The gig is up: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney set to step down from top job
, turning the page on a triumph-turned cautionary tale that saw Kenney’s philosophy and management style crash head-on into a once-in-a-generation catastrophe.
Some Albertans were angry with Ottawa over rules deemed to be hindering energy projects. And they felt like suckers, giving billions of dollars in equalization payments and in return being ignored or demonized as climate criminals.Kenney was that stick. He came toting a “fight back strategy,” vowing to take on Trudeau and the other happy hit men of the “Laurentian elite” hell-bent on strangling Canada’s energy “golden goose.
Political scientist Laurie Adkin said the prosperity-first doctrine was narrowly defined to the benefit of a select few. Kenney and his UCP vilified the green left and high-profile oilsands critics like David Suzuki and Tzeporah Berman. When world-renowned green teen Greta Thunberg came to the legislature, Kenney left town.
Kenney launched a $2.5-million public inquiry into foreign funding of domestic green groups fighting Alberta’s oilsands. It never held an inquiry in public, went over time and over budget, and determined the funding was relatively modest and totally legal. Those divides had started before the election, when Kenney promised his UCP would be run by and for the members, but then at the party’s founding convention in 2018 told reporters “I hold the pen” on what will and won’t be policy.
He tried to find a magic middle ground, which resulted in shifting restrictions: regional, provincial, on for some, off for others. Each time he waited until Alberta’s health system was on the brink of collapse before acting, with thousands of surgeries cancelled and waiting rooms jammed. The gig was not going well. Poll numbers were in free fall. UCP backbenchers openly questioned the restrictions – and Kenney.Alohagate: a bunch of Kenney caucus members ignored calls to stay home over Christmas to avoid the spread of COVID-19 and jetted off to sunny climes while Albertans shivered at home under strict gathering limits.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
UCP leadership race in Alberta focuses on COVID-19 grievances and vaccine skepticismAlberta Premier Jason Kenney lost his job in large part due to party displeasure over COVID-19 measures, and those same grievances are defining the UCP leadership race to replace him
Read more »
How Alberta's Danielle Smith went from political outcast to presumed frontrunner in the UCP leadership raceSmith, more successfully than other candidates, picked up on what the party’s base wanted to hear: re\u002Dlitigiating the pandemic and hammering away at Trudeau
Read more »
How Danielle Smith went from political outcast to presumed frontrunner in the UCP leadership raceSmith, more successfully than other candidates, picked up on what the party’s base wanted to hear: re\u002Dlitigiating the pandemic and hammering away at Trudeau
Read more »
UCP leadership candidates weigh in on coal miningRoundup on where UCP leadership candidates stand on coal mining, and whether they will implement Coal Policy Commitee\u0027s recommendations.
Read more »
UCP leadership candidates weigh in on coal miningRoundup on where UCP leadership candidates stand on coal mining, and whether they will implement Coal Policy Commitee\u0027s recommendations.
Read more »
How Danielle Smith went from political outcast to presumed frontrunner in the UCP leadership raceSmith, more successfully than other candidates, picked up on what the party’s base wanted to hear: re\u002Dlitigiating the pandemic and hammering away at Trudeau
Read more »