DIS-UNITED CONSERVATIVE PARTY
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney intends to step down as UCP leader
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© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney provides details on sustainable helicopter air ambulance funding in Calgary, Alta., Friday, March 25, 2022.
Premier Jason Kenney announced his intention to step down as leader of the United Conservative Party on Wednesday night.
He announced the move even though his leadership still maintains approval from just over half of the members of his party, the UCP announced in a livestream Wednesday night.
READ MORE: Kenney dismisses need for big number in UCP leadership review
When asked if they approve of Kenney as leader, 51.4 per cent said yes while 48.6 per cent said no.
In all, 34,298 votes were passed.
Kenney said that while the results would not automatically trigger a leadership election, they were not what he hoped for nor expected.
"It is clearly not adequate support to continue on as leader," he said.
READ MORE: Kenney seriously considered leaving his post before deciding to fight for his job: audio recording
Kenney said the vote shows he doesn't have enough support as leader. He said he will push for a leadership vote to be held in a timely fashion.
"It's clear that the past two years were deeply divisive for our province, our party and our caucus."
More to come...
Video: Why all Albertans should be paying attention to the UCP leadership review
Premier Jason Kenney announced his intention to step down as leader of the United Conservative Party on Wednesday night.
He announced the move even though his leadership still maintains approval from just over half of the members of his party, the UCP announced in a livestream Wednesday night.
READ MORE: Kenney dismisses need for big number in UCP leadership review
When asked if they approve of Kenney as leader, 51.4 per cent said yes while 48.6 per cent said no.
In all, 34,298 votes were passed.
Kenney said that while the results would not automatically trigger a leadership election, they were not what he hoped for nor expected.
"It is clearly not adequate support to continue on as leader," he said.
READ MORE: Kenney seriously considered leaving his post before deciding to fight for his job: audio recording
Kenney said the vote shows he doesn't have enough support as leader. He said he will push for a leadership vote to be held in a timely fashion.
"It's clear that the past two years were deeply divisive for our province, our party and our caucus."
More to come...
Video: Why all Albertans should be paying attention to the UCP leadership review
Ashley Joannou , Lisa Johnson -
© Provided by Edmonton JournalJason Kenney meets supporters after speaking at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
Jason Kenney is stepping down as leader of the United Conservative Party and will serve as premier of Alberta until a new leader is sworn in.
Only 51.4 per cent of the more than 34,000 mail-in ballots cast in the leadership review voted to keep Kenney in charge of the UCP he helped form, party president Cynthia Moore and chief returning officer Rick Orman announced via livestream Wednesday.
Kenney said even though that meets the party’s threshold of a majority, it’s “clearly” not enough support for him to continue as leader.
“The result is not what I hoped for, or frankly expected,” Kenney told supporters at a gathering in Calgary after the results were announced. With just over a year before the next election, he said he has asked party executives to schedule a leadership contest as early as possible.
“I’m sorry, but friends, I truly believe that we need to move forward united, we need to put the past behind us, and our members — a large number of our members — have asked for an opportunity to clear the air through a leadership election,” he said.
“It’s clear that the past two years were deeply divisive for our province, our party and our caucus, but it is my fervent hope that in the months to come we all move on past the division of COVID,” Kenney said.
Kenney’s ousting comes after more than a year of infighting including very open and public dissent from party members and his own caucus as the government managed a global pandemic coupled with a period of plummeting oil prices.
Party rules say the UCP caucus is required to name an interim leader “at the earliest possible opportunity.” The next caucus meeting is scheduled for Thursday in Calgary.
The party will then form a formal leadership election committee to set out the rules for finding a new leader. The interim leader cannot run for leader in that election.
Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche MLA and former Wildrose leader Brian Jean, who campaigned in a byelection on a platform to get Kenney out of office, has expressed interest in the premier’s job, as has another former Wildrose leader, Danielle Smith.
© Provided by Edmonton JournalJason Kenney speaks at an event at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
In a statement Wednesday, Jean thanked Kenney for his service and confirmed he will run for leader. He said his campaign “will demonstrate how we can do things differently, together, to recapture the enthusiastic support of the over one million Albertans who elected us in 2019.”
In a statement of her own, Smith also thanked Kenney.
“The result we have witnessed today is a truly grassroots resolution. The membership of the United Conservative Party is hungry for a leader that will be responsive and fight for the interests of Alberta,” she said.
It’s believed that there are others who will throw their hats into the ring given the opportunity.
NDP Opposition Leader Rachel Notley thanked Kenney for his service to the province.
