Gerald Butts

And I think you saw it in her press conference that it's very difficult to reconcile the irreconcilable.

I abuse, but Jerry, it's your turn.

Well, I mean, if the David Cameron or, and I think this is a really interesting analogy, I hadn't thought about that, James, in the Stephen Harper example, you don't, right?

You don't take a position.

And I think that a lot of leaders in post the Charlottetown Accord in Canadian history look at

leaders of governments taking strong positions on one side or the other of a referendum and realize it can be political suicide.

It's difficult political management to maintain neutrality.

And of course, Cameron, he didn't campaign aggressively for the no side of the Brexit referendum, but he resigned immediately.

Immediately the next day when the Brexit referendum passed and everybody knew he was against it, whether that was responsible political leadership or not, he can leave up to the history books to decide.

But one thing we know is that it created a mess in the UK that they haven't recovered from since then.

And I think for the interests of everybody in Alberta, that's the real issue here.

And it's the dynamic you described at the outset.

I would quibble with some of your characterizations, as you'd imagine, James, but that doesn't really matter.

The issue is you've got a prime minister who's from the province, who's favorably disposed to the province's historical grievances, who wants a concrete action plan to ameliorate those that can be ameliorated.

and to make progress together and put all this division and rancor behind us.

And the response from the coalition, one half of the coalition that the premier is leading, is to kick sand in his face.

So I wonder what happens to that, as I call them, those strategically unpleasable people.

They're not going to go away if they lose this referendum.

The United States is not going to lose interest in...

issues that could make canada less united and strong if this referendum doesn't go through they'll just move on to the next thing and i think the um we've now opened a wound that or they have successfully opened a wound that we're going to have to decisively close sometime i mean if it were a clear uh as the as if chantal ibera were here she would say a clear