The Liberal, New Democratic and Alberta parties are banking on a Jason Kenney victory at this weekend’s Progressive Conservative leadership vote to bring in new members.

Officials in each party are rubbing their hands together, claiming their party as the true home for Alberta centrists unhappy with the socially conservative Kenney heading up the PCs.

The scramble to claim the political middle has been going on for months. For the NDP, longtime PC MLA Sandra Jansen’s floor-crossing to their ranks was a huge boon.

NDP deputy premier Sarah Hoffman points to the political defection as proof all progressives have a home in her party, particularly women who feel attacked or shut out by conservatives. 

But Alberta Party Leader Greg Clark is hoping disillusioned PC’ers don’t feel comfortable swinging all the way left.

Opening his arms wide, he’s ready to embrace, without question, anyone who shares his party’s values.

“There’s a lot of people who have centrist, progressive values who probably don’t feel like they have a home after March 18,” he says.

“Those people are absolutely welcome in the Alberta Party.”

Tough as it might be for a single-MLA party to attract defectors from what used to be the province’s most powerful political force, he makes the point that the Alberta Party comes without the baggage of the NDP or Liberals. 

Mostly, he says, that’s an opportunity. 

But he’ll have to duke it out with interim Liberal leader David Swann, who says the door of his party will also be open for anyone who, if Kenney wins March 18, feels politically cast adrift.

Early this week, he had yet to decide whether he would attend the PC convention in Calgary, acknowledging it’s going to change the face of Alberta politics significantly.

Although a Kenney win will hurtle Wildrose Leader Brian Jean into a battle for leadership of a new united conservative party, Jean said he will be staying in Edmonton over the weekend. 

He says his party will continue to reach out to Wildrose and PC members — all Albertans, in fact — “to make sure we get this right.”

egraney@postmedia.com

twitter.com/EmmaLGraney

To get a better idea of what’s happening at the Progressive Conservative leadership race on Saturday think of it like this: Alberta’s PC party is infected.

It has come down with a bad case of Kenney-itis. The infection began last summer when supporters of leadership candidate Jason Kenney invaded the sickly body politic of the PC party.

Now, the question is can the party generate enough “progressive” antibodies at the convention to fend off the conservative attack? Or will the infection prove fatal?

The prognosis for the 50-year-old PC party doesn’t look good.

The invading Kenney forces have proven themselves tenacious, virulent and exceptionally well-organized.

Kenney — a former federal Conservative cabinet minister from Calgary — figures he has snapped up the support of 80 per cent of delegates chosen at constituency meetings across the province the past six months. He also believes he has the support of as many as three-quarters of the super-delegates such as former party MLAs who have automatic voting status at the convention.

“Nothing is decided until the votes are cast,” he said recently, trying to sound cautious but not really succeeding. “We’re going to stay humble and work hard. Our supporters have to show up but we’re feeling confident.”

Alberta Progressive Conservative leadership candidate Dr. Richard Starke.

Road to “reconstituting”

Overconfidence might be one way Kenney could lose. His supporters might think he’s such a shoo-in that they’ll stay home rather than spend the time and money to attend the leadership convention in Calgary.

Or perhaps some delegates who were pro-Kenney will balk at the last-minute and not support a candidate whose goal is to dissolve the party and merge it with the Wildrose into a new conservative entity.

That’s not how Kenney articulates his vision. He doesn’t like the term “dissolution” even though the official timeline for his plan uses the term “winding up” to describe the fate of the Wildrose and PC parties this year to open the way for the new united party.

He prefers to call his plan “reconstituting” the two halves of Alberta’s conservative culture — PC and Wildrose — back into one. Sort of like the thing you do with frozen orange juice.

Kenney makes it sound that easy.

“We must come together to form a single free-enterprise party and we must do so before the next election. Because, to coin a phrase, Albertans can’t wait,” said Kenney last July, coining a phrase from the most impatient of the unite-the-right groups, Alberta Can’t Wait.

Kenney — a latecomer to the PC party himself — likes to invoke the names of two previous PC premiers, Peter Lougheed and Ralph Klein, as the beacons of Alberta’s conservative past to which he aspires.

But the thing is all of Alberta’s PC premiers were regularly more progressive than conservative.

Lougheed’s passion for social justice and intervention in the economy saw him raise royalties on energy companies and invest in private ventures including Pacific Western Airlines and Syncrude. In 1985, one Calgary oilman complained that Lougheed “would better fit in a socialist party.”

Philosophically, he doesn’t live where a lot of we Progressive Conservatives live. He’s an ideologue, more on the right, and that’s not where you win elections in the long-term in Alberta — Ron Ghitter

Even though Klein began his mandate in a recession by slashing spending and cutting the civil service, he reversed course when the energy money began pouring back in. He spent billions buying Albertans’ votes with their own money via a series of rebates for natural gas bills, electricity costs and even filling up our cars in advance of the 2001 provincial election, for example.

And he raised taxes when it suited him.

In 2002, while Alberta was going through a post-Sept. 11 rough patch, Klein hiked taxes on tobacco and alcohol, including a 40-cent hike for a dozen beer. Klein tried to argue these were “user fees,” not taxes because people could choose not to drink or smoke. Remember that when you get irritated by the current NDP government calling its carbon tax a “levy.”

Back to the big tent?

All this to say that Alberta’s Progressive Conservative governments of old could at times be confused with Alberta’s NDP government of today.

The PC party used to be a huge political tent that straddled the centre of the political spectrum and spilled off in either direction, left and right. It offered a home not only to conservatives but to politicians who would be Liberals or NDPers anywhere else.

Lougheed moulded the party to reflect Alberta itself: an urbanized, sophisticated province where the majority of people are politically moderate.

That’s what’s at stake this weekend.

If Kenney gets his way, the PC party will cease to exist as a viable entity. He will open up negotiations to merge with the Wildrose. But in politics, as in business, there are never mergers, just takeovers.

And you’d have to think that one way or the other the eventual winner would be the bigger of the two dogs, the Wildrose which has more money, more MLAs and more popular appeal, according to opinion polls.

That’s why so many “progressives” in the PC party dread this weekend. They see this as a reverse takeover of the party by the Wildrose.

They look with dismay at Kenney’s history — from years ago when he was an anti-abortion advocate to more recently when he fought against women wearing a niqab in citizenship ceremonies. 

A few weeks ago, former PC MLA Ron Ghitter said he had metaphorically ripped up his party card at the thought of Kenney becoming leader.

“Philosophically, he doesn’t live where a lot of we Progressive Conservatives live. He’s an ideologue, more on the right, and that’s not where you win elections in the long-term in Alberta,” said Ghitter. “I’m a Lougheed conservative. I’m a conservative that believes you’re in the middle, you care for all people, you don’t go right or left, you deal with the issues that are right for Alberta.”

Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson is also seeking the PC  leadership.

Outplaying the “progressives” 

But I have to ask, where were all the teeth-gnashing “progressives” the past six months when the Kenney conservatives invaded the party?

You’d have to think the old-time PCs were complacent or lazy or naive. They appear to have been outmanoeuvred, out fought and outwitted by the opposition.

Leadership candidate Donna Kenney-Glans left the field saying it was sloping too far to the right. The only other woman in the race, Sandra Jansen, complained of bullying by Kenney supporters and fled to the NDP.

Former MLA Stephen Khan abandoned the race, too, leaving two keep-the-party-afloat candidates: MLA Richard Starke and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson.

A big question today is what happens to moderate party members such as Starke and Nelson if Kenney wins the leadership?

Do they quit? Do they go to another party?