“There are obviously many things about which we don’t agree, but that doesn’t negate the time and sacrifice that goes into taking on the role of premier,” Notley said on Twitter. “The work is never easy. The days are long and often difficult, as I’m sure today is. I wish Jason the best.”
“He looked like he was going to tenaciously cling to this, no matter what, into the next election because he seemed convinced he was the only person who could lead the party to victory. He saw it as his party,” said Williams.
“Jason Kenney managed something remarkable in persuading (the PC’s and the Wildrose) to come together, but he made a lot of promises that he couldn’t keep,” said Williams, referring to opposition from party members who valued grassroots democracy.
“I think his political career is at an end,” said Williams.
Kenney arrived on the Alberta political scene in 2016, already well known as a former federal cabinet minister under prime minister Stephen Harper.
Kenney’s political legacy in the province was cemented when he helped orchestrate the merger of the Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties, effectively uniting the right in Alberta.
He campaigned for and won the leadership of the PC party in 2017 on the platform to merge with the then-opposition Wildrose.
Kenney argued that multiple right-leaning parties were to blame for splitting the vote and giving Notley’s NDP a majority in 2015 after decades of conservative governments.
Kenney would go on to beat Jean and current Jobs, Economy and Innovation Minister Doug Schweitzer to become leader of the newly-formed United Conservative Party that would win a sizeable majority in the 2019 provincial election on a promise of “jobs, the economy and pipelines.”
By early 2020 Alberta was dealing with the global COVID-19 pandemic at the same time as oil prices turned negative. Kenney has faced criticism from both those who believe he did not do enough to slow the spread of COVID-19 and those who believed the restrictions went too far.
In early 2021, 16 UCP MLAs, representing mostly rural ridings, signed a public letter arguing that closing dine-in service in restaurants and lowering capacity for retail stores and gyms is the “wrong decision,” even as COVID-19 variant cases surged in Alberta.
Months later a now-former vice president of the party would call for Kenney’s resignation claiming that he had become a threat to the party after losing the public’s trust during the pandemic.
The infighting was enough to push Kenney to promise an early leadership review but when more than 15,000 people registered to vote at the in-person event scheduled for April in Red Deer, the party changed that to a mail-in ballot system.
That led to accusations of the rules being torqued in Kenney’s favour and suggestions it opened the door to cheating.
Correspondence obtained by The Canadian Press indicates Elections Alberta is investigating allegations of possible illegal bulk buying of party memberships.
As Alberta’s economy began to recover and oil prices climbed high enough to help the province project a balanced budget this year, Kenney pushed back against his critics, framing himself as an experienced leader who knows how to win elections.
He unapologetically called some of his opponents “lunatics” and warned that without him the United Conservative Party risks becoming home for those with extreme and intolerant views.
Alberta’s MLAs are currently on a constituency break and will not return to sit in the legislature until May 24.
Carson Jerema: Jason Kenney quits as Alberta's conservative movement eats itself
Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party has eaten itself.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney responds to the results of the United Conservative Party leadership review in Calgary on May 18, 2022.
The dismal 51.4 per cent approval rating that led Premier Jason Kenney to step down Wednesday night is a victory for a long-percolating revolt, mostly coming from the party’s right wing. But this is no win for conservative politics in Alberta and could signal the movement’s shift further away from where voters are comfortable.
Kenney’s handling of the COVID pandemic irritated the more conservative elements of his caucus, who had been publicly criticizing him and calling for his resignation for months. While some of the dissent came from corners that thought Kenney wasn’t doing enough to quell the spread of COVID-19, it was driven chiefly by those who thought he was doing too much.
This is a faction that demands nothing less than ideological purity, with any deviation dismissed as unforgivable, even traitorous, socialism.
Despite the malcontents, Kenney ran among the most consistently conservative governments in Canada in years. Whereas Ontario’s Doug Ford has been accused of governing from the centre even though he campaigned on the right, Kenney has more or less stuck to his principles.
This has included cutting corporate taxes by a third, taking a machete to red tape, reforming union rules so members have to opt in to contribute dues to political campaigning, expanding charter schools and a planned return to a flat tax. His government flattened spending and brought in Alberta’s first balanced budget in 14 years. Many of these policies have been controversial, no more so than the government’s overhaul of the school curriculum to place a heavy emphasis on facts and memorization. But the controversy was often confined to the left, to the Opposition NDP and its supporters.
By any measure, Kenney was a stridently conservative premier. As former Harper advisor Sean Speer argued in the Post recently, “the Kenney government has effectively turned Alberta into Canada’s conservative policy laboratory and in so doing is expanding the country’s other centre-right governments’ sense of what is possible.”
