Some UCP MLAs attack each other ahead of leadership review
Posted March 19, 2022 10:06 am.
More drama is unfolding in the Alberta legislature as some MLAs take shots at each other, with the United Conservative Party leadership review nearing.
Former Wildrose leader and now MLA-elect Brian Jean has doubled down on his determination to get rid of Premier Jason Kenney and become the party’s new leader.
“They’re not just electing me to represent them, they are also electing me to renew the UCP party, to get people out on April 9,” Jean said in the legislature Thursday.
Related Article: Brian Jean returns to Alberta legislature as UCP member with anti-Kenney intentions
But he’s come under fire by his own party after saying he would have given NDP Leader Rachel Notley a cabinet position during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“(Notley’s) close personal alliance with Mr. Jean seems to be quite obvious,” House Leader Jason Nixon said on Thursday.
Minister of Labour and Immigration, Kaycee Madu, took to social media to criticize Jean’s comments.
Madu says he has spent the last seven years of his life to keep “Ms. Notley and her band of socialists hard lockdowns out of Alberta’s Executive Council.”
Related Article: UCP candidate Brian Jean wins northern Alberta byelection in landslide vote
Associate Minister of Natural Gas and Electricity Dale Nally wrote an op-ed where he took several shots at Jean.
“I think that the three people left in the premier’s communications office who aren’t directed out to do phoning for him today, really, really, really need to get a little bit more sleep,” Notley responded to the comments Friday.
“That is one of the most tortured attack lines that I have ever heard, and I really don’t think it deserves a lot more attention than pretty much that.”
Related Article: Brian Jean wins by-election, immediately takes aim at Jason Kenny
Jean had previously resigned as both an MLA and a federal MP, and lost the UCP leadership race to Kenney.
Jean also made comments he’s optimistic the UCP can be re-invigorated as he cited a Janet Brown poll which apparently shows the United Conservatives ahead the NDP by four points.
Meantime, an Angus-Reid poll shows Kenney’s approval rating at 30 per cent now, up four points.
The UCP leadership review takes place April 9 in Red Deer.
