Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is firing back against a poll that suggests the majority of Canadians support putting retaliatory tariffs on imported energy products.

The survey, conducted by Nanos Research for CTV News and The Globe and Mail, found more than two-thirds of people in the Prairies support putting tariffs on oil, natural gas and electricity.

“Well, I think it’s a garbage poll,” Smith said at an unrelated press conference on Tuesday.

“What if we were to ask Albertans or Canadians this: ‘Would you support export tariffs if it meant the U.S. would retaliate by shutting off Line 5 and leaving Ontario and Quebec without gasoline or aviation fuel at all?’ I think you’d get a different answer.”

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.ca
    25·
    2 days ago

    “What if we were to ask Albertans or Canadians this: ‘Would you support export tariffs if it meant the U.S. would retaliate by shutting off Line 5 and leaving Ontario and Quebec without gasoline or aviation fuel at all?’ I think you’d get a different answer.”

    Isn’t a relatively small percentage of gasoline consumption imported from the US?

    And perhaps people would say to build the missing capacity domestically so we can’t be extorted this way.

    • HellsBelle@sh.itjust.worksOPEnglish
      14·
      2 days ago

      Enbridge Line 5 is a mess.

      Despite Canada’s status as one of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, more than half of the country’s own population does not have true energy security – uninterrupted, reliable access to the energy they need at an affordable price.

      Even though Western Canada produces much of the oil consumed in Ontario and Quebec, in order to get there, it moves on pipelines that run through the United States.

      “It’s only energy secure if the Americans are our partners and friends,” leading energy researcher Jackie Forrest said on a recent episode of the ARC Energy Ideas podcast.

      Amid rising trade tensions with the United States, energy security is taking on greater importance. But Forrest said the issue is not well understood across Canada.

      “The concern is that in the worst-case scenario where the Americans want to really hurt our country, they have the ability to stop all crude oil flows to Ontario,” she said.

      That action would also cut off the majority of oil supply to Quebec.

      (It’s a good article to read even though it’s owned/operated by the Alberta gov’t.)

      https://www.canadianenergycentre.ca/big-vulnerability-how-ontario-and-quebec-became-reliant-on-u-s-oil-and-gas/