Even under COVID, Kenney attempted, often clumsily, to follow his libertarian instincts and lean first on guidance and encouraging personal responsibility, before bringing in restrictions. This led to multiple embarrassing comedowns, most prominently when the complete lifting of restrictions last summer led directly into some of the harshest pandemic rules the province had seen.
For the most part, however, Alberta used a light touch to control the spread of the virus. Those whose main complaint was that Kenney wasn’t pure enough may soon regret forcing him out of the premier’s office.
All last year, Kenney tolerated open dissent from critics, waiting weeks, or months, before turfing the most vocal of them from caucus. Those close to Kenney told me at the time that he was following his genuine belief that caucus should be free to speak. He hoped by offering an outlet for dissent, it would serve as a pressure valve.
Instead of endearing his critics to him, this approach to caucus management only emboldened them. In the fall, a group of angry MLAs were expected to bring a vote of non-confidence, but they lost their nerve when it was clear they didn’t have the votes. But after a group of riding associations requested it, a planned fall leadership review was moved to the spring.
Somewhat controversially, the party executive altered the rules to make it a mail in ballot, which prompted howls the change was made for Kenney’s benefit. Whether that was true or not, it clearly didn’t matter. The unhappiness the party membership had with the premier was evident.
With Kenney gone, there is no guarantee a more idealogical conservative leader will take over. A more moderate leader could force a split, while someone too far to the right may be unappealing to the average voter.
If it was a good night for anyone, it was Opposition Leader Rachel Notley.
Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party has eaten itself.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney responds to the results of the United Conservative Party leadership review in Calgary on May 18, 2022.
The dismal 51.4 per cent approval rating that led Premier Jason Kenney to step down Wednesday night is a victory for a long-percolating revolt, mostly coming from the party’s right wing. But this is no win for conservative politics in Alberta and could signal the movement’s shift further away from where voters are comfortable.
Kenney’s handling of the COVID pandemic irritated the more conservative elements of his caucus, who had been publicly criticizing him and calling for his resignation for months. While some of the dissent came from corners that thought Kenney wasn’t doing enough to quell the spread of COVID-19, it was driven chiefly by those who thought he was doing too much.
This is a faction that demands nothing less than ideological purity, with any deviation dismissed as unforgivable, even traitorous, socialism.
Despite the malcontents, Kenney ran among the most consistently conservative governments in Canada in years. Whereas Ontario’s Doug Ford has been accused of governing from the centre even though he campaigned on the right, Kenney has more or less stuck to his principles.
This has included cutting corporate taxes by a third, taking a machete to red tape, reforming union rules so members have to opt in to contribute dues to political campaigning, expanding charter schools and a planned return to a flat tax. His government flattened spending and brought in Alberta’s first balanced budget in 14 years. Many of these policies have been controversial, no more so than the government’s overhaul of the school curriculum to place a heavy emphasis on facts and memorization. But the controversy was often confined to the left, to the Opposition NDP and its supporters.
By any measure, Kenney was a stridently conservative premier. As former Harper advisor Sean Speer argued in the Post recently, “the Kenney government has effectively turned Alberta into Canada’s conservative policy laboratory and in so doing is expanding the country’s other centre-right governments’ sense of what is possible.”
Even under COVID, Kenney attempted, often clumsily, to follow his libertarian instincts and lean first on guidance and encouraging personal responsibility, before bringing in restrictions. This led to multiple embarrassing comedowns, most prominently when the complete lifting of restrictions last summer led directly into some of the harshest pandemic rules the province had seen.
For the most part, however, Alberta used a light touch to control the spread of the virus. Those whose main complaint was that Kenney wasn’t pure enough may soon regret forcing him out of the premier’s office.
All last year, Kenney tolerated open dissent from critics, waiting weeks, or months, before turfing the most vocal of them from caucus. Those close to Kenney told me at the time that he was following his genuine belief that caucus should be free to speak. He hoped by offering an outlet for dissent, it would serve as a pressure valve.
Instead of endearing his critics to him, this approach to caucus management only emboldened them. In the fall, a group of angry MLAs were expected to bring a vote of non-confidence, but they lost their nerve when it was clear they didn’t have the votes. But after a group of riding associations requested it, a planned fall leadership review was moved to the spring.
Somewhat controversially, the party executive altered the rules to make it a mail in ballot, which prompted howls the change was made for Kenney’s benefit. Whether that was true or not, it clearly didn’t matter. The unhappiness the party membership had with the premier was evident.
