Braid: Major decisions on Kenney critics are looming for the UCP

At the legislature, MLAs understand that any criticism of Premier Jason Kenney or the government will freeze them out of committees and legislature debates or statements.

Author of the article:

Don Braid  •  Calgary Herald

Publishing date:

Dec 03, 2021  •  

Premier Jason Kenney in Edmonton on Monday, Nov. 15, 2021. PHOTO BY DAVID BLOOM /Postmedia

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The usually rambunctious UCP has fallen oddly silent since the recent party convention in Calgary.

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But it doesn’t mean there’s a peace treaty.

At the legislature, MLAs understand that any criticism of Premier Jason Kenney or the government will freeze them out of committees and legislature debates or statements.

The most vocal recent critics, MLAs Leela Aheer from Chestermere-Strathmore and Airdrie-Cochrane member Peter Guthrie, seem to be biding their time, waiting to see what happens in the next few weeks.

Plenty is happening already.

There’s a fierce background battle over the UCP nomination in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, where former Wildrose Leader Brian Jean is up against Joshua Gogo, who has no critical word for Kenney.

The riding is open because UCP member Laila Goodridge resigned to run successfully for the federal Conservatives.

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Laila Goodridge. File photo

Jean has said that he’ll return to the legislature to give Kenney’s opponents some spine. He wants the premier to resign.

Kenney says he will endorse Jean “100 per cent” if party members choose him as a candidate.

That’s easy to say, because Kenney’s supporters have no intention of letting Jean win this nomination.

Brian Jean as an official UCP candidate would be a huge symbolic defeat for Kenney. It would imply that UCP members who want him out have a wide base in the province.

There aren’t many Canadian premiers — certainly not this one — who would tolerate a former leadership competitor in their caucus as a declared member of an internal opposition party.

And so, Kenney’s people are striving to short-circuit Jean before he gets started. Some 370 new UCP members were signed up by Gogo’s backers and submitted by the final cutoff date.

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Jean’s campaigners feel they have majority backing based on his long record in federal and provincial politics and based on his support for the community.

This is the setup for tense in-person voting to be held Dec. 11 in Fort McMurray, and the next day in Lac La Biche.

Brian Jean, left, shakes hands with Jason Kenney after it was announced that Kenney was elected leader of the new United Conservative Party, October 28, 2017. PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA/FILE

Predictions in a situation like this are a mug’s game. But I would say, based on Kenney’s long record of winning backroom fights, that Jean has a less-than-even chance.

Even before that nomination vote, the party itself has a major decision to make.

Next week, probably on Dec. 6 or 7, the UCP board will rule on the 22 riding resolutions demanding a leadership vote by March 1. The party can’t simply ignore this and doesn’t intend to. Demanding a leadership vote with identical resolutions by 22 or more ridings is guaranteed in the party constitution.

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“If they think they can just push this aside, they’re completely wrong,” said one participant who wants an early vote. “This would be far from over.”

The party has already agreed to a leadership review in early April as part of an annual general meeting advanced by several months.

For many dissidents, a bigger sticking point than the date is the manner of balloting.

They want a provincewide vote of all members that would have to be conducted virtually.

They also demand independent scrutiny of both the voting and the results by an outside accounting firm.

That demand is a legacy of the notorious 2017 UCP leadership contest that saw controversy over contributions, voting and the so-called kamikaze candidacy of Jeff Callaway. Mistrust lies heavy on the party to this day.

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Former UCP leadership candidate Jeff Callaway in 2017. PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG /Postmedia

For the party board, accepting the riding resolutions as legitimate appears to be a slam dunk — outright rejection would cause a revolt.

But the board will also say, most likely, that while the ridings can rightfully force a vote, only the elected board can set the date or the rules.

It’s possible the balloting might be moved into March as a concession, but this is no sure thing. The decisions haven’t yet been made.

Best guess of the outcome? Kenney wins a leadership review held with in-person voting and sails on to the next election.

At that point the UCP’s dissidents, with no formal options left, would have a choice: fade away or burst into an uprising that makes all the earlier ones look tame.

Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald

Twitter: @DonBraid

Facebook: Don Braid Politics

Brian Jean preferred as UCP leader over Jason Kenney, Danielle Smith: Leger poll

Brian Jean celebrates the yes vote during the Unity Vote at the Wildrose Special General Meeting in Red Deer Alta, on Saturday July 22, 2017. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)


Sean Amato
CTV News Edmonton
Published Dec. 3, 2021 

EDMONTON -

Albertans are more likely to vote for Brian Jean than Jason Kenney or Danielle Smith, a new Leger poll shows.

Jean has support from 18 per cent of Albertans, the premier is preferred by 15 per cent and former Wildrose leader Smith polled at 11 per cent.

A slight majority of Albertans, 51 per cent, said they would not vote for the UCP under any leader.

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"These poll results show that public mood in Alberta has shifted decisively against the United Conservative Party, most likely as a result of the way the governing party has handled the unprecedented COVID-19 crisis," said Remi Courcelles from Solstice Public Affairs, the company that commissioned the poll.

