Western Standard - August 15, 2022


Kenney poking his nose into the UCP leadership race


Episode Stats


Length

4 minutes

Words per minute

214.26927

Word count

931

Sentence count

54


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Jason Kenney enters the race to lead the United Conservative Party of Alberta. Jason Kenney is a former premier who served as premier of Alberta between 2015 and 2018, but is now running for the party leadership.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Most Albertans, we shudder at the prospect of a return to four more years of living under an NDP
00:00:04.500 government. A number of factors led to that disastrous election in 2015. I mean, there was
00:00:09.760 mistrust, bad campaigns, and of course, a divided conservative movement. But the Wildrose Party and
00:00:15.620 the Progressive Conservatives battling each other throughout the campaign that allowed the NDP to
00:00:19.300 slide up the middle and win a majority government. So I mean, it took a lot of compromise and a lot
00:00:25.120 of work. But the factionalized conservatives of Alberta managed to pull it together under
00:00:28.940 the United banner with the UCP in time for the 2019 election. And with a single conservative
00:00:34.080 option to look at, voters happily tossed the NDP to the curb and gave the UCP a solid majority.
00:00:39.780 And Jason Kenney deserves full credit for pulling all of that off. He was integral. He had the vision
00:00:44.760 and he got it together. Now though, Jason Kenney could be the one who fractures the movement all
00:00:49.800 over again as he wades into the leadership race for the UCP. It was unprecedented as it is, you know,
00:00:57.880 for Kenney to remain on as a party leader as the race was held. I mean, that was already odd. Party
00:01:02.980 leaders have been known to stay on after announcing their resignations, but that's usually when the
00:01:06.500 leader's willingly choosing to resign, you know, on their own terms. When the leader's been tossed
00:01:10.840 out by their own members as Kenney had been, they tend to move on into the background after that.
00:01:15.400 Well, whether it's an interim leader or an upcoming incumbent, it's usually recognized that the
00:01:19.400 leader stays out of the leadership race. They certainly hold their views, but they keep it to
00:01:24.020 themselves. Kenney has broken that convention now though, as he went on a tirade about Danielle
00:01:29.360 Smith's proposed Sovereignty Act. Kenney did this on a weekly radio show where he's supposed to be
00:01:34.300 speaking as the premier. If it's going to turn into a platform for the leadership race, maybe it's time
00:01:38.280 for that show to come to an end as well. The Sovereignty Act now, I mean, that's the main plank of
00:01:43.780 Smith's campaign. And in light of her apparent status as the front runner of the race, I'd say to say
00:01:48.140 the proposal appeals to many, if not most, of the members at this point. And whether or not it's
00:01:54.360 workable or desirable will be determined by the members. If they select Smith, it would then head
00:02:00.660 to the legislature for debate. Then it could be embraced, demanded, or scrapped by our elected
00:02:04.920 officials. Kenney still doesn't understand that his tough talk and weak actions when it came to
00:02:11.160 dealing with Ottawa is what led to his ouster from the party in the first place. Members have had it with
00:02:15.580 limp-wristed reactions to federal overreach, and Smith has offered them a lifeline. Members wanted
00:02:21.260 to see something, anything, that the province can do to stand up to Ottawa. They're frustrated to the
00:02:26.020 point where it doesn't matter if it's legally viable. They're ready to go on the offensive with
00:02:30.340 a hostile federal government after years of failed defensive actions. And the Sovereignty Act offers
00:02:35.260 a possible tool for that. If the Sovereignty Act fails, well, true secessionism is really going to
00:02:40.840 rise as people are going to feel they're out of options. Maybe Smith's proposals were irresponsible.
00:02:45.060 Maybe other candidates have better plans. Whatever the case may be, though, having the outgoing
00:02:49.560 premier weighing in right now is fostering new divisions in a party that desperately needs to
00:02:54.520 maintain unity. Leadership races can usually be heated and divisive. If they're held responsibly,
00:03:00.460 though, they don't need to lead to the fracturing of the party. It was no secret that Kenney and the
00:03:04.460 establishment in the party support Travis Taves in the leadership. Again, though, Kenney should have
00:03:09.260 been keeping it to himself. With such heated rhetoric coming from the outgoing leader, supporters of
00:03:13.600 Taves and Smith are going to be more deeply entrenched in their views and taking them more
00:03:17.780 personally than ever. Now, no matter what candidate wins, it's going to be all the more difficult for
00:03:22.080 them to consolidate their leadership and unite the members in time for a general election that's less
00:03:26.840 than a year away. The UCB right now is lucky. There's no alternative conservative parties well
00:03:32.240 established right now. The Wildrose Independence Party is ripping themselves apart with infighting and
00:03:36.220 won't be in any position to seriously contest the next election. And the other registered conservative
00:03:41.160 leaning parties really are unheard of. This can't be taken for granted, though. Seven months is an
00:03:45.880 eternity in politics and a lot can change by election time. I can't see a new entity winning
00:03:50.420 the next election, but one could manage to cause enough division to lead to another notly term in
00:03:54.020 office. Kenney's no novice political operator. He knew how serious it would be if he stepped into
00:03:59.200 the leadership race. One has to start wondering at this point, is Kenney have the best interest of the
00:04:03.220 province and the party in mind right now? Or is he just hoping that nobody will succeed where he failed?
00:04:07.340 We're heading for some hard economic times. The last thing Alberta needs is to sink into another four years
00:04:12.340 of high spending socialism under Notley. I'd hope Kenney could go out with dignity. It doesn't look that way
00:04:17.900 and that hope's fading and we all could be paying the price for it.