Justin Trudeau’s appointment of a new natural resources minister likely didn’t attract much attention in Eastern Canada.

But here in the west, particularly Alberta, it was the only shift in Trudeau’s recent cabinet shuffle that really mattered.

Trudeau named Amarjeet Sohi, an Edmonton MP who until recently headed up the infrastructure ministry, to take on the most contentious portfolio in the west where economies are so dependent on oil, natural gas, renewable energy, mining, and forestry.

And now that the federal government is about to complete its purchase of the Trans Mountain pipeline, Sohi becomes the guy who must push through construction of that controversial oil conduit.

By putting an Alberta MP in the hot seat, Trudeau has doubled down on Premier Rachel Notley’s aggressive stance on the pipeline that would ship diluted bitumen from Alberta to the B.C. coast for loading onto tankers bound for the U.S. and Asia but has been stalled by the B.C. NDP government, coastal First Nations, and environmentalists.

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Not surprisingly, Notley was thrilled.

“We’re very pleased to have a representative from Alberta who will be sitting at the cabinet table representing the interests of the energy industry,” she told media at the premiers’ conference in New Brunswick last week.

“We think ultimately it’s good news.”

The move by Trudeau echoes one made by another Liberal prime minister — Jean Chrétien in 1993.

He appointed Edmonton MP Anne McLellan to the natural resources portfolio at a time when Albertans were still raging over the Pierre Trudeau’s National Energy Program and Preston Manning’s Reform Party was just a couple of seats short of becoming the official opposition.

As natural resources minister, McLellan played a key role in convincing the Chrétien abinet to back the oilsands industry’s call for reduction of federal taxes and royalties on both mining and in situ operations.

A few months earlier, Alberta premier Ralph Klein had acceded to industry proposals to charge only a one per cent royalty rate on oilsands production until upfront research, development and construction costs had been recovered.

The federal and provincial fiscal adjustments combined with the rising price of oil ushered in a frenzy of oilsands development that brought in billions of dollars for both industry and the Alberta government. But the frenzy also left Alberta with environmental messes, such as the toxic tailings ponds and soaring carbon emissions, that attracted international condemnation.

This time around it’s B.C. that’s worried about the environmental messes that would result if a tanker spills its load of diluted bitumen.

It’s tempting to conclude that Sohi’s appointment is simply an attempt by Trudeau to shore up Liberal support in Alberta for next year’s federal election.

But it would take much more than that to turn most Albertans into Liberals. Especially since two of the four Liberal MPs elected last time — Darshan Kang and Kent Hehr, both of Calgary — have been embroiled in sexual harassment controversies.

Trudeau seems more intent on boosting the fortunes of Rachel Notley who is also up for re-election next year. If her NDP government goes down and UCP leader Jason Kenney becomes premier Trudeau will have lost a key ally in his national climate change strategy.

Sohi’s appointment is also a way for Trudeau to once again signal to pipeline opponents in B.C., particularly the NDP government, that Alberta has his ear in this dispute, not B.C., and he intends to keep it that way.

As for Sohi, a former transit driver and Edmonton city councillor who hews to the left of the Liberal spectrum, he’s shown he can tough out really gruelling situations.

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In 1988 on a trip to the state of Punjab in India where he was born, Sohi, who is a secular Sikh and doesn’t wear a turban, was accused of being a Sikh terrorist and thrown into prison where he suffered torture, solitary confinement, and malnutrition for almost two years. He was eventually cleared by CSIS and an Indian court and returned to Canada.

Sohi is someone who knows how to endure whatever opponents can throw at him and then move on to successfully reassemble his life.

Sounds like just the right resume for the perilous pipeline portfolio.

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