Alberta Premier Danielle Smith “sees an opportunity to get on the bandwagon of Trump’s pledge to make the U.S. energy dominant throughout the world,” writes Gillian Steward.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith “sees an opportunity to get on the bandwagon of Trump’s pledge to make the U.S. energy dominant throughout the world,” writes Gillian Steward.
Gillian Steward is a Calgary-based writer and freelance contributing columnist for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: .
Danielle Smith has distinguished herself by going it alone. No Team Canada for her. She has opted out of the premiers club to pursue her own agenda — getting a tariff exemption for Alberta’s oil imports to the U.S.
But is she really going it alone? Not at all. She is accompanied by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), which represents the big producers of Alberta oil, most of whom come from the oilsands. Its agenda is almost identical to Smith’s when it comes to the business of U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs (taxes) being slapped on Canadian goods going into the U.S.
Smith has said she wants to expand Canada’s pipelines so our oil can be shipped overseas and we aren’t so dependent on the U.S. She wants less regulation, such as the emissions cap, the Environmental Assessment Act and the pause on Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) export facilities. She wants to double oil production.
All of this fits nicely with , CAPP’s CEO, in a speech in Washington D.C. on the U.S election day. All that’s missing is the ties between CAPP and . It now has tremendous power in the U.S. given that Trump has promised to open up land and seas with his “drill, baby, drill” motif.
It’s clear that the oil and gas industry for whom Smith was once a lobbyist, gets whatever it wants and that she will go to any lengths to get it for them. That’s why she didn’t join the other premiers in their Team Canada approach to President Trump’s bullying. That’s why she has been criss-crossing the U.S, even dropping in on Mar-a-Lago, in hopes of getting an exemption for Alberta oil from Trump’s tariff threat.
Granted, oil and gas are important to Alberta’s, and Canada’s, economy. But wouldn’t it have been better to join up with Team Canada and hold your trump card in abeyance until the hard bargaining begins? If you know you have a trump card why waste it on seeking appeasement from the king of cruelty.
But Smith sees an opportunity to get on the bandwagon of Trump’s pledge to make the U.S. energy dominant throughout the world. She wants to help with barrels of Canadian oil. And if she persuades Trump and his people that Canadian oil is just as good as U.S oil she just might get the exemption she has been seeking.
With Trump’s ever changing schedule of just when exactly those tariffs will be imposed, she now has even more time to lobby for what she wants. She will no doubt have the help of Republican politicians and the U.S. oil industry.
Canada contributes 60 per cent of the U.S.’s oil imports, most of which comes from Alberta It needs our oil to meet its since it produces . Besides, the pipelines and refineries are already in place in the Midwest and the Gulf Coast to handle our tarry oilsands oil.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
It would take at least five years to construct another pipeline to ship our oil to Canadian or overseas markets, as has been suggested. But who knows what could happen by then? Trump may not be president. The demand and price for oil may have plummeted.
Since Trump lives so much in the present, he is not known for long-term, strategic thinking, Smith may have latched onto a weakness in his plan for tariffs on Canadian oil. He really can’t afford to do without Canadian oil, should it be cut off. And tariffs and possibly oil-export taxes in Canada would raise the price of gasoline when he promised to bring it down.
Smith, in the end, may get what she wants: tariff free oil and gas flowing into the U.S. And the satisfaction of winning against Team Canada.
Opinion articles are based on the author’s interpretations and judgments of facts, data and events. More details
Gillian Steward is a Calgary-based writer and freelance
contributing columnist for the Star. Follow her on Bluesky
at @gillian2.bsky.social
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