Tag: Justin Trudeau

Danielle Smith’s MAGA charm offensive could haunt the Conservatives

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 24, 2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith speaks at the United Conservative Party’s Leader’s Dinner in Edmonton in March 2025 (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

When Alberta Premier Danielle Smith demanded Carney call a federal election after he was sworn-in as Prime Minister ten days ago, she probably didn’t expect that a two week old interview with an American alt-right news website would be making headlines on the first day of the campaign.

In a March 8 interview with the pro-Trump Breitbart website, Smith said she asked the Trump administration to pause their economic attacks on Canada until after the federal election because they might hurt Pierre Poilievre’s chances of defeating the Liberals.

Read it all on the Daveberta Substack

Two Alberta boys go to Ottawa

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 17, 2025

Prime Minister Mark Carney (source: Mark Carney / Facebook)

Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre grew up in Alberta. That’s a big deal for our province.

The political landscape in Canada has totally shifted under the weight of American President Donald Trump’s threats to impose harsh tariffs on Canadian goods and annex Canada as the 51st State.

Trump’s daily rambling threats against his country’s northern neighbours, mixed with the departure of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from Canadian politics, has erased the huge lead in the polls that Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre had been riding for the past year.

The swearing-in of former Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney as Canada’s new Prime Minister appears to have brought the Liberal Party back into the electoral game, for now, but such huge swings in public opinion in such a short time mean it could be impossible to predict what will happen next.

Tags Alberta Federal Candidate Nomination Update, Ben Shapiro, Calgary McKnight, Conservative Party of Canada, Danielle Smith, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Tariff, Edmonton-Centre, George Chahal, Justin Trudeau, Liberal Party of Canada, Mark Carney, Peter Guthrie, Pierre Poilievre, Randy Boissonnault, Scott Sinclair, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Alberta responds to Trump’s trade war still obsessed with border security

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date March 6, 2025

Danielle Smith joins Team Canada reluctant to use oil & gas trump card

One full day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and provincial premiers Doug Ford in Ontario and Wab Kinew in Manitoba announced retaliatory measures in response to American President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs on Canadian products, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith entered the fray.

“This economic attack on our country, combined with Mr. Trump’s continued talk of using economic force to facilitate the annexation of our country, has broken trust between our two countries in a profound way,” Smith said at a press conference where she was flanked by Minister of Transportation and Economic Corridors Devin Dreeshen, Minister of Justice Mickey Amery, Deputy Premier Mike Ellis, and two law enforcement officers (one wearing a bullet proof vest and carrying an assault rifle).

“It is a betrayal of a deep and abiding friendship,” she said.

Read all about it on the Daveberta Substack

Quick note: Thank you for reading today’s Daveberta Newsletter! Paid subscribers can keep scrolling to read about the upcoming Edmonton-Strathcona provincial by-election and the federal Conservative Party candidate nomination votes being held in Bow River on March 6 & 7, Red Deer on March 8, and Edmonton Griesbach on March 9.

Alberta Politics

Can Danielle Smith dodge and weave her way through the AHS scandal allegations?

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 8, 2025

Premier Danielle Smith in an ad announcing the UCP’s “Public Health Guarantee” during the 2023 election (source: United Conservative Party / YouTube)

Carrie Tait’s bombshell exposé rocked Alberta politics this week

When I first sat down to start writing today’s column I was planning to write a follow up to my piece about Premier Danielle Smith’s reaction to American President Donald Trump’s tariff threat, but a week in politics can be an eternity and to say this has been a busy week in Alberta politics is an understatement.

If you read one news article this weekend, I strongly recommend it be intrepid Globe & Mail reporter Carrie Tait’s bombshell exposé about the United Conservative Party government firing Alberta Health Services CEO Athena Mentzelopoulos “two days before she was scheduled to meet with the province’s Auditor General to discuss her investigation into procurement contracts and deals for private surgical facilities.”

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith does a victory lap on Trump’s oil and gas tariffs

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 3, 2025

The Canadian flag waving in the wind in Jasper National Park in January 2025 (source: Dave Cournoyer)

But remember, this is not a trade war.

With American President Donald Trump announcing 25 per cent tariffs on Canadian products imported from Canada into the United States and a 10 per cent tariff on Canadian oil and gas, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announcing retaliatory 25 per cent tariffs on US imports, the era of free trade between Canada and the United States appears to have come to an end.

But despite all the tariffs, this is not a trade war.

Trump’s tariffs were not imposed as a retaliation to any trade dispute or economic disagreement his country has with Canada. Trump claims the tariffs are a response to illegal fentanyl crossing the US border from Canada and Mexico, but his frequent rants on social media about annexing Canada to make it the 51st State mean it’s unlikely that any action on border security taken by Canadian federal or provincial government’s will actually appease the US President.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Being in Donald Trump’s orbit a double-edged sword for Danielle Smith

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date January 14, 2025

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, US President-elect Donald Trump, and celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

Smith wants tariff exemptions for oil and gas but Trump might want those jobs for American workers

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith continued her diplomatic charm offensive in the United States with a surprise visit to Mar-a-Lago, the Florida resort owned by incoming American President Donald Trump. Trump’s Sunshine State refuge has operated as his White House-in-Waiting until next week’s Presidential Inauguration festivities.

