KENNEY QUICK TO BOUNCE ‘BOZOS’
UCP leAder shows no tolerAnCe for pArty memBers who Could disrupt ’19 CAmpAign
The “elite media” are the least of Jason Kenney’s worries. The UCP leader is having far more trouble with his own kind.
Here’s the latest blast from Independent MLA Derek Fildebrandt, who was ejected by Kenney:
“You expect politicians to start acting entitled near the end of a first term in government, or in their second term.
“This is the first time I’ve seen it start the day the leader was chosen.
“Kenney is already measuring the curtains for the premier’s office instead of paying attention to the grassroots.”
That’s one view. Another is that he’s making sure the knobs on the grassroots don’t destroy UCP chances for victory.
On the weekend, Kenney’s candidate inspectors scrubbed Medicine Hat hopeful Todd Beasley from the list for party nomination.
Beasley’s views on Islam (“cruel, revolting, racist, oppressive and has no legitimate basis”) are far outside the mainstream of any Canadian party.
That’s just the printable stuff. Beasley went on (“evil cult,” etc.), adding fevered opinions of the Prophet Muhammad.
Beasley told Postmedia’s Sammy Hudes that he was angry at the time he made the Facebook posts and “may have gone over the line a bit.” Nonetheless, it’s “ridiculous” to call him a racist.
Kenney did the only thing possible. He fired the guy.
It was the same dilemma Wildrose Leader Danielle Smith faced in the 2012 election campaign, when it emerged that one of her candidates had said gays would roast in an eternal Lake of Fire. She was advised to eject this fellow, an evangelical named Allan Hunsperger.
Smith, herself a tolerant person and no social conservative, refused because of her libertarian belief in free speech. She lost.
Kenney won’t dance on the head of that pin. He’s a practical politician who also claims a long record of personal tolerance.
Faced with the first dramatic test of leadership tolerance, he did the right thing. That’s reassuring at a time when the U.S. president foments and encourages intolerance.
The UCP wasn’t done with its very bad Monday, though.
There’s still the embarrassing jam over Prab Gill, the Calgary UCPMLAwhoquitthecaucus following a retired judge’s report into ballot-box stuffing at his riding nomination vote.
The NDP demands that this report be released. It should be. But the UCP refuses.
On top of that, the NDP’s energetic scandal-sniffers revealed Monday that Gill had expensed the legislature $7,245 for an unrelated partisan event. The UCP, not the legislature, should have paid.
Legislature funding for party caucuses is supposed to be reserved for government and public issues, not party promotion or infighting.
Kenney’s party quickly called the billing “an error” and pledged to refund the money.
The NDP gets to carve a notch on the post- Stampede hitching post. But it is peculiar that this highly partisan blast came from the NDP caucus.
Although there’s no excuse for the UCP “error,” it’s obvious nearly every day that both parties use their caucus funding to research and attack each other.
The UCP troubles certainly show growing pains as the party ramps up its nomination contests. But there was bound to be trouble. Kenney even warned about it.
Last month, he said candidate screening would be rigorous because “as a representative of a political party you have to demonstrate a degree of discipline.
“Because otherwise one person’s crazy remarks can tarnish a party made up of hundreds of thousands of people.
“We will never let that happen again. We can’t let that happen again.”
Kenney means to win. And the main threat to the UCP — maybe the only significant one — is infiltration by “bozo” elements that would prove the NDP is correct.