If that happens, we could see the beginning of a major shift in Alberta politics. For decades, the longest governing party in Alberta managed to straddle the middle of the political spectrum.

Now, we might be seeing the polarization of Alberta politics, with the NDP on the left and a new conservative party on the right.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Even if Kenney wins the PC leadership, he still has to work with members of the party’s executive who might resist a merger with the Wildrose.

And then he has to negotiate with Wildrose leader Brian Jean who is open to a united party but with the Wildrose dictating the terms. Jean is already on the road drumming up support for his own version of a united party, one that would see him defeat Kenney in a yet-to-be-declared leadership race.

The PC party might have come down with a lethal case of Kenney-itis but it’s still too early to say whether it will prove fatal to the Wildrose. Kenney may have gone to a lot of trouble to wipe out the PC party only to clear the way for the rise of a reinvigorated Wildrose led by Jean.

gthomson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/graham journal

If all goes according to plan (as pundits see it) on Saturday afternoon, Jason Kenney will win the leadership of Alberta’s Progressive Conservative party.

Then what?

Well, I would suggest Kenney change his name — to “Not Sure.”

I base that advice on a Mainstreet/Postmedia public opinion poll released this week.

It asked this question: “If the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta and the Wildrose Party were to merge, who would you prefer as leader?”

In fourth place (also last place) was Kenney at 17 per cent of respondents.

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean was third with 26 per cent.

In second was “Someone Else” with 28 per cent.

And first place went to “Not Sure” with 29 per cent support.

The telephone poll of almost 2,400 people conducted March 10 has a margin of error of 2.01 percentage points 19 times our of 20. So, in theory Brian Jean and “Someone Else” might be tied.

But “Not Sure” is clearly in front.

By changing his name to “Not Sure,” Kenney would immediately jump to first place in the upcoming fight with Jean to unite the right.

He’d also do well in all kinds of other polls dealing with, for example, how to balance the provincial budget without massive cuts, how to reduce taxes without creating a deficit, or how to lower greenhouse gas emissions without a carbon levy.

“Not Sure” is the perfect slippery answer to so many tricky questions.

I am, of course, being facetious.

My point, though, is that when it comes to uniting Alberta’s conservative parties, neither Kenney nor Jean have set the world on fire.

It might be because neither politician is particularly well known.

Or maybe it’s that Albertans are looking for somebody, well, better. Somebody that doesn’t make them go “meh” in a public-opinion poll.

“Jean’s done a good job as leader of the Opposition, but there’s some hope someone else will come in the race,” said Mainstreet Research president Quito Maggi to explain the results. “Neither Kenney nor Jean seem to have really electrified people — maybe people are looking for someone newer or younger.”

Maggi suggested Kenney’s image might have been bruised during the leadership campaign that saw some of his supporters accused of bullying tactics.

An interesting facet of the poll is how Jean did significantly better than Kenney. We’ve seen similar numbers in other polls with Jean ahead of Kenney.

Maggis said Jean has been able to solidify his base while leading Alberta’s official Opposition. By building that base among supporters, he’s also become better known by the public.

That gives Jean a leg up on the unite the right race that will begin in earnest on Sunday, after Kenney has taken a victory lap at the PC leadership convention.

Jean has already issued an invitation to whomever wins the leadership to sit down for a chat on Monday to discuss moving to unite conservatives under one banner.

However, Jean is once again emphasizing that any unification be done under the Wildrose’s “legal framework.” In other words, he does not agree with Kenney’s plan to wind up both parties to form a new entity. Instead, Jean wants the unification to be done in the Wildrose tent (likely under a new name).

Jean wants to move quickly. He’ll put the plan to his members at their annual convention in June.

But this is sure to be a contentious point with Kenney, who wants members of both parties to dissolve their old factions so they can be equals building a new one.

This is where things could get really messy and nasty and, um, interesting.

But, of course, I’m basing all of this on the prediction that Kenney will win the leadership.

If either Richard Starke or Byron Nelson wins, we’ll be left wondering, what happens next?

In that case, you can call me “Not Sure.”

gthomson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/graham_journal

Wildrose Leader Brian Jean wants negotiations to create a united conservative party in Alberta to begin as soon as Monday afternoon.

In a video message to Wildrose members on Friday, Jean said the invitation is open to whoever the Progressive Conservatives select as leader on Saturday at the party’s leadership convention in Calgary. 

Jason Kenney, who ran for the PC leadership on a platform of conservative unity, is widely expected to be declared the winner when votes are counted Saturday afternoon. 

Richard Starke, another leadership hopeful, acknowledged conservatives have to work together to stamp out vote splitting but stopped short of pitching a merger with the Wildrose Party.

Jean said he hopes to provide an update immediately after the meeting and promised that “members have final say on the future of our party.”

Jean told party members in January that he was willing to stand down as party leader and enter the race to lead a new party.

At the time, Jean laid out a few requirements for the new party — it would have to preserve the Wildrose’s grassroots-focused framework, that all members be “treated as equals,” and that members would decide the name. 

Since then, Jean has been touring the province and said he has been hearing a lot of support from Wildrose members about his plan.

He said negotiations would have to start this summer or risk running out of time before the provincial election in 2019.

“Time is of the essence,” said Jean.

sxthomson@postmedia.com

twitter.com/stuartxthomson

CALGARY — Progressive Conservative leadership candidates Jason Kenney, Byron Nelson and Richard Starke rallied their troops in Calgary Friday night, preparing for the vote that will see one of them wear the PC crown.

The hall in the Calgary Convention Centre was packed with card-carrying members, some wearing white Unite Alberta cowboy hats, others ringing blue Richard Starke cowbells.

Before candidates took to the stage, party president Katherine O’Neill told the standing-room-only crowd that Progressive Conservatives are best when they are fighting for something – not against something.   

For Kenney, the rally was another chance to reiterate his Unite Alberta message.

“New Democrats aren’t bad people,” he said. “They just have bad ideas.”

Starke cited his record of service and never walking away, saying, “You will have to pry my Progressive Conservative membership card from my cold, dead hands.”

Finally, Nelson explained he isn’t worried about unity itself, but the lack of a concrete plan — doing it wrong will invite another four years of NDP rule, he said.

“I don’t want to be the one standing here after the NDP is re-elected saying, ‘I told you so’,” Nelson said.

In a matter of hours, delegates will cast their votes. Here’s a look back at the race so far. 

And we’re off 

The leadership race hadn’t even officially started last summer when Kenney, then-Calgary Midnapore member of Parliament, galloped out of the gate. Rumours of Kenney leaving Ottawa with a scheme to unite Alberta’s conservative parties swirled for months before he announced his five-point Unite Alberta plan on July 6 in Calgary. Days later, former prime minister Stephen Harper endorsed his former immigration minister and his plan. For the rest of the summer, Kenney toured Alberta in his blue pickup truck, peddling the unite message.

The next three candidates leaped into the fray in September — Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson, former PC cabinet minister Donna Kennedy-Glans (with her own five-point plan for rebuilding the party) and Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke. The race officially began Oct. 1. Calgary-North West MLA Sandra Jansen confirmed her leadership bid on Oct. 12, and former St. Albert MLA and cabinet minister Stephen Khan jumped in on Nov. 4.

Defying convention

Playing nicely together was never going to last — this is politics after all. Cue the PC policy convention from Nov. 4 to 6. There, Kenney’s team flexed its organizational muscle, busing young supporters to the event and bringing former prime minister Stephen Harper to speak to them. The unexpected flood of Unite Alberta support was a wake-up call for the other candidates and the party’s centrist voices who wanted to rebuild the PC brand. 

