Everything you always wanted to know about Jason Kenney’s departure from Alberta politics but were afraid to ask

The sad little man packs his Penguin suits into a suitcase and decamps the Sky Palace muttering, “Woe is me,” taking a swig of his favorite budget whiskey on the way out. Which is worse: the fact that barely anyone noticed his departure, or that his legacy is a stupid statue of a racist that almost nobody wants? All the great white men fall back to earth eventually.

https://www.cnn.com/2020/06/10/opinions/churchill-racist-great-white-men-view-toye-opinion/index.html

Judging by the virulence being directed at JK from every corner I’m beginning to think he was at heart a small “l” liberal.

It’s an old question, but why did Kenney not contest the first post-Harper CPC leadership race? There was a pretty good chance he could have won. I’ve always thought part of the reason was that most of the other candidates sounded like bigots and he was concerned some of that would rub off on him, potentially spoiling his bid to become [drumroll] Prime Minister which, because of his temperament, history, and proclivities, many observers presumed his ultimate goal. I don’t think he cared much how radicalized the CPC would become while he took a pass for a term or two; rather, I think he presumed that CPC leadership candidacy would be more successful if he came agalloping out of cloud of Prairie dust with a successful unification of the Alberta right and completed provincial premiership on his resume, regardless whatever mire the CPC had gotten itself into in the meantime. The worse it got would probably be welcomed in K-calculus terms.

Indeed, active schism is a “no-blame” kinda opportunity for the outsider, as K-Boy learned during the destruction of the federal ProgCon party and subsequent “unite-the-right” episode of treachery in which he was baptized, and which he put into practice in the Alberta version (where a number of parties of the right existed at the time). That suggests he was attracted more pheromonally to a schismatic opportunity in Alberta than to a leaderless federal party otherwise united in its bigotry and not yet on the verge of splitting apart. Perhaps he presciently predicted the subsequent schism between the CPC’s SoCon faction and that of blue-flame-libertarian Maxime Bernier who did hive-off to found the People’s Party (there’s no doubt the PPC split the vote on the partisan right, a good case for another “unite-the-right” drive). Perhaps the subsequent attempt to moderate the CPC’s continuing descent down the dark ladder promised even more stress on the fissure along which Kenney wished true schism would occur. After all, it was K-Boy, King of Albetar, who let Erin O’Toole, the main agent of potential CPC schism, kiss his ring and win the Albetarian Royal’s endorsement: insofar as moderate O’Toole sharpened his moderation rhetoric after downplaying it until winning the dubious honour of becoming CPC leader, it seemed to pry the party further asunder than it’d been hitherto.

However, the timing wasn’t propitious because the Lib-Dippers were granted and won an early election—and O’Toole was, in typical conservative fashion, blamed for the resulting CPC loss and unceremoniously sacked. But the opportunity was spoiled because that happened before Kenney had completed what he’d hoped would be a successful term in Alberta, one that would commend him to both the CPC and the federal electorate.

K-Boy might have endorsed the moderate schismatic O’Toole for ulterior reason, and then rubbed his palms together at his leadership win, but it couldn’t have been good news when the two Jays were granted an early election and caught K-Boy with his pants down (just like the wily Chrétien did to the hapless Stockwell Day in 2000).

And just like BC Liberal premier Campbell, after his hero premier Mike Harris’s plan to privatize BC Hydro got the Ontario PC government un-elected, Campbell’s plan to imitate and privatize BC Hydro caught a sudden, deep chill, Kenney, too, took serious fright at the vitriol O’Toole got from his party’s libertarian (mostly Western) faction over his moderate position on Covid restrictions. Just like Campbell, K-Boy started to scramble in the unforeseen circumstances. And, again like Campbell, Kenney went from a big election win to pariah before the term was even half over—from hero to zero in less than a year. And, finally, K-Boy, like Gordo, was forced to resign by his own party.

And so went Kenney’s plan to ride a great white Western mustang into the House of Commons as former premier of Alberta and father of its next interminable ‘conservative dynasty.’ In fact, neither are likely to ever happen, but it’s fun to speculate—or even fabulate.

Caron’s is an excellent question: why didn’t Kenney stay an MLA long enough to vote against the Alberta Sovereignty Act? Could it have something to do with his exculpatory ‘bloviation’ which was so poorly received by commenters, may of whom find it hypocritically “rich” considering he is the bequeather of many unCanadian memes his heirs now wallow in? Still, the plea to return to federal politics is fairly plain: talk of high principles, immigration ‘n’ all. Perhaps he calculates that staking any particular position with regard the SA by voting on it, one way or the other, might be detrimental to whatever route back to federal policy he’s contemplating. To repeat, it’s a bit rich in any case.

For now, the only gleanings must come from his resignation letter which is indeed whiny and bloviating. Still, it’s plain to whom it is addressed, what with nuggets like the Harperesque elevation of parliament to the sovereign’s position, the sneaky SoCon rhetoric of “inviolable dignity of the human person,” and the weird notion of “ordered liberty.” These, not the Westminster system, are “unique,” (as K-Boy mistakenly claimed). Oh well, “rich” again—an embarrassment of riches, that is.

Speaking of election timing, the federal minority could, as the wily Chrétien’s accusers styled Liberal-granted early elections, “play politics” with the date of the next federal contest. There seems a spate of cookies on guns (banning of “assault-type” rifles), gums (public dental healthcare), and bums (funding diaper patrol in better-funded daycares) while newly-elected CPC leader Pierre Poilievre still hasn’t shaken off the hyper-partisan rhetoric of his recent leadership bid, and while the inquiry into implementation of the Emergencies Act—so damning of PP and the Freedumbites he took selfies with while cabinet weighed the first use of the Act —are still fresh in voters’ minds. Could Kenney be anticipating an early election that would catch the CPC flat-footed, cost PP a victory, and leave the CPC leaderless for the umteenth time? Nothing at this point could be so divisive between the two main CPC factions—a perfect storm for a political opportunist like K-Boy. As he showed with Alberta’s Soldiers of Odium, he might attract enough members of La Meute to neuter Bernier’s PPC. And reunite the right for the umteenth time. What other way is there for Kenney to get back into federal politics? Work his way up from some nobody’s speech-writer?

Not that I wish Poilievre well at the polls, but if I were him I sure wouldn’t hire Kenney to manage his approaching general election campaign, no matter his CV.

Wasn’t that always K-Boy’s strategy? Throw his hat in the CPC ring after it’s once again defeated, demoralized, divided and leaderless? He might not have to wait until 2025. But, then again, The Lib-Dippers know this as well as anyone. If they don’t pull the pin soon, I reckon the Liberals will start grooming a new leader while JT plays coy about his leadership plans, drawing CPC fire and fuel the whole while.

Yet, if there’s a faint hope, I bet Kenney will take it rather than swing from the gallows of political anonymity. As has been mentioned here many times: the man has no shame.