In the face of the abject failure of Danielle Smith’s appeasement tour of Mar-a-Lago and Washington D.C. last month, Alberta’s premier has declared victory with the fatuous claim the Trump Tariffs imposed on Canadian oil and gas are only 10 per cent thanks to her.
“We note the reduced 10 per cent tariff for Canadian energy,” she sniffed in an official statement Saturday on the Alberta Government website that urged a supine response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff war on Canada. “That is partially a recognition of the advocacy undertaken by our government and industry to the U.S. Administration.”
No it isn’t. If it’s anything, it’s recognition of panicked calls from Republican donors with money in some of those Midwest refineries that have been tooled up to handle tarsands dilbit.
It’s hard to argue with NDP Opposition Leader Naheed Nenshi’s assessment: “Danielle Smith’s Washington D.C. selfie tour and balls-and-parties charm offensive has failed every Albertan and every Canadian.”
But in Danielle’s World, all other exports from Canada to the United States will deservingly have harsh 25-per-cent tariffs slapped on them by the premier’s political and ideological hero because of the failure of their premiers and the federal government to adopt her collaborationist strategy of surrendering before the negotiations even begin.
If you want to know what Alberta’s thoroughly MAGAfied United Conservative Party Government really thinks of Mr. Trump’s declaration of trade war, consider the gleeful tone of her chief of staff’s tweet yesterday.
“Dear Rest of Canada,” gloated Rob Anderson, who is also a co-author of the separatist Free Alberta Strategy. “Are you ready to build Energy East and Northern Gateway yet? How about cutting absurd taxes and anti resource development laws to be more competitive? Or are we just going to sit back and listen to this sitting down while wrapped in the flag? Tick Tock.”
Mr. Anderson included an image of a Trump tweet about how “Canada should be come our cherished 51st State.” That’s an outcome, we can be pretty sure based on what he says, that would be just fine with Mr. Anderson.
Meanwhile, someone in the Premier’s Office churned out a similar but longer op-ed advocating her collaborationist position, reprinted, naturally, by the U.S.-owned National Post.
“As premier of Alberta, I am calling on my fellow premiers, the prime minister and all of our national leaders to de-escalate the rhetoric as much as possible and look to diplomacy and advocacy as our primary tool to resolve this conflict,” she whinged in that sad effort.
No doubt by tomorrow every Postmedia political peanut gallery pundit will be attempting to lend Ms. Smith’s appeasement dialogue some spurious credibility.
But to borrow a hockey metaphor from Globe and Mail sports columnist Cathal Kelly: “Ask a former NHLer how much good constructive dialogue does you when someone’s got hold of your shirt and the first blow is incoming.”
This is all an excellent illustration of how Ms. Smith’s United Conservative Party Government has nothing to offer but bullcrap and bad ideas – although it would be hard to come up with a worse idea than Ms. Smith’s call last Thursday for Canada to permanently cede control of the Northwest Passage to the United States by allowing the U.S. to open a military base in the Arctic. If we do, it’s gone like Greenland!
The premier’s Chat GPT account must’ve been working overtime churning out dangerous drivel when her office came up with that one!
Presumably inspired by the neoliberal strategy that a perfectly good crisis should never go to waste, Ms. Smith used her official statement to evangelize for more pipelines, more mining, less “red tape,” and an even weaker federal government. Then she concluded, “Alberta stands ready to do our part if this true Team Canada approach is taken.”
I am indebted to University of Calgary political scientist Lisa Young for noticing Ms. Smith’s significantly conditional “if.” Talk about the words of a true Canadian patriot!
“Smith’s repeated insistence that Canada must do what Trump wants looks increasingly naïve,” Dr. Young observed in her Substack column yesterday. “In the face of the President’s intransigence and expressions of expansionary ambitions, the Smith government must reconsider its charm offensive. Jetting off to Washington to pray with the political leaders who are enabling Trump through their inaction is as tone deaf as a trip to Hawaii in the middle of a pandemic.”
And, by the way, if you’re wondering where Health Minister Adriana LaGrange disappeared to when she was needed to explain why the UCP had liquidated another entire Alberta Health Services board of directors or how it came to pack it’s COVID-19 response “task force” with anti-vaxx nuts, she too had slipped off on a prayer pilgrimage to the Imperial capital! She won’t be back till Feb. 8.