Nope, we’re out 

Two days later, on Nov. 8, Jansen and Kennedy-Glans abruptly announced they were dropping out of the race, Jansen citing harassment and intimidation at the convention. Although she didn’t name names, Jansen’s lack of love for Kenney was no secret — she earlier declared she would never serve as a PC MLA under the former MP.

Kennedy-Glans left because of the polarizing nature of Alberta politics and a “limited opportunity for centrist voices.” The women bowed out just two days before the deadline to file nomination papers, drawing what seemed like a pointed barb from Kenney, who said in a statement he hoped the $50,000 race fee wasn’t a hindrance.

Jansen ended up filing a formal complaint about the harassment, as did Kenney. As a result, the PC party engaged IRIIS LLC out of Calgary to investigate. It found there was rampant harassment and intimidation at the convention, but it could not be directly linked back to any specific leadership campaign. Jansen crossed the floor to the NDP on Nov. 17. 

A golf course kerfuffle 

For the first time since 1985, the PC Party is using a delegate voting system to elect its new leader. Each constituency will send 15 delegates, who were elected at local selection meetings. The first delegate selection meeting in Edmonton was on Nov. 16 at the Mill Woods golf course. According to leadership rules, candidates were not allowed “in or near” the meetings, so when Kenney’s campaign hosted a hospitality suite with free food and booze in the same building — and the man himself turned up to thank supporters — murmurings of disquiet morphed into an argument.

The party’s chief returning officer, Rob Dunseith, investigated, and Kenney’s campaign was hit with a $5,000 fine. Dunseith found two “aggravating factors” around the incident — Kenney organizer Alan Hallman said the campaign could afford a fine, and the “inescapable appearance” that the campaign had deliberately pushed the boundaries. Hallman was later suspended from the party for a year for breaching its leadership code of conduct by posting inappropriate tweets.

Mergers and coalitions

Jan. 26 was a busy day for the leadership race. First, Richard Starke announced a “necessary adjustment” to his campaign — a coalition-like agreement between PC and Wildrose, but not a party merger. Hours later, Wildrose’s Jean posted a video message for supporters that set the stage for a head-to-head battle with Kenney. If Wildrose members approved a unity agreement with the Tories, he said, he’d stand down as party leader and seek leadership of the new united conservative party this summer.

Alberta’s chief electoral officer Glen Resler has said from the beginning that financial assets can’t be transferred between parties, so Jean made it clear he sees the only way forward as absorbing a weakened PC party into the financially stable Wildrose. He then hit the road on a Alberta tour to sell his vision for unity. The next day, Stephen Khan dropped his leadership bid as his dream of reviving a moderate, centrist party, collapsed around him.

The same week, PC party director Denise Brunner, accused of bias by Kenney supporters, resigned from the party’s board so as not to be a “distraction.”

A last-ditch effort

Critical of Kenney’s bid to run for leadership of a party he wants to dissolve, Calgary lawyer Jeff Rath filed a complaint on Feb. 9 against the former MP with the PC Association of Alberta. He alleged “numerous violations” of the PCAA constitution and leadership election code of ethics, which states that candidates must avoid causing harm to the party brand. On Feb. 16, a special meeting of the board that could have led to Kenney’s disqualification was quashed by party president Katherine O’Neill.

egraney@postmedia.com

twitter.com/EmmaLGraney

CALGARY

Ok, now what?

As expected, Jason Kenney won the leadership of the Progressive Conservative party Saturday.

And he did it handily, capturing 75 per cent of the votes cast by almost 1,500 delegates at the party’s leadership convention in Calgary.

“Today we have chosen the future,” declared Kenney in his victory speech. “Today we have chosen hope. Today we have chosen unity. Today, it’s springtime in Alberta.”

Kenney’s next goal is merging the PC party with the Wildrose to form a new conservative party in time for the 2019 provincial election.

Saturday’s vote makes him PC leader but the party still has to hold a grassroots vote sometime in the future to approve that merger.

In other words, his landslide leadership win is just the first step in what promises to be a complicated journey.

The next step – making the merger a fact – will be a doozy.

First, Kenney will meet with the PC’s 50-member board of directors Sunday at noon. Some of those directors are still convinced Kenney’s plan is a really bad idea, mostly because it will spell the death of the PC party.

Kenney knows this is a potential hurdle and several times in weekend speeches issued a warning to party officials: “Do not deny the right of grassroots members to decide our future together.”

However, there are party officials who, despite Kenney’s win, agree with the anti-unity arguments articulated by leadership candidate Richard Starke who finished second with 22 per cent of the vote (Byron Nelson was third with 0.3 per cent).

In a fiery speech before the vote, Starke slammed the idea of a merger as bad for all kinds of reasons.

“It won’t be simple and it certainly won’t be quick,” said Starke who made a point of attacking the Wildrose’s history of intolerant comments. He was loudly booed by members of the audience but he wasn’t apologizing afterwards.

“That is something that has to be recognized as being something that could be a very major political risk,” he told journalists.

Starke may have lost the leadership race but he still wants to win the merger debate.

“We don’t know really what Jason is putting forward, right?” Starke told journalists. “All we know is that he wants to unite but in terms of what that party would look like, what values it would have, what principles it would have, that is at this point still an unknown.”

Sunday’s two-hour meeting between the party’s directors and Kenney isn’t expected to solve anything. Officials say they’ll likely spend the time setting up various committees to investigate the complicated process of opening talks with the Wildrose that would lead to a process for negotiating a merger followed by votes of the grassroots of both parties.

The PC party currently has nothing in its constitution for doing any of that.

This does not promise to be a speedy process.

There’s even some talk among party officials the process could be so complicated and slow that the formation of a new conservative party would collapse under its own weight, leaving Kenney as leader of the PC party for the next election.

Oh, the irony.

Then there’s the Brian Jean factor. Kenney will meet with the Wildrose leader on Monday for a chat – but Jean has already said he doesn’t like Kenney’s unity plan.

Jean wants the parties to unite under the Wildrose umbrella (with a new name) rather than having both parties dissolved to form a new entity.

The Wildrose might hold a special convention this summer to vote on a merger plan as spelled out by Jean. But nothing has been settled.

Even Alberta’s NDP government got in on the act Saturday when cabinet minister Deron Bilous turned up at the convention to hold news scrums where he attacked Kenney as too right-wing – and offer up the NDP as a home for disgruntled “progressives” thinking of abandoning the PCs.

This unite-the-right thing is getting more interesting, and complicated, by the day.

gthomson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/graham_journal

http://edmontonjournal.com/tag/alberta-pc-leadership-race

Calgary — As balloons fell onto newly elected Progressive Conservative leader Jason Kenney Saturday, the reality of the party’s end started sinking in for party faithful.

Kenney’s win didn’t come as a surprise to most.

Even fellow leadership candidate Byron Nelson said afterwards he saw it in the cards.

Now, he said, “We go forward as conservatives together.”

“I’m there to support (Kenney) 100 per cent,” Nelson said.

Richard Starke was more cautious — he’s still not entirely sure how Kenney plans for the unite strategy to work. 

“He’s asked for input, and I’ll be providing him lots of input – that Albertans expect to see a centrist, progressive … party that reflects socially progressive and fiscally conservative values,” Starke said.

Although Kenney’s mandate to essentially dissolve the PCs was divisive among a chunk of Tory faithful, party association president Katherine O’Neill doesn’t expect a rash of resignations.

“I would be disappointed if that happens, because we have worked so hard to get to this point and we need to keep working,” she said Saturday.

Even if there is pushback from the board, she said, PC membership “spoke clearly … and you have to respect your membership.” 

