Kenney says a key priority is to recruit election ‘A-Team’

Calgary MLA Dave Rodney will quit Wednesday, opening the door for Jason Kenney to pursue a seat and go face to face with Premier Rachel Notley on the floor of the legislature.

It’s an important move for Kenney, who was elected leader of the United Conservative Party on Saturday.

With Alberta grinding ever closer to the 2019 provincial election, Kenney told media Sunday afternoon the leader of the Opposition needs to be in the house.

Rodney currently holds CalgaryLougheed, a solidly conservative seat in the city’s deep southwest corner. On Sunday, with his wife and children in tow, Rodney said he was proud to have served the riding since 2004.

Rodney said he approached Kenney to offer his seat months ago, after the Progressive Conservative leadership race.

Details were finalized in the final days of the UCP race, he said, and there was no secretive deal made between the two men.

Notley has six months to call a byelection.

In Edmonton Sunday, deputy premier Sarah Hoffman said the premier would consider a number of factors to work out a byelection date.

But no matter when voters head to the polls, Hoffman said there would “absolutely” be an NDP candidate on the ballot.

“We welcome any time to be able to engage with Calgarians about our vision and what it stands for,” Hoffman said.

Rodney’s departure is the latest in legislature musical chairs in the lead-up to the fall session, which begins Monday.

The others include former UCPers Rick Fraser and Derek Fildebrandt, who are both sitting as independents.

Then there’s former New Democrat Karen McPherson, who left her caucus in early October and is now joining the Alberta Party.

KENNEY GETS TO WORK

Sunday marked Kenney’s first news conference since being elected with 61 per cent of the votes, defeating former Wildrose leader Brian Jean and Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer.

The next few months will see the new UCP leader building up the party’s base.

“One of my key priorities next year will be encouraging an A-Team of diverse Albertans to run for the legislature,” he said.

But Kenney wasn’t keen to discuss social policy issues on Sunday, saying criticism is coming solely from the “NDP anger machine.”

“The louder and more hysterical they get … in their rhetoric, the less people listen to them,” he said.

He also accused the government of playing wedge politics on divisive social issues to deflect from its economic record.

In response, Hoffman called Kenney “completely out of touch with Alberta values.”

She said she’s only angry at Kenney’s position on gay-straight alliances and revisiting a woman’s right to choose.

When asked for his reaction to the government’s planned legislation making it illegal to inform parents if their child joins a GSA, Kenney said he wouldn’t comment until he’s seen the bill.

UCP TAKE THEIR SEATS

Question period Monday will be an important test for the UCP caucus.

The leadership race is still raw, but Opposition MLAs will, for the first time, sit together in a united front against the governing NDP, which plans to introduce more than a dozen pieces of legislation in the coming weeks.

The party won’t hold its founding convention to sort out policies and a constitution until the first weekend in May.

That means the UCP heads into the house — and Kenney toward a byelection — without any concrete policies or platforms.

Kenney declined to say Sunday who will be named house leader.

The caucus has been under the guiding hand of interim leader Nathan Cooper, member for OldsDidsbury-Three Hills, since the party was formed in July.