Jason Kenney’s kamikaze candidate conundrum

Posted March 18, 2019 8:06 am.

Last Updated March 18, 2019 10:32 am.

This article is more than 5 years old.

CALGARY (660 NEWS) – Jason Kenney has been caught in a political maelstrom.

Over the weekend, documents were leaked to the CBC directly linking Kenney’s campaign with Jeff Callaway and a so-called kamikaze candidate plan to beat Brian Jean and win the UCP leadership race.

Freedom Conservative Party leader and former UCP member, Derek Fildebrandt, says he too was approached by Jason Kenney to be this stalking horse or kamikaze candidate.

He said he didn’t do it because he didn’t feel it was right to run for the party’s leadership if he didn’t have a chance at winning.

They deliberately refused to report in-kind donations from several of us that organized an event for JK in Strathmore. Small errors can take place, but this appears to be systemic. #ableg https://t.co/XSoss05dG6

— Derek Fildebrandt (@Dfildebrandt) March 17, 2019

He noted these complaints are not coming from left-wing sources, but fellow conservatives.

“These are conservatives, many of which supported Jason Kenney. It still has to be determined if this is going to be illegal, the RCMP are going make that determination, but it is very clearly unethical.”

Fildebrandt contends one of the biggest problems is that Jason Kenney has flatly denied any of these accusations.

“This is now proven to be true. Jason Kenney can no longer dismiss the people who are coming out and calling out what he has done as subverting the grassroots democratic process as ‘sour grapes’ or not liking him.”

Here is the @Alberta_UCP response to the kamikaze candidate story from the CBC that broke over the weekend. "Communication between leadership campaigns is perfectly normal." @660NEWS pic.twitter.com/LqbmjoUNZa

— Kenny Mason (@krmason7) March 18, 2019

NDP MLA Sarah Hoffman called the Kenney revelation shocking.

“It’s something that belongs in my opinion on House of Cards, I should be watching it on Netflix and I shouldn’t be reading about it happening in our Alberta legislature.”

She isn’t calling for resignations over the affair, saying Kenney and the UCP should decide what to do.

“We’ll see who Jason Kenney throws under the bus next, but everyone on his team needs to be looking around the table wondering if they are going to be next,” said Fildebrandt.

This is coming before the Throne Speech from the NDP.

Some people had suspected the writ to be dropped for an election on Tuesday.

Political Scientist at Mount Royal University Duane Bratt said he was convinced that would happen.

“I was convinced that they were going to call the election the day after they delivered the Throne Speech, but now they may be waiting for more details to filter through.”

In an email response, the United Conservatives said this was a normal procedure. Here is the statement from the UCP.