Smith has been a regular guest over the past few weeks on a long list of Fox News shows where she has argued that Trump should to exempt Canadian oil and gas from his threat of tariffs. She also plans to join a crowd of Trump supporters to watch him be sworn-in to office next week in Washington D.C.

Tags 2025 Liberal Party of Canada Leadership Race, Alberta NDP, Alberta Politics, Chrystia Freeland, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Donald Trump, Donald Trump Tariff, Jordan Peterson, Justin Trudeau, Kevin O'Leary, Mar-a-Lago, Mark Carney, Naheed Nenshi, Rachel Notley, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith’s charm offensive in Trump’s America

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date December 13, 2024

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith with South Dakota Governor and Donald Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem (source: Danielle Smith / Facebook)

More MAGA, Less Ottawa

With the impending electoral defeat of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau growing more likely by the day, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has embarked on her own Team Alberta diplomatic charm offensive in the United States.

Just days after American President-elect Donald Trump threatened to impose a 25 per cent tariff on Canadian goods imported into his country, Smith jetted off to the Western Governors conference in Las Vegas. Smith held a handful of one-on-one meetings with Republican and Democratic governors as part of her pitch to US law-makers to exclude Canadian oil and gas from Trump’s tariff war.

“I am a fan of our biggest trading partner” Smith’s told a Fox News host when she was asked on-air if she was a fan of Trump. In response to Trump’s now frequently repeated threats that Canada should become America’s 51st state if Canadians don’t like the tariffs, Smith said he was “hilarious.”

Jennifer Johnson in, Marshall Smith out, Rob Anderson still in

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date October 10, 2024

UCP cabinet minister Jason Nixon and Lacombe-Ponoka MLA Jennifer Johnson in August 2024 (source: Jennifer Johnson / Facebook)

Jennifer Johnson welcomed into the UCP Caucus, Rob Anderson to replace Marshall Smith as Premier’s Chief of Staff

The leaves are changing, the nights are getting cooler, and the days are getting shorter. It’s fall in Alberta. And while many Albertans are enjoying a fairly pleasant change of seasons as we reluctantly brace ourselves for the inevitable shock of the first snowfall, politics in our province is just starting to heat up.

Government and opposition MLAs will return to the Legislature at the end of this month for what is expected to be a painfully contentious and controversial session. And a rowdy crowd of more than 5,400 partisans are expected to converge on Red Deer for the United Conservative Party’s annual general meeting and leadership review during the first two days of November.

Alberta Politics

Once upon a time Alberta MLAs had meaningful ideas about Senate Reform

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date September 6, 2024

Strengthening Canada Reform of Canadas Senate

Until last weekend, 2 of Alberta’s 6 seats in the Canadian Senate sat empty for years

Did you know that until recently, two of Alberta’s six seats in the Canadian Senate had been vacant for years?

You’re not alone if you didn’t know before last weekend. Most Albertans probably didn’t know.

You’re also not alone if you didn’t even hear about the appointments, because it was out of the news-cycle in about 24 hours.

Despite playing a big role in how federal laws are shaped in our country, the profile of Canada’s Senate, a place of sober second thought, usually flies far under the radar of most Canadians.

Tags Alberta Liberal Party, Alberta NDP, Alberta Senate Election 2021, Alberta Senate Elections, Alberta Senate Nominee Election 2021, Bill Code, Brian Mulroney, Bridget Mearns, Danielle Smith, Daryl Fridhandler, Daveberta Substack, Doug Black, Elaine McCoy, Erika Barootes, Erin Leclerc, Independent Advisory Board for Senate Appointments, John Middleton-Hope, Justin Trudeau, Karen Sorensen, Kristopher Wells, Leth, Lethbridge-West, Lethbridge-West by-election, Maria Fitzpatrick, My, Mykhailo Martyniouk, Pamela Davidson, Paul Martin, Paula Simons, Pierre Poilievre, Rob Miyashiro, Scott Tannas, Senate Election Act, Senate Nominee, Senate of Canada, Senate reform, Shannon Phillips, Shauna Gruninger, Special Select Committee on Senate Reform report, Stephen Harper, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

UCP launches attacks ads at Nenshi. Nenshi laughs it off and shoots back.

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date June 28, 2024

Politics in Alberta doesn’t skip a beat.

Less than a week after former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi won a landslide victory in the Alberta NDP leadership race, the United Conservative Party has launched a series of attack ads against him, framing the new NDP leader as “Justin Trudeau’s choice for Alberta” and “just another tax and spend Liberal.”

Nenshi’s team tossed out the old NDP playbook.

