Conservatives plan national campaign against federal electric vehicle mandates

OTTAWA — Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has set his sights on Canada’s electric vehicle mandate, pledging Thursday that his party will embark on a national campaign to push the Liberal government to scrap the policy he’s dubbed the “Carney tax.”

Poilievre led the charge as the Conservatives relentlessly attacked the consumer carbon price over the last two years, with the Liberals admitting the Tory tactics swayed public opinion and forced them to end the so-called carbon tax earlier this year.

Now the Conservative leader claims the Liberal EV mandates “would literally erase many small towns from the map.”

“(Prime Minister) Mark Carney’s promised to ban your gas truck and car, a ban that begins phasing in just months from today. It will kill jobs, balloon costs, and grind rural communities to a halt,” Poilievre said at a press conference on a farm in the rural municipality of Corman Park, just outside Saskatoon.

The zero-emission vehicle mandate, which is set to take effect in 2026, does not ban gas-powered vehicles. Rather it will require that 20 per cent of all light-duty vehicles sold in Canada next year be zero-emission vehicles, which includes fully electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, which use gas and battery power. That number is set to rise annually until it hits 100 per cent of new vehicle sales by 2035.

Manufacturers that do not meet the target can face a $20,000 penalty for each vehicle they sell over the cap, a charge that Poilievre is calling “the Carney tax” and saying it will be passed on to consumers.

Those penalties are being phased in. The program is set up so that vehicle manufacturers can obtain credits by doing things like selling zero-emission vehicles before the targets kick in or building EV charging infrastructure to avoid paying a penalty for missing the cap.

The vehicle manufacturing industry has pushed back against the mandates in recent months. The industry says with U.S. tariffs on automakers and the end of government sales incentive programs, “there is no longer a pathway” to hit the 20 per cent benchmark next year.

The most recent data from Statistics Canada shows EVs accounted for 7.86 per cent of all new vehicles sold in May. That number dropped significantly after the federal rebate program, which offered $5,000 off the cost of a new electric vehicle, ran out of money earlier this year.

In December 2024, the month before the rebate was paused, the share of electric vehicles peaked at 18.3 per cent.

Sales dipped to 11.95 per cent in January, then to 6.53 per cent in March, before climbing slightly in April and May.

Several federal ministers have indicated the government plans to bring back a form of consumer rebate for EVs. The Liberals promised that during the election campaign, but haven’t provided a timeline for it — much to the irritation of car dealers, who say such promises are hurting their EV sales numbers as customers await the return of the government subsidies before making their next purchase.

Poilievre called the EV mandate “ideological” and said the Tories plan to push for its termination through public events, petitions and motions in the House of Commons.

“Consumers should be free to choose the car or truck that they drive,” he said.

He cited a recent study from the Canadian Automobile Association, which tested the range of electric vehicles in winter temperatures and found that their battery power dropped quickly in below-zero conditions, and the tested vehicles drove up to 39 per cent less than their official range.

“What Mark Carney was doing by banning gas vehicles is he is banning the rural way of life,” Poilievre said.

A poll from Leger earlier this month suggested 71 per cent of Canadians feel it’s unrealistic to phase out the sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2035, and think the mandates should be rolled back.

Conservative voters were the most likely to be opposed to the EV mandate, with only 11 per cent saying they felt the target is necessary and should be kept despite the challenges. A full 41 per cent of Liberal voters reported feeling the same way.

With EV sales slumping in the last year, 48 per cent of respondents said they felt the low uptake was a result of electric cars still being too expensive, even with government subsidies. Thirty-nine per cent said the low sales were because of a lack of charging infrastructure.

Leger surveyed 1,617 Canadians between Aug. 1-4. Because the poll was conducted online, it can’t be assigned a margin of error.

In a statement responding to Poilievre’s planned campaign against the EV mandates, a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Minister Julie Dabrusin said the government is “continuing to meaningfully engage with industry and explore flexibility to make sure that our measures reflect (the) times we are in.”

The Conservatives’ push to end the consumer carbon price tapped into the frustrations felt by many Canadians with the rising cost of living and inflation. Poilievre and his caucus rallied around the slogan “axe the tax,” which became such a common refrain it was uttered by Tory MPs more than 300 times in the House of Commons during the 56-day fall sitting last year.

Carney ended the consumer carbon price just a couple of hours after he was sworn in as prime minister in March, telling reporters the government’s climate policy had become “too divisive” and that Poilievre fuelled misinformation about the carbon price.

— With files from Nick Murray

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 14, 2025.

Sarah Ritchie, The Canadian Press