Poilievre Releases “Canada First” Plan For Free Trade Between Provinces
Ottawa, ON – Today, Common Sense Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre released a video outlining his plan to massively increase internal trade in Canada, making us less reliant on trade with the United States and potentially boosting GDP by over $200 billion per year, or $5,100 per person.
Poilievre will:
- Within 30 days of becoming Prime Minister, bring together the Premiers to agree on removing as many exemptions as possible.
- Prioritize an agreement on one standard set of trucking rules to get billions of dollars of goods moving east-west instead of only going north-south. This move alone would boost GDP by $1.6 billion.
- Create a Blue Seal Professional Licensing Standard recognized in each province so doctors, nurses and engineers can work in all provinces and territories and those Canadians trained abroad can quickly get certified and working in Canada up to our standard.
- Offer provinces a Free Trade Bonus to get a deal done. Every trade barrier removed by provinces will generate more GDP, and more revenue. Poilievre plans to give this increased tax revenue back to provinces to spend on schools, hospitals, and whatever else Premiers choose. As this bonus would only be paid out of boosted government revenues from free trade, it would not add to the massive NDP-Liberal deficit.
“President Trump’s tariffs are a wake-up call to all political leaders, who are now forced to put the national interest ahead of special interests,” Poilievre says. “Canadians will expect all political leaders to do what it takes to make our country more self-reliant and less dependent on the Americans. It starts with trade at home.”
Trade barriers between Canadian provinces are more costly than trade barriers between Canada and other nations. The result is that we now trade more with the rest of the world than we do with ourselves: in 2023, international trade was worth 66% of GDP, while interprovincial trade was only worth 36%. That makes no sense.
To understand the problem, look no further than the Canada Free Trade Agreement which is supposed to allow commerce between provinces and territories. As the Globe and Mail put it: “It is noted more for the number of exemptions it allows than for the number of barriers it actually eliminates; of the deal’s 340 pages, 133 were needed to list those exemptions.” The Montreal Economic Institute in 2023 counted a total of 245 exemptions across all provinces and territories.
Economist Trevor Tombe estimated that eliminating all interprovincial trade barriers would boost Canada’s economy by as much as 7.9% and generate an economic boost of $200 billion per year, or $5,100 per person.
Free trade in Canada will not be enough to displace the U.S. market, but this move by Poilievre will help start bringing home more business, and make Canada less dependent on forces and countries outside of our control. We must take back control of our lives and country. That means a Common Sense Conservative government that puts Canada First.