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But who knows, maybe angry voters and opposing premiers will be able to convince Ottawa to at least cancel the planned increases in the tax, which is $20 per tonne this year, but ready to rise to $50 a tonne by 2022.

If Canadians are truly lucky, maybe discontent with the tax will help elect a new government in October, one like the Conservatives who are opposed to “carbon pricing” in its Trudeau form.

The need to eliminate the carbon tax and stop Bills C-48 and C-69 are one of the biggest reasons to celebrate the election of new Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.

While New Democrat Rachel Notley was in charge, Trudeau could always point to the premier of Canada’s No. 1 energy province and say, “See, see, even Alberta thinks my carbon tax is a good idea.”

Notley did not originally object to C-48 (the ban on tankers of Alberta oil from B.C. northern coast) and was started out silent on C-69 (the bill that makes environmental assessment of new pipelines even more difficult than they already are).

Not Kenney.

By coming out vociferously and clearly against the tax and the pair of anti-oil bills, Kenney has shifted the momentum on energy and pipelines. By proclaiming the turn-off-the-taps law passed by the NDP last year (but never implemented), Kenney has shown Alberta is far more determined than before to get pipelines built.

Kenney’s trip to Ottawa this week to lay out his positions on the two bills which are now before the Senate and to meet with Trudeau was a virtuoso performance.

Thanks to Kenney’s calm, but firm messages, Canadians will now be clear that Trudeau’s agenda is bad for the oil industry, and as such bad for the national economy. Also, the concept of sucking up to environmentalists and “green” politicians to get them to accept energy projects (known as social licence) is dead and buried.

Between now and the federal election, Kenney and other opponents of Ottawa’s eco-obsession have a chance to turn the issues around and save Canada before it plunges off a “green” cliff.