"A change in leadership won’t necessarily solve all of the UCP’s problems. That being said, it would appear that a UCP led by Brian Jean would improve the party’s electoral fortunes."

Regionally, Kenney was preferred in Calgary, he and Jean are tied in Edmonton but Jean was favoured 23 per cent to 15 per cent for Kenney outside of the big cities.

Kenney has struggled in polls throughout the pandemic, with an Angus Reid survey recently pegging his popularity at 22 per cent.

The UCP tossed two MLAs who criticized Kenney, roughly 25 per cent of its constituency associations are demanding an early leadership review and the governing party has finished second in some fundraising races to the NDP.

Jean – who lost a provincial election to Rachel Notley's NDP in 2015 as leader of the Wildrose Party – has publicly asked for Kenney's resignation and said he could do a better job of leading the UCP.

"If he doesn't leave we are going to have an NDP majority," Jean said in November.

"The UCP will not be in competition. It won't be competitive in the next election. That's very concerning to me."

Jean is attempting to win a UCP nomination and a by-election to become the MLA for Fort McMurray-Lac la Biche.

Kenney has publicly questioned Jean's reliability to finish his term and his commitment to the UCP.

Smith has expressed interest in the job as well, but has not launched a campaign.

Kenney will face a UCP leadership review in April 2022, if not sooner.

The online survey was conducted between Nov. 16-29. It had a sample size of 1,000 adult Albertans. The method of polling was a non-probablity sample, so no margin of error can be associated.

‘BEST SUMMER EVER’ TAKES ITS TOLL ON JASON KENNEY AS ALBERTA PREMIER’S APPROVAL RATING TUMBLES

ALBERTA PREMIER JASON KENNEY IN A RECENT, MORE OPTIMISTIC, MOMENT

 (PHOTO: CHRIS SCHWARZ, GOVERNMENT OF ALBERTA).
Alberta Politics



DAVID CLIMENHAGA
POSTED ON OCTOBER 05, 2021, 1:28 AM

All of political Alberta was agog yesterday at the revelation 77 per cent of adult Albertans disapprove of Premier Jason Kenney’s leadership according to a recent online survey by ThinkHQ Public Affairs Inc.

The premier’s approval rating, which the Calgary-based polling company characterized as tumbling, has now reached 22 per cent, said ThinkHQ President Marc Henry, prompting the pollster to comment in the spirit of the pandemic moment that “Jason Kenney is a leader on life-support, and his prognosis is not good.”


ThinkHQ President Marc Henry (Photo: calgarycvo.org).

Indeed, the pandemic has plenty to do with it. “There is no doubt that COVID-19 is the origin of much of Kenney’s troubles,” Mr. Henry added, noting accurately that “in many respects, he has been the architect of his own misfortune.”

“The political gamble that was ‘The Best Summer Ever’ is now taking a punishing toll both politically for the leader and in real human costs for Albertans and the health care system,” Mr. Henry went on, to which one can only add a hearty, No Kidding!

“We have not seen a sitting premier with numbers this low in almost a decade,” Mr. Henry observed grimly on his company’s website. “Alison Redford resigned the day it was revealed her approval at the time had dropped to 18 per cent. That’s a ‘margin of error’ difference from Kenney’s results today.”

So there you have it, folks. It’s at least semi-official. Premier Kenney is now down there in Alison Redford territory and you can almost hear the whistle of the axe heading for his neck.

But at 22 per cent, I have to say I was surprised that many Albertans still approve of Mr. Kenney.

I’m not kidding. Matt Wolf and all the other United Conservative Party “issues managers” using a variety of aliases must be members of the Angus Reid Forum panel Mr. Henry used to get a number that high!

I’d bet you money the UCP’s own polling is considerably worse – at least, if they’re not so depressed they’ve stopped polling altogether.


Alberta Opposition NDP Leader and former premier Rachel Notley (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).

Indeed, a Sept. 20-27 survey by EKOS pegged support for Mr. Kenney’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic at 11 per cent.

Now, you can argue that the two polls measure apples and oranges – approval of Mr. Kenney’s overall governing (very low) and approval of his efforts on the pandemic file (even lower) – but if you ask me, at this point the two questions are all but one and the same in the minds of most Albertans.

You don’t need a pollster to tell you Mr. Kenney isn’t very popular any more. All you have to do to is join a socially distanced line up for a grocery store cashier or a bank machine almost anywhere in Alberta to hear what folks have to say about our premier – which can be characterized as deep and abiding contempt.

Mr. Kenney was never an overwhelmingly popular premier, Mr. Henry noted in his commentary on the poll, which used a 1,116-member online panel and was in the field for three days from Wednesday to Friday last week.

Well, he’s even less so now. It’s worth noting that according to ThinkHQ, 61 per cent of the respondents were in the strongly disapprove category.

