
Smith right to be angry at Trudeau’s willingness to sacrifice Alberta
The prime minister would never be open to singling Quebec or Ontario industries
As hawkish as Danielle Smith is perceived to be on these matters, it’s hard to imagine any Alberta premier even considering signing on to a potentially devastating export tax on the oil and gas industry — one imposed by Justin Trudeau, no less.
For that matter, it’s very difficult to imagine another premier of any other province agree to measures that would single out and disproportionately harm their main industry. Not that anyone could envision the Trudeau government singling out any other industry in any other province, especially Ontario and Quebec.
With the federal government still reportedly entertaining the idea of an export tax on oil and gas — or even blocking such energy shipments to the U.S. altogether — it should come as no surprise that Ottawa didn’t get the complete show of unity it was hoping for at Wednesday’s first ministers’ meeting.
Frankly, it’s a meeting that should have happened well before this week, where we are now just days away from Donald Trump once again being sworn in as U.S. president. Alberta’s not the only province frustrated by a lack of federal leadership on this file, given the lost weeks between Chrystia Freeland’s resignation from cabinet and Trudeau’s own resignation announcement, where the prime minister was essentially AWOL.
Still, at this point, we don’t know for sure what Trump is going to do. We don’t know if he’s going to follow through on his threat to impose a massive tariff on Canadian exports, and, if so, just how all-encompassing that would be.
Hopefully, the Trudeau government will be cautious about any sort of response. For one thing, it’s not clear how much mandate and moral authority this lame duck and deeply unpopular prime minister has when it comes to leading the charge. We missed the opportunity for an election of our own that could have provided some necessary clarity and authority.
I’m on Smith’s side in this argument. In nine long years Trudeau has never been right about anything (just like Doug Ford). My View: if Trudeau keeps pissing on Alberta I think she should begin legal proceedings to leave Canada. It will look good on him and ‘by the by” the lady is not a traitor. But that asshole picking on her is and I feel Canada should jail him…for life!