Bell: Gag! Kenney government disappointed as Trudeau wins again

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The proof is in the pudding and the pudding … well … let’s just say it doesn’t taste like butterscotch.

And the smell in the air isn’t the latest perfume from Paris.

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Bell: Gag! Kenney government disappointed as Trudeau wins again Back to video

They ask for a buck. They get 20 cents. To be more exact, 21 cents on the dollar.

Premier Jason Kenney makes a big splash going to Ottawa in the hopes of getting $5.9 billion in these tough times.

Let’s be clear to those who don’t know how Canada works.

Alberta helps make Canada work. Alberta gives in the neighbourhood of $20 billion a year more to Ottawa than it gets back.

Kenney wants a little coming this way with Alberta hurting.

The Trudeau people tell the premier to wait. He tells us to wait. We wait and wait.

On Monday, we hear the news. Alberta will get $1.25 billion, 21 cents on the dollar.

Chump change.

The Kenney government is disappointed. They’re very disappointed. They’re extremely disappointed.

They’re not disappointed enough to call a press conference or issue a press release or even get somebody in their United Conservative ranks to ask a question in the legislature.

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No, they’re not disappointed enough for Kenney to speak. They’re not disappointed enough to make it crystal clear Alberta is pissed off.

Maybe Kenney and his we-must-be-nice-to-Trudeau brain trust are mulling over the numbers of an Angus Reid poll showing Kenney is one up from the bottom among Canada’s premiers with 40% approval, down 14 points in the last year and 21 points since the honeymoon.

Could some of this slide in popularity be because Kenney has lost the mojo from last year’s election campaign. You remember the ballot battle when Kenney said it was all about jobs, the economy, pipelines, the carbon tax and … guess the last one.

Trudeau.

We’re a solar system away from the days when Kenney thought the prime minister had the political depth of a finger bowl and couldn’t read a briefing note longer than a cocktail napkin.

Anyway, Travis Toews, Kenney’s budget boss, has a statement available for those who ask.

It says he’s extremely disappointed. It says the 21 cents on the dollar falls well short.

“While Ottawa has provided all provinces and territories with a range of supports during the COVID-19 pandemic this adjustment does not address long-standing unfairness and fails to recognize or reciprocate the support Alberta has provided to the rest of Confederation in past decades,” reads the statement.

You can take a breath now.

For Alberta not getting a little of its own back “while the country continued to benefit from Alberta’s large net fiscal contributions constitutes a serious failure of Canadian fiscal federalism.”

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A serious failure of Canadian fiscal federalism. You don’t say.

Quite a mouthful but you can’t imagine Trudeau and his pals losing a second of sleep over that high falutin’ talking point.

Toews does talk to legislature reporters for four minutes on the subject.

You have to wonder. This flying under the radar can’t just be about not ruffling Trudeau’s feathers, not burning bridges or upsetting the PM’s apple cart.

It just can’t be another textbook example of beggar-bowl diplomacy.

Surely, no one sees the Alberta premier’s job as making sure the prime minister’s feelings aren’t hurt.

Maybe it’s more like when the players from the losing team don’t want to spend a lot of time jawing with the newshounds about their defeat.

Especially when they lose a lot of games.

And 21 cents on the dollar. That’s like a 5-1 loss. Not even close.

So Alberta, often seen as all talk and no walk, big hat and no cattle, all bark and no bite, now doesn’t even have the bark.

It’s really not even much of a meow.

We live in strange times.

How many times must this story be written?

How many times will we say we’re standing up to Trudeau and he better watch his step only to end up being knocked down one more time?

Will the day come when Alberta is taken seriously and not be brushed off as a colony important only because it ships billions every year to others in Canada?

What’s the next move to get the other 79 cents on the dollar?

Toews says Alberta will fight on. He says the other provinces still back Alberta. He admits what Trudeau is sending our way was a very small measure.

“We’re not done with this,” says Kenney’s budget boss.

The man no doubt believes what he’s saying but, on a day like today, it just rings so hollow.

rbell@postmedia.com