Perhaps worse, from the UCP perspective, Alberta NDP Leader Rachel Notley seems to be doing much better. “Kenney’s chief political rival … has seen public appraisals of her performance notch up slightly since July, currently sitting at 50 per cent approval (32 per cent strong approval) vs. 47 per cent disapproval (39 per cent strong).”


Former Alberta Conservative premier Alison Redford (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).

And there’s no safe demographic for Mr. Kenney. City and country … Edmonton and Calgary … women and men … oldsters and young people … rich and poor … nobody much likes the guy, according to ThinkHQ.

Well, these kind of numbers add up to existential-threat territory for the UCP, so despite the fragile truce Mr. Kenney cobbled together on Sept. 22 to keep his job, various factions of the disunited party will be sharpening their knives in hopes of saving their own hides.

Unfortunately for them, what might save an MLA’s skin in vaccine-refusenik rural Alberta isn’t necessarily the same thing as what could work in vaccine-affirming Calgary.

“The UCP is an electoral creature, sewn together from two rival conservative parties primarily to unseat the NDP government,” Mr. Henry observed in his commentary. “In the face of this prolonged and punishing pandemic, the creature is tearing itself apart at the stitches.”

Indeed, it is easy to conclude that the re-animation of the Wildrose Party as a well-funded right-wing threat to the Progressive Conservatives after the 2008 provincial election has created a permanent rift in Alberta’s conservative movement never really went away.

With the NDP increasingly established in the minds of so many Albertans as the party of the sensible centre and the cautious and competent Rachel Notley still at the helm, that could be very bad news for the parties of the right.

Bell: Kenney at 22%, Alberta premier sinks in COVID quicksand

Author of the article: Rick Bell

 CALGARY SUN
Publishing date: Oct 05, 2021

Premier Jason Kenney provided an update on COVID-19 and the ongoing work to protect public health at the McDougall Centre in Calgary on Tuesday, September 28, 2021. 

PHOTO BY DARREN MAKOWICHUK/POSTMEDIA
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The nosecount is ugly.

Uglier than the previous ugly. The kind of ugly where you can’t talk your way out of the ugliness.


Back-against-the-wall ugly. Four-letter word ugly.

If the latest fresh-off-the-press poll by the well-respected ThinkHQ Public Affairs outfit is anything to go by, and it mirrors what a lot of folks are hearing these days, Jason Kenney is in more hurt than anybody who has had his job in the past and didn’t lose it.

Only 22% of Albertans show any approval for the premier. Only 6% show strong approval. Shortly before being frog-marched to the exit door former premier Alison Redford was at 18%.

Here are some numbers.

The Edmonton area? The approval for Kenney is 19%.

But watch this one. The Calgary area? The Calgary area, where the UCP romped in the last election, sits at 19% as well. Yikes.

The smaller cities? 25%. Northern Alberta? 24%.

It goes on. It’s painful.

Nowhere in Alberta does the man get more than 30%.

Men don’t like him. Women don’t like him. Young people don’t like him. Older people like him a little more but it’s so bad a little more is only one out of four of them.

It doesn’t seem to matter how much dough you make or much schooling you have, there is scant consolation in the arithmetic for a premier who refuses to take advice from those who might actually feel the pulse of the public better than he does.

You have to wonder what Kenney’s polls are telling him. Unless up is down and down is up on their graphs, the truth is the truth.

Or is Kenney convinced this is just a bump in the road, a big bump, but one day when COVID settles down he will emerge, leading his party to a wonderful victory?

No doubt there are the usual ring kissers and bootlickers bowing and scraping to the bossman, telling him what he wants to hear.

In the real world, disapproval of Kenney is quite the thing to see. You want strong disapproval of Kenney. That’s six out of 10 Albertans. STRONG disapproval.

You want to see more. Of course you do. Everybody wants a look at the trainwreck.

Among those who voted for Kenney’s United Conservative Party in the last election, only four in 10 back the premier’s performance.

NDP leader Rachel Notley has 3% more people approve of her than disapprove of her. That’s plus 3. 50% approve, 47% don’t.

Kenney is minus 55. Just 22% approve and 77% disapprove of him. One percentage point of those counted aren’t sure.

And how did it get this ugly?

The premier soldiering on and not even thinking he had to have a Plan B when his dream of the Best Summer Ever started turning into a nightmare and his government was missing in action.

This drove the nails deeper into his political coffin.

.

Premier Jason Kenney keeps a sharp eye on the prize as he shows off his pancake flipping skills at the annual Premier’s Stampede Breakfast in downtown Calgary on Monday, July 12, 2021. 

PHOTO BY GAVIN YOUNG/POSTMEDIA

There was a seven-point bump from April to July when COVID numbers were looking good and we were told we would be open for good.

Then it all came crashing down as Kenney fiddled and fumbled in the face of the virus. Approval dropped 16 points.

And let’s be honest. Even with all the promise of Best Summer Ever, Kenney still had only the backing of 38%.

