Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s refusal to sign the joint statement in which all other provincial and territorial premiers agreed to a co-ordinated response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs on Canadian exports significantly undermined Canada’s bargaining position, Canada’s former chief trade negotiator says.
Steve Verheul delivered that judgment during a 2025 financial outlook panel at the Empire Club of Canada in Toronto on Tuesday, a recording of which has been posted to the Internet by the 120-year-old Canadian political discussion forum.
As the person who led the Canadian negotiating team before United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement was signed in 2020, and before that led the Canadian side of negotiations with the European Union leading to the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, Verheul can be fairly described as both an expert and one of the grownups in the room when it comes to considering how best to respond if President Trump carries out his threat.
This is to say, Verheul is no hothead. His judgment of Smith’s actions was made in a careful response to a question about the premier’s activities read by the panel’s moderator. One has the sense from his thoughtful tone that he would have preferred not to have been asked about Alberta’s premier by name.
“Well,” he began, “the easiest way to get unity in Canadian positions is if you start early enough and you start at the ground up and you build it up. That’s what we did the first time within the negotiations with the U.S. We spent a lot of time with industry, with labour, with provinces, and we were all kind of brought along in the development of the strategy, so when they all briefed up, the messages were the same, and it was much easier to do it that way.
“We didn’t get off to that kind of start this time, so it’s more damage control going forward,” he continued. “There is a very strong sense of unity among all of the premiers at this point, with the one exception of Alberta. I think that they’re demonstrating that they have a different perspective on this than the rest of them do, but we need to try to get them on board too.
“Because the fact that Alberta has gone in a different direction through these last few weeks has significantly undermined Canada’s position,” he stated.
It is interesting to note that in an op-ed on the same topic published the same day by The Globe and Mail, Verheul carefully made no mention at all of Smith’s antics or Alberta’s divisive position – which seemed yesterday to have succeeded in moving Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe closer to Smith’s position that Canada must appease Trump at any cost.
That, as history shows, is unlikely to work. As Verheul told the Empire Club forum, if Trump imposes his promised 25-per-cent tariffs (which he noted in the Globe piece would be more than 20-per-cent higher than the U.S. tariffs on goods from countries such as China and Venezuela), “clearly, we have to retaliate.”
“The main reason to retaliate is to start to try to level that bargaining table somewhat,” he explained. “We need to put some things on our side of the bargaining table to gain some leverage and have a more balanced discussion.
“If we don’t retaliate, we’ll just keep paying and paying concessions, and we’ll never know where the end point is.” (Emphasis added.)
“I think we’re going to have to go through this whole process of retaliation and counter retaliation before we can move toward some kind of more normal negotiation,” Verheul told his Empire Club audience. “The whole process is going to be rocky and uncertain.”
This is a mature and regretful conclusion, and a hard one to dispute, although Smith continues to dispute it in general terms in her response to the sharp criticism that has been directed at her from all parts of Canada, including Alberta, where many intemperate commenters on social media have not hesitated to call her a traitor, not merely an incompetent negotiator.
Indeed, Smith’s responses to the widespread criticism could be described as frenetic, as she continues to publish a series of similar posts on social media arguing that “when you have a dispute with your best friend and ally, it is entirely counterproductive to escalate matters by talking about retaliation, how tough we are and how we plan on hitting our friend back if they hit us.”
She continued: “It is a far wiser approach, and a much more Canadian one I might add, to diplomatically identify their concerns through face-to-face engagement and work with them on negotiating a win-win for both the U.S. and Canada.”
Working with the United States to negotiate a win-win, of course, is precisely what Verheul is advocating, although he obviously recognizes the lesson of history that we won’t be able to get there using Smith’s collaborationist strategy.
Thankfully, as Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman pointed out on Sunday, if Canada shows some spine, we are in a position to respond effectively.
Each of Smith’s social media posts in this vein has been followed by a long list of enthusiastic and supportive comments that sound as if they were written by the same person. There’s probably a reason for that.
Meanwhile, presumably on the assumption that if voters are paying attention, the premier should look busy, Smith has been frantically posting a series of selfies taken south of the U.S.-Canadian border with Republicans close to Trump, some of whom many of us would hesitate to stand too close to.
Last night I counted 14 such photos posted on Smith’s Facebook account since Sunday, including Montana Senator Steve Daines, who opposes all abortions, denies climate change, and wants to abolish the U.S. Department of Education; Montana Governor Greg Gianforte, convicted of beating up a journalist in 2017; former Congressman Devin Nunes, who calls environmentalists “followers of neo-Marxist, socialist, Maoist or Communist ideals;” anti-vaxx Louisiana Governor Greg Landry; and Florida Senator and former governor Rick Scott, who once pleaded the Fifth Amendment 75 times in an investigation of a health care company he ran.
She also appeared in a photo with Pete Hesgeth, President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Defence, who the evidence suggests is allegedly a drunk and a wife-abuser, and who wears a neo-Nazi tattoo. Smith wished him success in his upcoming Senate nomination hearing.
If you go by the photos she has published, Alberta’s premier appears to have spoken to a total of zero members of the Democratic Party during her MAGA sojourn. This could, one supposes, turn out to be a mistake after the 2026 U.S. mid-term elections.
Naheed Nenshi acclaimed as NDP Candidate in Edmonton-Strathcona
No surprise, since he had no opposition, Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi was acclaimed as the Opposition party’s candidate in former leader Rachel Notley’s Edmonton-Strathcona riding last night. Notley stepped down as MLA last month.
“Edmonton Strathcona is known across this province as the beating heart of our party. Home to our most dedicated activists, long-time members, and a launching ground for the incredible, one-of-a-kind leadership of Rachel Notley,” Nenshi said in a statement after attending a packed nomination meeting in the Hazeldean Community Hall.
“It is with gratitude, humility and deep appreciation for your long-serving volunteering and efforts, that I accept the nomination to represent this remarkable area of our province in the provincial Legislature.”
As for the premier, Nenshi said, “Danielle Smith, as clearly illustrated by her current antics in the United States, is only focused on her own self-interests.”
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