Kenney resurfaces after contentious comments
New PC leader says he’s busy working and not ‘running to microphones’ every day
I have never suggested that notification be mandatory, Every child and circumstance is unique.
He’s back.
Not that he was really ever away.
But for more than two weeks Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney was, as far as the legislature and mainstream media were concerned, missing in action.
It got to the point this week where the NDP caucus issued a news release with the needling headline: “Where’s Kenney Hiding?”
A Kenney spokesman said he “deserves some rest” after winning the PC leadership race.
But come on, we’re talking about Jason Kenney, a workaholic politician who never met a microphone he didn’t like.
The NDP theory, and it’s a good one, was that Kenney had gone into hiding after his bungled comments to a Calgary Herald editorial board March 28 where he seemed to suggest that teachers should “out” LGBTQ students to their parents.
Kenney tried to clarify his position in a Facebook post a day later saying he was not in favour of outing gay students — and then he immediately went to periscope depth.
He popped back to the surface Thursday when he agreed to do a short telephone interview with me.
I wanted to know how the merger talks are going with the Wildrose. But, these days, no interview with Kenney would be complete without asking him whether teachers should inform parents if their children have joined a gay-straight alliance at school.
“I have never suggested that notification be mandatory,” said Kenney as he gingerly made his way through this political minefield.
“Every child and circumstance is unique. These are policies that can apply to children as young as Grade 1 at age five or six. So it seems to me that the principle that should govern what information schools give to parents about their kids on anything is (it is) in the best interest of the child, the safety of the child.
“And I think the best approach is for professionals, for teachers, counsellors and principals, to use their professional experience and training to address each circumstance in the right way without politicians seeking to impose a black and white rigid rule in every circumstance.”
Kenney is trying to walk a tightrope, much like Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, saying he doesn’t want to automatically out students, but leaves the door open if educators think it’s in the best interest of students.
Outing if necessary but not necessarily outing?
Kenney says the NDP has focused on his comments about gay-straight alliances as a “political distraction.”
“The NDP is desperate to talk about anything but the economy.”
There’s definitely truth to that. The NDP is governing in the middle of a recession created by a collapse in the price of oil and has irritated conservatives through a series of policies including the introduction of a carbon levy. It is also running multibillion-dollar deficits every year.
But if the NDP is vulnerable on the fiscal front, Kenney is vulnerable on the socially conservative front, as the NDP is keen to point out when it resurrects old anti-same-sex marriage quotes, for example, from his past.
It’s a fact of life that politicians will use whatever ammunition is available to attack their opponents.
Kenney sounds a little irritated when anyone suggests he has been hiding during the past two weeks, saying he has been busy fulfilling his mandate to unite conservatives: “That’s what
I was elected to do and that’s what I’m doing. That doesn’t mean I have to be running to microphones every single day.”
Except he is now leader of Alberta’s PC party and as such is expected to weigh in on dayto-day issues facing Albertans. That’s what leaders of Alberta political parties do.
And then have their words dissected and inspected like chicken entrails in ancient Rome, but with more blood and less accuracy.
So, anyway, how are talks going to unite the Wildrose and PCs?
“I remain very confident we will be able to get an agreement within a few weeks and then proceed to grassroots ratification on the PC side through a referendum,” says Kenney.
“The bottom line is I believe that by the end of this year or the beginning of 2018 we’ll have a united party with an elected leader.”
On more immediate issues, Kenney says he worries the NDP plans to rewrite the Labour Relations Code will do away with secret votes for union certification in workplaces.
“You will be hearing more from me in the next week,” he says.
Welcome back Mr. Kenney.