‘Never confuse our kindness with weakness’: Ten key quotes from Pierre Poilievre’s Canada First rally speech

Last Saturday, Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre held a large “Canada First” rally in Ottawa amid a shifting political climate in Canada driven by U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats of tariffs and annexation.

In addition to challenging historic trade relations, Trump’s threats have also cast doubt on the notion that Poilievre will handily win the next election. Some recent polls have suggested that Poilievre’s previous 30-point lead over the Liberals may have evaporated and that Liberal leadership race front-runner Mark Carney could stand a chance at winning.

Conservatives, in an attempt to adjust to this reality, chose the “Canada First” rally as the pivotal place to do that.

The Hub has compiled a list of Poilievre’s key quotes from the speech he gave at the rally.

1. His case against a Canada-U.S. trade war 

“So let me spell out the possibilities for our American friends, and speak directly to them.

Option one. You can carry out an unprovoked attack on our economy. Your consumers will pay more, and your workers will make less. Gas prices will skyrocket. You will turn a loyal friend into a resentful neighbour forced to match tariff with tariff and to seek friends everywhere else. Both our countries’ economies will weaken, leaving less money for defence and security. And our enemies will grow stronger.

Option two. We trade even more than we are now. Both our workers make more, and our consumers pay less. The resulting GDP boost allows Canada to further strengthen the border and up our military spending to two percent of GDP faster. We stop fentanyl, terrorists, supersonic missiles, and other threats. We team up against the unfair trading practices of other countries. Both [our countries] will end up safer, stronger, and richer.”

2. America should not confuse Canadian kindness with weakness 

“At times, we might be too polite, soft-spoken, and humble for our own good. We are slow to anger and quick to forgive. But never confuse our kindness with weakness.

We love our country and our flag. We are a strong people with a proud history as a warrior nation, whose soldiers have proven fierce enough to crush the fascists, the communists, and Al-Qaeda, yet humble enough to never once brag about their heroism. We are mild-mannered and made of steel.

So let me be clear. We will never be the 51st state. We will bear any burden and pay any price to protect the sovereignty and independence of our country.”

3. Conservatives were “right on everything” 

“The media is now saying that I should change my entire platform because of this tariff threat. In fact, the Trump tariff threats have proven Conservatives right on everything.

Everyone now admits, or they claim to admit, that Conservatives were right on the Liberal capital gains tax hike, that Conservatives were right on the carbon tax, on pipelines, on LNG, on fentanyl, the border, immigration, and the need to celebrate rather than cancel our proud history and country.”

4. Doubling down on axing the tax 

“Before the tariff threats, we were talking about a carbon tax election. But now with these threats I have to concede I’ve had to reflect on whether it is a top-of-mind issue, and after much reflection, I have concluded that the carbon tax will be an even bigger issue in the coming election.

…Combining Trump’s tariffs with Carney’s carbon tax will decimate our industries and destroy the jobs of our workers.”

5. Fixing our border

“While people can’t currently bring alcohol across Canada, they can easily traffic deadly doses of fentanyl, guns and illegal migration into Canada. We must take back control of crime, drugs, and the border from the radical borderless woke ideology of the Carney-Trudeau Liberals.”

6. Taking shots at Liberal drug and environmental policies 

“They ban you from using a plastic straw but allow you to use cocaine. So next time you’re snorting up, just make sure you use a paper straw to save the world.

…Do you think that we could build the Canadian Pacific Railway today, or would there be some squeaky radical protester chaining himself to a tree, like Minister [Steven] Guilbeault?

…Imagine if they did this much damage before the tariffs, how dangerous they would be after the tariffs.”

7. Purging the military of identity politics

“Canada will honour its men and women in uniform. The patriotic men and women of the Forces will have the tools they need to defend our country, and our military will be guided by a warrior culture, not a woke culture.”

8. Rebuilding statues of Sir John A. Macdonald

“We will celebrate rather than tear down our heroes in history. We will defeat this insidious and divisive cancel culture that has sought to destroy our national pride and monuments. They have even tried to destroy the great founder of this country, John A. Macdonald. Well, I have a message for them: if there were no John A. Macdonald, there would be no Canada.

Under a Conservative government, I promise you, we will build new statues and name new public structures after the great founding prime minister of our country.

…We will add new Criminal Code penalties for anyone caught tearing down or defacing our statues and monuments.”

9. Deporting radicalized temporary residents, making active citizens

“Hate crimes are up 251 percent in nine years. Places of worship are firebombed and shot at. And, for the first time, the world’s problems are spilling onto our streets. That must end. And when I am prime minister it will end.

Laws will be enforced. People who engage in this activity will be locked up and they will pay a serious price. Those who are visiting the country on a visa who are not citizens or permanent residents that engage in hateful violence will be deported from the country.

… And we will add the following words to the existing [citizenship] oath: “I pledge gratitude to those who worked, sacrificed, and gave their lives to defend the freedom I now enjoy and to build the country of Canada I now call home. Like them, I pledge to fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.”

10. Building Canada wasn’t easy, securing its future won’t be either 

“Making Canada was hard. Those [who] built and defended our country through sacrifice and struggle… did not go that far and travel that long so we could take the easy way out and give up. Like them, we are part of something bigger than ourselves; we are in this together. We are at this place, at this time, because we have a job to do. To pass on intact what we inherited from those who came before us to those who come after us.”