Alberta’s Premier would have preferred to see a federal election call made today.
This morning, Justin Trudeau announced his intentions to resign as leader of the federal Liberals once a new party leader is selected and had a request granted by the Governor General for Parliament to be prorogued until March 24th.
Danielle Smith doesn’t feel a two month delay will make any bit of difference and Canadians need an election so that whoever is in the PM’s chair has a four-year mandate. She says “so when we go to negotiate with the United States there is some certainty about who the players are going to be at the table. So, I’m a bit disappointed that we didn’t get an election call today. I think that would have been the better outcome and it would have allowed for the Prime Minister to go to the public and see whether or not they support his agenda of the last number of years. I think the polling results suggest that’s not the case.”
Smith adds, she will be going to Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th President of the United States on January 20th and staying for four or five days to put forward the case about how Canada is America’s best friend and trading partner as well as its biggest consumer. Smith says “so we are in a position now where we’ve got a lame duck leader with no immediate plans to leave, with no resolution to who is going to be the bargaining partner until – I think it was suggested – as late as May. So I believe it is up to myself, the other Premiers, to make the case to the Americans ourselves in the absence of federal leadership.”
Smith is very concerned because from what she is reading, the U.S. President-elect seems intent on putting tariffs in place. She says “we buy $293 billion worth of products from the United States which is more than Germany, the U-K, Italy, France, and Vietnam combined. So we shouldn’t be in the line of sight of the U.S. President. I would hope we will be able to make that case but it is not helpful having so much uncertainty in who is going to be at negotiating table. That’s why I still think that there should be an election. Let’s get that solved sooner rather than later so we can get on with these important discussions.”
Premier Smith was speaking at press conference this afternoon where she revealed Alberta’s intention to double its crude oil production and increase exports to the United States by working with partners including Enbridge.
According to Smith they are putting this announcement forward in the hopes it becomes a topic of discussion through the federal Liberal Party’s leadership race as well as the general election. Smith notes they want a willing and supportive partner with the federal government to keep pace with the kind of production Alberta wants.
