{"id":222041,"date":"2019-07-08T19:54:35","date_gmt":"2019-07-08T23:54:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=222041"},"modified":"2019-07-09T02:49:34","modified_gmt":"2019-07-09T06:49:34","slug":"like-minded-premiers-flip-pancakes-talk-politics-on-calgary-stampede-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2019\/07\/08\/like-minded-premiers-flip-pancakes-talk-politics-on-calgary-stampede-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;Like-minded&#8217; premiers flip pancakes, talk politics on Calgary Stampede visit"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">What a great time this morning welcoming thousands of people and white-hatting fellow Premiers <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PremierScottMoe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@PremierScottMoe<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BlaineHiggs?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@BlaineHiggs<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/fordnation?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@fordnation<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nwtpremier?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@nwtpremier<\/a> at the Premier\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Stampede2019?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Stampede2019<\/a> breakfast.<\/p>\n<p>Looking forward to discussions today on how our provinces can be partners in prosperity! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ulK4kYtYie\">pic.twitter.com\/ulK4kYtYie<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Jason Kenney (@jkenney) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jkenney\/status\/1148267658237771776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 8, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>CALGARY \u2014 Five premiers with similar grievances against Ottawa gathered Monday for an informal confab in Calgary, where they shared notes ahead of this week&#8217;s first ministers&#8217; meeting and took in some Stampede festivities.<\/p>\n<p>Alberta Premier Jason Kenney hosted counterparts from Ontario, Saskatchewan, New Brunswick and the Northwest Territories during Calgary&#8217;s 10-day celebration of cowboy culture, which sees a parade of politicians flip pancakes and shmooz crowds every year.<\/p>\n<p>All lead conservative parties with the exception of Bob McLeod of the Northwest Territories, where there is a consensus system.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was just a brief and fairly informal get-together of some like-minded premiers to talk about jobs, growth and prosperity,\u201d Kenney said.<\/p>\n<p>He said they discussed hurdles in getting Canadian resources to market, as well as their opposition to federal bills overhauling resource reviews and banning oil tankers from the northern B.C. coast.<\/p>\n<p>Other premiers with similar concerns were invited, but some had scheduling conflicts, Kenney added.<\/p>\n<p>Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, who will be chairing the Council of the Federation meeting in Saskatoon, said the Calgary meeting was not meant to be partisan.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis isn&#8217;t an ideological table that we&#8217;re sitting at,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a table of mutual interest on how we can continue to create wealth in the communities we represent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ontario&#8217;s Doug Ford, however, took shots at his province&#8217;s previous Liberal government, touted his government&#8217;s own tax-cutting and regulation slashing and revelled in the growing number of provincial legislatures now run by right-wing parties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the first opportunity this country has ever seen in recent memory that from coast to coast, from the east to the west, we have like-minded premiers \u2014 like-minded premiers that want their provinces to thrive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou&#8217;ve seen a clean sweep almost right across this country \u2014 blue, blue, blue, blue \u2014 every single election.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in the day, the visiting premiers were given white cowboy hats, a Calgary honour bestowed on royalty and other dignitaries, and western belt buckles.<\/p>\n<p>They flipped and served up pancakes for a large, mostly friendly crowd at Kenney&#8217;s first premier&#8217;s Stampede breakfast since his United Conservative party swept to power.<\/p>\n<p>Four of the premiers at the meeting also share common cause over fighting Ottawa&#8217;s carbon tax.<\/p>\n<p>New Brunswick&#8217;s Blaine Higgs said neither he nor his colleagues deny climate is changing dramatically, but that he thinks innovation, not taxing people more, is the way to get carbon emissions down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIs the climate going to improve next year if we raise the carbon tax? No, it&#8217;s not going to change. It took a long time to get here,\u201d said Higgs.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut all of a sudden there&#8217;s this will by the current (federal) government to just tax people more and think it&#8217;ll get better because everyone will feel like, &#8216;I&#8217;m paying a guilty tax here.\u201d&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The Northwest Territories government has set out a carbon pricing plan that meets Ottawa&#8217;s criteria, introducing a $20 per tonne tax effective Sept. 1 that would gradually increase to $50.<\/p>\n<p>McLeod said climate change is affecting the North the most, yet people who live there contribute the least emissions.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour lifestyle affects us,\u201d he said of southern Canadians.<\/p>\n<p>But he said he also shares his colleagues&#8217; concerns over the well-being of the oil and gas industry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know that if the energy industry in Canada doesn&#8217;t recover, we&#8217;re going to be in trouble. So we are working with all of our southern provinces to move ahead,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What a great time this morning welcoming thousands of people and white-hatting fellow Premiers @PremierScottMoe @BlaineHiggs @fordnation @nwtpremier at the &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":222045,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,54365,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-instagram","category-news","mauthors-lauren-krugel","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222041"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222041\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":222173,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222041\/revisions\/222173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/222045"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}