Alberta’s Premier has long demonstrated her affinity for the close, but foreign, entity of America. Sadly, Danielle Smith has also demonstrated her embarrassing confusion about the differences between our nations, and laws, and constitutions, as well, but she’s hardly alone.
My home province, the birthplace of Reform, Western alienation, and Wexit, has often taken pride in the anti-Canadian sentiment barely veiled by our disdain for federal jurisdiction and anyone who doesn’t reflexively vote conservative.
And if there’s a Trudeau in power?
The hatred — well-seeded, cultivated, and nurtured by conservative thinkers and leaders for decades — is almost suffocating.
Premier Smith frequented those danker spaces in her run for the United Conservative Party leadership and was rewarded with their support for promises to exert provincial “sovereignty” over the federal government, and stand up for Alberta exceptionalism against a nation that dares to consider our tax dollars equal to those of other Canadians.
Yes, my province is governed by people who happily sow discord between ourselves and the rest of our country because it, thanks to its long-standing practice, gets them elected.
As the birthplace of western alienation, Reform, and Wexit, Albertans have been primed to look elsewhere for leadership; especially if the Liberals are in power. It has built careers and padded the pockets of those willing to exploit it.
Now, as we face unprecedented threats from a foreign entity, we have a Pick-me Premier who is more focused on her next gig as Fox News commentator than the threats facing our nation.
To be fair, she has demonstrated an uncharacteristic willingness to refrain from spewing the same anti-Ottawa rhetoric to them as she offers to us. Even if it’s only because she supports Pierre Poilievre and his Conservative Party of Canada, it would be disingenuous to say it isn’t the absolute least she could do right now.
President-elect Donald Trump has been saying for months that he will introduce 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods.
Initially, Mr. Trump said that it was due to ineffective border security measures on the Canadian side, that allowed fentanyl and illegal migration into America.
Danielle Smith responded that she would not only meet but exceed border security expectations for America, a move that has since seen millions of dollars of cocaine seized on its way into Canada.
Mr. Trump has since claimed, as recently as January 7, that he plans to use the tariffs to exact economic pressure on Canada and force the country into becoming a “51st state”.
While I’m aware the man is off his rocker, he is still the incoming president of the United States of America, and we would be foolish to continue to treat this as the ramblings of a senile attention-seeker.
Danielle Smith once claimed Mr. Trump was “hilarious” for making this “joke”, and has acted, publicly, as if we can ignore these threats; most notably by refusing to join Canada’s respective Premiers in taking a “Team Canada” approach.
Instead, Ms. Smith has positioned herself as a Premier willing to go it alone rather than strengthen the negotiating stance of the country as a whole.
She has also boasted about attending Mr. Trump’s inauguration ceremony in Washington on January 20.
Though Ms. Smith has claimed that she is attending the foreign leader’s inauguration to “convey Alberta’s interests” against tariffs on Alberta oil, Mr. Trump has thus far been reluctant to suggest any negotiation is possible, despite having met with the Prime Minister well before his resignation.
Since Trump announced the tariffs, Ms. Smith has also been making trips to rub elbows with members of Trump’s Cabinet picks, ostensibly to plead Alberta’s case with them directly.
Canada also sent representatives to talk with Trump’s team in December.
Being that none of these efforts have yielded results, and Mr. Trump has continued to threaten Canada’s sovereignty, it should be obvious that any future meeting with foreign officials that is not clearly official government business be seen as a threat to our country’s security as well as its sovereignty.
I realize that, for someone who pretends to have the power of “sovereignty within a united Canada”, it may not have occurred to her that her actions could be damaging to some 38 million more people than just the Prime Minister.
So, I’ll say it as clearly as I possibly can:
Our nation’s sovereignty is under threat by Donald Trump, an incoming foreign leader.
Danielle Smith, as Premier of Alberta, Canada, cannot, as Premier of Alberta, Canada, go to Washington to celebrate Donald Trump’s inauguration while he continues to make threats against Canada’s sovereignty.
Donald Trump has stated without exception that he is planning to decimate our country’s economy to bully us into making concessions we, as Canadians, may be completely unprepared to make.
Danielle Smith, as Premier of Alberta, Canada, cannot join a crowd of Americans in celebrating this man’s ability to do that.
If Ms. Smith decides that she is more concerned about her future than ours, she is certainly free to offer her resignation so that she may chase that opportunity on her own time; and Albertans can be afforded the choice of a leader who is willing to stand up against real or perceived threats from foreign governments, too.
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FIRE.