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Alberta's premier is warning Canada could face a national unity crisis over growing trade tensions with the United States. In a Monday press conference, Premier Danielle Smith said the oil-and-gas rich province “won't stand” for the Trudeau Liberals cutting off energy supplies to its southern neighbour.

Over the weekend, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly suggested Canada was considering suspending energy exports to the U.S. in response to President-elect Donald Trump's threat to place a 25% tariff on all Canadian goods. Ontario Premier Doug Ford has made similar threats, claiming the country “can't just roll over.”

Smith, who travelled to Mar-a-Lago for a meeting with Trump this weekend, dialled back the strong language.

Directing comments to Joly, Smith said she “would encourage the minister to look at a map and see where Line 5 goes. Line 5 comes down through Michigan to get to Sarnia, and then that feeds the bulk of the supply needed for Ontario and connects with Line 9, which feeds the bulk of the product needed for Quebec.”

Shutting these pipelines down, Smith said, means Ontario and Quebec residents will also be cut off from energy supplies. If a response to U.S. tariffs must come, it should be done in a way that Canada could “practically respond,” she added.

But if the the federal government persisted with its threats to cut off energy to the U.S., the Alberta premier warned Ottawa would “have a national unity crisis on their hands at the same time as having a crisis with our U.S. trade partners.”

“We should talk about things we actually can do instead of empty threats,” she said during Monday's press conference.