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“Trump and Sanders are running anti-globalist agendas which would dismantle the global economic structure that has existed for the last 25 years,” he told an Edmonton Chamber of Commerce presidential panel discussion at the World Trade Centre.

“The fundamentals of trade and commerce, not only globally but in Canada and the United States, will undergo seismic shifts.”

The Canadian energy industry is going to be part of that transformation, although Wihbey fears officials aren’t paying enough attention to events south of the border.

For example, the U.S. Department of Energy estimates American firms will ship 500,000 barrels of oil a day into Canada within two years after a Congressional vote to lift an export ban last December, he said.

Much of the oil will come from North Dakota and be shipped by rail.

Yet federal and Alberta government staff in Washington seemed to be caught off-guard by the move, Wihbey said.

“No one anticipated that, no one representing Canadian interests did anything about it. That, to me, is a very serious miscalculation that has a long-term impact.”

Former premier Dave Hancock, a fellow panelist who thought one reason Canada took a limited part of the discussion was the recent federal election, said the Keystone XL pipeline proposal appears dead.

He wants Canadians to instead focus on finding ways to ship product to the east and west coasts as part of a wider push to expand overseas markets.

“Hillary Clinton appears to be the best choice from a Canadian perspective at this moment, but influenced by Sanders that’s not necessarily as good as it looks, because they may be a lot more strident on the environment and energy,” Hancock said.

“We have to really be diversifying what we do in the world if we’re going to overcome the impact of the trade war some of these candidates are talking about.”

gkent@postmedia.com

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