Former right-hand man for Stephen Harper, Jason Kenney has his “do or die” vote on July 22. It’s his chance to “unite the right” in Alberta. Conservative Party and Wildrose Party members will vote whether or not to come together as the United Conservative Party of Alberta. There are a few stumbling blocks along the way but the ultimate objective is for Kenney and friends to defeat the New Democrat government of Premier Rachel Notley.
Kenney’s first small problem is that while the Conservatives can decide to unite themselves by a 50 per cent plus one vote, not so for Wildrose. The Wildrose, who are the currently the opposition in the Alberta legislature, will only unite if their vote is 75 per cent or more. To help the Wildrose along, many of Mr. Kenney’s Conservative members are currently buying Wildrose memberships to help the Wildrose vote to see the light.
While we do not know enough Wildrose members to assess their feelings on this, we think some might consider this double vote as dirty pool. If you are concerned about this or other dirty tricks, Mr. Kenney knows lots of them. Just ask the women who wanted to run against him for the Conservative party leadership.
But even if the Conservatives and Wildrose unite, Kenney is going to face some much steeper competition. Brian Jean MLA, who has been captaining the Wildrose bunch for the past two years, has been doing a fine job and is willing to do a bit of arm-wrestling over the leadership of the United Conservative Party—should there be one.
It is also good to hear that there are a few others interested in the leadership possibilities of a new United Conservative Party. Frankly, this new party, if it happens, might be better off if it is not led by a mean-spirited social conservative such as Jason Kenney.
And there are some splinter parties ready to step into the breach in Alberta. The Alberta Party has the potential to take over the fiscal conservative voters who do not like the far-right social conservatism of Kenney. Mind you, there is already talk of a break-away Libertarian group who think Mr. Kenney is not far right enough to be the kind of leader they want.
Alberta has never had a lack of splinter groups to keep politics confusing.
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Copyright 2017 © Peter Lowry
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