Democracy spoke in Alberta: Why Kenney fell.

Vincent J. Curtis

19 May 22

RE: Alberta premier steps down.  Canadian Press item published in the Hamilton Spectator 19 Aug 22.

It might be useful to Ontarians to hear from a transplant why Jason Kenney fell.  It’s actually a heart-warming story of democracy in action.

Kenney became leader of the United Conservative Party because he served in Stephen Harper’s cabinet.  The UCP was created by the union of the old PC party and the Alberta separatist Wild Rose Party.  Kenney was assumed to be smart, reasonable, and politically presentable to the eastern snob media.  His handling of the pandemic was his undoing.

Kenney proved to be a middle-of-the-road squish.  He didn’t represent Alberta values; he often seemed embarrassed by them.  Those values are individualism, conservative, and religious too.  His big mistake was his slavish following of Alberta’s Chief Medical Officer of Health, the ice queen Dr. Deena Henshaw.  Henshaw was utterly conventional: lockdowns, masks, limits on assembly, etc.  Under her leadership Alberta Public Health had a penchant for closing churches, arresting pastors, putting crowd-control fencing around churches to prevent use, arresting small business owners in rural areas who “defied” the precious orders of APH.  They harassed and prosecuted rodeo organizers, an outdoor event if there ever was one.  No public health order was ever debated or voted on.  They were just ordered.  The Charter of Rights? Pshaw!!

Kenney’s smarts proved to be all political, none academic.  He lacked the smarts to question Henshaw, to consult with Ron DeSantis or Dr. Scott Atlas.  He couldn’t bring himself to tell Henshaw: “think of something else.”

In the end, he was too at variance with conservative Alberta.  Democracy spoke, and he fell.

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