From the federal to provincial levels, negativity is the prevailing political trend

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Former prime minister Jean Chrétien was recently in Ottawa to be feted on the occasion of his 90th birthday.

Mr. Chrétien remains as sharp as ever, offering his views on the state of the world in speeches and media interviews. One of those stops was with CTV’s Vassy Kapelos, who had the former PM on her show Question Period and wanted to know if there was still such a thing as a “noble politician.”

In other words, someone in the game for the right reasons, who might fight his or her political opponent with vigour and resolve, but at the day’s end could set aside partisan differences and have a beer and talk life.

Mr. Chrétien wasn’t so certain. He agreed former U.S. president Donald Trump’s anything-goes style of politics had migrated north. He said he didn’t understand the constant diminishment of this country by our politicians, citing statistics he said made Canada the envy of the world.

“So you don’t think Canada is broken?” Ms. Kapelos said.

“No,” Mr. Chrétien replied, before adding that there were millions of people around the globe who would give anything to live with our problems.

He’s right.

Yet, you wouldn’t know it by the state of our politics, which have become fiercely hostile, often petty and above all, deeply divisive. It has had a destabilizing effect on the country, which seems particularly fractious at the moment. The fact is, there are three politicians largely contributing to this: federal Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

In some respects, you can accept the partisan sniping coming from Mr. Poilievre. He’s an Opposition leader who is trying to do as much damage to his primary political opponent – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberals – as he can ahead of the next election. Some of his tactics have been over the top, and horribly exploitive, but you could make the case at least that he’s got a reason for being so negative. Mr. Moe and Ms. Smith do not.

They may have a visceral distaste for liberal ideology, but that shouldn’t be the impetus for the near-daily attacks on Mr. Trudeau they indulge in.

When Alberta was experiencing power shortages this weekend and needed help, Saskatchewan was there. But Mr. Moe couldn’t resist saying that the power Saskatchewan supplied came from natural gas and coal-fired plants that “the Trudeau government is telling us to shut down (which we won’t),” the Premier said on X.

It was the government of former Conservative prime minister Stephen Harper that introduced regulations that began shutting down coal-fired plants in Canada.

Ms. Smith, meantime, recently put out a video – another one – in which she spends all her time talking about how terrible Mr. Trudeau and the Liberals are, and how they’re trying to not just wreck Alberta, but the country as well.

“Is Canada broken?” she begins. Seems like there’s been a lot of talk along these lines lately, she says, not mentioning the name of Mr. Poilievre, who released a video of his own positing this very question.

In her video, Ms. Smith went on about how all Ottawa did was create problems, not solve them. She said the federal government’s proposed electricity regulators were going to thrust “many Canadians into the dark” – deeply ironic given that it was Alberta that had to declare an energy emergency on the weekend and appeal to citizens to reduce their consumption while also putting out a call for help. B.C. also stepped up but didn’t feel the need to brag about it, like Mr. Moe, or take any gratuitous cheap shots at Ottawa.

Much of what Ms. Smith had to say in her video was either a gross exaggeration or just wrong and misleading. It prompted federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to reply on X, with a series of statements that addressed most of the Alberta Premier’s rant.

This is not to say that Mr. Trudeau’s government doesn’t deserve criticism for some of its policies. Of course it does. Fair criticism is fair. Criticism that is relentless and so obviously self-serving, however, is something else entirely.

There have been Canadian premiers who have been critical of Ottawa in the past, including people like Ralph Klein of Alberta. But it wasn’t their raison d’être. It wasn’t a political tactic that was to be used daily, regardless of what it did to the state of the country.

What we’re seeing today is just sad. Because some of those elected to lead us, elected to help build a better country, haven’t the slightest interest in doing that. They’re more interested in tearing it down.