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OTTAWA — The mercury, and tempers, were rising in the House of Commons Wednesday, as politicians sparred over the Liberal government’s controversial nationalization of the Trans Mountain pipeline.

There is a sense that this is serious business and that the passion and exasperation in Parliament will be nothing compared to the rage on the ground in British Columbia, in what promises to be a long, hot summer.

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When the $4.5 billion purchase was unveiled at a news conference on Tuesday, Jim Carr, the natural resources minister, resorted to the old Liberal standby of blaming the Harper government for the sorry pass things had come to. “The previous government spent 10 years pitting the environment and the economy against each other. They pitted us against each other. It polarized us. That is not who we are,” he said.

But it’s very much who we are.

If Carr is suggesting that the country is no longer polarized — and has not become more so as a result of this policy decision — he needs to get out more.