Smith: “It's good for us to meet our 2% NATO commitment be a reliable partner in int'l security. We should have Arctic security, want to stop fentanyl on our streets so it's not killing our people."
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is arguably Canada’s DeFacto prime minister – at least when it comes to negotiating with President Donald Trump over his proposed 25% tariff. At a time when Canada is stuck with a lame duck Prime Minister who has claimed he may resign in the future but who stokes the division of a trade war at every turn. Trump respects and likes Smith. He obviously loathes Trudeau with the kind of distaste that one reserves for only the most detestable people in one’s life.
“It's good for us to meet our 2% NATO commitment and be a reliable partner in international security. We should have Arctic security … We should want to stop fentanyl on our streets so it's not killing our people.”
It was a pleasure to interview Smith because I have known her for about 20 years and as I reminded her at the start of our conservation this week, I had once predicted that she would be the premier of Alberta – except I was a little early with my prophecy. She was the leader of the Wildrose Party at the time and was about to go down to defeat to the Progressive Conservatives.
It would take almost a decade for this prediction to come true, when Smith became premier in 2022 after wresting control of the United Conservative Party from Premier Jason Kenny, who had disappointed so many Albertans with his noxious enthusiasm for COVID mandates, including the arrest of so many pastors who refused to shut down their churches.
“To single out Alberta energy for an export tariff that could, if it was applied at 25%, generate $40 billion for Ottawa, because tariffs go to Ottawa so that they can distribute it to places that are more friendly to voting liberal – that's an equalization program.”
I reminded Smith of that before we got down to the serious questions and she said, “Timing is everything. Really when I when I think about this time in history, and everything that we've been through, and the experience that I had by not succeeding the first time around, and the things I learned along the way, especially being in radio and business advocacy, I think I'm really ready for the challenges right now, and it's, it's an important time in Alberta history, and it's important time in Canadian history, so I'm glad that Albertans gave me another chance.”
What has fascinated me most about Smith of late is the work she has done on the tariff issue. She did the heavy lifting, was the backbone of the negotiating team that went to Washington to talk to President Donald Trump. Smith succeeded. She talked to Trump and evidently impressed the president because he invited her to the inauguration. Trudeau wasn’t even asked to go, nor was any other provincial premier. Before Trump allowed a temporary reprieve on the 25% across the board tariff, he announced that oil and gas would only be subject to a lesser 10% duty. That was Smith’s work.
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She refused to become part of Team Trudeau and their hostile approach immediately calling for “counter-tariffs” or bow to the Liberal government’s threat of putting tariffs on oil and gas exports to the US – reminding Team Trudeau that natural resources in Canada are a provincial jurisdiction. But more of that later.
“I would hope that you don't have a group of leadership candidates that are gunning for a fight. Everybody gets hurt by a tariff war. We are one-tenth the size of the US economy. We cannot win a tariff war if it's tit for tat.”
I asked her what kind of relationship she had developed with Trump, and she told me she had met him directly a couple of times. “I went to Mar-a-Lago at the invitation of Kevin O'Leary, and then the next day to Trump’s golf club, and then was at the inauguration as well. And it does seem to me that President Trump is the ultimate decision maker.
“That's one of the things that I've learned by talking to those who are around him. And our job as sub-national government leaders is to reach out to as many contacts as we can to talk to those who have influence on him so that we can change the pathway and the trajectory that we now find ourselves on,” she said.
Premier of Alberta Danielle Smith, President of USA Donald Trump and Canadian media personality and entrepreneur Kevin O’Leary.
That is precisely how you have to approach any discussions with Trump because he is heavily influenced by his closest advisors, the people he trusts the most, and I have often heard people who know Trump well say that he can make a decision on any given issue based on the last conversation he had.
Smith remains supremely optimistic that there will not be a trade war with the Americans. “I think that there is a pathway with diplomacy. I think we have an incredible argument to make about the way in which our integrated economies help to support not only our interests but also create great American jobs and produce great American products that Canadians buy back in larger volumes than anyone else on the planet,” she said.
"It does seem to me that President Trump is the ultimate decision maker. That's one of the things that I've learned by talking to those who are around him, and our job as sub-national government leaders is to reach out to as many contacts as we can to talk to those who have influence on him so that we can, we can change the pathway and the trajectory that we now find ourselves on,”
“And this is a relationship that we should maintain. And we're in a bit of a rocky patch, there's no doubt about it, but I would say that as long as we are identifying the things that are in our mutual interest to solve. I think that we're going to be able to avoid tariffs.
