So, Jason Kenney is now the leader of Alberta’s United Conservative Party. In typical Kenney fashion, his political machine was operating at peak efficiency over the past few days, ensuring a solid victory in the leadership race which ended with his selection on Saturday.
What’s next for the leader and for the party? Mr. Kenney does not have a seat in the Alberta Legislature. If it’s important for him to be an elected leader before the next scheduled provincial election in 2019, then a current MLA, probably from Calgary, is going to have to resign and a by-election will have to be held.
In the meantime, there is the matter of crafting a party policy that will allow the UCP to build a following across Alberta. The economic parameters of that policy should be reasonably straight forward. Balanced budgets, spending restraints, and a push to do what is necessary to advocate more strongly for the fossil fuel sector, would seem to be major planks of that platform.
It is the social agenda that will present more of a challenge for Mr. Kenney and surely hold the key to how much of a challenge the UCP will be to Premier Rachel Notley in 2019. The biggest voting block of eligible voters in the next election is likely to be millennials. They are not a homogenous group politically, but it’s a safe bet that any party hoping to attract their support is going to need a defined policy on a range of social issues.
The development of that platform over the next two years is going to provide lots of opinions for conversation. And, it’s going to define whether the conservative viewpoint has a valid and relevant place in Alberta politics.
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