Article content continued

Recent Leger polling conducted for The Canadian Press shows Kenney’s approval rating has slipped into the negative (42 per cent of Albertans approve; 50 per cent disapprove). And even Moe — who had inherited former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall’s mantle as most popular premier with way more than half the province approving — sees a rating in this poll of 48 per cent approval and 36 per cent disapproval.

As forScheer fighting for his own political life, his own post-election leadership support base may now have dwindled to no more than a few political has-beens in his adopted home province. Sure, Scheer will continue to resist as long as he is federal Opposition leader, but it’s anyone’s guess as to how long that will be.

And while Moe seems to have reached a point of no return in his relationship where he just couldn’t go back on hisanti-Trudeau rhetoric even if he wanted to (and, again, there is precious little evidence indicating he wants to), there do seem to be efforts to at least develop a working relationship with Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Perhaps this is little more than a temporary strategic retweet so as to move forward with the business of being a premier, but it is noticeable. But we surely do need to take the nation’s conversation somewhere in a more positive direction.

As the resistance became both lost in its own rhetoric and mired in its own politics, often overlooked is what remains a principled stance: The carbon tax just doesn’t work out here and — in the form prescribed by the federal government — it simply never could work or accomplish much of anything. We do have a better approach.