‘If he’s confident he has the people behind him then he should show that confidence by going to an election,’ says Premier Danielle Smith, wanting Prime Minister Trudeau to seek another mandate from Canadians
In Calgary on Wednesday, Premier Danielle Smith tells Postmedia she wants an election.
The day before, Smith tells newshounds how Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals could wreak havoc on Alberta and the rest of the country if they realized there was no chance they could hold on to power.
In fact, it sounded like she was convinced there would be more coming from Trudeau and it would be ugly.
On Wednesday, the Alberta premier goes further.
She does not believe Trudeau has the moral authority to govern. She does not believe he has the moral authority to make moves against oil and gas, to say nothing of the constitutional authority.
He has no mandate from the people.
There is one way to solve that problem.
Go to Canadians. Ask for a vote of confidence from people across the country who have clearly lost confidence in Trudeau or never had it in the first place.
“I would like an election sooner rather than later. If he thinks he has a mandate then he should get a renewed mandate,” says Smith.
“I don’t think he has a mandate. He’s seeing evidence all over that he does not have support for his agenda.
“There’s the declining polling results, the abandonment of the partnership from the NDP, the fact he’s potentially going to pay footsie with the separatists in Quebec, which would also be damaging to our province.
“If he’s confident he has the people behind him then he should show that confidence by going to an election.
“I suspect he’s going to find the people do not support what he’s doing.”
Smith says Canadians don’t approve of the carbon tax that keeps going up.
They don’t approve of “the constant imposition of new laws and new regulations that make life more expensive.”
“What I don’t understand is why he doesn’t see that the decisions he has made is what’s cratering the fortunes of his party.”
Smith actually sounds genuinely puzzled.
She wonders why he doesn’t reverse course but “instead he’s basically promising to do more of the same.”
Smith paints a pathetic picture of the prime minister.
“Who is it that he’s governing for?
“He doesn’t seem to be governing in the interests of the West, that’s for sure. He’s lost ground in Toronto, he’s lost ground in Montreal,” says the Alberta premier.
“I don’t understand why he thinks he has the authority to move forward. I don’t think he does.
“I think he lost his mandate a long time ago with the declining fortunes of his party and then the final nail in the coffin was when even NDP leader Jagmeet Singh said he couldn’t support his agenda.”
And so sunny ways staggers into the darkness.
Even out in Alberta, we can see the blood in the water in Ottawa. We can see how Trudeau has lost the room. His world is shrinking. Liberals try to save their skins.
The Liberals are broken.
For Smith, beyond the political games, is the prospect Trudeau is still capable of causing “an awful lot of damage” it could take years to fix, of creating a chill among investors.
Never far from the conversation is oil and gas.
“One of the stories I read was when he absolutely said: I’m not going anywhere.
“He said it was because it was important for him to keep going on the climate change file and that’s where we have our biggest disputes.
“If this is his number one, if he wants go out in a blaze of glory on that particular issue it’s going to be very damaging to Alberta.”
The premier still struggles with how Trudeau doesn’t get it.
Of course, he doesn’t want to get it. He’s a man on a mission and we are the collateral damage.
“I can’t understand why he doesn’t see part of the reason why he’s lost ground is people hate the carbon tax,” says Smith.
“They know it doesn’t work. It hasn’t reduced emissions, all it does has made things more expensive.
“People are struggling with affordability and he’s doubling-down on net-zero cars, on net-zero homes, on emissions caps on oil and gas, on emissions caps on methane, emissions caps on fertilizer, who knows what might come down. That’s what I’m worried about.”
So Smith wants an election.
Just for the hell of it, what would happen if Trudeau pulled off a miracle and won the election?
“If he gets a new mandate, then I guess we have to start this dance all over again.”