February 6, 2025
Instead of lambasting Ms. Smith for failing to get onside with Team Canada’s plan, perhaps Team Canada needs to get onside with hers. That requires putting down the pitchforks, and actually hearing her out.

The rest of Canada should stop vilifying Danielle Smith, and start listening to her

No Canadian has been more visible, more strategic, and more on-the-ground on the U.S.-Canada tariff file than Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. You don’t have to like her approach to recognize that she has been enormously successful in securing an in-person audience with decision-makers in the U.S., to whom she has been making her case for Canadian carve-outs to U.S. President Donald Trump’s 25-per-cent tariff threat. (As she confirmed in a news conference on Jan. 21, she is pushing for a national exemption, and not simply a provincial one.) Her social media feeds have documented her meeting with senators from West Virginia, Florida and Oklahoma, governors from North Dakota, Louisiana, Arkansas, Montana, Mississippi and others in the days before and after inauguration – and that’s following her visit to Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, where she had the direct ear of Mr. Trump.

Ms. Smith is nevertheless being denigrated here in Canada for failing to be a team player; for her rejection of the joint statement produced by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and her fellow premiers because of Ottawa’s refusal to rule out tariffs or restrictions on energy exports. And indeed, there is a case to be made that Canada’s approach to the U.S. should be one of unanimity – even on bad ideas – for the sake of projecting strength and cohesiveness. Maybe in normal times, yes. But Canada is being led by a lame duck Prime Minister who will be replaced in a matter of weeks, our Parliament is prorogued, and our Finance Minister is new to the job. We’d be projecting “chaos” with or without Ms. Smith’s signature on that joint statement.

Restricting oil exports would have the benefit of making Canadians feel like they are “punching back” against the Americans, though the follow-through would actually give us a bloody nose and a black eye. Yes, the Americans, who import 4.42 million barrels of Canadian crude oil a day, depend heavily on oil from Canada both for domestic consumption and for their own exports. But our industry here would be doubly devastated by the combination of both tariffs imposed by the U.S. and export restrictions and tariffs on our energy, which would at the same time provide Mr. Trump with someone to blame when the price at the pump in the U.S. inevitably rises. (As most people well know, Mr. Trump’s 25-per-cent import tariffs alone, and not Canada’s response, will be responsible for the increased costs to consumers, but as most people also well know, the truth doesn’t matter much when it comes to these things.) Canada’s economy is a tenth the size of the U.S.; whatever we do, we’re going to hurt far worse than the Americans.

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