To begin the mail-order vote to determine whether or not he will remain leader of the UCP, the prime minister gave a speech to an in-person audience at Red Deer and essentially to the rest of the party. Kenney recounted how former Prime Minister Ralph Klein underwent a leadership reshuffle in 2005 after four majority governments eliminated the province’s deficit just to “hit the sidewalk.” “This sparked a decade of division between us,” Kenney said. “Crossing four PC leaders and ending up with two conservative parties fighting a fierce civil war. Floor crossings, resentment, intrigue. “All this told the Alberts that we were more concerned with settling internal accounts than with the conciliation and work of the peoples,” he said, adding that he had created a vote that handed the government over to “left-wing ideologues”. The UCP leader said there were two options before the party. “One path is the path of division,” Kenney said. “The other is the road to the office.” “I’m really afraid that if we choose the path of division, it will bring a wedge right in the middle of our party from which we may never recover, and there is only one person who benefits from it, and her name is Rachel Knutley. “ Ballot papers for the leadership review will be sent in the coming days, with voting due by May 11th. According to the UCP, there are almost 59,000 eligible members. The decision will be announced on May 18. If Kenney does not get a majority, the party will have to run for a new leader. Kenney said he started the United Conservative movement in Alberta after seeing the divisive nature of the NDP-led government. “That’s why I decided to move forward with a vision for the reunification of our conservative moment,” he said. “I’m not interested in just being a government. “I am in it, we are in it, to change government because, for me, I have always been a conservative movement, a conservative movement.”
“WE PROVIDE WE PROVIDE”
The prime minister recounted how the party focused on creating jobs and investment, deregulating the economy, creating spending controls and giving “more power in the province” to have “more Alberta and less Ottawa”. “And then, you know what happened. We were fooled,” he said. Kenney said the COVID-19 pandemic had become “incredibly divisive”, with the need to introduce emergency measures to protect Alberts. Its goal was to forge “an Alberta approach”, balancing the need for restrictions on public health and personal freedom. The Prime Minister acknowledged that he did not make all the decisions during the pandemic properly and asked for forgiveness. “I really believe that the worst is behind us,” he said. “I was not a perfect leader. “I have made mistakes,” he added. “I know there have been decisions made by our government that have disappointed, I think, all Alberta conservatives, including me. “But I ask you to see how we have kept our commitments, how we have united this movement and how we are moving forward in the province.”
