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Jason Kenney, as Jason Kenney really wants you to know, doesn’t want Alberta to separate from Canada. He declared himself a “proud Canadian” a few days after becoming premier of Alberta, an oft-repeated assertion from the 51-year-old lifelong politician. But there are limits: messing with Alberta by hampering its oil industry with needless environmental regulations “will seriously rupture national unity,” Kenney said in May. He has picked fights with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier François Legault and ruminated noisily about Alberta’s “frustration and alienation.”

His spiel makes the noted Conservative in Alberta sound an awful lot like a Quebec Liberal of yore. This probably isn’t a coincidence. In invoking separation, and positioning himself as the last bulwark against it, Kenney has glommed onto one of the oldest hustles in the country — one that has served Quebec mightily for decades. His timing is characteristically impeccable; with Quebec’s separatist threat on the wane, the country suddenly lacks a serious existential threat. The question is: can it work for Alberta as it did so well for Quebec?