Alberta Premier Jason Kenney apologized Wednesday night for being too optimistic this summer.

Seems a bit short of the mark given the mounting anger in the province as Covid ravages the health care system.

Kenney argued at a press conference announcing new restrictions that his big mistake was declaring Alberta open for good. But he also argued he was right to open the province up for the summer.

And he dodged bigger questions about his overall leadership during the pandemic.

The government’s new Covid restrictions continues a pattern of complex and contradictory measures in the face of an overwhelming health crisis.

The latest announcement about the new “restriction exemption program” outlines a set of new Covid rules that is sort of a vaccination mandate but still has odd loopholes.

Albertans can’t gather indoors in private with more than one other household and more than 10 people even if they are fully vaccinated.

Restaurants can get an exemption to the no indoor gathering rule if they require proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test at the door.

The premier had no choice but to admit that there is a huge emergency in the health care system. Alberta could run out of hospital staff and intensive care beds in the next 10 days, he said.

But he also crowed about the mortality rate in Alberta being less than the Canadian average and the U.S. That’s cold comfort for the families of the Albertans dying in this fourth punishing wave of the pandemic. On Wednesday 24 Albertans died of Covid.

As Albertans turn against the government, Kenney continues to be tone deaf to the increasing calls for humility and a steady hand.

Instead there were excuses.

“One thing we’ve learned about Covid is it simply is not predictable,” the premier said by way of explanation for his misjudgment.

That prompted a chorus of angry physicians, pundits and health care experts pointing out that there were plenty of warning signals and protests when the province opened wide for the summer.

Those protests continued through the intervening months. But Kenney was on holiday, leaving no designated cabinet hitter, for three weeks of that.

Perhaps the most eye poppingly ironic moment of the Kenney newser was this pronouncement: “Our focus is not on politics.”

Everything about the response is tinged with politics. The UCP caucus was locked in meetings for hours prior to the newser. The complexity of the final document is a testament to the many compromises and exceptions that likely came out of that meeting.

There are reports of dissension in the caucus ranks. One MLA tweeted out before the meeting supporting a column critical of Kenney’s response so far.

At this point in Alberta everything Covid related is bound tightly to politics as opponents from lockdown proponents to anti-vax zealots assail every word out of Kenney’s mouth.

Even if the latest restrictions had been pitch perfect, consistent and finely reasoned, a good chunk of the population would still be questioning Kenney’s leadership given his record so far in the pandemic.

Kenney himself alluded to the buy-in issue during the press conference. He argued that if he had maintained restrictions through the summer there would have been noncompliance and anger.

He’s already got the anger. The issue now is compliance.

No matter their political stripe, Albertans have to hope that the latest measures start bending the fourth wave curve.

Kenney said the time for analysis about what was done right or wrong will come after the crisis is over. It will also be a good time for a reality check about the leadership of the province.