Trudeau and his visit to Alberta further inflamed tensions, with the prime minister facing scathing criticism from both domestic and foreign figures.
Trudeau was lambasted by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith for his disparaging comments calling Albertans “fools”. Trudeau now faces a barrage of criticism over failed tax policies, broken commitments, and tone-deaf posturing.
Canadian Premiers like Danielle Smith and Scott Moe defy and reject his nonsensical tax policies while he is busy wasting valuable taxpayers money on vanity “green” projects rather than investing it into Canada’s weak military.
His mismanagement and lack of planning drew the frustration of US ambassador Julianne Smith as she called out Canada’s failure to meet NATO defence spending commitments under Trudeau’s leadership. The ambassador’s rebuke shows how Canada appears as a “weak freeloading partner” within the alliance.
Yet again, Trudeau is damaging Canada’s image globally and hurting relations with key allies. The growing humiliations Trudeau faces from leaders at home and abroad expose his government’s incompetence and undermine his leadership.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent visit to Alberta was concerning for many reasons and mainly highlighted his disconnection with the province. While avoiding meetings with provincial leaders and officials, especially premier Danielle Smith, he somehow made time to disparage Alberta’s oil and gas industry and economy on an Edmonton podcast.
On this latest visit, Trudeau tried to portray himself as the province’s saviour while implying that Alberta’s government is misleading its citizens. Choosing to ignore economic and practical realities, Trudeau instead pushed his vision for Alberta’s green energy future.
His time on the Edmonton podcast included a number of potshots at Premiere Smith where he claimed that Alberta’s government ideologically opposes workers’ interests and that its oil and gas industry does not care for its workers. It’s hard to ignore how cowardly these comments are, considering that Trudeau chose to make these absurd smears against premier Smith while avoiding any contact with Alberta’s provincial government.
But meeting with them would only undermine the narrative he is trying to spin so it’s not surprising that he chose to deliver a monologue instead of having a real discussion.
According to Trudeau, Alberta must abandon oil and gas entirely for alternative energy in order to secure its future prosperity. This industry is in many ways the lifeblood of Alberta’s economy, and the provincial government has the right to encourage it rather than undermine it as Trudeau wishes.
Trudeau’s mindless crusade towards net-zero has made him blind to the casualties from his “Green Plan”. He claims to know what is best for Alberta’s future, revealing a staggering, but not so shocking level of condescension.
Since it’s inconceivable to Trudeau that Albertans would not support his green transition, he went so far as to insinuate that the provincial government subverts the will of Albertans. He even blamed the media for enabling so called “misinformation”, arguing that his unpopularity is really the result of the media and local government.
Regarding his abysmal poll numbers, Trudeau insisted they are merely the result of misguided anger and political partisanship rather than a true reflection of how Canadians view his policies.
While Trudeau is happy to argue that the government should “get out of the way” so that Albertans can build the future he wants, he can’t seem to get out of their way when it comes to letting Albertans do what they think is best. This paternalistic approach is nothing new, and it’s time Trudeau stopped treating Albertans like children unable to follow their best interests.
In response to Trudeau, Alberta premier Danielle Smith, took it upon herself to respond to Trudeau’s egregious comments on the podcast. She highlighted Trudeu’s comments calling Albertans “fools” and his claims that the carbon tax was saving Alberta families thousands of dollars.
Smith emphasised Trudeau’s clear partisan behaviour in avoiding her and the Albertan government, pointing out that Trudeau had met with the Premiers of Ontario, British Columbia, and Manitoba on his visits.
Premier Smith also pointed out how it is “sad” that Trudeau is resorting to the age-old liberal tactic of using Alberta as a conservative punching bag to gain favours with his liberal supporters and the liberal provinces.
It’s very childish for the Prime Minister to appear on a random podcast arguing about his carbon tax and disparaging Albertans rather than meeting with the local government or its people. But maybe we should cut Trudeua some slack, after all the Prime Minister was forced to cave in again.
No longer able to defend his once defining policy after being faced with the dire political costs, Trudeau’s government has finally decided to accommodate Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe’s efforts to remove natural gas from carbon taxes.
SaskEnergy has confirmed that the Canada Revenue Agency has approved delisting the Crown corporation as the distributor of natural gas in Saskatchewan. The provincial government has been allowed to register in its place.
It’s not clear whether the province will be remitting residential carbon tax charges for January, but Minister of Crown Investments Dustin Duncan shared that stopping collection of the carbon tax has “helped reduce” Saskatchewan’s inflation rate in January. According to Duncan, this change shows how much of an impact removing it from home heating in just one province has.
He went on to say that “If they are actually serious about fighting inflation, the federal government needs to remove the carbon tax on everyone and everything,”
The carbon tax’s slow fall from grace after carve outs for Atlantic Canada to protect seats, has been a spectacle Trudeau will not soon forget. And after this latest change, it seems increasingly likely that the policy will be all but dismantled in an effort to curry political favour ahead of the election.
Justin Trudeau’s climate legacy appears to be built on hollow and compromised principles mixed in with the usual political pandering. His once-ambitious carbon tax plan now shows more concern for political expediency than any meaningful emissions reduction he had hoped for.
Scott Moe waged a war on this carbon tax in an effort to save Saskatchewan households money. This triumph shows that if Saskatchewan – a wasteland in the eyes of liberals – can broker a compromise, then other provinces could also benefit from Trudeau’s slow retreat.
Danielle Smith and Scott Moe’s stand against Trudeau’s nonsensical policies and actions showcases his crumbling commitment to his own ambitious plans. For all his virtue signalling and white knight symbolism, it seems there is nothing behind Trudeau but political posturing.
Justin Trudeau and his Liberal government are more than happy wasting taxpayer’s money on hollow plans and initiatives like the carbon tax and the failed electrical heat pump plan, all while sending millions of dollars in Ukrainian aid. Yet his neglect of Canada’s own military has not gone unnoticed.
Unlike a lot of the liberal government’s egregious actions that so often go overlooked, the Prime Minister of Canada’s abandonment of its NATO commitments has not been. Trudeau received harsh criticism from none other than US ambassador Julianne Smith for failing to reach the minimum defence spending requirement agreed upon by NATO members. Ambassador Smith called this oversight, a clear “lack of commitment to its allies”.
Canada’s failure to meet NATO defence spending targets or provide even a timeline to do so, has undermined its credibility within the alliance. Canada is the only NATO member without a plan to reach the agreed upon defence spending benchmark equivalent to 2% of its GDP.
18 NATO members will reach the 2% target this year, up from just 3 in 2014. Yet under the leadership of Justin Trudeau, Canada has remained a steadfast outlier. Trudeau flagrantly disregards the obligations undertaken years ago and has made Canada appear like a weak freeloading partner, reliant on the contributions of others.
Justin Trudeau does nothing but talk and pay lip service to supporting NATO, feigning respect for obligations while proudly proclaiming that Canada will never meet its spending goal. Years of the Liberal government’s destructive policies have degraded Canada’s military preparedness and regardless of meeting these NATO commitments, Canada’s own national security is at risk.
These empty promises are a painful contrast to opposition leader Pierre Poilievre. Poilievre has made it clear that under his leadership and the leadership of the Conservative party, he will axe the meaningless taxes and redirect wasteful spending. Billions wasted on mistargeted aid or bureaucratic bloat can be redirected to bolster the military and serve the Canadian people.
