Kenney says UCP leadership candidates should focus on `mainstream' priorities

Premier blames small group of believers in `globalist conspiracy' for his downfall

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney blames anti-vaxxers for his political downfall and says candidates for his job should focus on “mainstream” priorities to build back support for the United Conservative Party.

At an unrelated announcement Tuesday, Kenney took questions from reporters for the first time since before announcing he would resign as premier and UCP leader once a new leader is chosen after he received only 51.4 per cent support in his leadership review.

Kenney said most conservatives are proud of the legacy of the UCP government, its most recent balanced budget and Alberta's economic growth and diversification.

“I think that mainstream conservatives are really enthused by those achievements (and) want to stay on that track. There are going to be some that want to relitigate COVID, and there's this small, but intense group of people who get up out of bed every morning, certain that there is a globalist conspiracy to inflict what they regard as lethal vaccines on people,” said Kenney, adding that those people cannot be persuaded otherwise.

“I would just encourage all candidates to focus on the mainstream concerns of ordinary Albertans, which revolve around jobs, economy, strong public services and a strong province.”

Kenney said “a small group of folks” pushed for his ouster as premier “motivated primarily by their anger and hostility to vaccines” and that many of them had not been members of the UCP or its founding conservative parties prior to the vote.

In the end more than 16,000 party members voted for him to go.

Kenney faced heavy criticism during his leadership for more than just the government's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, including being accused of heavy-handed leadership and forgetting the grassroots of his party.

UCP MLA Jason Stephan, who called for Kenney's resignation, has said Kenney was responsible for stoking division and fear with rhetoric that smeared those who disagreed with the premier as extremists.

Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said Kenney's downfall was about more than COVID and that any minister who chooses to run — including Finance Minister Travis Toews, who announced his intentions Tuesday — is going to have to decide how to handle questions about their time in cabinet.

If they choose to support the government's policies they will have to navigate Kenney's low approval ratings, he said.

But the other option is to agree with those who have openly criticized Kenney.

“(But) Jason Kenney is still the premier and leader of the party.

How do you go about doing that? That's the challenge that Toews or any other minister is going to have.”

Kenney said as the public health restrictions of COVID disappear in the rearview mirror and the economy grows, he believes public support for the UCP government will rebound and the UCP can remain united.

“I think the party I leave is in a good position,” he said.

I think the party I leave is in a good position.

PREMIER JASON KENNEY