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Home , 29th Alberta Legislature, Brian Jean, Dave Rodney, Doug Schweitzer, Jason Kenney, Jim Prentice

Jason Kenney Elected Leader of UCP October 30, 2017

JASON KENNEY ELECTED LEADER OF THE UNITED CONSERVATIVE PARTY OF

Introduction In a victory surprising for its size and decisiveness, Jason Kenney won the leadership of the United Conservative Party of Alberta (UCP) on Saturday, October 28. Kenney took 61.1 per cent of the almost 60,000 votes cast, besting former leader with 31.5 per cent, and 7.3 per cent for , who managed the late ’s Progressive Conservative leadership campaign in 2014. Background The win capped a fifteen-month process that began when Kenney launched the idea of uniting Alberta Conservatives into one party, and is a significant tribute to his organizational skills and superior ground game. Kenney’s success had several key steps: • On July 16, 2016, he announced he would seek the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party on a platform of merging with Wildrose. • On March 18, 2017, he was elected leader of the Progressive Conservative Party with more than 75 per cent of the delegate votes. • Two months later, Kenney and Brian Jean announced a merger referendum among the membership of the PCs and Wildrose to be held on July 22. • The referendum was strongly passed by both parties by identical approvals of 96 per cent, which created the United Conservative Party and led the way to last Saturday’s leadership victory. Deep Political & Government Experience Born in Toronto and raised in , Jason Kenney began his political life as a Liberal in 1988, serving as executive assistant to , then leader of the provincial Liberal Party. In 1989, he became executive director of the Alberta Taxpayers Association and in 1990, President and CEO of the Canadian Taxpayers Association.

In 1997, Kenney was first elected to the House of Commons at the age of 29 in Southeast as a member of the Reform Party, which subsequently became the . In opposition, he served in several leadership and critic roles, including Deputy House Leader, Question Period Coordinator, critic for -U.S. Relations and critic for Revenue and Finance. In 2000, he was national co-chair of ’s successful leadership campaign to replace .

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Jason Kenney Elected Leader of UCP

During the Harper Government, he served as Parliamentary Secretary to the Prime Minister, 2006-07; Secretary of State for & , 2007-08; Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism, 2008-13; Minister of Employment & Social Development, 2013-15; and Minister of National Defence, 2015.

As Minister of Citizenship and Immigration and then Employment and Social Development, Kenney threw himself into reform of both the immigration system and labour force policy, with a view to moving Canada away from family reunification and towards welcoming more skilled immigrants who could make the best possible contribution to the economy. Among his major initiatives:

• Expanded the Skilled Worker Immigration program; • Increased the number of foreign students studying in Canada; • Toughened regulations against marriage fraud and other immigration/citizenship abuses; • Overhauled the Canadian refugee system to enable 14,500 UN-sponsored refugees from refugee camps and urban slums to enter Canada; • With the provinces and territories, implemented the to train unemployed workers who did not qualify for employment insurance; and • Made significant strides with the provinces and territories in recognizing the foreign credentials of immigrants, to speed their entry into the labour force.

Kenney also made some controversial decisions. In 2010, he blocked the inclusion of information about same- sex marriage in the Citizenship and Immigration study guide for immigrants applying for citizenship. In 2011, he imposed a ban on niqab face veils for those taking the Oath of Citizenship. In 2012, he changed the Interim Federal Health Program to remove eligibility for refugees to receive free health care. This move became the subject of several court appeals and was subsequently reversed by the Trudeau government.

Throughout the federal Conservatives’ time in office, Kenney was their unofficial emissary to immigrant and ethnic community voters. His declared objective was to build bridges between these communities—which had long favoured the Liberals—and the Conservative Party and he was tireless in pursuing it. He also led the government’s efforts to apologize and provide compensation for the imposition of the Chinese head tax, and the official recognition of the Armenian and Ukrainian genocides. A practicing and devout Roman Catholic, Kenney has been strongly identified with the social conservative wing of conservatism throughout his career. As an MP, he voted in favour of abortion restrictions and against same- sex marriage. More recently in Alberta, Kenney has attracted criticism for his position that parents have a right to know if their child has joined a school-based Gay-Straight Alliance club. In the last week of the leadership campaign, Kenney sparked controversy by supporting the right of the Catholic School Board to offer its own sex education curriculum.

Despite his political positioning on specific social conservative issues, it would be incorrect to conclude that he is anti-gay, particularly given his championing of diversity within the federal Conservative Party, his continuing active support for young gay Conservative up-and-comers within the party, and his strong defence of human rights in other countries.

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Jason Kenney Elected Leader of UCP

What Comes Next? Healing the party As with all new leaders following a tough leadership campaign, Kenney’s first task is to soothe bruised feelings and bind up party wounds. Kenney began that process in his Saturday night victory speech when he was generous in his praise of Brian Jean and Doug Schweitzer. Positioning the party After focusing his campaign on the more conservative elements of the party, he spoke of “trying to assemble a broad coalition of Albertans of all backgrounds and all ages,” and pledged to create a party “in touch with the mainstream values of all Albertans.” He also said, “We don’t care in this party what God you worship or who you love.” This positioning will be critical to his success as leader, since the NDP is already vigorously describing him as a “throwback conservative” out of touch with the increasingly moderate views of Albertans. In the Legislature With the opening for its fall session today, the former Progressive Conservative and Wildrose MLAs will be sitting together for the first time as members of the UCP caucus. Since Kenney does not have a seat in the house, he will need to appoint a House Leader. In addition, senior caucus positions and critic roles will need to be assigned. Party members will be watching to ensure that MLAs of both predecessor parties are represented in more or less equal numbers. What does the party stand for? At this point, it’s a clean slate. Few policy details of substance were revealed in the leadership campaign, other than general salutes to free enterprise and personal initiative, plus concerns about the current government’s deficit spending. Because the party was created only three months ago, the UCP heads into the Legislature without any concrete policies or platform. It will be holding its founding convention early in 2018 to create a constitution and sort out policy positions. Obtaining a seat At Kenney’s news conference yesterday, Calgary-Lougheed MLA announced he was stepping down to open a seat in the Legislature for the new leader, setting up a byelection in the coming weeks or months. Kenney expressed the hope that Notley would follow parliamentary convention and call the vote without delay. Current public opinion polling With the next provincial election roughly 18 months away, the UCP currently holds a significant lead in public support. A Citizen Society Research Lab poll released on October 29th had the UCP with 55.6 per cent, the NDP at 19.3 per cent, the Liberals at 12.8 per cent and the at 5.8 per cent. The UCP support is both broad and deep, and extends across the majority of demographic groups. For example, women (54.2 per cent) are almost as likely as men (57.4 per cent) to favour the UCP.

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