Western Canada: Jason Kenney tamped down a caucus revolt, but he’s still facing criticism from his MLAs

Good morning. It’s James Keller in Calgary.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney recently survived a revolt within his United Conservative Party caucus, but that hasn’t stopped MLAs, including a former cabinet minister and the province’s deputy speaker, from publicly condemning his leadership.

The latest UPC MLA to speak out against Mr. Kenney’s tenure as leader and premier is Angela Pitt, who represents the riding of Airdrie-East and has been critical of the Premier and his government’s public-health measures in the past. Ms. Pitt appeared at a news conference with a group pushing to expand Alberta’s autonomy.

When I asked her if she still had confidence in the Premier, she said: “The answer to that question is no, I don’t. I don’t think that my constituents do, either.”

Ms. Pitt is among more than a dozen UCP MLAs who have publicly criticized the Premier in the past year, largely due to the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most, though not all, of that internal criticism has come from MLAs who, like Ms. Pitt, opposed public-health measures designed to curb the spread of the virus.

Last week, two UCP MLAs, who The Globe agreed not to name so they could discuss internal party matters, said Mr. Kenney was expected to face a vote of non-confidence at a caucus meeting last week. In the end, the vote did not happen as the party promised to hold a leadership review in the spring, earlier than originally planned.

Ms. Pitt said “there is a place for the grassroots to take charge of this type of decision,” an apparent nod to the leadership review set for early next year.

She was joined by UCP backbencher Jason Stephan, who didn’t directly address his feelings about the Premier, but he noted the UCP has promised a leadership review in the spring and he looked forward to that happening.

Ms. Pitt’s public denunciation comes after former cabinet minister Leela Aheer called for Mr. Kenney’s resignation last week. Ms. Aheer, who has been a vocal critic of the Premier since May, told The Globe’s Kelly Cryderman that an interim leader should be appointed immediately and that Mr. Kenney’s resignation would allow the government to put the focus back on fighting COVID-19.

Ms. Aheer also took to Twitter to accuse Mr. Kenney of botching the response to the fourth wave of COVID-19 and called on him to outline a plan to fix it.

Mr. Kenney said Tuesday that he believes he still has support from his caucus and he downplayed the standoff last week, saying his MLAs decided “as a group” that the province needed stability to focus on the current health-care crisis.

“Some members who have been pretty consistently and publicly opposed to virtually any public-health members, to our efforts to promote vaccination,” he said on Tuesday.

“We listen with respect to people across the political spectrum, including in my own party. But at the end of the day, the government has a responsibility to act and to lead, and that’s exactly what we are doing.”

This is the weekly Western Canada newsletter written by B.C. Editor Wendy Cox and Alberta Bureau Chief James Keller. If you’re reading this on the web, or it was forwarded to you from someone else, you can sign up for it and all Globe newsletters here.