Mandryk: Public squabble over stupid Trudeau trade tax not the answer

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It’s not that Premier Scott Moe is anything other than spot on regarding the absolute nonsense we heard last week about Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s willingness to apply an export tax on potash, oil and uranium.

You know what the federal government is doing is inconceivably stupid when both Moe and provincial NDP Opposition Leader Carla Beck can agree that it’s inconceivably stupid. (See: the carbon tax … although Moe has surely done his utmost to convince the public that Beck and the provincial NDP support it).

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You’d think Moe and Beck would get along better. After all, Trudeau has provided them with more common ground than Saskatchewan has annual seeded acres. (37,755,200 acres, if you were wondering.)

According to a story last week from Bloomberg News, the federal government is examining using export taxes on uranium, oil and potash sent to the U.S. — coincidentally, commodities that all come from Western Canada, where Trudeau’s Liberals aren’t likely to find many seats — if president-elect Donald Trump makes good on his 25 per cent tariff threat.

Unsurprisingly, the story drew the expected reaction: “It’s a terrible idea,” said Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, for once uttering a notion everyone can agree with.

And, not to be outdone, Moe immediately took to social media, where he now makes virtually all his pronouncements to trash what is, admittedly, a trash idea.

“Export taxes have never even been mentioned by the Prime Minister on either of the calls with Premiers to discuss the US tariff threat,” Moe tweeted. “If they are under consideration, that would be a complete betrayal by the Trudeau government of the team approach they have been advocating and a complete betrayal of Canadians.”

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Moe went on to further point out that “export taxes on these commodities would be a self-destructive response to US tariffs” and would be especially harmful to Saskatchewan’s economy and jobs. This province is the biggest producer of potash and uranium and second-biggest producer of oil, after Alberta.

In short, the news couldn’t be worse for Moe. It’s especially bad that all of this came out after the fall provincial election campaign, when he really could have used it.

Yes, that’s snarky, but it also underscores the problem in this country — perhaps an even bigger problem than the tariff issue, itself: We can’t holster our politics for even one day — not even when our very economic well-being is a stake.

Of course, this isn’t just a provincial problem. There’s an all-too-real possibility that, at least in some small way, this is a brain-dead Liberal political strategy to shore up votes in the East.

After all, Trudeau and his government have done some remarkably dumb, ill-conceived things. Eliminating the GST a week before Christmas would be one.

But isn’t it a tad suspicious that these supposed “last resort” export levies are the first thing we’re hearing about in this trade war?

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Again, never count out the Trudeau government in the dumb department — even if specifically targeting western raw commodities and not eastern steel, autos and aluminum products in Quebec and Ontario seems cartoonishly crass.

However, ask yourself this: Who gains from all the chaos that’s been created by this leaked news?

Politically speaking, it’s almost too good to be true for Canada’s conservatives. And for Trump Republicans down south, there is simply no better outcome.

Maybe that’s all a little too conspiratorial for some of you. It likely is. Most likely it was someone’s dumb idea that just got leaked.

But whose purpose — other than their own — are the premiers serving by now engaging in public bickering? Why not deal with this matter in ongoing closed meetings with the feds?

Remember: Moe didn’t  just respond to a media request. He went right to his Twitter audience as soon as he heard the news.

Such public squabbling reveals that Canada has no united front.

And not having a united front is almost as dopey as the export tax strategy itself.

Mandryk is the political columnist for the Regina Leader-Post and the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.

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