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SOURCE: Wikipedia, captured 2020-07-09
Jason Thomas Kenney PC MLA (born May 30, 1968) is a Canadian politician, currently [2021-07-29] serving as the 18th Premier of Alberta since 2019, and Leader of the United Conservative Party since 2017. He was the last leader of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, before the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta's merger with the Wildrose Party and subsequent dissolution later that year. He was elected the Member of the Legislative Assembly of Alberta for Calgary-Lougheed in a by-election held on December 14, 2017.
Jason Kenney previously represented the riding of Calgary Midnapore in the House of Commons of Canada from 1997 until 2016 (known as Calgary Southeast until 2015). Initially elected as a candidate of the Reform Party of Canada, Kenney was re-elected as a Canadian Alliance candidate in 2000, and then re-elected four times as the candidate of the Conservative Party of Canada.
Following the Conservative victory in the 2006 general election, Kenney was appointed Parliamentary Secretary for the Prime Minister of Canada. On January 4, 2007, he was sworn into the Privy Council as the Secretary of State for Multiculturalism and Canadian Identity. Kenney held the post of Minister for Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism from October 30, 2008, to July 15, 2013, when he became Minister of Employment and Social Development and Minister for Multiculturalism. On February 9, 2015, he was named Minister of National Defence. Kenney was considered a potential party leader following the defeat of the Conservative government in October 2015 and resignation of Stephen Harper as leader.
On July 6, 2016, Jason Kenney announced his intention to run for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta in that party's 2017 leadership election. Kenney resigned his seat in Parliament on September 23, 2016, after sitting in the House of Commons for 19 years. He was elected leader of the
On 2019-04-16, Kenney successfully led the United Conservative Party to majority government in the 2019 Alberta general election, defeating the previous government led by Rachel Notley of the New Democratic Party with 63 seats and 54.88% of the popular vote and securing only the fifth change of government in Alberta's political history. The premiership of Jason Kenney began on April 30, 2019 when was sworn in by Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Lois Mitchell forming the 30th Alberta Legislature and becoming the 18th Premier of Alberta.
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On October 28, 2017, Kenney was elected as the first full-time leader of the new United Conservative Party of Alberta. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the riding of Calgary-Lougheed in a by-election held on December 14, 2017, after MLA Dave Rodney resigned his seat in order to create a vacancy for Kenney. Normal practice in the Westminster system calls for an MP holding a safe seat to resign in order to give a newly elected leader a chance to enter the legislature.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Alberta Election Commissioner are investigating allegations that Jason Kenney and his team were involved in orchestrating Jeff Callaway's campaign for the leadership of the United Conservative Party in an attempt to harm Kenney's biggest rival, Brian Jean. Documents obtained by The Star confirm that Kenney's campaign controlled major aspects of Callaway's campaign, including the providing of strategic plans, attack ads, speeches, and talking points intended to discredit Jean. These documents have since been handed over the election commissioner, according to Callaway's former campaign manager, Cameron Davies. Davies also said that Kenney had attended a meeting at Callaway's house in July 2017 where the "kamikaze campaign" was discussed and that Kenney had first-hand knowledge of this strategy.
A leaked document alleged that Jason Kenney's team first approached Derek Fildebrandt in July 2017 about running a "dark-horse" campaign but ultimately decided against working with him. Fildebrandt confirmed this account but stated that it was he who rejected the idea.
An emergency injunction was sought to halt the probe into the financing of Callaway's UCP leadership campaign for the duration of the 2019 Alberta general election, but was denied by Court of Queen's Bench Justice Anne Kirker who ruled it was in the public interest for the investigation to continue.
CBC News and CTV News have received documents indicating that fraudulent e-mail addresses attached to party memberships were used to cast ballots in the party's leadership race in 2017, which Jason Kenney won. CBC News picked a sample of e-mail addresses based on suspicious domains, and determined that 60% of those were used to cast ballots in the leadership election. Former UCP MLA Prab Gill sent a letter to the RCMP outlining allegations that the Kenney leadership campaign used fraudulent e-mail addresses to intercept PINs needed to vote in the leadership race, and that they were subsequently used by the Kenney campaign to vote for Kenney.
