Jason Kenney Needs To See The Writing On The Wall and Resign

It was not long ago when Jason Kenney set the gold standard for a Conservative politician. He represented the Blue and Green colours of the Reform/Alliance Party, he drummed up support for unification of the Alliance and PCs, became one of Canada’s most successful Ministers of Immigration, Citizenship, & Multiculturalism, and it is not an overstatement to say it was he who led the unification of Conservatives in Alberta. But now, with each passing day, that image has almost completely corroded into… well, something that looks like Justin Trudeau.

Kenney’s management of the pandemic has been so egregiously farcical that it seems like a bad joke. Compiled with dead-end policy failures from having too much faith in Canadian Federalism, only to show time and time again, the Rest of Canada just doesn’t want to work with Alberta as much as Kenney wants to work with them.

When Albertans question whether they even have a home in Canada anymore, he tells them “you either love Canada or you don’t”, saying they have to just stomach whatever legislated recessions the Ottawa elites have planned for us, and we are unpatriotic if we want to look at other options. He even exceeds his predecessor’s deficits, implying it could not get worse in the future than now. Finally, add in an extreme machiavellian scorched earth policy of “Criticize my actions, and you’re cancelled” towards his own caucus. It all reminds us of where Trudeau was when he expelled Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott.

None of this even mentions his policy of “silence” on Erin O’Toole’s Carbon Tax betrayal. Though Environment Minister Jason Nixon hinted that with ongoing negotiations with Ottawa, Alberta will possibly just give in. The so-called “big tent” type conservatives who think winning is achieved by trashing the party faithful and accusing them of being divisive, may yet receive another member. It was leaked that when he received objections to his cracking down on people opposing his restrictions as these people are among his base, he allegedly replied “I want a new base”. With such disrespect to the party faithful, it is not surprising many UCP MLAs have had enough, and think the policies make no sense.

As of this writing restrictions include as follows: if you have a church in the middle of nowhere you are limited to just 15 participants, regardless of church size. Unless one of them is dead and you are having a funeral. Then only 10 are allowed for some reason. If you go outside after, you are only allowed 5. Despite outdoor activities scientifically being safer. And meeting just 1 person inside your own household after is ILLEGAL. All with no transparency or science needed to back it up and the threat of arrest if you don’t comply.  And any UCP MLA who doesn’t toe the party line on these will be cancelled! 

This became reality when Caucus Chair Todd Loewen made a formal letter of not only his resignation but called for Kenney’s as well. I’ll spare you the details of the letter and of what is being called “The Leakiest Private Meeting in Alberta History” in which Kenney forced his MLAs to expel Todd Loewen AND Drew Barnes from Caucus in a non-secret ballot. The whole affair is disturbing to say the least and has a festering feeling of undemocratic and elitist driven intimidation of MLAs, Cabinet Ministers in particular, to do as the Party Leader demands.

Premier Kenney so far has made no direct statement from himself on their expulsion in any of his social media feeds, unlike his statement when MLA Pat Rehn was tossed from Caucus. It seemed the caucus was united then. Now, Kenney’s feed suggests he is pretending it didn’t happen, moved on to other topics, and left it up to the caucus whip to break the news. Perhaps he was hoping he could just slide it under the media radar and it would be drowned out by other news stories. If so, he failed epically.  The Western Standard seemed to receive so much interest in their leak story, their website actually crashed as hard as a Vaccine appointment booking website… Well, almost as hard.

What’s more, when some suggested that Todd Loewen or Drew Barnes were the Western Standard’s only sources on the meeting, the Head of the Western Standard Derek Fildebrandt tweeted back, “I think some in the Premier’s Office will be disappointed tomorrow”. And while Kenney may have adopted Trudeau’s approach to MLAs rights,  MSM outlets aren’t likely to defend Kenney and use anti-Alberta tropes to help him still survive the next election as they did for Trudeau.

All those who gain power are afraid to lose it. But not all of them need to go down as power-hungry. The late Premier Ralph Klein for example stepped down after a disappointing leadership review and preserved his memory as a man of the people. Kenney is not Ralph Klein, to say the least, but it would still be better for Kenney to leave on a relatively high note before he is no longer seen in the memory of Albertans as the man who reunited Albertans against the Trudeau-Notley alliance for submission to the Laurentians.

It’s time to read the writing on the wall, pass the torch, and resign.