Recently at a meeting with ethnic minorities, Premier Kenney referred unkindly to those who oppose his leadership when he stated, “Folks, I’ll tell you what does not belong. As long as I am leader of this party and Premier of Alberta, voices of racism, hatred, and intolerance will find no home in this party.”
What Kenney fails to grasp by espousing rhetoric that mischaracterizes and slanders those who oppose his leadership is he has fatally lost the trust of Albertans. Lashing out at good, caring, thoughtful people who don’t have a racist bone in their bodies and who are advocating that he be replaced is well beneath the dignity of the office which he holds.
He clearly does not understand why Albertans are upset with him and his government. Let me be crystal clear. Those who oppose his leadership are not racist or intolerant and most don’t hate him. I certainly do not hate him. But, like many, I am profoundly disappointed in his leadership, his government, and his unwillingness to publicly debate controversial issues, such as the pros and cons of how COVID-19 has been managed. His government hasn’t even implemented one of the recommendations of the “Fair Deal Panel.”
More important is that he has not projected an inspiring vision of how to protect the interests, individual freedoms, rights, and prosperity of Albertans; nor has he any plan to protect the prosperity and self-determination of this amazing province. While he may boast about an uptick in revenue to the treasury, he and his government had nothing to do with the current increase in revenue from elevated oil prices. And he has no plan to stop the federal government from destroying our economy by shuttering our hydrocarbon industry.
Now, to be fair, no federal or provincial government in 116 years of Alberta’s existence has protected Alberta’s freedoms or prosperity in this fatally flawed confederation either. Here, Kenney is in good company. Like all former provincial leaders since 1965, Kenney has no plan to end equalization despite his virtue signalling referendum. And Kenney and the UCP also have no plan to end any of the other egregious federal programs that adversely affect Alberta, despite his campaign promises. As Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “I’m not upset that you lied to me, I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you.”
Kenney has also not projected any plan to gain negotiating power to stand up to Ottawa, to get out from under federal government overreach perturbating the Constitution, flawed as it is. He has no answer to serious concerns about the “Great Reset,” how to prevent it, and he lacks a sense of urgency, which is tantamount to supporting its intended dystopian future. Perhaps most maddening of all, Kenney is unwilling to give Albertans the choice to chart a new path forward that will guarantee the protection of their individual freedoms, rights, prosperity, and self determination.
Without Kenney as the leader, the future will be much brighter for ALL Albertans, not just those whom he has mischaracterized, but every ethnic minority as well who can see right through his unsavory divisive political rhetoric.
Mr. Kenney is a failed leader and the UCP is a failed government and that’s why Albertans want to replace him, and may well replace the UCP altogether by a party that will commit to actually putting all Albertans first for the first time in history, uncontrolled by the feds.