Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenney is accusing the Bloc Québécois leader of ingratitude and “advocating for Putin’s Russia”, following some simplistic comments about Prairie province’s environmental footprint.
Kenney and the bloc leader Yves-François Blanchet exchanged scathing remarks through the media on Wednesday following Alberta’s recent referendum on equalization.
The province last week released results showing that 61.7 percent of Albertans who voted in the referendum said they would prefer to end equalization, the practice of distributing taxes collected by the federal government to ensure a level equitable services throughout the country.
Kenney called the vote a “strong mandate” and said the next step should be a constitutional negotiation with the federal government, citing the precedent of the Quebec sovereignty referendums.
But if he sought an endorsement from Quebec, he instead received a reprimand from the leader of the Federal Bloc of Quebec.
“We propose the green equalization, according to which we calculate the average emissions of a jurisdiction in Canada,” Blanchet reflected to reporters in Ottawa on Wednesday.
“Those who are above this estimate, say Alberta, pay. And those who are below this average level get the money because they do well in terms of climate change. “
Kenney was visibly upset with Blanchet when asked to respond to the leader’s comments at a news conference in Alberta later that day.
Kenney called the Bloc a “fringe” party and said Blanchet was being ungrateful to Quebec’s share of the compensation payments, some of which came from Alberta tax dollars.
“I think this is a typical provocation from Mr. Blanchet, who loves to attack Alberta,” Kenney said.
“It would be nice if, for once, I expressed a modicum of gratitude to Albertans for generating tens of millions of dollars for Quebecers.”
Kenney also said the federal leader was “effectively advocating for the dictatorships of OPEC and Vladimir Putin’s Russia,” who would be the beneficiaries, Kenney said, of a weakened power production program in Alberta.
Reference-www.thestar.com