NDP leader Rachel Notley says not much has changed in the wake of Premier Jason Kenney’s announcement he will resign as leader of the United Conservative Party..After scraping through his leadership review on Wednesday night with 51.4% of members’ support, Kenney immediately announced his intentions to resign..But the UCP government has already been “missing in action” for months, Notley said during a press conference Thursday..“We didn't have a government focused on governing for months and months and months leading up to yesterday,” she said..“And now, I suppose what’s changed is we know definitely that we won't have that for months and months and months going forward. And that probably would have been the case no matter what happened yesterday.”.Notley said the “absentee” UCP government would continue to let down Albertans as it moves into caretaker mode amid a leadership race. .In an exclusive interview with the Western Standard on Tuesday, Kenney said he hasn’t been distracted by the leadership review..“I've probably spent less than 10% of my time on it in the past three months,” he said..In his resignation speech Wednesday night, Kenney said the mandate from UCP voters was not strong enough to continue. He asked the party to trigger a leadership race, he said. .That race has begun, with former Wildrose leader Danielle Smith being the first to announce her candidacy in a virtual launch Thursday. .Notley said it’s premature to discuss what the new UCP leader might bring to the table. But the party has a record of letting Albertans down partly because conservatives are incapable of coming together..“This is a government and a party that’s not capable of taking real action to support Albertan families who are struggling with an affordability crisis," she said..In the wake of Kenney’s resignation, Take Back Alberta, a grassroots group that organized to oust Kenney, said it’s now time for all conservatives in Alberta "to focus on the real enemy which is the NDP and their socialist agenda.".Notley said she’s not surprised by the comments..“That is politics in Alberta,” she told the Western Standard..“I hope that we're able to, to speak truthfully, on the basis of facts and to each other and to all Albertans.”