With Kenney gone, there is no guarantee a more idealogical conservative leader will take over. A more moderate leader could force a split, while someone too far to the right may be unappealing to the average voter.
If it was a good night for anyone, it was Opposition Leader Rachel Notley.
Braid: After epic political success, Kenney is defeated by his own party
Don Braid, Calgary Herald -
© Provided by Calgary Herald
Don Braid, Calgary Herald -
© Provided by Calgary Herald
Jason Kenney speaks at an event at Spruce Meadows in Calgary on Wednesday, May 18, 2022.
There was only one way to upstage the hockey Battle of Alberta. Premier Jason Kenney found it, to his sorrow, by saying he will step off the stage entirely.
Despite predictions of a solid victory, only 51.4 per cent of more than 34,000 UCP members who voted in the leadership review said they approved of him.
Kenney had previously said that “50 per cent plus one” is the majority in a democracy, implying that was enough for him to continue.
To many observers it seemed he was quitting cold. But late Wednesday, it was confirmed that he intends to stay on as party leader until the next leader is chosen.
It’s even possible that he could run for the job again. That possibility did not get a denial from his staff Wednesday night.
In 2006, Ralph Klein stayed on for months after scoring 55 per cent approval. But those were different times. Despite problems with the party, Klein remained popular with the public.
Kenney’s effort to stay on will draw bitter opposition from his opponents in caucus and beyond. It will likely start Thursday, when many of them are expecting to vote on a caretaker leaders and premier.
Technically, Kenney has a case for staying on the job. He wasn’t actually defeated. He can argue that his resignation as party leader is voluntary and, like Klein, he gets to time it.
Kenney asnnopunced his intention to resign in a dramatic way , first saying he had his majority but suddenly adding: “It is clearly not adequate support to carry on as leader . . . I truly believe we need to move forward together, we need to put the past behind us.”
The small gathering of his strongest loyalists, an invited group that didn’t include many UCP ministers and MLAs, was shocked both by the result and the resignation.
Kenney asked the UCP board to set a date for a new leadership election.
On Thursday at least some UCP MLAs were expecting to carry out will carry out one of the most serious functions a government caucus ever exercises, choosing a new leader and premier.
That’s what happened in 2014 when Premier Alison Redford quit immediately as both leader and premier. Vetern Minister Dave Hancock became the caretaker premier.
On Tuesday I named several UCP members whose names were already being mentioned for the caretaker role.
They include Nate Glubish (Service Alberta); Demetrios Nicolaides (Advanced Education), Rajan Sawhney (Transportation); Ric McIver (Municipal Affairs); Nathan Neudorf (UCP caucus chair); and Sonya Savage (Energy).
The person who gets the caretaker job will have the critical task of running the party and government while restoring an image of sensible competence and unity.
But now, it appears that Kenney prevent that from happening, or try to. There will be furious backlash from MLA who think he needs to leave immediately for the good of the party.
Clearly, there will be a leadership election. Kenney said it’s necessary. What he did not say is whether or not he’ll be a candidate. Nothing in the UCP rules would prevent him from resigning, and then running.
There will be a struggle over whether the UCP edges more to the centre, or veers sharply to the right. Many of the MLAs who opposed Kenney prefer the latter.
New MLA Brian Jean will run. Danielle Smith will likely join in, too. They’re well-known voices from the party’s past, but many members will want to move beyond the old merger struggles.
© Provided by Calgary Herald
There was only one way to upstage the hockey Battle of Alberta. Premier Jason Kenney found it, to his sorrow, by saying he will step off the stage entirely.
Despite predictions of a solid victory, only 51.4 per cent of more than 34,000 UCP members who voted in the leadership review said they approved of him.
Kenney had previously said that “50 per cent plus one” is the majority in a democracy, implying that was enough for him to continue.
To many observers it seemed he was quitting cold. But late Wednesday, it was confirmed that he intends to stay on as party leader until the next leader is chosen.
It’s even possible that he could run for the job again. That possibility did not get a denial from his staff Wednesday night.
In 2006, Ralph Klein stayed on for months after scoring 55 per cent approval. But those were different times. Despite problems with the party, Klein remained popular with the public.
Kenney’s effort to stay on will draw bitter opposition from his opponents in caucus and beyond. It will likely start Thursday, when many of them are expecting to vote on a caretaker leaders and premier.
Technically, Kenney has a case for staying on the job. He wasn’t actually defeated. He can argue that his resignation as party leader is voluntary and, like Klein, he gets to time it.
