Western Standard Opinion Editor Nigel Hannaford and Editor-in-Chief Dave Naylor discuss the start of the Trump administration, the trade war, and the new Prime Minister, Danielle Smith. Plus, a look back at the Trump Inauguration, and a look forward to what's to come in 2020.
00:01:50.640But we're going to talk about the absolute roaring start of the second Trump presidency.
00:01:56.460And flowing from that, the trade war, the tariffs that Donald Trump has proposed, Danielle Smith starting her very different course than that set by the premiers and the prime minister, some in the East and in the legacy media are calling her a traitor.
00:02:18.140We're talking, is she a traitor or is she a traitor?0.99
00:04:21.780But, you know, that's that's some good stuff goes to the local hockey arena in front of 20,000 people at like a student's desk and start signing these executive orders and and the crowd's going crazy.
00:04:35.860And then it goes into the Oval Office and they're literally stacked that high.
00:06:32.660I mean, there has been nothing like this,
00:06:36.200And the time had come for something like this in America in this year.
00:06:42.560After the four years of the Biden administration, there have been so many things that so many people, even if they weren't diehard Democrats,
00:06:52.320said, well, this isn't making any sense.
00:06:54.700It's not safe to walk down the street.
00:09:08.860You know, and just sort of handing things off,
00:09:10.780and then again answering sensible questions.
00:09:14.300Everybody, whoa, this is going to be a very, very different term.
00:09:19.800That's not to say that every executive order is going to be followed to the letter immediately, but he certainly told the people who voted for him, I am setting forth to do what you authorize me to do.
00:09:33.740I only recall one executive order from Biden's first state office.
00:19:19.260She's gone to Mar-a-Lago, met with Trump.
00:19:21.120She's been down around the inauguration at events, meeting with governors, meeting with Marco Rubio, the new secretary of state.
00:19:29.380That's probably one of the biggest key relationships there.
00:19:33.460Taking a more diplomatic approach. Hard to see if it'll work or not.
00:19:38.900I mean, it's it's a complicated administration to get a grip on, I think.
00:19:43.440But I'll start with you, Nigel. The Liberals and much of the media, not all of it, but much of the media have called her a downright traitor.
00:19:57.800I don't know. Is there any political resonance with that?
00:20:01.820Oh, probably in back east, where we render something in the simple two dimensions.
00:20:07.480But, you know, Smith was actually elected to represent Alberta.
00:20:15.000And I think people forget that premiers represent the interests of their province.
00:20:20.480So it makes great sense for Doug Ford to say, you've got to protect my auto industry.
00:20:56.200She did a couple of things that really outsmarted the rest of the premiers and the prime minister himself.
00:21:03.100First of all, when Trump said, look, I've got a problem with your border security, he reacted to that.
00:21:10.680And while they were still trying to charter helicopters back east, she actually had a border patrol sheriff's, Alberta sheriff's, established.
00:21:20.460I mean, it was a small-scale thing, but they were out there with their drones, their helicopters, doing the job, keeping an eye on the border.
00:21:34.220But that's what the Americans wanted, even if it's a pretty dull border.
00:21:38.480Hey, look, a good day in a helicopter on the border is better than a dull day in the office, so I'm all for it.
00:21:43.900Look, the other thing that she did, just going down there and putting a human face on Canada...0.99
00:21:50.460I mean, she happens to be an appealing face.0.56
00:21:52.780She was exactly the right kind of person
00:21:54.680that you would want to send in an ambassadorial role to them.
00:21:58.860But you mentioned a number of people that she'd met with,
00:22:03.140and obviously a meeting with Trump is the...
00:22:05.860Trump will remember her when he's forgotten Doug Ford.
00:22:11.780But she also touched base with Kristi Noem,
00:22:14.700who's on tap to be Homeland Security Secretary.
00:22:18.560um rubio department of state these are this is diplomacy that's just explaining everybody you
00:22:27.600know everybody take a valium we're all crazy up here and i have seen it argued i don't know
00:22:36.060whether it's based on anything other than goodwill towards danielle smith but i have seen it argued
00:22:42.180that the fact that Trump did not announce tariffs on day one against Canada
00:22:48.360can be to some degree attributed to her own quiet diplomacy
00:22:53.760of the kind that she recommends to the other premiers.
00:22:57.960Maybe there is a time to just take things a little easy
00:23:01.480and not go in half-cocked as Team Canada seemed to be ready to do.
00:23:07.640But it's not stopping the Eastern people from going off half-cocked1.00
00:23:11.620There was an editorial cartoon in the Toronto Star yesterday that had, you know, Eastern Canada, all in their Team Canada, hockey jerseys, and Alberta Smith in the old Soviet CCCP hockey jersey.
