Western Canada: Party members set to vote on Jason Kenney’s future as Alberta Premier

Good morning. It’s James Keller in Calgary.

We were supposed to know by now whether Jason Kenney would be able to hold onto his job as leader of the United Conservative Party and stay on as Alberta Premier.

Instead, the party is now sending out ballots to members across the province for a mail-in vote as Mr. Kenney makes his pitch to continue. Internal critics of the Premier, who have been pushing for his removal for much of the past year, have condemned the process and there are real questions about what will remain of the UCP when all of this is over.

And this is all happening as two former leaders of the Wildrose Party, Danielle Smith and Brian Jean, campaign for Mr. Kenney’s removal – with Mr. Jean doing so from within caucus.

Mr. Kenney’s leadership review was supposed to be this past Saturday. Despite the change in vote, the party still held its special general meeting in Red Deer, where Mr. Kenney gave a campaign-style speech in a room where his supporters were placed at the front holding signs urging people to vote ‘Yes’ in the review.

The Premier cast himself as the only person who can hold the party together and ensure the province doesn’t return to what he derided as a “socialist lab experiment” in next year’s provincial election. He said kicking him out would cause divisions from which the party may not recover.

Much of the criticism from within the UCP has come from people who have argued that public-health measures to curb the spread of COVID-19 went too far and were unnecessary. Mr. Kenney said during his speech that he acted in good faith as he navigated choices between bad options, and he asked people who thought he got it wrong to forgive him.

The Premier referenced previous leadership reviews, including the vote that prompted former premier Ralph Klein to resign after receiving 55 per cent in a review in 2006. Mr. Kenney described Mr. Klein as getting “kicked to the curb,” though the Premier has made it clear that he would view anything above 50 per cent as an endorsement to remain leader.

But there are already signs that some party members may not trust the results regardless of what happens.

Some constituency associations that have been agitating against Mr. Kenney are casting doubt about the integrity of the process, which critics of the Premier have argued has been changed to improve his chances. Some of the claimed changes to the rule leave open opportunities to tamper with ballots.

Ballots will now be mailed out and are due back to the party by mid-May. The results will be announced on May 18.

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.