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Realizing just how bad this looked on so many levels, government officials trotted out a better-prepared McCuaig-Boyd a few hours later.

She explained that Mitchell was only with LeadNow for four months and didn’t do any lobbying: “Because he was interim executive director, he had to be on the lobby list. He totally supports the position we have here in Alberta in our energy program.”

So, it’s not fair to call Mitchell an “anti-pipeline lobbyist,” according to McCuaig-Boyd. He merely worked for a firm lobbying against pipelines. Understandably, the difference might escape some.

As to why she ducked the question about his hiring, it turns out she had never met Mitchell before he was brought in as her chief of staff. The same goes for most of Alberta’s new cabinet ministers who are only now getting to know their new chiefs of staff.

The bottom line, said McCuaig-Boyd, is that Mitchell will take his marching orders from the Alberta government, and the government looks kindly on the Energy East pipeline.

As to why she ducked the question about his hiring, it turns out she had never met Mitchell before he was brought in as her chief of staff. The same goes for most of Alberta’s new cabinet ministers who are only now getting to know their new chiefs of staff.

All were hired by the premier’s office, which was in a hurry to get them in place before the start of session next week.

Most come from outside Alberta, and virtually all have a history of work with the NDP and/or unions across the country.

That’s led to critics accusing Premier Rachel Notley, an NDP premier, of hiring political appointees who have strong ties to, good grief, the NDP.

Just to be clear, we’re not talking here of civil service appointments, but political appointments — the kind the old PC government used to fill with those who perhaps had strong ties to the corporate sector, or maybe even to the PC party.

As for the NDP recruiting outside the province, that’s largely a result of the NDP — after 44 years of PC governments — not having a particularly robust network of experienced people to choose from.

Having said that, however, the NDP should have thought through the optics of hiring someone with ties to an anti-pipeline lobbying firm as the chief of staff to the energy minister.

This is not how you settle the nerves of a jittery energy sector.

This is how you make sure the legislative honeymoon is over, even before the session begins.

Graham Thomson is an Edmonton Journal columnist.