So when Ms. Smith’s statement promises that “Alberta will continue diplomatic efforts in the United States to persuade the U.S. President, lawmakers, administration officials and the American people to lift all tariffs on Canadian goods as soon as possible and to repair our relationship with the United States,” all Canadians should feel a shiver of fear run down their spines.
Even the federal Conservatives’ seemingly irrelevant leader, Pierre (Canada is Broken) Poilievre, seems to have come around to the necessity of tariffs, although he wants to pair them to tax cuts – an obviously ridiculous idea at a moment in history when we’re going to have to deeply draw on our national financial reserves to save Canadian jobs and industries.
Sad to say, Ms. Smith’s collaborationist instinct is not unique. “We strongly encourage the federal government to focus on diplomacy and de-escalation and avoid further blows to our economy through retaliation,” snivelled Calgary Chamber of Commerce President Deborah Yedlin in a statement Saturday.
Who would have thought a stronger statement opposing U.S. tariffs on Canada would be published by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce?
Pathetic!
UCP and NDP in virtual 4th Quarter fund-raising tie
Elections Alberta published its fourth-quarter and 2024 political party fund-raising results on Thursday, an important story that seems to have been missed by everyone.
The results show a tight race between the United Conservative Party and the Alberta NDP in in the fourth quarter, with the UCP edging out the Opposition party with donations of $1.96 million to $1.94 million. For the year, the UCP edge was bigger – $6.44 million to the NDP’s $5.18 million.
Of 14 registered parties only six, shown in the chart above, raised more than five figures. The most successful was the so-called Pro-Life Alberta Political Association, which is not really a political party, receiving more than half a million dollars in donations in 2024. These contributions should be considered partisan contributions to the UCP, since the Pro-Life Party operates as a public anti-abortion and covert candidate-recruitment auxiliary to the UCP.
The remaining parties – the Greens, the Communists and various right-wing fringe parties – appear to be moribund if you go by cash donations. Cash may not be everything when it comes to fringe political movements, though. Alberta’s Communist Party, which received only $200 in donations in 2024, has been around longer than any of the others and always manages to field one candidate in every election.
NOTE: An earlier version of the chart above included an incorrect annual total for the Alberta Liberals. DJC
I suppose a 10% tariff is better than 25%, but using that logic a slap in the face is better than a punch in the mouth. So much for Smith’s charm offensive.
There seems to be a strong reaction, some did not anticipate, to support Canadian Businesses instead of US ones, so it might be time to keep pointing out Postmedia is not Canadian owned any more.
It is interesting to see big US social media owners like X cozy up to the current isolationist US administration. US technology companies have been huge beneficiaries of the US past internationalist approach. Surely, if other countries are punished by losing access to US markets, those countries will eventually figure out where to hit them back where it hurts most. Look for more countries to heavily tax, restrict or ban US social media and technology companies if this sort of stupidity by the US administration continues.
All mouth and no brains is the best way to describe Danielle Smith. We will be paying for her foolishness for a long time. Postmedia is publishing her rubbish, their columnists are printing more garbage, praising her, and she is given all kinds of unwarranted accolades in the comment section.
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/danielle-smith-heres-how-canada-can-stop-making-things-worse
Did Rob anderson not notice that in that tweet d’rump also said that ” We don’t need anything that they have. We have unlimited energy.”
And if he follows through with the threat to raise the amount of the tariffs, is Marlaina going to be going again, cap in hand for another so called “carve-out” ?
Does she not know that her other ‘pal’ (that she’s asked for “favors on Twitter” ) Elon Musk warns of necessary economic collapse if Trump wins. Musk says everyday Americans must embrace the pain , if Trump gets back in the oval office.*
*MTN , Oct 29-2024
So if that’s how he feels about “ordinary” Americans, just think about how little regard he has for Canadians, especially the one he supposedly supports, right PP ?
