Alberta premier faces backlash for asking America to pause tariffs until after election

Danielle Smith told Breitbart she asked the Trump administration to pause tariffs until after the election, because the trade war has been benefiting the Liberals in the polls.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is facing criticism over comments made earlier in March during an interview with an American right-wing news outlet.

Smith recently told syndicated news and commentary website Breitbart that she has asked the Donald Trump administration to put tariffs on pause until after Canada’s federal election, because the trade war is benefiting the Liberals in the polls.

Speaking to Matthew Boyle from Breitbart on March 8, Smith commented that she believes the tariffs imposed by the U.S. are hurting Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre’s chances of being elected prime minister.

“Because of what we see as unjust and unfair tariffs, it’s actually caused an increase in support for the Liberals. 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,” Smith said in the telephone interview.

“‘I would hope that we could put things on pause, is what I’ve told administration officials: ‘Let’s just put things on pause so we can get through an election. Let’s have the best person at the table make the argument for how they would deal with that,’ and I think that’s Pierre Poilievre.”

Poilievre has been working to distance himself from the Republicans and President Trump, but an Alberta political analyst said Smith did him no favours.

“We know that Danielle Smith has the potential to be a big liability for Pierre Poilievre. That’s been the case since she became premier and perhaps even before that,” said Lori Williams, a political analyst at Mount Royal University in Calgary.

Asked about Smith’s comments on Sunday, Poilievre avoided directly responding to anything she said but pointed out that Trump recently told Fox News he thought it would be easier to deal with a Liberal.