Jean told reporters Thursday he hasn’t spoken to Premier Jason Kenney in four years
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Brian Jean has been sworn in as the newest UCP MLA after he campaigned on getting rid of Premier Jason Kenney.
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Speaking to reporters following the ceremony Thursday morning, Jean, who represents Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche, reiterated his belief that without a new leader the UCP will lose in the next provincial election and said he will be spending the next few weeks encouraging UCP members to cast a ballot in Kenney’s upcoming leadership review.
“We need to make sure that we renew the UCP and have a competitive opportunity against the NDP in the next election,” he said.
In a statement to Postmedia, UCP caucus chair Nathan Neudorf said Jean is now a member of the United Conservative caucus and will be at the next caucus meeting.
“Our 61-member team is looking forward to working hard for Alberta families,” Neudorf said.
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Former MLAs endorse Kenney in open letter days ahead of ballots going out for leadership review
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Brian Jean wins Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche by election, takes aim at Kenney
Last year, two MLAs were kicked out of caucus after being critical of Kenney’s leadership. They now sit as independents. Since then a handful of other backbenchers have spoken out against Kenney but remain in caucus.
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Kenney and Jean co-founded the UCP in 2017 by merging Jean’s Wildrose Party with Kenney’s Progressive Conservatives. Jean would go on to lose the UCP leadership race to Kenney.
Jean told reporters he hasn’t spoken to Kenney in four years.
While Jean says the UCP needs a new leader to avoid being trounced in the next election, on Wednesday 19 former conservative MLAs published an open letter saying they support Kenney keeping his job.
They argued that dropping Kenney and launching a leadership race would give the NDP time to craft a win while conservatives are too busy fighting amongst themselves.
Jean did not seem concerned by the letter, pointing out there were only 19 signatures out of about 150 former MLAs. While campaigning to lead Alberta’s Progressive Conservative party in 2016, Kenney published endorsements from 50 former members.
“He got 50 last time, 19 this time, that would be consistent with the polling data and with what I believe is going to happen after the leadership review,” Jean said.
MLAs are currently on a constituency break with the sitting set to resume on April 19.