Surely a more likely explanation for the timing of this trend than the date of Ottawa’s purchase in May 2018 is that while former NDP premier Rachel Notley’s much-maligned “social license” strategy was making progress on creating more positive perceptions about pipelines throughout Canada, UCP Premier Jason Kenney’s vituperative campaign of war rooms, inquiries and rhetorical attacks on other regions is a flop.
As the old saying goes, you’ll catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. And as is becoming obvious, while Ms. Notley’s approach of taking measures to mitigate Alberta’s outsized contribution of global climate change while pushing hard for the pipeline, so bitterly attacked as ineffective by the political right in the lead-up to last April’s Alberta election, was winning friends in the rest of Canada, Mr. Kenney’s angry bluster is driving them away.