Braid: New Fox fave Danielle Smith champions Canada with more impact than feds

Ms. Smith goes to Washington in the New Year, and many more U.S. destinations besides.

These days, Danielle Smith is a diplomat as much as a premier.

Even when the Alberta premier is at home she appears on Fox TV, reaching millions of president-elect Donald Trump’s supporters.

I never, ever thought I’d say this, but Smith should get herself on Fox as often as possible.

She has become an important voice for Alberta and Canada in the U.S. After a long career on TV and radio, she’s very good at it.

She was on Fox Business again Monday. When the host asked her why the idea of statehood is resonating with Canadians, she said “I think it’s resonating with Americans more than Canadians.”

Smith is speaking into a vast and vacuous silence from our national government. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau remains virtually absent from any pretence of leadership.

That is both embarrassing and actively dangerous as we near Trump’s installation as president in just three weeks.

He promises brutal tariffs the first day he’s on the job. We need leaders who cut through the overblown American rhetoric with common sense and goodwill.

In my view, Smith hits exactly the right tone. She handles the ridiculous annexation talk with skill and humour.

She firmly makes the point that we are an independent nation, no matter what gadfly Kevin O’Leary says.

It is mildly ironic that this premier, with her national ideology of provincial sovereignty, has become such a strong voice for Canada.

And she manages to do it without antagonizing anybody except her domestic political enemies.

On Fox recently, she was asked about Trump’s suggestion that Wayne Gretzky should run for prime minister, as if that were even possible.

Smith responded that she’s been a big fan since she was a kid (true — she’s a crazed closet Edmonton Oilers booster).

The next part was communications brilliance.

She told the Fox hosts: “But one thing I would say about Gretzky, he always said, ‘don’t go where the puck is, go where the puck is going.’

“And I can tell you, in our country, the place the puck is going is Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

“He is going to, I think, win the next election, and I think he’s going to be an incredible partner for the U.S. on reducing taxes and trying to get our trade relationship back on track.”

Partisan, of course, but also a firm reminder to the Americans that we have a legitimate political system and a federal government.

Smith was also asked about O’Leary’s call for merging with the U.S by eliminating the border and sharing a common currency.

O’Leary said more than half of Canadians are interested (although a Leger poll in early December showed 13 per cent of Canadians favour becoming a U.S. state, while 82 per cent are opposed).

Smith knows O’Leary, of course. Most senior conservatives do.

She juggled this hot potato without even mentioning him.

“Well, you know, we’ve watched the European (union) experiment, which hasn’t turned out very well,” she said. “In fact, you’ve actually seen it now begin to bust apart.

“So I would say that we have a really solid, strong relationship as two sovereign countries.”

She said Canada and the U.S. should work on trade and border issues, “but also more internationally, the threat of China, the threat of Russia, being able to help our allies.

“We think that Canada, and Alberta in particular, can be a really strong partner (with the U.S.) in that — as two separate sovereign nations.”

Smith is also meeting many American players in person.

On Jan. 20, she’ll be in Washington for Trump’s inauguration.

“We’ve got invitations to various balls and different parties that I’ll be going to,” she told me in an earlier year-end interview.

“I’ll be there from Jan. 18 to 23, so I’ll be able to meet with think-tanks and media, and hopefully some others who are influential on the administration.”

She’s also been invited to a national governors conference on energy security, as well as to separate meetings in Oklahoma and Louisiana.

“I feel like I will probably be in the U.S. every month next year, until we can get tariffs removed if they come in on Jan. 20, or to make sure that they don’t get put in at all.”

The premier is engaged in flat-out national diplomacy. At this bizarre moment, somebody has to do it.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.

X: @DonBraid