Moe says there can be no American energy ‘dominance’ without ‘North’ in it

Memo to US president Donald Trump: ‘You need us’.

That was the message from Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe to the leaders in both Washington DC and Ottawa who seem determined to press a petty trade war that will achieve nothing except lowering the living standards of both nations.

The Donald was at it again on Friday morning, dismissing Canadian imports of things like wood, minerals and especially oil. 

“Again?” Moe rolled his eyes, when told of the MAGA Maestro’s latest broadside toward the ‘51st State and its “pathetic” political leadership.

“It's just not the case,” Moe told reporters. “All of this political rhetoric, tariff talk back and forth is not good. And I would say that each of us as Canadians need to look at, you know, this conversation, despite some of the rhetoric that we hear coming out of the White House.”

Moe said for all his “erratic” political bluster, there hasn’t really been much in the way of concrete actions that would lead anyone to believe Trump is serious about disrupting what Moe described as a beneficial trading relationship that has lasted for decades.

And no, America isn’t being ripped off.

“You know, the threat is much more than what we have actually seen (in terms of action). It would be our hope that it could all go away and we can move to a much more stable trade environment into the future,

Moe was in Calgary to address the Canadian Association of Energy Contractors, the oil industry’s largest association of energy service providers.

And Moe had a similar message for the politicians in Ottawa, who he said are just as much to blame for the present impasse with the Americans.

When asked if he “trusts” newly sworn Prime Minister Mark Carney to follow through on promises to build energy infrastructure ahead of an expected election call, he was blunt.

“I have concerns with respect to the entirety of the Liberal government and the NDP party that has been supporting them through this last minority time, I think they have put Canada in a very challenging and precarious position. I think they have in many ways, threatened our national energy security that we used to know and enjoy and at times maybe even taken for granted,” he said.

“I think Canadians are looking at this election and I would hope that they are asking themselves, you know, ‘who is going to have our best interests in mind as a Canadian family where I work, the job, the industry I work in, who is going to give us the opportunity to actually do better over the next five years?’” 

And Moe denied he was being partisan, whoever is elected in roughly six weeks time.

“It does not need to be a political conversation. It needs to be one that is rooted in energy security and the production of some of the most sustainable oil products of their kind on Earth. That's what we're doing in Saskatchewan. I know those very similar or same investments are being made in the energy industry in Alberta, and it's something that I think we should collectively come together as Canadians, including Prime Minister Carney.”

“All Canadians should be very proud of the role we play in that, and we would hope that very soon, we find our way through what is a very senseless conversation around tariffs and everything else, and get back to doing what we do well, which is to build an energy secure, food secure, manufacturing secure North America, doing it alongside our American partners, not in spite of in any way.”