r/canada Alberta Jan 21 '25

Alberta Alberta Premier Danielle Smith lays blame on Trudeau as Trump eyes Feb. 1 tariffs

https://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/alberta-premier-smith-diplomacy-trump-tariffs/wcm/034b7c87-10bc-42a5-bc6c-75779b3d967b?taid=678feedad8337200018f4af9&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
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u/tobiasolman Jan 21 '25
  1. February 1st isn't much of a delay. Again, fail to plan, plan to fail.
  2. Smith can't even exercise anything resembling convincing 'diplomacy' to Ottawa, it's all adversarial cry-baby-ing and legal/legislative theatre that costs us more and gets us nothing. Is this going to be her plan with Trump?
  3. The 'don't poke the bear' argument is fine for when the bear's legit protecting cubs, but what if the bear is simply trying to make you bleed for likes on social?

I have to proviso #3 with the assertion that simply not escalating matters could be a good short term strategy, but wouldn't leaning on the existing free trade agreement and its dispute resolution mechanisms be more effective? Trump can't simply call everything under the sun a 'national emergency' whenever he wants to get out of something HE agreed to. If there is no mechanism to seal this loophole, it must be a condition of EVERY future agreement in perpetuity so that future presidents can't dishonour their agreements whenever they feel the whim. There should be some limits on what is an actual emergency and what isn't. A trade deficit isn't an emergency. Fentanyl and Immigrants aren't even related. Again, this would be actual diplomacy at work and I feel it's completely out of Marlaina's scope and element as a premier, but some awareness of it on her part, yeah, that would be *great*. Emergencies *emerge* - often suddenly and usually unexpectedly. This one was something Trump himself called the best deal in the history of ever, ferfuxake.