You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.

How’s this for a win-win deal? Alberta lets Premier David Eby, his B.C. NDP government and radical, anti-development First Nations group live in their little “green” bubble west of the Rockies while Alberta finds an investor or investors to build a pipeline to the West Coast through Montana, Idaho and Washington state.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Earlier this week, that’s what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith suggested could happen if B.C. and First Nations insist on blocking a second oil pipeline from Alberta to the coast.

Alberta would prefer to ship to northern B.C. You know, national pride and all that. Plus the route is shorter, so therefore cheaper.

Get the latest headlines, breaking news and columns.

By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Headline News will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

Interested in more newsletters? Browse here.

But if Alberta can get its oil to the West Coast, and from there on to the booming markets of Asia, what does it matter if that oil is loaded onto tankers in Prince Rupert, B.C., Longview, Wash., or some other Pacific Northwest terminal?

Eby has been adamantly against a second pipeline. He has insisted he will do what he can to stop a line to northern B.C. and he will stand in the way of any attempt to lift the Trudeau-era ban on seagoing tanker shipments along B.C.’s northern coast.

Eby has allowed that a second pipeline to the existing tanker terminal in Burnaby might be possible. He’ll think about it.

But let’s save him the trouble of racking his brain over such a compromise. Let’s tell him right now he can have his little eco-Xanadu on the Left Coast, with slowed development and no added resource........

© Edmonton Journal