Tensions with Ottawa easing, Kenney, Moe suggest

Western premiers credit Freeland’s outreach for thaw in relations

WASHINGTON—Post-election tensions between the West and the federal Liberal government are showing signs of easing, two of Canada’s premiers suggested Friday as a contingent of provincial leaders fanned out across the U.S. capital to make the case for cross-border trade and investment in the after NAFTA age.

With Ottawa’s work on the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement gradually receding from centre stage, a four-premier delegation from the Council of the Federation took its turn in the spotlight in Washington, hoping to convince gubernatorial counterparts of the importance of closer trade ties with the provinces.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, speaking at a panel discussion at the Wilson Center’s Canada Institute, acknowledged the cold front that moved in after voters in their provinces froze out the climate-conscious federal Liberals last October, in large part over perceived federal hostility to Canada’s emissions-causing oilpatch.

But there have been cracks in the ice of late, said the leaders, crediting the work of Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, the Alberta-born former foreign minister who was dispatched by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to lead an outreach effort.

“It seems to be an attitude change, it really does,” Moe said.

“The outreach from the deputy prime minister to Saskatchewan has been good, it’s been appreciated, and it’s a relationship we’ll be looking forward to continuing in the future.” Added Kenney: “We have a long way to go yet, but at least we feel that some of our issues are being listened to.”

The stated goal of this weekend’s mission is to thank U.S. federal and state lawmakers for their efforts and support during the drawn-out negotiations to replace NAFTA, and to celebrate the imminent dawn of the USMCA, which needs only Canada to formally ratify the agreement. Most experts anticipate it will be the law of the land in all three countries by midsummer.

But they also intend to promote the importance to Alberta of resurrecting the Keystone XL pipeline expansion, a project to deliver landlocked Alberta oilsands bitumen to refiners and shippers along the U.S. Gulf Coast that was rejected by the previous Obama administration — a rejection Trudeau seemed to aid and abet with his “co-ordinated surrender” to Barack Obama shortly after becoming prime minister in 2015, said Kenney, a former Harperera cabinet minister.