Where do Danielle Smith’s loyalties lie? People asked this question after she revealed on MAGA-aligned media that she counselled Trump officials to pause the tariffs until after Canada’s federal election is over. Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is close to Trump's agenda, she said, but the trade war is boosting Liberal support.
Trump changes his mind hourly, but the tariffs against Canada will likely be imposed on April 2nd. The issue isn’t whether Smith swayed Trump. It’s about where her loyalties lie.
Being offside with Team Canada is not new for Smith. In January, she undermined Canada’s bargaining position by breaking ranks with all other premiers and the prime minister when she balked at signing their joint tariff statement. Smith vehemently refused to include Canada’s strongest bargaining chip in its retaliation arsenal — an export tax on oil.
Does this mean Smith is disloyal? To be charitable, perhaps it is not that she doesn’t love her country, but that she loves Big Oil more. Smith first made her mark by riding the wave of oil patch anger at a boost in provincial oil royalties under then-premier Ed Stelmach and his Progressive Conservatives. The Wildrose Party was pulled from obscurity in 2009 by Big Oil with Smith at its head. She rode the party to the brink of power in 2012 before a disastrous merger attempt with the governing Prentice PCs two years later.
Smith stepped away from politics for a while and lobbied for Big Oil on their “RStar” scheme to convince Alberta’s government to forgive $100 million in royalty payments to reimburse Big Oil for cleaning up orphan oil and natural gas wells they were legally obliged to clean up at their expense.
Promoting a sweetheart deal for Big Oil corporations was standard for a paid lobbyist, but Smith crossed the line when she was later elected premier and implemented the massive giveaway scheme she had lobbied for.
Did Smith’s counselling Trump to pause tariffs constitute an attempt to spark foreign political interference? That’s debatable. What’s not debatable is that Smith’s unswerving loyalty to Big Oil makes her loyalty suspect. Every Big Oil corporation in Canada is either wholly or majority foreign-owned. Most of the foreign ownership is American.
No majority Canadian-owned big oil corporation has existed since Suncor took over Petro-Canada in 2009. In researching Bloomberg terminals in 2021, I found that Suncor was 66 percent foreign-owned. Canadian Natural (CNRL) was 55 per cent foreign owned, Cenovus 72 per cent, Imperial 94 per cent and Shell 100 per cent.
Calgary’s big five oil corporations are a major part of Danielle Smith’s base. They may wave the maple leaf and pose as Canadian, but when the showdown hits between Canadian sovereignty and annexation, what side will they be on? And what side will Smith be on?
Recently the UCP government made a fuss about foreign-funded environmentalists conducting what they called “anti-Alberta energy campaigns.” Prodded by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP), the UCP government set up a public inquiry to examine the extent of foreign funding of environmental groups.
Ninety-seven percent of CAPP’s funding comes from foreign-owned corporations. CAPP uses its foreign funds to meddle in Canadian politics. Before the 2019 federal election, CAPP strategized behind closed-doors with the federal Conservatives to oust the Trudeau Liberals.
The public Inquiry was headed by Steve Allan. It found that only a pittance ( six per cent) of environmentalists’ funding was foreign. Nevertheless, when its report was released, Alberta’s Energy Minister, Sonya Savage, said it was a “real concern” that any group is “influencing political and regulatory change using foreign funding.”
Agreed. But if the premise that whoever pays the piper calls the tune is sound, the overwhelmingly foreign-funded oil industry is a real concern. So should be the perception that Alberta’s premier is in its pocket. These questions are crucial when Canada may be annexed against Canadians’ consent.
Albertans are proud of their province and proud Canadians. When the chips are down, they will want to be sure their premier will hold her elbows up to defend Canada and our way of life.
Gordon Laxer is the founding director of Parkland Institute at the University of Alberta and author of the peer-reviewed report Posing as Canadian: How Big Foreign Oil Captures Canadian Energy and Climate Policy.
