Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi has criticized Premier Danielle Smith over connections to the "alt-right" in her recent interactions with President Donald Trump and dignitaries at Mar-a-Lago and the presidential inauguration in Washington D.C. — but he agrees with her on the need for more oil and gas pipeline capacity.
"The premier wants so desperately to be liked by President Trump and by Tucker Carlson and by Jordan Peterson and by Kevin O'Leary, that she thinks of them as her audience, instead of thinking of the people that she actually works for," said Nenshi in a press conference on Tuesday.
Nenshi was responding to a question by the Western Standard about Trump being the primary stakeholder in a potential trade dispute with Canada involving heavy tariffs.
Smith has been working to iron-out Canada U.S. relations in the absence of Justin Trudeau — say pundits. She recently visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago along with Kevin O'Leary and Jordan Peterson. She attended Trump's inauguration.
"Would I have gone (to the inauguration)? I would have thought that it would be a great benefit for Alberta to have someone who's kind of in with the alt-right, who can get these audiences, who can get these invitations, that it would be great for us to have someone stating our case," said Nenshi sarcastically.
"Challenge is, she's not stating our case. And look, going to a presidential inauguration is awesome. I've been to two of them as a private citizen."
Smith has spoken of the need to build more oil and gas export capacity from Western Canada — the Northern Gateway pipeline and Energy East pipeline.
"We can start diversifying our customer base around the world," she said in a press conference. "And so we've got to have a bit of our own discussion internally about how we're going to address that in the long term."
Smith recently brokered a deal with Enbridge to increase oil exports to the U.S.
When asked by the Western Standard if he supports building pipelines, Nenshi said.
"I've always been in favour of more export capacity."
"That's why I worked so hard on the Trans Mountain expansion. That's why I spent so much time in Quebec speaking in English and French about the importance of Energy East when I was mayor of Calgary."
