Canadians are wearisome of the Liberals political gamesmanship. Pictured: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Photo Credit: Justin Trudeau/X.
The Trudeau Liberal government, particularly Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, seems to be intentionally stoking division within the country and agitating the U.S. government — for what? Liberals’ actions and statements are pitting Canadians in the rest of the country against Alberta, aggravating the tariff talks with the U.S., and jeopardizing the country’s economic well-being. In stark contrast, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith spent this week carrying the country’s standard in Washington, making the case for Canada, and calling out Trudeau and federal Liberals for their reckless politics played at Canadians’ expense.
Trudeau has taken every opportunity to taunt Smith and President Donald Trump. Regarding Smith, Trudeau held court in a Windsor media scrum just a few days after he had met with the premiers to talk Canada-U.S. trade, and Trudeau stated: “Premiers should be advocating for their own industries, their own communities, but they should also put their country first as, every single premier except Danielle Smith did.” He repeated this, “At the end of the day, all premiers but one, Danielle Smith, chose to put Canada first and to come together as Team Canada, so that Canada could show a common front against the incoming U.S. administration’s potential unfair practices.”
Trudeau then turned his trash talk on Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, blurting out, “Either he stands up to fight for all Canadians alongside all premiers and the federal government that are doing that, or he chooses to stand with Danielle Smith, Kevin O’Leary, and ultimately, Donald Trump.”
He left the Windsor media scrum to retreat to Ottawa to announce 1) a cabinet retreat would coincide with the American inauguration celebrations, and 2) the formation of a new Council on U.S. Relations to advise him and his cabinet on the best strategy to navigate the U.S. tariff threat. Regarding the latter, the council named by the prime minister is composed of 18 individuals, including former NDP Alberta premier Rachel Notley and her former chief of staff Brian Topp. Reaction from the western business community and media noted that Trudeau’s council has no representative from the oil and gas sector.
The federal government issued statements over the weekend that Canada was prepared on Monday to immediately unveil retaliatory tariffs on American imports if the rumours transpired that incoming U.S. President Donald Trump was going to place 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods. Trudeau held a press conference to state the first round of Canadian tariffs would total $37 billion and then he would consider further tariffs within two weeks on an additional $110 billion of American goods.
While Trudeau was throwing spitballs from his retreat, Smith went to Washington. The Alberta premier was in the U.S. capital for five days at events ushering in the new American administration and in endless rounds of meetings. She had countless conversations about Canada-U.S. trade relations and issues concerning border security and North American energy. Smith’s meetings involved a who’s who of the U.S. political scene, including key people in the new Trump administration: nominee for U.S. Secretary of State Senator Marco Rubio, nominee for U.S. Secretary of Defense Peter Hegseth, nominee for U.S. Interior Secretary and head of the U.S. Energy Council Governor Doug Burgum, and nominee for U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright. As the premier’s X account reveals, Smith met with multiple elected Senators, Governors, and Congressmen. She met with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, and Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions.
Smith also met with her premier colleagues via a digital hook-up to report back to them her assessment of the trade issues with the United States. Coming out of that meeting, Smith observed that discussions among the premiers were “more positive this week” and there was “a growing consensus (though not entirely unanimous).” The premiers see a path forward accepting four points:
First: The need to visibly demonstrate our nation’s commitment to tighter border security and to accelerating our two per cent of GDP NATO commitment on defence spending.
Second: The importance of building more oil and gas pipelines east and west within our country to diversify our customer base, removing interprovincial trade barriers, and increasing Canada’s competitiveness.
Third: The necessity of consulting with and securing consent from individual provinces before cutting off or placing export tariffs on key exports from those provinces. Alberta will continue to oppose any such extreme measures on our energy exports.
Fourth: A general agreement on the need to focus more on constructive, proactive diplomacy with U.S. lawmakers rather than escalating rhetoric.
While in Washington, Smith made herself available for a series of one-on-one interviews with Canadian media to share news of her meetings. In one such interview, she was asked whether she felt her lobbying for the oil and gas industry would result in “a carve out” for Alberta businesses. Smith responded: “I haven’t been asking for a carve out [for Alberta oil], I’ve been asking for a recognition that this important trade relationship means Canada should get a carve out, that Canada has a special integrated relationship with the U.S., that Canada buys more U.S. goods and services than any country in the world, that Canada is able to singularity be able to provide the security to the United States. We have a very strong case to make as oil and gas as one component. But whether it is uranium or germanium of any other critical minerals we have a very strong case to make.”
