It was Notley who showed up to the first ministers’ conference in November 2015 with the most important building block in what would become Trudeau’s Pan-Canadian
Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change. Before flying to Ottawa,
Notley announced a suite of measures to reduce Alberta’s greenhouse gas
emissions, including a new carbon tax and a cap on emissions from the
oilsands.

It was some of the most significant climate policy ever
put forward by a government in Canada. Among the provinces, Alberta was
already the largest and fastest-growing source of emissions and the
oilsands sector was an easy focus for anxiety about the future of the
planet. Notley changed the terms of the debate by moving aggressively to take responsibility and challenge her province’s reputation.

In
doing so, she spared Trudeau from having to impose a solution on
Alberta — a province that is particularly sensitive about its
independence, particularly whenever someone named Trudeau is involved.
And what Notley put forward became a model for the federal backstop now
in place in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and New Brunswick.