Kenney confident heading into tail end of PC leadership race
With the Progressive Conservative party’s weekend rejection of a bid to oust him from the race, Jason Kenney is feeling good about his chances to win the Tory leadership — and his ability to pull the party together after a bruising contest.
In an interview Monday, Kenney claimed his leadership campaign — based on a platform of uniting the PCs with the Wildrose — has won an absolute majority of delegates for next month’s leadership convention in Calgary.
“We feel very confident but we’re not taking anything for granted,” said the former Conservative MP.
On Sunday, the PC party’s leadership election committee ruled against a complaint brought by Calgary lawyer Jeff Rath calling for Kenney to be booted out of the race for damaging the party’s brand. Rath had been a lead fundraiser for one of Kenney’s rivals in the race, Richard Starke, but the VermilionLloydminster MLA said Sunday he had asked him to step down from the campaign and withdraw the complaint.
Kenney said he was not surprised the committee dismissed what he called a “frivolous” complaint. And while he had taken online pokes at Starke and his campaign over Rath’s move before the MLA’s Sunday statement, Kenney said the wounds of the campaign can be quickly healed following the convention no matter who wins.
“I hope and believe we can all come together and respect the decision made by the members,” said Kenney.
Starke and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson, both running for the leadership on a pledge to renew the party under the PC brand, say Kenney does not have an insurmountable lead in the race.
Each man notes that delegates are not locked in to any candidate and can change their mind.
“We’re still five weeks from the vote. And as you know, a lot can change in five weeks, one direction or the other,” said Starke, who added that bringing the party together will be “the first item of business” for whoever wins on March 18.
With only a handful of delegate selection meetings left to go, fevers are running high within the PC ranks, acknowledged Nelson.
“It’s a very emotional race,” he said.
Some Tories opposed to Kenney, known during his time in Ottawa as a social and fiscal conservative, are already contemplating whether they have a future in the party if he wins the leadership.
“If your priority is more progressive social policy than fiscal policy, it’s going to be a hard sell,” said Donal O’Beirne, a member of the Edmonton-Centre PC constituency association board.
“I won’t pretend it’s not going to be a struggle for me. I really don’t know what I’m going to do.”
The Tory leadership race originally had six candidates, but three other contenders who were opposed to Kenney’s unity pitch have dropped out.
Former MLA Donna KennedyGlans left the race last fall saying she expected Kenney to win and questioning whether she had a place in that version of the party.
In an email Monday, she said that while Kenney’s campaign had brought together fiscal conservatives, the jury is still out on the process.
“There is clarity on many of the economic values ... But, there is a need for more dialogue on how more socially progressive values can be included to make people feel at home in a so-called big tent,” she wrote.