While she acknowledged there will be some unhappy folk — this was a leadership vote, after all, so not everybody could win — O’Neill hopes to work through those concerns and bring them back to the table.

If she doesn’t, NDP Economic Development Minister Deron Bilous said his party is more than happy to welcome them aboard.

“What we have seen … is a lot of mainstream Albertans now looking for a political home,” Bilous said at the convention Saturday.

“There is room in our party for moderates and we are a party that will welcome everyone.” 

egraney@postmedia.com

twitter.com/EmmaLGraney

Calgary — New Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney will meet Monday with Wildrose Leader Brian Jean to discuss the path to a single united conservative party.

Jean is pro-unity, but wants his party to absorb the PCs so as not to lose the substantial Wildrose war chest. 

But in his first post-win news conference Sunday, Kenney doubled down on his oft-repeated message that unity must be decided by grassroots members. 

“This is not about the political parties, it’s about Alberta,” he said.

How the two parties will become one is, at this point, still a mystery. 

Kenney is banking on a strategy similar to the one that melded the federal Progressive Conservatives and the Canadian Alliance to become the Conservative Party of Canada in 2003.

That means developing a plan with Wildrose through the work of a negotiation committee — hopefully in a matter of weeks — and taking it to members of both parties.

“If we can put together a sensible agreement, it will take away the fear of the unknown,” Kenney said.

“I want to go as quickly as we can, but not cut corners.” 

Kenney hopes to see more co-operation between the Wildrose and the PCs on the floor of the legislature to help pave the way for unity. 

With a lot of work to be done outside the legislative building — namely figuring out the mechanics of a united party and shoring up support in a looming leadership battle with Jean — Kenney said he’s not looking to get himself a seat in the PC caucus.

Nor will he be drawing a salary from the party.

Horse before cart

Kenney wouldn’t be drawn into detailed policy questions, saying part of the reason the Tories were decimated in the 2015 election was their arrogance, so ideas must be developed from the grassroots.

However, he did say he would roll back the carbon tax and other NDP fiscal policies that he said are damaging investor confidence in Alberta. 

“Let’s get the democratic horse in front of the policy cart,” he said.

Kenney does agree with some NDP changes, such as election finance reformation laws, but he was critical of what he called a lowering of discourse in the house, taking a swipe at the NDP for “becoming almost as mean-spirited as they are incompetent.”

The PC party board met Sunday with Kenney.

With Kenney winning on a platform to essentially dissolve the party, the Tories are now in unchartered territory.

With an election in just two years, PC Association of Alberta president Katherine O’Neill wants to resolve the tangled question of unity as quickly as possible. 

“You could tell around the table today that people want to work with our new leader,” she said Sunday following the meeting.

“There’s a lot of unanswered questions, but people still want to be at the table to move us to that next step.” 

It’s no secret that not everyone’s on-side with Kenney’s vision, but O’Neill said board members don’t seem to be actively trying to block unity, and are willing to explore where the party goes from here.

For now, O’Neill said it’s business as usual for the PC party, which will continue to sell memberships and fundraise because it still has an organization to run.

egraney@postmedia.com

twitter.com/EmmaLGraney

What happens when an irresistible force meets an immovable object?

We’ll find out Monday afternoon when Alberta’s new Progressive Conservative leader, Jason Kenney, meets with Wildrose Leader Brian Jean.

Fresh from his decisive victory at Saturday’s PC leadership convention, Kenney is eager to move ahead quickly with his plan for uniting the PCs and Wildrose into a new conservative party.

His enthusiasm was on display Sunday after meeting with the party’s board of directors.

“I just briefed the PC board on what I see as the next steps, one element of which would be nominating negotiators to sit on a negotiating committee with counterparts from the Wildrose party,” said Kenney, whose plan culminates in a founding convention for the new party in November, followed by a leadership race.

Whew. It’d be a political whirlwind. A year from now Alberta could have a new conservative party with a new leader ready to do battle against the NDP government.

Or not.

A lot depends on what happens between Kenney and Jean at Monday’s meeting.

On paper, their get-together should be a back-slapping bromance over beers and chicken wings (only right wings, of course).

They are both former MPs in the old Harper government and both want to unite Alberta conservatives under one roof.

However, Kenney wants to do that by “winding up” both the PCs and Wildrose parties to open the way to build a brand new party from scratch.

While Jean is happy to have the PCs dissolve themselves, he wants to keep the Wildrose framework, with a war chest estimated at $1 million or more, intact. It would be a case of the PCs joining the Wildrose, which would give itself a new name.

Kenney doesn’t like that idea and seems irritated by Jean issuing “preconditions” that could be a pretext for rejecting a merger. Jean, with support from his party members, could yet prove an insurmountable obstacle to the Kenney bulldozer.

With that scenario possibly in mind, Kenney offered a warning: “Voters in Alberta are going to punish any party that obstructs unity amongst free enterprisers. So if a unity agreement ends up being vetoed by either party, I think that sends a strong message to voters about which direction to go.”

But there’s still a chance the PCs, even under Kenney’s leadership, might not go for a merger. Keep in mind that Kenney won the leadership Saturday, not permission to merge the parties.

He still has to convince an estimated 39,000 rank-and-file members of Alberta’s most successful franchise that killing the political goose that laid majority-government eggs for 44 years is the best way forward.

There are still officials in the PC party hoping that the merger process will prove so complicated and lengthy that it will collapse under its own weight. In that case, Kenney would be leader of a still-breathing PC party for the next election.

And Kenney has thought of that scenario, too: “If, for some reason, either party decides not to endorse a unity agreement, then I will respect that democratic decision. I would also respect my mandate as leader. I would seek to make the Progressive Conservative party the platform for unity.”

I should point out I’ve been using the term “merger” for simplicity’s sake. According to Elections Alberta, two parties cannot legally merge. If they want to form a new party, they have to dissolve themselves and hand over all their financial assets to Elections Alberta — and then they’re free to form a new party. That’s one major reason why Jean doesn’t want to dissolve the Wildrose.

Kenney has always bristled at the rules that make his unity plan much harder to accomplish. But surprise, surprise, those regulations might be in for a legal challenge. A group calling itself the Alberta Conservative Consolidation Committee will hold a news conference Monday afternoon to explain how a merger could be done legally.

Just ahead of the crucial meeting between irresistible Kenney and immovable Jean.

gthomson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/graham_journal

Alberta’s political landscape changed forever Saturday.

For decades, Progressive Conservative politicians came and went in Alberta, but the party remained in charge, a political empire unmatched in Canadian history.

On the weekend, Jason Kenney secured the leadership of the Tories on a promise to bring about the party’s end, pledging to unite Alberta conservatives into a single force.

There are countless steps to be worked out: the technicalities of wrapping up a party, how to start a new one or merge with Wildrose, who’s going to lead this new conservative movement and what will it be called, and what happens on the floor of the legislative assembly.

For now, though, Kenney will be extending his hand to many — in thanks to supporters, to Wildrose Leader Brian Jean, the PC party board, and conservatives staunchly opposed to his plan.

A new world order for party faithful

For longtime Alberta Tories who embrace the word “progressive” in the party’s name, this is the morning after a big night out: heads are aching, there are hazy memories of better times past and everyone’s feeling a little bit queasy about where their party is headed. 

For many insiders who consider themselves PC to the bone, it’s a matter of wait and see; perhaps, despite their misgivings, Kenney will turn out to be a uniting force who does indeed embrace all ends of the conservative spectrum.

Others favour doing all they can to block a unity motion, or are looking to throw their weight behind the Alberta Party or Liberals to give Albertans a powerful centrist option on the 2019 election ballot.  