Kenney asnnopunced his intention to resign in a dramatic way , first saying he had his majority but suddenly adding: “It is clearly not adequate support to carry on as leader . . . I truly believe we need to move forward together, we need to put the past behind us.”
The small gathering of his strongest loyalists, an invited group that didn’t include many UCP ministers and MLAs, was shocked both by the result and the resignation.
Kenney asked the UCP board to set a date for a new leadership election.
On Thursday at least some UCP MLAs were expecting to carry out will carry out one of the most serious functions a government caucus ever exercises, choosing a new leader and premier.
That’s what happened in 2014 when Premier Alison Redford quit immediately as both leader and premier. Vetern Minister Dave Hancock became the caretaker premier.
On Tuesday I named several UCP members whose names were already being mentioned for the caretaker role.
They include Nate Glubish (Service Alberta); Demetrios Nicolaides (Advanced Education), Rajan Sawhney (Transportation); Ric McIver (Municipal Affairs); Nathan Neudorf (UCP caucus chair); and Sonya Savage (Energy).
The person who gets the caretaker job will have the critical task of running the party and government while restoring an image of sensible competence and unity.
But now, it appears that Kenney prevent that from happening, or try to. There will be furious backlash from MLA who think he needs to leave immediately for the good of the party.
Clearly, there will be a leadership election. Kenney said it’s necessary. What he did not say is whether or not he’ll be a candidate. Nothing in the UCP rules would prevent him from resigning, and then running.
There will be a struggle over whether the UCP edges more to the centre, or veers sharply to the right. Many of the MLAs who opposed Kenney prefer the latter.
New MLA Brian Jean will run. Danielle Smith will likely join in, too. They’re well-known voices from the party’s past, but many members will want to move beyond the old merger struggles.
© Provided by Calgary Herald
Brian Jean and Jason Kenney shake hands after Kenney’s leadership victory on Oct. 28, 2017.
Jobs Minister Doug Schweitzer’s name often comes up. So does Finance Minister Travis Toews. Other campaigns will take shape very quickly.
Whoever wins, this remains a dangerous moment for the UCP.
The Progressive Conservatives never regained winning form after Premier Alison Redford quit in 2014. Dave Hancock became the caretaker and Jim Prentice the premier. But the NDP won the 2015 election, partly because of the long years of PC division.
Kenney’s biggest mistake, I think, was to preach party unity even as he attacked people on the fringe as lunatics and radicals.
He wasn’t talking about moderate UCP members who might disagree with him, but a lot of those people thought he was. That might have been the difference between 51.4 per cent and a survivable number.
Kenney’s political accomplishments have been remarkable. With ex-prime minister Stephen Harper’s backing, he launched a drive to unify the PCs and Wildrose, which led him to first win the PC leadership.
That was an awkward fit — Kenney owed far more to Social Credit than the PCs — but it led him directly to the negotiated union with Wildrose.
Then came the UCP leadership, followed by the 2019 election and premier’s office. Nobody had ever done anything like it in Alberta politics.
On Wednesday, Kenney suffered a setback he considered serious enough to leave the party leadership, eventually.
But that does not mean he’s done with governing for many more months, and even trying a comeback.
Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.
Twitter: @DonBraid
Jobs Minister Doug Schweitzer’s name often comes up. So does Finance Minister Travis Toews. Other campaigns will take shape very quickly.
Whoever wins, this remains a dangerous moment for the UCP.
The Progressive Conservatives never regained winning form after Premier Alison Redford quit in 2014. Dave Hancock became the caretaker and Jim Prentice the premier. But the NDP won the 2015 election, partly because of the long years of PC division.
Kenney’s biggest mistake, I think, was to preach party unity even as he attacked people on the fringe as lunatics and radicals.
He wasn’t talking about moderate UCP members who might disagree with him, but a lot of those people thought he was. That might have been the difference between 51.4 per cent and a survivable number.
Kenney’s political accomplishments have been remarkable. With ex-prime minister Stephen Harper’s backing, he launched a drive to unify the PCs and Wildrose, which led him to first win the PC leadership.
That was an awkward fit — Kenney owed far more to Social Credit than the PCs — but it led him directly to the negotiated union with Wildrose.
Then came the UCP leadership, followed by the 2019 election and premier’s office. Nobody had ever done anything like it in Alberta politics.
On Wednesday, Kenney suffered a setback he considered serious enough to leave the party leadership, eventually.
But that does not mean he’s done with governing for many more months, and even trying a comeback.
Don Braid’s column appears regularly in the Herald.
Twitter: @DonBraid
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