Edmonton Strathcona MP Heather McPherson speaks with Alberta Primetime host Michael Higgins about Canada-US relations during a second Donald Trump term.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Michael Higgins: Where do you weigh in on the level of uncertainty that remains here? Is there any way, any diplomatic overture, that would be successful in getting out of this?
Heather McPherson: Who knows? Frankly, who knows with Donald Trump? He sows chaos. This is what he does. His address yesterday was, of course, horrifying. So really, there’s no way to know.
I would say, though, that the smart thing to do, is that Team Canada needs to get ready. We need to prepare. We need to be ready to respond to whatever Donald Trump throws at us.
MH: On Monday you were in Detroit meeting with politicians there. What did that conversation look like?
HM: We wanted to make sure that we were meeting with legislators in the United States because we have some real shared concerns. Obviously, any tariff that is put in place, any instigation of a trade war with the United States, our largest trading partner, is going to have devastating impacts for Canadian workers, for American workers, for families, for our economies. There are real repercussions.
So I wanted to make sure that I was speaking to legislators and that we were talking about what some of those solutions could look like, talking about what some of those next steps could be, and building those relationships so that people across the border understand that these tariffs are going to be very, very dangerous and painful for the U.S. economy as well.
MH: You said Canada needs to be prepared. So how far do you feel Canada should go in threatening to retaliate? Premier Smith said today focusing on diplomacy is the best approach.
HM: Honestly, there is a reason that Danielle Smith is the only premier that is not on the Team Canada approach, and that is because Danielle Smith is wrong. I’ve been very disappointed by her behavior. That’s not smart negotiations.
Taking cards off the table before we even know what the tariffs are, before we even have something from the president, is ill advised. It’s not terribly smart, it’s not good negotiation.
There is a reason every other premier across this country is talking about how important it is that we have a Team Canada approach, and certainly New Democrats believe in that. We believe that we need to have all sorts of people at that table. We want to see labour there, we want to see Indigenous people at the table, we want to make sure that at the centre of every discussion are our workers and their families and the communities that will be impacted by a trade war.
MH: How much common ground is there to be found through furthering Canada-U.S. ties on energy, bolstering that relationship through sending more oil and gas from Alberta south of the border?
HM: I think when you have a bully like Donald Trump, and let’s be very clear, his tariffs are economic bullying of Canada, and when you have a bully like that, you need a Team Canada approach.
You need to be able to look at those things that Donald Trump needs, like critical minerals, like electricity from Manitoba, from Quebec, and all things need to be on the table. We need to be negotiating with a full deck of cards. We need to be able to say, if you’re going to try to threaten and bully, Canadians are going to retaliate. That’s the reality.
I think there needs to be a look at our trade relationships, and what he is doing right now is illegal, and that needs to be called out. We need to be working, we need to be meeting strength with strength.
When I met with workers in Alberta, when I’ve met with workers across the country, that’s what we’re being told. We’re being told from workers, they’re worried, they’re concerned. Obviously, our parliament is not in a good state. Justin Trudeau took, basically, until the very last possible second to resign, and that means that we don’t have a strong government position from the federal government.
So we do need to have a strong Team Canada approach. We do need to have everybody on the same side and this idea that the fact that Danielle Smith doesn’t recognize that she is allowing Donald Trump to pick people off one-by-one, that’s it’s bad negotiation. Everybody knows that we have to be stronger, and we have to be more collective.
MH: What do you see coming now of Canadian Environmental Policy and the role that that will play in Alberta’s oil patches as all of this political dynamic plays out north and south of the border?
HM: Realistically, this is a president who pulled the United States out of the World Health Organization yesterday, out of the Paris Agreement, there’s a number of things that he’s done. The United States was part of the World Health Organization since, like, the 30’s or 40’s. It is now joined by the illustrious company of Yemen and, I think, two other countries in not being part of the World Health Organization. Just mere years after the biggest pandemic that the world has ever seen, with threats of future pandemics coming.
So the chaotic-ness of Donald Trump means that we need to be diversifying our relationships. We need to be building relationships with the European Union, building greater relationships in the Indo-Pacific region, in Latin and South America, and we need to not be forming our foreign policy and our trade policy around the mayhem coming out of the United States.
MH: As all this trade talk progresses, there is also a Liberal Leadership race underway, and parliament is prorogued until March 24. How much of a given is it the voters will be going to the polls sooner than later, or could your party yet support the Liberals, prop it up in the face of a confidence vote?
HM: The fact that Justin Trudeau waited so long so that we are in this very dangerous situation is deeply disappointing. The fact that Pierre Poilievre hasn’t really talked about what his position is here, that he hasn’t actually said whether he’s part of Team Canada, whether he supports what Danielle Smith is doing, in terms of undermining the ability of us to have a Team Canada approach, is deeply worrying. My sense is that there’s going to be a new leader, whoever that is, in the beginning of March and I think we’re going to the polls pretty darn quick after that.
Whether the Liberal leader pulls the pin, or parliament pulls the pin, when we go back on the 24th that’ll be yet to be seen.
