TORONTO (AP) — Alberta's premier responded to President-elect Donald Trump's trolling of Canada on Wednesday by saying the trade deficit with the country is due to billions in raw materials being sent south which creates trillions of wealth in America.
Trump said the United States “subsidizes” Canada and is threating a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods.
“No one can answer why we subsidize Canada to the tune of over $100,000,000 a year? Makes no sense!,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Wednesday. ”Many Canadians want Canada to become the 51st State. They would save massively on taxes and military protection. I think it is a great idea. 51st State!!!”
The premier of oil rich Alberta, Danielle Smith, ignored Trump's latest “51st state” trolling and endeavored to answer his question.
"Fair question on the trade deficit with Canada Mr. President @realDonaldTrump - the reason for this is because Canada (especially Alberta) sends billions of raw materials (oil, gas, minerals, grain, livestock, timber, etc) to your U.S. refineries and factories which your great American companies and workers upgrade and sell around the world, including back to Canada (we are your biggest customer by a mile)," Smith posted on X.
Alberta sends 4.3 million barrels of oil and gas to the U.S each day.
Smith said millions of American jobs and companies rely “on these affordable raw materials from Canada to make trillions of dollars of wealth in your country.”
About 60% of U.S. crude oil imports and 85% of U.S. electricity imports are from Canada.
Canada’s ambassador to Washington, Kirsten Hillman, has said the U.S. had a $75 billion trade deficit with Canada last year. But she noted a third of what Canada sells into the U.S. are energy exports and said there is a deficit when oil prices are high.
“We are one-tenth the size of the United States so a balanced trade deal would mean per capita we are buying 10 times more from the U.S. than they are buying from us. If that’s his metric we will certainly engage on that,” Hillman told The AP recently.
Smith said she will attend Trump's inauguration. Her comments come a day after Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Trump’s plan to impose sweeping 25% tariffs on all Canada products would be a “disaster” that would hurt U.S. stock markets.
Canada is also the largest foreign supplier of steel, aluminum and uranium to the U.S. and has 34 critical minerals and metals that the Pentagon is eager for.
Nearly $3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.7 billion) worth of goods and services cross the border each day. Canada is the top export destination for 36 U.S. states.
File - Alberta Premier Danielle Smith wears a cowboy hat during the Calgary Stampede parade in Calgary, Friday, July 7, 2023. (Jeff McIntosh /The Canadian Press via AP, File)
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — The shooter at a religious school in Wisconsin had two handguns with her but used only one in the attack that killed a teacher and a student and wounded six others, the city's police chief said in an interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday, before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
“We may never know what she was thinking that day, but we we’ll do our best to try to add or give as much information to our public as possible," Barnes said.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with her parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive, Barnes said.
Barnes released the name of the shooter, Natalie “Samantha” Rupnow, hours after the shooting on Monday. But police have yet to release the names of the two people she killed. Barnes said the medical examiner would release those, but the state's crime victims privacy law would bar releasing the names of those injured.
Police don't know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
While Rupnow had two handguns, Barnes said he does not know how she obtained them and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow's parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes said.
Online court records show no criminal cases against her father, Jeffrey Rupnow, or her mother, Mellissa Rupnow. They are divorced and shared custody of their daughter, but she primarily lived with her father, according to court documents. Divorce records indicate that Natalie was in therapy in 2022, but don’t say why.
Tension over police not releasing information had spilled over into a news conference on Tuesday, where Barnes left without taking questions. Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway grew increasingly terse in her responses as reporters asked questions she could not answer.
“It is absolutely none of y’alls business who was harmed in this incident,” Rhodes-Conway said. ”Please, have some human decency and respect for the people who lost loved ones or were injured themselves or whose children were injured. Just have some human decency, folks. Leave them alone. Let them grieve. Let them recover. Let them heal. Don’t feed off their pain. We’ll share what we can when we can and not before that.”
Barnes on Wednesday defended the police department's handling of information about the shooting because it has moved from a crisis response to the investigation phase.
“We’ve been trying to be as transparent as possible to give as much information as we can during the critical phase of this incident,” Barnes said. “Now we’re in the investigative phase. And so the information may not be as forthcoming.”
Tamrin Olden, a former police department spokesperson in California whose company provides communications training for law enforcement, said she advises departments to give routine updates with factual information after critical incidents and avoid unnecessarily delaying the release of information. She said that communications errors can cause frustration in the community, undermine the public's trust and compound the underlying tragedy.
“Your credibility gets tarnished and the incident sometimes gets remembered for these things rather than remembering and honoring the victims, which is where the focus should be,” she said.
The police department has had to correct some key misstatements since Monday, including that three and not five people had died and that a second-grade teacher, not a second-grade student, called 911.
Paul Bucher, the former Waukesha County district attorney who was involved in a number of high-profile cases, said the media has unrealistic expectations about how quickly officials should release information in high-profile incidents. His cases have included prosecuting former Green Bay Packers star tight end Mark Chmura for sexual assault in 2000 and being part of the team that dealt with the aftermath of a mass shooting at a church gathering in Brookfield in 2005 that left seven people dead.
“The government is fed up with the media,” he said. “They have no obligation to disclose anything to you at all. Based on the mayor’s statement, ‘this is not y’all’s business,’ that’s pretty indicative that they’ve had it.”
But Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council President Bill Lueders, a longtime Madison journalist, said Wednesday that authorities should be more transparent with the facts.
“It’s a problem that so little information has been released. I do not accept that this is necessary to protect the integrity of the investigation,” he said. “The public has a right to know.”
The school shooting was the latest among dozens across the U.S. in recent years, including especially deadly ones in Newtown, Connecticut; Parkland, Florida; and Uvalde, Texas.
But it stands out because school shootings by teenage females have been extremely rare in the U.S., with males in their teens and 20s carrying out the majority of them, said David Riedman, founder of the K-12 School Shooting Database.
Emily Salisbury, an associate sociology professor at the University of Utah, studies criminology and gender. She said that females typically turn their anger on themselves because American culture has taught them that women don’t hurt people, resulting in eating disorders, self-harm and depression. It’s difficult to speculate without knowing all the facts in Rupnow’s case, Salisbury said, but a girl resorting to the level of violence she displayed suggests she experienced severe trauma or suffered violence herself.
“It takes more provocation, more instigation for girls and women to become violent,” Salisbury said. “It’s a very high probability she experienced some sort of violence in her life that can lead to serious mental illness.”
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school — prekindergarten through high school — with approximately 420 students.
Salisbury said the public shouldn’t assume that the school’s religious teachings mean its students are above bullying and ostracizing each other.
“They’re children,” Salisbury said. “As much as those (religious) values may be taught or discussed in the classroom in the culture of that school, kids are online all the time. Kids create their own culture through social media.”
Foley reported from Iowa City, Iowa.
Supporters sign crosses during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Madison Police chief Shon F. Barnes speaks at a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway speaks at a news conference Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
People put flowers outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Flowers and candles are placed outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
People put flowers outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Flowers and candles are placed outside the Abundant Life Christian School Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024 in Madison, Wis., following a shooting on Monday. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
A supporter signs a cross during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
Supporters hold candles during a candlelight vigil Tuesday, Dec. 17, 2024, outside the Wisconsin Capitol in Madison, Wis., following a shooting at the Abundant Life Christian School on Monday, Dec. 16. (AP Photo/Morry Gash)
