With a federal election mere months away, conservatives are counting the blue eggs in their basket. As of Wednesday morning, they have five. PEI has an election coming on May 16 that is said to be a three-way race between the Green Party at 35%, PCs at 32% and Liberals with 29%. Being they are just under a month away from E-Day, it will be worth checking in again.

Some have pondered aloud that the conservative agenda aims to amend the constitution which would need 50% of Canada’s population (the current 5 manage that) and 7 of 10 provinces on board; that’s why we’re keeping track. 

Conservative politicians have been trying to woo Quebec Premier Francois Legault since his win in October. However, when Legault announced there was no “social acceptability” for oil in Quebec just last December, a number of people, notably the Leader of the Official Opposition, the former Leader of the Official Opposition, Rick Bell, Licia Corbella, Danielle Smith, and former PC cabinet minister Ted Morton, all came out in defense of Alberta. 

Legault said more than half the oil Quebec uses comes from the west in Enbridge’s pipeline but he did express interest in a pipeline carrying LNG. Surprisingly, Legault reiterated his previous statement from December that there is “no social acceptability” for another pipeline.

One might wonder if Legault is simply beginning a game of chicken with the BC government since there has been nary a peep from the new Alberta government nor the usual suspects (see above) on the latest denouncement of Alberta oil. Perhaps Legault is onside with Kenney, at least to pressure Horgan and B.C.; because if B.C. would like to sell LNG to Quebec, they might need to build or, *gasp*, expand a pipeline; talk about your just desserts.

All in all, it looks as though Kenney’s first few days in government have been a success. As my favourite conservative cheerleader Cory Morgan pointed out, no minority groups have been oppressed yet either. 

Speaking of which, John Carpay of UCP and “pride flags and swastikas” fame announced today in the Post Millennial that he would begin fighting Bill 10 since the decision to delete Bill 24 apparently wasn’t good enough for the religious folks who line JCCF’s coffers.

Now Kenney made a promise to kill Bill 24 at an event in Brooks last October but he also made numerous promises to keep Bill 10. At this time, I am undecided if this is going to test the Premier-designate or if it’s just some political theatre to offer him an opportunity to “fight” for Bill 10.

To be honest, if it were the latter, then kudos to him because he needs to build bridges in this province and I’m not about to condemn him for that. If it’s the former, however, we will see whether Kenney can keep the unity going or if the special interest groups elected more candidates than Kenney did. 

This post contains both fact and opinion. 

Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean

Contact: [email protected]

Twitter: @Mitchell_AB for all the commentary @thisweekinAB for posts