EDMONTON –
Alberta’s Prime Minister Jason Kenny says he “can’t wait” for the results of his leadership vote, which he is sure will win, and calls on all parties to the internal feud to stop their public snipers in the meantime.
Kenny also reiterated that if he wins the May 18 show and remains the leader, there will be a sharp crackdown on members of the dissident group who fail to line up and support him and his United Conservative Party.
“I can’t wait to finally put this behind us with the May 18 vote in the Leadership Review vote,” Kenny said on his statewide radio show on Saturday.
“I would ask everyone, regardless of their views on the future of the party, to try to keep it inside, stay focused and let the members decide, and then we will continue one way or another.”
Kenny said he heard from members that they wanted the UCP to “unite.”
Kenny needs at least 50 percent plus a majority to remain a leader in the vote, or a leadership race must be called.
Nearly 60,000 party members are receiving ballots to be sent back by May 11, with the results announced on May 18.
Kenny said this week that he was probably too tolerant of the public dissent of the band members and once again suggested that if he won, there would be retribution.
“I hope and I’m sure I’ll get approval,” Kenny said Saturday.
“And I will read it as an endorsement of unity, the discipline (s) of moving forward into the future, focused on Alberta’s key priorities, not domestic politics.
“I will expect all our colleagues in the group to respect the democratic decision of the members.
“Our assembly has demonstrated in the past that there is a limit to our willingness to accept constant attacks on government and the team and confidentiality.
“You cannot work as a government without at least a basic level of professionalism, discipline and unity.
Kenny has been facing repulsion from some members of the group for more than a year.
They criticized him for his decisions on COVID-19 and for running, as they call it, a top-down administration that was deaf in tone, with a brief omission of ordinary people’s contributions. Kenny’s position is not supported by the slow popularity and fundraising numbers.
For the most part, this criticism has been somewhat silenced, limited to public posts on Facebook and attacks that fail to name Kenny specifically.
Exceptions include backpacker Todd Lowen, who called on Kenny to step down a year ago and was immediately voted out of the group. At the same time, Kenny’s critic Drew Barnes was expelled.
In recent weeks, as a review of Kenny’s leadership saw that the rules had changed in the last minute from a personal vote to a postal vote, criticism has grown louder and sharper.
Backbenchers Peter Guthrie and Jason Stephen have called on Kenny to leave. Guthrie dismissed the pickup truck of Kenny, the persona of Everyman, as a cruel trick done to voters.
Stefan told the house this week, without naming Kenny, that unity was not in marching behind the leader over a rock.
Leila Ahir, who was fired from the cabinet last year after criticizing Kenny, says the UCP’s name is tainted by corruption.
Vice President Angela Pete described the government as a closed circle of decision-makers contemptuous of dissenting votes.
Backbencher Richard Gottfried said the government has stopped listening and is not focusing on what is best for Alberts.
Brian Jean, who recently won the UCP by-elections with a promise to try to oust Kenny, said he said a lot that Kenny presented himself as the best hope for unity, while his affairs manager simultaneously attacked selected members of the Kenny group. .
Jean was referring to Kenny’s manager Brian Rodgers, who mocked Kenny’s critics as clowns on Twitter on Friday as he used a picture of fat-painted circus artists from the Simpsons TV show.
Kenny himself – in an leaked audio recording – called his critics “lunatics” and “wonderful people” and compared them to insects attracted by the bright light of his party’s success.
The leader of his government house, Jason Nixon, portrayed Jean as a supporter of the opposition NDP.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on April 23, 2022.
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