Over the weekend, Alberta premier Jason Kenney put out a video over Twitter that was an explicit declaration that he plans to campaign against Justin Trudeau in the upcoming federal election, but it was couched in the language of provincial separatism. Or rather, Kenney claimed that Trudeau was trying to “push Alberta out” of the Canadian federation, but he would rather “separate Trudeau from the office of the prime minister.”

For Kenney to claim that Trudeau is the source of Alberta’s woes is frankly ridiculous, and to say that Trudeau has been stoking separatist sentiment is laughable. Last I checked, Trudeau wasn’t the cause of the plunge in world oil prices, nor was his the government that has been blocking progress on the Keystone XL pipeline or Enbridge Line 3, and he not only bought the Trans Mountain pipeline to de-risk it, but ensured that the Federal Court of Appeal’s concerns were addressed so that it could begin construction without further court challenges. And if Kenney wants to throw Energy East or Northern Gateway in the mix, well, the former was withdrawn because the economics of the project were insufficient, and the Harper government’s inaction and lack of proper Section 35 consultation ensured that Northern Gateway would not go ahead.

Of course, Kenney is also perpetuating his campaign of lies and snake oil, such as his complaints that the province is getting a “raw deal” from equalization – remembering of course that Alberta doesn’t sign a cheque to other provinces, but that it comes from everyone’s federal income taxes, and Alberta has the highest incomes in the country by far, nor will a referendum on the programme do anything other than further inflame sentiment in the process that Kenney has been lying about. And he knows that he needs to keep the population angry at outside forces so that they don’t start turning on him given that he can’t fulfil the promises he made to them. This video was not only bizarre, but it also perhaps gives a hint of the kind of increasingly desperate measures that Kenney will have to resort to in order to keep stoking anger.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau, Jagmeet Singh and Elizabeth May all marched in the Vancouver Pride parade this weekend.
• We have learned a little more about the contingency that Trudeau was preparing in the event that the G7 in Charlevoix went sideways thanks to Trump.
• The government has barely spent the funds it collected from retaliatory tariffs, which were supposed to be targeted to steel and aluminium industry support.
• CSIS has been sending an increasing number of agents abroad to counter foreign threats (which makes one wonder if we need a foreign intelligence service).
• The government is in a dispute with the Canadian International Trade Tribunal over a Pacific coast towing contract given to Irving.
• Thus far, only one woman has made it onto the RCMP’s Emergency Response Team, and more women who apply find it difficult to pass the tests.
• Even before Trump’s musing about allowing drug imports from Canada, the pharmaceutical industry here was worried about cross-border sales and supply.
• Here’s a deeper exploration of the allegations that have rocked Equal Voice.
• Liberal MP Denis Paradis, who regained his seat in 2015, has opted not to run again.
• Conservative MP Deepak Obhrai, the dean of the caucus, died over the weekend of liver cancer.
• A national Muslim group is calling for a Conservative candidate in the GTA to step down over comments she’s made about Muslims and the LGBT community.
• Susan Delacourt notes how the Double-Hyphen Affair became a proxy for everyone’s grievances about Trudeau, and how those issues could still blow up on him.
• Delacourt also has read John Ivison’s book about Trudeau, and describes its focus on action and reaction by the prime minister over the past four years.

Odds and ends:

Here is a sampling of some of the advice that the Global Affairs website gives to foreigners looking to interact with Canadians.

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