CALGARY — Premier Alison Redford isn’t exactly a willing combatant in the escalating war with federal NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair — not yet, anyway — but she knows how to lob a noise grenade.

On Wednesday, Redford said in French that when Mulcair is in Alberta, “he’s not very critical” of the province, but after he’s back in Ottawa, “he is more critical.”

This shows that “what we have here is a political discussion,” the premier said.

In other words, Mulcair’s barbs are aimed more at provoking regional reactions than finding solutions.

Redford said all that in response to a CBC reporter, in a way that ensures notice down East.

Redford’s right about Mulcair. He was a civil guest a couple of weeks ago, but soon afterward, in New Brunswick, accused the Alberta-centred fracking industry of pulling a “con job.”

Reacting to that, Redford said (this time in English): “I think they’re very irresponsible comments . . . comments trying to play to people’s emotions, and trying to evoke in people a fear, people who aren’t as close to the industry and to the regulatory processes that we have here in Alberta.”

Politically, Mulcair’s aggressive line is working. And because it is, this will be an extended political campaign directed in large part at Alberta and its main industry.

Redford’s problem, which she alluded to at the news conference, is whether to hit back or keep quiet when Mulcair says these things.

She often asks herself that question, she said. Then she promptly hit back.

But it’s a good point: how, exactly, should Mulcair be handled?

Redford can’t be so aggressive she makes our very fortunate province look nervous, protective and worried.

Mulcair, it seems, would like nothing more than a toe-to-toe battle with the Alberta government.

Why would she fall for that? She leads a key provincial government, he heads a Quebec-heavy opposition, and a federal election is still years away.

So there’s no cause for immediately worry, even though Mulcair’s case does seem to be gaining steam.

Wednesday also brought a federal finding that Canada won’t meet its emissions targets without much tougher action.

Alberta, naturally, is offered up as the main target for better numbers.

That left Redford to suggest, almost plaintively, that solutions must include energy consumers as well as Alberta producers.

“Emissions coming out of tailpipes are one of the reasons we have these circumstances,” the premier said. “It’s got to be part of a whole conversation with respect to production and consumption of energy.”

It won’t be, though. No federal government has ever shown any taste for action that would directly raise prices at the pumps.

As if that weren’t enough for one day, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development said there’s evidence Canada is suffering from a high energy dollar that hurts manufacturing and creates an uneven economy in Canada.

Canada’s economy has never been anything but uneven — especially during a century when federal policy virtually blocked manufacturing in the West — but all this plays into Mulcair’s hands.

And yet, the economy itself might be starting to undermine his advantage.

Oil was down to nearly $82 Wednesday, and the mighty petro-loonie has weakened.

The creepy thought dawns that Thomas Mulcair actually needs a booming energy sector, with high prices and a powerful dollar.

Without them, his whole case collapses.

It makes you wonder; when he’s tucking himself in at Stornoway, does he say a prayer for Alberta?

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

dbraid@CalgaryHerald.com