Bell: Who can handle Trump? Sure as hell not Mark Carney, says Danielle Smith​on March 8, 2025 at 12:53 am

Who will be able to handle U.S. President Donald Trump?

For Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, it sure as hell is not going to be Mark Carney, the international banker auditioning to be the Liberal messiah.

Trump couldn’t stand Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Ditto Chrystia Freeland, Trudeau’s former Number Two, who is running to replace him and is expected to lose.

Then there is Carney, who is expected to win the Liberal leadership Sunday, succeed Trudeau and call an election soon after that.

Carney and Trump, the odd couple.

“He’s not going to like Mark Carney, the architect of net-zero financing and, in his book Values, talking about keeping oil and gas in the ground. That’s a real problem for the country,” says Smith.

“I don’t think they’re going to find very much common cause either.”

It is no surprise Smith believes the Conservative leader is a far better fit.

“The best person to be at the table is Pierre Poilievre. He is the one who can really do a reset.

“He would end policies like the carbon tax which are punishing to Canadian citizens and also puts us offside with where the American policy is going.

“He has the credibility to say we’re going to build things and if the Americans don’t want to buy our stuff we’ll certainly build to sell it elsewhere. That’s a good bargaining chip.”

People who actually follow the political bouncing ball and aren’t suffering from amnesia know where this is going.

Suddenly, with Trump breathing down Canada’s neck, we don’t have a lot of options for selling oil and gas, the biggest Canadian export to the U.S. by far.

The bargaining chip is not as big as it could have been or should have been.

Because enough Canadians, though not in Alberta, voted repeatedly for the Liberals and other political parties who stood in the way of maximum development of oil and gas.

Where is that pipeline to the east, to New Brunswick, to sell to Europe?

Where are any pipelines west, beyond Trans Mountain?

“The Liberals lack credibility because they spent the last 10 years not building things and trying to keep them in the ground. That’s part of the reason we’re over the barrel here.”

But what about Carney? He is being portrayed as the steady hand with the gold-plated resume.

“We’ve seen a leader who will say one thing in one part of the country and another in another part.

“He’ll say one thing in French and another in English. I suspect he would say one thing to Canada and one thing to the United States.