Many of the suspicious domains were traced to a network with ever-changing domains and it is unclear who registered these domains. The majority of the fraudulent e-mail addresses were registered in the weeks preceding the leadership vote. CBC noted that it is not clear how widespread the voting fraud is outside of their selected sample of suspicious domains -- it is also possible that common e-mail providers such as Gmail or Hotmail were used with fraudulent addresses. A dozen individuals were contacted by CBC News to confirm whether or not they voted in the race -- they all confirmed that they did not vote in the race and the e-mails on the voter's list were not their true e-mails.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police went to question at least one family to speak with them regarding the allegations of voter fraud.
Kenney has been a social conservative in his political career, voting in favor of abortion restrictions and against same-sex marriage.
Kenney is an anti-abortion politician, voting in favour of abortion restrictions and receiving an endorsement from the socially conservative lobbyist group Campaign Life Coalition. In 2018, a bill to create "no-protest zones" around abortion clinics was introduced to the Alberta legislature following similar legislation in place in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. As leader of the United Conservative Party, Kenney refused to debate on the bill and led his caucus to walkout of the house 14 times over the course of two months when the bill was at issue.
See also: Analysis: Why Is Jason Kenney So Viscerally Homophobic / Transphobic?. Related question: Is Jason Kenney Gay?
Jason Kenney voted against same-sex marriage as an MP, saying "A majority of Canadians support the provision of benefits on grounds such as domestic partnership relationships, which are grounded on unions of economic dependency rather than relationships of a mere conjugal nature, and yet still two-thirds of Canadians, from every culture that exists in this country, from every corner of the globe who have come to this country to build a future for themselves and their families, recognize that marriage is, as the Supreme Court said the last time it spoke to this issue in the Egan case in 1995, "by nature a heterosexual institution."
In 2016, Kenney supported the removal of "traditional definition of marriage" from the conservative party policy book.
Kenney was criticized by the provincial New Democratic Party (NDP), some LGBTQ activists, and some journalists for saying in a Postmedia interview that parents generally have a right to know if their child has joined a Gay-Straight Alliance; unless it would be contrary to the best interests of the child in the circumstances.
In November 2018, Kenney faced pressure to expel an outspoken member of the United Conservative Party who compared the gay pride flag to the flag of Nazi Germany. Although Kenney had previously directed the party to cancel the membership of another member, he said that the decision to expel members rested with the party's board.
A two-decade-old audio recording surfaced in December 2018 of Kenney boasting about overturning a gay marriage law in 1989 in San Francisco. Kenney was referring to his role in organizing a petition to repeal the city ordinance that extended recognition rights of heterosexual couples to same-sex couples. This ordinance, originating during the 1980s AIDS epidemic, extended rights that were previously exclusive to heterosexual couples, such as hospital visitation, to same-sex couples. Kenney addressed the audio clip by stating that he regrets the comments he made and that since then, his record shows he supports domestic partner arrangements and benefits for couples regardless of sexual orientation. The comments led to backlash from outside and within the United Conservative Party; leading a board member and campaign manager for the party to resign his positions and membership with the party, citing the audio recording of Kenney as his reason for departure. However, Kenney has stated that he supports those issues.
Main article: Premiership of Jason Kenney
Under the leadership of Kenney, the United Conservative Party won a majority government in the 2019 Alberta general election which was held on On April 16, 2019. They won 63 seats and 54.88% of the popular vote. The premiership of Jason Kenney began on April 30, 2019 when was sworn in by Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Lois Mitchell forming the 30th Alberta Legislature-becoming the 18th Premier of Alberta.
During the 1st Session of the 30th Alberta Legislature the Kenney government passed about dozens of pieces of legislation, including the Act to Repeal the Carbon Tax, the Alberta Corporate Tax Amendment, and the Public Sector Wage Arbitration Deferral Act, Premier Kenney established a one-year $2.5 million Public Inquiry into Anti-Alberta Energy Campaigns and a Calgary-based $30 million 'war room' to "fight misinformation related to oil and gas." They announced their first provincial budget on October 24, 2019 which fulfilled their "promise of slight austerity" with "cuts to spending programs and the elimination of hundreds of bureaucracy jobs," according to The National Post. The Post said that these and the corporate tax cuts "were the key planks of a four-year plan to bring the budget into balance." The goal is to reduce government spending by $4-billion over four years.
