OTTAWA - Three cheers for federal climate change minister Catherine McKenna who, on Friday, in front of a progressive, left-leaning crowd here in Ottawa, refused to yield to the mob’s desire for unilateral drastic action on climate change.

She reminded these progressives, attendees at the annual Broadbent Institute conference, that unilateral federal action would be sure to spark a national unity crisis. Moreover, the wrong kinds of climate change policies could kill the industries the entire country depends on for its prosperity.

Now, that is not the sort of thing attendees at a Broadbent Institute conference necessarily want to hear. To them, it sounds too much like the foot-dragging excuses from other federal governments, not just the Conservative one led by Stephen Harper but also Liberal ones under Jean Chretien and Paul Martin.

These progressives are impatient and want drastic action now. Nothing would make them happier than a moratorium on oil sands development and a stiff national carbon tax.

McKenna was in front of them as part of a panel on climate change. I was the moderator and, curious how McKenna would react to the crowd’s enthusiasm, I asked her why her government would not want to take that majority out for a drive and just get some stuff done on the climate file.

They’ve got the numbers in the House of Commons and Prime Minster Justin Trudeau’s personal and party popularity is still through the roof in the polls.

My question drew some cheers from the Broadbent Institute crowd. Why not, indeed, spend some of that political capital?

McKenna, though, would not play to those popular desires.

“I’m a realist on this,” she said. “There are a lot of people who have lost jobs in Alberta. I’m not saying that we destroy our planet. But I think we need to be thoughtful of how we move forward.”

McKenna’s co-panelists happened to be Shannon Phillips, the Alberta environment minister, who backed up McKenna’s views in her comments.

But the other co-panelist was Andrea Reimer, a Vancouver City Councillor who got the loudest cheers from this Broadbent crowd with her hard core, "no pipeline" approach to energy politics.

“It’s way too much risk, no benefit, on a planet that is dying because we are burning fossil fuels,” Reimer said to loud approving applause.

Reimer’s view, popular enough to get her elected three times to Vancouver city council, cannot, though, be the national view. And McKenna knew it.

“Everyone here believes that climate change is a massive problem,” McKenna told the room. “But there’s a lot of people that aren't there. And if what we end up doing has a huge immediate dislocating effect on the economy where tons of people lose jobs, I’m losing everyone. I’m losing them.”

Rabid environmentalists may find McKenna’s sensible caution disappointing but it’s the right approach for a federal government.

“You can't just go in and do things and assume the federal government knows best. And that has actually been a really good way to split up our country. I don't want this to be a national unity crisis.”

But the federal Liberals also risk a national unity crisis if it does not do more to restore prosperity to Canada’s ailing energy industry.

Balancing these two imperatives will almost certainly be the Trudeau government’s trickiest task in the years ahead.