Notley brushes off concern amidst NDP battles and provinces teaming up on carbon tax

Despite the ongoing battle with a fellow NDP government over the Trans Mountain pipeline and provinces linking up to fight carbon taxes, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says she’s not worried about national support when she runs for re-election.

“Not at all,” Notley said this week. “People align on the basis of certain issues.”

Notley and B.C. NDP Premier John Horgan remain at odds over the pipeline expansion, as the Liberal government recently announced buying the project in order to save it in the face of court challenges, with a plan of selling it later.

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has sided with B.C. on the issue and when Singh tweeted last month about the approval process being rigged, science being ignored and that it shouldn’t be built, Notley called his comments “is absolutely, fundamentally, incontrovertibly incorrect.”

As Notley defends the pipeline, she’s also seeing mounting opposition to carbon taxes in the country, and UCP Leader Jason Kenney has pledged to scrap Alberta’s version if elected next year.

Kenney has also said he’d follow Ontario Premier-elect Doug Ford, who formally announced his province would join the Saskatchewan court challenge to the federal carbon tax plan.

But Notley questioned the strategy.

“I think we need to think about folks who start making plans for when the people of Alberta elect them into a position that they don’t currently hold 11 months beforehand,” she said. “I was here in 2015, and part of the way we won the election was we said you know what, the arrogance and the entitlement of the past, that’s not a thing that’s cool.

“Maybe Mr. Kenney ought to change his dial just a little bit there.”

As for provinces joining the fight on carbon taxes, Notley said it’s not unanimous.

“We’ve got for instance a conservative government in Manitoba, which has already acknowledged that the court case that Saskatchewan is planning on moving forward on is probably going to fail,” she said.

“Make no mistake, the federal government has the ability to do this, so you can make it a political plank to go to court all you want, but folks need to understand what the outcome likely is going to be.”

Manitoba did sign on to Ottawa’s climate plan back in February, and Premier Brian Pallister recently said Ford’s election wouldn’t alter his plan for a $25-per-tonne levy.

But Pallister has also said Manitoba would take Ottawa to court if the Liberals attempted to impose a higher tax and New Brunswick’s version is at odds with federal regulations.

Still, Notley says she doesn’t think she’s on a political island.

“Two premiers and that is lovely and a leader of the official opposition, but there are actually many more provinces than that across the country,” she said.

On Friday after Ford announced his intention to join the challenge, Kenney commended him.

“Whereas the Government of Saskatchewan is standing up for families across the country with a constitutional challenge against the carbon tax, Alberta’s NDP is choosing to stand with their Trudeau Liberal allies and a tax that makes it more expensive to heat homes and drive to work,” he said in a statement.

But Liberal support is critical for Notley’s re-election chances according to Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt, considering her relationship with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“If you didn’t have that partnership, you wouldn’t have seen the Trudeau government purchase the pipeline,” Bratt said, adding he agrees that Saskatchewan likely won’t win on the constitutional challenge.

With all the internal and external battles, Bratt said Notley has the pipeline, which is undeniably integral to possible re-election.

“Without Trans Mountain, she doesn’t have a hope of being re-elected, with Trans Mountain she has a hope,” he said. “There’s multiple other issues at play here, but if she hadn’t delivered that, she wouldn’t stand a chance in 2019.”