And speaking of fund raising, the post was almost gushing about how much the Con’s had raised……but as a bright light [St] so succinctly pointed out……
—- I’m actually reassured that the Conservatives have managed to raise so much money. All this time I’ve heard that everyone had been taxed into poverty, nobody has money for groceries, mortgages are eating up every last bit of disposable income , and that it’s all Justin’s fault. But it’s good to know that people can still afford to give money to Poilievre—–
So, if PP really wants to help Canadians (#2. of his 6 point plan) because of the tariffs causing hardship, I think he should return the $47 million. I’m sure that would help alot of Canadians with things they CAN’T DO WITHOUT, like groceries.
Marlain-a-lago succombing to the lies of the fentanyl and illegal immigration problem from Canada just adds to d’rumps talking points, and the fact that someone keeps whispering that BS into his ears obviously has an agenda. If it was such a problem, why didn’t the US go after the people who created the opioid epidemic in the first place.
Oh!! Is this part of a plan to recoup some of the lawsuit money? And WHY, oh why would d’rump complain that pharmaceuticals are cheaper in Canada and Americans are buying them here.
Given the $ exchange that we’ve had to contend with for most of my life, who is subsidizing whom?
All I know, is that in spite of PP trying so hard for so long to undermine Canada and I don’t for 1 min believe his Canada first logo; since for 2+ yrs it’s been Canada is broken . Now he says a team approach, but it’s been crickets from him until after the first ministers meeting & then he puts out his 6 point plan which is basically what was brought up at the meeting.
I guess he’s assuming that his followers don’t watch MSM, so they think these are all his ideas. It’s really is sad. He’s hiding out in BC with John Rustad who is playing the same tune as Marlain-a-lago, but which goes against what he’s touting, and if he and his team are responsible for the video Rustad has put out as an ” attack on David Eby “, they should all go find a rock to crawl under…..cringe worthy isn’t the half of it ” mock 2nd world war era- newsreel. :
http://www.biv.com,
if anyone wants to “indulge” -may I recommend a bottle of the “pink” on hand.
Follow up: Marlaina and Skippy should also be paying attention to what d’rumps envoy is doing in Venezuela. Freeing Americans, Venezuela taking back immigrants, talk of sanctions against Venezuela….maybe getting oil from them again, interesting things happening . that could affect the tariff war . Hmmm!
Randi-lee: Remember where you heard it first: https://albertapolitics.ca/2019/02/has-anyone-thought-about-the-impact-regime-change-in-venezuela-will-have-on-albertas-oilpatch-it-wont-be-pretty/ DJC
Good morning David. I believe there is an error in your article. I do not believe that Ms. Lagrange is the presently the Education Minister.
Thank you, Carolia. It’s been fixed. I’m afraid that was a case of flying on autopilot in the wee hours. I thought “Health Minister”and typed “Education Minister.” DJC
While the text in the blog has been fixed, the caption below her picture still says “Education Minister”. Sorry for noticing.
Thanks, OA. That’s been fixed now too. DJC
I wonder what the UCP’s farming base thinks about their government claiming a win for the fact that O & G got a reduced tariff. Farm products will still be hit with the full 25% tariff, but the UCP doesn’t seem to be too worried about that.
Bob: You asked what do UCP farmers think of all this? Probably not very much because they are too busy running around saying the sky is falling.
However, numbers from the Canadian Grain Commission show that the US has never been an especially large customer for our grains. Over the past ten years the US is actually shrinking as a customer for our wheat, canola, and other grains.
Mexico buys three times the canola that the US does, and China buys 20 times what the US does. Pretty much the same for wheat. Over the past ten years the US has gone from being a smallish customer for our grain to being a trivial customer compared to the other 70 or so nations that purchase our export grains. So, the sky is not falling.
Cattle are another matter. If Smith is really transactional, she ought to be more concerned with the beef trade to the US.
If you are in need of sleep, here is the backstory:
History, as the quip goes, may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes. In 1921 the US imposed a 30% tariff on Canadian cattle as did Great Britain. The prairie cattle herd collapsed and did not recover to 1921 levels until 30 years later. In an effort at appeasement, Ottawa took away the Canadian Wheat Board. Grain prices collapsed and the US imposed a tariff of 23% on Canadian grain moving into the US. The result was more prairie farm and ranch foreclosures than during the dirty thirties.
