News   Apr 03, 2020
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Alberta Provincial Politics

If an election was held today, who would you vote for?

  • UCP

    Votes: 6 11.1%
  • NDP

    Votes: 42 77.8%
  • Liberal

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Alberta Party

    Votes: 3 5.6%
  • Undecided

    Votes: 3 5.6%

  • Total voters
    54
As strange as it sounds, it's true. People (within the UCP and a large portion of the public) want Kenny to resign, but to be honest I hope he stays in at least until the next election. If he resigns we'll end up with a former wild rose person leading the charge, and things could really get ugly quickly.
I agree with this statement (that we'll end up with someone worse), but I also think that Kenney needs to resign on principle. His policies have been a disastrous failure leading to hundreds of deaths and the collapse of the health care system. He has completely lost the confidence of Albertans and apparently his own caucus. He cannot effectively govern at this point. Under a parliamentary system, that means we should have the formation of a new government (with or without an election). Unfortunately, Kenney has decide to cling to power for purely selfish reasons and the UCP has apparently decided not to eject him, likely because they can't think of any way of getting themselves out of this mess. I predict that they'll toss him as soon as they're convinced that COVID is behind us so that their next leader won't have to deal with it. Unfortunately for everyone, I don't see COVID going away in this province any time soon - probably not in time to elect a new UCP leader.

The Kenney thing reminds me a little of the crack scandal involving Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. He refused to step down, but effectively he was no longer mayor. No one listened to him. He gave up on all of his policies (that might have happened anyway). Toronto just kind of operated on autopilot for a year and a half until a new mayor was elected. Of course, City Council can still get things done without a mayor. Unfortunately, Kenney's paralysis translates all the way down through cabinet to the upper civil service (as Don Braid has reported).
 
I agree with this statement (that we'll end up with someone worse), but I also think that Kenney needs to resign on principle. His policies have been a disastrous failure leading to hundreds of deaths and the collapse of the health care system. He has completely lost the confidence of Albertans and apparently his own caucus. He cannot effectively govern at this point. Under a parliamentary system, that means we should have the formation of a new government (with or without an election). Unfortunately, Kenney has decide to cling to power for purely selfish reasons and the UCP has apparently decided not to eject him, likely because they can't think of any way of getting themselves out of this mess. I predict that they'll toss him as soon as they're convinced that COVID is behind us so that their next leader won't have to deal with it. Unfortunately for everyone, I don't see COVID going away in this province any time soon - probably not in time to elect a new UCP leader.

The Kenney thing reminds me a little of the crack scandal involving Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. He refused to step down, but effectively he was no longer mayor. No one listened to him. He gave up on all of his policies (that might have happened anyway). Toronto just kind of operated on autopilot for a year and a half until a new mayor was elected. Of course, City Council can still get things done without a mayor. Unfortunately, Kenney's paralysis translates all the way down through cabinet to the upper civil service (as Don Braid has reported).
Either way, the next election can't come soon enough. We could end up with some in charge who is more extreme than Kenny (an Angela Pitt, Peter Guthrie type lunatic), but there may be a positive side to that. The party could alienate urban voters even further, than it has and they could find themselves easily ousted next election.
 
I love the UCP. Take your "UCP and Kenney bad" speak over to Reddit and keep it there. I understand why the provincial government is looking this project over. The entire Green Line is way overpriced. I want this line built badly too with a tunnel under the river and the line going to the airport, but Farkas is right, it costs too much for what we get.

Ooof
 
Lmfao!! 🤣

UCP and Kenney bad! Eat the rich! Down with conservatives! Yay Notley! Rename Calgary to Notleygrad! Rahrahrah!
 
I don't know about that. Regardless of what happens between now and then, the next election will be extremely close. So close that East Lethbridge or Banff-Airdrie could be the deciding districts.
 
The NDP will win the popular vote, but the election will be close - partly because I think Calgary will be split in half UCP/NDP. Like UW said, it could even come down to places like Lethbridge.
 
It will be close if the UCP manages to hold off a viable right-wing insurgent party. A Wildrose Party 2.0 led by a credible figure (e.g. Drew Barnes, Brian Jean, etc.) could create a repeat of 2015 where the UCP finishes a distant 3rd place and the NDP wins a comfortable majority of seats with less than 50% of the popular vote.

It's really hard to know whether figures like Drew Barnes and Brian Jean are actually serious about putting in the hard work of building up a party, or just like to keep their names in the news cycle. I'd probably bet the latter. One thing that can be said about Kenney, he's actually serious about amassing power rather than just being a social media influencer.
 
I'm hoping Albertans, in particular, Calgarians don't have a short memory. I'd hate to see the UCP turf Kenny 6 months before the election, come up with a new person, and promise of a clean start, resulting in another win next election.
I accidentally misread 'new person' as 'new version' but I suppose that likely fits.
 
338 Canada even shows Jason Kenney having a decent chance of losing his own seat. I would love to see him crushed like the insect he is.
 

The interesting part of the article:

The online Leger poll of 1,000 adult Albertans from Nov. 16 to 29 found that 18 per cent said they would most likely vote for Jean in the next Alberta provincial election compared to 15 per cent who would choose Kenney. Just over half — 51 per cent — of those polled said they would not vote for the UCP at all.

It shows that although many people don't like Kenny, they really don't like the UCP in general, and changing the leader out isn't going to make much of a difference.
 
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