Comments
Imagine loving big oil more than your country of birth, especially when the country is under attack and big oil in our country is owned by the predator attacking us. Shameful and sad for all of us that we are not united as we should be. The other fella that hangs on her coattails in Saskatchewan has been undermining and breaking rules that every other province in the country followed. Good thing Moe Scott is not running again because he obviously doesn't know what it means to be loyal to the country. Tommy Douglas would turn in his grave to see what has happened to Saskatchewan since the Grant Divine Cons got power in the past and because of their way of government a good number of them ended up doing jail time. The smart ones didn't get caught.
To be fair to Smith, I don't think she actually loves big oil. She loves their money.
DS is only doing what she knows how to do. She is a commentator, a talk show host, a podcaster. She finds someone else’s idea and talks about it. There has been not one policy in Alberta from that government in more than a decade that has actually improved anything. There are no “big ideas”, no vision, not even a small idea that if initiated would lead to more and better future employment. Oil and gas jobs are actually reducing as the need for people is cut due to technology and scale efficiencies. The graduating classes for Petroleum Engineering are minuscule compared to decades ago, yet we are producing more than ever.
No, any policies from the conservative governments in Alberta have generally stifled sectors where there is potential for employment growth.
It is hard to live in my province. I won’t say her province because she is not really citizen in her thoughts and acts.
The percentages by which Big Oil is foreign-owned need to be on every billboard in Alberta, with Trump's face as the background to the words.
Where does Danielle Smith’s loyalty lie?
Does anybody have to ask that question?
Laxer: “Smith stepped away from politics for a while and lobbied for Big Oil on their ‘RStar’ scheme to convince Alberta’s government to forgive $100 million in royalty payments to reimburse Big Oil for cleaning up orphan oil and natural gas wells they were legally obliged to clean up at their expense.
“Promoting a sweetheart deal for Big Oil corporations was standard for a paid lobbyist, but Smith crossed the line when she was later elected premier and implemented the massive giveaway scheme she had lobbied for.”
Maybe I missed something, but as far as I know, Alberta’s UPC government has yet to implement RStar as such. Smith's $20 B giveaway is still sitting on the back burner. ($100 million was the cost of the proposed pilot program.)
"Alberta's energy minister says province won't use public money to clean up abandoned wells" (CP, Mar 18, 2025)
Alberta's energy minister says the government will not draw on the public purse to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells.
"We will not put public tax dollars into cleaning up wells," Brian Jean told reporters Tuesday."
"Alberta's plan to manage inactive oil wells now leaves taxpayers off the hook" (CP, Apr 04, 2025)
"Despite controversy surrounded a draft management plan, the Alberta government has maintained that it has no plans to public money to clean up wells on behalf of oil and gas companies."
Let's translate the minister's statements, shall we?
"We will not use PROVINCIAL public money to cleanup private industry's mess, which they abandoned responsibility for, knowing we will protect it in any case.
"But we will accept all public FEDERAL money to build pipelines and subsidize CCS, abandoned well cleanup and other private industry responsibilities, and let the private sector send the profits to their foreign owners.
"Instead of saying thank you to the feds we will instead hammer them with false blame narratives and top that off with separatist blackmail if the largesse slows down and if climate related policy is even hinted at."
One day someone may call their bluff. Otherwise, world economic and climate-energy related circumstances and responses will make it easy to ignore the bluffing.
In that case, they'd better hope there is a federal government willing and able to ease the decline in Alberta, even when it is straining its own resources helping the rest of the nation cope with a global recession caused by the largest and now unreliable trading partner just as fighting and adaptation to global heating really needs to be increased.
Danielle Smith comes from the oil & gas industry and is a planted premier by the industry. Despite the impacts the Orange Menace will have on Canada, she loves her oil & gas more and that is all she cares about. Smith may pretend to be concerned about Alberta and Canada, but that is just for show. Smith is a precursor to what Poilievre could be like since the conservative party's ties to oil & gas donors and the fact they refuse to acknowledge that climate change is real. It's oil & gas first and Canada if time permits.
So the Alberta oil sands companies are foreign owned. Duh! Why do you think 90% of the refineries that process said oil are in the US? Not a coincidence.
Canada mortgaged its economy and subsequently its inheritance when it voted for "Free Trade" in 1984. Only capitalists can play in that game, and the USA has 10 times more capital. It's not even worth a "Duh".
Damn right.