Poilievre went to Detroit to pitch tariff-free trade. He met everyone except the people who decide.

Pierre Poilievre took his trade fight to Detroit on Tuesday, crossing from a brief stop on the Windsor riverfront to tour a General Motors facility in Detroit and Ford's Rouge plant in Dearborn, and sitting down with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. He capped the trip with an appearance on CNN's The Lead with Jake Tapper, pitching Americans directly on tearing down trade barriers.

But one detail stands out: according to the Windsor Star, Poilievre did not announce any plans to meet U.S. government officials. The audience was business leaders, workers and the American public — a public-relations campaign, not a negotiation.

The pitch itself is ambitious: a "Tariff-Free Auto Pact" with a goal of getting Canada back to building 2 million cars a year. Canada built 1.2 million last year, down from 2.3 million in 2016, per figures cited in his plan. The stakes are real: the U.S. has a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian autos, and Trump has threatened to double it to 50 per cent on Jan. 1 in response to Canada's counter-tariffs, the Canadian Press reports.

The trip also carried a political edge. Trump's adviser Peter Navarro recently warned Canada would "pay a price" for interfering in the midterms; Poilievre insists his visit ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms isn't meddling — "we're going there to fight for tariff-free trade on both sides of the border and Americans want lower prices and more jobs." Next stop: he's due in Calgary on Friday to campaign for the remain side alongside Premier Danielle Smith — tying the Detroit trip directly to Monday's Alberta vote.