A B.C. resort is attempting to woo its neighbours to the east despite a growing pipeline feud between the two provinces.
Predator Ridge, located in the Okanagan, is trying to lure travellers from Alberta with a simple message: "We love Alberta."
Online and on billboards, the latest campaign is meant to encourage tourists to cross the provincial border and spend some time in B.C.'s Interior.
Using the URL WeLoveAlberta.com, the campaign called "Our Love Is Real" offers a third night free when travellers book two nights before June 15.
"As a bonus, Alberta residents will receive a bottle of our Commange Lanata wine at check-in!" the website says.
It also features a list of eight things "every Albertan needs to know" about the resort – including a percentage of home sales to Albertans, and the number of direct flights between Alberta hubs and Kelowna.
"We are outside of the BC Speculation Tax region of the Okanagan, meaning our friends from Alberta don't pay extra to own at Predator Ridge!" the website says.
"'Our Love Is Real' kind of said it all for us in terms of the way we honestly feel," Predator Ridge's Brad Pelletier told CTV News Edmonton Monday.
He said the business relies heavily on Alberta.
"Albertans have made up close to 40 per cent of our residential buyers," he said. The resort sees about 25,000 visitors from that province each year.
But last year, there was a drop in business that Pelletier attributes to pipeline politics.
"It's been kind of the elephant in the room and we're like, 'Don't blame us. We're not happy by the measures taken by our government here,'" he said.
He hopes the campaign will turn things around, and says he's already received a lot of positive feedback.
The launch came at a time where tensions are high between the provinces.
Albertans went to the polls late last month to elect Premier Jason Kenney, who campaigned on a promise to "turn off the taps" if B.C. stalls progress on the expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, which begins near Edmonton and ends in Burnaby.
If put in use, Bill 12 would allow the Alberta government to restrict the flow of oil and gas products to British Columbia.
A short time later, B.C. Premier John Horgan announced that his province was taking Alberta to court over the law Kenney mentioned, claiming it's unconstitutional.
He argued the province should have a say in what flows through it, in the interests of protecting B.C.'s marine environment.
The announcement of legal action came the same day as Horgan suggested more gas could be sent through the Trans Mountain pipeline to help ease B.C.'s climbing gas prices.