The least popular premier. The least popular handling of COVID. Take a bow.

Yes, Kenney’s United Conservative Party was a marriage of convenience to defeat the NDP.

Mission accomplished.

Now the marriage shows signs of breaking apart and Kenney clings to power trying to put this Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Kenney was never real popular. But this is one hell of a fall from whatever grace he once may have enjoyed.

Can he ever come back?

“Jason Kenney is a leader on life support and his prognosis is not good,” says ThinkHQ’s Marc Henry.

“There is no doubt COVID is the origin of much of Kenney’s troubles but, in many respects, he has been the architect of his own misfortune.”

The full steam ahead Best Summer Ever gamble, the mixed messages on COVID, the man touted as a great leader but often not leading with confidence.

It is often said Kenney admires the British war prime minister Winston Churchill.

But, on this day and in this place and in this midst of this crisis, reality is confirmed.

It is an understatement to say he is no Winston Churchill.

rbell@postmedia.com

Leong: Alberta government offers unbelievable justification for COVID-19 inaction

Author of the article: Ricky Leong

CALGARY SUN
Publishing date:Oct 05, 2021 

Premier Jason Kenney speaks at the daily COVID-19 update with Alberta’s chief medical officer of health, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, on March 13, 2020. 

PHOTO BY ED KAISER /Postmedia file

Through much of the COVID-19 pandemic, Alberta officials have touted policies said to balance the need to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus against the need to promote our overall physical and mental health.

From the end of the first wave of widespread infections, provincial politicians from Premier Jason Kenney on down have made a big deal about how Alberta has been among the freest jurisdictions in the country


They’ve continually reminded us of the United Conservative government’s light hand in its attempts to keep a lid on COVID-19, and instead pushed the need for personal responsibility.

Even Alberta’s top medical official, Dr. Deena Hinshaw, would often refer to the importance of our whole health in her public remarks when asked to justify policies that sometimes seemed insufficient given the circumstances of the time.

To a degree, I understand.

It was nice to find anything resembling normalcy after the various restrictions through the first couple of waves of COVID-19.

And this year, once we started getting vaccines into people’s arms, it was a huge relief to finally worry a little less about the potential risk of being exposed to the virus and falling ill.

But now, Alberta confronts the fourth wave of COVID-19 that’s filled our hospitals and intensive-care units in a way we’ve never experienced before — and in a way that isn’t really being experienced in many other parts of the country.

This unwelcome turn of events was completely preventable, the result of the government’s continual lack of promptness in instituting useful and meaningful public health measures to minimize the spread of the coronavirus.

This will, for some, come at the expense of our general health and well-being, despite our leaders’ claims to the contrary.

The UCP government’s conspicuous absence in August, as coronavirus infections began to mount and send people to the hospital in greater numbers, was just the latest and most acute instance of their mismanagement.

Whether because of an inflexible dedication to ideology, a need to pander to a political base, a leadership vacuum, or some combination of those things, the people in charge missed the opportunity to impose even modest measures to counteract COVID-19 and prevent the world of hurt we are in now.

By the time September rolled around, the government reinstated some public health measures but insisted it would not implement a COVID-19 vaccine passport program as an extra layer of protection for non-essential businesses.

As we all know, it eventually relented and did just that — but don’t you dare call it a vaccine passport. It’s a Restrictions Exemption Program.

And the government never took the time to prepare for it, either.

Other large provinces have had fully functional proof of vaccination programs for weeks and months as part of their successful efforts to keep COVID-19 at bay.

Meanwhile, in Alberta, we went from nothing, to easily forged vaccine certificates, to QR codes with no ability to scan them.

All the while, business owners are going through the unnecessary stress of having to keep up with a government that can’t keep up with the virus.

Parents are worried about younger kids tracking COVID-19 home from school while the government isn’t tracking COVID-19 in schools at all.

People needing medical care for what would normally be urgent issues must wait as the system makes room for people who’ve become severely ill but, ultimately, wouldn’t have become sick at all had the right government policies been in place.

And the government dares to tell us their COVID-19 decisions were to preserve our mental health and general well-being?

It’s just one more excuse to add to the heap of unbelievable justifications for the government’s inaction.

rleong@postmedia.com

Jason Kenney’s Lethal Negligence
His decisions have led to hundreds of deaths. Who will hold him accountable?

Andrew Nikiforuk 1 Oct 2021 | TheTyee.ca
Tyee contributing editor Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning journalist whose books and articles focus on epidemics, the energy industry, nature and more.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney: Do his COVID-19 policies meet the test of ‘wanton or reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons’? Photo via Wikimedia.

In the last two weeks, the political decisions of the Kenney government have helped kill 192 Albertans with the Delta variant.

That’s more deaths than Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Manitoba, Ontario and the Northwest Territories combined.

In just two days last week, the Kenney government contributed to the deaths of 64 citizens in Alberta’s overwhelmed hospitals.

