Comment on the whole: If only Canadians put as much effort into pressuring their own Government to deal with a stealthy yet destructive effort to compromise the country’s institutions and security by a silent adversary.
Our national gas lighting internationalist man baby's legacy:
Lorne Gunter: Trudeau policies undermine Canada's ability to endure threatened Trump tariffs
Of course, U.S. President Donald Trump is a bully who’s trying to take advantage of our weaknesses. But who made us so weak and vulnerable in the first place? The Trudeau Liberals
Remember when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said there was “no business case” for building a pipeline, refinery and marine terminal to take Canadian LNG (liquefied natural gas) to Germany? And later he said the same about LNG to Japan?
Imagine if Canada had two LNG ports now, one on the East Coast to take gas to Europe and another on the West Coast to take more to Asian markets. The pain of any U.S. tariffs would be lessened.
And imagine if Trudeau hadn’t killed two oil pipelines — Northern Gateway and Energy East. Those could have taken Alberta oil to markets other than the U.S. If those pipelines already existed, then if Trump decides to make our oil so expense U.S. refineries don’t want to buy it, Canada would already have options.
And if Trudeau and Steven Guilbeault, the high priest of Trudeau’s eco-cult, hadn’t banned tankers full of Alberta oil from sailing off the West Coast, and hadn’t killed more than $300 billion in new convention oil and oilsands developments, perhaps we’d have more international markets and thus more flexibility in dealing with the Americans.
But because Trudeau, Guilbeault and the rest of the Liberals have done all they could in the past decade to sacrifice Canada’s energy industry on the altar of environmental extremism, 97 per cent of our oil exports now go to the U.S. So (no pun intended), Trump has us over a barrel. We have few good options to shelter Canada’s economy and standard of living from punitive American sanctions.
Of course, U.S. President Donald Trump is a bully who’s trying to take advantage of our weaknesses. But who made us so weak and vulnerable in the first place?
In addition to making us wholly dependent on American energy markets, their regulations, taxes and policies have lowered Canadian productivity drastically. They have slowed our economic growth until it is practically nonexistent.
Inflation, caused by their overspending, has made the cost of necessities soar and badly damaged our standard of living. Their insane immigration policies have lowered our per capital GDP for nearly three years in a row, while at the same time spiking housing prices and overburdening our health-care system.
And their signature policy — the carbon tax — has simply made life more expensive while doing little or nothing to reduce emissions.
Now, after all this Liberal-caused devastation, what is Trudeau’s response to Trump’s threat of 25 per cent tariffs on all Canadian goods? Buy French’s ketchup! French’s is made with Ontario tomatoes. Heinz uses American ones.
Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Trudeau actually cited the French’s ketchup alternative as an example of how Canadians might combat Trump’s tariffs. “Having Canadian consumers have alternatives to having to spend tariffs on American imports is part of how we make sure Canadians don’t bear undue costs around tariffs.”
After limiting Alberta oil's access to non-U.S. markets, Canada must follow Danielle Smith's strategy focusing on diplomacy and border security
edmontonjournal.com