Thank you for helping us meet our fundraising goal!
Petroleum over country. For Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, that appears to be the guiding philosophy behind her unscheduled visit to Mar-a-Lago this week. Appearing as a guest of Kevin O’Leary, the television celebrity who openly petitioned for an economic union with the United States, Smith tried to sell incoming President Donald Trump on the value of exempting oil and gas from his promised tariffs. “Our job is going to be to work overtime to make sure that we can make the case for carve outs,” she said.
The good news here, if you can call it that, is that her pitch hasn’t worked yet. Exempting oil and gas might be good for Alberta’s oil and gas sector, but it would be disastrous for every other part of the Canadian economy — including Alberta’s agriculture and forestry sectors. Trump’s tariffs will raise the price of fuel in America, which in turn will pressure his administration to lift them. By exempting oil and gas, he could theoretically sustain the rest of the tariffs for much longer — and do far more damage to Canada in the process.
It’s not exactly surprising to see a quasi-separatist like Smith put Alberta and its oil and gas industry ahead of her own country. But for someone who never seems to tire of standing up to other levels of government, her appetite for pre-emptive surrender to the United States and Trump’s irrational demands is a bit jarring. “We need to be prepared that tariffs are coming,” Ms. Smith told reporters Monday morning. “The biggest irritant to the United States are trade deficits.”
Never mind, for the moment, that trade deficits aren’t inherently or automatically bad, or that America’s trade deficit with Canada is entirely the product of our oil and gas exports. What’s worse than Smith’s unwillingness to educate the American president is her apparent enthusiasm for indulging him. “I think the solution is that we find ways to buy more American goods,” she said. “I’ll put that on the table.”
Um, okay. There’s little the federal government could really do to force Canadian businesses to buy more American goods, and even if it could, it would almost certainly entail replacing made-in-Canada items. More to the point, the surest way to close the trade deficit is to reduce our exports of oil and gas to the United States — something Trump has mooted repeatedly — and sell more of it to ourselves. If this ends up with Danielle Smith and Pierre Poilievre promoting a repackaged version of the National Energy Program, it might almost be worth all the trouble.
Even so, it’s worth pointing out just how far Smith was willing to travel — politically as well as geographically — to bend the knee to Trump. She was, after all, the personal guest of Kevin O’Leary, someone who has been engaging of late in what might be described as light treason. As he told the CBC’s David Cochrane, he actively interfered with the sitting federal government and its attempts to negotiate on behalf of the country they represent. "I asked Trump to ignore those meetings [with Trudeau] because those people are going to get eradicated in the next election. I hope he took my advice.”
O’Leary’s attempt to cozy up to the incoming president has nothing to do with Canada. Instead, he’s reportedly trying to sell the incoming president on his bid to buy TikTok — and, simultaneously, the premier of Alberta on his fantastical idea for a $70-billion data centre (one that local Indigenous leaders say they found out about through a press release). Two birds, one stone.
But Smith’s clearly divided loyalties here ought to be a bigger issue. Her eagerness to sell out the rest of the country on behalf of the oil and gas industry is a stark contrast to the patriotism of one Stephen Harper, who now chairs the Alberta Investment Management Corporation. As the former prime minister said during a recent interview, "I have a real problem with some of the things Donald Trump is saying. It doesn't sound to me like the pronouncements of somebody ... who's a friend, a partner, and an ally, which is what I've always thought the United States is."
Nobody can question Harper’s affinity for the oil and gas industry. His government was dedicated to advancing its interests, even as it often ended up doing the opposite. Even so, Harper’s loyalties still extend beyond the narrowly-drawn vantage point of one sector of the Canadian economy. Smith, on the other hand, seems determined to sacrifice almost anything in order to protect that sector. It's worth wondering if there's anything she wouldn't surrender in order to serve it — and if Trump already knows that.
Comments
I feel like Smith is after the governor job!
Yeah, she's as shameless as Trump, like all "conservatives" now, and "quasi-separatist' might be too diplomatic when you look at her right-hand man, Rob Anderson's background.
Hiding in plain sight has shown itself to be the most effective strategy possible, the "slow-moving coup."
Danielle Smith is despicable, a traitor.
As for O'Leary, he's interfering in government relations. He's got no business "advocating" to foreign leaders on Canada's behalf.
In any kind of sane world, he could be charged with something that would teach him his Ps and Qs.
What do you mean "quasi-separatist" where's the evidence for quasi. The only question is whether she wants to have a state or her own country.
We are selling our oil to the USA at a discount; so imposing a tariff on oil will only bring its price to US customers closer to the international price. It will not really be a big pain for the USA if we reduce our subsidy to their country.
Since Trump is concerned with the trade imbalance, we should be trying to keep more of our oil to ourselves by increasing upgrading and refining in Canada and improving our East-west pipelines. E.g., an alternative to Line 5 that goes through the USA.
The difficulty is that our oil production facilities are owned by non-Canadians and financed by our own banks. Somehow, the Federal must change the rules so that our banks, chartered by Canada, align their business to help Canada, not foreigners. Could Carney do that?
What can/could be done and what will/would be done are two differrent things: remember that ultimately Carney is a globalist.
Ha! Good points on who's subsidizing WHO, and why hasn't that been the reply to Trump's charge?
Also good point on Carney and the banks, who BETTER to rein them in. That's making him look very much like the leader not only we desperately need, but also represents some "great white hope" for the beleaguered Americans. Probably contributed to why he was asked to come on "The Daily Show" (where he was clearly welcomed as a leader type WITH an all-important sense of humour/perspective btw), on Jen Psaki's show, AND on CNN with Jake Tapper. Try, just TRY and imagine Poilievre in any of those contexts, not to MENTION the G7.....the conservatives are pure bush league.
The "discount" narrative is a straw man. Alberta bitumen is low quality heavy oil full of heavy metals that requires an extra phase of refining -- at a cost -- to bring it up to usable synthetic crude. The so-called "discount" is in fact a fair price based on product quality and the related higher refining cost.
The fact more US-based refineries are taking on Alberta heavy oil and profiting immensely by capturing higher value added through the huge price differential between the raw feedstock and high value products like gasoline is a function of Alberta selling itself out to the oil industry. Nearly 80% of Alberta's carbon industry is majority foreign owned, and their corporate boardrooms have controlled Alberta for decades.
That "discount" is manufactured by the companies that own the US refineries enjoying a cheap feedstock. It was planned that way.
Fossil corporate ownership of the Alberta government is so ingrained it is invisible. Meanwhile, the rise of renewables globally will ensure Alberta's downfall will manifest itself sometime in the early 2030s. The more Danielle Smith et al fight it and deny the laws of physics (not to mention economics) the harder will be their fall.
Danielle Smith is a traitor period. Smith is a fake premier that was planted by the oil & gas industry to serve their needs and no one else. Everything she does is for the good of the oil & gas industry, at the expense and future of all Albertains and Canadians. She is a disgusting excuse as a human being.