Prairie farmers and their governments responded by building the largest cooperative grain handling system in the world and setting up a new CWB to sell grain to over 70 countries around the world. During the Cold War we defied the American food embargoes and sold to both Russia and China starting almost immediately after 1945.
Over the objections of most prairie grain farmers the Harper administration killed the CWB. Over the past ten years wheat exports to the US have declined, as have US purchases of canola while oats have remained flat. Most of our grain production still goes to Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and India but the profits now go to the big American grain companies and their Canadian subsidiaries.
The late Prime Minister John Turner was correct when he told the blowhard Mulroney that shifting our economic orientation south to the US from east to west would inevitably result in control going to Washington. At the time the Canadian Wheat Board also opposed the FTA on the grounds Canada could do better with bi-lateral, sectorial trade agreements as we had with the auto-pact.
So, the illusions about our American “friends” and a rules based international trading system have been blown up by Trump and some of the oligarchs in US business. We put ourselves in this vulnerable position. However, it is a big world and Canada must face the necessity of repairing our relations with China, the EU, and the BRICS nations, country by country and sector by sector. Fortunately for us, we have more ability to do so now than our grandparents did in the 1920s.
On the energy front, good to see Conservatives (and conservatives) pulling a 180 and now pushing for a fully integrated Canada first approach for oil & gas. I have a suggestion for a name, how about a ‘National Energy Program’ or ‘NEP’ for short? Irony has been dead for a while now, so why not?
Trashcan Danis’ treason tour was a total success in her own mind.
Just like drumpfs latest is ” oh no you made it into a trade war. We just wanted you to stop the imaginary border drug crisis.”
Somebody please tell somebody that drumpfys’ first term record was 30,000 plus lies. You are trying to placiate a compulsive liar. His parapraxis does leak American expansionism and all the other nasties of Project 2025 though. Drump is not Hitler but American Trumpism is the rise of nazi style fascism , with correlating incremental actions and steps in almost the exact dance . One of the first acts of the elected fuhrer was to pardon the convicted murders and others who were party loyalists and whose crimes served to advance him. Drumpfs Jan 6 pardon step.
TL:DR Drump is a compulsive liar, with a readable plan. Study history please. Wake up.
As Mr. C has correctly mentioned many times in the past. had Alberta listened to Trudeau Senior, this country would be choc-a-bloc full of pipelines.
I was at an event in Danielle’s home town (sort of) yesterday. The first comment by the organizer as we arrived was ‘I’m so damned mad at Trump and Danielle.’ He revealed that he’d been unable to sleep, so he did an inventory of his pantry and threw out anything marked ‘Made in the USA.’ The rest of us began comparing notes on how to shop for Canadian made products. The UCP insistence on conciliation with Trump’s madness is going to bite them. They still haven’t learned how to read the room.
Dear Rob Anderson: Apparently Alberta is among the largest oil exporters in the world. If the OPEC assumption that world demand for oil will continue rising, why put more oil on the market and limit the price with extra supply? Why don’t you want to sell oil for the maximum price? On the other hand, if oil demand is going flat, as many annalists project, then how is dumping more oil into a smaller market going to be of benefit? Don’t you believe in market forces anymore?
Speaking of markets, why should eastern Canada pay for an energy east pipeline to carry expensive oil from Alberta when they can get better quality oil from Pennsylvania and off-shore delivered cheaper? Unless you want things done in the national interest, but hey, that’s socialism! What’s that old saying from a good book about “pride going before a fall?”
Caron: “Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 16:18. The wisdom of Solomon. Literally. DJC
On Rosie Barton’s CBC show Sunday, she interviewed a Calgary based oil company owner who was close to jumping in the air (Ed note: Lefty, you cannot say orgasmic, ok?) about Dani’s success. He also extolled her strategy – negotiating – versus bashing Trump over and over. I wonder to whom he was referring.
Foreign election interference from the U.S. and social media platforms incoming? It’s time for sanctions on the true mastermind of the U.S. takeover of Canada. Why have two premiers, Doug Ford and Danielle Smith, invested in StarLink for Ontario and Alberta? Etc.
