Danielle Smith wants to unify Canada; as a U.S. territory

A light breeze could have compromised the Alberta Premier. She was no match for a week with the republicans.

Her dutiful scribe isn’t pissed off anymore.

The fire and indignation is gone because he accepts that the criticism lobbed at Danielle Smith, and his defence of her, was justified.

He’s even using the “Alberta First” hashtag. The scribe was just waiting for the Premier’s assurance that they were done with this whole Canada thing.

“The world is a dangerous place and we have to choose a side,” she tells him. “I think we should choose the side of freedom and democracy and a nation that shares our values.”

“That’s the United States,” the scribe adds helpfully.

It’s not entirely without irony; in her support for Donald Trump, the Premier didn’t just sell out Canadians — she sold out the separatists and the “Alberta first” crowd, too.

Because the Trumpster wants the whole country — not just the little oil province that could. As a single state, oil royalties would be divvied up for every former Canadian — if we even get to keep them.

What you won’t see much emphasis on, in Alberta at least, is Donald Trump’s continued claim that the only way Canada can avoid tariffs is to become the 51st state. When he brought it up to the World Economic Forum, people said there were “gasps”.

Maybe they, like our starry-eyed Premier, thought he was just being “hilarious” before, too. Aside from the most obvious point that he’s not a funny person, let alone “hilarious”, he isn’t trying to be; though I imagine he appreciates the useful idiots who want to pretend he isn’t saying it at all.

A sitting duck country is probably a lot easier to take over than one whose citizens understand the threat is real.

Luckily, the Premier wasn’t the only person who came back from the celebrations in Trumpland with a story to tell.

According to Deborah Yedlin, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce; Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta; and Gitane De Silva, Alberta’s former senior representative to the U.S. during Trump’s first term on the latest episode of West of Centre, Canadians can expect no help from the Republicans the Premier partied with over the last week.

“It was definitely a roller coaster in terms of as a Canadian, how I was feeling, and feeling very vulnerable in terms of what could happen in terms of the economy and what he could try to do to make it difficult for us,” Yedlin said.

“We have people who are allies who don’t agree with the trade policies, but do see what he’s trying to create for America and are behind him in that,” Legge added.

“The conversations I’ve had lead me to believe we do have a contingency of support. They believe free trade has benefitted both our countries. But a consistent thing I’m hearing is ‘we’re onside with you, but we don’t want to start the administration by putting our head up and challenging some of the ideas he’s got.’ Part of the strategy we’ve all been talking about is ‘let’s get some friend raising in the U.S., get some internal champions’, but the problem is no one is willing to put their head up. Trade with Canada is important, but it’s not first on their agenda.” Emphasis mine.

“It makes no sense,” Yedlin said, referring to the economics of tariffs.

That’s right — it makes no sense from an economic point of view, or from a cost of living point of view, or from a strategic point of view.

None of this makes sense until you include what Trump has repeatedly said: the point of tariffs is to put economic pressure on Canada until we agree to give up our sovereignty.

“We have a tremendous deficit with Canada, that’s not going to happen anymore, as I said, they can always become a state,” Trump said to the World Economic Forum two days ago.

Every Premier of every province standing down. Every cabinet minister in every province standing down.

No more MPs. No more Prime Minister.

Every tax dollar, resource royalty, and fee going to the one pool of a state government.

No more Alberta angst.

No more Alberta.

Just a really big state with a population the size of California.

Did Danielle Smith form some alliances to help her reach the coveted Governor position she was hoping for when she became Premier of Alberta?

If the faithful scribe knows, he wasn’t permitted, or willing, to say.

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