Kenney has never married. He was inspired to enter politics at a young age following a brief discussion with former prime minister John Diefenbaker. Kenney is considered fluently bilingual.
SOURCE: Wikipedia, captured 2020-07-09
See also [Derek Fildebrandt]: United Conservative Party
The United Conservative Party (French: Parti Conservateur Uni) is a conservative political party in the province of Alberta, Canada. It was established in July 2017 as a merger between the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party. When established, the UCP immediately formed the Official Opposition in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta. The UCP won a majority mandate in the April 16, 2019 election to form the government of Alberta. The premiership of Jason Kenney began on April 30, 2019 when Jason Kenney and his first cabinet were sworn in by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Lois Mitchell.
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The UCP held its founding convention to set its official policies on May 5, 2018.
The UCP drew criticism over Kenney's proposal to allow schools to notify parents when their children joined Gay-Straight Alliance (GSA) clubs.
In response, Alberta Premier [2015-2019] Rachel Notley's government drafted and passed Bill 24, which forbade teachers from outing children who were members of the GSAs.
Aside, relevant to Jason Kenney:
Rachel Notley welcomed former PC MLA Sandra Jansen into her party in November 2016. Jansen withdrew her membership and party leadership candidacy which she took to challenge the candidacy of Jason Kenney. Sandra Jansen claimed that she was harassed over her position on human rights issues such as LGBTQ rights and abortion by Jason Kenney's supporters. She warned of a hostile take over of democratic values by Kenney's campaign. Notley granted Jansen with a security detail as reports of vulgar death threats threatened Jansen.
[Source (Wikipedia, captured 2020-07-09)]
See also [Wikipedia: Alberta politics | misogyny]: Threats Against Rachel Notley.
After becoming Alberta's 17th Premier, Rachel Notley started to encounter abuse from Albertans who did not align with her values. As stated by the Edmonton Sun, "The statistics show that from 2003 to 2015, Alberta sheriffs recorded 55 security incidents involving six premiers. Nineteen of those came in the last half of 2015, which happened to be current Premier Rachel Notley's first months in office. At least three of those incidents required police intervention." Most of the threats against Notley proliferated online with photos and posts, encouraging violence against the premier. According to statistics in 2016 from Alberta Justice, Notley is the Alberta premier with the most death threats. She was the subject of 412 harassment communiques, of which 26 were investigated by law enforcement.
A professor argued that there have been growing trends of violence against female politicians. Most of these threats had been attributed to the New Democratic Party (NDP) government's controversial farm safety legislation, Bill 6, which made Worker Compensation Board coverage mandatory on Alberta farms with paid, non-family employees, leading to thousands of protesters. Official Opposition leader and Wildrose Party Leader Brian Jean, despite criticizing Bill 6, made a call for the abuse directed at Notley to cease or else he would alert authorities. In late August 2016, Jean joked "I've been beating this drum for 10, 11 years. I will continue to beat it, I promise. But it's against the law to beat Rachel Notley," for which he apologized immediately for what he called "an inappropriate attempt at humour."
[Source (Wikipedia, captured 2020-07-09)]
The Alberta GSA matter once again caused controversy after the UCP Policy Convention in May 2018, when UCP members voted to adopt the policy of having schools inform parents when their children have joined a GSA. UCP MLAs Ric McIver, Jason Nixon, and Leela Aheer all opposed the policy, and despite urging members to vote against adopting the policy, it was passed with 57% of the vote.
Other notable positions taken by the UCP in their first year as government include the following.
An aggressive pro-fossil fuel stance supported by the establishment of what is commonly referred to as the "War Room" backed by a budget of $30 million using a private corporation structure that is not subject to FOIP. The pro-fossil fuel stance is also supported by a strong opposition to green energy transition which they view as an "ideological scheme."
A policy to restructure the Alberta Healthcare system and is commonly referred to as an "attack on doctors" as a key change in the restructuring included passing Bill 21 and using this bill to support tearing up the Master Agreement with Alberta Doctors and imposing major fee structure changes.
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COMMENTARY (BuriedTruth). Please note that aspersions to Jason Kenney's sexuality in this subsection are entirely speculative | unsubstantiated | circumstantial -- please read critically, and form your own opinions on this matter!
