‘People Want Someone They Can Trust In Alberta’: Meet Jason Kenney’s First Real Challenger To Leadership

You can get man out of politics, but you can’t get politics out of man, or so the old saying goes.

Once a prominent Alberta politician and leadership rival to his now beleaguered Prime Minister, Brian Jean’s is returning to the partisan arena after years of tragedy and loss.

His response when asked about his return to politics is simple: “Because people matter,” he says.

But the real reason, some say, is that the cracks in Alberta’s United Conservatives government are growing and Jean, apparently, has decided to put the boot in one.

In the coming months, Jean, once leader of Alberta’s Wildrose Party and former UCP MLA, hopes to be the nominee for an open seat in the UCP legislature. He resigned from the position he previously held in 2018 after losing the controversial race for party leadership to Jason Kenney, who became prime minister.

However, with Kenney now on the ropes politically within his own party and facing ever lower approval ratings from Albertans, Jean has made it clear that the available seat at Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche is the first step. in your plan to take over. reigns in the PCU and ultimately becomes prime minister.

Those who know Jean say in many ways that he is the opposite of Kenney. While both are Alberta conservatives with a view to getting a fairer Ottawa shake, Jean has a more populist appeal on the minds of rural Albertans, insiders say.

Kenney is seen as a seasoned businessman and politician known for his fast-paced campaigning, captivating speeches, and impressive recall of events, even if he’s tried on the rancher look at times.

Meanwhile, Jean is a politician who can remove his cowboy boots and truck, while still being identifiable. It’s the kind of sensitivity that can go a long way to Alberta voters.

He’s also more of a hardliner on some controversial policies already underway in Alberta under Kenney and could turn out to be a bigger thorn in Ottawa’s side if he ever becomes prime minister.

Unlike Kenney, Jean does not shy away from the prospect of separating from Canada, just as some Quebecers wanted for their province in the 1990s, in case they had no more scope for their oil and gas industry.

Jean recognizes the difference between him and Kenney.

“I’m not the best speaker,” he says. “That’s Jason Kenney. If you want to hear him, he’s the smoothest talker I’ve ever heard, and I’ve heard a lot of them. “

So who is this challenger? And how does he fare against Kenney, a seasoned political veteran who has only known success and victory at the polls?

Brian Jean with his wife and daughter in his hometown of Fort McMurray

Jean, now 58, was a Conservative MP in Ottawa for years before returning to Alberta in 2015 to run for Wildrose Party leadership. His approach then was very similar to that of now: propping up the provincial health system and controlling finances; though, those two portfolios have taken on additional importance since the pandemic.

“If we are the most expensive (healthcare system), then I agree with that,” says Jean, “as long as our results are number one.”

His focus on medical care stems from the time he spent with his son who got sick and was in and out of the hospital before he died in 2015 at age 24: “I was there for a long time, man, and I have some ideas.”

“It would empower front-line workers, cut middle and upper management (through attrition, not layoffs),” he said.

Kenney’s political origin story is similar to Jean’s. He came to Alberta to first lead the Progressive Conservatives in 2017, then merged the PCs with Jean’s Wildrose Party into the United Conservative Party later that year.

Jean would lose the Conservatives United leadership race to Kenney in 2017, crushed by a political machine backing Kenney, formerly the federal minister to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Allegations of vote rigging and other nasty political cheating have plagued Kenney in the years since. Kenney’s denied allegations that it stole that leadership career.

From there, the two had divergent paths. Kenney would triumph over Notley’s NDP in 2019 with a united party winning an overwhelming majority on the promise of pipelines, jobs and boosting the economy.

For Jean, all of this happened during a tumultuous and tragic time in his life.

In 2015, her son died. In 2016, Jean’s home burned down, along with many other Fort McMurray homes during the devastating wildfires that year.

Since then, Jean has lost her sister to cancer, her mother, and yet another home she was building in Fort McMurray in 2020 when the city was hit by flooding.

