It’s still unclear what the purpose was of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s visit to Calgary last week. Yes, there was a “new” announcement about the “new” total of 1.3 million seniors now signed up for the dental care program, but it’s unclear why our city needed to be the venue for that. Will Trudeau return to announce the 1.4-million milestone?

But while the trip may have been more of a photo op or some early campaigning, the prime minister inadvertently helped provide some clarity around an important matter, and helped to vindicate a much-maligned position of the Alberta government.

No sooner had the ink dried on the Liberal-NDP agreement on national pharmacare, the Alberta government made it clear it would likely “opt out” of the program. So it should hardly have been a surprise that pharmacare would come up in a meeting between the prime minister and Premier Danielle Smith.

However, whereas it had appeared that we were destined for yet another........

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