At first reading Monday, the breach between New Democratic Party leader John Horgan and his mentor, former premier and party leader Dan Miller seemed fundamental.
There was Miller breaking openly with Horgan on twinning of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline through British Columbia.
"The pipeline is, in my view, good for our province and our country," wrote Miller in an opinion piece in The Vancouver Sun. "It embodies the values that have helped Canada become the envy of the world -- a country where prosperity is widely shared across a vast and varied landscape."
Moreover, the former MLA for Prince Rupert went on to say, "we can't deny landlocked provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan the opportunity to export their resources."
All in all, the Miller pitch might have been lifted directly from the talking points that Alberta Premier Rachel Notley brought with her last week when she visited B.C. to begin the selling job on the project.
Indeed, Miller closed with a glowing tribute to the leader of his party in Alberta: "She has recognized that, with her climate leadership plan, you can develop a hydrocarbon resource for the benefit of working people without degrading the environment. As a proud New Democrat, I think that's a vision worth fighting for."
This from the former pulp mill worker and 50-year veteran of the B.C. NDP who hails from the same working class, pro-resource development wing of the party as Horgan and who, three years ago, helped talk him into coming off the sidelines to seek the leadership.
What about it? Horgan was asked Monday at the outset of a previously scheduled year-end interview with Postmedia News.
"The good news is he's still voting for me," replied Horgan, seizing on the silver-lining second paragraph of Miller's piece in the paper.
"In no way does this change my vote," Miller had written. "Horgan will make an excellent premier, one who is focused on the needs of working families, and I look forward to casting my ballot for him in May."
Besides, Horgan noted, public policy disagreements have been standard fare in the party throughout its existence.
"Do we disagree on stuff? Of course we do. It is B.C. first of all. And the NDP has always been a coalition. But at the end of the day, we come together and try and win elections."
That said, he proceeded to set out how Miller had gone astray on the issue of whether a John-Horgan-led B.C. NDP government would be within its rights to close the coast to Alberta bitumen.
"If they were adding more value to this absolutely raw, the rawest of raw resources, there might be a better argument to make there. But they are exporting jobs and doing it at our expense," the NDP leader said.
"I believe Dan's wrong on this. B.C., within Confederation, has every right to dictate what goes through its ports. If the federal government wants to use the notwithstanding clause to do that, then we'll take that step when it comes. But I absolutely believe that."
Horgan's backhanded suggestion that he might be more open if the bitumen were high-graded to a more value-added product had me thinking back to something he said after meeting with Premier Notley last week.
She argued the federal government's $1.5 billion ocean protection plan would make the coast safer for tanker traffic.
He replied that none of those protective measures were in place yet.
"Until such time I am confident of that," Horgan told the CBC, "that I and British Columbians are confident of that, I don't see that sell job or any other sell job working."
Was Horgan leaving the door open a crack to supporting the pipeline, I asked him Monday.
He greeted the question with a laugh, not about to be drawn into hypotheticals. "I don't believe there are sufficient safeguards in place today to protect our marine environment," replied the NDP leader.
And if they were to be put in place?
"They are not today," said Horgan, slamming the door on the invitation to speculate.
Still it sounded a bit like his position on the hydroelectric dam under construction at Site C on the Peace River, which is another project that Miller has publicly endorsed.
For all the current NDP leader's criticism of Site C as ill-advised, unneeded and sure to be over budget, he nevertheless does not say he would kill it outright.
"That's right," he reiterated Monday. He would instead examine the contracts for the multi-billion dollar project as a prelude to sending it for review to the independent B.C. Utilities Commission.
"I am not going to make a decision until I have all of the facts," said Horgan. "I need to know what the contracts say. I need to know what flexibility we have to move on that."
If the terms are as locked-in as some observers suspect, he might discover the Liberals have left him little room to move.
Sheer speculation of course, same as with the insinuation that a Premier Horgan might take a different view of the Trans Mountain Pipeline were the product upgraded or the coast better protected.
But perhaps those possibilities explain why Horgan's old friend Miller continues to entertain thoughts of voting for him, never mind how they disagree publicly about the dam and the pipeline.
