Following the recent federal NDP party convention in Edmonton, Alberta's opposition parties are going to have an increasingly difficult time accusing Premier Rachel Notley of being out to destroy the province's energy sector.
From what many voices on the right have been claiming since her party was elected barely a year ago, it's as though reducing Alberta's economy to rubble was some kind of evil plot she hatched in a secret underground lair while laughing maniacally drinking champagne.
But during the divisive Edmonton gathering of dippers that led to the fall of the federal party's leader, Tom Mulcair, Alberta's premier spoke in support of developing a national pipeline.
"We're not making a choice between the environment and the economy. We are building the economy," Notley said.
"I'm asking you to leave here more persuaded than perhaps some of us have been, that it is possible for Canada to have a forest industry, to have an agriculture industry, a mining industry, and yes, an energy industry, while being world leaders on the environment."
Building a pipeline is "critical to the future of our country and to the well-being of every Albertan and every Canadian," she had previously said during an address to the United Steelworkers' national policy conference in Montreal.
She also had some choice words about the federal NDP's controversial LEAP Manifesto, which she unabashedly distanced her government from, recently telling reporters the provincial NDP "repudiates" parts of the Leap document pertaining to energy infrastructure.
"These ideas will never form any part of our policy," she said. "They are naive, they are ill-informed and they are tone deaf."
She did not go so far as to declare a split from the federal party, which isn't surprising as taking such a measure is akin to stomping away from the discussion like a pouting infant who isn't getting his or her way.
But she did underscore the fact the federal NDP has not actually adopted the LEAP Manifesto and that the Alberta New Democrats shall oppose the policy, which has been set to return for discussion by the federal party in 2018.
"This is the beginning of a discussion, not the end. So I would not spend a lot of time hand-wringing about an end that has not yet unfolded," said the premier.
Considering the shambles the federal NDP party finds itself in following the last election ó the party is now without a leader or meaningful direction ó it would be political suicide and guaranteed continued third-party obscurity for years to come if the party should stand at odds against the Alberta NDP on such a critical issue.
However no government, left or right, has in recent memory overseen the development of any significant pipeline project in the province or the rest of the country.
What a dose of irony it would be, at least for all the naysayers, if the Alberta NDP were to end up being the ones to lead the way on such an undertaking.
ó Simon Ducatel, Round Up editor