See also, [1999-01-23] re: Jason Kenney and Rob Anders:
No sex, please, we're Reformers: In this age of presidential promiscuity, an "eccentric minority" of politicos chooses chastity. [Ottawa Citizen reporter] Glen McGregor dares to ask why.
[2013-04-28] Seinfeld -- The Outing | Not That There's Anything Wrong With That. [clip: 3:59]
[Source]
[2014-01-16] Not that there's anything wrong with that montage.
[Source]
Anecdotally, it appears likely that the most venomous and vitriolic anti-LGBT+ mountebanks harbor deeply-rooted issues with internalized homophobia [ditto, re: internalized transphobia, viz-a-viz gender dysphoria] -- colloquially, "self-hating homosexuals."
Here are just a few of the articles supporting this supposition.
ScientificAmerican.com [2012-04-10]: Homophobes Might Be Hidden Homosexuals. A new analysis of implicit bias and explicit sexual orientation statements may help to explain the underpinnings of anti-gay bullying and hate crimes. | local copy (pdf)
PsychologyToday.com [2020-02-24] What Is Internalized Homophobia? A mindful and compassionate look at our own biases. | local copy (pdf)
John Terrence "Terry" Dolan (1950 -- December 28, 1986) was an American New Right political activist who was a co-Founder and Chairman of the [now defunct] National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC). Terry Dolan was also, during the mid to late 1970s, in the leadership of Christian Voice, "the nation's oldest conservative Christian lobby."
While Terry Dolan was a proponent of family values and the organizations he led were persistently critical of gay rights, he was revealed to have been a closeted homosexual, who frequented gay bars in Washington, D.C. At a Washington fundraising event in 1985, the renowned AIDS activist Larry Kramer reportedly tossed a glass of water in his face. Dolan died from complications of AIDS at the age of 36.
[2019-03-17] Jason Kenney vs. Rachel Notley: A little story about character. It's what they've done when no one was watching that tells us the most about their leadership.
... When Jason Kenney was in university in San Francisco, he campaigned to prevent gay men from visiting their partners who were hospitalized and dying of AIDS; ensuring that many who were shunned by their families would die alone. We know this story because Mr Kenney told us about it in a speech he gave as a young federal MP. Kenney proudly referred to this episode as a "battle" that brought him "closer to the heart of the Church in the spiritual sense. ...
Substantiation. "... A two-decade-old audio recording surfaced in December 2018 of Kenney boasting about overturning a gay marriage law in 1989 in San Francisco. Kenney was referring to his role in organizing a petition to repeal the city ordinance that extended recognition rights of heterosexual couples to same-sex couples. This ordinance, originating during the 1980s AIDS epidemic, extended rights that were previously exclusive to heterosexual couples, such as hospital visitation, to same-sex couples. Kenney addressed the audio clip by stating that he regrets the comments he made and that since then, his record shows he supports domestic partner arrangements and benefits for couples regardless of sexual orientation. The comments led to backlash from outside and within the United Conservative Party; leading a board member and campaign manager for the party to resign his positions and membership with the party, citing the audio recording of Kenney as his reason for departure. However, Kenney has stated that he supports those issues."
[Source: Wikipedia.]
Rainbow-Project.org, [2017-06-29] Internalised Homophobia | local copy
Wikipedia, captured 2020-07-09
Internalized homophobia refers to negative stereotypes, beliefs, stigma, and prejudice about homosexuality and LGBT people that a person with same-sex attraction turns inward on themselves, whether or not they identify as LGBT. The degree to which someone is affected by these ideas depends on how much and which ideas they have consciously and subconsciously internalized. These negative beliefs can be mitigated with education, life experience and therapy, especially with gay-friendly psychotherapy/analysis. Internalized homophobia also applies to conscious or unconscious behaviors which a person feels the need to promote or conform to cultural expectations of heteronormativity or heterosexism. This can include extreme repression and denial coupled with forced outward displays of heteronormative behavior for the purpose of appearing or attempting to feel "normal" or "accepted." Other expressions of internalized homophobia can also be subtle. Some less overt behaviors may include making assumptions about the gender of a person's romantic partner, or about gender roles. Some researchers also apply this label to LGBT people who support "compromise" policies, such as those that find civil unions acceptable in place of same-sex marriage.
