You almost have to feel sorry for Jason Kenney. After devoting years of his life to creating a United Conservative Party in Alberta in 2017 and then leading it to victory in 2019, he now has to watch as the contenders for the throne he built compete to see who can degrade him the most. creative.
No one has been better at it than Danielle Smith, whose blatantly unconstitutional and fundamentally unserious “Alberta Sovereignty Act” has managed to capture the hearts and minds of those once loyal to Kenney. She purports that Alberta can prohibit its public employees from enforcing federal laws or court decisions that the provincial legislature believes “unfairly attack the interests of the people of Alberta,” as if the Constitution were an optional arrangement rather than a legally binding document.
That could help explain why he jumped into the leadership race last weekend in an act of political desperation that could easily jeopardize the unity he spent so much time and energy trying to forge. When asked about Smith’s idea on his weekly radio show, Kenney didn’t mince words. “The proposal is that Alberta basically ignores and violates the Constitution in a way that is unprecedented in Canadian history,” he said. “Not enforcing the laws of the country, including federal laws, which include the Penal Code, which is crazy.”
You’re right, for a change. is a nut. That is a point that has been made in various ways by everyone from Howard anglinghis former chief secretary, from Calgary Chamber of Commerce President Deborah yedlin. It’s a dangerous flirtation with the mix of delusional conspiracy theories and aimless tough talk that animated Donald Trump’s presidency, and it would do nothing to improve Alberta’s standing in the Confederacy.
But if Kenney wants to blame anyone for his party’s apparent acceptance of Smith’s toxic populism, he should look in the mirror. He was the one who introduced this kind of policy to Alberta, after all. He built his reputation and brand of himself around always being at odds with Ottawa and aggressively disparaging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He proudly spoke of “counterattacking him” strategy, which was much more focused on striking blows to the East than bringing resources and funding to the West. He came to a “Fair Deal” panel that traveled across the province amplifying and validating the grievances that some Albertans had against Ottawa, and raising false hopes about changing the leveling program that he knew was impossible to deliver. In all this sowing, he apparently never understood what he would eventually reap.
At the time, keney and his allies he stated that these efforts were aimed at diverting the province’s separatist movement into more productive and constructive channels. But the tone of the race to replace Kenney, and the role that Smith’s breakaway ideals play in it, shows how big of a flop this apparent strategy was. Instead of pouring water on the fires of alienation and frustration, Kenney’s willingness to indulge served as a jet of gasoline. Now, Alberta may be about to be burned to the ground.
If there is any hope for non-Conservative Albertans, it is that those flames will burn down the UCP first. Smith and his proxies have already clapped back to Kenney, pointing out that an outgoing leader must be a neutral steward of party interests rather than an active participant in determining its future. It’s quite possible that Kenney would rather destroy his group than hand it over to someone like Smith, and he certainly has the means at his disposal to try.
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But it could be too late. like an avid reader and a student of the classics, you can probably see (if not appreciate) the parallels between the movement you’ve created and the famous namesake from Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel. Like Dr. Frankenstein’s monster, the group he created now has a mind of its own. And while it is a mind he played a key role in shaping and guiding, she now seems determined to go further than he would like.
Kenney, after all, almost certainly prefers the restrained version of conservative politics he practiced under Stephen Harper to the no-holds-barred brand currently in vogue. He would rather talk about the merits of corporate tax cuts than the evils of the World Economic Forum. As apparently he saying their caucus in 2021 when a “No More Lockdowns” roundup in Bowden brought to the public’s attention: “If they’re our base, I want a new base.”
But as Smith continues to demonstrate, that is the basis of the UCP. And for all the mistakes and blunders that have defined his administration, this will be Kenney’s enduring legacy. Things like his incredibly incompetent “War Room,” his clumsy handling of COVID-19, and his billion-dollar bug with Keystone XL will fade from people’s memories, especially if the UCP is replaced next year by the NDP. .
Opinion: Jason Kenney introduced UCP’s current brand of toxic populism in #Alberta. @maxfawcett writes for @NatObserver. #populism #UCP
But the creation of this Frankenstein monster of paranoid populism and the control it now exerts over contemporary conservative politics in Canada will endure. The only question that remains is how much damage he will deal, and who will be left to clean it up.