Poilievre vows to fulfill Sir John A. Macdonald’s vision of Canadian economic union

Pierre Poilievre pledged to establish an economic union between provinces, reducing reliance on the U.S., and fulfilling the vision of Canada’s father of Confederation.

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In a recent election ad, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre pledged to establish an economic union between provinces by building pipelines across Canada, reducing reliance on the U.S., and fulfilling the vision of Canada’s father of Confederation.

Poilievre announced his plan to unify Canada’s energy sector, in a video paying homage to Sir John A. Macdonald’s vision of a free trade union between provinces on Monday.

“Prime Minister, could you get the railway built today?” Poilievre said to a bust of Canada’s first prime minister. “Let’s not forget why John A. wanted an east-west railway. It’s so that we wouldn’t be so dependent on the Americans. But today, with the United States threatening tariffs, we need east-west trade more than ever before, and building that kind of project would be impossible.”

He took jabs at the Liberal candidate and Carney’s cabinet minister Steven Gilbeault for being arrested twice for climbing the CN tower and climbing the roof of Alberta Premier Ralph Klein‘s private residence while protesting energy projects.

He noted that last year Gilbeault on behalf of the Liberal government, declared they wouldn’t build any new roads. After facing backlash, the Liberals later clarified that no major road projects would be invested in.

He said Canada has strayed far since Macdonald’s vision of leaving dependence on the U.S. behind in favour of a strengthened East to West free trade partnership.

“If you want to figure out how far back we’ve gone since John A’s National Railway, consider this to transport Alberta Oil to Quebec, it needs to go through the United States pipelines south of the border. That gives the Americans the power to cut off Canadians from our own energy supply,” Poilievre said before turning back to Macdonald’s statue. “It must hurt you to hear that doesn’t it? unbelievable.”

Poilievre said having that kind of control over Canada’s own oil “brings a smile to Donald Trump’s face” because “he smells weakness” from Liberal leadership in Canada.

“Worse than that, Liberals are actually forcing Canadians to fund Vladimir Putin’s War Machine despite promised sanctions on Russian oil,” Poilievre added. “Canada is now even more dependent on fossil fuels from Russia.”

As Bloomberg reported, a Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air report found that Canada imported US$200 million worth of Russian crude oil in 2024, despite sanctions against Russia.

Poilievre said If Canada had more pipelines and refineries, it could phase out Russian imports altogether, and with a pipeline from west to east, Canada could replace Europe’s dependence on Russian oil and make “billions of dollars.”

We could also make hundreds of billions of dollars piping Western oil to the east coast and then shipping it over the Atlantic, breaking European dependence on Putin and turning dollars for dictators into paychecks for our people.

He vowed to hire ministers who would break down barriers to streamlining energy and infrastructure projects and repeal Bill C-69, the “no-new pipelines” act.

He said that he would preapprove energy projects, rail lines, power lines, and “other resource infrastructure” that fall under pre-set safety and environment regulations. He said the new “Canada First Energy Corridor” would provide potential investors with certainty that their projects would be ready to build immediately.

He said the plan would ensure that all levels of government have provided legally binding commitments to approve projects within them. He said First Nations would be involved “from the outset,” ensuring that economic benefits flow directly to them and that First Nations approve of the projects before money is spent.

“We will break our dependence on the US and become more attached to our fellow compatriots across Canada, and we will seek to honour the legacy of John A Macdonald and his railway by adding pipelines, power lines, roads and rail that bind our country together,” he said. “One nation bound into a united country self-reliant, sovereign standing on our own two feet, we will put Canada first.”

Before the election writ dropped, Poilievre held a “Canada First rally” in Ottawa where he pledged to “end cancel culture and stop the war” on Canada’s history by restoring Macdonald’s statues.

He said he would build new statues of Sir John A Macdonald, use his name for public places and strengthen penalties for destroying or damaging statues and monuments. Since 2020, statues of the Macdonald have been targeted by left-wing activists.

True North published a children’s book, “A Day with Sir John A.” combating the anti-Macdonald movement while educating on the positive contributions Macdonald gave to the dominion of Canada.