Alberta Premier Danielle Smith says Canada can help the U.S. achieve its goals related to energy and artificial intelligence (AI) dominance, while adding that border security hangs over some of the conversations around tariffs.
In an interview with BNN Bloomberg Friday, Smith said talks on the key trade relationship are “very friendly.” She added that during the course of the long-standing political and trade relationship between the nations, the U.S. sometimes needs to be “reminded” of its importance and the mutual benefits the relationship brings to both countries. Smith said her recent discussions with U.S. officials are part of an effort to maintain a dialog.
“I think that we’ve got a very broad and good story to tell about how we can help the Americans achieve their goal of energy and AI dominance, and that’s the message that I put forward,” Smith said.
Regarding energy, she noted discounted Canadian oil benefits U.S. consumers.
“We know that the Americans want to be able to maintain lower prices for energy. Well, Canada ended up exceeding Saudi Arabia in the amount of oil that we exported to the U.S. as recently as 2014, and that’s continued,” she said.
On the AI front, she said the U.S. is battling with China for supremacy in the sector, which is a “grave concern” for the U.S. and its allies.
“We’re the answer to that too. So many of the critical minerals that the Americans need in their supply chains come from Canada, whether it’s going to be helium or germanium or even uranium,” Smith said.
Smith noted she is hearing U.S. President Donald Trump say he is frustrated that Canada is not contributing enough to national security and the defence of North America, specifically in the arctic, adding “we ought to fix that.”
“He doesn’t believe that we’re pulling our weight when it comes to border security. I don’t think that they want to see a bunch of migrants that they remove coming to Canada and biding their time to sneak back in at some future point,” she said.
Smith added Canada needs to provide the U.S. with confidence that instances like that won’t occur at the border.
“I think in some ways we’re having a tariff dispute; in some ways we’re having a trade dispute. But in other ways, I think it’s a bigger conversation, and that if we can address those concerns, then we might be able to go back to talking about trade and our ongoing relationship, making it tariff-free,” she said.
Amid calls for Canadian retaliation against potential tariffs, Smith said she would rather work on addressing security concerns from the U.S.
Last week, Smith declined to sign a joint statement alongside Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other premiers that stated all countermeasures would be on the table if the U.S. enacted tariffs on Canada, according to the Canadian Press. Smith also recently visited Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort to meet with the then president-elect.
“I know some of my colleagues like to negotiate these things in public. I tend not to want to. I think that any kind of proportionate action is something that you have to do after the fact, and we don’t have tariffs from the United States first and so we’re certainly not going to take any action until we see what those look like,” Smith said.