If the pace continues, that’s the equivalent of four Humboldt bus crashes every two days.
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In the last month, the Kenney government’s laissez-faire policies saw 307 people buried compared to 24 COVID deaths last September.

For the record, this September was the third deadliest month of a pandemic in Alberta. Worse is on its way.

Since the province lifted all public health measures (everything from contract tracing to masks and school reporting), those decisions by Kenney have led to the deaths of nearly 500 people.

Alberta, along with Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan, now own COVID-19 death rates (4.5 a day) that are three times greater than the rest of the country (1.5 a day).

Let me describe for a moment what this process looks like in graphic terms.

It begins with struggling for air. As the body’s oxygen level plummets, the patient enters the ICU for ventilation. Next comes intubation, a Foley catheter and rectal tube. Then the kidneys fail as the body swells with fluids. Blood clots and skin sloughing come next. The lucky get to say goodbye to their loved ones by cell phone. The whole horrific process may take six weeks.

But deaths only capture a fraction of the scale of the disaster. Thousands of Albertans with Long COVID; thousands of surgeries cancelled; thousands of burned-out health-care workers; thousands of infected children and overflowing pediatric wards.

And the entirely preventable horror goes on and on.

There is only one reason for the province’s new Death Advantage: the choices made by Premier Jason Kenney, his cabinet and chief medical officer of health.

Kenney, a fast-talking ideologue, has followed the same “personal freedom” path played by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

Last July that notorious Republican politician removed all public health measures for ideological reasons. By doing so he turned Florida’s hospital system, like Alberta’s, into a battlefield.

Since then, DeSantis ideology of slamming mask and vaccine mandates and trivializing the pandemic has killed more than 1,000 people a day.


Bestselling author Don Winslow was so appalled by Desantis’s disastrous leadership, he made a video on the public slaughter.

The video went viral. It explains that the Vietnam War killed 58,000 soldiers. But thanks to the neglect of DeSantis, COVID-19 will kill more people than that in Florida.

Alberta is not as populated as Florida, but Kenney’s decisions are having a Desantis-like impact. They may well destroy the province’s public health-care system.

Canada’s Criminal Code defines criminal negligence as anybody, who in discharging or failing to do their duties imposed by law, shows wanton or reckless disregard for the lives or safety of other persons.

In my view, that’s what Kenney, his cabinet and chief medical officer Deena Hinshaw have repeatedly done since July 1.

On that date they withdrew all public health measures too rapidly in the province with the nation’s lowest vaccination rates as the Delta variant began to surge.

Experts warned that the province was building a fourth wave.

Kenney ignored the best evidence on Delta transmission rates; denied the vulnerable state of unvaccinated children; neglected the importance of good ventilation in schools and workplaces; and downgraded the importance of masks.

He recklessly declared the pandemic over.

His government then attacked critics of its horrendously misguided policies including public health experts such as Amir Attaran, Joe Vipond and Lorian Hardcastle.

Every time Kenney now appears before the media, he engages in a reprehensible game of manipulation. He repeatedly blames, for example, the province’s full ICU units on the unvaccinated. Yet the premier and Hinshaw had three months to address the province’s low vaccination rates in central and northern Alberta. They patently ignored that sociological and anthropological challenge.

Instead, they pretended that “personal responsibility” and “choice” was a public health measure. It isn’t, and never will be.

“In a time of crisis — war, depression, natural disaster, health pandemic — an ideology that emphasizes the individual, the market and small government does not work,” is the reality recently acknowledged by political scientist Duane Bratt of Calgary’s Mount Royal University.

Yet Hinshaw said it was time to live with the virus while the premier vanished, apparently to Europe.

As a direct and immediate consequence, Kenney’s government abetted exponential viral growth. It made inevitable a fourth wave turned tsunami.

That predictable explosion has now killed hundreds of people, exhausted health-care workers and placed Albertans with cancer and other medical conditions in harm’s way. I call that criminal negligence.

To understand what removing all the public health measures really meant last July, consider this blunt analogy. A murderous drug cartel threatens a peaceful community.

The police do their job, make arrests and protect public safety. But then along comes Kenney. He removes the police, the courts and community helpers all in one fell swoop, promising “the best summer ever.” And then the killing begins.

And yet Kenney recently compared Alberta’s woes to COVID peaks in other provinces as just normal routine stuff.

“It is important to note that we are not the only province to have gone through such a challenging period during COVID,” he said.

Rubbish. Those peaks, also the product of negligent conservative governments, occurred long before the vaccines arrived.

Now Kenney is again getting the best advice — and rejecting it. He says he won’t introduce a “circuit breaker” lockdown to slow down transmission of the virus, as recommended by the Canadian Medical Association, because 20 per cent of the population won’t follow the rules.



Sorry, Not Sorry! Jason Kenney’s COVID-19 Disaster

READ MORE

That’s like saying we won’t have laws against homicide because a percentage of the population won’t follow them.

In normal times, a premier that has failed his people and province so spectacularly would resign. Not in today’s Alberta.

