Author of the article:
Evan Menzies is a senior campaign strategist with Crestview Strategy and former director of communications for the United Conservative Party and Wildrose caucus.
Calgary Herald
Publishing date:Sep 25, 2021
Publishing date:Sep 25, 2021
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney during a news conference in Calgary on the surging COVID cases in the province on Sept. 15. PHOTO BY AL CHAREST /Postmedia file
A word of warning to conservatives demanding resignations and accelerated leadership reviews against Premier Jason Kenney: be careful what you ask for. A civil war is the last thing the United Conservative Party needs right now.
Since the early ’90s, Kenney has been one of the top leaders and faces of the conservative movement across Canada. He was at the front lines of Alberta budget battles in the early 1990s, stood up for Western Canada for more than a decade and then was a top lieutenant in the Harper government, advancing the conservative agenda and policies that were literally decades in the making. He stitched conservatives back together with 95 per cent support from members and secured an eye-popping mandate to implement one of the biggest agendas of conservative political reform in Alberta history.
But now he’s facing the biggest political challenge of his life after a Delta-driven wave, another contentious caucus meeting and internal party flare-ups.
A word of warning to conservatives demanding resignations and accelerated leadership reviews against Premier Jason Kenney: be careful what you ask for. A civil war is the last thing the United Conservative Party needs right now.
Since the early ’90s, Kenney has been one of the top leaders and faces of the conservative movement across Canada. He was at the front lines of Alberta budget battles in the early 1990s, stood up for Western Canada for more than a decade and then was a top lieutenant in the Harper government, advancing the conservative agenda and policies that were literally decades in the making. He stitched conservatives back together with 95 per cent support from members and secured an eye-popping mandate to implement one of the biggest agendas of conservative political reform in Alberta history.
But now he’s facing the biggest political challenge of his life after a Delta-driven wave, another contentious caucus meeting and internal party flare-ups.
IN POWER AS PROVINCIAL GOVERNMENT FOR 44 YEARS AS A SUPER MAJORITY ONE PARTY STATE
For nearly two decades, our conservative movement in Alberta has been caught in internal civil wars, from the beginning of the end of Premier Ralph Klein’s reign, to the last string of PC premiers, to the brutal infighting and path to unity in 2017, to today over the fight on Alberta’s COVID-19 response.
It’s both a blessing and a curse to have a conservative movement so animated in convictions from all corners of the big blue tent. But it’s clear these battles can be and are bruising and unforgiving. The party has lost good talent through the years as a result.
And while the seemingly endless internal fighting rages on, the left in Alberta and across Canada has been mobilizing as they unite on a policy agenda that drifts further to the left than what would have ever been imaginable even just a few years ago.
Rachel Notley and her Alberta NDP are more beholden than ever to a base that is increasingly hostile to free markets and Alberta’s energy sector. Need proof? Just look at the difference from Notley carefully staying out of the 2019 federal election to in 2021 confidently inserting her endorsement for local federal NDP candidates in Edmonton who want to kibosh any current or future pipeline projects.
Nationally, thanks to a chronically inefficient conservative vote in Eastern Canada, Alberta is staring at a Justin Trudeau-led federal government that has become even more confident and brazen in its policies to knock out any natural resource industry whose headquarters aren’t in the Toronto-Montreal corridor.
So where do conservatives go from here? Kenney has seen some of his own MLAs and party insiders call for his resignation. And a 2022 leadership review has been in the books for months under the party’s own bylaws and now looks set for the spring. Some have demanded one even sooner.
Severely normal United Conservative members have some important reflection to do. A question they should ask themselves is, what do those most adamant in their calls for Kenney’s resignation want to do with the party and the government?
It’s fair to say that Kenney’s greatest critics have been inconsistent and full of contradictions with no binding message or vision. In May, it was that Alberta did not open more quickly and should not have brought in more restrictions while hospitalizations surged. Today, it’s that the province should not have opened for the summer after Alberta reached vaccine targets that would be the envy of any other national jurisdiction in the world. At no point have any of them articulated a concrete policy agenda to the crisis we’re facing that would receive broad support from MLAs internally or the broader public. On top of that, there is no obvious alternative leadership waiting in the wings who has a silver bullet to help us put a permanent end to a stubborn, dangerous and highly contagious respiratory virus as we chase even higher vaccination rates across the province.
There is no doubt frustration and anger with the latest interventions and crisis facing our hospitals. But Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw have put together a policy package focused on the crisis facing our health-care system without losing sight of the importance of keeping businesses, sports and schools open, while rewarding the vaccinated. We will get through this wave.
