Canadians are facing the “biggest crisis” of their lifetimes, Mark Carney has warned.
But the prime minister also pledged “one economy” as he set out plans to counter 25% tariffs put in place by the US president.
“We can give ourselves far more than Donald Trump can ever take away,” he said during an English-language federal election debate in Montreal.
Mr Carney, who took over from Justin Trudeau and has been in office for little over a month, said he would reduce red tape for internal, domestic trade for Canadian businesses.
Canada has long had trade barriers between provinces, but the former governor of the Bank of England said he would try to implement free trade within the country’s 10 provinces and three territories by 1 July if re-elected on 28 April.
If his Liberal Party wins the election, he plans to begin trade talks with the Trump administration immediately.
But the situation is serious, he said as he debated fellow party leaders.
“We are facing the biggest crisis of our lifetimes,” Mr Carney said in his closing statement.
“Donald Trump is trying to fundamentally change the world economy, the trading system, but really he’s trying to break us so the US can own us.
“They want our land, they want our resources, they want our water, they want our country.
“I am ready and I have managed crises over the years. We will fight back with counter tariffs and we will protect our workers.”
The US president’s trade war and talk of making Canada the 51st US state have bolstered Liberal poll numbers.
In a survey in mid-January, the Liberals trailed the Conservative Party by 47% to 20%.
But in a poll released on Thursday, the Liberals led by five percentage points.
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Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is also vowing to cut red tape, as well as repealing “anti-energy laws and high taxes”.
He had been hoping to make the election a referendum on former leader Justin Trudeau, whose popularity declined towards the end of his decade in power after food and housing prices rose sharply and immigration surged.
But Mr Carney pointed out that things had changed.
“Mr Poilievre, you spent years running against Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax, and they are both gone,” he said.
“I am a very different person than Justin Trudeau.”
Mr Poilievre accused the Liberals of being hostile towards Canada’s energy sector and pipelines.
“We can’t afford a fourth Liberal term of rising housing costs,” he commented.
During Wednesday’s French-language leaders’ debate in Montreal, Mr Carney reminded the nation he has only been prime minister for a short time.
“We need change. You do not embody change,” Mr Poilievre said to Mr Carney.
Bloc Quebecois leader Yves-Francois Blanche, whose party is losing support to Mr Carney’s Liberals in Quebec, agreed, saying the Liberals are the same party, the same ministers and the same politicians and a new leader does not change that.
