Subhead:Premier Danielle Smith has opposed using energy as a weapon against the United States and argued Canada should seek a mutually beneficial trade agreement instead of escalating retaliation.#
As Canada’s trade confrontation with the United States continues, Albertans have good reason to question why their economic interests should be sacrificed for retaliation strategies designed around the priorities of other provinces.
The numbers demonstrate just how different Alberta’s relationship with the U.S. is.
In 2025, Alberta exported roughly $152 billion worth of goods to the U.S., representing nearly 86% of all Alberta international merchandise exports. Alberta was Canada’s second-largest provincial exporter to the U.S., behind only Ontario.
Energy dominates that relationship. About $125 billion, or more than 82%, of Alberta’s U.S.-bound exports were energy products.
That makes the U.S. not merely another customer for Alberta. It is overwhelmingly Alberta’s largest export market, geographically close and connected to the province through decades of pipelines, refineries, power infrastructure and integrated supply chains.
Yet Ottawa’s trade policy is national, meaning Alberta doesn’t control negotiations over the commercial relationship that matters most to its economy.
That’s particularly important because the current tariff fight does not affect every province equally.
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