Europe is getting smart. We should, too. Listen to the real experts Lloyd Axworthy and Emmett Macfarlane, not the doormat Danielle.
https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/article/observers-call-for-pressure-on-us-corporations-as-trump-musk-take-aim-at-canada/
Watch your feet. While Rob Anderson whips up the Alberta 51 Project with fluffy dreams of fantasy pipelines, Nate Horner is musing on the Calgary Eyeopener about selling our water under us to the States. There is no plan. There is no measure of what we have to lose. Why worry? The Mormons and the Dutchmen have got their allocations. Surely we can fit a couple coal mines in there too. https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/friday-january-31-2025-episode-transcript-1.7447803
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/alberta-government-engagement-tricia-stadnyk-water-irrigation-1.7446324
Alberta stands at a crossroads. Albertans can show their loyalty to their current home (Canada) or, Albertans can be lured by the siren’s song to jump ship and crash on the rocks of the USA.
Having mused, perhaps in jest, that Canada should become the 51st state might well have awakened an uncontrollable urge inside President Trump. What greater legacy can he leave than the acquisition of new territory?
*At least we know where the political right on this continent (here’s looking at you, UCP) is getting its hateful and harmful anti-trans policies.
https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/elon-musks-transgender-daughter-reacts-to-nazi-salute-claims-7538070
Now back to the matter at hand: the illegal takeover of Canada and stomping out the last flames of democracy in the world.
Edit: Nate Horner giddy about the sale of your water under a CROWN CORPORATION. The same transparency level as Invest Alberta or the Energy war room? Who knows? Not me.
Now we have a 30-day pause in the threat cycle, the UCP plan to sell off our water must be stopped. Hello, federal government! Our country has water treaties with the U.S. that must not be ignored as easily as trade agreements. It’s been obvious for a while that the purpose of increasing irrigation in southern Alberta is nothing more than a ruse to move water to the border for sale. We cannot let this sleeping dog lie.
Has anyone considered the possibility that the 10% tariff on energy was part of Trump’s plan weeks ago and that some of Smith’s pals at Mar-a-Lago tipped her off so she could claim that this was somehow due to her skillful negotiations?
Every oilman I have spoken to agreed that the Northern Gateway Pipeline was a really stupid idea and an extremely dangerous one. Crossing rivers and streams 1,000 times to get to Kitamat and hoping there wasn’t a spill was a no-brainer, don’t chance it. A group of 12 of us who go fishing in Prince Rupert each year signed their petition, showing our support to get it stopped. They told us that they had gone for weeks on end without Natural Gas because the pipeline had been taken out by a raging River or landslide and an oil pipeline would be a lot worse and we agreed.
How much more of our oil has Smith promised the Americans at next to nothing in royalties and corporate taxes like these Reformers are doing?
American globalization of manufacturing caused the fall of U.S. production in favour of cheaper production in Mexico, China, and elsewhere. The profitability of this was astounding, thus more companies did the same. But the result was that many citizens [who are, after all, merely consumers!] became part of the precariat factions of the U.S. And who can blame them for calling on someone to change their condition, to make their lives “better again”?! After all, there was/is some benefit to the country as a whole amassing great wealth from all around the globe – as 4% of the world’s population could garner 25% of consumption of what is produced in the world.
But just as American consumers see a slide to the worse in their living standards, other people around the earth also see that what they “have” could be enhanced if they got fair prices for what they ship to the U.S., Europe, Canada, Australia. The push back from the American governments of the recent past, and present, is an attempt to regain control against this continued impoverishment around the globe so that the so-called First World can maintain its “advantages”. Thus the need to decry and diminish any attempts by the BRICS nations to gain control. And how many other nations are joining the ranks of BRICS, which is an affront to the domination headed by the U.S.?
Canadian acquiescence to our being part of the U.S. dominion has certainly allowed for our well-being, as has our desire to continue to be “hewers of wood and drawers of water” for the U.S. empire along much the same path as with the earlier British empire.
Harold Innis and John Porter tried to tell us 70 years ago that we needed to make our internal trade more robust, as well as diversifying our international trade, but we did not do it! And so today we get those who call for such changes and Ms. Smith calling for more subjugation to the centre of empire. I fear we cannot have both!
Looks like the US need our oil after all and Trump knows it.
