Building Leverage Abroad With Free Trade Among Free Nations
At the request of the distinguished Centre for Policy Studies, the Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, the Hon. Pierre Poilievre, will be delivering the 2026 Margaret Thatcher speech tomorrow at 2pm ET (7pm local time) at the Institute of Directors in London, and expand on the themes below. Livestream details will be sent tomorrow morning.
London, UK – After delivering a keynote speech in Toronto on making Canada stronger at home for unbreakable leverage abroad, today, the Hon. Pierre Poilievre, Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition and the Conservative Party of Canada, delivered his plan to secure freer trade with free nations and build greater bonds between old friends.
As part of that plan, Poilievre unveiled new proposals that will forge a new partnership between Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom that will open our economies, remove barriers and lower prices and boost wages. It is called CANZUK. It includes:
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- Automatic professional recognition – so a doctor, nurse, or engineer licensed in one country could practice in all four. That would strengthen health care and key services across our countries. It would require Canada’s provinces to sign on – but they need doctors. If someone can perform heart surgery in Sydney, Australia, they should be able to do so in Sydney, Nova Scotia.
- Regulatory presumption of equivalence – so a product approved in one country is approved in all four. If a drug or auto part is safe in London, England, it should be safe in London, Ontario.
- A skilled mobility framework – making it easier for high-skilled workers to move among our four countries, filling shortages and boosting economic growth at home.
- Defence procurement integration – teaming up to ensure more competition and better collaboration, delivering stronger capabilities to our armed forces at better value for taxpayers.
- A critical minerals and energy compact. Minerals are the building blocks of modern defence. Affordable energy defeats poverty and builds the middle class. Canada has these resources – and we want them to power our allies.
- Under my leadership, Canada will create an Energy and Critical Minerals Reserve, available to our allies at commercial prices in the event of conflict. This could form part of CANZUK.
- There is also an opportunity for nuclear energy cooperation. Canada has some of the largest uranium reserves in the world. We invented the CANDU reactor. We will partner with trusted allies to strengthen their energy security.
- We should also strike an LNG supply arrangement with the UK, with Canada committing to permit the private-sector terminals and pipelines needed to meet Britain’s future LNG demand.
He said: “For Canada to be affordable and stronger at home, it needs more trading partners with deeper links. A CANZUK alliance with Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom will diversify our trade and relationships and contribute to unbreakable leverage elsewhere. More competition equals lower prices and better products. It also means less reliance on one market.”