NDP’s push to decry Kenney could backfire

Are you scared yet?

The Alberta election is just weeks away and Jason Kenney is lurking.

He’s inside the house, coming for your health care, your reproductive rights, your children’s future and anything else he can get his conservative claws on.

You’ll be lucky to escape with a few energy efficient light bulbs.

That, at least, is the bogeyman image the NDP is trying to create around Kenney with the launch of a new website cataloguing all of his alleged misdeeds.

I confess I like a good horror show as much as anyone else, though my tastes tend to skew toward the likes of John Carpenter and Wes Craven.

The NDP’s new website, unfortunately, is far more reminiscent of Karl Rove.

The launch came on an eventful Thursday with duelling news conferences in downtown Edmonton. While Kenney was announcing an election platform of sweeping democratic reforms, NDP house leader Brian Mason was 10 blocks away unveiling thetruthaboutjasonkenney.ca.

In fact, the website offers several “truths” about Kenney, detailing his past years as an activist against LGBTQ rights and abortion, his time in Ottawa, and numerous controversies that have come up since he moved to Alberta politics in 2016.

In explaining the NDP’s rationale, Mason insisted the website was not so much a hit job but rather a resource for Albertans to judge Kenney’s record.

“I think it’s very important that it be factually based, that it be sourced and referenced and that we are not getting into a bunch of mudslinging rhetoric,” Mason said.

On the surface, Mason is correct. Though completely one-sided toward the negative aspects of Kenney’s history, the information on the website is generally well covered territory and offers links to news stories and official reports.

And it’s not an entirely bad idea to have a central place for Albertans to get a fuller picture of the controversies that have dogged the UCP leader.

I am a little surprised the NDP went to these lengths to scare Albertans.

But if the NDP was serious about wanting the website to be a fair, fact-based effort and truly wanted Albertans to judge Kenney for themselves, they would have constructed the site in a far more neutral way.

Fire up your favourite internet browser and you’ll see what I mean.

Sensationalist headlines in all capital letters. National Enquirer-style banners. Unflattering pictures. Photoshopped images. All of it presented in stark black and white, gouged with streaks of blood red.

Some of the content is also questionable. As an example, the section where the NDP accuses Kenney of repeated rule breaking includes a number of allegations that are still under investigation, did not involve Kenney at all, and may have no “truth” to them whatsoever.

You can guess what the NDP was thinking. Negative advertising has been shown to be an effective tool in elections.

And the UCP certainly has its attack dogs, whether it be political action committees, and a handful of social media accounts that regularly stir up fears of a socialist ogre dressed in orange.

You can see how the NDP might have felt it needed its own vehicle for this type of ugly campaigning. To fight fire with fire.

The problem is that leaving the high road for the mud in the gutter typically comes at a higher cost for parties on the left.

You have to remember, the NDP has tried to build a reputation as the defenders of the downtrodden, champions for fairness, justice and equality.

By engaging in such character assassination, I suspect many Albertans will see this as the moment when the NDP went from being well-intentioned do-gooders to schoolyard thugs.

The effort is mean-spirited and clumsy enough that it may actually get voters to feel sympathy for Kenney rather than making him the monster.

In this case, fighting fire with fire comes with a big risk of backfire.

Ultimately the website is a tool in a broader effort by the NDP to focus this election on the character of the two party leaders, particularly Kenney.

That’s because despite the UCP’s strong poll numbers, there are indications that voters — including many UCP supporters — have reservations about Kenney.

In the NDP camp, the opposite is true, in which Notley’s favourability ratings are considerably higher than that of the party she leads.

Which is why you can see the advantage to the NDP of turning the election into a popularity contest between the two leaders.

It’s also why Mason, rather than Notley, was chosen to head the news conference, since it allowed the NDP leader to stay above the fray.

That’s a trick Kenney has used as well, in which he publicly calls for decorum and decries incivility, all while allowing others to do the dirty work.

The 2019 election was always destined to be a nasty affair, but I am a little surprised the NDP went to these lengths to scare Albertans.

But maybe it’s the NDP who should be frightened.

After all, that’s what you should feel when you jump the shark.