The two teamed up to push back against Alberta's drive for a national energy strategy that emphasized production but overlooked pollution. Quebec and Ontario both insisted on linking increased energy output with abatement of greenhouse gas emissions.

"We saw that we were sharing the same point of view," Couillard mused.

But these are early days. Can the shared creative and intellectual energies of the Quebec and Ontario premiers produce a more enduring legacy than the last fleeting attempt by their two Liberal predecessors?

A decade ago, Jean Charest and Dalton McGuinty cheerfully toasted their friendship and regularly convened joint cabinet meetings. The collaboration yielded little more than symbolic photo-ops.

Couillard and Wynne both insist they can take the revived relationship further, relying not just on chemistry but common purpose. Unlike Charest and McGuinty, who were professional politicians from a young age obsessed with optics, the two incumbents are late-onset premiers who have a shared world view and seriousness of purpose.

"It's not only about style and photo-ops — it's also about substance," the Quebec premier says. "On most topics — whether it's internal trade, energy, climate change — we see things quite similarly and I think the relationship between Madame Wynne and myself is quite solid ...

"What I like is that we are both results-oriented more than process-oriented, and we can speak frankly to one another."

In a later interview after their face-à-face, Ontario's premier puts the accent on their businesslike approach, which goes beyond bonhomie.

"The first similarity that I notice is I believe we are both pretty practical people, we're both looking for ways to solve problems in the most efficient and effective way possible," she says. "From our first telephone conversation he and I had, that was my impression of him."

At a time of diminished political tensions, they are talking about high-tension transmission lines to take advantage of Quebec's hydroelectric surplus amid rising energy prices in Ontario. Can they do a deal that has eluded the two neighbouring provinces for decades — Quebec mired in political separatism and Ontario myopic about its own energy isolationism?

"First, when you want to make a deal you want to know what your customer's needs are," Couillard begins. "We have power available, we have surpluses ... we also want to sell it to our neighbours."

At their first formal meeting in Quebec in August, Wynne said she needed "une bonne deal." Couillard counters that the price "will be right."

"Look — we sell power in the U.S. and they are tough negotiators, and I think they had a good price," he says. "I'm sure we can reach an agreement."

Wynne wants to keep talking — and thinking about the potential energy synergy that has been taboo for decades: "What I do know is that the door is open and we are going to be able to at least have the discussion."

Martin Regg Cohn is a news services columnist who writes on provincial affairs.