
  Speaker 4: minister said she was going to sue and she should
• 9:32
  Speaker 4: do it because we've heard the story before. Minister Jolie
• 9:37
  Speaker 4: said in December of 2025, we are going to sue Stellantis, right?
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: Then Stellantis said, you can't sue us because we.
• 9:43
  Speaker 4: Didn't breach the contract. Ten months later, she hasn't sued.
• 9:47
  Speaker 4: Now we're in the same position. She says, we're going
• 9:49
  Speaker 4: to sue. The deadline actually passed, right? She gave five days.
• 9:52
  Speaker 4: It was 5 p.m.
• 9:53
  Speaker 2: Today.
• 9:54
  Speaker 4: So I would expect that the lawyers have drafted the
• 9:57
  Speaker 4: court application and we're going to court tomorrow.
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: Well, there was a seven-page letter from the CEO of
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: Cleveland Clifton, so they probably want to take that into consideration.
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: It would be my assumption.
• 10:06
  Speaker 2: I don't know that, but you'd want to read it.
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: I used to be a lawyer.
• 10:08
  Speaker 4: It doesn't take three or four days to read a
• 10:10
  Speaker 4: seven-page letter. It takes, you know, half an hour. So
• 10:14
  Speaker 4: what we're saying is, Minister... Keep your word to the workers,
• 10:17
  Speaker 4: unlike what you didn't do for the workers at Stellantis.
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: You said you were going to sue. You did not.
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: Those jobs are gone. We can't have the same thing
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: happen at Stelco.
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: So, look, if they shouldn't nationalize the steel plant because
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: government doesn't run things well, should they not build the
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Pacific Link pipeline? Should they wait until a private sector
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: proponent comes along and does that?
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: Well, no, nationalization of the steel industry is very different,
• 10:38
  Speaker 4: first of all. Like, why don't we look at some
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: of the real challenges? And I've had conversations with the USW.
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: No, but you used the example of TMX and its
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: cost overruns. I mean, wouldn't that apply here as well?
• 10:47
  Speaker 4: I did, but let's look at the real impediments right now. Yes,
• 10:49
  Speaker 4: the Trump tariffs are an impediment for Stelco, but so
• 10:52
  Speaker 4: is the industrial carbon tax. Ontario put out a study
• 10:55
  Speaker 4: in the Ontario government, January 2023, saying.
• 10:59
  Speaker 4: The steel industry will pay $ 800 million in carbon tax
• 11:02
  Speaker 4: before 2030.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: But they're helping them convert to an arc furnace system
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: that is zero emission and moves away from that, right?
• 11:08
  Speaker 2: Not all of them are doing that.
• 11:09
  Speaker 1: No, but Stelco is one of the plants that's getting
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: that government help to move off its traditional emitting energy source, right?
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Over time, right?
• 11:17
  Speaker 4: Yes. But, and the other thing, the big thing is
• 11:20
  Speaker 4: dumping of foreign steel. Both of these things are within
• 11:22
  Speaker 4: control of the Carney government. Like, why not, number one,
• 11:26
  Speaker 4: right now, get rid of the industrial carbon tax, reduce
• 11:28
  Speaker 4: the cost of Canadian steel in the face of tariffs.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: Number two, actually do something on the dumping of foreign steel.
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: They could do both. And three, Minister Jolie could keep
• 11:37
  Speaker 2: her word and sue. They're just not doing any of it.
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: But they should build the pipeline. We should build pipelines, absolutely.
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: Okay, but the government should do it.
• 11:45
  Speaker 4: Look, if there's no private sector proponent and the government's
• 11:48
  Speaker 4: going to get involved, that's a good thing.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: Okay.
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: Ontario Conservative MP, Labour critic Kyle Seebeck. Appreciate the time, sir.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for coming in.
• 11:54
  Speaker 2: Thanks very much.