[BoLevi]

Originally Posted by iggy_oi

The most frustrating part about how Smith has handled these tariffs is that she effectively took away any leverage she would have had if she had publicly supported the other premieres first.

I’ve said it before that I have no issue with her meeting with Trump, in fact I think that it’s important to have dialogue with his camp and the idea of giving them what equates to the silent treatment out of spite is counterproductive. But I think her appeasement approach has taken away an opportunity for her to work with the other provinces to further our interests over the long run while simultaneously further entrenching us in the current system of only having one major market that hasn’t been working.

In my opinion a better approach would have been to say to the provinces you need our help right now and we’re willing to help you, but we also need your help in return so we need you to play ball. From a negotiation perspective it is always better to have something on the table that the other party doesn’t want to lose that you are willing to continue giving them if they give you something you want.

Her approach has been we’re not going to give you anything because you haven’t worked with us in the past, so if you give us something now that we’ve already harmed you we’ll consider helping.

I’m sure someone will try and flip that around to say that is the approach other provinces have take with us. Without agreeing or disagreeing on whether that has occurred we can all probably come to the conclusion that that approach really hasn’t helped anyone. So if we want our government to be the “grown-ups” in the room we have to change our approach. It’s rare for two sides that dig their heels to get anything of substance done.

It just seems like a really great opportunity for the province of Alberta and Canada as a whole has been squandered by someone who is a lousy negotiator and acting in her own self interest by being more concerned with convincing her base that she’s “standing up to Ottawa”.

Even if she is successful in getting oil and gas exports excluded from Trump’s tariff(which could happen), the smarter play in the long run would have been to use this rare moment of leverage to set us up better in the long run by increasing our capacity for overseas exports. Frankly had she played this a little more tactfully she could have potentially gotten both

This is the best post on the topic so far. I agree with you.

Smith should have stayed silent, and told the other provinces that her silence or even agreement to leave oil on the table is contingent on their commitment to eliminate or vastly reduce transfer payments, and commitments on how oil and gas would be regulated at the federal level, and commitments on how pipelines are regulated in the future.

She can always come out and say later that Alberta oil isn't on the table, but she had some time to really hammer the other provinces in negotiating a better position for Alberta in confederation. Maybe she tried it. Maybe she still will.