Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed “MAGA-influenced thinking” on Friday after members of his country’s Conservative Party rejected a new trade deal with war-torn Ukraine.
“The real story is the rise of a right-wing, American MAGA-influenced thinking that has made Canadian Conservatives — who used to be among the strongest defenders of Ukraine, I’ll admit it — turn their backs on something Ukraine needs in its hour of need,” Trudeau said Friday.
The legislation, an update to Canada’s free trade agreement with Ukraine, passed anyway, but was opposed by 109 Conservative MPs earlier this week over claims that it would force Ukraine to impose a carbon tax.
Trudeau, a member of the Liberal Party, denounced the Conservative concerns as “ridiculous.”
“To see the Conservative Party of Canada decide not to support Ukraine with something they need with the absurd excuse that it’s because Ukraine is going to put a price on pollution, is ridiculous,” the prime minister said.
Canada is home to the second-largest Ukrainian diaspora after Russia. Some 1.4 million Canadians are of Ukrainian descent.
This week’s parliamentary vote marked the first time that multi-party support for Ukrainian relief has been absent since Russia’s invasion.
“I really think it speaks to how pathologically obsessed Trudeau is with the carbon tax that, while the knife is at the throat of Ukrainians, he would use that to impose his carbon tax ideology on those poor people,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Thursday.
“The last thing they need is a carbon tax when they’re trying to rebuild from war, and from this illegal invasion by Russia,” he added.
Trudeau accused politicians in the US, Europe and Canada opposed to continuing to provide aid for Ukraine of “starting to parrot Russian disinformation and misinformation and propaganda.”
Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner, has argued that opposing Russia in Ukraine is not a vital US strategic interest, but is for Europe.
“That is why Europe should be paying far more than we are, or equal,” he told Tucker Carlson earlier this year.
Canada has authorized more than $800 million in military assistance for Ukraine this year.
Trudeau has previously accused American politics of influencing Canadian public opinion.
Earlier this year, the prime minister blamed the “American right wing” for Canadian Muslims’ opposition to gender ideology and LGBTQ curriculum in K-12 education.