And conservatives should remember that there remain important non-COVID items on the agenda for the government and Alberta’s conservative movement to make progress on. The Fair Deal agenda must continue, from equalization to court challenges against federal legislation like Bill C-69. Under Kenney, the government has cut nearly a quarter of red tape in just over two years and still has more rules and regulations to untangle out of the economy. Finally, all Albertans must feel and see not just Alberta’s economic recovery, but its total rebound as Canada’s economic leader. The last fiscal update showed that Alberta’s policy agenda of low taxes, fewer regulations and diversification is already taking effect due to important legislative accomplishments like the Job Creation Tax Cut and Open for Business Act
Kenney has told Albertans that he has put party politics on the sidelines while trying to manage the public health crisis. Party members and caucus members who have an axe to grind should try and do the same. There will be a leadership review in 2022 and members can evaluate in full his time as leader from unity, to his performance in the 2019 election, to his term in government, with plenty of time for the party to choose a new leader before the next election in 2023 — if that’s what party members, not outspoken insiders, choose to do.
For nearly two decades, our conservative movement in Alberta has been caught in internal civil wars, from the beginning of the end of Premier Ralph Klein’s reign, to the last string of PC premiers, to the brutal infighting and path to unity in 2017, to today over the fight on Alberta’s COVID-19 response.
It’s both a blessing and a curse to have a conservative movement so animated in convictions from all corners of the big blue tent. But it’s clear these battles can be and are bruising and unforgiving. The party has lost good talent through the years as a result.
And while the seemingly endless internal fighting rages on, the left in Alberta and across Canada has been mobilizing as they unite on a policy agenda that drifts further to the left than what would have ever been imaginable even just a few years ago.
Rachel Notley and her Alberta NDP are more beholden than ever to a base that is increasingly hostile to free markets and Alberta’s energy sector. Need proof? Just look at the difference from Notley carefully staying out of the 2019 federal election to in 2021 confidently inserting her endorsement for local federal NDP candidates in Edmonton who want to kibosh any current or future pipeline projects.
Nationally, thanks to a chronically inefficient conservative vote in Eastern Canada, Alberta is staring at a Justin Trudeau-led federal government that has become even more confident and brazen in its policies to knock out any natural resource industry whose headquarters aren’t in the Toronto-Montreal corridor.
So where do conservatives go from here? Kenney has seen some of his own MLAs and party insiders call for his resignation. And a 2022 leadership review has been in the books for months under the party’s own bylaws and now looks set for the spring. Some have demanded one even sooner.
Severely normal United Conservative members have some important reflection to do. A question they should ask themselves is, what do those most adamant in their calls for Kenney’s resignation want to do with the party and the government?
It’s fair to say that Kenney’s greatest critics have been inconsistent and full of contradictions with no binding message or vision. In May, it was that Alberta did not open more quickly and should not have brought in more restrictions while hospitalizations surged. Today, it’s that the province should not have opened for the summer after Alberta reached vaccine targets that would be the envy of any other national jurisdiction in the world. At no point have any of them articulated a concrete policy agenda to the crisis we’re facing that would receive broad support from MLAs internally or the broader public. On top of that, there is no obvious alternative leadership waiting in the wings who has a silver bullet to help us put a permanent end to a stubborn, dangerous and highly contagious respiratory virus as we chase even higher vaccination rates across the province.
There is no doubt frustration and anger with the latest interventions and crisis facing our hospitals. But Kenney and Dr. Deena Hinshaw have put together a policy package focused on the crisis facing our health-care system without losing sight of the importance of keeping businesses, sports and schools open, while rewarding the vaccinated. We will get through this wave.
And conservatives should remember that there remain important non-COVID items on the agenda for the government and Alberta’s conservative movement to make progress on. The Fair Deal agenda must continue, from equalization to court challenges against federal legislation like Bill C-69. Under Kenney, the government has cut nearly a quarter of red tape in just over two years and still has more rules and regulations to untangle out of the economy. Finally, all Albertans must feel and see not just Alberta’s economic recovery, but its total rebound as Canada’s economic leader. The last fiscal update showed that Alberta’s policy agenda of low taxes, fewer regulations and diversification is already taking effect due to important legislative accomplishments like the Job Creation Tax Cut and Open for Business Act
Kenney has told Albertans that he has put party politics on the sidelines while trying to manage the public health crisis. Party members and caucus members who have an axe to grind should try and do the same. There will be a leadership review in 2022 and members can evaluate in full his time as leader from unity, to his performance in the 2019 election, to his term in government, with plenty of time for the party to choose a new leader before the next election in 2023 — if that’s what party members, not outspoken insiders, choose to do.
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