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One of the fascinating aspects of the Trans Mountain pipeline melodrama is the political contortion act performed by United Conservative Leader Jason Kenney.

It’s like watching someone trying to get out of a straitjacket. It’s never done particularly gracefully.

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Kenney is trying to be both a reluctant supporter of the federal government deal to buy the pipeline and a vocal critic of the government deal to buy the pipeline. But he can’t have it both ways.

On April 8, the day Kinder Morgan issued its May 31 deadline to pull the plug on the Trans Mountain expansion, Kenney demanded the project “have the full backing of the Crown, of the treasuries of both the Canadian and Alberta governments.”

His suggestion: “I would be prepared in principle for the Alberta government to take an equity position in this project in the expansion of Trans Mountain, but if we do so, Ottawa has to be there with us.”

Then came the contortions as Kenney tried to back away from his comments.