Prime Minister Mark Carney came dangerously close to handing British Columbia a de facto veto over a national pipeline and calling it “co-operative federalism.”

Canada urgently needs a new oil pipeline from Alberta to the West Coast. This pipeline would play a crucial role in diversifying Canada’s economy by giving Canada access to Asian buyers instead of relying almost entirely on the United States, where Alberta crude often sells at a discounted price compared with global markets.

For months, the governments of Alberta and Ottawa engaged in intensive negotiations to draft a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between Alberta’s UCP government and Carney’s Liberals, beginning to clear the way for the construction of a pipeline to Canada’s west coast.

Alberta, for its part, was willing to

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