The Council of the Federation meeting has concluded, and Jason Kenney is again giving warnings about national unity, but given that his thesis is a house built of lies, one should probably take it with a grain or two of salt. There were the usual demands of higher healthcare transfers (ironic given that the premiers are largely conservatives, at least one of whom was in Harper’s Cabinet when he reduced the rate of increase on those transfers), and federal assistance with pharmacare, and the platitudes about increasing labour mobility – for which we’ll see if Kenney’s theatrical moves around unilaterally reducing a handful of the province’s trade barriers will get any traction. It was noticeable that he didn’t decide to join the national securities regulator, and for as much as Andrew Scheer tried to swoop in with press releases about how Justin Trudeau had “failed” on interprovincial trade, the reality is quite the opposite – after achieving the trade deal with the provinces and the negative list of barriers, they have made substantial progress on chipping away at it.

There was some disagreement – François Legault continued his opposition to pipelines (which throws a giant wrench into their visions of “national energy corridors” that are being used as code-words for pipeline access routes), and Brian Pallister and to a lesser extent, Doug Ford, sniped back at Legault about his province’s “secularism” bill, that the other premiers mostly didn’t say anything about.

When all was said and done, however, it became noticeable how hollow Kenney’s attempt to build some kind of coalition of discontent was – while he was trying to insist on a brewing unity crisis, all of the other premiers were pretty much “one or two disagreements, but we’re good otherwise.” Which kind of blows Kenney’s narrative out of the water – especially when he was forced to admit that the province doesn’t really want to separate. It’s a tacit admission that once again, this is just using lies to try and keep people angry because he thinks he can use that to his advantage, but not enough other premiers want to play with that particular bonfire.

Good reads:

• While addressing the Teachers Federation conference, Justin Trudeau was met by a silent protest about the situation in Attawapiskat.
• Chrystia Freeland calls John McCallum’s comments to the Chinese press “highly inappropriate.” You think?
• Ahmed Hussen is warning that Quebec’s attempt to take more economic migrants at the expense of family reunification will create a two-tiered immigration system.
• Civil society and labour groups resigned from the advisory panel on the new corporate-social responsibility ombudsman because of what they feel are delays.
• Some of the land that was at the centre of the Oka crisis 29 years ago has been returned to the Mohawks from the developer, but that may come with strings.
• Maclean’s is looking at climate change – worst-case scenarios, how it will affect national landmarks, and an exploration of how we can decarbonise by 2050.
• Ottawa’s city council abdicated their responsibilities and voted to allow the Château Laurier addition to continue, despite it being universally loathed.
• The Liberals are accusing the Conservatives of pushing an anti-abortion propaganda film (because they’re making abortion an election issue).
• Anti-pipeline activist Steven Gilbeault won the Liberal nomination for Laurier–Sainte-Marie, and environmentalists are already calling him a sellout.
• Alberta’s Court of Queen’s Bench wants to change their name back to the “Supreme Court of Alberta,” and that’s a giant nope from me.
• Here’s an interview with Premier Bob McLeod of the Northwest Territories about his common cause with the conservative premiers.
• Susan Delacourt is intrigued by Canada’s participation in a “rapid response force” of international diplomats who will step in when journalists are imperilled.
• Heather Scoffield advances the argument that the pre-writ restrictions are a boon for the government, but mostly makes the case that fixed election dates are garbage.
• Robert Hiltz takes Andrew Scheer to task about his rhetoric on “hidden taxes” and his many excuses to do nothing on climate change.

Odds and ends:

Over in the CBA’s National Magazine, I wrote about the incoming Supreme Court justice, and some of his unfinished business at the Quebec Court of Appeal.

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