Former you-name-it Norman Spector (@nspector4) points out a glaring omission in my partial list of pundits who inveighed against BC Premier Christy Clark's demand for a share of profits from the Northern Gateway pipeline, while mostly ignoring Quebec's brazen extortion of Newfoundland hydro exports. Stephen Maher, late of the Halifax Chronicle-Herald, and now typing for the Postmedia chain, had a terrific column on the dispute last weekend, one that places the Quebec-Newfoundland precedent front-and-center. The nub: History suggests...

It would be an exaggeration to say the right wing voices who dominate Canadian media commentary have risen in unison to condemn BC's pitch for a share of Northern Gateway pipeline spoils, but the clamor has certainly been one-sided. BC Premier Christy Clark's "attitude," wrote Kelly McParland, "is disastrous for Canada." John Ibbitson called Clark's demands "dangerous," and urged Prime Minister Harper to step in. Rex Murphy bemoaned the premiers' declining "intellectual and emotional connection to the national understanding." Andrew Coyne called it "extortion." Rob Russo told CBC Radio the fabric of the nation was at stake. A Globe and Mail...

Andrew Coyne thinks BC Premier Gordon Campbell's embrace of a "real" carbon tax (i.e., one in which every dollar of income raised by taxing carbon was returned in reduced income taxes) may have won him the election. He hopes it will serve as a template for a new conservative coalition.
Others have noted the discomfort Campbell’s embrace of the carbon tax caused the NDP, under attack throughout the campaign by its traditional environmentalist allies. Less commented upon was the degree to which he was able to draw those kinds of voters to his own party. Simply put, Campbell has reinvented the conservative coalition.