Then there’s the option of a new party altogether.

For longtime Tory campaigner Donal O’Beirne, the work involved — coupled with an apparent lack of appetite among voters — makes that an unpalatable option. After years of leadership races and getting decimated in the 2015 provincial election, many Progressive Conservatives are just too tired to go down that road.

But former PC Edmonton Castle Downs MLA Thomas Lukaszuk doesn’t rule it out.

He says there’s not a room in the province large enough to accommodate the distance between Kenney’s social conservatism and his own progressive views.

In the wake of a Kenney victory, he says, there must be a centrist choice. And if that means a new party, then so be it.

Stick around, Kenney says 

For his part, Kenney is adamant the new party will be a big ol’ tent, ready and willing to take in anyone who considers themselves a free-market conservative. 

He has never liked the term “Unite the Right.” It’s too prescriptive for his vision.

He says progressives who want to shape the new party should stick around and propose policies — something O’Beirne thinks some might be willing to do, if it means saving the party they served for so long.

O’Beirne will give it a chance only if he doesn’t see the gap between the socially conservative Kenney and his own personal values — particularly on divisive issues like LGBTQ and women’s rights — develop into a gaping chasm.

If that happens, he says, he’s out. 

The problem is many at the progressive end of the spectrum consider Kenney too socially conservative for their liking, but Kenny bristles at that.

Jabbing the table with one finger, he says his voting record in Ottawa aligned with Conservative Party of Canada policies or, at the very least, with the voting of other Alberta Conservative MPs.

Steamrolling the race

The PC leadership race didn’t delve much into policy; the unity question and its implications dwarfed everything else.

Some of the PC old guard resented Kenney trundling in busloads of young people — with the promise of pizza and a meeting with former prime minister Stephen Harper — who took over the party’s youth wing. 

There was a feeling Kenney was launching a hostile takeover, but the newly minted leader disagrees. 

His campaign expected to sell more memberships, he says, and he doesn’t accept that former Wildrosers flooded PC lists to win delegate selections.  

When it came time to vote, only two other candidates remained — Vermilion-Lloydminster MLA Richard Starke and Calgary lawyer Byron Nelson. There’s no question Kenney’s campaign had already steamrolled the race. 

It brought Ottawa organization and strategy to Alberta, picking up longtime conservatives who knew the lay of the land and knew who would support the unity plan and convince others to do the same.

Kenney’s recruits paid attention to fiddly, detailed organization in every riding, and the team used multiple phone callouts to get names on lists and, more importantly, bodies to delegate selection meetings.

But his campaign also took some flak for its tactics, particularly when it looked to well-known political enforcers like Alan Hallman, who ended up banned from the party earlier this year and was charged with assault over an incident at the weekend convention.

Where to next? 

Kenney sold the vision of a new conservative force effectively enough to win roughly 75 per cent of the delegate votes, but the work isn’t even close to starting.

There’s no mechanism in the PC constitution to do what Kenney is proposing, so it must be amended — and each party member must be able to vote on that amendment.

Wildrose too must craft a merger-type policy — or a motion to wrap up the party altogether with the view to joining a new conservative force — and vote on it. Jean has already proposed absorbing PC members into his party so as not to lose the Wildrose’s million-dollar war chest.

Then there will need to be policies written and voted on and a name chosen. It can’t be too close to another party’s title, and will need ultimate approval from Alberta’s chief electoral officer, Glen Resler.

The PC party will also have to figure out what to do with its assets, and on the floor of the house, MLAs will have to cross the floor to a new party if and when it forms.

Any who choose to remain will, if their party is wrapped up, become independents.

It’s going to be a long, winding and complex path to unity.

egraney@postmedia.com

twitter.com/EmmaLGraney 

Don’t send out the wedding invitations just yet.

The possible marriage between Alberta’s conservative parties moved a little closer to fruition Monday afternoon when new Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney met with Wildrose Leader Brian Jean in Edmonton.

They talked collegially for half an hour, we are told, but there was no, um, consummation.

Not even close.

“I just completed an excellent 35-minute meeting with my friend and former colleague Brian Jean,” Kenney told journalists afterwards. “I was very encouraged by the positive, constructive tone of the meeting. Brian and I agreed on every point.”

Perhaps I’m reading too much into this, but they didn’t agree to hold a joint news conference to declare how “positive” and “constructive” the meeting had been.

Kenney came out alone. Jean stayed in his legislative office where they had met, saying he might talk publicly tomorrow.

The Wildrose also didn’t allow news cameras into the meeting for a photo-op, opting instead to issue a canned picture of the two men smiling while stiffly shaking hands.

“We discussed the initial steps in the process to take us to unity,” said Kenney at his one-man unity news scrum. “We agreed to co-operate in putting together a discussion team that will help to produce a unity agreement. We hope to have that team in place by the end of this week and we intend to give that discussion team a mandate to report back to the two parties by the end of April.”

Well, that sounds promising for the unite-the-right crowd. Except that Sunday, Kenney had told journalists the PC party “would be nominating negotiators to sit on a negotiating committee with counterparts from the Wildrose party.”

On Monday, Kenney didn’t get agreement from Jean to set up a “negotiating committee,” but rather a “discussion team.”

Again, perhaps I’m reading too much into this, but when two sides set up a “negotiating” structure, there’s an implication they’re heading to a common goal.

A “discussion” group just sounds like a lot of talk.

Jean did, though, contribute to a joint news release after their chat.

“Today was a very positive and constructive meeting,” he said in a statement as canned as the official photo. “We reaffirmed our belief in consulting our grassroots members and ensuring they have the final say. The members are in charge.”

What’s going on here is that even though both leaders would like to unite conservatives under one banner, they don’t agree on how they’ll get there or even what the banner will look like.

Put in simplistic terms, Kenney wants to merge the parties even if that means dissolving both to form a new conservative party from scratch.

Jean has said he wants to keep the Wildrose framework, and war chest, in place — and have PC members come to his party (which would have a new name).

One reason Jean is adamant the Wildrose be the basis for a united-conservative party is that according to Elections Alberta, a merger between two existing parties is illegal.

Two parties that want to amalgamate would have to dissolve themselves and hand over their financial assets to the provincial government, then form a new party from the ground up, with no money.

However, just 90 minutes before the Kenney-Jean meeting, a group of lawyers calling themselves the Alberta Conservative Consolidation Committee held a news conference in Calgary to issue a brief arguing an amalgamation is in fact allowed under Alberta law.

In other words, they were telling Jean to chill out. Their conclusion is that there’s no need for the Wildrose to serve as the basis of a new party. Both parties could merge as equals and bring with them their financial assets (something Kenney would like).

No word yet on what Elections Alberta, or Jean, thinks of the brief.

It’s worth noting, though, that several of the lawyers have informal ties to Kenney. That might make you think the timing of their news conference was a little too convenient for Kenney.

But perhaps I’m reading too much into this.

gthomson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/graham_journal

Related

• Progressive Conservative-Wildrose merger proposal expected by April: Jason Kenney

Alberta conservatives will know by Friday who will draft a unity agreement between the province’s Progressive Conservative and Wildrose parties. 

Official Opposition Leader Brian Jean and newly elected PC Leader Jason Kenney ironed out the first steps in creating a unified political right during a 35-minute meeting Monday in Edmonton’s Federal Building.

The chat in Jean’s office was the first time the two have sat down together as leaders of their respective parties, and Kenney said afterwards he was encouraged by the positive tone.

