Calgarians, business community react to another Donald Trump presidency

Americans elected a new president on Tuesday and Calgarians are now left to navigate what another Donald Trump presidency will look like.

For the city’s business community, they are now trying to see how they can plan for some of the expected policy changes.

Ruhee Ismail-Teja is the vice president of policy and external affairs with the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, she says the organization has real worries about the president-elect’s proposed tariffs.

“One of the things we are very concerned about is Trump’s commitment to include a 10 per cent tariff on any imports into the U.S.,” she says. “That would impact the energy sector here in Alberta to a very significant tune.”

Brad Perry, President and CEO of Calgary Economic Development, says there is some uncertainty around how Trump’s actual policies will connect to what he campaigned on.

“We have to understand what the policies are, what the impacts are, what has been said on the campaign trail and what translates into real policy,” he says.

CityNews took to the streets to ask Calgarians to share their thoughts on a second term for Trump.

For some, they don’t view it as a positive:

“They haven’t really thought about the consequences of what they have done and the far-reaching effects not just for them, but for us in Canada, and may be for the whole world.”

“We pride ourselves on multiculturalism and welcoming people from all over the world it sends a very bad message that African Americans and East Indian Americans, my family is originally from India, did not vote for Kamala. It’s a very sad day and I’m very concerned about the future of Canada and out relations with the United States going forward.”

But for others, they believe it can present some benefits:

“The last time Trump was in, he was pushing a lot of the oil for Alberta, and I’m kind of excited to see what happens next. He’s more of a businessman. He was pushing us last time getting the pipelines cleared, I think it would be good for us.”

But for this New Zealander, neither Trump nor Kamala Harris could have made the outcome any better:

“You sort of think that the USA has got 300-something million people and they come up with those two candidates, its pretty bad.”

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Wednesday she looks forward to working with the new administration of Trump and JD Vance following their win.

She congratulated the pair on the behalf of the Government of Alberta, saying the province and the United States have a long-standing trading partnership that has strengthened economies and improved quality of life.