Here is an interesting take from Paul Krugman, renowned economist and nobel prize winner on what he thinks is going on behind the scenes:
“And then there’s the matter of Trump’s self-dealing, especially through the $Trump and $Melania tokens, which clearly have no intrinsic value. Who bought these tokens? Were they grifts aimed at red-hatted MAGA fans who don’t know better?
Well, a significant number of small investors did buy them. But Chainalysis found that 94 percent of the tokens were purchased by around 40 “whales,” large buyers holding more than $10 million worth of the coins.
We don’t know who these whales are. But it’s not unreasonable to guess that they were individuals or entities seeking to buy influence, rather than looking for a good investment.
Could some of the whales be effective proxies for the Chinese government? Could China have, in effect, bought itself lower tariffs by enriching Trump personally? To be clear, I have no evidence that this happened. But in making this conjecture, isn’t this a plausible explanation?
And let me make a broader point: If a nation’s leaders are personally corrupt, autocracies like China will have an advantage over democracies where rule of law prevails. To wit, Canada can’t buy itself favorable trade treatment by bribing foreign heads of state. To do so would be a huge scandal and provoke parliamentary inquiries. But China certainly can. Although once again, we don’t know whether it did.”
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/why-has-trump-gone-soft-on-china
Did you just call the United States a democracy ? They have institutionalized slavery down there. Cmon.
I guess Anderson missed the part where Drumpf stated (paraphrashing here) that there is no negotiating, the tariffs are coming. But I also agree with our gracious host, that that gormless, traitorous twit Anderson would love nothing more than to see Old Glory flying imposingly over Canada rather than the maple leaf.
I have noticed that even the most hardcore conservative co-workers of mine have turned to anger over these tariffs and are not viewing the UCP as favourably these days. A turning of the tide perhaps? One can only hope.
Shorter Rob Anderson: “the real solution here is to let oil companies run the country until we join the USofA”
“As premier of Alberta, I am calling on my fellow premiers, the prime minister…”
No one is listening Danielle , you’ve long since burned through any potential goodwill you have with these people, even Doug Ford is mad at you. Maybe in the future don’t light yourself on fire over every little tiny thing the opposition does and then you can do diplomacy. You have to start by being diplomatic though, and you have the diplomacy skills of a flock of harpies.
I would say I can’t believe the UCP want to be American so bad they don’t realize that the rest of the country very much does not, but they’ve been Trumpos since the first trump admin, it’s not shocking, it’s just pathetic.
Everything this woman does is either despicable or pathetic.
Funny how most premiers are jumping on the band wagon and taking US made liquor off the shelves, while there is no word from the Premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan?
Mr. Peepers our would be PM has a hot idea. He says that to take back the control of the border and save the Canada-US trade relationship Prime Minister Trudeau should send Canadian Forces troops, helicopters and surveillance to the border. He could lead by example. Motor down to the Coutts border crossing, pitch a pup tent a few kilometres away and patrol day and night. Maybe he could spot two of the thousand Fentanyl smugglers moving the stuff across to the US.
Tom: Two or three weeks of this and the senile Trump would accuse us of planning an invasion. You may laugh, but moving troops up to the border, history shows, is always a bad idea. DJC
The CPC and UCP social media minions/trolls/deplorables were silent for awhile (like an American fan in the stands during the national anthem played before a major league sports game)
but just one day later they are angrily resurrecting “it’s the Liberals’s fault” that:
– there are inter-provincial barriers,
– there are any barriers at all any business endeavour
– Canada is too broken to work together
– Trump has to protect the border from “woke” ideology
BTW: I encourage every one criticized for being too “woke” to respond with a “Sorry. I can’t be anti-woke because I’m anti- bigotry.”
Surprising amount of those folks ; anecdotally are evangelicals.
I call that American Jesus. Jesus with an AR and a manly bulge
Alberta Premier is down two quarts.
G. Orwell was only off by 40 years
Queen Danielle appears to dwell in the same netherworld of nonsense and idiocy that Trump. And no one will ever find out how much she paid out to get near Trump, because sensible people will be horrified at the excesses she is capable of. But will Alberta kick her to the curb for being the extreme moron she is?