CBC News reported on Thursday that Kenney said the United Conservative Party is under siege by extremist elements, including homophobic and religious bigots, seeking a hostile takeover by overthrowing him in an upcoming leadership review. The private remarks he made to his staff were secretly recorded earlier this week and then leaked to CBC News. On Friday, during a funding announcement for STARS Air Ambulance, Kenney said he was sticking to his plan to listen to the party’s will in the upcoming leadership review, but would otherwise remain in place to prevent the UCP from splitting. The prime minister said he had seen a growing number of voices on the sidelines of Alberta’s policy, calling them extremists. “When I worked so hard for over three years to help build the United Conservative Party, I pledged to be a mainstream party that reflected the values ​​of the mainstream Alberts and that we would not allow incidents in the lake of fire which we have seen in the conservative policy of this province in the past “. Kenney said his comments came amid racist and violent comments from party members, demonstrations outside politicians’ homes and divisions on social media fueled by conspiracy theories.

Kenney portrays himself as a solution: a professor of political science

Kenney said he is the right person for the top spot because he led the party unity process in the beginning.
“He presents himself as the solution to a problem he has contributed to, and I think a lot of UCP members do not think that’s the solution. In fact, they think that’s the problem,” said Laurie Williams, a professor of political science at Mount Royal. . University. “The reality is that there are some people who are extremists, but this is by no means the majority of people who are opposed to Jason Kenny.” Williams said there are MLAs who seem to believe in questionable things or engage in questionable actions, but said that if Kenney describes the party or the MLAs themselves as extremist, “then why does he want to lead them or how does he plan to lead them?” lead? ‘ Williams said the big challenges for the party are that it started out as two separate parties, so there is tension and division. He also said that MPs and constituencies’ associations feel that they are not being heard.