Notley knows it would be unwise to burn bridges with Harper

Among the things on Rachel Notley’s to- do list this summer: campaign for the NDP candidate in the Calgary- Foothills byelection set for Sept. 3; keep an eye on review panels dealing with energy royalties and climate change; prepare a provincial budget; and, desperately hope for a recovery in oil prices.

At the top of the list: be wary of the federal election. And at all costs, avoid getting drawn into a war of words with Stephen Harper.

Notley wants little to do with the federal campaign. Unlike Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, a Liberal who has jumped into the deep end by attacking the federal Conservatives, Notley is sticking to an occasional toe dabbling in the shallow end.

Having become premier just 10 weeks ago in the midst of an economic downturn, Notley has her hands full. She doesn’t have time for the campaign, and more importantly, she doesn’t want to burn bridges with non- NDP federal leaders.

Even when one of those leaders seems determined to set the bridge aflame, Notley refuses to add fuel to the fire.

When Harper attacked her government on Monday as a “disaster” for raising taxes, Notley responded on Tuesday with a tepid statement, saying, “What the Government of Alberta did this spring was replace regressive taxes with better ones.”

When reporters pestered her for more, she obliged — sort of. She held a news conference Thursday, announcing the Calgary-Foothills byelection and her general plans for the fall — and almost as an afterthought turned to the comments from Harper.

She never called him by name, dryly referring to him as “a candidate in the current federal election.”

“For the record, I completely reject the Conservative campaign’s comments about the decisions of the people of Alberta that they made last spring,” said Notley. “Whether their federal cousins like it or not, the people of Alberta decided they had enough of the Conservative government in this province.”

Reporters immediately branded this a “war of words” between Harper and Notley.

Really? While Harper did fire the first shot in this “war” by unfairly labelling the NDP government a disaster just 10 weeks after Notley took power, Notley didn’t exactly pick up a bazooka to fire back.

She chose her words carefully, refusing to return Harper’s nastiness in kind.

“It’s certainly not my intention to actively engage in this federal campaign other than where necessary to correct the record with respect to the work of this provincial government,” said Notley. “It should be a race between the candidates who are running to be prime minister and the candidates who are running to be MPs in the House of Commons.”

This is one war Notley seems determined to avoid.

Just as tepid as her public reaction to Harper is her measured public endorsement of the federal NDP. She has a campaign sign for NDP candidate Linda Duncan on her front lawn and she called NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair “a good guy.”

But she’s not following the lead of Ontario’s premier, who has loudly endorsed federal Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, while calling for the defeat of Harper’s Conservatives.

Notley might be partisan, too, but she’s not yelling it from the rooftops.

Even though the provincial NDP won a majority in Alberta, the political reality is that the Conservatives are still on track to win a majority of the federal seats in the province, whether or not Harper wins another majority government.

Notley doesn’t want to add to her long list of headaches by getting into a fight with federal politicians.

She might be itching to fire a broadside at Harper, but for now, Notley apparently sees discretion as the better part of valour.