Is Jason Kenney now the federal Conservatives’ alpha male?

Kenney’s prime target is of course Justin Trudeau. He made that perfectly clear in a video he posted on Twitter two weeks ago in which he stoked Alberta separation and then claimed the only way to dampen down people’s fury about Alberta’s “raw deal” was to separate Justin Trudeau from the prime minister’s office.

In another video Kenney angrily lists all the blows delivered by the Trudeau Liberals that to his mind have left Albertans angry enough to consider separation: pipeline cancellations and delays; Bill C-69, which tightens regulations for resource development; and the ban on oil tankers on B.C.’s north coast.

He doesn’t mention the drop in oil prices or decisions made by the courts or all the other things beyond Trudeau’s control that contributed to Alberta’s economic downturn. Or the fact the Liberal government bought the Trans Mountain pipeline to ensure it proceeds.

Kenney also fumes about the amount of money Albertans contribute to other provinces through federal equalization payments and hints darkly about putting an end to that too.

This fighting stance goes over well in Alberta. People here see it as their premier standing up for their interests.

But why does Kenney seem to think this threatening stance will encourage people in other provinces to vote Conservative? If anything, it is likely to achieve the opposite, particularly since many people in Canada already view Alberta as a spoiled rich kid.

It’s almost unprecedented for a provincial premier to so directly attack a prime minister in the lead up to an election campaign but Kenney seems personally twisted up about Trudeau. Maybe it’s because the Trudeau Liberals defeated the Harper Conservatives in 2015 and Kenney found himself abruptly removed from cabinet and twiddling his thumbs in the opposition benches.

That’s when he started looking for something else to do and came back to Alberta to begin the long journey to the premier’s office.

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Kenney has levelled stinging insults at Trudeau before but for those who delight in that kind of thing he certainly delivers a more threatening rebuke than Scheer.

But at what point does all this look more like bullying to voters in other parts of Canada than smart politics?

Besides matters of style, there are also key policy issues for which Kenney seems to have set the agenda for the federal Conservatives.

He began campaigning against Alberta’s carbon tax three years ago, long before Scheer and Ford were even elected leaders of their respective parties and then climbed on Kenney’s bandwagon.

Scheer has also followed Kenney when it comes to weak climate change policy.

Kenney put forward his plan to impose a levy (when it’s a Conservative charge they deem it a levy, when it’s an NDP charge it’s a tax) on large industrial carbon emitters two months before Scheer announced a vague but similar plan.

In Alberta, those levies will be significantly lower than they were when Rachel Notley’s NDP were in power and there are no projections of actual carbon emission reductions.

Perhaps like Kenney, Scheer is also planning to use revenue from those levies to fund a war room designed to harass environmentalists who criticize the oil industry. He has already taken aim at another Kenney bête noir — “foreign funded” environmental groups.

The rest of Scheer’s energy policy is also straight out of Kenney’s playbook. He would kill Bill C-69 because it restricts oil and gas development and repeal the ban on oil tankers on B.C.’s northern coast.

Kenney couldn’t ask for more.

In Alberta, the rumour persists that Kenney is hoping Scheer will lose the federal election so he can step in and take over the leadership.

In all but name it appears he already has.