Kenney’s approach will weaken UCP and strengthen Fildebrandt’s new FCP

By Medicine Hat News Opinon on August 3, 2018.

I liked the headline, “Where does Jason Kenney stand?, accompanying my recent letter to the editor. I also asked a second and more important question: Is Kenney a follower of Jesus Christ? The first question raised the subject of where the United Conservative Party leader stands on political issues. The second seeks his stand on spiritual issues. In today’s humanist and pagan Canada, raising such questions is often dangerous. But they must be asked. They are crucial to how a politician acts in a crisis.

I had help with the first question, from Ray Marco, and help with the second one from Anne S. Morris, who responded to my letter. Ray explained Kenney’s politics were all about getting elected and seizing power. His answer led to my second question, dealing with Kenney’s spiritual views. If Kenney is obsessed with getting into power, he is not likely to be interested in building the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Anne’s response was interesting. She was not concerned about Kenney’s relationship with Christ. She didn’t believe Jesus Christ had even said he was God. Had she not read that dramatic scene where Jesus asked His disciples “Who do men say I am?” She certainly hadn’t read Peter’s powerful answer: “You are the Christ.” Her comments reveal how easy it is to believe a false gospel. I suspect she learned her theology in the United Church.

As for Kenney, he found his theology in the Catholic Church. This might explain his problem with free speech. While a student at the Catholic University of San Francisco, he opposed his Jesuit professors who favoured free speech. Kenney argued that allowing pro-choice individuals on campus would open the door to pedophiles and Satanists. Kenney’s archbishop in California rejected Kenney’s position. The decision saw the former philosophy student return home to Canada. Kenney’s Catholic theology clearly answers the question of his relationship with Jesus Christ. He has obviously grown up believing his denomination’s views on salvation, that a Catholic is saved by works as opposed to the Bible’s view that we are saved by grace through faith.

You may well ask what this all has to do with Jason Kenney’s strong possibility of being the next premier of Alberta. Well, if you have been reading your News lately, you may have noticed two interesting ongoing stories about two controversial gentlemen, Todd Beasley and Derek Fildebrandt. Beasley is the former nominee who ran for the UCP nomination in the new Brooks-Medicine Hat constituency and was, let us say, thrown under the bus of political correctness by Kenney. The UCP leader was shocked at Beasley’s idea of free speech. Beasley had been investigated over some politically-incorrect comments about Muslims and their religion of Islam. Derek Fildebrandt, on the other hand, had been even more naughty than Beasley. As the sitting member of the former Strathmore-Brooks constituency in the Legislature, he was kicked out of the UCP and is currently sitting as an independent. Fildebrandt’s sins range from expense account irregularities, not stopping after hitting a vehicle, to shooting a deer. Since then, Fildebrandt has committed high treason by heading up the new Freedom Conservative Party, designed to give Alberta’s true conservatives and libertarians a place to express the free speech denied them by Jason Kenney.

Kenney is outraged by these events. Particularly Fildebrandt’s FCP. As the party’s interim leader, Fildebrandt is an increasing thorn in Kenney’s flesh. Fildebrandt has shown himself a strong advocate of fiscal conservatism and libertarian politics. Beasley, also, is an effective communicator when he is not making controversial comments on Facebook. I listened to him being interviewed by former Wildrose leader, Danielle Smith, on her Calgary radio show. I was impressed by his calm and effective presentation of his sacking by Kenney. It came as no surprise that Kenney moved quickly against Fildebrandt and Beasley. Kenney’s goal is to maintain power and absolute control of the UCP. Filibrandt and Beasley could well undermine U.C.P. unity.

Kenney’s response to these two men also reveal the answer to my question about his relationship with Jesus Christ. If Kenney was a born-again believer, he would know that, like himself, Fildebrandt and Beasley are sinners who Christ died for on the Cross. Had Kenney taken Christ’s approach, he would have forgiven them, encouraged them to repent of their sins, make apologies to those hurt by their actions, and move forward as UCP candidates. Were that the case, Beasley and Fildebrandt would be working alongside Kenney in a single UCP. Instead, UCP will now be weakened by supporters flocking to a more democratic and more conservative FCP.

John Stanley is a hat-wearing Hatter and enjoys observing the province’s political situation.