00:23:39.060Well, it was an interesting, Monday was an interesting day because all weekend it was Daniel Smith's a traitor, Daniel Smith's a traitor, Trump speaks, everybody realizes, hey, there's no mention of Canada, Daniel Smith's a hero, Daniel Smith's a hero, you know, and even some local commentators went from slagging her to praising her.
00:23:58.540And then, of course, you had Trump that night say that tariffs are coming on February 1st.
00:24:05.080Whether they are or not remains to be seen, whether Alberta gets an exemption on oil.
00:24:11.700You know, bottom line is I can't see them putting tariffs on oil when Alberta oil is so important to the American economy.
00:24:27.480yeah and if you're going to put tariffs on alberta oil you're not going to be able to cut the price
00:24:32.440of gasoline the issue that we're worried about of course is is not that as much for all the
00:24:36.760reasons you've just said but the issue is that will the uh federal government put an export tax
00:24:46.040on alberta oil so that's the uh and that might be the way trump could get his 51st state yeah
00:24:53.640i mean i i prefer to think of it as getting a 13th province actually
00:24:59.480um if like we haven't talked about it for a little bit now because he hasn't mentioned
00:25:05.800it in a week or two annexing canada but you know if trump really wants if like
00:25:13.160i i don't think it's totally crazy to think that he actually is serious about it
00:25:17.080How serious? Hard to say. But if he wanted to annex maybe just Alberta or to start peeling
00:25:25.360apart Canada, here's how I would do it if I was him. I would put the 25% tariff on Canada
00:25:32.080except for Alberta. And then watch the cat among the pigeons. The eastern politicians,
00:25:40.640the feds, they will come in for Alberta and they'll say, Alberta is not being loyal here.0.97
00:25:46.440Alberta carved itself out and did Canada dirty, even though it's Alberta is actually doing reasonable diplomacy right now, unlike the feds, unlike Ontario.
00:25:55.680And then you'd see an export tax, and an export tax is kryptonite to Alberta.
00:26:01.020Alberta cannot, under any circumstance, accept that.
00:26:06.360And then Trump could roll out an offer at that point.
00:26:10.700And really, what could Canada do? Send the army? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
00:26:14.960I mean, it's a wild hypothetical, but we kind of get to talk about these wild hypotheticals now because they're only half hypothetical.
00:26:26.040So if I was Trump and you wanted to set us among ourselves right now, I would do that because Smith has been doing her job as the Premier of Alberta.
00:26:33.660She's not the Prime Minister of Canada.
00:26:36.680I don't like Alberta premiers who have an eye on the job of being Prime Minister of Canada.
00:26:41.360I want them to be the leader of Alberta and only the leader of Alberta with no other ambition.
00:28:07.680So the two leading candidates for the Liberal Party leadership and become technically the next Prime Minister, probably the Prime Minister for a few weeks before they get ganned, Mark Carney and Chrystia Freeland, both have been kind of a cagey way without any specific said that they're going to get rid of the carbon tax.
00:28:28.160Now, when they say get rid of the carbon tax, they mean, at most, scrap the consumer portion.
00:28:33.680They'll still leave the industrial portion, which is actually arguably the worst part and harms the economy the most.
00:28:39.100But they'll get rid of at least part of it or rename it or something.
00:28:42.300I mean, they've renamed the carbon tax a few times already.
00:28:44.440But, you know, they'll repackage it in some way.
00:28:48.420Stephen Gilbeau surprised me a bit when he...
00:35:07.900Mark Carney has been a carbon tax enthusiast
00:35:10.780for as long as that phrase has been going.
00:35:14.600So, you know, the Liberals are thinking again that we're stupid.
00:35:19.180But they're going to try and take it off the table, leave Polyev with, you know, where's his axe the tax?
00:35:24.680Well, we have axe the tax. Polyev has nothing.
00:35:27.440Well, you know what? I think Mr. Polyev has plenty of ammunition to fight back against those two jokers.
00:35:33.640And he's going to be able to run against the carbon tax anyway.
00:35:36.700But first, like the liberals are not going to be able to repeal it in Parliament.
00:35:40.560They're going to get defeated as soon as, I mean, if we believe Singh, and that's difficult.
00:35:44.380But he has now, again, under pressure, reiterated that, no, he's going to bring, he's going to vote non-confident with conservatives in the bloc as soon as parliament comes back, no matter who the liberal leader is.
00:35:54.980Now, let's see, that liberal leader is going to try and cook a deal with him.
00:35:57.540But, I mean, he's kind of at the end of his political rope here.
00:36:41.000There is no win for the liberals on it.
00:36:42.560But if I was liberals, I mean, no politician generally is saying, I'm going to lose and I'm going to go down losing.
00:36:53.100But it'd be nice if they would just try with a little dignity, you know, go down with the flags, the colors flying on the ship as the shells hit the deck.
00:40:34.840I would be interested to hear from readers who have actually gone over their power bills and done a computation of the tax they paid at the pump.
00:40:42.120added it all up and see if they really