Some studies have shown that people who are homophobic are more likely to have repressed homosexual desires. In 1996, a controlled study of 64 heterosexual men (half said they were homophobic by experience, with self-reported orientation) at the University of Georgia found that men who were found to be homophobic (as measured by the Index of Homophobia) were considerably more likely to experience more erectile responses when exposed to homoerotic images than non-homophobic men. Another study in 2012 arrived at similar results when researchers found that students who came from "the most rigid anti-gay homes" were most likely to reveal repressed homosexual attraction. The researchers said that this explained why some religious leaders who denounce homosexuality are later revealed to have secret homosexual relations. They noted that "these people are at war with themselves and are turning this internal conflict outward." A 2016 eye-tracking study showed that heterosexual men with high negative impulse reactions toward homosexuals gazed for longer periods at homosexual imagery than other heterosexual men. According to Cheval et al. (2016), these findings reinforce the necessity to consider that homophobia might reflect concerns about sexuality in general and not homosexuality in particular. In contrast, Jesse Marczyk argued in Psychology Today that homophobia is not repressed homosexuality.
Researcher Iain R. Williamson, in his 1998 paper "Internalized Homophobia and Health Issues Affecting Lesbians and Gay Men" finds the term homophobia to be "highly problematic" but for reasons of continuity and consistency with the majority of other publications on the issue retains its use rather than using more accurate but obscure terminology. The phrase internalized sexual stigma is sometimes used in place to represent internalized homophobia. An internalized stigma arises when a person believes negative stereotypes about themselves, regardless of where the stereotypes come from. It can also refer to many stereotypes beyond sexuality and gender roles. Internalized homophobia can cause discomfort with and disapproval of one's own sexual orientation. Ego-dystonic sexual orientation or egodystonic homophobia, for instance, is a condition characterized by having a sexual orientation or an attraction that is at odds with one's idealized self-image, causing anxiety and a desire to change one's orientation or become more comfortable with one's sexual orientation. Such a situation may cause extreme repression of homosexual desires. In other cases, a conscious internal struggle may occur for some time, often pitting deeply held religious or social beliefs against strong sexual and emotional desires. This discordance can cause clinical depression, and a higher rate of suicide among LGBT youth (up to 30 percent of non-heterosexual youth attempt suicide) has been attributed to this phenomenon. Psychotherapy, such as gay affirmative psychotherapy, and participation in a sexual-minority affirming group can help resolve the internal conflicts, such as between religious beliefs and sexual identity. Even informal therapies that address understanding and accepting of non-heterosexual orientations can prove effective. Many diagnostic "Internalized Homophobia Scales" can be used to measure a person's discomfort with their sexuality and some can be used by people regardless of gender or sexual orientation. Critics of the scales note that they presume a discomfort with non-heterosexuality which in itself enforces heternormativity.
The fear of being identified as gay can be considered as a form of social homophobia. Theorists including Calvin Thomas and Judith Butler have suggested that homophobia can be rooted in an individual's fear of being identified as gay. Homophobia in men is correlated with insecurity about masculinity. For this reason, homophobia is allegedly rampant in sports, and in the subculture of its supporters that is considered stereotypically male, such as association football and rugby.
These theorists have argued that a person who expresses homophobic thoughts and feelings does so not only to communicate their beliefs about the class of gay people, but also to distance themselves from this class and its social status. Thus, by distancing themselves from gay people, they are reaffirming their role as a heterosexual in a heteronormative culture, thereby attempting to prevent themselves from being labeled and treated as a gay person. This interpretation alludes to the idea that a person may posit violent opposition to "the Other" as a means of establishing their own identity as part of the majority and thus gaining social validation.
Nancy J. Chodorow states that homophobia can be viewed as a method of protection of male masculinity.
Various psychoanalytic theories explain homophobia as a threat to an individual's own same-sex impulses, whether those impulses are imminent or merely hypothetical. This threat causes repression, denial or reaction formation.
Jason Kenney -- based on his private life (what little is publicly known about it), public statements, and political policies and agendae -- certainly appears to fall within "internalized homophobia" characterization -- discussed above. Whether Jason Kenney is gay, straight, trans ... fundamentally: Who cares?
The key issue is not Jason Kenney's sexuality / gender identity, but his ideology, policies, comments and actions that harm those of us [I am a transsexual female] who are marginalized by Kenney and others of his ilk.
