Canada needs to stop negotiating with the United States as though preserving access to US markets is its only option, Green Party candidate Dr. Shelley Luce said Friday. Luce called for Canada to use its economic leverage while building an economy less vulnerable to future tariff threats.

Luce, who is running to be the next Member of Parliament in North Vancouver–Capilano, was joined by Green Party of Canada Leader Elizabeth May and former Green MP and international trade critic Paul Manly as the deadline to finalize a new US-Canada trade deal to avoid threatened tariff hikes loomed.

“We all want Canada to get the best possible deal, but we need to stop behaving as though the US holds all the cards,” said Luce. “Canada has resources and expertise that the US needs. We should use that leverage.”

Luce said that in order to be less dependent on one trading partner, Canada needs to move away from exporting raw resources and instead use those resources to grow our economy.

“Canadians want to see more manufacturing here. We can make more of the products we need and create good-paying, stable jobs,” said Luce. “Instead of exporting raw resources and importing higher value products, we should keep more of that investment and employment here at home. That’s how we build an economy that can withstand future tariff threats instead of being thrown into crisis.”

May said Canada should create strategic reserves for key resources, such as potash.

“The United States needs what Canada has,” said May. “Strategic reserves would give us another tool to manage resources that are in global demand, use them domestically when needed and strengthen our position with international trading partners. We have strategic reserves for maple syrup, why not potash and aluminum? We can support key industries and build new ones, growing our economic sovereignty and giving us real choices about who we trade with and on what terms.”

“Greens will always be constructive in our efforts to work as a key part of Team Canada,” May continued. “We do not underestimate the difficult job Canadian negotiators have faced dealing with an erratic and unreliable trading partner.  We agree with the prime minister’s main directive that no deal is better than a bad deal. We must not let the US president’s self-imposed deadlines and habit of brinksmanship push us to cave when we need to stand united.”

Manly, who served as the Green Party’s international trade critic from 2015-2021, said Canada’s economic vulnerability is the result of decades of trade and investment decisions that prioritized foreign ownership and raw resource exports over Canadian production.

“Successive Conservative and Liberal governments have locked Canada into trade agreements    and foreign investment schemes that have made Canada a branch plant for foreign corporations,” said Manly. “We need to learn from these mistakes and move away from a foreign-owned and controlled resource extraction economy to a Canadian-owned and Canadian-controlled value-added economy.”

Manly went on to say that Canada should also consider export tariffs on key resources that the United States needs, alongside efforts to expand value-added processing and diversifying trade.

A new Leger poll found that 56% of Canadians want the federal government to take a hard line in the current negotiations and make no further concessions to the US. The poll also found strong support for using Canadian exports as leverage.

“This issue is bigger than whatever deal gets signed right now,” said Luce. “Canadians are living with too much uncertainty, wondering what the next threat from Washington will mean for their livelihoods and their cost of living. We need to build an economy that is less vulnerable to US economic pressures and ensure that in the future the US has a lot less power over us.”

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