Jean didn’t speak with media after the meeting, but Kenney said the two former federal colleagues agreed on every point — the initial steps in the process, the need to steer clear of pre-conditions, and that the agreement must ultimately be decided by grassroots members.

He said the unity discussion team, with members from both parties, will report back by the end of April.

Jean is pro-unity, but in January released a video saying the best path forward was consolidation under the Wildrose.

He argued it’s quicker, less disruptive and avoids his party having to get rid of all of its assets and cash which, according to Alberta chief electoral officer Glen Resler, cannot be transferred between parties.

On Monday, Jean reiterated that plan makes a lot of sense, but was going into the meeting with an open mind.

No barrier to legal merger

A document by five Alberta lawyers, released Monday, saw no legal impediment to a merger between the Wildrose and PC parties.

The group, called the Alberta Conservative Consolidation Committee, said the two parties could amalgamate as registered societies, which they say would allow them to keep and combine their assets.

The group acknowledged that only the Wildrose is currently registered as a society, meaning the PC party would have to register or try to amalgamate through the Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta Foundation, a registered non-profit corporation.

“Amalgamations in and of their nature are fusions of assets, not transfers of assets,” they wrote.

Newly-elected Alberta Progressive Conservative party Leader Jason Kenney (left) and former interim party leader Ric McIver walk outside the Federal Building in Edmonton on Monday March 20, 2017, after Kenney met with WIldrose Leader Brian Jean.

QP desk-thumping irks Kenney

Kenney spent 20 minutes of his second full day as PC leader inside the legislative chamber, watching question period.

He wasn’t a huge fan, saying it sounded like “typical legislative argy-bargy,” and didn’t like the desk-thumping and cheering.

Kenney has urged more co-operation between the PC and Wildrose caucuses, and said after Monday’s meeting Jean agreed it was a good idea.

Despite all their apparent agreements, Jean doubled down on his pledge to one day lead Alberta.

“I want to be the premier of this great province,” he said. “If I receive that privilege, I’m sure it will be behind a consolidated conservative movement.” 

Premier Rachel Notley offered her congratulations Monday to Kenney.

Saying she’s not terribly concerned about a united right, she called on Kenney to be transparent about his policy plans.

While Notley didn’t rule out calling a snap election before conservatives carry out their unity plans, she said her focus isn’t on sending Albertans to the polls.

“In the longer term, as we get closer to an election, I look forward to having our mainstream ideas contradicted with the rather more extreme ideas that we hear from folks on the other side of the aisle,” she said.

With files from James Wood, Postmedia

egraney@postmedia.com

twitter.com/EmmaLGraney 

Related

• Graham Thomson: Brian Jean playing hard-to-get bride in possible union of conservative parties

For a former political dynasty that ruled the province for four decades, Albertans suddenly know surprisingly little about the Progressive Conservative party.

This strange, new unfamiliarity starts at the top with its new leader. People may recall Jason Kenney was a former MP and federal cabinet minister in the Harper government but ordinary Albertans can be forgiven for wondering just where he stands now that he’s on the provincial stage.

Sure, they know he wants to amalgamate the Tories with the rival Wildrose in a new conservative alliance to unseat the NDP government. It’s a popular stance he rode to an easy victory in the PC leadership race. The problem is, uniting the right is the only policy most Albertans have heard the new party leader articulate at any length.

For a leadership race that will likely transform Alberta politics, the months-long contest offered little debate on policies for the party platform. The spotlight focused on the question and logistics of unity while rarely straying into matters of policy substance.

Albertans heard over and over that the party stands against the NDP. It left many wondering what does it stand for? What is Kenney’s vision for the province? Does he have one, beyond the scenario where the NDP loses the next election?

To abhor the direction Premier Rachel Notley is taking the province makes for political theatre, and Kenney masterfully plays the role of foil.

It’s a performance he repeated on the weekend when he vowed the party’s first act after winning the 2019 election would be to repeal the carbon tax and other policies. “We are going to work hard to repeal each element of the disastrous NDP legislative and regulatory record,” Kenney said.

What he failed to share were any ideas of his own to replace the NDP’s. Kenney is now a provincial politician, the leader of a major political party; he is no longer an outsider who has the luxury of sniping from afar or drive-by broadsides.

It’s worrying he is in no rush to seek a seat in a byelection. “My emphasis would be on building the united party,” Kenney told Calgary Herald columnist Don Braid.

“We have a competent team in the legislature that would hold the NDP to account.”

But Albertans also deserve to be able to hold Kenney himself to account. At the very least, they deserve to know what he stands for and how he would vote on proposed legislation. He speaks now for the party’s eight elected members and should take centre stage instead of directing from behind the curtain.

Local editorials are the consensus opinion of the Journal’s editorial board, comprising Mark Iype, Dave Breakenridge, Sarah O’Donnell, Bill Mah and David Evans.

Political war chests are being readied for the expected leadership battle of a new united conservative party.

That party doesn’t even exist yet — it might not form at all — but a group calling itself the Alberta Fund has already registered as a third-party political advertiser. Its mission: To promote Wildrose Leader Brian Jean as the next premier of Alberta. 

The fund is chaired by Calgarian David Yager, a longtime Wildroser who stood down from the party’s executive in January to pursue the project.

Joining him as directors are Richard Belt, owner-operator of Golden Acres Honey, and Robert Gazzard, who owns an industrial information technology company.

Yager said the fund started as a research and polling group to figure out if the election of an NDP government was a new trend toward the left in Alberta, or a blip on the political radar.  

It has since branched out, creating a website called JeanForPremier.ca. 

Yager calls it a “fan club.” 

Whether Jean is up against Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney to head a new party on the right, or battling the NDP in the next provincial election, Yager said the Alberta Fund will be in Jean’s corner.

Yager is the largest donor and the fund hasn’t bought any advertisements to date, but it was registered with Elections Alberta on Feb. 17. The only other registered third party is the Alberta Federation of Labour. 

Under election finance changes made recently by the NDP, any group that partakes in political advertising has to register and report donations and advertising spending.

Christina Gray, the minister responsible for democratic renewal, said her government worked hard to get big money out of politics.

The new rules are fair and balanced, she said, and contain some of the strongest third-party legislation in the country.

A fine line

When Kenney hit the road to market his idea of a united conservative party last year, his team started up Unite Alberta.

It raked in $500,000 in donations over the summer, spending it all before the PC leadership race officially began Oct. 1, but Kenney’s team says Unite Alberta’s future is unknown.

As with fellow PC candidates Richard Starke and Byron Nelson, Kenney has until May 18 to spend the cash he accrued during the leadership race.  

His campaign must then report its finances to Elections Alberta.

Kenney said Sunday he would volunteer Unite Alberta’s financial records at the same time. But unless it starts advertising, Unite Alberta doesn’t have to register as a third party.

The rules define political advertising as a paid message that promotes or opposes a registered party or candidate, or takes a position on an issue with which a party or candidate is associated. 

Drew Westwater with Elections Alberta said it’s “a fine line” between what does and does not fall into the political advertising category, but merely promoting the existence of a united conservative party doesn’t. 

For Yager, the first meeting between Jean and Kenney “changed everything,” putting unity firmly in the cards.

Supporting politics from the sidelines, he said, has “turned into an absolute industry.”

“I think people are really getting organized.”

egraney@postmedia.com

twitter.com/EmmaLGraney 

Related

• Graham Thomson: Brian Jean playing hard-to-get bride in possible union of conservative parties
• Progressive Conservative-Wildrose merger proposal expected by April: Jason Kenney

The dust has settled on the Progressive Conservative leadership race, but the work is just beginning to unite Alberta’s conservatives. The Press Gallery team takes a look at the weekend’s very strange leadership convention — complete with an assault charge, booing and expensive beers — and what Jason Kenney’s victory means for Alberta politics. 

