Does a politician’s character or lack of it matter anymore?
That’s the big question behind the bitter election campaign now underway in Alberta.
After all, Donald Trump was elected U.S. president even though voters knew, among other things, that he had sexually abused women, called Mexicans “rapists,” and duped people out of money at his bogus university.
Doug Ford was elected premier of Ontario even though he had been an eager sidekick to his brother Rob Ford when he was mayor of Toronto and embroiled in one public scandal after another.
Jason Kenney, a former federal cabinet minister and leader of Alberta’s United Conservative Party is facing the same kind of scrutiny about his moral fibre in his bid to oust NDP Premier Rachel Notley.
Unfortunately for Kenney, the scandal he is caught up in raises serious questions about how he was elected leader of the UCP, which of course put him on the road to possibly becoming Alberta’s next premier.
Read more:
The United Conservative Party’s ‘kamikaze mission’ investigation explained
And since election day is only three weeks away, it’s possible that if Kenney becomes premier he will begin his tenure under the shadow of an RCMP investigation into that leadership campaign.
The scandal begins in October 2017 when the UCP held a leadership contest after the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose Party agreed to merge. There were four candidates for the leadership of the new party: Kenney, former leader of the Progressive Conservatives; Brian Jean, former leader of the Wildrose Party; Jeff Callaway, former Wildrose president; and Doug Schweitzer a Calgary Lawyer.
Given on the record interviews and documents from people directly involved, it now appears the Callaway campaign was a fake campaign, or as it has been dubbed a “kamikaze” campaign, designed to rip Brian Jean apart, leaving Kenney to travel the high road.
The Kenney campaign worked closely with the Callaway campaign, instructing Callaway how and when to attack Brian Jean, and even scheduling when he would drop out of the race and throw his support to Kenney.
Emails also suggest that Callaway’s videos and attack ads aimed at Brian Jean were produced by Kenney’s staff and then sent to the Callaway camp.
At one point $60,000 was donated to the Callaway campaign in one fell swoop and then distributed to various campaign volunteers so it would look like the money was donated by them. The Alberta Election Commissioner has already fined three people and reprimanded one for donating funds given or furnished by another person.
Callaway’s co-campaign chair was fined $15,000 for obstructing the election commissioner’s investigation. The investigation concerning the $60,000 donation has been turned over to the RCMP.
Kenney has said there is “nothing unusual” about two competing political campaigns communicating with each other. And he has denied any direct involvement.
But it seems there was a lot more than simple communication going on. Collusion is the word that comes to mind.
And it’s not as though Kenney is an inexperienced political campaigner.
He has been immersed in political campaigns since he left high school. While at university in San Francisco he vociferously campaigned again pro-choice advocates, and he was active in a campaign to deny spousal rights to people dying of AIDs.
At the tender age of 22 he was president of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He was a Calgary MP for 19 years and an influential federal cabinet minister for eight years.
That he is even associated with such unethical campaign tactics leaves one to wonder just what he would do behind closed doors as premier
Kenney’s been at the backroom game for a long time. Maybe that’s why he doesn’t seem the least bit flustered by the accusations that he ran a dirty leadership campaign. He just motors along talking about the economy, jobs, and pipelines.
But perhaps he’s also hoping that voters have become inured to scandals; that they accept them as par for the course just as many did with Donald Trump and Doug Ford. Maybe he’s counting on voters’ anger at the Liberals in Ottawa and the NDP in Edmonton to carry him through no matter the stink rising from his leadership campaign.
Or maybe he’s hoping that character doesn’t count, winning is all that matters.
