Playing on Albertans’ economic insecurities and feelings of alienation clearly produces a short-term political payoff. It was very effective for the UCP’s 2019 election campaign, in part because the party could link Rachel Notley directly to Justin Trudeau, given the Notley government’s choice to work collaboratively with the federal government.
This anger and alienation will likely continue to be activated during the 2019 federal election campaign, both by Kenney and by the Conservative Party of Canada’s campaign.
The difficulty is that, once activated, these emotions cannot be easily dissipated. This should temper assumptions that once western premiers like Kenney can work with a prime minister of the same bent, like Andrew Scheer,
equalization will cease to be an issue. The Albertans who think that other parts of Canada get looked after first, before Alberta, regardless of who’s in government, are the same demographic group as those who are most likely to be angry and alienated. While partisanship may do some work to blunt the anger of these voters – already, some appear to accept Kenney’s claims that the federal carbon tax is “better” than the provincial version and that
Bill C-69 (with the Senate’s amendments) is now acceptable – it is plausible that they may turn on Kenney if
their economic expectations continue to go unmet, regardless of who is prime minister. Worse, if the Alberta government loses the federal government as a punching bag while boom-time oil and gas jobs remain elusive, Kenney could be accused of “
misguided diplomacy” as easily as Notley was.