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Article content For as maddening as it must be to deal with U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-again-off-again-on-again tariff threats, it might also be reinvigorating for some politicians.
Take Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who now finds himself in the awkward position of agreeing with some things Trump is promoting — specifically, the desire to build more pipelines. In a post on X — formerly known as Twitter — this week, Moe stated: “All pipeline permits going east, west or south received in Saskatchewan will be considered pre-approved. We encourage all provinces and the federal government to do the same.
” And Moe tagged the X accounts of both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Trump. Of course, such a tweet creates controversy beyond the obvious notion that pre-approving anything ignores potential issues like environmental assessments or First Nation treaty land rights. Even before Moe and/or his staff issued it, the NDP noted the contradictions of promoting Trump’s resurrection of the Keystone XL pipeline when we should be looking at non-U.
S. markets for oil and other products (Thursday, NDP Leader Carla Beck called on “provincial and federal governments to support massive new investments” in power lines, rail lines and pipelines.) In a matter of a month, Canada has gone from peaceful coexistence with our neighbour and greatest friend and ally to having to deal with a rogue state increasingly aligned with the Russian dictatorship.
It is a difficult, pressure-packed time to be a leader in our nation right now, as seems evidenced by the two East Coast premiers deciding to pack it in. Certainly, some have suggested Moe may be of the same mindset. Since the October provincial election, in which Moe oversaw the Sask.
Party’s worst showing since forming government in 2007, there have been ample rumours of Moe not lasting the entire four-year term. After all, he was having his trials ..
. even before the trade war. Some of his closest staff are moving on, with former chief of staff Shannon Andrews becoming a principal with Upstream Strategy Group, a firm that also hired defeated Athabasca MLA Jim Lemaigre as a senior adviser.
Meanwhile, defeated former health minister Paul Merriman has joined Prairie Sky Strategy as senior counsel. There are early indicators that some — albeit some who are no longer or never were in the Sask. Party caucus — are already getting together their leadership campaigns.
Moe does face a vote of confidence this fall. And in a matter of weeks he will oversee a very tough 2025-26 budget. Add all this to the tariff war.
The pressures mount. But when asked about his plans this week, Moe’s communication staff responded with a rather emphatic response: “This (rumour of an early departure) is completely false,” the statement read. “Premier Moe is not only planning to complete his current term, he is planning to run again.
” This is the strongest indication to date yet that Moe intends to stick around and duke it out in what will be an increasingly intense tariff war with the U.S. — something that won’t be fun for any leader.
That said, there is an opportunity here. While it remains both a trying and dangerous game for any Canadian politician to be aligned with the guy that wants to make Canada the 51st state and now wants re-draw the 49th parallel, his promotion of Keystone XL has to be music to Moe’s ears. Both he and his predecessor Brad Wall have been ardent promoters of the project that would be good for both the oil industry and manufacturing jobs at Regina’s Evraz.
After muddling through the economic slowdown of COVID-19 and frustrations with the carbon-tax-based policies of the Trudeau administration, one can see where Moe might envision better days not all that far ahead. If U.S.
relations can return to anything vaguely resembling normal and if we soon see a Conservative government in Ottawa, Moe might be viewing this as an opportunity to accomplish things he has yet to deliver. It’s a notion that he might even find rather reinvigorating. Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
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