The Canadian province of Alberta, which borders the American state Montana, announced Wednesday that it is stopping purchases of U.S. alcohol products in response to U.S. President Donald Trump‘s 25% tariff on U.S. imports of Canadian goods, which went into effect on Tuesday. (Trump also put a 10% tariff on energy products.)
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith called the tariffs “unjustified and a clear breach of the North American Free Trade Agreement or CUSMA that was signed by Trump during his first term.”
[NOTE: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was replaced by the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on July 1, 2020, during Donald Trump’s first term in office. Like NAFTA, the USMCA recognized special trading status between the U.S. and Canada.]
Smith said: “This economic attack on our country combined with Mr. Trump’s continued talk of using economic force to facilitate the annexation of our country has broken trust between our two nations in a profound way.” She added, “It is a betrayal of a deep and abiding friendship.”
[Note: Billionaire American investor Warren Buffett, in a recent appearance the CBS news show 60 Minutes, described tariffs as “an act of war, to some degree.”]
As seen in her press conference below, Smith announced that Alberta will purchase all goods and services from Alberta companies, from Canadian companies and from countries with which Canada has a “free trade agreement that is being honored.” She added: “No further purchases of U.S. alcohol…will be permitted until further notice.”
She added: “We’ll just have to drink a bit more of BC Wine and Alberta Craft Beer and Spirits, and that’s just fine with us.”
Note: Ontario Premier Doug Ford has also announced that retailers in his province can no longer order or restock American alcohol. The Liquor Control Board of Ontario sells nearly $1 billion worth of American wine, beer, spirits and seltzers. Ford said: “Not anymore.”
Alberta’s government will provide an update on our province’s response to U.S.-imposed tariffs and efforts to enhance security along the Alberta-Montana border. https://t.co/XnMB5QnIl6
— Danielle Smith (@ABDanielleSmith) March 5, 2025
Smith also announced: “I also want to point out that Canada has a secret weapon in this trade conflict with the United States — a trump card, so to speak — and it is located directly under our feet, and it is called Alberta energy.”
Asserting that the U.S. has “declining” oil and gas reserves she says are “wholly insufficient” to keep up with demand, Smith notes that the U.S. currently buys approximately $100 billion a year of “highly discounted oil from Alberta,” which “tens of thousands of U.S. workers and refineries then upgrade into $300 billion worth of value to sell around the world.” Smith says: “We have made a lot of Americans very wealthy.”
Smith made it clear that “Alberta does not and will not support cutting off or taxing Canadian companies on existing energy exports to the United States.” She noted that polls in the U.S. show that Trump’s tariffs “especially against Canada, are not at all popular” among the American public “and certainly not popular with the stock market.”
Smith predicted that the unpopularity will continue to grow daily as it will raise the prices of “food, fuel, housing and almost everything else” for American consumers.
“Cutting off energy entirely would make Canada the bad guy for Americans. And we don’t want that,” Smith said. “We want Americans to blame the actual source of their problems, that being the Trump tariffs.”
Great day with the #President. A gracious host. And, he shot a 68! My recommendation, try the Trump Burger! @ABDanielleSmith @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/bzKv1bViMF
— Kevin O’Leary aka Mr. Wonderful (@kevinolearytv) January 12, 2025
Some who object to Smith’s new orders are responding that Trump will win the standoff. One Albertan replied with the photo above of Smith smiling with Canadian investor Kevin O’Leary and Trump at Mar-a-Lago in January, and wrote: “You can’t be for #DJT, #Canada and #Ukraine at the same time, it doesn’t work that way. #Albertans have lost confidence and trust in your Government.”