This includes not only all Bible-thumping, diehard radical Evangelicals (generally the most strident, vocal and vociferous homophobes and transphobes), but also anti-LGBT+ organizations such as the Catholic Church and other evangelicals, and "dark money" nonprofits like the Heritage Foundation -- which spawned highly vindictive, highly damaging Trump administration transphobes such as Roger Severino, Betsy DeVos, and others..
[pinned] Analysis: Why Is Jason Kenney So Viscerally Homophobic / Transphobic?. Related question: Is Jason Kenney Gay?
[JacobinMag.com, 2022-02-21] Alberta's Jason Kenney Wants to Import American-Style Health Care to Canada. Alberta's United Conservative Party is using the health care crisis caused by the pandemic to its ideological advantage. Citing backlogs in surgeries - resulting from overrun hospitals - the party is seeking to privatize the province's health care system. | Alberta premier Jason Kenney signaled his aim to privatize the province’s health care by handing out public funds to for-profit companies.
[CBC.ca, 2022-02-15] Jason Kenney sees opportunity in political chaos. Everything is in flux, and the Alberta premier couldn't be happier.
[CanadianDimension.com, 2022-01-13] Jason Kenney: Wrong again. Some advice for the premier: when the whole world is telling you you're wrong, you probably are.
[theTyee.ca, 2021-12-28] The Kenney Countdown: Alberta's Top 10 Scandals of 2021. Ranking the United Conservative Party's stumbles.
[CBC.ca, 2021-12-08] The ideological war between Conservative factions can only be won at the ballot box. The stress of the COVID crisis has brought internal party divisions to the forefront. | This column is an opinion by
The turmoil we are seeing within
The large ideological differences that were prevalent amongst the members of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party were never addressed and now - under the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic - those differences are re-emerging, threatening the stability of the United Conservative Party (UCP). Because of the outsized influence
For the sake of clarity, I will define the two factions within the UCP as "conservatives" and "republicans." Although there is some correlation to the old Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and Wildrose Party wings, it is not exact and - since neither of those parties exist anymore - it is not useful to refer to them by those names within the current situation, nor is it relevant to the federal conflict.
The conservatives within the UCP are ideologically aligned with traditional
The conservatives legitimately can be classified as fitting on the right side of the overused left-right political spectrum. But the
The conservatives believe in
Conservatism is skeptical that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms isn't just a tool for
The conservatives are pragmatic when it comes to
The conservatives view obtaining power as a means to further their
This is but a sample of the
That is a process that should have started in the provincial election of 2019 between the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party, but didn't because Jason Kenney manufactured them out of existence and prevented the electorate from choosing which path to take.
But that did not mean that the fundamental ideology of the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta and the Wildrose Party disappeared, and the stress of the COVID-19 crisis has brought those divisions to the forefront. That division is not just playing out within the UCP caucus, it is playing out across Alberta, within constituency associations, and amongst party supporters.
This "conservative" vs. "republican" conflict is also playing out within the Conservative Party of Canada. The republicans within the Conservative Party of Canada ranks are angry that Erin O'Toole moved the federal party back toward traditional conservative values. They very much want the Conservative Party of Canada to become a Republican Party of Canada, embracing the
There exists a substantial base of people in
U.S.-style Republicanism has not yet achieved power in Canada because it has been moderated by its coalition with traditional Canadian conservatism. But there is no guarantee that will always be the case. Conservatives could one day be overwhelmed by a demagogue if they are not willing to confront their current coalition partners.
Jason Kenney finds himself in a difficult position now, because he did not choose sides four years ago in the ideological war that was taking place in Alberta. Instead, he brokered a
[theTyee.ca,2021-11-26] Kenney Wants a New Law. It's His Latest Attack on Democracy. Alberta's premier presses for rules to muzzle his critics and favour his wealthy backers. Behold Bill 81.
If there has been one constant for Jason Kenney and the United Conservative Party (UCP) since they formed government in Alberta two-and-a-half years ago, it's been their determination to
The UCP's preoccupation with
Around the time they were introducing new ways to
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[CBC.ca, 2021-11-21] Jason Kenney pleads for unity as his leadership is under increasing scrutiny. There were so many elephants in the room at UCP general meeting, it looked like a safari.
