Alberta’s premier Jason Kenney is hardly launching anything as endurable as New York’s Tammany Hall. As a student of politics, he would hardly be eager to follow in the paths of a Boss Tweed or Jimmy Walker of Tammany fame.
But manipulative, he is! Can you imagine selling memberships to political parties in Alberta in bulk? That is a new one in the annals of political corruption. I have seen hundreds of party memberships being supported with a single cheque. I have seen quite lengthy lists of new party members derived from local cemeteries. Yet it is hard to imagine the Alberta legislature passing a party membership bill that allows party donors to purchase up to 400 new party memberships, to distribute as they wish.
Sometimes, you just wonder where the political Jason Kenney is coming from? This guy can ignore the terrible plight of the neighbouring province British Columbia. Our country’s major west coast seaport was cut off from the rest of Canada by torrential rains, mud slides and flooding. Does Kenney roll up his sleeves and get in there and help clear the roads and rebuild rail and other connections to the west coast?
No. The braggart Kenney is too busy boasting about his province setting new records in extracting the highly polluting bitumen from the Alberta tar sands. He brags about the recent upsurge in oil prices that are helping eat away at the deficits, his party has created.
He makes no concession at all to the struggles of farmers and ranchers in B.C. whose livelihoods are endangered. Yet he rejoices at the higher costs of high carbon-producing fuels. He appears ignorant that his eagerness to exploit the tar sands is making a substantial contribution to global warming.
His weak leadership throughout the ongoing pandemic has left Alberta hospitals and their staffs exhausted and embittered.
I used to think that despite his manipulative ways, Kenney knew what he was doing. I’m beginning to wonder about that. He might just be the most hated premier in Canada. He has a tough fight for the title from Ontario’s Doug Ford.
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Copyright 2021 © Peter Lowry
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