Donald Trump is offering Japan something that Canada, under Justin Trudeau, refused to and we will be poorer because of it.
While meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Ishiba Shigeru on Friday, the U.S. President mentioned several trade initiatives with Japan – but specifically exporting liquified natural gas to Japan.
This is the very deal Japan asked Canada for two years ago, in an attempt to wean their country off of Russian and Middle Eastern products. Trudeau refused their request, but on Friday, Trump boasted of what he says will be a great deal for America.
“I’m also pleased to announce that Japan will soon begin importing historic new shipments of clean American liquefied natural gas in record numbers,” Trump said.
“We’re talking about the pipeline in Alaska, which is the closest point of major oil and gas to Japan by far, less than half the distance of any other location,” he said. “We’re talking about a joint venture of some type between Japan and us, having to do with Alaska oil and gas.”
This could have been Canada’s deal, a deal that would have been beneficial for all. Yet, when Trudeau was asked by then Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to consider a similar deal, the answer was no.
“We know the world is moving aggressively, meaningfully towards decarbonization, towards diversifying,” Trudeau said in January 2023.
Canada has abundant reserves of natural gas. We have the cold climate that aids in transforming it into LNG for export and we had allies such as Japan and Germany asking us to approve projects to allow greater exports and we said no.
Not only would allowing those projects have denied Russia’s Vladimir Putin of funding for his war on Ukraine, it could have had an environmental benefit. LNG produces significantly fewer greenhouse gas emissions than coal, a product widely burned for electricity production in China and India.
If Canada had more export terminals for LNG, we could not only replace Putin’s war funding, we could have replaced coal with a cleaner burning fuel.
Trudeau and his Liberal Party as so wedded to “decarbonization” that they would rather leave Canada’s natural resources in the ground that export them for good.
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Allowing such deals to go forward could also have been an economic buffer for Canada in the face of Trump’s tariff threats. We now have politicians scrambling all over to talk about the need to diversify trade and yet, when asked by allies like Japan and Germany to aid them in supplying their energy needs and cutting Putin’s funding, Trudeau said there was no business case.
Japan was willing to invest in Canadian projects, as they did with the lone export terminal in Kitimat. Instead, they will now take those investment dollars to the United States.
The Trudeau Liberals have chased away investment in LNG on the West Coast and the East. They have rejected even simple projects like Energie Saguenay in Quebec, just as they cancelled the Northern Gateway oil pipeline, effectively killed the Energy East pipeline and instituted a West Coast tanker ban even as the Americans are looking to ramp up exports just up the coast in Alaska.
When critics of Trudeau and his Liberals say he has made Canada weaker and more susceptible to the Trump tariffs, these actions are part of it. The investments Japan is about to make in the U.S. could have supported Canadian jobs, paid Canadian taxes and made the Canadian economy more resilient.
No one with a chance of winning the Liberal leadership race would have made a different decision than what Trudeau did. They are all zealots intent on suffocating Canada’s oil and gas industry, which only makes our economy weaker.