Jason Kenney Continues His Slow March Towards the Albertan Throne

The baby-faced prince is one step closer to his throne seated in the centre of Edmonton's legislature.

For those of you not in the know, the former Minister of Citizenship and Immigration has, after a successful career in federal politics, turned his eyes towards his home province. In 2016, Kenney announced that he would be running for the leadership of Alberta's Progressive Conservative's—the once mighty ruling party in Alberta that was laid low to third place in the 2015 election—on a platform to "Unite the Right."

To pull this off Kenney would have to walk a tightrope of winning the leadership of the PCs and convincing the Wildrose (Alberta's second place province) to join his ranks. The race that Kenney ran was, in some minds, dirty and some implied that he had brought Trump-style politics to Alberta (something he has repeatedly denounced.) Last night, Kenney pulled off the first, and perhaps trickiest, stage in his five point plan.

Kenney won the PC leadership in a landslide—he smashed his opponents, winning 1,113 of 1,476 votes cast. Still, though, the night was not all peaches and cream for everyone involved, the night before a former campaign organizer, Alan Hallman, was charged with assault at the convention—but K-dawg wasn't going to let that dampen his victory.

"It's springtime in Alberta," announced Kenney upon hearing the news.

"This result sends a message to our fellow Albertans who are struggling, to those 200,000 Albertans who are looking for work, we are going to ensure there is a government on your side."

Following this initial success, Kenney now needs to convince the Wildrose to join his team. Several high profile Wildrose members, including Canada's smarmiest politician, have already kissed the ring of the former "minister of curry in a hurry," and Brian Jean (the Wildrose leader) has said he's open to talking to Kenney. Jean has said that any new party that is formed by a united right in Alberta would be under a Wildrose framework.

"Wildrose has its dancing shoes on when it comes to creating a single, principled, consolidated, conservative movement," Jean wrote in a statement congratulating Kenney on his win. "I hope to meet with Jason on Monday and share with him more about the direction I have heard from our members."

Earlier in the night, fellow leadership candidate Richard Starke, who received 323 of the votes, lamented that Kenney's victory spelled the death of the progressive aspect of the Progressive Conservatives and that a merger like this may alienate minorities and women from the party—Starke also announced that he would support Kenney as the leader.

One thing that the right shares in Alberta is a, shall we say, dislike of current sitting premier Rachel Notley of the NDP party—a sentiment that Kenney has masterfully harnessed. Notley, who has brought in numerous legislation that has been decried by Alberta's right is going to have her hands full in 2019. Kenney said that he will repeal pretty much all of Notley's accomplishments if his united conservative party is elected. In his speech, Kenny declared that "today is the beginning of the end of this disastrous socialist government," and went on to call the NDP "tax-hiking, job-killing, debt-loving, mean-spirited, [and] incompetent."

Meanwhile, the NDP attempted to reach out to the so-called "progressives" in the PC party who may have been scared off by Jason Kenney. Indeed, a PC MLA, Sandra Jansen, crossed the floor to the NDP because of the rhetoric brought about by the leadership race.

Jason Kenney is a one man disrupter—the 48-year-old has, single-handedly, managed to turn Albertan provincial politics on its head. Say what you will about Kenney but, Jesus, he is good at the ol' politicking thing.

Notley and her left-wing backers better prepare for a fight, because Kenney has harnessed the winds of Alberta tradition and, in 2019, those gales may be powerful enough to shift Alberta back to the right.

Follow Mack Lamoureux on Twitter.

Lead image: Jason Kenney celebrates his Alberta PC party leadership win. Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press