Federal elections can often put provincial premiers in tricky situations.
Openly putting your money behind a particular party can be risky. More often, premiers take a muted stand publicly but privately encourage supporters to get out and campaign on behalf of the federal group most closely aligned ideologically with their own party.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall is likely most comfortable with the policies of the federal Conservative Party, but he's not going to tell that to any reporters. On the other hand, he certainly won't stop supporters of his Saskatchewan Party from helping the Tories out in his province.
In Ontario, Dalton McGuinty's Liberals might be hoping privately for a Tory win in the belief it could help their own electoral fate in the next provincial election.
A federal election could, however, be more fraught for new B.C. Premier Christy Clark.
Ms. Clark's federal Liberal connections run deep. She worked as a staffer for the Grits in Ottawa before embarking on a political career of her own. Her ex-husband Mark Marissen has been an influential federal Liberal organizer for years. But those links can be problematic when you are suddenly the head of a political party that is a coalition of Liberals and Conservatives.
There are many people on the right wing of the B.C. Liberal Party who are deeply suspicious of Ms. Clark's political leanings. It wouldn't take much for those monitoring the new Premier to be convinced that her celebrated Liberal allegiances make it impossible for her to cater to the party's Conservative wing.
Ms. Clark is aware of these suspicions, which is why she has given Kevin Falcon, her party's Conservative standard-bearer, the important posts of Finance Minister and deputy premier. But she will have to go further than that to keep the red-meat-eating members of her party happy. And the last thing she wants is to annoy anyone by becoming a cheerleader for Michael Ignatieff in B.C.
My guess is Ms. Clark won't even wear her trademark red scarf in public during the federal election, least she risk offending those in her party more inclined to wear blue.