In these disorienting days, Canadian leaders are responding in real time to a deeply uncertain world. 

On the day the president of the United States launched a global trade war, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith chose to look on the bright side. The United States, she wrote, had decided to "uphold the majority of the free trade agreement … between our two nations." And while some tariffs remained in place, "it appears the worst of this tariff dispute is behind us."

At least two parts of the latter c…