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Two Premiers Walk Into Kananaskis. They Actually Talk.
Danielle Smith and David Eby have spent the better part of a year disagreeing loudly about pipelines, ports, and who exactly owns the B.C. coastline. So when they sat down together at this week’s Western Premiers’ Conference, expectations were not exactly sky-high.
And yet.
Smith called for a “spirit of collaboration” on oil and gas. Eby said B.C.‘s coast is Canada’s coast and he’s willing to work with Alberta and Ottawa — while making clear B.C. wants a seat at the table, not a memo after the fact. (Ottawa and Alberta signed their pipeline MOU without him. He noticed.)
Nobody announced a deal. Nobody declared victory. What happened was quieter and, honestly, more useful: two premiers in the same room, working the problem themselves instead of lobbing it at Ottawa and walking away.
Eby said it himself: “I know we feel a million miles away from Ottawa, sometimes we feel like the last consideration of Ottawa. That’s why working together, we can make sure that our space in Confederation is held.”
This is all unfolding, by the way, while Alberta’s separatist sentiment is running loud — which makes the fact that anyone showed up to talk solutions worth noting.
Smith put the ports argument simply: “These ports are not British Columbia’s ports. They’re Canada’s ports.”
Eby didn’t agree. But he didn’t leave either.
That’s something.