Kenney has refused to step down.

Nor does Kenney’s cowered and complicit party have the guts or courage to force the bully out.

Nor does the province’s sheepish media. They belatedly express shock at the rising toll but fail to demand Kenney pay for his actions. Their pulled punches make them accomplices. (Some notable exceptions include Markham Hislop, Robson Fletcher and Graham Thomson.)

That leaves the hard work to Albertans. They have two choices. They can serve as accomplices to the destruction of their province, or they can exercise their civic duties and daily call for the resignation of Jason Kenney.

The dying won’t stop, and the pandemic won’t end until the chaos maker goes.

United Conservative members organize against Jason Kenney ahead of leadership vote

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Organizers aid registration fee reimbursement, charter

 buses to boost attendance

Elise von Scheel, Audrey Neveu · CBC News · Posted: Mar 02, 2022 

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney gives a COVID-19 update in Calgary last month. UCP members will vote on his leadership at a special meeting in Red Deer on April 9. (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press)

Five weeks before United Conservative Party members vote on Premier Jason Kenney's fate as leader, grassroots organizers and MLAs are working to tip the balance.

Take Back Alberta, a provincial conservative grassroots group, says it's been holding meetings since December to convince members to vote to turf Kenney in the upcoming leadership review. 

The group is also working to pay for transportation and attendance costs for members who would not otherwise be able to attend the special meeting in Red Deer on April 9.

David Parker, a campaign organizer for Jason Kenney during his United Conservative Party (UCP) leadership bid in 2017, is running the efforts.

He says that after devoting time to getting Kenney elected, he's lost patience with the leader and believes others feel the same way. 

• UCP MLAs look to leadership review for answers ahead of 2023 election

"Anyone who cares about the future of the province from a conservative angle must vote Jason Kenney out," Parker told CBC News. 

"On April 9, we're voting out a tyrant."

Since December, he estimates the group has held about 200 face-to-face meetings with members. The number of participants varies from a few dozen to a hundred, according to Parker. 

The movement is seeing the participation of several MLAs from Kenney's own party. Parker says half a dozen are involved. 

MLAs participate in meetings to boost vote attendance

CBC News obtained a partial audio recording from a meeting on Feb. 17 in a community hall in Glendon, Alta., which is northeast of Edmonton. 

In the recording, Dave Hanson, the MLA for Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, says he fears seeing "interference" in the April 9 confidence vote, similar to allegations of fraud that tainted the 2017 leadership race.

Hanson confirmed to CBC News the recording is authentic, but says he participated with the understanding the meeting would not be recorded. He declined to comment further.

During the meeting, he said he was pleased people are working to attend the leadership review. 

"It's a groundswell. I'm very, very happy to see it happening here, too."

The UCP has consistently said the leadership review is happening in line with the rules used for others before it. Kenney said Wednesday a successful vote is 50 per cent plus one, like any majority vote in a democratic system.

• OPINION
  Jason Kenney sees opportunity in political chaos

Angela Pitt, the MLA for Airdrie-East, told CBC News she's attended some Take Back Alberta meetings but has also attended upward of 100 other grassroots meetings in living rooms and barns across the province. 

"I have been actively meeting with Albertans of all stripes to teach them how to become actively involved in the political process inside our party," she said. 

"High levels of civic engagement give you good government. And I believe, based on what I've been hearing for the last number of years, people want to see a change in their government, and this is how you do that." 

MLA Todd Loewen, who was expelled from UCP caucus in 2021, is also calling on members to travel to Red Deer to vote against Kenney.

In a Facebook post, the constituency association for Airdrie-Cochrane says it's offering a 50 per cent rebate for members who sign up to attend the meeting, and is offering free travel on a chartered bus. The attendance fee for the meeting is $99. 

Kenney responds to news of organized opposition

The premier was asked Wednesday for his reaction to this organization against him. 

"What I'm doing on my end is working with our great team to build Alberta: a strong economy and a strong province," Kenney said, listing off recent economic successes like the projection of a balanced budget. 

The premier said similar rumours of plans to take him down have swirled before but never materialized.

"I think the broad, mainstream of Alberta conservatives want us to continue getting the job done."

Fill the convention centre, win the vote, organizers say

After Hanson's portion of the recording, one of Brian Jean's key advisors chimes in. Vitor Marciano, who is working to get the former Wildrose leader elected under a UCP banner in Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, says the only way to remove Kenney as leader is to send enough members to the meeting in Red Deer to win the vote. Marciano also confirmed the authenticity of the recording. 

Jean recently re-entered provincial politics vowing to revitalize the UCP and take out Kenney. 

• Jason Kenney leadership review to be held in Red Deer, Alta.: UCP board

"That's what this meeting is about. It's about making sure that we send enough members there. Frankly, Jason Kenney is counting on the fact that people might be mad, but are they mad enough to drive to Red Deer? Are they mad enough to spend $99? Ultimately, $99 is a really small investment in freedoms, it's a really small investment in sending politicians a message," Marciano said.

