The end is the beginning

So when I was premier, I noted that we had an interesting alignment of sort of broadly center right governments who believed in respecting provincial jurisdiction.

Jason Kenney has re-emerged in Alberta's public life.

That's him at a recent event at the University of Alberta.

He argued the case for Canada, or at least the case against separation.

We hadn't heard from him for a while.

In 2022, Kenney suddenly resigned at a UCP leadership review.

Friends, tonight the members of our party completed a democratic exercise in accountability.

The result is not what I hoped for, or frankly what I expected.

Friends, while 51% of the vote passes the constitutional threshold of a majority, it clearly is not adequate support to continue on as leader.

And that is why tonight I have informed the president of the party of my intention to step down as leader of the United Conservative Party.

Oh, I remember it.

Tim, if we're speaking of revisionist history, the facts show that we're facing a referendum on separation thanks to things Jason Kenney did.

I wrote an op-ed for the Globe and Mail over the summer talking about Kenney's role in all of this.

He actually introduced the Citizens Initiative Bill that allowed Alberta voters to petition the provincial government for policy changes, legislative amendments, or constitutional referendums.

Sound familiar? Sure does.

Interestingly, Kenny did try to safeguard the UCP from separatists when he created it in 2017.

He wrote a loyalty to Canada clause into the founding documents of the party, but the UCP membership said no.

You could say this was the exact moment the door opened for a separatist takeover of the party.

As you know, we tried to get Jason Kenney on the show.

We wanted to ask him if he felt his criticisms of Ottawa helped fuel the current separatist outrage.

After all, he was a loud vocal critic of the federal government throughout his time as premier.

And he also built the party rules as a grassroots guarantee, creating the ability to hold the sword of Damocles over the leader.

Yeah, it means groups like the separatists can control Alberta's governing party just from within.

Kenny's Fair Deal panel and his 2021 referendum question about the Constitution didn't exactly calm the separatist anger either.

So has he changed his tune? Here's a clip from the Alberta Referendum Forum event on October 2nd.