Peter Mansbridge, the grand old man of Canadian broadcasting, put a simple question to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith at today's Global Energy Show in Calgary. In her discussions with Prime Minister Mark Carney, how did she think it was going?Her answer revealed as much about her, as it did about 'how things were going.' Smith simply acknowledged that Carney needed time. She would give it to him. This was smart."He has a couple of problems, in that a lot of the people who imposed bad policies over the last ten years are still in key positions either in his government or his caucus. So I recognize he has a real challenge on climbing down on some of those positions.".One thinks of Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, who she now suspects has plans to establish new national parks strategically located to obstruct pipelines. Or newly minted Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin, who boasts of her anti-development views."That being said, I recognize that he had to get rid of the carbon tax, because it was so unpopular and wasn't achieving its goals, so I would say that he has demonstrated pragmatism on that.... He now has the ability to show leadership to get rid of, revise or eliminate those bad policies. And I have a list of nine. We didn't see progress in the first session [of Parliament] but it was only a short session and it will be a large amount of work to revise or eliminate those policies.... He has a lot of people in his caucus who still believe those bad policies are the way to go."I'm sure that is exactly the case..True, many Albertans who voted for Smith would have liked to hear some fighting talk. It would have been easy enough; Mr. Carney has opened himself up on multiple fronts to charges of promising things — a pipeline perhaps — only to put limits on the promise later... for example, 'all major projects will need provincial and indigenous approval.'She could have asked, 'Well, which is it?' But she chose instead to do a little bridge-building. As a senior politician, she herself is no stranger to the burden of conflicting demands. To show a little understanding of Mr. Carney's dilemmas — and to give him to October to explore what he could do — was simply an investment in relationship-building..Whether Mr. Carney will respond in kind is not in her control of course. However, even her most hostile critics could not accuse her of fracturing the relationship before it had a chance to become civil.And a further Mansbridge question posed an intriguing possible foundation for agreement — is Carney a closet Conservative?I do not think he is.However, it is common knowledge that Mr. Carney won the last election with promises stolen from his Conservative opponent. His defence announcement on Monday is what we would have hoped for from a Conservative government, had the voters chosen one. Indeed, the sheer size of the spending contemplated might have been above the Conservative appetite for political risk.Then as stated above, Mr. Carney's first act was to remove the consumer carbon tax. Yes, he cynically moved it upstream to producers. However, at the pumps, you see the difference. He also cancelled another unpopular Trudeau measure, the capital gains tax inclusion rate increase and significantly went to Washington to do a deal with Trump. We will see the deal in due course but it was one of those 'Nixon-goes-to-China' moments; had Pierre Poilievre tried that, he would have been excoriated as an elbows-down traitor.The gulf between federal policy as inherited by the present government from the last and Alberta's aspirations is enormous. And Smith's generous comments about other premiers notwithstanding, Alberta does not have many friends. There are also few shared ideals in anything that Ms. Smith or Mr. Carney have ever said or written — especially when it comes to climate change, how to fight it or even the need to do so..However as one woman from whom Ms. Smith takes inspiration used to say, "The facts of life are Conservative."That would be former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. Mr. Trudeau it is now apparent, never had the intellectual capacity to recognize the facts that mattered. Mr. Carney may or may not turn out to be trustworthy, but we have never suggested he is stupid.Smith may come to regret her conciliatory approach. But if things don't work out, nobody will be able to say that she didn't give the man a chance.