Join host Emma Graney with regular guests Stuart Thomson, Paula Simons and Graham Thomson to talk everything PC leadership, and take brief look at how Saskatchewan’s budget got a look in to the news here this week.

Good stuff from the gallery

Stuart’s pick: A column by Michael Byers in the Globe and Mail about Andrew Potter’s recent departure as head of McGill’s Institute for the Study of Canada. 

Paula’s pick: A Mother Jones timeline about the Donald Trump-Russia scandal. 

Emma’s pick: This Jason Kenney profile by James Wood, about Kenney’s journey from ‘Snack Pack’ to leader of the Progressive Conservatives, and this 2014 long-read in The Walrus about the new PC leader.   

Graham’s pick:  This piece in Time Magazine called Can Trump Handle the Truth. Also, Paula Simons’ latest column on Serenity. 

I’m afraid this column might be a little too much inside baseball.

OK, it is. This column is so much inside baseball it should come with a beer and a hot dog.

It’s a column about the 10-member “discussion group” named Friday afternoon to plot the next step forward in uniting Alberta’s two conservative parties — the Wildrose and Progressive Conservatives.

I can sense you already wanting to turn the page or go get a beer and/or a hot dog. But stick with me and you’ll see how this story has connections to some major political scandals.

And to keep it a little more snappy, let’s do today’s column in the form of a question and answer.

Question: What is this “discussion group”?

Answer: Good question. This is a panel composed of five people chosen by the Wildrose party and five from the PCs. Their task is to “develop a single unity framework” that would lead to the two parties uniting under one banner. They are to report back within six weeks.

Q: Does this mean the merger is definitely going ahead?

A: No, but this is another step. The group will figure out how they can move forward and how they can put the unity framework agreement to a vote by all members of both parties.

Q: Who is on the committee?

A: The Wildrose had a vote within its caucus to pick two MLAs — Jason Nixon and Pat Stier. A vote in the party’s executive committee chose two others — the party’s vice-president of fundraising, Brandon Swertz, and party treasurer James Cole.

Q: And the fifth?

A: This is an interesting one. Wildrose Leader Brian Jean appointed Ontario-based lawyer Arthur Hamilton as his fifth person on the panel.

Q: Hmm, why is that name familiar?

A: The Wildrose says Hamilton is an “expert in election legislation and the laws governing political parties.” That is putting it mildly. This guy knows a thing or two about the intersection of the law and politics.

Here’s an excerpt from a Globe and Mail feature on Hamilton published in August 2015: “He is the Conservative Party of Canada’s official lawyer. As such, he has his fingerprints on the majority of Conservative scandals in recent memory, from the Helena Guergis and Rahim Jaffer affair, to Michael Sona and the robocall investigation, to the ‘in and out’ spending controversy, and now the Mike Duffy case.”

As the lawyer for the federal Conservative party, Hamilton wrote a cheque to Senator Mike Duffy to cover his legal fees for negotiating a $90,000 repayment for inappropriate expenses.

See? I told you there was a connection to scandals.

Q: How about the Progressive Conservatives?

A: Here are the names of their appointees: former interim party leader Ric McIver, Grande Prairie accountant Bridget Hennigar, Edmonton lawyer Devinder Purewal, Calgary lawyer Tyler Shandro and Zoe Addington, who was deputy chief of staff to former premier Jim Prentice.

Q: Why is Tyler Shandro’s name familiar?

A: He ran unsuccessfully for the presidency of the PC party’s board last year, where he declared: “I don’t want to merge the parties. I don’t think it’s legally permissible. I don’t think it’s feasible and I think the idea is really insulting to most of our members.”

Q: Wow — and now he’s in favour of unification?

A: Yes. In fact, he helped write a legal brief a few days ago arguing that an amalgamation of the two parties was possible.

Q: What happens next?

A: Well, we confirm that the 10 people named to the discussion group are actually on the group.

Q: I’m sorry, what do you mean?

A: We received unconfirmed word late Friday that Zoe Addington had been named to the panel by accident.

Q: What did party officials say?

A: As I write this column, nothing. Nobody has returned my harried calls or frantic emails.

Q: Why not?

A: Perhaps they’re out getting a beer and hot dog.

gthomson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/graham_journal

Related

• Progressive Conservative, Wildrose discussion teams set to take first steps toward unity

If the makers of Trivial Pursuit ever get around to releasing an Alberta Politics Edition, here is the perfect trivia question: Who is Zoe Addington?

It’s a perfect question because only a true political nerd will know the answer.

Addington was named in a joint news release last Friday to a 10-member “discussion group” helping plan a possible merger between the Wildrose and Progressive Conservatives.

Each party put forward five names. Addington was chosen by the PCs.

By all accounts a bright and rising star in political circles, Addington had been deputy chief of staff to former premier Jim Prentice in 2014. She currently works as director of policy and government relations for the Calgary Chamber of Commerce.

And, here she was, back in politics helping out the PCs, according to Friday’s news release.

However, within minutes of the Journal posting a story about the discussion group, an official with the Calgary Chamber called us to say Addington was not on the panel.

Huh?

How could such a basic mistake be made on such a crucial step in the unite-the-right movement? And how could it have been made by the PCs under the leadership of Jason Kenney, whose political raison d’être is all about uniting the right?

Why were we hearing about it from the Calgary Chamber of Commerce? And what did the PC party have to say about it?

We made calls Friday afternoon and into Friday evening — and the only response we got from PC officials was that they had nothing to do with it. It was all done, they said, by people around newly elected leader Kenney and his Unite Alberta friends.

Only they weren’t talking. They didn’t talk Friday or Saturday or Sunday.

After firing off another email Monday morning, I received a brief reply from an official with Kenney saying: “Zoe Addington is not on the discussion group. We were looking forward to have her represent the PC party at the discussion group, but things did not work out. We will announce her replacement shortly.”

Repeated attempts to pry more information were rebuffed by the official who finally said: “I don’t have anything else to say on this matter.”

Whispers in the political grapevine say Addington had been approached last week and vaguely asked by Kenney’s people if she’d be available to help, but never told specifically what that would entail.

When she discovered she had been named to the partisan discussion group without her consent, she was less than happy — and the chamber of commerce began making calls on her behalf to dispute the news release.

Again, how could the well-oiled Kenney team make such a basic mistake?

It’s worth noting Wildrose officials are having bit of a giggle at the mess the Kenney people have created for themselves.

The two sides might be working together on the discussion group to figure a way towards a merger, but don’t think this is a completely collegial affair.

Kenney and Wildrose Leader Brian Jean have different ideas about how any merger could work. Put simply, Kenney wants to blow up both parties and start a new conservative party from scratch. Jean wants the PCs to join the Wildrose (which would give itself a new name, such as the Conservative Party of Alberta).

No matter what road they take, at the end will be a leadership race for the new party in which Jean and Kenney intend to battle each other.

Thus, although the two sides are willing to co-operate right now, they realize it’s going to end up in a messy political knife fight sooner or later.

With that in mind, Addington is probably glad to be such a trivial player.

gthomson@postmedia.com

Twitter.com/graham_journal

Education Minister David Eggen said Wednesday that he was “disturbed” by new Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney’s comments on gay-straight alliances in schools.

Reacting to Kenney’s comments Tuesday that parents should be informed when their child joins a gay-straight alliance in school unless the parents are abusive, Eggen posted on Facebook that Kenney has shown himself as an “extremist.”

