How in the hell is a tougher tact going to work any better?
Do you think Trudeau still would have bought the pipeline to appease an Alberta premier who was totally combative? Do you think Trudeau woke up one day and just decided to pull out the charge card? That transaction would have taken months to negotiate, draw up, and vet. It doesn't take a genius to imagine that Notley's backdowns were likely preceded by a message from Trudeau "if you can play a little nicer with your brother, I'll buy you a nice toy".
You guys wanted Notley to push her chips all-in with a terrible hand. There would have been a slim chance of hitting the nuts, but the far more likely outcome would have been leaving the table altogether. To whatever extent we stayed in the game, our future prospects would be bleak, as the other players just wouldn't bother playing with us.
We can certainly fault Notley for creating uncertainty. With a less measured and strategic approach we could be pretty damn certain that the pipeline was dead
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