DETROIT, Mich. — Canadian Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre crossed into Detroit on Tuesday, Oct. 13, to press for tariff-free trade between Canada and the United States, with a focus on the auto industry that ties the two sides of the Detroit River together.
Before crossing the border, Poilievre held a news conference on the Windsor riverfront with Conservative members of Parliament from Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent. The group planned to meet with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and visit the General Motors plant in Detroit and the Ford Rouge Plant in Dearborn.
The trip came during the House of Commons week-long Thanksgiving recess. Poilievre is promoting his party’s Tariff-Free Auto Pact, which he first unveiled in Windsor in March after a closed-door meeting in Detroit with auto industry leaders and elected representatives. His office said he would meet with American business leaders and speak to Americans through media interviews.
The plan rests on five platforms, including bringing production home, protecting the North American supply chain, a shared North American cybersecurity and data standard, standing firm against unfair trade practices and removing the GST from Canadian-made vehicles.
The U.S. now has a 25 percent tariff on Canadian autos, which President Donald Trump has threatened to raise to 50 percent on Jan. 1. Trade is also a central issue in Michigan’s U.S. Senate race, where Republican Mike Rogers said in a debate last week with Democrat Abdul El-Sayed that he wants a deal with Canada and that current tariffs are too high.
