Prime Minister Mark Carney met Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in Ottawa on Wednesday for talks focused on the state of the Canadian economy, days after Poilievre secured renewed backing as party leader in a leadership review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Prime Minister\u2019s Office did not issue a public readout of the meeting. Ahead of the discussion, a government source said Carney planned to raise measures in the budget implementation legislation, including funding tied to dental care and child care, as well as government bills aimed at tightening bail and sentencing and strengthening protections for places of worship from threats and hate-motivated violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking to reporters afterward, Poilievre said he urged Carney to work with the Conservatives to \u201cfast-track results\u201d on affordability, public safety and what he called a more \u201cself-reliant\u201d Canada. He said his party had \u201cconcrete proposals\u201d and a record of being willing to cooperate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Poilievre also criticised Carney over the status of Canada\u2019s trade relationship with the United States, saying the prime minister had previously promised to secure a deal by July and arguing Ottawa should move quickly to remove what he described as unjust tariffs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He said Canada needed to be more self-reliant to negotiate with U.S. President Donald Trump \u201cfrom a position of strength,\u201d and pointed to the need for faster approvals for major resource and infrastructure projects, including a proposed pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The meeting followed the Conservative Party\u2019s leadership review vote at its annual convention in Calgary, where more than 87% of participating members supported Poilievre remaining leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Carney-Poilievre meeting came as Conservative MP Jamil Jivani\u2019s trip to Washington to meet political and business contacts drew skepticism in Ottawa. Carney noted publicly that Jivani is not the minister responsible for international trade and is not the Conservatives\u2019 trade critic, while confirming that Canada-U.S. Trade Minister Dominic LeBlanc briefed Jivani ahead of the visit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jivani has described the trip as an effort to help build communication channels between Canada and the United States and is known to be a longtime friend of U.S. Vice-President JD Vance, according to the same report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Carney\u2019s government has not provided details of what was agreed in Wednesday\u2019s meeting, but both sides publicly framed it as an opportunity to coordinate on economic priorities and Canada\u2019s approach to U.S. trade pressure.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Prime Minister Mark Carney met Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in Ottawa on Wednesday for talks focused on the state of the Canadian economy, days after Poilievre secured renewed backing as party leader in a leadership review. The Prime Minister\u2019s Office did not issue a public readout of the meeting. Ahead of the discussion, a government […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-814","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\n