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Notley discussed both pipelines with Harper when the two met in Calgary earlier this week and she is expected to raise Energy East with Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard next week as she attends her first Council of the Federation meeting.

May, who planned to attend a Green party fundraiser Friday night and the party’s Stampede breakfast on Saturday morning, said her party stands opposed to all four of the oilsands pipelines, for both environmental and economic reasons.

“Dilbit (diluted bitumen) is a hazardous material, if it spills at any point on the pipeline reaching from Alberta to the East Coast, it’s impossible to clean up,” May said.

May’s visit to Calgary follows other federal leaders’ visits to the Stampede and comes just months before what is expected to be a hard-fought federal election.

One of two sitting Green MPs, May is hoping that a larger contingent of Green MPs in the House of Commons will help push the new federal government after the election to have a coherent plan for international climate change talks in Paris.

But the Green campaign is being hampered by May’s exclusion from two leaders debates, including one with a focus on the economy slated for Calgary that is being sponsored by the Globe and Mail and Google.

While she has been invited to the usual televised debate put on by the broadcasters consortium, Harper has pulled out of that event.

“The Conservative Party is now boycotting the national televised debates that I’m included in, preferring instead these private boutique debates which I think are being engineered to ensure the prime minister shows up,” she said.

“It’s not just a matter of, are we being nice to Greens? It’s a question of what type of democracy are we in?”

But Sean Humphrey, the Globe and Mail’s vice-president of marketing, defended the format of the newspaper’s planned debate.

“We believe our proposal, and the official parties invited, will lead to focused discussion on the Canadian economy,” he said in an email.

With files from The Canadian Press

jwood@calgaryherald.com