Admiration for Jason Kenny's Political Acumen

I do not like Jason Kenney (premier of Alberta). I do not like his far-too-right social or fiscal conservatism. I think his desire/need to play to the lowest common denominator and his manipulations of the Alberta public's emotions are dangerous. For example, he is the only provincial leader I can think of who has committed a large sum of public money (30 million dollars) to create an office to fight anyone and everyone who has a different point of view when it comes to the environment. He even calls it a war room - making all Albertans feels as if they are in a life or death struggle for their lives. I especially do not like Kenney's continuous efforts to prove that Alberta is poorly treated by not just the federal government but everyone who disagrees with him. He is using a well-used tactic to generate support - just read some of Churchill's or later Roosevelt's speeches made during WWII. It seems as if, that for him - it is not a matter of creating good policy that will attract voters but rather finding enough enemies so that the public will believe that no one else can protect them.

I think there may be some real cause for concern over some of his shady electoral practices - specifically during his campaign to become the leader of his party. Unfortunately, we may never know what shenanigans he and his fellow party members got up in the provincial elections as he has conveniently fired the civil servant in charge of investigating the electoral process. It is, however, hard for me to believe that if some of the people in the leadership campaign did things that have been judged illegal - that one, he did not know about it and that two, people would not have continued to bend the rules in the provincial campaign.

I have, however, some admiration for Kenney's political skills or acumen. In fact, he could have/should have demonstrated to Premier Ford of Ontario how to not screw up the federal Conservative campaign. Kenney has announced this week a number of significant public service cuts - specifically in the medical field that should raise some very loud alarms in Alberta (and in any other province with similar governments). The cuts are large enough that not only will a number of skilled professionals lose their jobs, but I would have to wonder not if, but how significant will be the reduction of services. There is as well, the fear that the Albertan government will play out a traditional neo-liberal manipulation of government services. It starts off with reduced public services, then people complaining about the lack of services and then the government allowing for private companies to provide that service because it is clear that the public service cannot.

While the cuts are scary for anyone involved either as a practitioner or a patient, it is impressive that Kenney had the political shrewdness to not discuss any of these cuts until after the federal election. If the cuts had been announced at the beginning of September, I would guess that the federal Conservatives would have had a much harder time in some parts of Alberta. I am not sure if the Liberals would have actually gained in any seats but I have no doubt that their percentage of the popular vote would have increased. Because Kenny did not raise the ire or the fears of Albertans during the election, because he did nothing to suggest that fiscal and social conservatism policies can negatively affect individuals, Trudeau had less ammunition to fight Sheer - unlike in Ontario where Ford was a convenient whipping boy.