Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is blasting Liberal Leader Mark Carney for continuing to flip-flop on Canada’s energy future and his vague, noncommittal responses on key issues.
“So it would appear (Carney) is now just fine with Canada continuing to be 100% reliant on the United States to purchase all of our oil and gas, and to purchase all of the fuel used by Ontario and Quebec from the U.S. through Line 5,” wrote Smith in a post to X on Monday.
The remarks came in response to Carney’s Sunday night appearance on the French-language talk show Tout le monde en parle, where he delivered an ambiguous statement on pipeline development.
“We have to choose a few projects, a few big projects, not necessarily pipelines, but maybe pipelines,” said Carney.
Smith reacted sharply to the comment.
“This is absurd, irrational, and anti-Canadian in every respect. It’s also the exact opposite of what he promised while in Alberta a couple of weeks ago,” she said. “Does he want Canada to be strong, prosperous, and independent or not?”
As reported previously by True North, Carney spent most of his time during the interview defending his record. The Liberal leader justified his former company Brookfield Asset Management’s investments in offshore tax havens and insisted that he led Canada through the 2008 financial recession, despite former prime minister Stephen Harper crediting his former finance minister, the late Jim Flaherty.
Smith previously attacked Carney for telling her in person that he would oppose Bill C-69, only to say later that he would not repeal the “no more pipelines” bill.
Carney made a similar flip-flop with the oil and gas cap, telling Smith one day that he opposed an oil and gas production cap, only to express support for it the very next day in Ottawa.
“This has been the same story for the last 10 years. Liberals come to Alberta—smile for the cameras—tell everyone how much they are going to work with Alberta and support the energy sector. Then they leave, go home, and proceed to do everything in their power to roadblock and scare away investment from the energy sector,” said Smith.
Carney has also previously faced backlash for tailoring his messaging to different audiences, offering conflicting views on Canada’s pipeline future depending on whether he was speaking in English or French.
On the other hand, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has pledged to repeal Bill C-69 if elected prime minister, aiming to remove barriers to building major energy projects in Canada.
Poilievre has been calling out Carney for his shifting stance on pipelines since 2021 when he questioned him on the matter at a committee hearing.
“It’s a double standard,” said Poilievre. “You make billions of dollars off foreign pipelines, and you shut them down here at home, putting our people out of work.”
Commenting on Carney’s shifting promises, Poilievre told voters to doubt the sincerity of Carney’s commitments.
“Don’t believe him in any language,” said Poilievre.