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Jason Kenney is in an enviable position.

Unlike many of his political peers across the country, Kenney secured his majority government with significant margins, leaving in the dust any and all of his electoral opponents.

Upon closing of the provincial polls on April 16, 2019, Albertans rewarded Kenney's United Conservative Party with a whopping 54.9 percent of the vote, winning 63 out of a possible 87 seats. 

His second place rivals, the incumbent New Democrats, won a respectable, though far from sufficient, 32.7 percent of the vote, holding onto the remaining 24 seats in the legislature.

With more than a 20 point lead over his nearest rival, Kenney has plenty of political capital at his disposal.

Yet, for such an astute politician, it has been mystifying to observe how he has quickly squandered an abundance of this capital in less than a years' time as premier.

Take for instance, the introduction of his government's first budget this past October.

To no one's surprise, the budget was one of spending restraint.

Rightly or not, Kenney's promise to reign in government spending was one in which a majority of the Albertan electorate chose by a weighty percent.

Many UCP voters from the last election will no doubt applaud the premier for his restraint.

Still, some others might come to miss the services and employment opportunities that come from such spending.

Most troubling though, is the fact that Kenney has utilized his budget to reduce spending for many of the most financially vulnerable in society.

Among those hit hardest from the budgetary cut backs are post-secondary students, as well as AISH recipients (Assured Income for the Severely Handicapped).

In doing so, Kenney has generated the perception, deservedly, that he is nothing more than a mean-spirited bully.

That's a perception Kenney would do best to avoid, particularly as he already has fuelled such an image after campaigning, and subsequently removing, some of the privacy provisions granted for LGBTQ students within Gay-Straight Alliances.

Picking a fight with Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley might play well with a majority of Albertans.

But targeting LGBTQ kids, and now university students and AISH recipients?

I suspect far fewer Albertans will find anything admirable about such behaviour.

Of course, Kenney's frivolous waste of political capital hasn't stopped there.

Back in June, Kenney and his UCP colleagues, with complete, utter smugness, wore earplugs during the middle of a legislative debate.  Rightfully, the NDP opposition decried the UCP's lack of respect for democratic decorum.  Only the most stalwart of partisans could have ever approved of such a stunning lack of reverence for Alberta's legislature and its functions.

But Jason Kenney has proven he has arrogance on par with Justin Trudeau.  You'd really think the two would get along so much better than they do.

Most recently, however, Kenney has outdone himself.

On October 21, the UCP government passed into law Bill 22, the Reform of Agencies, Boards and Commissions and Government Enterprises Act.  The new legislation effectively terminated Lorne Gibson, the up until recent Election Commissioner, who had been investigating the UCP leadership campaign over allegations of illegal donations. Prior to his termination, Gibson had issued fines against countless UCP members, with further investigation into Kenney and his party yet to be concluded. 

Yet with Gibson's removal though, these investigations will be at the least delayed, or at worst, castrated of any effective doggedness.

Regardless, it is evident that Kenney and his government will bear the burden of this scandal, even if it is only for its heavy-handed tactics in shutting down the Ethics Commissioner's necessary inquiry. 

As a result, Kenney has lost the moral high ground in a way that Rachel Notley never did.

Of course, Kenney and his colleagues have tried to defend the controversial decision through typical political spin, claiming that Gordon's termination is justified out of respect for fiscal restraint. 

This half-assed excuse just doesn't hold up though, especially as the accrued savings from the removal of Gibson's office is a paltry $200,000 a year.

But I guess for Kenney and his UCP colleagues, the safeguarding of democracy isn't worth the price.

Though they have no such qualms about spending more than $16,000 of the public's money to charter a flight for Kenney and a couple of his premier buddies to fly from Calgary to Saskatoon.  Or for costing Albertans billions of dollars of lost revenue from corporate tax giveaways.

Needless to say, when Kenney preaches on about fiscal restraint, a healthy dose of skepticism is definitely warranted.

With the election of the UCP, many Albertan's no doubt believed they had gone back to the days when the province was governed as a virtual one-party state.  It took 44 years of uninterrupted governance by the Progressive Conservatives before voters finally found themselves worn thin.  At the rate Jason Kenney is squandering his political capital, voters certainly won't have to wait nearly as long for a change in government.

Photo Credit: Edmonton Journal

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.


Witnessing the detractors of Conservative Party leader Andrew Scheer publicly assail his leadership is like observing a pack of wild dogs tear apart a wounded bear.

It's painful to watch, it's ugly, and it serves to remind us just how pitiless is the law of the jungle.

And yes, the law of the political jungle is pretty much the same as the law of the natural jungle, i.e. the strong survive and the weak fall by the wayside.

This, in a nutshell, explains Scheer's current troubles.

In other words, Scheer's leadership isn't really being questioned with such vehemence because he lost to the Liberals in the last election or because he's a social conservative, it's being questioned because he's perceived as a weak leader.

And no wonder.

Scheer's timidness, his passivity, his blandness, his poor communication skills, his defensiveness, have all combined to cast him as a political pushover.

Indeed, one might even argue that it was Scheer's insipidness which actually propelled him to the leadership of the Conservative Party in the first place.

Simply put, his overall dullness and vapidity made Scheer the least offensive compromise choice to a party that was split along ideological and cultural fault lines.

Plus, I bet many Conservatives, perhaps tired of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper's legendary iron discipline, were ready for a more lax and easy-going leader.

And the fact that such a leader would have little chance to prevail against the Liberals was not much of a concern at the time.

Keep in mind, from the outset Scheer was likely seen as a just "placeholder" leader, a sacrificial lamb who would get massacred in the 2019 election, paving the way for him to be replaced with a leader who would possess more "star power" and who would thus lead the party to victory in 2023, a time when Canadian voters would presumably be weary of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's photo op shenanigans.

However, as we all know, Scheer kind of upset those plans when he didn't get massacred; to the contrary, although he lost, he still increased the party's seat total, he ended the Liberal majority and he even scored more popular votes than Trudeau.

This was enough to give Scheer delusions of adequacy.

So rather than following the preordained plan that he would resign in the wake of loss, he decided to stick around and take on Trudeau in another round.

In doing so, he likely irked many ambitious Conservative politicians who've been waiting impatiently in the wings for their time to shine.

Mind you, that wouldn't be a problem for Scheer were he a stronger leader, a leader who could cow his opponents into submission.

But he isn't that kind of leader.

As a matter of fact, almost immediately after the election, Scheer came across as enfeebled when he allowed the media to push him around over questions related to his religious beliefs.

That sign of weakness was all the political predators within the Conservative Party needed because it signalled Scheer's vulnerability; if he can't stand up to reporters how will stand up to a rebellion within his ranks.

So their appetites whetted, Scheer's opponents went on the attack, with voices raised on an almost daily basis calling upon him to step aside or to call a leadership race.

Blood is in the water; the sharks have started circling.

Given the dog-eat-dog nature of politics, this course of action was all but inevitable.

As the Roman statesman Seneca once put it, "All cruelty springs from weakness."

Of course, in watching this callous process unfold, it's easy to feel sorry for Scheer.

On the other hand, Scheer is a politician and he should know how the law of the jungle works.

Photo Credit: National Post

The views, opinions and positions expressed by columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of our publication.