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“Will the premier make it 100 per cent clear today that there’s no room in his party for any talk of separating Saskatchewan from Canada?” Meili demanded.

Moe demurred and only addressed the question later, in a scrum with reporters.

“I’m not going to denounce people the opportunity to have the conversations that they choose,” he said.

“I don’t feel it’s the way forward. I most certainly am going to engage with the people that I represent across this province.”

But he provided no new information on his recent request for more provincial autonomy, an idea he mentioned right after his meeting with Trudeau.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has floated ideas like withdrawal from the Canada Pension Plan and forming a provincial police force. The Wexit Saskatchewan group issued a press release Wednesday seeking precisely that while applauding Moe’s “strong words.”

Moe did not give any such commitments on Wednesday, but also didn’t rule them out.

“I would say that all items are on the table when it comes to discussions about ensuring that Saskatchewan is a strong province, a strong province within the nation of Canada,” he said.

Meili told reporters that, under Moe’s leadership, the Saskatchewan Party is beginning to remind him of the Parti Quebecois, which pushes for independence in Quebec. He said western independence might seem like a far-fetched idea, but it needs to be taken seriously and pre-emptively extinguished.

“Nobody took Trump seriously, nobody took Brexit seriously, and then they happened,” he said. “We can’t just ignore this. We need to be clear about both understanding the anxieties that drive people’s interest in this conversation… but giving no space to this notion of breaking up Canada.”