The complicated, high-risk task ahead for Alberta's new man in D.C.
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I can't help but wonder: Isn't it confusing, operating under one embassy roof, with the Albertans cozying up to Americans (for example, allowing U.S. liquor back on shelves) while other provinces threaten retaliation against Trump's latest tariff hikes for steel and aluminum?
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And worse, isn't there a risk that provincial representation in D.C. is proof — to those who care about these things — there is no unified Team Canada position that even the prime minister can wrangle?
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'The (Canadian) embassy is pretty good to us,' Nathan answers, thoughtfully, 'and I think we're pretty fair with the embassy. On most things we're 'Team Canada.'' But, he acknowledges, 'there are some issues, around energy and resource development, where we have a different view of the world.
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'The good news,' he adds, 'is most people don't know — even (American) legislators — what we're doing on a province-to-province basis, whether or not we're retaliating, whether we are in lockstep with the federal government.
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'Things are so chaotic there,' Nathan reflects, that even the Americans 'don't pretend to know what the Trump administration is going to do.' Everyone, he says, accepts that every situation is fluid and dynamic: 'That's the default position of everyone right now in D.C.'
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Nathan represented the rural constituency of Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills for a decade; his exit from partisan politics triggered a byelection to be held later this month. One of the candidates in the race is Cameron Davies, leader of the Alberta Republican Party; it openly advocates for Alberta's secession from Canada.
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Many of his former constituents are frustrated, Nathan admits, 'they want to consider separation, but at the end of the day, the overwhelming majority of those people just want Canada to work and Alberta to have a strong role similar to the role that Quebec plays in Confederation.' That's a part of the Alberta story he may need to explain more fully to people in D.C.
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Nathan's certainly not agitating for Alberta to become America's 51st state, but he is paying close attention to Carney's nation-building efforts. 'If there's no pipeline with hydrocarbons in it, be it gas or oil, in the approved list of (nation-building) projects,' he cautions, 'that will have significant impact on how Albertans feel about national unity.'
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Americans, too, are watching Canada's new prime minister, and see him clearly as the guy in charge of negotiating a new bilateral economic and security pact with Trump, Nathan says. But some are asking: 'Which Carney is going to govern: the climate change advocate or the world banker?'
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