HANNAFORD: Smith alone among the premiers but a head taller than any of them

It is hard enough to be the minority opinion at the family dinner… the one person who does or does not like Trump, or Trudeau… Or since yesterday, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

Imagine then, actually being Danielle Smith herself, right now.

Smith, having staked out a principled and highly public, pro-Alberta position in response to possible American tariffs, now finds herself the lightning rod for all manner of misrepresentation, calumny and in some quarters, outright hatred.

Shortsighted. Not a team player. A traitor... Ontario Premier Doug Ford says 'Canada comes first.' (Read, 'Ontario comes first.') As a purveyor of oil, Smith is supposedly responsible for the fires presently devastating Los Angeles... "more Los Angeleses, Lahainas, Lyttons." Somebody actually gave that to the Toronto Star, and the Star actually printed it.

Dig around the Internet and you'll find worse.

Meanwhile, speaking in Windsor Prime Minister Trudeau today planted her in his own imagined basket of deplorables, starting with Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre:

“Either he (Poilievre) stands up to fight for all Canadians alongside all premiers and the federal government that are doing that, or he chooses to stand with Danielle Smith, Kevin O’Leary, and ultimately, Donald Trump."

Truly has it been said that patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel. For more than nine years, Mr. Trudeau has demonstrated his contempt for Canada. For him now to wrap himself in the flag is just one more exercise in playing dressup.

So what of Danielle Smith?

As Albertans we should be thanking her. For, here is the possibility she rejected on our behalf: If deemed necessary by the Liberals, an export tax would be applied to Alberta's oil. (And Alberta's it is.) Meanwhile, people in other parts of Canada would be given relief from the effects of the Liberal government's countervailing taxes. Presumably that would be from further borrowing... and the proceeds of export taxes raised on Alberta's oil, while energy workers here lost their livelihoods on account of Liberal actions for the second time in 10 years.

Said Smith, in a note to UCP members, "Federal officials continue to publicly and privately float reckless ideas, like cutting off Alberta’s energy supply to the U.S. or imposing export tariffs on Alberta’s resources. These threats are unacceptable... Alberta will not agree to any plan that threatens livelihoods or harms our economy."

Smith says that she was elected to represent the people of Alberta. To be as charitable as possible to other premiers, so were they.

However, it would be easier to sympathise with them now, if any of them and the people they represent if they had ever sympathised with Alberta during the years that the Trudeau Liberals did everything in their power to diminish and ultimately destroy Alberta's energy industry. Which, by the way, in all its forms just happens to generate more money than just about anything else we do in Canada.

So be it. The rest of Canada is reaping what it has sown.

As for Smith, she's right. But being right isn't always easy. Sometimes, when you're surrounded by people calling you names in print, on the air and in the scurrilous corners of the Internet, it is extremely difficult.

In fact, it takes enormous courage.

But she's doing it.

And for that reason, at the Western Standard, some of us pray for her.

All of us salute her.