The Canadian House of Commons approved a new free trade agreement with Ukraine yesterday. All MPs voted in favor of the agreement, except for the Conservative Party MPs who form the official opposition in the House.

The Minister of International Trade in the Liberal government, Mary Ng, spoke about the ''updated free trade agreement that will allow Canadian companies to participate more effectively in the reconstruction of Ukraine''.

For their part, the Conservatives said they support Ukraine, but they oppose this agreement in protest of its provisions regarding carbon pricing.

The agreement calls on both Ukraine and Canada to encourage carbon pricing.

The carbon pricing system was established in Canada in 2019, while Ukraine began carbon pricing in 2011.

''It is absolutely unacceptable to exploit this opportunity at a moment of weakness experienced by a country in need of help to try to impose (the government's) ideological program,'' said Conservative MP Luc Berthold, who represents a district in Quebec and serves as deputy leader of the official opposition.

Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre avoided saying whether he believes Canada is sending more aid to Ukraine than necessary.

This position supports the argument of the ruling Liberal Party, which accuses the Conservative leader of being influenced in his ideas and policies by the U.S. Republican Party, the right-wing party that obstructs granting aid to Ukraine.

In this context, yesterday Liberal MP Ivan Baker, who represents a district in Toronto, said the Conservatives ''have abandoned'' Ukraine.

But Poilievre rather saw the solution to helping Ukraine lying in exploiting fossil fuels.

''We have one trillion cubic feet of natural gas,'' said the Conservative leader, considering that Canada should sell more of this natural gas to European countries so that they can reduce their dependence on Russian energy.

To support Ukraine militarily, Poilievre proposed that Canada send its old artillery shells to Ukraine, arguing that this is a way to continue supporting Ukraine at a lower cost.

''This will save us money, actually, because destroying these shells would be costly. We give them to Ukraine to fight Russia. Will that cost us much? No,'' said Poilievre.

A decline in public support for Canadian support for Ukraine
The House of Commons vote yesterday coincided with a new poll conducted by the ''Angus Reid'' Institute showing that public support for the aid Canada provides to Ukraine is dwindling, especially among Conservative voters.

The poll conducted in late January showed that 25% of Canadians believe their country is doing more than necessary to help Ukraine in its war against Russia.

This percentage rises among Conservative voters to 43%, up from 19% in May 2022, just three months after the start of the large-scale Russian military invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian community in Canada is concerned that this decline in public support will have negative effects on the Canadian government's commitments to Ukraine.

But Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly, returning from a visit to the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, hastened to affirm that the Canadian government's support for Ukraine remains steadfast.