Trudeau warns Poilievre on boosting ‘erroneous narratives’ over border

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OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emerged from a closed-door meeting with opposition leaders on Tuesday to warn his Conservative rival against amplifying “erroneous narratives” that he says Americans are using about the Canada-U.S. border.

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Trudeau delivered the caution to Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre in the House of Commons after they met face to face, along with other party leaders, to discuss Trudeau’s meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump last Friday.

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“What (Trudeau) said was, we don’t negotiate against ourselves. It would be helpful in the coming weeks and months if we didn’t in any way amplify the kind of messaging and language that the Trump administration is using to attack Canada,” Green Party Leader Elizabeth May recounted to reporters after the meeting.

Trudeau invited party leaders to be briefed on the discussion he had with Trump and the Canada-U.S. relationship. The federal Liberals are hoping to talk Trump off his threat of imposing a 25-per-cent tariff on Canadian imports over concerns about illegal immigration and fentanyl flowing into the United States. He made the same threat to Mexico.

During Tuesday’s question period, Poilievre told MPs that “Trudeau has lost control of everything.”

“He lost control of the borders, lost control of immigration, lost control of spending and the deficit,” said Poilievre.

“This has put Canada in an unbearably weak position.”

Trudeau responded by saying he believes Poilievre “needs to reflect carefully on whether he really wants to amplify the erroneous narratives,” which he says Americans are advancing when it comes to issues surrounding the border.

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“Less than one per cent of migrants coming into the United States irregularly come from Canada, where .02 per cent of fentanyl coming into the United States comes from Canada,” Trudeau said.

“Amplifying these broken narratives is simply not responsible leadership.”

Since Trump won the presidential election on Nov. 5, Poilievre has accused Trudeau of being too weak to defend Canadian interests. He has also taken aim at the prime minister’s handling of immigration and for pushing a consumer carbon tax and proposed cap on oil and gas emissions, which he says make the country less competitive for industry and businesses.

Trudeau has for more than a year lagged Poilievre in public opinion polls, as Canadians express a desire for change and anxiety over the cost of living and housing prices.

Leaving Tuesday’s meeting with Trudeau, Poilievre struck a more muted tone, telling reporters he told the prime minister that Conservatives could be counted on to make the case that American tariffs would not only invite retaliatory tariffs while hurting American consumers.

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“This is a president, an incoming president, who was elected on the promise to make to make America richer. These tariffs would make America poorer. They would raise energy prices when he promised that he would cut them in half, they would kill American jobs and drive up American cost of living,” Poilievre told reporters.

“Those are arguments that I intend to make to anyone in a position of authority who will listen to them between now and January 20th and I think it should be easy to make those arguments, and easy to convince the Americans, even Mr. Trump’s most nationalist supporters, that this is bad for them and bad for America.”

Trump will be sworn into office on Jan.20.

Poilievre’s office has not yet responded to a query as to whether the Conservative leader intends to speak to any American leaders or other U.S. contacts to caution them against imposing tariffs on Canadian goods.

Since Trump’s re-election, Trudeau’s Liberals have been trying to revive what they called their “Team Canada” approach from Trump’s first term in office, where opposition leaders and premiers put aside their political differences to present a united front to the U.S. administration, as the countries, along with Mexico, renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement.

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Speaking after Tuesday’s meeting and without divulging details, federal New Democratic Party Leader Jagmeet Singh accused Poilievre of being unwilling to put aside his differences, even when behind closed doors.

“For him, he was still trying to score political points even when there’s no cameras,” Singh said.

May put in another way. She said while Poilievre was not “aggressive” in his disagreement, “there was clearly different tone from Mr. Poilievre.”

Asked whether she felt the Conservative leader was trying to score political points, she said: “Absolutely.”

“We’re trying to pull together as ‘Team Canada,’ but I guess Mr. Poilievre can’t help himself from trying to say in a private meeting the things that he objects to about government policy.”

May said the opposition party leaders listened for most of the meeting, then asked some questions and had a discussion.

Besides Trudeau, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was also present, as was Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc.

Trudeau also cautioned the party leaders about what happens when incorrect information circulates in the U.S., May said.

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“We certainly all were reminded that false information getting into the U.S sticks there forever,” she said.

“The prime minister reminded us of how many Americans still think the terrorists from 9/11 came into the U.S. from Canada. ”

National Post

staylor@postmedia.com

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