Pierre Poilievre still can’t read the room. The Alberta separation referendum is an opportunity for the leader of the official Opposition to stand up for Canada, speak out against the politics of division and show voters across the country that he’s a leader they can trust with their country. Instead, he chose to remind them why they haven’t done that yet — and probably never will. 

His big pitch to voters, one he delivered in a speech in Calgary yesterday, is a continuation of the same message he’s been sending for years now: Blame Ottawa. “We do not need a different country, Alberta,” he said. “We need different government policies in Ottawa.” Those policies just happen to be the same ones he — and, it’s worth noting, the separatists — have been demanding all along: no climate policies, a blank cheque for the oil and gas industry and more control for Alberta over things like immigration. As if to underscore the absurdity of his position, Poilievre also called — again — for the industrial carbon tax to be repealed. 

As former Alberta environment minister Shannon Phillips said on social media, “this is a moment that calls for a lot more than sounding petty, repetitive and small.” But petty, repetitive and small-minded politics are Poilievre’s stock-in-trade, and he clearly has no intention of branching out into any new product lines. And so, rather than trying to help put out the political fire that threatens to burn down his........

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