In most interviews, Smith was asked about the present friction between the countries, and she did not mince words in identifying Trudeau as the main trade irritant.
“Let’s be super clear about why we find ourselves in the situation that we’re in today,” said Smith. “It lands 100 per cent at the feet of Justin Trudeau, who even just a few weeks ago gave a speech where he thought it was an affront to women that Kamala Harris didn’t win. We are in a trade negotiation with a brand-new administration and we have a prime minister who keeps on poking his finger in the eye of the current administration and has damaged that relationship. So if there’s a failure, it lands at his feet, which is why I’m counting down the days to when he’s gone, and we can have a reset. It’s 47 days to go, and I hope he doesn’t continue torching the relationship in the meantime.”
Monday’s inauguration events came and went, and Trump’s Executive Orders did not include the anticipated 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian goods. In statements since, including comments made to the World Economic Forum on Thursday, Trump maintains the tariffs will be applied and that he has grave concerns about Canada. He has cited issues such as border security, lax drug enforcement, foreign criminal network operations, weak to nonexistent defence capabilities, and a huge trade imbalance.
Canadian statesmen and industry representatives are quick to point out the new American administration has many false impressions about the Canada. Still, this week there was troubling breaking news: a Vermont border security officer was killed by an asylum seeker near the Canadian border, the drones the Canadian government purchased for border security are China-made, unruly and unchecked foreign protests in the streets of Montreal, a Canadian minister calling Trump leaving the Paris global climate pact “deplorable,” and largest seizure of cocaine by Toronto police tied to a Mexican cartel operating throughout North America.
And then bordering on the perverse, on the same day that Trump announces a $500-billion investment in American AI infrastructure, Trudeau holds a press conference to talk about the absolute need for “dollar-for-dollar” retaliatory tariffs and the suggestion that Canadians will want to consider switching their ketchup brands.
As Trudeau was pontificating on ketchup, Smith was responding to a question by David Staples of the Edmonton Journal: “We are in a difficult position because we don’t have federal government with a long enough mandate to be able to sustain the negotiation. We are going to see a change of prime minister in 47 days. We are going to see a potential spring election which might result in another change of prime minister a few weeks after that… This is why I have been calling for an election for some time now because whoever it is needs a mandate to negotiate. What I worry about is because of politics that certain political leaders will try to turn this relationship with Trump into some kind of election issue and damage the relationship…. Once the federal government situation is sorted out, then I think the negotiations can begin in earnest.”
In Ottawa, Poilievre was demanding Parliament be reconvened.
“Liberals have shut Parliament in the middle of this crisis,” said Poilievre. “Canada has never been so weak, and things have never been so out of control. Liberals are putting themselves and their leadership politics ahead of the country. Freeland and Carney are fighting for power rather than fighting for Canada.” Terry Glavin of the National Post wrote “Listen to Poilievre, recall Parliament now”, and he more bluntly posted on X, “Enough screwing around. This is serious. Recall Parliament now.” The Toronto Sun lead editorial stated, “Let’s not forget, that this country is in this dire position due to the vein political ambition of one man: Trudeau. He clung to power for far too long. Had he quit last year, or had NDP leader Jagmeet Singh not propped him up, we would by now have had an election. We would have a new government and a new leader with a strong mandate.”
Coincidently, a new Ipsos poll reveals that three in four Canadians (77 per cent) want an immediate election to give the national government a strong mandate to speak for Canadians in American trade relations and with the impending tariff crisis. Seemingly, Canadians are wearisome of the Liberals political gamesmanship, Trudeau’s trash talking of Alberta, and the Liberals’ swagger and bravado on everything from retaliatory tariffs to ketchup brands.
Chris George is an advocate, government relations advisor, and writer/copy editor. As president of a public relations firm established in 1994, Chris provides discreet counsel, tactical advice and management skills to CEOs/Presidents, Boards of Directors and senior executive teams in executing public and government relations campaigns and managing issues. Prior to this PR/GR career, Chris spent seven years on Parliament Hill on staffs of Cabinet Ministers and MPs. He has served in senior campaign positions for electoral and advocacy campaigns at every level of government. Today, Chris resides in Almonte, Ontario where he and his wife manage www.cgacommunications.com. Contact Chris at chrisg.george@gmail.com.