The political vultures are circling. A bit prematurely perhaps, but they're here at the annual general meeting of the United Conservative Party this weekend in Calgary. They're eager to pick at the carcass of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney - even though the premier is not politically dead. Not yet. But as the most unpopular premier in the country with a disapproval rate around 80 per cent, he is most decidedly wounded.
As Jason Kenney addressed 1,500 party members Saturday morning [2021-11-20], Brian Jean and Danielle Smith were in the convention hall dismembering the UCP leader with their eyes. Brian Jean is a former leader of the Wildrose Party and Danielle Smith is, um, a former leader of the Wildrose Party. Brian Jean's political career ended after losing a bitterly contested UCP leadership race to Kenney in 2017. Danielle Smith blew up her political career by crossing the floor to the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada ("Progressive Conservatives") in 2014. [In 2003, the Canadian Alliance and the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada merged, forming the Conservative Party of Canada.]
Both Brian Jean Danielle Smith see Jason Kenney as vulnerable prey, staggering his way towards a leadership vote next spring [2022]. Two political birds of prey aren't exactly a flock, but they represent a number of the old right-wing, libertarian Wildrose Party members who feel betrayed by Kenney. And neither were particularly inspired by Kenney's performance at the convention, even after many in the audience gave their leader so many standing ovations it's a wonder organizers bothered to put chairs in the hall. "He's lost the trust of Albertans," said Brian Jean, who dismissed Kenney's warm reception as political theatre generated by political staffers in the audience. "We don't have time for him to play games to try to earn it back."
Danielle Smith, who once declared herself to be "unelectable" after the politically disastrous floor-crossing seven years ago, now appears to think her political future looks rosier than even Jason Kenney's. "I would feel like that if the position of leader was open I would have to run," she told the Western Standard, an Alberta online news outlet. "I believe in unity and this is the real issue, so let's throw some names on the table."
Right now, of course, the position is not open. And Kenney is hoping to keep it that way.
Jason Kenney's Saturday [2021-11-20] speech included a rerun of his old attacks against the "Notley-Trudeau alliance," blaming the province's economic woes on the "double recession" of depressed oil prices and the COVID-19 pandemic, and offering up a shopping list of government successes, including recent economic announcements. But he couldn't ignore the elephant in the room. Heck, there were so many elephants it looked like a safari.
Not only is Jason Kenney deeply unpopular among Albertans over his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, he has failed to fulfill key election promises on pipelines and the economy, is facing increasing criticism from UCP MLAs who are speaking out against his leadership, and he'll be facing a leadership review in the spring. "We have made mistakes in the process and, as premier, I must take responsibility for that," said Kenney of his often muddled response to COVID. "I know that many of you are angry with me and our government for having introduced public health restrictions at various times throughout COVID. I get it, I really do. I hear you and I do so respectfully. It is no secret that these views have been strongly expressed in our caucus."
No doubt tired of the almost daily headlines over internal squabbling, Jason Kenney pleaded with members to air their grievances in private.
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[CTVNews.ca, 2021-11-04] Alberta's Kenney denies scapegoating chief medical officer for COVID-19 failures. Premier Jason Kenney is rejecting accusations that he is blaming the province's chief medical officer of health for Alberta's failures in the handling of the fourth wave of COVID-19.
[PressProgress.ca, 2021-10-21] Jason Kenney's Anti-Alberta Inquiry Finds No Illegal Activity, Little Foreign Funding To Environmental Activists. "I Don't Care if the Activity is Legal or Illegal" Energy Minister Says.
[Vice.com, 2021-09-21] Jason Kenney's Job Is in Danger. So He's Firing People. The Alberta premier replaced his minister of health amid calls for Kenney, himself, to resign. It's all happening as the province sinks deeper into the fourth COVID wave. Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is ignoring calls to step down following a federal election outcome that's especially devastating for his United Conservative Party, all while the province suffers from a preventable fourth wave of COVID-19 driven by the Delta variant. ...
[Vice.com, 2021-09-16] Jason Kenney Sorta Admits His 'Mistake' Led to Alberta's Health System Falling Apart. The Albertan premier famously declared COVID essentially over and promised the #bestsummerever back in July. Now, predictably, hospitals are overflowing and the system is on the verge of crashing.
... In July 2021, as infections were plateauing and vaccination rates were increasing, Kenney lifted all public health restrictions, including ending asymptomatic COVID testing and removing mask mandates. He promised Alberta the "best summer ever," and in June, his right-hand man and executive director of issues management, Matt Wolf, boldly tweeted, "The pandemic is ending. Accept it."
