Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi has decided that the right response to China’s crushing 75.8% tariff on Canadian canola is to lay blame at the feet of the Alberta government. That’s right — Beijing takes a sledgehammer to one of the West's most important industries, and Nenshi’s instinct is to accuse Edmonton of not taking farmers’ warnings seriously enough.Let’s be clear. The tariffs didn’t come out of nowhere. They are retaliation — plain and simple — for Ottawa’s ill-conceived, 100% tariff on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) imposed last year. The feds threw down the gauntlet in a high stakes trade war, and now Alberta’s canola farmers are collateral damage to protect this Eastern non-industry. China made no secret of this. They tied their tariffs directly to Canada’s EV duties. You don’t need an economics PhD to see the cause and effect..Yet here’s Nenshi, wagging his finger at the UCP, as if Premier Danielle Smith somehow controls federal trade policy. His statement paints both the Alberta and federal governments as inattentive, accusing them of treating farmers like pawns. But while it’s true Ottawa and Edmonton should have done more to prepare farmers for the fallout, to suggest Alberta shares equal blame for this mess is political theatre — overheated, misplaced, and, yes, wildly off target.What’s worse, this kind of rhetoric distracts from where the pressure needs to be applied. The Alberta government does not negotiate with Beijing. That’s Ottawa’s job. The Prime Minister’s cabinet approved the EV tariffs, knowing full well that China has a long track record of retaliating against agricultural exports when angered. From Australian barley to Norwegian salmon, Beijing has played this game before. Pretending Alberta is somehow co-architect of this disaster is not just inaccurate — it’s counterproductive..Of course, Nenshi’s not entirely wrong in saying governments should work together now to protect farmers. He’s echoing what the Canola Council of Canada, Alberta’s agriculture minister, and countless farm groups have already said. Farmers are desperate for a plan: compensation programs, market diversification, and aggressive diplomacy to roll back Beijing’s punitive measures. On that front, Ottawa has been slow, and Alberta’s role should be to keep hammering the federal Liberals until they act.But let’s not rewrite the chain of events. First came Ottawa’s protectionist EV tariffs. Then came Beijing’s retaliatory hit on canola oil, meal, and seed. Now farmers are staring at lost markets, collapsed prices, and a bleak harvest season. And instead of focusing his fire on the federal government that lit the match, Nenshi is lobbing political grenades at the Alberta government. That’s not leadership—it’s opportunism..EDITORIAL: Scrap the useless Chinese EV tariff, which hurts Canada’s canola, pork, seafood industries.Albertans should demand honesty about how we got here. Blaming the wrong level of government might score cheap partisan points, but it won’t open Chinese markets, it won’t bring back lost contracts, and it won’t help a single farmer pay their bills. The fight is with Ottawa’s reckless trade policy and Beijing’s ruthless retaliation — not with Edmonton.If Nenshi truly wants to stand with Alberta’s farmers, he should drop the theatrics and join the call for Ottawa to clean up its own mess. Because until the federal government changes course, our canola will remain stuck on the wrong side of a 75.8% wall — and no amount of Alberta finger-pointing will bring it down.
