Poilievre won't say if he'll back tariffs on U.S.-bound oil to combat Trump's 25% threat
Conservative leader dodged question over whether he backs Alberta, or rest of provinces and federal government
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre won't say whether he backs the premiers and prime minister's threat to impose export tariffs or restrict the supply of oil and gas bound for the United States as a possible response to president-elect Donald Trump's promised tariff regime.
When asked by reporters on Thursday in Vancouver whether he agreed Canada should be prepared to use every economic tool necessary to retaliate — or would he instead stand behind Alberta Premier Danielle Smith — Poilievre dodged the question.
"By blocking pipelines and LNG plants in Canada, the Liberals have forced Canadians to sell almost all of our energy to the United States, giving President Trump massive leverage in making these tariff threats," the Conservative leader said at a speech where he announced he would reverse the Liberals' changes to the capital gains tax.
Poilievre went on to say that if he was prime minister, he would have approved pipelines like Northern Gateway and Energy East, as well as fast-track approvals for LNG plants — giving Canada more export options.
"In that scenario I would have answered: we'll go around the Americans," he said. "We'll sell our energy directly. But that's something that the Liberals would not let us do."
The Council of the Federation, which is made up of Canada's premiers, met with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Ottawa on Wednesday to discuss their response to Trump should he make good on his threat to impose 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian imports when he assumes office.
Alberta's Danielle Smith and B.C. Premier David Eby participated virtually. But only Smith refused to sign the joint communique at the end of the summit.
In a social media post, Smith said she could not go along with the Canadian plan to take on Trump because federal government officials "continue to publicly and privately float the idea of cutting off energy supply to the U.S. and imposing export tariffs on Alberta energy and other products to the United States."
"Until these threats cease, Alberta will not be able to fully support the federal government's plan in dealing with the threatened tariffs," she said.
Country before province, say Trudeau and Ford
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who chairs the council, criticized Smith Wednesday, saying "protect your jurisdiction, but country comes first, Canada's the priority."
"He's going full tilt at Canadians as a whole," Ford said of Trump. "We need to be united. United we stand, divided we fall."
Thursday in Windsor, Ont., Trudeau said while Smith defending her province's industries is "part of her job," he noted that "every single premier other than Danielle Smith then chose to put Canada first."
Trudeau said all Canadian taxpayers were there for Alberta when the federal government bought the Trans Mountain pipeline to ensure its expansion was completed.
The prime minister also announced on Thursday a new Canada-U.S. relations council to help navigate the impending tariffs. The 18-member group includes politicians and trade negotiators as well as representatives from the automotive industry, the nuclear power sector, agriculture and the labour movement.
Trudeau said if Poilievre wants to be a prime minister for all Canadians, he has a choice to make.
"Either he stands up to fight for all Canadians alongside all premiers and the federal government, that are doing that, or he chooses to stand with Danielle Smith, Kevin O'Leary and, ultimately, Donald Trump," Trudeau said.
Poilievre's energy plan
While Poilievre would not say whether he would stand with the premiers or back Alberta, he did say what he would do when it comes to managing energy projects if he becomes prime minister.
That effort would begin with repealing the federal government's environmental Impact Assessment Act and approving "any other private-sector unsubsidized investments to expand our ability to sell our energy without going through the Americans."
TransCanada bailed out of Energy East in 2017. The pipeline would have brought oil from Alberta and Saskatchewan across the country to be refined or exported from facilities in New Brunswick and Quebec.
The company first proposed the project in 2013, when oil prices neared $100 a barrel. But the project's future came into doubt when the price of oil dropped below $60 a barrel and regulatory and environmental hurdles started piling up.
The Northern Gateway pipeline was supposed to connect Alberta's oilpatch to a port in Kitimat, B.C., where it could be shipped out to global markets.
That project started to come apart when the federal Liberals banned tankers carrying large amounts of crude oil from British Columbia's north coast.
Without tankers to serve the port, there would be no point constructing more than 1,100 kilometres of pipeline to send Alberta bitumen to Kitimat.
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With files from The Canadian Press