Instead of stumbling over fancy words and getting overly defensive (or even worse, ignoring the charge), Nenshi laughed off the attack and shot back with his own stinging criticism of Smith’s UCP.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack

Alberta Politics

Alberta First in Red Tape

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date April 11, 2024

Government House with a repossession notice attached on April 1, 2024 (source: michaeljanz.ca)

“FINAL NOTICE. PROPERTY REPOSSESSED FOR SALE (Effective April 1st, 2024).”

Anyone walking by Government House in Edmonton’s posh Glenora neighbourhood on April 1 might have noticed a white paper sign attached to the grand mansion-turned provincial government conference facility.

The sign was put there by Edmonton City Councillor Michael Janz, and as far as April Fools’ Day jokes by politicians go, it was pretty good – and it made a good point.

The Government of Alberta currently owes the City of Edmonton around $60 million in unpaid property taxes that have accumulated since 2019. That’s a point that Janz first wrote about in a December 2023 op-ed in the Edmonton Journal and that Mayor Amarjeet Sohi raised in a public letter to Premier Danielle Smith this week.

Alberta Politics

Alberta NDP leadership candidates consider splitting from the federal NDP

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 21, 2024

NDP leadership Rakhi Pancholi (photo source: Rakhi Pancholi / Facebook)

NDP members should remember there is no easy fix. Just ask the Alberta Liberals.

“This action reflects the isolationist politics of Alberta, but more importantly it is the result of the deep, deep malaise at the top end of the federal party. There is the little Toronto power group which throws the ball back and fourth to each other – they feed off each other.”

That was a quote from an Alberta Liberal activist attending the party’s convention in Calgary where members of the seatless party voted two-to-one to break ties and declare provincial independence from the Liberal Party of Canada led by Prime Minister Trudeau.

That was in February 1977.

Fast forward to today and, although the circumstances are different, you might hear something similar come from the mouth of an Alberta NDP member when talking about the provincial party’s relationship with the federal NDP in Ottawa.

Alberta Politics

Danielle Smith’s transgender youth policy isn’t really about parental rights

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date February 9, 2024

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith (source: Government of Alberta / Flickr)

“Parental rights” has a long history in Alberta and it’s not what it sounds like

When you write about politics for long enough you begin to notice certain themes and issues that pop up perennially year to year.

So when Premier Danielle Smith’s office released a 7-minute video last week laden with messages about parental rights, my mind immediately wandered back to the first time I heard that term in 2006.

Those were heady days to be a political writer in Alberta. The Ralph Klein era was coming to an end and there was a whiff of change in the air.

From the Progressive Conservative backbenches came a private members’ bill that, under the guise of parents rights, would force schools to notify parents anytime school material included a mention of same-sex marriage and that no student be required to attend or teacher be required to teach that part of the course. This was less than one year after same-sex marriage was legalized in Canada.

Read the rest on the Daveberta Substack.

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Tags 2024 Alberta NDP Leadership Race, Alberta Medical Association, Alberta NDP, Alberta Office in Ottawa, Alberta Pro-Life Political Association, Alberta Teachers' Association, Alex Puddifant, Alison Redford, Brian Mason, Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Danielle Smith, Daveberta Substack, Eric Bouchard, Feo Snagovsky, Gay-Straight Alliances, Irfan Sabir, Jeff Gunnarson, Jim Prentice, John Carpenter, Jonathan Teghtmeyer, Justin Trudeau, Kathleen Ganley, Libertas Alberta, Lindsay Blackett, Naheed Nenshi, Raj Pannu, Rakhi Pancholi, Ralph Klein, Richard Dur, Sarah Hoffman, Shane Getson, Shannon Phillips, Sing for Love 2024, Take Back Alberta, Tanner Hnidey, Ted Morton, Transgender Rights in Alberta, Tucker Carlson, United Conservative Party

Alberta Politics

Alberta NDP name change pushed by group led by former MLA

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 28, 2023

Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley during the 2023 election (source: Alberta NDP / Facebook)

Alberta’s Progressive Future calls for Alberta NDP to distance itself from the Ottawa NDP

When I worked for the Alberta Liberal Party back in the 2000s, we had an inside joke that the Liberals could run Jesus Christ as a candidate in Wainwright and still lose. It was funny because it was probably true (the last time voters in Wainwright elected a Liberal MLA was in 1909) and was a reflection of how cynical we were that the party had any chance of actually winning any seats in rural Alberta.

I imagine more than a few Alberta NDP supporters felt the same when the results of the 2023 election started rolling in on May 29, 2023. Despite making big gains in Calgary and winning 38 seats province-wide, the party’s hopes of forming government were dashed at the city limits.

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Alberta Politics

Nate Horner’s hooked on a pension feeling

Post author By Dave Cournoyer
Post date November 3, 2023

Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner (photography by Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta)

More confusing messaging about the Alberta Pension Plan

As Alberta’s United Conservative Party government continues its big $7 million advertising push to convince Albertans to leave the Canada Pension Plan and start a separate Alberta Pension Plan, Finance Minister Nate Horner told CTV’s Vassy Kapelos that the province’s decision on whether or not to hold a referendum on leaving the CPP will be based on a “high level feeling from many sources.”