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Many Albertans have been waiting for weeks to hear the PM say something — anything — directly critical of Horgan’s effort to kill a federally approved pipeline. Premier Rachel Notley has been begging the feds to come out of their neutral corner.

Trudeau turned out to be tougher than anyone would have expected. This was a direct attack on Horgan by name, painting him as an intentional enemy of climate change action, a serious affront to an NDP leader.

Trudeau even linked Horgan to foes such as former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall.

He said: “Brad Wall, in his opposition to the national plan on climate change, has been endangering or trying to prevent that national plan from going through, even though he likes the fact that it got pipelines approved. He doesn’t like the national price on carbon.”

And Horgan, “similarly and frustratingly,” risks the same result through his pipeline obstruction in B.C.

Here’s another jolt from the PM:

“If the Kinder Morgan pipeline doesn’t go through, Alberta will withdraw its support for the national plan on climate change. We will not have them fighting to reach their carbon targets, and we will not, then, have them as partners in reaching our Paris targets.”

Trudeau clearly means that if the pipeline fails, the United Conservative Party will win Alberta’s provincial election next year, and Jason Kenney will walk away from the carbon tax and other key climate change measures.

“We know that we need to have active leadership from across the country,” Trudeau added.