Can Kenney repeat Harper’s feat?

Former Harper lieutenant Jason Kenney will be trying to unify Alberta’s fractured right, as Harper did at the federal level a decade ago. But compromise is required

By: George Koch
August 25, 2016 October 29, 2019
23:45

Alberta’s downward spiral continues, spurred by a New Democratic Party (NDP) government either ideologically determined to destroy the province’s No. 1 industry or clueless about acting against its own electoral interests.

The greatest impediment to ensuring that Rachel Notley is a one-term premier is division on the right. The Wildrose and Progressive Conservative (PC) parties combined command 65% of Albertans’ support. Despite the NDP’s woeful sub-30% popularity, however, neither opposition party is strong enough to guarantee unseating Notley. A merger seems the obvious solution. But apparatchiks in each party loathe one another, and Wildrose leader Brian Jean is convinced his party can form a majority single-handedly. (Wildrose has failed in two previous attempts.)

Enter Jason Kenney. This experienced federal politician, who held portfolios including multiculturalism, immigration, employment and defence under Stephen Harper, believes the time is right for a merger and that he is the man to take over the leaderless PC party and engineer a merger referendum, as Harper did at the federal level.

The early signs are promising. “There’s a huge amount of ‘buyer’s remorse’ among people who voted NDP out of anger at the PCs,” says John Weissenberger, Kenney’s campaign director. “People want a single party that can take out the NDP. The typical person who’s outside of politics, in fact, doesn’t understand why this can’t just be made to happen.”

Kenney has gained traction with Alberta’s business sector, which has been devastated by low commodity prices and NDP policies exacerbating investor uncertainty and capital scarcity.

Kenney’s pitch is straightforward: the worst-case scenario is going into the next election with three parties of equal strength. But, in the autumn 2015 federal election, the Conservatives gained 1.2 million Alberta votes – 50% more than the combined total for the provincial PCs and Wildrose in the spring 2015 election.

Harper’s government resulted from a merger of parties that were at least as antagonistic as the provincial PCs and Wildrose are today. Success demanded two party leaders who agreed on the overall objective – one of whom was willing to become second-in-command. Does Wildrose leader Brian Jean get it? Kenney certainly does. The delegate-based PC leadership convention is in March 2017. Kenney has promised his first act as premier would be to repeal the NDP’s new carbon tax. Albertans desperate to get back to work better hope he prevails.

More of Koch’s articles can be read at www.drjandmrk.com.