Reflecting on everything now during an emotional interview, Jean said it “sounds kind of funny.”

“You know, sometimes I feel like it has to be a made up story.”

But it’s still difficult for Jean to discuss the details without choking.

So why go back, after everything that has happened?

“I can do it,” he says clearly. “I am one of the few people who can. How many people are known to have a track record of building competent and proven teams in Alberta? There are not many.

“People matter,” adds Jean. “Albertans are important. Our public service matters. The people who work here are important. “

After Kenney won the UCP leadership race in 2017 and Jean later left politics, he saw the allegations, first reported by Star in 2018, stemming from the Kenney campaign using illegitimate donations and targeting a puppet candidate whose only job was to attack Jean on behalf of Kenney.

Since then, the former Alberta election commissioner has slapped players in the scheme with thousands of dollars in fines. An RCMP investigation has also been launched and is ongoing, investigating other allegations of identity fraud at Camp Kenney during that run.

Jean says the RCMP has interviewed him multiple times as part of their investigation.

“It disgusts me,” he said, adding that if someone involved is still around if he becomes a leader, it won’t be for long.

For Kenney, things, politically speaking, have been anything but good. The pandemic has presented him with a test that many critics on both ends of the political spectrum say he has failed. Some criticize him for introducing too many public health restrictions, others for not acting fast enough to prevent ICUs from being overwhelmed.

Now, people within PCU circles openly question whether he plans to resign in January or fight until a review of the party’s leadership takes place in April.

When it comes to Jean’s return, insiders speculate whether Jean’s return is a form of revenge against Kenney for his alleged actions during the 2017 race, or if he really feels he has to prevent the United Conservative Party from fracturing over full.

For whatever reason, “people get it,” said a former Wildrose Party member. Even if he goes back to settle the score with Kenney, that’s “a very real human emotion.”

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal party affairs, said that is Jean’s greatest strength as a politician.

“People have always, for whatever reason, felt that they are becoming more human,” said the source.

Kenney appears to have tried to mimic part of that identifiable image, they said. On the campaign trail, Kenney drove around the province in a blue pickup truck and was seen at rodeos, trying to portray that image of Albertan.

But that’s not usually the image Kenney has portrayed since he formed the government.

That said, Kenney has, historically, nonetheless, had an almost mythical reputation for being a crafty political operator who has never lost an election.

In that sense, Jean has a high hill to climb. He has to win a nomination race to be the UCP candidate for the Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche election-by-election, then the election-by-election, then a potential leadership race, and then a general election against the NDP, which is consistently ahead of the UCP in polls.

Jean is also not without controversy. He was recently criticized for a Facebook post that highlighted the ethnicity of his nominated opponent, referring to Fort McMurray resident Joshua Gogo as “a Nigerian economist.”

Jean removed the comment and apologized. He said the post was written by a campaign worker.

He also has some of the same policies as Kenney, but takes an even tougher stance on them.

In October, Alberta held a referendum on whether the equalization program (federal government payments to economically distressed provinces) should be in the country’s constitution. Kenney has long promised such a referendum and faced criticism from experts who say it is not a viable way to gain ground with federal politicians.

But Jean says the referendum was originally his idea. It would be used as a lever to bring Ottawa to the constitutional negotiating table.

If he becomes prime minister, he hopes to not only continue to carry that torch and get the federal government involved in constitutional talks, but also to keep the option of secession from the country on the table.

“It is an option that should be on the table for everyone because if we cannot get along and if we continue to be abused, we are not going to stay in the marriage,” he said.

Still, Jean says he wants to reach “common ground” with the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and criticized Kenney’s “controversial and combative approach” toward “other levels of government.”

“People want someone to trust in Alberta and they don’t trust Jason Kenney,” Jean said. “Right now, I just hope they trust the PCU again with a different leader.”



Reference-www.thestar.com

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