Fast forward to this week, when Alberta made international headlines for having some of the worst COVID rates in North America, made worse by the Delta variant, and the province's health care system is at risk of collapse: hundreds of elective surgeries have been cancelled to save resources for COVID management and more people are in ICU beds today than ever before, 90 percent of whom are unvaccinated.
Part of the problem is Alberta has one of the lowest vaccination rates in Canada, with only 60 percent of Albertans fully vaccinated. Experts predict that herd immunity can't be reached unless more than 80 percent of people are fully vaccinated. "It is now clear that we were wrong, and for that I apologize," Kenney told reporters during a news conference on Wednesday [2021-09-15]. ...
[Vice.com, 2021-09-10] Alberta Acted Like COVID Was Over. Now Its Health Care System 'On Brink of Collapse'. Alberta has cancelled all elective surgeries in the Calgary region as COVID-19 hospitalizations soar.
[CanadianDimension.com, 2021-09-06] Hey Conservatives, you've got an Alberta problem. Jason Kenney's failure in Canada's conservative heartland could be bad news for Erin O'Toole.
Federal Conservative leader Erin O'Toole is in a tight spot. On one hand, national polls have his party eking out a small lead over Justin Trudeau's Liberals. On the other, uh, Jason Kenney. At this point, even Ontario's Doug Ford is modestly less ridiculous than the beleaguered Alberta premier.
Just two months ago Alberta's UCP government lifted nearly all pandemic restrictions, claiming that vaccines were a "game changer," that Albertans needn't worry about COVID-19 any longer, and that the province was in for its "best summer ever." When asked what the Alberta government might do if a fourth wave were to hit the province, Kenney declared flatly that "we just don't see that scenario."
Mr. Kenney's myopic and ideologically-driven confidence in his own ability to read the poultry entrails - all scientific evidence to the contrary be damned - has led to a surging and dangerous fourth wave, overwhelming hospitals, cancelling elective surgeries, and burning out healthcare workers.
Doubtless Mr. O'Toole was happy enough when Kenney disappeared on a four-week long two-week vacation at the moment the federal writ was dropped. The last thing he needed were any embarrassments from his shameless provincial cousins that would derail the Conservatives' federal efforts.
Alas. On Wednesday, Mr. Kenney smirked his way back onto the Alberta political scene, hosting a marshmallowy Facebook Live event that featured the premier incoherently musing about what the Official Opposition might have done had it formed government in 2019, grinning and joking about his whereabouts for the past four weeks as Alberta entered yet another self-administered healthcare crisis, and knocking soft ball questions straight into the backstop.
Responding to a viewer question about the wisdom of taking a vacation when Alberta's already besieged healthcare system was clearly on the ropes, Kenney noted that he needed to take some time to "recharge his batteries," and that "it's important that a person in my position doesn't burn out." Never mind Alberta Health Services' insistence that the province's nurses forgo their own vacations and mandating them to work overtime hours to deal with an emerging healthcare worker staffing crisis. Never mind, too, that the Alberta government continues to demand wage rollbacks from nurses at the bargaining table even while it finalizes contracts with out-of-province nurses that pay 30 percent more than what Alberta nurses currently earn.
[CBC.ca, 2020-10-05] A lot of Jason Kenney's claims about the oil and gas industry are cherry-picked, misleading or wrong. The Alberta premier may veer into hyperbole, but his general point still stands.
[2019-04-06] Radio host Charles Adler on his fiery interview with Alberta UCP Leader Jason Kenney. Global broadcaster challenged Kenney on decision to stand by candidate who performed homophobic sermon.
"I can't honestly tell you that I really know who Jason Kenney is. It's a mystery to me and it troubles me."
That interview is dissected in the following analysis / commentary. [2019-04-06] Are we really okay with Jason Kenney?
[2019-03-17] Jason Kenney vs. Rachel Notley: A little story about character. It's what they've done when no one was watching that tells us the most about their leadership.
[1999-01-23] No sex, please, we're Reformers: In this age of presidential promiscuity, an "eccentric minority" of politicos chooses chastity. [Ottawa Citizen reporter] Glen McGregor dares to ask why.
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