Premier Jason Kenney points to people in the chamber before the the speech from the throne is delivered, in Edmonton on Feb. 22.--cp photo Jason Franson
cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
Premier Jason Kenney singled out a former candidate in Brooks-Medicine Hat riding as an example of far-right activists who might split his party ahead of a confidence vote in his leadership.
Speaking at a funding announcement in Calgary on Friday, Kenney was quizzed by reporters about new reports that he told aides he would stay as leader to keep extreme factions from taking power.
He defended himself stating he’s working to govern the province responsibly while fending off far-fetched accusations he is part of globalist conspiracy and a war criminal for promoting vaccinations during COVID.
Kenney detailed an accusation that he was part of a child-sex trafficking ring run by Walmart following a recent announcement.
Separately, he said some critics have made outlandish claims, but only named Todd Beasley at the press conference.
“He’s now travelling around the province seeking to divide our party,” Kenney said, referring to the Brooks resident who was rejected as a UCP candidate ahead of the 2019 election.
Beasley, who sought the UCP nomination in the riding but was rejected by the party after controversial social media messages about Muslims surfaced, did not return a phone call from the News seeking comment on Friday.
He was dropped as a potential nomination candidate in 2019 by the party after he defended comments he made that denigrated Muslims as “fools” akin to Satan worshippers. The full statement was read out by Kenney on Friday.
Eventually Beasley ran billing himself as an “independent conservative” who could hold Kenney to his promises, but placed third with about 12 per cent of the vote, well behind winning candidate Michaela Frey of the UCP.
Criticism of Kenney from within the party and rumours of discord have grown to the point where an in-person leadership confidence vote was set to take place on April 9 in Red Deer.
That was changed to a mail-in process by the party late this week, with results revealed in May. That has led to some accusations of process manipulation, but Kenney defended the change as a matter of logistics. The original plan was to accommodate potential vote-casters, expected at more than 10,000 at a single venue over several hours.
Speaking earlier in the day, the party’s constituency association president in Brooks-Medicine Hat, Jeremiah Benoit, told the News he had no problem with a change from in-person to mail-in ballot.
“I would say the more people who can vote the better; that’s my stance on it,” said Benoit. “I’ve only really gotten news of it (recently) and the board hasn’t discussed it.”
It’s not immediately clear who is the party’s association president in the Cypress-Medicine Hat riding.
Kenney said he felt the vote would be conducted with the “highest scrutiny – just as it should be,” and also defended his handling of the province and the pandemic.
He said many conservatives are upset with government’s actions to implement health orders and promote vaccination though an exemption program, but “any reasonable leadership would have made the same decisions.”
“Let’s not enter a period of endless division over impossible choices that were made during COVID,” he said.
