Frustrated Kenney facing $20,000 fine
PC leadership candidate complains selection meeting rule ‘too vague’
Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Jason Kenney could be hit with a $20,000 fine after showing up near a delegate selection meeting Wednesday night in southeast Edmonton.
The party’s leadership rules ban candidates from being “in or near” a selection meeting, but Kenney’s team hosted a hospitality suite at the Mill Woods golf course clubhouse, metres from the room where a meeting was taking place.
The former MP’s presence in the building — albeit not inside the meeting itself — caused heated protest from other leadership campaigns and official complaints were passed over to the chief returning officer of the race.
Kenney wasn’t available for an interview on Thursday, but in a blog post on his website, said the campaign rules are too vague.
“What does ‘near’ mean? 10 metres? 100 metres? 1 kilometre? Is the candidate barred from the larger building entirely — a building which the PC Party does not own nor rent as a whole?” he wrote.
“A free and fair process depends on clear, defined rules — not ambiguous language that is subject to arbitrary interpretation.”
Kenney’s communications director, Blaise Boehmer, said his team twice reached out to party officials asking for clarification before the
A free and fair process depends on clear, defined rules — not ambiguous language that is subject to arbitrary interpretation.
kerfuffle Wednesday night, but haven’t heard back.
“It’s clear that the party is under strain from the demands of the leadership contest,” he wrote in an email.
“We clearly made our inquiries in good faith, as we wanted to comply with the party’s rules.”
At the meeting on Wednesday night, party president Katherine O’Neill said she was “very disappointed” in Kenney.
But she said Thursday that she couldn’t comment further now that the matter is under investigation.
On Wednesday night, O’Neill said each candidate put down a $20,000 compliance deposit for good behaviour.
If any delegate is found in contravention of the rules, she said, the chief returning officer can decide on a punishment, include levying a fine.