Why it’s Danielle Smith vs. Ottawa, over and over
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith knows she increasingly needs to step up where Ottawa steps down.
“Canada is becoming irrelevant,” the premier reports, matter-of-factly. “We have the ability to supply the world with everything they need, and we really could be a leader. But we have a federal government that chooses not to, that chooses to work against the national interest rather than advance it.”
For Smith, stepping up includes waving the provincial flag in Washington, D.C.
Getting the attention of American politicians in an election year isn’t easy. Smith knows she needs to pitch forward-thinking ideas, in person, with folks on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. Capitol. Justin Trudeau’s gang are a poor shill for Alberta’s energy sector and the aspirations of its citizens.
Earlier this month, Smith visited the U.S. Capitol but few know much about what went down with our American neighbours. That’s because the political noise at home is deafening — Trudeau’s carbon tax rebrand; Minister Steven Guilbeault’s zealous calls to curtail investment in new roads; and Minister Randy Boissonnault’s shrill reaction to Alberta’s transgender policy.
When I catch up with the premier, back home in Alberta, I ask about her first visit to Washington as premier.
It’s a rite of passage for provincial leaders, and déjà vu all over again. Premiers Ed Stelmach and Alison Redford journeyed to America to defend the oilsands’ environmental record; Premier Rachel Notley’s visit was rife with promises to decarbonize; Premier Jason Kenney implored policymakers to reconsider President Joe Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL oil pipeline (Biden nixed the pipeline his first day in presidential office).
Alberta’s current premier isn’t exactly one to plod mindlessly in the footsteps of predecessors. She’s gone out of her way to build alliances with Saudi Arabia and the Emirates; she’s not been shy about sharing the podium with the likes of Tucker Carlson; she’s willing to draw a line in the sand on transgender policy for kids.
Plus, in the short time she’s been premier, the world has changed. Instability on several fronts means energy security and affordability are top-of-mind, everywhere.
So, how was her first trip to Washington as Alberta’s premier? “I think perhaps the difference this time is that the technology now exists for us to be carbon neutral,” she says. “In the past, I think it was aspirational.” Today, there’s a lineup of practical net-zero tech in development — net-zero hydrogen, petrochemicals and cement. Net-zero steel is her next target.
It’s election year in D.C.; she met with people close to Biden and people close to Trump, she reports, “so regardless of who’s in the White House after the election,” Alberta’s Us$161-billion worth of trade, most of that energy, remains relevant.
The premier even dared to reopen conversations about cross-border pipelines. “I think there’s a potential to start a conversation about that route on natural gas with the Democrats,” she shared, “and maybe restart the conversation on oil with a Trump presidency.”
And like every Alberta premier before her, she reminded Americans of the province-next-door: “I think the Americans spend a lot of time looking at what OPEC is doing, and I had to tell them, we give more product to the United States than all the OPEC nations combined. We are a very safe, friendly, non-controversial, boring place to buy product from, so you should buy more of it.”
Pragmatic messages from a straight-shooting western Canadian premier. Except, there’s one big problem — all that flailing in Ottawa. “It’s showmanship for their own extreme environmental base,” she sighs, “because the rest of the world is very practical about this. Even the agreement that was signed on COP28 recognizes natural gas as a transition fuel.”
“Why is it that Guilbeault, who is becoming increasingly erratic, has been allowed to control the agenda messaging for the federal Liberals?” she wonders, getting animated now. “I think we should take him at face value. He doesn’t want to build any more roads, and he doesn’t think that any of us should drive cars at all,” she concludes.
Smith’s recommendation? Remove Guilbeault as Canada’s environment minister; he’s out of sync with where Canadians are at.
Recent polling by Postmedia-leger — to gauge public reactions across the country to the Alberta government’s sweeping changes to transgender policies — suggest this prairie premier has a better read than Ottawa on what Canadians value. Forty-five per cent of those polled support a blanket ban on gender reassignment surgery for minors; forty-two per cent oppose puberty blockers and hormone therapies for youth aged 15 and under. The pollster reported widespread overlapping agreement, across regions.
I tell her: “With some tweaking, you may be able to shift public opinion on the policy to a comfortable majority.”
“We’ll certainly have input as we’re implementing the policies,” the premier responds, re-emphasizing the imperative to pay attention to what’s happening around the world. “There’s been some grave concerns about the U.K.’S Tavistock clinic (for gender-diverse children and young people) and proper protocols,” she explains, “making sure kids get the proper counselling … that the interventions happen at the right age.”
One thing for certain, this premier isn’t trusting Ottawa to advocate on Albertans’ behalf. If we want to tell our own story, provinces have to do it ourselves, she asserts. “So you look at Quebec, I think they’ve got 34 trade offices around the world. We’ve got 16. I believe that Ontario has 17.”
“I think that we used to have a federal government that we could trust to advocate for our interests on the international stage, and I think we’re all coming to the conclusion, one by one, that it’s not the case. We’ve got a federal government that is actually working against interests in different ways in different provinces.”