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OTTAWA — The proposed Kinder Morgan pipeline expansion once resembled a political morass, something that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and B.C. Premier Christy Clark would wade into at their peril.

But both politicians have managed to put pipeline opponents on the defensive as both sides head into a three-front battle in 2017 over the $6.8-billion project.

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Trudeau, one anti-pipeline environmentalist acknowledged Thursday, did a “masterful” job in packaging his approval with a string of environmental measures — a $1.5-billion Oceans Protection Plan, a national carbon tax and the cancellation of the Northern Gateway pipeline — aimed at easing the public’s concerns.

And Clark followed Trudeau’s lead this week with her own slickly packaged approval that included $25 million a year wrested from the company for a B.C. “Clean Communities” program.

“They’ve done this brilliantly,” University of B.C. political scientist Richard Johnston said Thursday.