Article content continued

Kenney may well be playing with fire but he has the blaze under control so far

It may be that the premier and the prime minister can find common cause. To the surprise of just about everyone, in the readout of his meeting with Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe last week, Trudeau not only reiterated his commitment to complete the construction of TMX, which already has 2,200 people working on its construction, he also asked Moe to provide suggestions for improvements to the Impact Assessment Act and said he would consider suggestions for improvements to federal transfers, including the Fiscal Stabilization program.

Kenney may well be playing with fire but he has the blaze under control so far. The concern is that he may go too far in conciliating those parts of his constituency less wedded to the idea of a united Canada that he is.

Footage emerged from the weekend of UCP organizer Craig Chandler, who supports Wexit, saying he had talked to Kenney, who had in turn encouraged the separatist message. “He said ‘more power to you, get that message out there’,” said Chandler. He was also reported as saying Kenney plans to introduce legislation allowing citizen initiated referenda that would make it possible for Alberta to hold a referendum on secession.

Photo by David Bloom/Postmedia/File

This is an old Reform Party enthusiasm that the UCP considered including in its platform in the 2019 election. It plays to the party’s grassroots but it also offers the prospect of a David Cameron-style Brexit vote, the nervous breakdown in the Conservative Party that is likely to break Britain. Cameron is said to have been relaxed about proposing the Brexit referendum because he thought he’d be in a coalition with the Liberal Democrats and they would block it – one of the epic post-war political miscalculations.