CDN NEWS | 
US NEWS 
‘I think what he’s demonstrating is if he was prime minister he would have done things differently,’ says Premier Danielle Smith, of Conservative Pierre Poilievre’s attacks on the pipeline deal she signed with Prime Minister Mark Carney
By This Article and More From Rick Bell HERE
So let us cut to chase.
Enquiring minds want to know.
Federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre stomps the pipeline pact Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Mark Carney inked, an agreement Smith really believes will do great things for Alberta and the rest of Canada.
Question. Premier Smith, how do you feel about Poilievre trashing the agreement you signed with Carney?
You can almost see the contrast between her and Poilievre in split screen.
Premier Smith praises the pipeline deal she negotiated with Carney.
Smith says the agreement is good for Alberta and shows how Canada works.
Smith is out and about selling the pact with Carney, armed with her optimism while she pitches the plan to the skeptical, including many here in Alberta.
The Carney Liberals even point to Smith’s enthusiastic thumbs-up as proof that the deal is a good deal.
On the other side of the screen is federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre. The party he leads was supported by more than six in 10 Albertans who voted in the last Canada-wide election.
Poilievre and others in the Conservative House of Commons seats hammer away at the pact day after day. They see it as a public relations stunt, as a heaping pile of political BS, a major-league con job by major-league cons.
The Poilievre Conservatives double-dog dare Carney and the Liberals to vote Yes to their statement backing a pipeline and including much but not all of the Smith-Carney deal.
The Carney Liberals vote No, saying Poilievre is playing games.
So how does Smith feel?
The premier begins by saying Poilievre would have repealed the Nine Bad Laws she sees blocking investment, especially in the oilpatch.
Poilievre would have backed pipelines “with no strings attached.”
“But he is not the prime minister, unfortunately,” says Smith.
Smith says she now has to deal with Carney and adds seven out of nine bad laws are being dealt with as part of the agreement with the prime minister and there is a commitment to a pipeline and a massive carbon capture and storage project.
The Alberta premier says she got much of what she wanted and is confident there will be a boom in oil production and a boom in power generation resulting in AI data centres being built.
Fair enough, but Premier Smith, what do you think of what Poilievre is doing? He is a harsh critic of the very deal with Carney you are so passionately advocating.
“What I take it to mean is if he was prime minister he wouldn’t have asked for any of the concessions.”
She says Poilievre would have wanted to do things faster if he was prime minister.
“I think we are fundamentally in agreement. I am glad for his support and I hope he, along with us, holds the prime minister to account.”
So she’s not upset with Poilievre raining on her parade, going after Carney and what the Conservative leader considers a bogus memorandum of understanding with a prime minister just stringing everybody along?
“It may very well be he feels that way, I guess time will tell,” says the Alberta premier, of Poilievre.
“But one step below that is if he was prime minister we would build pipelines and would repeal all the bad laws and he wouldn’t have conditions on us. I think he’s frustrated the federal government would put conditions on their support.
“It may well be we had to compromise to get a bargain with the current government.”
Yes, there are conditions and there are hoops for Alberta to jump through and it will all play out in the fullness of time.
Smith sees Alberta at the first step and tells us the pressure on the feds will continue and existing court challenges will not end “until we know for sure we’re headed in the right direction.”
The premier concludes by saying she knows exactly what the federal Conservative leader is doing and sees him as a strong ally “very much in alignment” with the Alberta government.
Premier, once again, as for him attacking your deal with Carney?
“I think what he’s demonstrating is if he was prime minister he would have done things differently.”
A few hours later, a Carney Liberal press release hits the streets.
A guy named Michael Ma, a Conservative representing a Toronto-area riding in the House of Commons, jumps ship and goes over to the Liberal side.
Carney is now only one more defector away from leading a majority government.
[email protected]
Share This:
