When premiers Christy Clark and Alison Redford held an exuberant joint news conference in Kelowna on Friday, they didn’t just hit the reset button on their relationship, they hit the erase button.
Gone was any hint of the acrimony that defined their relationship the past several months over the proposed Northern Gateway pipeline.
“We have so much in common and so many interests that we need to pursue together,” Clark declared, after presenting Redford with a bottle of B.C. wine. “British Columbia and Alberta have been friends for a long time. We are the best friends in this country.”
It hasn’t appeared that way lately, certainly not since last July when Clark paid a surprise visit to the Alberta legislature to demand B.C. receive a “fair share” of the revenues from the pipeline.
For the next 10 months, as Clark geared up for B.C.’s May provincial election and to prove to voters she wasn’t Alberta’s lapdog, she repeatedly demanded a piece of the oilsands action as a condition for approving the pipeline. Redford responded emphatically that would never happen.
At one point, Clark acknowledged the neighbouring premiers shared a “frosty” relationship, a description that no doubt warmed the hearts of pipeline opponents. But that was before Clark’s B.C. Liberals won the election. Now she’s feeling secure enough to embrace Redford on the public stage, literally and figuratively.
“There’s so much more that unites us than divides us,” said Clark, pointing to the need for collaboration on such issues as immigration, labour and skills training.
Fine, but what about Northern Gateway?
“The way you get there is to start talking and to make sure you’re having a friendly, respectful conversation, which is what we had today,” said Clark.
The only person happier than Clark on Friday was Redford.
“As we move forward there’s lots of opportunity for discussion and I think that if we focus on what really does unite us, which is wanting to make sure we’re growing our economies, that’s our best opportunity to work through some of these issues,” said Redford.
The Alberta premier has been asking for the hatchet-burying meeting ever since the B.C. vote. Instead of Clark coming to Edmonton, though, Redford flew to Kelowna, where Clark has just kicked off a byelection to regain herself a legislative seat.
The get-together might seem a bit redundant given that Redford and Clark were already scheduled to meet on the weekend at the annual western premiers’ conference in Winnipeg. But Clark and Redford wanted some private time to reboot their relationship.
Redford’s reward for flying to Kelowna was to hear the B.C. premier soft-sell her province’s “official” opposition to the pipeline proposal as outlined in B.C.’s brief to the federal joint review panel.
“We are not opposed to economic development and we are not opposed to resource development. For heaven’s sake, I was elected on a mandate for both in this recent election,” said Clark, who made it clear that even though B.C. rejected Enbridge’s plan, the province is still open to the proposal if it deals better with environmental protection.
In other words, the door that’s been slammed shut more times than a British bedroom farce is actually still open.
This is not to say Clark will support the pipeline. There’s still the thorny issue of how B.C. will get its “fair share” of revenue from the project.
B.C. politicians have mused about collecting a toll fee on every barrel of bitumen pumped through the pipeline, but that would invite other provinces to charge a toll on B.C. natural gas being pumped through Alberta, for example, on its way to the U.S.
Still, for those who want the pipeline to go ahead, the good news is Clark and Redford are friends again and talking.
For those who don’t want the pipeline to go ahead, the bad news is Clark and Redford are friends again and talking.
