Carney says lower internal trade barriers will help Canada more than Trump's tariffs will harm it

TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday eliminating trade barriers within Canada would benefit Canadians far more than U.S. President Donald Trump can ever take away with his trade war as he made his case to retain power at the last debate ahead of the April 28 vote.

Carney has set a goal of free trade within the country's 10 provinces and three territories by July 1. Canada has long had interprovincial trade barriers.

"We can give ourselves far more than Donald Trump can ever take away," Carney said “We can have one economy. This is within our grasp.”

Carney said the relationship Canada has had with the U.S. for the past 40 years has fundamentally changed because of Trump's tariffs. If reelected Carney plans to immediately enter into trade walks with the Trump administration.

“We are facing the biggest crisis of our lifetimes. Donald Trump is trying to fundamentally change the world economy, the trading system, but really is he's trying to break us so the U.S. can own us. They want our land, they want our resources, they our water, they want our country” Carney said in his closing statement. “I am ready and I have managed crisis over the years ... We will fight back with counter tariffs and we will protect our workers.”

Trump's trade war and threats to make Canada the 51st state have infuriated Canadians and led to a surge in Canadian nationalism that has bolstered Liberal Party poll numbers.

Opposition Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is imploring Canadians not to give the Liberals a fourth term. He hoped to make the election a referendum on Justin Trudeau, whose popularity declined toward the end of his decade in power as food and housing prices rose and immigration surged.

But Trump attacked, Trudeau resigned and Carney, a two-time central banker, became Liberal party leader and prime minister last month after a party leadership race.

“It maybe difficult, Mr. Poilievre, you spent years running against Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax and they are both gone,” Carney said. “I am a very different person than Justin Trudeau.”

Public opinion has changed. In a mid-January poll by Nanos, Liberals trailed the Conservative Party by 47% to 20%. In the latest Nanos poll released Thursday, the Liberals led by 5 percentage points. The January poll had a margin of error 3.1 points while the latest poll had a 2.7-point margin.

"We can’t afford a fourth Liberal term of rising housing costs," Poilievre said.

Poilievre accused Carney's Liberals of being hostile toward Canada’s energy sector and pipelines. He accused the Liberals of weakening the economy and vowed that a Conservative government would repeal “anti-energy laws, red tape and high taxes.”

“We need a change, and you, sir, are not a change,” Poilievre said in one exchange.