The newly elected leader of the BC Liberal Party was in the Okanagan Friday meeting with his caucus.
But Andrew Wilkinson also found time to visit a local winery where he offered words of advice to Premier John Horgan to help solve the trade dispute between B.C. and Alberta.
“It’s high time for John Horgan to swallow his pride, show some leadership, get on a plane to Edmonton and solve this problem,” Wilkinson said.
Speaking at Sandhill Winery in Kelowna, Wilkinson condemned Horgan for starting what he calls “a silly schoolyard squabble.”
The dispute between the two provinces began when Horgan announced B.C. is considering the restriction of diluted bitumen shipments.
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley retaliated by imposing an immediate ban on the import of B.C wine.
Wilkinson, a trained lawyer, said the pipeline is a federally-approved project and hindering its expansion may not end well for B.C.
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“That is probably going to lead to a constitutional challenge in the courts in which B.C. will probably lose,” he said.
The B.C Wine Institute has said the ban has catastrophic consequences for B.C. with 25 per cent of all B.C. wine production being sold in Alberta.
In 2017, Alberta bought about $70 million worth of B.C wine.
But the leader of the BC Green Party sees a silver lining in all of this.
“I’m convinced this will have an opposite effect,” Andrew Weaver said.
Weaver was also in the Okanagan Friday, lending support to the Green Party candidate running in the byelection in the riding of Kelowna West.
He took time to visit Volcanic Hills Winery where he told Global News that with B.C. wine now thrust into the spotlight, it may actually be good for business.
“In Quebec, in New Brunswick and even in Ontario and places across Canada, they are starting campaigns to buy B.C. wine,” Weaver said. “This is an issue that has attention all over the place and it’s bringing B.C. wine advertising across Canada.”
Weaver said he stands behind Horgan’s pipeline policy and his quest for more information on the risks of an oil spill.
“We don’t know how to clean up a spill and it is certainly within his jurisdictional right to regulate that, which is crossing his province,” Weaver said.
But Wilkinson said the project was approved by former premier Christy Clark only after receiving federal money to develop world-class spill response measures.
“We got one and a half billion dollars from Ottawa as part and parcel of the federal approval of the pipeline, Wilkinson said. “The money is there to make sure we have the spill protection we need.”
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