Poor Danielle Smith. With friends like this, who needs enemies?
Alberta’s Premier Smith called a press conference on October 3 to announce her plan for a new oil pipeline that she wants Prime Minister Mark Carney to approve under his ambitious “build Canada” infrastructure program. Sitting next to her was her regular sidekick, Premier Scott Moe of Saskatchewan. Moe, it will be recalled, has functioned as lapdog and cheerleader for Alberta premiers Jason Kenney and Danielle Smith for the past decade. When they say jump he asks how high.
So what could possibly go wrong?
Things started out well. Smith outlined her plan in detail and then, just in passing, she quietly suggested that everyone, including the prime minister, should ignore B.C. Premier Dave Eby’s concerns. (Eby had already stated that the people of his province did not want another pipeline going across their land and potentially polluting their ports.)
So far, so good. But then Scott Moe unexpectedly decided to speak up on his own. Before anyone could stop him he had gone off script. In his enthusiasm to defend Smith’s plan he went off in what could only be called the entirely wrong direction. Getting more worked up with every word, Moe declared Eby to be totally wrong because – wait for it – “there are no BC ports”! What’s more, Moe declared, “There is no BC coast! There is only Canada’s coast!” While Smith looked on with a frozen smile on her face, Moe came completely unglued. “I feel an equal owner in those ports as a Canadian”, he gushed, and then delivered the coup de grace, declaring that no province or group (such as indigenous Canadians) should have a say in deciding the projects, “only the federal government has the authority to decide”. [i]
On the one hand, why should Smith or anyone else be surprised. This is the same Scott Moe who often utters nonsensical statements. For example, he once made the ridiculous claim that his province, with a population smaller than the city of Toronto, should be considered a distinct nation.[ii] On the other hand, even for him these over-the-top claims were unexpected, especially since his role in the past has always been to offer mute support.
Certainly Moe’s comments were an unwanted intervention as far as Danielle Smith was concerned. While Moe continued on with his flight of fancy, you could see the wheels turning as she tried to figure out how to extricate herself from this mess. After all, she has been claiming ever since she became premier that everything federal is bad. Alberta needs its own police force, its own pension plan, its own healthcare system, and so on.
More to the point, she has repeated ad nauseum her view that any intervention by the federal government related to Alberta’s oil and gas industry is unacceptable and unconstitutional, from the carbon pricing system and gas caps to the “no more pipelines” legislation to prevent spills at BC ports. Just a few months ago, In June, she and Moe held a press conference where they “demanded” Ottawa end all intervention in anything to do with western resource development.[iii]
So of course Smith, at least, could see where Moe’s sudden enthusiasm for the federal government would lead. And it was defnitely not helpful. If there are no BC coasts, then there is obviously no such thing as Alberta oil and gas, or Saskatchewan potash, or whatever. All of these resources apparently belong to all Canadians, and only the federal government should be able to make decisions about them.
Obviously Smith had to right this shipwreck quickly, and she did. As Donald Trump’s infamous mentor Roy Cohn once advised him, in this type of situation the only possible response is to never admit fault and go on the attack. So she did. Just a few days later she issued a statement describing Dave Eby’s position as not only “unconstitutional” but “unCanadian”.
Will she get away with it?
[i] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/proposed-pipeline-scott-moe-danielle-smith-politics-1.7651187
[ii] https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-moe-autonomy-1.6242880
[iii] https://www.play1037.ca/2025/06/18/western-premiers-to-ottawa-end-interference-in-resource-development/