Marciano and Parker, however, claim the Jean camp and Take Back Alberta are not officially teaming up — rather, their interests are temporarily aligned.

Duane Bratt, a political scientist at Mount Royal University, says good budget news, COVID restrictions lifting, a byelection in Jean's riding and other riding nominations make it hard to tell which side has the momentum right now. 

"Almost every event you look at in Alberta politics, you have to view it through the lens of the leadership, because Kenney is," he said.

Bratt said the brief moment of positive news for Kenney likely won't be enough on its own.

"I've been punching you every day for two years, and now I stop. Are you happy?"

Two recent conservative leaders in Alberta have received more than 75 per cent support in leadership reviews, yet stepped down in the months after.

Calgary·Opinion

How Kenney's political ideology is out of touch with Alberta values

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The approach has not worked, argues Duane Bratt

Duane Bratt · For CBC Opinion · Posted: Sep 08, 2021 

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney speaks to the media at the Alberta Legislature at the outset of the pandemic on March 13, 2020. (Sam Martin/CBC)

This column is an opinion by Duane Bratt, a political science professor at Mount Royal University.

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When it comes to Alberta's COVID-19 response and the public's reaction to it, I think it's fair to say we have a problem. 

The flames of outrage are burning on many fronts, and the premier poured more gas on the fire last Friday with the "cash for a jab" offer. 

So what's going on? What's behind all the decisions and non-decisions? 

Many observers have identified a partisan political angle. 

However, Premier Jason Kenney's political ideology is a much more powerful explanation for Alberta's comparatively poor response to COVID-19. 

Ideologies can often predict public policy. That has been the case with the Kenney government and its response to COVID-19. Look through Kenney's lens, you see a pattern. 

Problem is, Albertans are looking through a different lens. 

A clear political ideology

All political parties, and politicians, come equipped with an ideology. 

Rachel Notley has an ideology, as do Justin Trudeau and Erin O'Toole. Ideology is not a negative term — rather, it is a set of interrelated values or beliefs composed of attitudes toward various institutions and societal processes. It helps us understand where our politicians are coming from and what they might do.

Jason Kenney has been a political figure in Alberta and Ottawa for 30 years. Throughout this time he has articulated a clear political ideology through his words and actions. 

As a conservative (the name is a good indicator), Kenney attempts to either preserve the status quo or revive certain aspects of the past. 

His ideology sees the state as a promoter and protector of morality, social responsibility, personal responsibility, and traditional institutions and practices.

He advocates smaller government through decentralization of authority and maximizing individual freedom. Smaller government also extends to the economic realm by reducing social spending, cutting taxes, balancing budgets, deregulation and privatization. 

Alberta has been hit hard by the second, third and fourth waves of the pandemic, Duane Bratt writes. (CBC)

But the ideology allows for government intervention in order to protect the "traditional" family through supporting religious institutions, parental rights and challenging certain abortion and LGBTQ+ rights. 

Kenney has not hidden his political ideology but embraced and promoted it. 

He has also surrounded himself with many like-minded individuals in cabinet, caucus, and political staff. 

Albertans know what Kenney believes, and in 2019 they elected the UCP with a strong majority government. The strongest UCP supporters, in fact, wanted to punt the NDP for, in their view, imposing what some called Notley's socialist ideology on Alberta. They wanted to replace her ideology with Kenney's. 

But there can come a problem with ideology when that of politicians no longer aligns with that of the population as a whole. When there is a fundamental disconnect between the government and the governed. 

And that, I think, helps explain the problem so many Albertans have with the UCP government's handling of the COVID-19 crisis.

The first wave

What happens when political ideology confronts a once-in-a-century pandemic?

Initially, Kenney's response was to downgrade his ideological principles and adopt a more pragmatic approach. 

Big government, making big decisions. Collective action over individual liberties. 

In his response to the first wave, starting in March 2020, Kenney declared a public emergency and placed restrictions on large gatherings (sporting events, concerts, restaurants, theatres, etc.) and shut down in-person classes in schools, post-secondaries, and child care facilities. 

Employers were encouraged to have their employees work from home. A testing/tracing/isolation protocol was also put in effect. In an April 7, 2020, televised address, Kenney encouraged collective action and asked Albertans to act like buffalo, and, "herd closely together and face the storm head on, coming out of it strong and united." 

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney and his new cabinet ministers hold a press conference after a cabinet shuffle at in Edmonton on July 8, 2021. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)

Kenney's response to the first wave was effective. Compared to other provinces, Alberta saw fewer cases, hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths. 

But some of the original ideological values still arose and caused problems — most notably the decision to continue with trying to reduce doctors' compensation in the midst of a pandemic. This backfired and explained why Kenney, unlike other premiers, did not receive a COVID-19 bump in approval.   

Still, this bending to the overwhelming needs of a pandemic worked and worked relatively well. 

Unfortunately, Kenney's response to the first wave — even though it was successful — was an outlier. 

