Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has outlined her own plan for dealing with the US as President Donald Trump returns to the White House today.
Her six-point wish list includes an end to “further talk of retaliatory measures” against the Americans, doubling down on border security, reaching NATO’s two per cent defence spending target quicker and repealing “all federal anti-energy policies.”
She also said Americans and Canadians should buy more from each other and urged Ottawa to “crack down on immigration streams and loopholes.”
Smith, who is in Washington for Trump's inauguration, said earlier today that she’d met with the president’s picks to lead the State and Defense departments, Marco Rubio and Pete Hegseth.
She said in reference to those meetings: “In my view, Canada must meet its 2% NATO commitment and deploy Canadian energy to support U.S. and Canadian defense [sic] and diplomatic priorities.”
Also today, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau congratulated Trump on becoming the US’s 47th president.
Alluding to Trump’s threat of placing a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods, Trudeau said: “We are strongest when we work together, and I look forward to working with President Trump, his administration, members of the United States Congress, and officials at the state and local levels to deliver prosperity for our peoples – while protecting and defending the interests of Canadians.”
Trudeau last week said “everything is on the table” if Trump goes ahead with his threatened tariff.
He has been supported by all of Canada’s premiers except for Smith, who refused to sign onto a plan to deal with Trump last week.
Smith said she wasn’t willing to use, or threaten to use, Alberta’s oil in a potential trade war with the US.
She said she wouldn’t “sacrifice Alberta’s interests for the short-term political interests of the current prime minister.”
In her statement today, Smith praised Trump for his decision to “refrain from imposing tariffs on Canadian goods at this time.”
While Trump hasn’t said he’s refraining from anything, media outlets in the US have claimed he is going to commission agencies to study supposed “unfair trade and currency practices” from the likes of Canada, rather than immediately slap them with tariffs.
Smith said avoiding tariffs “will save hundreds of thousands of Canadian and American jobs across every sector.”
The threat from the US remains “real,” however, the premier added.