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The United Conservative Party’s vice president for policy is calling for the resignation of Alberta Prime Minister Jason Kenney, saying he has become a threat to the party.
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In a comment published by Western Standard on Tuesday, Joel Mullan said the public has lost trust in Kenney for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Until last week, I was one of Jason Kenney’s most vocal supporters. I campaigned for him in both the leadership races and the Wildrose-PC unity vote. In light of the decisions he made last week, I can no longer support him, and indeed I think he should resign, ”he wrote, referring to the prime minister’s implementation of COVID-19 measures and a vaccine passport.
Mullan also wrote that Kenney’s tenure as prime minister could have a negative effect on the equalization referendum in October due to his growing unpopularity.
In an interview with Postmedia on Tuesday, Mullan said he felt he had a responsibility to put the party before the prime minister.
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“I admire Jason Kenney, I think he’s brilliant. I just don’t think this is the job for him, ”Mullan said.
Mullan criticized Kenney’s recent handling of COVID-19 policy as “impossible to excuse,” including the government’s plan to rely on vaccines and declare the province “open for the summer” in July.
“Yes, you can make a mistake here and there and go a little too hard on something, but it has been consistent: speak in absolute terms and end up painted in a corner, and the only way out is to become a liar. ” he said.
In an unrelated press conference on Tuesday, Kenney said he was focused on the pandemic and not on the party’s internal politics.
“It’s literally a matter of life and death, so for me to improvise a kind of dispute and an internal party process, I think the vast majority of Albertans would be seen as some kind of self-indulgent political spectacle,” he said.
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Kenney said Tuesday that he knew the vaccine passport, something he previously said he would not implement, would anger members of his group and party, but that it was the right thing to do.
“In terms of leadership and domestic politics, let’s address those things at the right time, when we’ve gotten through the crisis, not in the middle of the crisis,” Kenney said.
A UCP caucus meeting is scheduled for Wednesday.
The prime minister has been criticized by his own MLAs during the pandemic for his handling of the crisis and since he announced the measures last week.
On Friday, Mullan wrote an email to the UCP board asking for an early leadership review of Kenney’s performance as prime minister.
Last Wednesday, Richard Gotfried, Calgary-Fish Creek UCP MLA, said he was “deeply regretful” for failing to convince the government to announce stronger public health restrictions sooner.
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In May, MLAs Todd Loewen and Drew Barnes, a longtime critic of the government’s COVID-19 policy, were expelled from the UCP caucus after Loewen challenged Kenney’s leadership. They both now feel like independent MLAs.
A review of Kenney’s leadership is scheduled at the party’s annual general meeting in 2022.
However, if 22 districts pass the same resolution calling for a leadership review before March 1, the party must conduct a review.
Meanwhile, Mullan claimed that Kenney played a role in the results of Monday’s federal elections, in which the Conservative Party of Canada lost about 14 percent of its popular support in Alberta.
“You really have to ask yourself, and certainly listening to the people who were at the door seems to confirm it, that this is partly due to the provincial leadership that we have now,” he told Postmedia, adding that the federal elections did not. t precipitated party unrest, but delayed Mullan’s public call until Tuesday.
“I didn’t want to be picking up dirt that could cloud problems in the federal elections. Also, I didn’t want to get lost in the noise of the federal elections, ”he said.
Reference-edmontonjournal.com