First O’Toole and now Kenney: What it means for conservatism

Members are asking themselves which way the party should go

Kenney announced his resignation as United Conservative Party leader and Alberta premier late Wednesday

OTTAWA As conservatives across Canada reacted to the fall of Jason Kenney, a defining voice in their political movement, a Liberal from the Tory heartland offered an outsider’s diagnosis into the state of conservatism in the country.

“Mr. Kenney was pushed out of his party because he wasn’t extreme enough,” Tourism Minister Randy Boissonnault, an Edmonton MP, declared Thursday.

“It’s time for the moderates in conservative movements in this country to step up and ask themselves: Where is this train going?”

Kenney announced his resignation as United Conservative Party leader and Alberta premier late Wednesday after narrowly winning a membership review by 51 per cent of the vote.

The former federal cabinet minister is the latest conservative leader to exit their party after considerable internal pressure to do so. Erin O’Toole, the former federal Conservative leader, was voted out by MPs after months of dissatisfaction with his management of caucus and attempts to moderate the party’s image on climate, spending and LGBTQ issues.

It’s in this climate federal Conservative party members are asking themselves which way the party should go when a new leader is chosen Sept. 10.

The race to date, which features six candidates in the running, has been punctuated by personal attacks and characterized as a fight for the soul of the party.

Those dynamics recently spilled over into its caucus, when on Wednesday Ed Fast, a longtime MP who is helping chair Jean Charest’s leadership campaign, stepped down from his role as the Conservative finance critic. The move came hours after he criticized Charest rival Pierre Poilievre for proposing to fire the Bank of Canada governor over the country’s high inflation rate.

For Calgary MP Greg McLean, who has yet to endorse anyone for leader contest, the “nastiness” of the tone of the race “just doesn’t work.”

He said what happens on the campaign trail should stay there and not be allowed to interfere in the work MPs are doing in the House of Commons to hold the Liberal government to account.