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Justin Trudeau didn’t need to meet the premiers to talk about climate change in Ottawa on Monday. He’s going to see them at COP21 next week in Paris; they could have met there before the conference.

And the first ministers didn’t actually agree on anything in Ottawa — other than the need to agree at a follow-up meeting within 90 days of the Paris conference. But they’re going to Paris singing from the same songbook on climate change. That was one of two points Trudeau wanted to make.

“In Paris,” he said after Monday’s First Ministers’ Meeting, “a united Canada will demonstrate that we are serious about climate change.”

His second point was made by conspicuously inviting a couple of scientists to give the first ministers a briefing on climate change.

“This means making decisions based on science,” Trudeau continued. “It means reducing carbon emissions, including through carbon pricing, towards a carbon-resilient economy.”

Message delivered: Under this Liberal government, scientists will be free to speak, rather than being gagged as they were by the former Conservative government. The election has been over for six weeks, but the Trudeau Liberals are still scoring points from the campaign trail.

Then there was Trudeau’s overarching point about the FMM — that in and of itself, it represented a change of tone in Ottawa, particularly in federal-provincial relations. He’s right about that — both substantively and symbolically.

The last FMM was held in 2009, at the height of the financial crisis. Stephen Harper didn’t like meeting the first ministers as a group — nor, for that matter, did Jean Chrétien during his decade in office. Paul Martin convened a full-dress First Ministers Conference at the old Ottawa railway station in 2004, which resulted in the transfer of $41 billion in health care money to the provinces over 10 years.

But Trudeau has pledged to meet the premiers on an annual basis, which was the norm when Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney were in office. Trudeau’s FMC in November 1981 resulted in the patriation of the Constitution with an entrenched Charter of Rights. Mulroney presided over three FMCs dealing with the Meech Lake Accord, and another one in 1987 on the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement.

Trudeau evidently intends to be up close and personal with the premiers and sees federal-provincial relations as a priority for his government. He had a good reason for keeping the intergovernmental affairs portfolio for himself. Trudeau evidently intends to be up close and personal with the premiers and sees federal-provincial relations as a priority for his government. He had a good reason for keeping the intergovernmental affairs portfolio for himself.

All of them were memorable and all were important in that premiers played a role on the national stage; many of them were very influential in their outcomes. For example, there would have been no Charter had Trudeau not accepted the constitutional override of the notwithstanding clause demanded by two premiers, Peter Lougheed of Alberta and Allan Blakeney of Saskatchewan.

The 1987 Toronto FMC on free trade featured one memorable exchange between Mulroney and the host premier, David Peterson, who famously opposed the deal. At one point, to change the subject, Peterson started talking about Ontario as a hub for research and development. Dan Gagnier, who was then assistant secretary to the federal cabinet for communications, leaned over Mulroney’s shoulder and suggested he turn to a certain tab in his briefing book.

“The Government of Canada,” Mulroney declared, “spends more on R&D in Ontario than the Government of Ontario.”

Then he called a break. Peterson was so angry that he pushed back from the table and stormed out of the conference hall. But he knew exactly who had set him up — and one of the first things he did after the conference was to hire Gagnier as his chief of staff.

And while the PM and Peterson disagreed over free trade, Mulroney never forgot Peterson’s staunch support for Meech Lake, which played a role in his defeat in the 1990 provincial election. To this day, they remain close friends. Peterson’s close friendship with Quebec’s Robert Bourassa was also important in managing the federation. Or as Peterson often said at the time: “You can’t run the country without Ontario and Quebec — it’s that simple.”

Interpersonal relations among first ministers can be a vital aspect of federal-provincial relations, which Mulroney always saw as one of the top two files on the PM’s desk. The other was Canada-U.S. relations, which also depend on the rapport between the prime minister and the president.

Trudeau evidently intends to be up close and personal with the premiers and sees federal-provincial relations as a priority for his government. He had a good reason for keeping the intergovernmental affairs portfolio for himself.

This new approach to fed-prov files also provides higher visibility for the premiers, notably Ontario’s Kathleen Wynne, Quebec’s Philippe Couillard, B.C.’s Christy Clark, Alberta’s Rachel Notley and Saskatchewan’s Brad Wall.

Wall, looking at a spring election, is the emerging conservative voice of the premiers, urging prudence on climate change policies that might affect employment and on the Trudeau government’s plans for bringing Syrian refugees to Canada.

Notley has just announced an Alberta plan on climate change, which includes a carbon tax on vehicles and home heating and adroitly limits emissions in the oilsands to 100,000 tonnes. The reason major oilsands companies have signed on to this is that they’re already there. Alberta already regulates large emitters to 100,000 tonnes per year, and producers that exceed the target pay $15 per tonne into the Alberta Climate Change and Management Fund, which now exceeds $500 million. Or they can buy provincial carbon credits.

The message they’re all taking to Paris is what Couillard calls a Canadian “re-branding”, an attempt to present ourselves as part of the solution, not the problem. The hard part will come later, when the first minsters actually have to agree on a plan of action.

L. Ian MacDonald is editor of Policy, the bi-monthly magazine of Canadian politics and public policy. He is the author of five books. He served as chief speechwriter to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney from 1985-88, and later as head of the public affairs division of the Canadian Embassy in Washington from 1992-94. The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.