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We’re back into an endless cycle of speculation and concern around every twitch, smile, off-hand comment and full-throttled assault on rights and democracy from the second presidency of Donald Trump.
The week has once again been dominated by talk of what Trump will do, how it will impact us and what we should do about it all. He’s also really not letting go of this 51st state stuff.
Alberta, as in so many national debates, is at the centre of it all.
From tariffs to statehood, to allegations of selling out the country and the province, it’s been a doozy. Oh — and we’re really doing this Rocky Mountains coal thing.
You’d be forgiven for thinking that everything that doesn’t have to do with the United States has been put on pause. We’ve solved every other problem, our only worry is Trump now.
On Thursday, he told a crowd of so-called globalist elites that the U.S. doesn’t need what Canada’s got, but also reiterating that we should become the 51st state.
“We don’t need their oil and gas,” he said to a crowd at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We have more than anybody.”
Meanwhile, the debate at home continues to be about the best response to tariff threats. Smith continues to be an outlier as she insists that both adding a federal export tax on oil and gas and withholding oil and exports should be off the table in negotiations. But it appears the collective mood among premiers is shifting away from aggression as others back away from including energy, or their own economic drivers, from inclusion in any retaliatory measures.
Put another way, a unified front that doesn’t give away national strategies is folding like a Made in the USA T-shirt.
Beyond the political impacts of fighting in public on how to respond to a bully, there are some serious conversations underway about the Canadian economy, reliance on the U.S. as a customer and what we can actually do about it all.
Some say hit ‘em hard, including treating folks like Elon Musk like a Russian oligarch. Others suggest getting our own house in order, removing internal trade barriers and, yes, ensuring we don’t gamble with the oil and gas sector.
Amid all the bluster, it’s likely the tension is something the premier and her advisors welcome.
After all, Rob Anderson, one of Smith’s closest political confidants, penned the secessionist Free Alberta Strategy that calls for the province to “replace the federal government as acting authority to negotiate Alberta’s international trade and market access relationship.”
It’s probably just a coincidence, but the Alberta government seems to make all its big announcements about bringing coal mining back to the Rockies on days where it might not be noticed.
Just before Christmas, the government announced a new policy that would allow coal mining to return. Then, on Jan. 20, when nothing at all was happening in the United States related to mass deportations, renewed interest in manifest destiny and attacks on rights and diversity, equity and inclusion policies, the Alberta Energy Regulator announced the government had lifted its moratorium on coal mining on the eastern slopes.
There was no news release from the Alberta government.
Weird.
The announcements have also been couched in misleading or confusing language, including the assertion the government’s new policy would prevent open-pit mining.
The St. Albert Gazette pushed for an explanation of what that meant and it turns out strip mining is indeed allowed under the new regulations. Details TBD.
Smith has said lawsuits against the province for first promising new coal mines (under former premier Jason Kenney) and then doing an abrupt about-face, might have been a factor in the new coal push.
Forestry and Parks Minister Todd Loewen continues his charm offensive about how great it is to hunt things in Alberta. He’s in Nashville, Tenn., attending Safari Club International’s convention (not a single insinuation that any wildlife will be stripping, which is disappointing from a comedic perspective). The organization’s mission? “To defend the freedom to hunt — from elk to elephant, rabbits to rhinos.”
Totally coincidentally, Safari Club International happens to be a favourite of the Trump family, too. A few years ago, the convention included an auction for a week-long, yacht-based “dream hunt” with the US president’s son Donald Trump Jr. It appears the hunt was successful, as all dreams are now dead.
This time around, Loewen is there to promote Alberta’s “incredible wilderness” and hype the minister’s special licences for elk, mule deer, moose, pronghorn, cougar, whitetail deer and wild turkey, which will be auctioned off in Salt Lake City in February.
The minister, who has previously declared income from Red Willow Outfitters in his ethics disclosures, hasn’t listed any income in his latest filing. Registry documents show the company, previously named Todd Loewen Outfitting Ltd., is now run by family members, including his wife.
The licence means the lucky hunter can shoot an animal anytime of year, another example of Alberta being the freest province in Canada, unless you’re into public health or are, I guess, a hunted animal.
Listen, maybe now is not the best time to invite armed Americans to visit Alberta. Just sayin’.
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