Madam Speaker, I have no doubt that many Canadians are watching tonight's debate with a great deal of anxiety for the threat that is facing our country and our economy. Jobs, workers' paycheques and the ability for people to pay their mortgage depend on trade. Canada is a nation that depends on being able to sell what we grow and what we produce here to other countries around the world. We simply do not have the population to consume what we can produce. That is because we are so good at producing things. We are so good at extracting our natural resources at the highest environmental and ethical standards. Our skilled trades, machinists and factory workers are so good at what they do that we can produce far more than we need for ourselves.
Having an extremely long and undefended border, the longest undefended border in the world, being neighbours with a like-minded democracy that was built on the rule of law, human rights and, most importantly, free market capitalism where the voluntary exchange of goods and services, not just between individuals but between our countries, has dramatically increased the quality of life both here and in the United States to such a degree that people from around the world of all different faiths, races, ethnicities and cultures have come to Canada. They do not come to Canada for the weather. They come to Canada because of the opportunity and the basis of our society that we have built.
The reason why people are so anxious right now is because they have seen the track record of the Prime Minister in dealing with President-elect Trump. The first time the Prime Minister had to go toe to toe, head to head with President-elect Trump, he was forced to capitulate and accept concession after concession after concession; forced to accept concessions on agricultural products; forced to accept a deal that did not protect Canadian steelworkers from tariffs from the United States; forced to accept a deal that was silent, that did not offer any protection to forestry workers with a softwood lumber deal as part of it; and forced to accept the humiliating concession that the Prime Minister was unable to get an exemption from the buy American provisions.
After such a terrible track record the first time Canada faced tariffs from the U.S. administration, there is good reason to be worried right now. That is just on trade. One of the things that a country can do to protect itself in a potential trade conflict is to make our own economy strong. When investors and business owners are fighting with each other to get into Canadian markets, it is less likely that their home country would want to get in the way of that trade. What the Prime Minister has done is to put Canada in such an incredibly weak position. Our economy was weak yesterday before these potential tariffs were even announced, and now the Prime Minister is heading into a negotiation period in a position of extreme vulnerability.
Let us just take a look at some of the facts.
In Canada, the GDP per capita is now smaller than it was before the Prime Minister took office. That means the only thing that is even remotely keeping our GDP numbers in a positive trend is the fact that our population is growing, but each individual Canadian is poorer today and produces less value today because of the Prime Minister's terrible economic vandalism. Just look at some of the things that he has done. He has imposed a devastating carbon tax on the Canadian economy. The United States does not have a carbon tax. As he quadruples that carbon tax, the difference between our economy and the U.S. economy will be even larger. Why would an investor say they would like to build something in Windsor and pay 61¢ a litre when they can build that factory in Detroit and pay zero cents a litre for a carbon tax?
That is why it is so puzzling that the NDP member for Windsor West, who pretends to be worried about this issue, consistently supports the Liberal plan to hike, to quadruple, the carbon tax. How many more businesses and jobs, how much more money, will flow south of the border as that carbon tax gets higher?
Food prices have grown 37% faster in Canada than in the United States. That is because the Prime Minister devalued the Canadian dollar by forcing the Bank of Canada to print hundreds of billions of dollars to cover his deficits and wasteful spending. What happens when we print money out of thin air? We have more dollars chasing fewer goods and prices go up. Inflation has hit food prices here in Canada far worse than in the United States.
Our national debt has grown by over 100% in a decade. That means the government has to go out into markets to borrow money. That is an important fact as well, because when the government borrows money it competes with the private sector. When business owners, factory owners and entrepreneurs go out and borrow some money to start up a business, scale up a business, expand to a second location or add another product line, they have to go out and compete with the government to borrow that money. When the government gobbles up a lot of the available funds, it drives up the borrowing costs for everybody else, including individuals.
It is not just large business owners who have to pay higher borrowing costs when the government goes out and scoops up all the available cash for itself. Our mortgage payment is going to be higher because of all that government borrowing. If somebody has a dollar to lend, to lend it to an individual is a greater risk than to lend it to a government entity, which is viewed as having a much more secure backing, so they have to pay a premium to borrow that dollar too. The government's deficits directly have an impact on Canadian borrowers, which include business owners and individuals with mortgages.
Where I am going with all of this is that by weakening the Canadian economy, there are fewer people around the globe fighting to get into Canada. We only need to develop this thought exercise: Would Canada ever slap these kinds of tariffs unilaterally on the United States? Of course not, because it would risk our markets to sell our products into. Canada has a weaker economy, our people are poorer, and there are fewer opportunities here and fewer investments that can turn a profit, add to growth and create jobs, which means there are fewer people in the United States fighting to protect access to our markets. The Prime Minister's devastating and humiliating failure the first time he had to face President Trump is a big reason people are concerned today.
A couple of issues aside from economics have been the subject of debate. What I have heard many Canadians asking in the last 24 hours is this: Why did it take the president-elect of the United States to call out the government's inaction on dealing with the fentanyl and opioid crisis? The Prime Minister should want to get fentanyl off our streets for Canadians, out of concern for the grieving mothers, fathers, husbands and wives who have lost people to this horrible addiction.
We have presented comprehensive plans to help stem the tide of illegal drugs coming into Canada, with more inspections and better tools for law enforcement. The government not only ignores it but doubles down on its failed approach to make bail easier for those criminals. It even went so far as to use the tax dollars of Canadians to fund government-paid-for opioids, which the police say now show up in our communities all the time, all across the country.
At the border, we have had, in the last few months, under the Prime Minister, terrorists associated with al Qaeda and ISIS coming into Canada. It should not take a president of the United States to call attention to that. A Canadian prime minister should want to solve that problem on their own.
All that is to say it is quite clear that what this episode in the last few days has shown us is that we need a Prime Minister with the brains and the backbone to put Canada first. As the Leader of the Opposition said earlier this evening, Canada first, Canada always and Canada forever.