A CONSERVATIVE CIVIL WAR IS COMING

Jean and Kenney are keeping the peace for now, but it can’t last

PONOKA They are the best of enemies and the worst of friends.

If they were teenage girls, they’d be frenemies.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean and Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney are living an awkward truce as they enter the final weeks of their unification campaign.

On July 22, members of both parties will vote on whether to merge into the United Conservative Party.

A civil war is brewing no matter the outcome.

A “No” vote would create a civil war between the two conservative parties.

A “Yes” vote would create a civil war between Jean and Kenney as they immediately move into an official campaign for leadership of the new party.

Either way, the leaders of Alberta’s two conservative parties will be at each other’s throats in a matter of days.

But for now, they are allies working together to sell party memberships and convince supporters to vote for unification.

Well, they’re not really working together. The two leaders are running their unification campaigns more like separate leadership campaigns.

Just look at last Friday in Ponoka.

Jean’s team had worked long and hard to plan his appearance at the annual Ponoka Stampede. Not only would Jean be in the parade, he’d have his official Brian Jean RV parked at the entrance to the stampede grounds and a booth set up inside a trade fair hall to sell memberships. He’d be a guest at the mayor’s luncheon and he’d be addressing the rodeo crowd in the afternoon.

The Ponoka Stampede was Jean territory. He’d be doing everything but wrestling a steer.

And then Kenney turned up like a rodeo bull in Jean’s china shop.

The first inkling that Kenney was moseying into town came when Jean supporters returned from a break to find a Kenney banner added to their Wildrose booth in the trade fair.

And then came Kenney himself riding in the back of a pickup in the stampede parade, just a few floats back from Jean’s truck.

Kenney later showed up to the luncheon and his appearance meant that Jean’s solo address to the rodeo crowd became a duet. The two made their unification pitch sitting atop a stagecoach as it circled the arena.

“The future of Alberta is going to be decided in just a couple of weeks,” said Jean. “I ask all of you to think about buying a membership in the Wildrose party and support unity.”

“We Albertans are going to take our province back,” said Kenney. “We want to ask folks to sign up with either or both the PC or the Wildrose parties in the next few days so you get a right to choose the future of our province.”

This is the public face of the unity campaign: two tough hombres working together to rescue Alberta from those tax-andspend bushwhacking NDP.

The reality: they’re two ambitious gunslingers resisting the temptation to shoot each other in the back before July 22.

Jean’s supporters were irritated by Kenney’s appearance at the rodeo, feeling he had shown up at the last minute to steal Jean’s thunder.

An official in Kenney’s camp denied the accusation, saying Kenney had decided last May to attend the stampede. However, the official didn’t explain why, when I asked for Kenney’s agenda last week, I was told he’d be in Calgary. No mention of Ponoka.

Wildrose volunteers kept their grumbling mostly to themselves, not wanting to make a scene that would embarrass their leader. But in the back of their minds was the memory of how Kenney supporters, using tactics fair and foul, steamrolled their way to victory in the PC leadership race last March.

They’re worried about the same thing happening in the upcoming leadership race. They worry because not only do they respect Jean as leader, they really like him as a person.

Curtis Goughnour has been a member of the Wildrose since it was formed 2008. He stuck with the party after most of the Wildrose politicians, including his own local MLA, crossed the floor to the PCs in December of 2014.

Goughnour speaks in awe of Jean emerging as the new party leader just days after the death of his son and just days before the start of the 2015 provincial election — where he led the party back from the brink to official Opposition status.

“I don’t know if we’d have done

They’re two ambitious gunslingers resisting the temptation to shoot each other in the back before July 22.

it without Brian,” said Goughnour. “Brian, to me, was the one that brought us all together.”

Public polls indicate Jean is better known and more popular than Kenney. However, in some ways, Kenney has not yet begun to fight.

Oh, he might enjoy crashing Jean’s parties, but these days Kenney is focused on getting the unity deal ratified July 22.

If that happens, he’ll come out guns blazing for the leadership race against Jean on July 23.

If the deal isn’t ratified, Kenney will come out guns blazing as he wages war against those who prevented unification.

A civil war in some form is coming to Alberta conservatives.