The next waves

Not only did he adopt a much more ideological approach to the second, third and fourth waves, but he apologized for some of the ideological actions that made the first wave less severe. 

When the second wave started to arrive in Alberta in October 2020, the Kenney government initially refused to re-impose the previous COVID-19 restrictions. 

Instead, Kenney emphasized personal responsibility and personal choice. 

In a foreshadowing of his response to the fourth wave, Kenney was publicly absent for 10 days at the beginning of the second wave. When action was finally taken (well after other Canadian provinces), it was much less restrictive than other provinces and Alberta's first wave response. 

• Public health experts concerned by Alberta premier's claim that pandemic is over

Even when Kenney announced the COVID restrictions, he went out of his way to explain that this went against his core values. 

"[B]ehind every one of these restrictions lie crushed dreams and terrible adversity. Life savings, years of work, hopes and dreams that are suddenly undone due to no fault of brave Albertans who have taken the risk to start businesses, to create jobs." 

The response to the third wave in Spring 2021 was similar. 

The lighter restrictions imposed during the third wave were removed much quicker to allow for the "best summer ever" to start on July 1.  

The vaccination plan itself also revealed the ideological approach of the Kenney government. 

Even as Kenney emphasized the critical importance of vaccines (those in hospitals and ICUs are overwhelmingly not vaccinated) and implemented a decentralized system to get shots into arms, he also maintained vaccines were an individual choice. 

Vaccines would not be mandatory. 

• Alberta's vaccine lottery had little effect on boosting vaccination rates, doctors say

• Over 75% of Albertans would support vaccine passport, survey suggests

Decades-old provincial legislation was even repealed that previously allowed the government to require vaccines, even though that power had never been used.

So far, unlike most other provincial governments, the Kenney government has refuted the concept of a vaccine passport or to mandate vaccinations in schools, large gatherings and private businesses. 

The problem with the approach? 

It has not worked!

Alberta has been hit hard by the second, third and fourth waves. 

In the fourth wave, which picked up steam in mid-August 2021, Alberta has seen the province hit with the highest number of cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the country, not just in per capita terms but in absolute terms. 

As with the second wave, Kenney was silent for three weeks and no one else in the government could publicly speak. 

• ANALYSIS
  The political consequences of Kenney's 4th-wave vacation

• Premier Jason Kenney addresses weeks-long absence during 4th wave of pandemic

When the response finally came on Sept. 3,  a province-wide mask mandate was reintroduced (churches exempted) and a curfew for alcohol sales was established (rodeos exempted). 

But the major policy response was to plead with unvaccinated Albertans to get the jab including, remarkably, an inducement of $100 to do so. A free market bribe rather than a vaccine passport. Completely in keeping with Kenney's ideology.

Individual choice, not government mandate, remained the primary policy tool.

Another problem is that the pandemic, and the public outrage, reveals the ideological lens through which Jason Kenney views the province, and which he uses to create government policy, no longer reflects modern Alberta. 

Where we are at

In a time of crisis — war, depression, natural disaster, health pandemic — an ideology that emphasizes the individual, the market and small government does not work. 

The ideological approach to COVID-19 so far tries to appeal to the mythology of Alberta's frontier past — of settlers taming a harsh environment and harnessing its natural resources through hard work, ingenuity, and free from the shackles of government. 

WATCH | Jason Kenney on Calgary's mask bylaw:

Jason Kenney criticized Calgary council for not killing mask bylaw by July 1. 5:52

This vision of ourselves has a long history in Alberta's grassroots political movements of the United Farmers of Alberta in the 1920s, Social Credit in the 1930s, the Reform Party in the 1980s, Wildrose Party in the late 2000s/early 2010s, and the UCP today. 

It may work well as a rhetorical flourish (few are those who would argue against empowering the individual) but it's an ideology that presupposes everyone works toward some shared notion of the common good. 

And, this common good, I think we have learned in the pandemic, is not a mutually agreed upon path. 

Herein we find one of the great ideological dilemmas in our province. 

A major disconnect

These political ideological notions Kenney has of 'who we are', and 'how we act', are outmoded. And, given the diversity of values held by individuals across the province, applying this flawed all-inclusive vision puts the government out of step with the people. 

Evidence for this comes from many sources including the 2018, 2020, and 2021 Road Ahead Surveys conducted by Janet Brown for CBC Calgary that found that Albertans consistently placed themselves in the centre of the political spectrum. 

The 2018 survey — pre-COVID — showed a large majority of Albertans did not want cuts to social programs and believed the government should take steps to reduce the gap between rich and poor, and men and women. Half of Albertans believed that there was a role for the government in job creation, not just private business. 

In short, the survey data, I would argue, explains the current emotional eruptions over the government's handling of COVID. 

It reveals a major disconnect between Kenney's political ideology of government staying small and out of sight and the values of a majority of Albertans.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Duane Bratt

Duane Bratt is a political scientist at Mount Royal University in Calgary