Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has urged the Trump administration to delay imposing tariffs—the ongoing trade dispute is boosting Liberal Party popularity as it positions itself as Canada’s defender ahead of the federal election.
Smith made the comment during a March 8 interview with U.S. conservative media outlet Breitbart News.
“Pierre Poilievre is the name of the Conservative Party leader, and he was miles ahead of Justin Trudeau, but because of what we see as unjust and unfair tariffs, it’s actually caused an increase in support for the Liberals,” said Smith.
“And so that’s what I fear, is that the longer this dispute goes on, politicians posture and it seems to be benefiting the Liberals right now. So, I would hope that we could put things on pause is what I have told the (Trump) administration officials—let’s just put things on pause so we can get through an election.”
Over the past several weeks, polls have shown a marked shift in favour of the Liberal Party, overturning a long-standing Conservative lead.
In mid-January, the Conservatives, under Pierre Poilievre, held a strong edge — up to 26 points in some surveys — driven by widespread frustration with then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and economic issues like affordability.
By mid-March, however, polls from Ipsos, Angus Reid, and Léger showed the Liberals pulling ahead, with national support climbing to between 42% and 48% compared to 36% to 39% for the Conservatives.
The dramatic swing puts the Liberals within reach of a majority government, a position they haven’t held since 2015.
“If we do have Pierre as our prime minister, then I think that there are a number of things that we could do together,” said Smith. “Pierre believes in development. He believes in low cost energy, he believes that we need to have low taxes. He doesn’t believe in any of the woke stuff that we’ve seen taking over our politics for the last five years.”
In a statement, Smith fired back over allegations she asked the U.S. to interfere in the federal election.
“For the last several months, I, and many of my fellow Premiers, have been working relentlessly to convince U.S. officials at all levels just how damaging threatened tariffs will be to both Canadians and Americans," she said.
"I’ve also repeatedly asked those same officials to refrain from placing any tariffs on Canadian goods until a proper renegotiation of CUSMA can be held following our federal election with a Prime Minister that has won a mandate from Canadians to negotiate with the U.S. President."
Smith added, "Now that an election has been called I would reiterate my hope that the United States would refrain from placing tariffs on their closest ally and largest trading partner during the middle of the election."
Smith concluded, "I, along with the vast majority of Albertans, are obviously concerned with how vulnerable and weak the Liberal Government has left our country after the last 10 years of anti-resource development policies, and I have yet to see any meaningful commitment to reverse those policies that warrants giving them a fourth consecutive mandate. However, that decision is ultimately up to Canadians.”