"By proclaiming into law Alberta’s infamous 'turn off the taps' legislation against British Columbia, Jason Kenney has escalated tensions with B.C., sparked what could become an interprovincial trade war, and undermined Alberta’s legal position in that fight."

UPC leader Jason Kenney accepts the role of Alberta Premier during the celebration at the UCP party during Alberta's election on April 16, 2019. (Christina Ryan/Star Calgay)

This week, Alberta’s new premier took careful aim at British Columbia, pulled the trigger … and shot himself in the foot.

By proclaiming into law Alberta’s infamous “turn off the taps” legislation against British Columbia, Jason Kenney has escalated tensions with B.C., sparked what could become an interprovincial trade war, and undermined Alberta’s legal position in that fight.

And he did all this his first day in office.

On Tuesday, Kenney had his new cabinet proclaim Alberta’s Bill 12 — the Preserving Canada’s Economic Prosperity Act. The bill to restrict the flow of energy products outside Alberta — but really aimed at gasoline to B.C. — was actually passed last year by Rachel Notley’s NDP government. Importantly, Notley never had the legislation proclaimed as a law on the books. It sat in the background like a ticking time-bomb with no detonation date.

At the time, Kenney accused her of political cowardice, of not following through on her threat to get tough with B.C. Premier John Horgan over his stance against construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

That has been Kenney’s narrative the past year and indeed all through the recent Alberta election campaign — that he is the only Alberta political leader ready to get angry and tough with Alberta’s perceived enemies.

In an op-ed piece for the Vancouver Sun Wednesday, Kenney said, “Albertans are rightly feeling deep frustration: a sense that we’ve contributed massively to the rest of Canada, but are being blocked and pinned down at every turn.”

He is going where Notley feared to tread. He is passing Bill 12 into law. But he is not turning off the taps just yet. It will sit there like a Sword of Damocles over the heads of B.C.’s drivers already suffering through $1.70 per litre.

However, it wasn’t a matter of cowardice for Notley but caution. She knew the minute she invoked the law B.C. would challenge it in court — and a judge could very well deem the law unconstitutional because one province cannot punish another by cutting off the shipment of a refined oil product.

Notley, who is now the official Opposition leader, says she warned Kenney against proclaiming Bill 12 if he wasn’t prepared to turn off the taps immediately.

By enacting the legislation, Kenney has allowed B.C. to challenge the law and potentially render it powerless.

“He’s a bit like a gunslinger who’s swaggering down the streets waving his gun after intentionally taking the bullets out of it,” she said.

Indeed, the B.C. government has already filed a legal challenge.

Horgan spoke with Kenney Tuesday evening by phone, but that didn’t resolve anything. The two are at loggerheads.

Horgan is premier of a minority government propped up by the anti-pipeline Green Party. Kenney just came off a chest-beating campaign where he promised to defend Alberta.

That’s ultimately why Kenney proclaimed the turn-off-the-taps bill.

He had boxed himself into a corner during an election campaign where he inflamed the anger and frustration felt by many Albertans hurt by a recession. He focused their fury not only at the NDP government in Alberta but at a list of perceived external enemies including the B.C. government for impeding the construction of a new oil pipeline to the West Coast.

Kenney promised throughout the campaign that after winning government his cabinet would proclaim Bill 12 “within one hour” of being sworn in. After running — and winning — an election campaign fuelled by bluster and bravado, Kenney was duly belligerent his first day as Alberta premier.

But his bellicosity is aimed at the wrong target. The B.C. government isn’t the one impeding construction of the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Yes, during his own election campaign in 2017, Horgan did threaten to use “every tool in the tool box” to stop the project — but since then he has limited his pipeline opposition to a reference case in the B.C. Court of Appeal asking it to define provincial jurisdiction over interprovincial pipelines.

Kenney, though, has accused the B.C. government of withholding provincial permits needed to construct the pipeline. On Wednesday Horgan strongly denied that.

The fact is there is nobody overtly delaying the pipeline. The federal government is now conducting court-ordered consultations with Indigenous peoples — and Kenney said just last month he was fine waiting for Ottawa to “cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’ when it comes to discharging the federal government’s duty to consult.”

Alberta voters, though, are impatient and want their newly election premier to lash out.

So Kenney is lashing out at B.C. because he has no-one else to lash out against. Except, of course, his favourite target; Prime Minister Trudeau.

But Kenney needs Trudeau because the federal government (that also happens to own the Trans Mountain company) is the only jurisdiction with the ultimate power to stop or start the pipeline expansion project.

Kenney doesn’t like Trudeau and has pledged to help defeat him in this fall’s federal campaign. But Kenney doesn’t want to go to war with Trudeau just yet.

For him it’s better to declare war with B.C., and shoot himself in the foot, than declare war against Trudeau and shoot down the whole Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.

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