“We work very closely with parents, but let’s not forget gay-straight alliances are support groups for students who are in a very vulnerable position,” said Eggen.

“If the government is compelling people to out those students in a very compromised situation, then they’re only serving to make the situation worse.”

Kenney posted a statement on his Facebook page Wednesday morning clarifying his position.

He said claims that he wants schools to “out” LGBTQ students to their parents are untrue.

“In some cases informing parents would clearly be inappropriate. Longstanding laws and protocols exist to protect children from potentially abusive parents. I trust teachers, principals and school counsellors to exercise their judgment about such matters, and that there should be a presumption that most parents are loving and caring, seeking only what is best for their children.

“The law should neither force schools to release information to parents, nor should it create an adversarial relationship between parents and their children,” he wrote.

Eggen said the law currently has no provision that stops school officials from notifying parents, but he’s “been looking at that very closely.” In the meantime, Eggen said most schools have gone beyond the letter of the law and embraced the spirit of it.

The NDP caucus released a statement saying Kenney was effectively calling for a repeal of the law, while the Alberta Party denounced the comments in the morning.

The Alberta Liberals said “outing students runs contrary to the intent of the law and is deeply concerning.” The Wildrose Party, which is in negotiations with Kenney’s PCs to unite under a new name, said local school boards should exercise their best judgment on whether or not parents should be notified.

Kenney’s statements show “a balance all our political representatives should aspire to,” said Donna Trimble, executive director of Parents for Choice in Education. The group believes parents should be involved in gay-straight alliances and wants to see legislation amended.

“Evidence shows that sexual and gender minority students have improved outcomes when they have good parent and family support,” Trimble said in an email Wednesday.

NDP MLA Sandra Jansen, who originally sponsored the GSA bill under the Jim Prentice government before crossing the floor to the NDP from the PCs, said a majority of Albertans want to see LGBTQ kids protected.

“The protection is there not for the kids who come from good and understanding families, but for the kids who come from families that don’t understand,” said Jansen.

Some teachers say the Alberta Teachers’ Association’s code of conduct prevents them from divulging information without a student’s permission.

“The unilateral outing of a student would certainly leave me to question whether they had abided by (the code),” said Dennis Theobald, the association’s associate executive secretary.

Related

• Paula Simons: Jason Kenney should go back to school on gay-straight alliances
• Parents should be told if child joins gay-straight alliance, says Kenney

Laurie Blakeman, who sponsored the original private member’s bill that led to the law, said Kenney has been in Ottawa too long and is behind the times on where Albertans stand on the issue.

“I think these guys don’t get it. And I think he’s playing to what he thinks is a very large group of people, when it’s actually playing to a very, very narrow group of people,” she said.

 jfrench@postmedia.com

sxthomson@postmedia.com

Whatever possessed Jason Kenney to tell the Calgary Herald’s editorial board that Alberta schools should notify parents when their children join a gay-straight alliance club at school?

“I do however believe parents have a right to know what’s going on with their kids in the schools unless the parents are abusive,” Kenney told the board.

“I don’t think it’s right to keep secrets from parents about challenges their kids are going through.”

Clearly, Kenney learned nothing from watching former premier Jim Prentice fumble the Bill 10 debate. Why on earth does he want to re-litigate this issue now? And what is it about GSAs that makes so many otherwise sane politicians lose their minds?

A gay-straight alliance is not a sex club. It’s not a therapy group for LGBTQ kids. It’s not a program of homosexual brainwashing, designed to convert straight kids into queer or trans ones.

A GSA is just a student club, open to any and all who want to join it, gay or straight. That’s the whole point of a gay-straight alliance: to bring gay and straight kids together.

Jason Kenney told the Calgary Herald’s editorial board on Tuesday, March 28, 2017, that schools should inform parents when their kids join gay-straight alliances.

Certainly, a GSA can help gay kids, and kids who are questioning their own sexuality or gender identity, to cope with the weirdness of adolescence, to feel safe and welcome in their own schools.

But GSAs are just as much for their straight classmates — to help them to become more effective and respectful allies in the fight for tolerance, to help them build healthy, supportive relationships with their own queer or trans friends or family. 

In a typical high school, I’d warrant, a GSA often has more straight students than gay ones. That’s the whole point — not to ghettoize or segregate, but to bring people together. GSAs aren’t just about political activism or social support — they can also be about dances and bake sales and bowling nights, about having a fun place to hang out at lunch with your friends.

That’s just one reason Kenney’s belief that schools have a duty to inform parents when their kid joins a school club is so disquieting. The last thing we should be doing in 2017 is encouraging schools to perpetuate the belief that being gay is somehow shameful or worrisome, something that should be reported for the child’s own good.

How many straight students will want to join a gay-straight alliance if they know the school will call their parents, insinuating, perhaps, that they’re both gay and emotionally troubled? A GSA doesn’t work without straight members. And how many will join if they worry their own teachers or principals will “out” them — erroneously? All kids — straight as well as gay — should be able to join a social club without that kind of embarrassment. 

If Jason Kenney wants to be premier some day, he’d be better off focussing on his relations with the Wildrose, or on rebuilding depleted Progressive Conservative Party coffers, or, say, on critiquing NDP economic policy.

Still, that’s far from the most troubling message in Kenney’s position. Schools, he says, should let parents know if their kids join GSAs — unless those parents are abusive. But how are staff always supposed to know, definitively, which parents are abusive — especially in a huge urban high school? How are staff to guess which parents could become distraught or dangerous on hearing the news that their kid might be gay? When we privilege parents’ “right to know” ahead of a child’s right to be safe, we genuinely put some students at real physical and emotional risk.

I don’t believe GSAs should be mandatory. They must evolve organically. If the students themselves aren’t interested in forming a club, holding meetings, hosting events, they won’t work. Even GSAs that start with a burst of enthusiasm and goodwill can fizzle if course work gets too heavy, if the founding students graduate, if the kids get bored and lose interest or find other extracurricular things they’d rather do.

But why should publicly funded schools treat GSAs differently than they’d treat any other student-led club? Why, that is, unless deep deep down, we still do believe that it is, in fact, a shameful, dangerous thing to be gay — or to associate with gay friends. 

If Kenney wants to be premier some day, he’d be better off focusing on his relations with the Wildrose, or on rebuilding depleted Progressive Conservative party coffers, or, say, on critiquing NDP economic policy. Then, maybe, he could leave the business of who joins which clubs to high school kids — who seem to have the maturity to manage this issue with more tolerance and social aplomb than most of the adults around them.

Related

• Education minister says Jason Kenney an 'extremist' on gay-straight alliances
• James Wood: Parents should be told if child joins GSA says Jason Kenney

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New Progressive Conservative leader Jason Kenney stirred controversy this week with his comments about Gay Straight Alliances in high schools. The Press Gallery podcast team talks about the political fallout from that, as well as the latest kerfuffle between the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

Join host Emma Graney with guests Stuart Thomson, Paula Simons and Sarah O’Donnell to take a look back at those issues, and the amazing shrinking Alberta Liberal leadership race.

Good Stuff from the Gallery

Stuart’s pick: This look over at Vox about the future of mankind and why humans won’t dominate Earth in 300 years.

Paula’s pick: This read from Tristin Hopper at the National Post about how the Brits who created Canada 150 years ago were bored out of their minds.

Emma’s pick: Another National Post big read, this time by Aaron Beswick, about cod coming back to Newfoundland. 

Sarah’s pick: S-Town, a new podcast from the makers of Serial, about a guy who hates his Alabama town and asks a reporter to investigate the son of a wealthy family who’s allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder.