Read Pierre Poilievre's full speech responding to Trump's trade war

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre delivered a speech Tuesday on Parliament Hill announcing Canada's response to a 25 per cent tariff U.S. President Donald Trump is imposing on most Canadian goods.

Here is a transcript of his remarks.

At 12:01 a.m., President Trump stabbed America's best friend in the back.

My message to the president is this: Canada will fight back. We will defend our people and our economy, and we will put Canada first.

There is no doubt that our economy will suffer. But so will yours, President Trump. In fact, you're already paying the price with trillions of dollars erased in stock market value over the last month of these threats. Already, Americans are paying higher gas prices, as at midnight, a new American gas tax kicked in on U.S. working-class taxpayers and motorists.

Your workers will soon start losing jobs — jobs they had upgrading Canadian raw materials, which by the way you were getting at an incredible and ridiculous bargain, and your businesses will be selling fewer products to your closest neighbour.

And that's only the beginning. While Canadians are slow to anger and quick to forgive, once provoked, we fight back. And we will fight back.

Now, I'd like to speak to the millions of Canadians who are anxious today after learning that President Trump has attacked our economy.

To the autoworkers. The forestry workers. The steel and aluminum workers. The mining and energy workers. The truckers. The farmers. To all of you who get out of bed before the sun rises and do the labour of the nation.

You are afraid right now, and I understand. I want you to know that I will fight for you. I will fight for your job, I will fight for your family, I will fight for your chance at owning and paying off a home and I will fight for your retirement. And I will fight to put Canada first.

Before these tariffs came in this morning, you must have been asking yourself: how could things get any worse? Before these tariffs, you were already suffering. You wondered how you'd pay the rent or eventually dream of buying a home after housing costs had doubled over the last decade, rising faster than in any other G7 country.

You've downgraded your diet, as food prices have risen 37 per cent faster in Canada than in the United States over the last five years. You might be one of the two million people, a record-breaking number, lined up at food banks — a number that had more than doubled before these tariffs applied.

You've likely noticed that your paycheque is not keeping up with the record inflation, as Canada's GDP has grown less and lower than any other G7 country over the last decade.

You might have noticed that your company has already been moving jobs to the United States, as greedy and self-serving CEOs put their share prices ahead of your job and a half-trillion dollars net has left from Canada to Trump's America under the current Liberal government.

And now this. But I am here with a message of hope. We will overcome this attack on our economy, and I have a plan to do it.

First, we must retaliate, targeting American goods in the following order: a) goods we can make ourselves, b) goods we don't need and c) goods we can get from elsewhere.

Second, counter-tariffs must not be a cash cow for the government. Almost every penny of the tariffs collected should go to tax cuts, with a small sum set aside for targeted relief to workers hardest hit by the trade war. None of the money should go to new government spending and programs. We must not allow politicians to dishonestly use this crisis to once again launch a debt-fuelled, money-printing spending spree that will drive up inflation and further destroy the working class and hit the poorest people the hardest.

Third, we must immediately pass a bring it home tax cut on work, investment, energy and home building. The idea is to neutralize the cost of the tariffs with lower taxes and incentivize massive new investment in building stuff in this country. The obvious place to start is to get rid of the Liberal carbon tax, then axe the sales tax on new homes. We need to reverse the Liberal capital gains tax hike and slash income tax, so that hard work pays off and you bring home more of each dollar you earn.

Fourth, we must immediately repeal the Liberal no-new-pipelines law, C-69, a law that not only blocks all pipelines, but stops mines, refineries, export plants and all kinds of other energy infrastructure and makes us hopelessly reliant on one customer, the Americans — a customer we cannot count on anymore.

We must greenlight LNG plants that Liberals say there is no business case for, so that we no longer have to sell 100 per cent of our gas exports to the Americans. We can sell it to Asia and Europe and help break the European dependence on Putin, turning dollars for dictators into paycheques for our people.

Five, you know what industry Donald Trump does not control in Canada? Home building. It is a homegrown industry. We must get rid of all taxes and red tape to unleash the biggest home-building boom this country has ever seen. Bigger than the post-war boom when our heroes were coming back from that war. We need to build homes faster than ever, and that means removing the bureaucracy, the red tape, the taxes and the gatekeepers, and I will make it happen.

That will also boost the demand for softwood lumber. The loggers are suffering after Biden hit them with tariffs already.

Six, let's get our provinces together to knock down trade barriers so that we can lower prices and boost wages for our people.

Seven, we must secure our borders and rebuild our military to assert our sovereignty and strength in the world.

All these things — axing taxes, building homes, unleashing construction of our resources, fixing the budget, stopping crime — all of these things were Conservative fixations before the tariffs. Now they are even more necessary.

But none of these things have happened in the last 100 days since Trump first launched his tariff threats. Look behind me. Parliament has been closed. Liberals shut it down to focus on their political battles.

So the job-killing carbon tax is still in place. The sales tax is still in place on new homes. The no-new-pipelines law is still in place. The massive, inflationary deficits, still in place. Not one law has been changed, not one tax has been cut, not one action has been taken to free us from the grip of Trump and the U.S.

We need change. And we will get change. It will be tough. Building Canada was tough. And so are Canadians. We will bring home the country we know and love, and restore its promise.  

Canada will be self-reliant, sovereign and stand on its own two feet. We will build on the great legacy and vision of John A. Macdonald, of uniting our country east to west. We will reward work, unleash entrepreneurs, harvest our resources, make our own goods, trade with each other, build homes for our youth, rebuild our borders and military, honour our history and raise our flag.

What binds us together is the Canadian promise. That anyone from anywhere can achieve anything — that hard work gets you a great life, in a beautiful house, on a safe street, protected by solid borders and brave troops under a proud flag. To preserve that flag and its promise we must work together, fight together and win together. 

That is what it means to put Canada first. Because Canada is worth fighting for; for our people, for our land, for our home, for our country. Let's bring it home.