You know, it鈥檚 kinda odd. Jason Kenney hasn鈥檛 even taken office yet as premier of Alberta, yet the feeling I get both in the media and online is that he has already taken his place as the head of 鈥淭he Resistance,鈥� as Macleans characterized them.
The Resistance included Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer, and of course, Kenney. They were Photoshopped together for a front page on Nov. 7, 2018.
Kenney鈥檚 assumed leadership may be from the fact he鈥檚 been much more prominent on the national stage than the others, and for many years, as he held cabinet positions within the Stephen Harper government.
It also may be the fact he鈥檚 been talking toughest among them all, and the rest aren鈥檛 exactly shrinking violets.
Anyhow, there was much rejoicing in the firmament on April 16 as Kenney took his place among those premiers, the resistance to Justin Trudeau and his carbon tax. Most of the people I spoke to in the following days were grinning ear-to-ear. But that鈥檚 the kind of crowd I keep.
His acceptance speech was a barnburner.
It鈥檚 clear he鈥檚 a convert to the narrative that Vivian Krause has dug up, namely that foreign money has been doing its best to keep Canadian oil landlocked. Without saying her name, he noted, 鈥淭onight Albertans have decided that we will no longer passively accept the campaign of defamation against the industry that has helped us to create one of the most prosperous and generous societies on Earth.鈥�
He added later, 鈥淎nd now I have a message to those foreign funded special interests who have been leading a campaign of economic sabotage against this great province.
鈥淭o the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the Tides Foundation, Lead Now, the David Suzuki Foundation and all of the others:
鈥淵our days of pushing around Albertans with impunity just ended.
鈥淲e Albertans are patient and fair minded, but we have had enough of your campaign of defamation and double standards.
鈥淭oday, we begin to stand up for ourselves, for our jobs, for our future.
鈥淭oday we begin to fight back.
鈥淔rom this point forward, when you lie about how we produce energy, we will tell the truth assertively, and we will use every means at our disposal to hold you to account.
鈥淲hen multinational companies like HSBC boycott Alberta, we鈥檒l boycott them.
鈥淲e will launch a public enquiry into the foreign source of funds behind the campaign to landlock Alberta energy.鈥�
He went onto address Quebec directly, in French, basically arguing for the Energy East pipeline. It鈥檚 not normal for incoming premiers to talk to the people of another province, and in a language other than that of his own province, but that鈥檚 what Kenney did.
The reality is that one person, even someone like Kenney, is not going to be able to fight the carbon tax and pipeline fight alone. That he has those others (and I would add, New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs), shows a groundswell of support in a fight that, until recently, Saskatchewan was largely fighting by itself.
And Kenney鈥檚 not one person, like Scott Moe was for a while. He鈥檚 part of a team. For a brief period in time, we seem to have nearly contiguous support for pipelines, and against the carbon tax, from the Rockies to New Brunswick (skipping over Quebec, of course.)
It should not be lost on you these were the topics that 700-plus trucks rolled through Regina on April 4, loudly proclaiming their support. In Saskatchewan, at least, this team has support.
It is clear that there will be high expectations of Kenney to swing a big stick. Will he turn off the taps to British Columbia, and let the earth muffins experience life in a decarbonized world? Perhaps he鈥檒l ban B.C. wine, for real, this time. Will he make equalization (funded by oil, essentially) a national issue? Will his planned war room (essentially a propaganda arm to fight the negative propaganda) have clout? Will it have any effect in putting the essentially anti-Alberta, anti-Canadian energy lobby on the back foot?
For a relatively short man (I鈥檝e interviewed him once in Lloydminster), Jason Kenney is striding back onto the national scene as a colossus.
Now he just has to make good on those expectations.
