There being no Canadian version of the Logan Act, there’s little that could be done about Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s mortifying pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago to pose for a selfie with Donald Trump and, or so she claims, “engage in constructive dialogue and diplomacy with the incoming administration.”
Her race to the tacky Florida resort to be photographed with the U.S. president-elect, who may or may not have known who he was talking to, is nothing more than Smith’s embarrassing tendency to drop everything no matter how important if there’s an opportunity to appear at the side of any far-right celebrity who lurches into view.
And what right-wing celebrity is more, well, celebrated right now than Trump?
Where a potential problem arises is the premier’s ex post facto claim that she engaged in diplomacy, which she is neither authorized by Ottawa nor trusted by vast numbers of Canadians inside and outside Alberta to do.
It is reasonable to assume that whatever Smith said, it was unlikely to be a “Team Canada” message and may well have been contrary to the interests of Canadian provinces other than those like Alberta with a lot of oil.
This kind of thing is the reason the idea of a Canadian version of the Logan Act, the 1799 law that makes it illegal for private American citizens to negotiate with foreign governments about disputes with the United States, arises from time to time. It remains on U.S. law books because unauthorized freelance diplomacy is still a temptation, especially in a globalized world.
But while many Albertans and other Canadians deeply distrust Smith’s motives and the potential consequences of the messages she may be passing on, it seems a little over the top to accuse her of treason, as many commenters were doing on social media. (For each such post, it must be noted, there is an equal and opposite tweet calling her a hero, and saying it’s all Justin Trudeau’s fault. Some of those ones even came from real people, rather than the usual Conservative bots.)
Former Alberta Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk struck a reasonable note on this issue when he noted that, “When premiers and provincial politicians travel abroad and meet with foreign elected officials, these trips must be cleared for Global Affairs Canada. Also, these trips, their goals and cost must be announced prior to departure.”
That was certainly not so in this case. In fact, the Alberta Government’s January 10 public itinerary email sent to media stated that “Premier Danielle Smith is travelling out of the country on vacation with her family, beginning January 7 and returning January 17.” According to the itinerary, there were “no scheduled events” over the weekend.
So her social media posts morning announcing she had met Trump “over the last 24 hours” strongly suggests that the itinerary was an intentional attempt to deceive, perhaps out of worry Global Affairs might ask her not to go.
As Lukaszuk asked in another tweet, “If on ‘private vacation’ you spend time with Kevin O’Leary, who needs government concessions to do business in Alberta, and with Trump, who wants to annex Canada, shouldn’t your meetings be documented and witnessed by #abgov officials?”
Of course, Smith is without shame, so it was probably inevitable she would sooner or later show up at the side of Trump, whose call for Canada to become the 51st state she has never criticized, whether or not he had any interest in talking to her. (It has been suggested he did not.)
Having done so, despite what her office had to say about her activities, she presumably couldn’t resist bragging about it, with photos, and trying to pretend there was more “diplomacy” going on than there probably really was. She is, after all, quite hopeless.
This translated into a claim, repeated on the official Government of Alberta website, that “we had a friendly and constructive conversation during which I emphasized the mutual importance of the U.S.-Canada energy relationship, and specifically how hundreds of thousands of American jobs are supported by energy exports from Alberta.”
“I was also able to have similar discussions with several key allies of the incoming administration and was encouraged to hear their support for a strong energy and security relationship with Canada,” that statement continued. “On behalf of Albertans, I will continue to engage in constructive dialogue and diplomacy with the incoming administration and elected federal and state officials from both parties and will do all I can to further Alberta’s and Canada’s interests.”
The message concludes with a half-hearted statement that Canada and the United States alike need to preserve their independence.
This makes it sound as if Smith is treating the excursion as official government business, which raises the question of who was paying the freight for her “family vacation.”
Other questions that might be asked on her return: How long was her conversation with Trump? What did he say? Who were the “key allies” she talked to?
All this said, Smith is not the only Canadian premier heading to the United States in hopes of staving off Trump’s threatened 25 per cent tariffs on everything Canadian on Day 1 of his administration a week today. None of the others seem to have been accused of treason.
If nothing else, one hopes Smith had a chance to taste the famous Mar-a-Lago chocolate treat during her sojourn in Florida. Perhaps she will tell us what we’re all burning to know: Is it really as good as they say, or does it taste like … ?
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