“When the President said he was worried about fentanyl, we needed to get serious about fentanyl, and it took a little while to get there. But now we have a fentanyl czar,” she continued.
I could have could have pushed back on her apparent endorsement of what the Trudeau government has chosen to call Kevin Brosseau the “Commissioner of Canada’s Fight Against Fentanyl” and I don't think he has much credibility as a former deputy commissioner of the RCMP and a former deputy minister in the Trudeau government and senior advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. But when you only have 15 minutes, you tend to eschew debate.
“So, I think all of that is being acknowledged, and there will always be irritants in this relationship that we have with the United States. So let's just make sure that we're dealing with the security issues, the legitimate security issues that are being raised, and then we can get on to talking about some of those other irritants and hopefully keep this 99% tariff free relationship going,” Smith insisted.
I asked the premier whether she would continue to tell Ottawa to get its hands off Alberta’s oil and gas if the trade war became a real concern again. “To single out Alberta energy for an export tariff that could, if it was applied at 25%, generate $40 billion for Ottawa, because tariffs go to Ottawa so that they can distribute it to places that are more friendly to voting liberal – that's an equalization program.”
“We've seen that newsreel many times before. We fought that in [Alberta Premier] Peter Lockheed’s day, when the original Trudeau tried to impose an export tariff, and we simply will not allow for that. We know that if there's any agreement to that kind of approach, we'll never get rid of it. And this is the kind of thing that the federal government has been trying to do to us time and time again,” she said.
She noted that any decision by the feds to limit the supply of oil and gas will hurt Ontario and Quebec as much as the US “because 100% of the product they get comes by way of the United States or comes by way of shipments from overseas. Why? Because they wouldn't let us build a pipeline Energy East to be able to feed the consumer market there.”
I asked Smith if she thought Trudeau, Liberal leadership hopeful Mark Carney and Team Trudeau and the Liberal Party election readiness team were really seeking a trade war because they really don’t want to face an election against Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party and the Liberal record, but one against Donald Trump and the American bete noir that the Liberals have imagined for decades. “I would hope that you don't have a group of leadership candidates that are gunning for a fight. Everybody gets hurt by a tariff war. We are one-tenth the size of the US economy. We cannot win a tariff war if it's tit for tat,” she told me.
“I would say that the very best approach is why I have taken the approach of diplomacy. We should be avoiding these tariffs altogether. We should be doing the things that we need to do to address these issues that the Americans have raised, but because they're good for us too,” Smith pointed out. “It's good for us to meet our 2% NATO commitment and be a reliable partner in international security. We should have Arctic security … We should want to stop fentanyl on our streets so it's not killing our people. So, it may well be that these issues being raised by the US president are ones that are a priority to him, but they should be a priority to us too, and we shouldn't be itching for a fight. A fight on this kind of front is devastating to millions of jobs, millions of families, and I would really hope that that isn't on the mind of any of the liberal leadership contenders.”
Danielle Smith EXPOSES the Truth About Tariff Threat | Stand on Guard
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As always, David, an uplifting ALL CANADIAN Stand on Guard episode. And you are 100% correct. Danielle is doing for Canadians what the government is incapable of doing...simple honesty and integrity. Another Billion+ for the see bee see announced today out of taxpayer pockets!! The see bee see should be on a subscription like every other news outlet!! St. Onge cannot "read the living rooms of Canadians" and this added tax burden for Canadians is outrageously out of line. Maybe interview St. Onge...LOL.
This woman is a True Canadian Patriot, unlike the corrupt criminals in the liberal party. I would support her if she ran for PM, then maybe they would publish the traitors on that list that the liberal party supporters sealed for 99 years…
As always, David, an uplifting ALL CANADIAN Stand on Guard episode. And you are 100% correct. Danielle is doing for Canadians what the government is incapable of doing...simple honesty and integrity. Another Billion+ for the see bee see announced today out of taxpayer pockets!! The see bee see should be on a subscription like every other news outlet!! St. Onge cannot "read the living rooms of Canadians" and this added tax burden for Canadians is outrageously out of line. Maybe interview St. Onge...LOL.
This woman is a True Canadian Patriot, unlike the corrupt criminals in the liberal party. I would support her if she ran for PM, then maybe they would publish the traitors on that list that the liberal party supporters sealed for 99 years…