RED DEER, Alberta—In one of his last public talks to conservatives as premier of Alberta, Jason Kenney defended his government’s record, saying he fulfilled the vast majority of his platform promises.
“We have implemented completely or substantially 90 percent of those 367 platform commitments,” Kenney said at the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference in Red Deer on Sept. 24.
Listing some of these items, Kenney said his government brought in school choice policy which allowed for the creation of more chartered schools in the province, introduced a “recovery-oriented” approach to deal with substance abuse and addiction which he said has delivered better results than B.C.’s “harm-reduction” approach, and implemented other “significant policy reform” whose benefits “you’re now beginning to see.”
He said an area his government held back on because of the pandemic was health-care reform, adding what still needs to be done is a fundamental reform of the system. He also said his government has taken the initial steps on developing a provincial pension plan, which he hopes future governments will take further.
The former federal cabinet minister, who became premier of Alberta after the 2019 election by uniting the conservatives under the United Conservative Party, narrowly won a leadership review of his party in May with 51.4 percent support, but decided to quit as he said the support wasn’t strong enough. His successor and the next premier of Alberta will be announced on Oct. 6.
Throughout the pandemic, Kenney was criticized by the opposition NDP and mayors of Edmonton and Calgary for not bringing in enough restrictions and policies to deal with COVID-19. Conversely, he was also heavily criticized by MLAs in his caucus and many others for adopting policies that restricted freedoms such as a vaccine passport system and closing businesses and churches.
A common theme from many of the candidates to replace Kenney who spoke at the conference later in the day, including those in his caucus, was how their approach to governance would be different from that of the outgoing premier.
Kenney, while speaking in the context of bringing in “big and lasting reforms,” said when he was younger he was an “ideological firebrand.” But with the “benefit of experience,” he said he learned that conservatism is a “dispensation, not an ideology.”
‘Wokeness’ Concern
Kenney talked about his time as multiculturalism minister and later immigration minister under the Conservative government of Stephen Harper, saying he was able to show immigrants that the Conservative Party stands for the same traditional values they themselves hold, and that Canada welcomes immigrants.He also spoke about the importance of maintaining Canada’s institutions and traditions.
“Nobody chooses to immigrate to this country in order to recreate the country that they have left. They come here to become Canadian, of course, to pursue opportunity, but understanding implicitly that what makes this country attractive is a unique set of institutions and values, the rule of law, the free market, parliamentary government, which come from a particular historical context.”
But he said he is concerned about the “increasingly Liberal wokeness” that is degrading those institutions and traditions.
“I regret to see now the velocity of Liberal wokeness which is essentially telling newcomers that they should in fact be ashamed of Canada’s past or history and institutions.”
Referencing the case of a Toronto-area teacher who has been videotaped wearing large prosthetic breasts to class, Kenney said if conservative politicians want to “stop some of the craziness,” they have to do it in such a way that it doesn’t cause division.
“They have to be seen to be doing so thoughtfully, prudently, and not as a tool of social division.”
