It may have taken him more than a year, but Pierre Poilievre has finally come up with an answer to US President Donald Trump. In his ongoing attempt to pivot away from the pompous petulance that had defined his brand of politics, the Conservative leader tried something other than attacking the government. Instead, he proposed a solution to the trade war with Trump’s America: nostalgia. 

Poilievre’s proposal, one he laid out at a press conference in Windsor last week, revolves around restoring the terms of a deal struck between Canada and the United States more than 60 years ago: “For every car produced in Canada, the same manufacturer would get to sell a car in Canada duty-free from a CUSMA partner on a dollar-for-dollar basis similar to the 1965 Canada–US Auto Pact,” Poilievre proposed. 

Under Poilievre’s back-to-the-future vision, the restoration of tariff-free trade with the United States would restore Canadian auto production to two million vehicles per year from its current level of 1.2 million — or, as Poilievre put it, “doubling production.” Here’s the problem (beyond the generous math, that is): the Trump administration has repeatedly stated it has no interest in tariff-free trade with Canada. Instead, it has reaffirmed its intent to destroy Canada’s auto sector. “I want to build the cars here, not in Canada. We used to build cars in Canada. Now … the........

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