I’ve been doing some rough comparative math that I’ll share soon. Put $50 billion into one major pipeline and you may create thousands of construction jobs, but relatively few permanent operating jobs. Put the same capital over four years into hospitals, long-term care, schools, housing and neglected infrastructure in Alberta and B.C., and the preliminary numbers suggest tens of thousands of permanent jobs—while building things Canadians already desperately need. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t eventually build another pipeline. It means we should reconsider what we call “nation-building.” Moving more Canadian resources to customers in other countries has economic value, but so does strengthening Canadian communities, relieving hospital bed-block, caring for seniors and building the workforce we will need for tomorrow’s major projects. It comes back to an order of business: meet the needs we already have, build our capacity, and then build bigger.

Now, I can’t decide whether I like the last week’s tearful Danielle Smith that coddled separatists and MAGA, or today’s Danielle who appears to have bought a federal Liberal membership and became Captain Canada. Would the real Danielle please stand up! cpac.ca/headline-politics/ep…

Now that the referendum is behind us, it’s time to return to the priorities that affect Albertans every day. Healthcare, education, housing, affordability and economic stability haven’t become any less urgent while our government pursued its political agenda. Albertans deserve leadership focused on solving real problems, not creating new distractions. @ABDanielleSmith