Donald Trump has only been the president elect for a few hours, but there are already concerns about the implications his presidency will have on Alberta.
READ MORE: What President Donald Trump will mean for Canada
Greg Anderson, a political scientist at the University of Alberta, said he was surprised and shocked to see Trump win Tuesday night.
“How do you think the planet is digesting the Trump win? Everybody is reeling a bit because nobody expected it,” he said.
Anderson said there will likely be ripple effects on climate change, pipelines and trade, though they will not be immediate.
“Donald Trump campaigned on climate change skepticism. I think the Paris Accord that the Obama administration was part of negotiating… might be in a bit of trouble,” he said.
READ MORE: Alberta will stick to climate change plan, regardless of Trump’s stance: Notley
Anderson said that, however, may be advantageous for Alberta.
“I think what Trump’s election signals is a slowdown of some of the implementation of America’s efforts to deal with climate change, so there will be less pressure on Alberta to fall in line,” he said.
“The idea of Alberta doing something on climate change for social license – to get pipelines built – Trump’s election lets a little bit of air out of that. It’s not to say it shouldn’t still be done but certainly the political pressure to do that here in Alberta and make some progress on that, that pressure has been lessened I think.”
READ MORE: Donald Trump presidency will be ‘very difficult’ for Canada, analyst says
Trump may ultimately have a positive impact on pipelines such as Keystone XL.
“I think Keystone XL might be back on the table. It will be interesting to see how Trump negotiates all of that with the members of Congress from the Republican Party in the Senate and House,” Anderson said.
Watch below: Former Edmonton City Coun. and dual citizen Kim Krushell talks about the U.S. election results
Kim Krushell, a dual U.S.-Canadian citizen who is also a former Edmonton city councillor, agrees Trump could be good news for pipelines.
“Trump has said he’s in favour of Keystone. How that’s going to go forward, that’s going to be interesting,” she said.
READ MORE: Trump takes aim at NAFTA as leaders gather in Canada
It is also unclear what impact a Trump presidency will have on trade.
“Trade – that’s another area of real uncertainty. Will Trump follow through with pulling the U.S. out of NAFTA? If not quite pulling them out, will he push some sort of fixes and what are those fixes?” Anderson said.
READ MORE: Ambassador to US says Canada ready to discuss NAFTA with Donald Trump
“I’m a little worried about that. Certainly for Canadians whose standard of living depends on sending Canadian stuff to other markets, especially American markets, access to the American market is very important for Canadians’ bottom line.
“So even if Keystone XL gets built, if there are additional trade barriers in other areas, that’s not good for Canadians.”
“In terms of NAFTA, I think that’s challenging for Canada,” Krushell added. “I think that’s going to be a challenge our prime minister is going to have to tackle and he’s going to have to find a way to work with Donald Trump.
“Trump and the Republican party are really going to have to be careful on what they are negotiating,” she added. “We may find there’s opportunity for Canada in renegotiating NAFTA.”
Trump will be sworn in on Jan. 20.
Watch below: Former Alberta premier Dave Hancock and political expert Robert Murray discuss Donald Trump’s victory in the U.S. presidential election.
Comments