Kenney tries to appease dissenters
In convention speech to party faithful, premier admits COVID decisions have been unpopular
I know that many of you are angry with me and our government.
JASON KENNEY, ALBERTA PREMIER
In a frank keynote address to hundreds of United Conservatives — many of them presently unfriendly to their leader — Premier Jason Kenney on Saturday offered some contrition and a plea for quiet resolve going into the next several months, time that could pave the way to his eventual ouster from the party he founded.
The weekend address from Kenney, who is currently embattled under internal manoeuvring to get rid of him and facing near rock-bottom public approval ratings, was highly anticipated by some 1,500 party delegates who have gathered in Calgary to attend the UCP annual general meeting.
After walking out to the song “Takin’ Care of Business” by BachmanTurner Overdrive, Kenney wasted no time in addressing the internal division within the United Conservatives over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I know that many of you are angry with me and our government,” he said, acknowledging the public health restrictions his government has put in place, including vaccine passports, which have made him unpopular with a chunk of his party.
He also said that those views were expressed in his own caucus.
But there was “absolutely no doubt” that without those restrictions, ICUs would have been totally overwhelmed and he would have been faced with the decision of implementing triage protocols.
“The very thought of that filled me with dread,” Kenney said. “I don’t care what the political consequences are, I cannot and will not let that happen.”
To that, he received a round of applause from the crowd. Kenney went on to rattle off the economic success Alberta is currently experiencing coming out of the pandemic, warning of the peril of a potential NDP government in the future and listing his own government’s many pieces of legislation it has passed since 2019.
The crowd was receptive. He received multiple standing ovations and rounds of applause, but it was still a far cry from the booming celebration that was the 2019 annual general meeting held after the UCP won an overwhelming majority in that year’s election.
Some in the crowd Saturday did not stand or applaud for Kenney.
Near the end, he asked for the party to focus on “the people’s business” and to “address and resolve those internal differences internally,” adding that he welcomed the leadership review scheduled for the spring.
“Ultimately, the members of this party will decide what they want to do,” he said.
Then, Kenney walked off to the song “I Won’t Back Down” by Tom Petty.
Whether his speech worked to quell rising discontent among the crowd will remain to be seen.
United Conservative delegates descended on the city for a weekend of schmoozing, policy proposal voting, board elections and wild speculation about what the future of the party holds. Brian Jean, the former Wildrose Party leader and the first real contender to Kenney’s leadership, was also in attendance over the weekend.
Jean told reporters after the speech that Kenney has not “made great decisions.”
“I believe it’s come down to trust, and he’s lost the trust of caucus,” he said, adding that he didn’t think the speech would be effective.
Tany Yao, the UCP MLA for Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo, told reporters that he didn’t “necessarily believe (Kenney) said all that he could” in the speech and estimated that only about 50 per cent of the people in the crowd were still supporters of Kenney.
When asked if he still wanted Kenney as premier, Yao didn’t answer, only saying: “You guys are putting me in such a spot here, aren’t ya?”
Yao said Kenney kept his speech at a high level and that he’d hoped Kenney would have shown some “acknowledgment of the reality that’s around him.”
“As a seasoned politician like himself, I think he needs to acknowledge that there’s some discontent and he needs to address that discontent,” Yao said.
Friday night, one of the more anticipated moments of the weekend took place in a governance policy proposal debate, seen by some as a small proxy vote on Kenney’s leadership.
The vote was whether the party should raise the threshold — from one quarter to one third — on constituency associations to make it harder for them to collectively pass motions looking to hold special general meetings.
The vote took place right after the exact scenario it was targeting had already happened.
One quarter, or 22, constituency associations had, just days before the convention, already passed a motion demanding an early leadership review take place before March at a special general meeting.
One is already scheduled for April, but the group wants it even sooner.
Some of those constituency associations have criticized the proposal for being an attack on the grassroots of the party while those who proposed it out of the EdmontonNorthwest constituency said “one quarter of CA’s shouldn’t be able to overthrow a leader.”
“The bar is set too low and opens the party up to troublemaking by a small minority of CA boards,” the proposal said.
The policy failed to pass. It needed 75 per cent support but only got 57 per cent.