Danielle Smith's charm offensive in Trump's America
More MAGA, Less Ottawa
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With the impending electoral defeat of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau growing more likely by the day, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has embarked on her own Team Alberta diplomatic charm offensive in the United States.
Just days after American President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods imported into his country, Smith jetted off to the Western Governors conference in Las Vegas. Smith held a handful of one-on-one meetings with Republican and Democratic governors as part of her pitch to US law-makers to exclude Canadian oil and gas from Trump’s tariff war.
“I am a fan of our biggest trading partner” Smith’s told a Fox News host when she was asked on-air if she was a fan of Trump. In response to Trump’s now frequently repeated threats that Canada should become America’s 51st state if Canadians don’t like the tariffs, Smith said he was “hilarious.”
Smith also repeated her well-used talking point about doubling Alberta’s oil production, as well as reviving the cancelled Keystone XL Pipeline, a privately-owned project that the UCP government supported with a $1.5 billion investment (the public money evaporated when President Joe Biden cancelled approval of the project in 2021).
Trump’s tariff threat was accompanied by a demand that the Canadian government stop illegal immigrants and fentanyl from crossing into the United States. There’s little evidence to suggest this is a big problem at the Canada-US border, but Smith quickly pledged that “Alberta will be acting urgently and decisively to patrol our own shared border with Montana.”
The Alberta government was already planning to bolster its policing along the border to stop guns and drugs from coming into Canada from the US. Smith and Deputy Premier Mike Ellis announced yesterday that a special force of provincial government Sheriffs will operate in a 2-kilometre “critical border zone” along the province’s southern boundary where warrants will no longer be needed to search for suspected illegal drugs and guns.
Smith said the border zone will be created through the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act, though this feels like something that might not withstand a court challenge.
Albertans may be left scratching their heads as to why Smith is sprinting so eagerly to meet Trump’s demands.
Trump has not been sworn-in as President yet, and it’s not clear whether meeting his public demands would convince him to back down on his tariff threat. In fact, there are plenty of indications that Trump’s tariffs have less to do with border security and trade and more to do with raising revenue to off-set the cost of his promised tax cuts.
Trump should be taken seriously, but no Canadian politician should expect that he will negotiate in good faith.
More MAGA
Smith is Canada’s Trumpiest Premier.
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