Can't they ever just get along, Justin Trudeau and Danielle Smith? Sometimes, yes!

In among all the pokey words Premier Danielle Smith flung at the prime minister (and his environ‐ ment minister) after meet‐ ing with Justin Trudeau, one gentler term nudged its way into her rhetoric. Gratitude.

That's right. From a pre‐ mier from this western province to a PM with that surname.

"I also expressed grati‐ tude for the progress on the Trans Mountain pipeline," Smith told reporters in Ed‐ monton, fresh off the road after her one-on-one with Trudeau down south in Cal‐ gary.

Trans Mountain is the project Trudeau has loved talking about as a symbol of his support for the petroprovince, ever since the Lib‐ eral government purchased the beleaguered venture in 2018. Conservative Alberta premiers have been less quick to acknowledge the costly gesture amid their frustrations with Liberals on fossil fuel issues.

But in a matter of weeks, Alberta's westward pipeline capacity will triple, thanks to the $30 billion Trans Moun‐ tain expansion, and top Al‐ berta and federal politicians will jointly appear at any cer‐ emonial ribbon-cutting once the diluted bitumen starts flowing.

Thanks, but also no thanks

This grateful note from Smith was in a post-meeting press briefing far more heavily dominated by discussion of conflict points, most notably the carbon tax and Trudeau's refusal to heed a premier's wishes that he dump Steven Guilbeault as environment minister.

Those were the headlinegrabbing tensions during the pair's photo op before their Calgary sit-down - she cited that seven premiers now want a pause on the planned carbon tax hike to $80 per tonne in April, while he boasted of the increase to

$1,800 for typical Alberta families from the newly re‐ branded Canada Carbon Re‐ bate.

But those flashpoints only came after Smith mentioned a string of emissions-reduc‐ ing industrial plants Ottawa and Alberta have collabo‐ rated on, to develop net-zero plastics and cement, as well as hydrogen.

Plus, that more likely emissions-increasing project:

"I'd also like to thank the prime minister for getting the Trans Mountain pipeline nearly to the finish line," Smith said as the cameras snapped. "It's going to be a major boost, not only for Al‐ berta."

Trudeau gently smiled and nodded at the kudos.

In their separate news conferences after they met 300 kilometres away from each other - they described their conversations as "con‐ structive." It might be the most common term politi‐ cians employ to describe meetings, most notably when public perception points to other terms like "fraught."

The fraught stuff is all highly public, from dire warn‐ ings and lawsuits against as‐ sorted climate policies to the Sovereignty Act and accusing Guilbeault of "treachery."

But behind the political quips and press-release statements, there are a se‐ ries of federal-provincial working tables that senior of‐ ficials from both levels have quietly been meeting at to hammer out the finer points of regulation and policy. Smith praised those again to‐ day.

Do they agree on the Clean Electricity Regulations and Ottawa's net-zero grid by 2035 target? Nope.

Are they closer together after last month's changes by Guilbeault and his depart‐ ment that offered more flexi‐ bility for natural gas plants? Alberta ministers won't say yep, but the power genera‐ tors they're defending are more likely to.

At the Smith-Trudeau meeting - the first since July Alberta's premier also pressed him on another lowcarbon industrial file. She said Alberta and its hydro‐ gen-producing sector have a "massive opportunity" to ex‐ port ammonia to Japan and South Korea as they try to decarbonize their electricity systems.

"It would be nice to have the federal government weigh in and offer some sup‐ port for that," Smith told re‐ porters. The prime minister gave her pitch a "warm re‐ ception," a senior provincial source told CBC News.

Federal Energy Minister Jonathan Wilkinson, mean‐ while, has discussed am‐ monia on a mission to Japan, so the economic prospects are on his radar.

On drugs

Even on pharmacare, the provincial tone seems to have taken a shift since Health Minister Adriana La‐ Grange said Alberta would opt out and demand cash in‐ stead, nearly as soon as Trudeau and the federal NDP struck a deal to launch the beginnings of a federal phar‐ maceuticals program.

LaGrange had argued the province already had "robust" coverage of medica‐ tions through a blend of worker insurance, Alberta Blue Cross and provincial coverage for seniors and lowincome people.

However, Smith emerged from Wednesday's meeting by noting that 26 per cent of Albertans still lack drug cov‐ erage, and she'd like to im‐ prove that - just not neces‐ sarily the way Ottawa wants it, starting with contraception and diabetes medication.

Trudeau, for his part, sig‐ nalled his government will strive to be flexible with provinces, given their own unique pharmaceutical pro‐ grams. "What I said to her is, look, we want to work with you in a way that makes sense for you that will be dif‐ ferent from B.C., different from Quebec…" he ex‐ plained.

"The federal government isn't defining the program. We're going to sit down and work with the provinces to deliver ways that cover the gaps."

Those gaps, based on Smith's numbers, mean more than one million Albertans pay out-of-pocket for pre‐ scriptions.

Could this be headed in the same direction as the child-care deal? At the outset, then-premier Jason Kenney cast doubt on Alberta's in‐ terest in a federal "cookiecutter" program.

But provinces tend not to like turning down truckloads of federal money to improve their residents' lives. Within months, federal and provinci‐ al officials designed a subsidy program that works for the provinces' many private day‐ care providers, to the ulti‐ mate benefit of its mothers and fathers.

Heated rhetoric and ten‐ sions are good for political point-scoring and headlines, especially now with every premier in a carbon-tax-pay‐ ing province except Manitoba criticizing next month's in‐ crease, and its growing un‐ popularity.

Trudeau punched back, defending his increasingly unpopular measure, which he said isn't the sort of thing he did to be popular.

"That's an easy thing for short-term-thinker politicians to say, 'Oh, we'll get rid of the price,'" he said. "They don't also talk about the fact that they're also going to get rid of that cheque, the Canada Carbon Rebate."

That will remain an in‐ tractable disagreement until one side bends, and that doesn't currently seem likely.

And to the premier's insis‐ tence Trudeau fire Guil‐ beault, he replies: "If people are having trouble getting along with him, maybe they need to look at their own ap‐ proach to these big issues."

But behind Smith's de‐ mands, and declaration she cannot work with him, what happened in Ottawa early last month? Guilbeault and Environment Minister Rebec‐ ca Schulz had their own meeting. Their senior officials converse and collaborate.

It happens out of neces‐ sity and pragmatism. And federalism, and shared juris‐ diction.