Canadian leaders avoid political circus

Say what you will about Canadian politics being boring, but at least the PMO’s flak isn’t hiding in the bushes. Since U.S. President Donald Trump took office in January, the Washington political scene has been getting increasingly crazy.

If the president’s abrupt firing of the FBI director investigating his campaign ties to Russian election meddling isn’t incredulous enough, the fact that White House press secretary Sean Spicer avoided media afterwards by hiding in shrubs at the White House is just plain bizarre.

Canadian politics is positively milquetoast by comparison.

Yes, we have a weird “I’ll never join you but you can join me” tap dance going on in Alberta between the two main conservative parties. But despite some alleged namecalling and bullying, both parties save most of their vitriol for the ruling NDPs.

There’s also been a few tussles between provinces over policies — namely energy and climate — that get policy wonks and the news media all worked up but few others. Harsh sound bites are about as extreme as it gets.

Politics in British Columbia has the potential to go off the rails with no majority winner in this week’s election. So Alberta Premier Rachel Notley is wisely reaching out to the leaders of all three parties in a bid to “work with B.C. on our shared priorities.” She understands that Alberta’s economic prosperity is linked to getting a pipeline to tidewater in B.C. and that won’t occur through blustery threats or shady deals.

Interprovincial co-operation will be key to ensuring everyone benefits from increased resource revenues and jobs. The job of convincing British Columbians of that will be so much easier if Christy Clark’s Liberals gain a majority after recounts and absentee ballots are tallied.

But if the NDP gain more seats or the Greens continue to hold the balance of power, Notley will have to hope her outreach now will pay dividends later. The Green Party has pledged to stop the expansion of Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline, which brings Alberta bitumen to the coast for shipment to Asia. The NDP in B.C. are also anti-pipeline, so Notley has her work cut out for her.

Obviously, there will need to be some give and take. But here in Canada, we expect our leaders to deal transparently and in good faith. Strongly held views and positions are expected, but so is finding common ground in a respectful way.

There’s little patience for outsiders manipulating outcomes and, so far, no one has felt the need to hide in the bushes if it all falls apart.