Carney’s overall goal of backing “nation-building projects” to help head off the effects of Donald Trump’s unjustified and illegal tariffs is good. But the devil is in the details.

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Justin Trudeau’s cabinet often reminded me of a bumbling high school grad committee — earnest and idealistic, but inexperienced about how to get anything done. (My apologies to actual grad committees.)

That’s a noticeable difference with Mark Carney’s cabinet. There appear to be at least a few real grownups on Carney’s roster, including the PM himself.

That makes Carney and his cabinet potentially more dangerous to Alberta. In those departments headed by a capable minister, there’s a serious chance they might actually follow through on their promises. And the Liberals’ promises, as outlined in their campaign platform, are often variations on Justin Trudeau’s themes. Competent people with bad ideas.

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For 10 years, Trudeau’s collection of ideologues, activists and “green” preachers did a lot of virtue signalling and woke pontificating, but often didn’t follow through with implementation. They assumed their good intentions and moral superiority were enough to translate fancy notions into real-world action.

For instance, by one calculation, the Liberals under Trudeau have promised nearly $13 billion in assistance to Ukraine since the Russian invasion but so far have managed to deliver not quite one-quarter of that amount.

The Carney cabinet, at least the capable ones (not the Trudeau retreads), may know how to move between conception and application.

That’s what made Monday’s summit in Saskatoon between Carney and the provincial and territorial ministers so important. Real projects and policies might come out of the discussions.

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