Trying to appease Donald Trump’s whims should be less important to Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe than helping put forward a united front.
The province in 2023 exported $26.9 billion worth of products to the United States — more than the combined total to other leading export destinations, including China ($5.22B), Brazil ($2.57B), India ($1.29B) and Japan ($958M).
“This will have a significant impact across Canada and particularly here in Saskatchewan,” Moe told reporters on Tuesday after Trump threatened to put 25-per-cent tariffs on all U.S. imports from Canada and Mexico.
“I don’t think any job or any industry would be untouched with a 25-per-cent tariff on all Canadian products.”
But by sending even vague signals that Trump is justified in his tariff actions because of other issues, Moe only stands to make the problem worse.
As described by Ontario Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford, now is the time to be singing from the same song sheet. And that generally means supporting the federal initiative — regardless of how much anyone dislikes Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
In the past, it’s been helpful to have hands-across-the-border contacts, and Moe is wise to reach into his phone contact list and talk to former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, now nominated as U.S. Secretary of the Interior and chairman of the new National Energy Council.
“There are many connections, collectively, that we have across the different levels of government,” Moe said. “We need to work together when it comes to our engagement with the incoming Trump administration.”
But anything else premiers publicly say or do that disrupts the united front Canada has to present to Trump right now is massively problematic.
And if governing right-wing politicians (or soon-to-be governing right-wing politicians) think they can either appease Trump or appeal to some of their own supporters who might share Trump’s views on issues he is using as an excuse to start this trade war, we will face a disaster.
Here, Moe needs to more careful than he currently is being.
“(Trump) has some border concerns — security concerns at the border when it comes to drugs, immigration, things,” Moe continued. “One of things I will suggest to the prime minister is increase border security initiatives that we have through the CDSA (Controlled Drugs and Substances Act). Maybe even bring the CDSA under the military which would also increase our percentage of defence funding — military funding as well.
“I think that might be a way to really work collaboratively — to work together with our American neighbour. But also ensuring we have a secure border — not only at the 49th parallel but any airport where it might be. All Canadians would support that. We don’t want drugs in-flowing or out-flowing.”
There may be issues regarding the world’s longest unmanned international border, but we can’t cave in to Trump’s nonsense of acting unfairly or illegally to get his own way.
Instead, premiers and the federal government do need to be absolutely united. Now is not the time try to appease Trump’s right-wing American constituency … or, for that matter, your own.
What Trump is doing violates legal trade agreements signed by all three nations, which needs to be the touchstone for Canada’s collective argument against across-the-board tariffs. Tariffs are applied to deal with specific unfair trade practices — not to pressure trading partners to deal with other issues.
Freelancing notions that Trump may have a point (as we seem to be hearing from neighbouring Alberta Premier Danielle Smith) or that appeasing Trump’s border concerns may further appease his demands for Canada to up its military/NATO spending (as we just heard from Moe) are decidedly unhelpful.
One gets that the bluster from Moe is performative — common for politicians, especially in situations that frustratingly don’t have easy answers.
But federal and provincial leaders truly need to be wary about conceding any former Canadian sovereignty (including border security) to someone as volatile and irrational as Trump.
The only thing Moe and the other premiers should be doing now is sticking to the script.
Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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