Kenney’s surprise has others jockeying for position

By COLLIN GALLANT on May 20, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Government MLAs held marathon talks on Thursday to determine who should lead the United Conservatives until a new leader is chosen while other parties positioned themselves to an election-ready stance.

Jason Kenney surprised many by stepping down as leader Wednesday, telling supporters that a slim win in a spring leadership review clearly showed divisions in the party. He called on party members to unify through a leadership race before the set May 2023 election date, but the transition process was left up in the air.

Potential leaders, other parties and participants also moved to address the surprise move.

Exiled UCP MLA Drew Barnes, now an independent, held a press availability on the steps of MacDougall Centre in Calgary, where UCP MLAs were meeting.

“With new leadership in place, and only with new leadership in place, I am prepared to rejoin caucus and get to work assisting in these efforts,” the Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA wrote in a release.

Barnes told the News on Wednesday he was open to returning to the government caucus, but would have to discuss the matter with former colleagues after meetings Thursday.

Those stretched well into the afternoon, as party MLAs determined whether Kenney should be kept on or whether an interim leader would be chosen and assume the mantel of premier.

Brooks-Medicine Hat MLA Michaela Frey told the News on Wednesday she respected Kenney’s call for unity, but offered no further comment.

The Alberta New Democrats painted the governing party’s politics as chaotic, and said the contest would create a place-keeper government.

Meanwhile in the local riding, Alberta Party Leader Barry Morishita announced he would hold a “campaign launch” event in Brooks on May 24.

The former Brooks mayor will represent his party in the Brooks-Medicine Hat riding, and has posed his party as an alternative to the infighting of the UCP and record of the New Democrats, which badly lost a re-election bid in 2019.

“We’re a centre party, but we’re not about centralized leadership,” he said.

Former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith essentially launched her UCP leadership campaign in a video address on Thursday morning and said she’d “love” to see Barnes as well as MLA Todd Loewen return to caucus.

Both men were voted out of the UCP caucus last spring when they launched harsh criticism of Kenney, and have since been pooling legislative resources to continue their criticisms.

“We need to start unifying the movement again and that’s going to require all hands on deck over the next couple of years,” Smith said, who also said Barnes and Loewen should run for leader.

Former Wildrose leader and now UCP MLA Brian Jean has also said he would seek the leadership.

Jean defeated Barnes to lead the Wildrose Party into the 2015 election after Smith crossed the floor to join the PC government.

Barnes told the News on Wednesday he expects there to be a good field of leadership candidates and stressed, “Right now I’m happy to focus on the needs of representing Cypress-Medicine Hat,” either in caucus or out.

NDP leader Rachel Notley said during an event that her party had 22 candidates in place right now, and the figure would be 40 in June, to 60 by August and the remainder of 87 ridings in the fall.

That could include ridings in the southeast, where local NDP party officials held organizing meetings last weekend.

“While the UCP is picking fights with each other, we are truly united,” said Notley during a press event with candidates on stage.

She later said the results of the UCP leadership contest were immaterial to her party’s election plans.

“When you’re a party that’s built for power, not for people … this sort of dysfunction will last forever,” she said. “I’ve seen it since I was first elected in 2008.”

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