Alberta Premier Jason Kenney told his caucus he might call an early election if it didn’t fall in line over the brewing revolt from his MLAs over returning the province to a third lockdown, sources told the Western Standard..Three separate UCP MLAs told the Western Standard on condition of anonymity that Kenney made the threat at a Thursday morning caucus meeting..One UCP MLA who said he was paraphrasing, told the Western Standard that Kenney said, “In our parliamentary system, the government must have the confidence of the House and therefore the confidence of the governing caucus. If I do not have the confidence of caucus, then I would be obliged to ask the Lt.-Gov. for an election.'”.By law, the next provincial election is scheduled for spring 2023. The only premier to break a fixed election date so far has been former premier Jim Prentice in 2015..Another UCP MLA told the Western Standard that Kenney told them “If this caucus doesn’t have confidence in me, than perhaps I’ll go see the L.G [Lt.-Governor].”.A third UCP told the Western Standard that the statement of the second UCP MLA was correct..One of the MLAs told the Western Standard that they are extremely upset with Kenney for “breaking the trust of Albertans by ripping up the phased reopening plan” from January..Earlier Thursday, Kenney made an impassioned plea for a third lockdown..“But the government must make decisions… it is the moral responsibility of government,” said Kenney..Kenney knew the announcement would cause a rift in his party, but he didn’t think it would be so swift or large. A day later, now sixteen of his MLAs signed a joint public letter saying he had chosen the wrong path..Public anger at the new lockdown is also growing across the province with numerous businesses vowing to ignore the order in which they are forced to close at noon on Friday. And people also became furious when they saw AHS officials, with the help of the Alberta RCMP, raided and barricaded the GraceLife Church of Pastor James Coates..Coates was thrown in jail for more than a month for refusing to accept bail conditions requiring him to stop preaching at church services that did not comply with the provincial government’s restrictions..The initial group of 16 MLAs were:. Micheala Glasgo, Brooks-Medicine Hat Miranda Rosin, Banff-Kananaskis Todd Loewen, Central Peace-Notley Angela Pitt, Airdrie East Drew Barnes, Cypress-Medicine Hat Jason Stephen, Red Deer South Tracy Allard, Grande Prairie Roger Reid Livingston-McLeod Nate Horner, Drumheller-Stettler Nathan Cooper, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills Glenn van Dijken, Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock Ron Orr, Lacombe Ponoka Dave Hanson, Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul RJ Sigurdson, Highwood Mark Smith, Drayton Valley-DevonGarth Rowswell, Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright..Kenney knew the knives would be out..“I fully expect to hear some of those opinions publicly in the coming days, and I welcome that,” he said..“I’ve always welcomed a wide-ranging debate on how best to rise to the challenge of this pandemic. I just ask that the debate be informed by facts. Alberta is a diverse province, and that includes diversity of opinion.”.Kenney added “it’s not surprising that Albertans elected officials also have diverse views on how best to handle the pandemic.”.“And I also know that in our society there has been a real polarization of views on how best to deal with the challenge of this pandemic,” he said..“On the one hand, we have some people who want what are called hard lockdowns, and have one of those in a long-term basis. Others who believe that the threat is massively exaggerated, and we should have few or no restrictions.”.“But Alberta’s approach has been to find a sensible, safe middle ground, a common ground that you can unite most Albertans. Our goal from Day 1 has been to control viral spread, to prevent an overwhelm of our healthcare system to avoid large-scale preventable deaths, while minimizing the damaging effect of public health restrictions on the broader social and economic health of our society.”.Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney told his caucus he might call an early election if it didn’t fall in line over the brewing revolt from his MLAs over returning the province to a third lockdown, sources told the Western Standard..Three separate UCP MLAs told the Western Standard on condition of anonymity that Kenney made the threat at a Thursday morning caucus meeting..One UCP MLA who said he was paraphrasing, told the Western Standard that Kenney said, “In our parliamentary system, the government must have the confidence of the House and therefore the confidence of the governing caucus. If I do not have the confidence of caucus, then I would be obliged to ask the Lt.-Gov. for an election.'”.By law, the next provincial election is scheduled for spring 2023. The only premier to break a fixed election date so far has been former premier Jim Prentice in 2015..Another UCP MLA told the Western Standard that Kenney told them “If this caucus doesn’t have confidence in me, than perhaps I’ll go see the L.G [Lt.-Governor].”.A third UCP told the Western Standard that the statement of the second UCP MLA was correct..One of the MLAs told the Western Standard that they are extremely upset with Kenney for “breaking the trust of Albertans by ripping up the phased reopening plan” from January..Earlier Thursday, Kenney made an impassioned plea for a third lockdown..“But the government must make decisions… it is the moral responsibility of government,” said Kenney..Kenney knew the announcement would cause a rift in his party, but he didn’t think it would be so swift or large. A day later, now sixteen of his MLAs signed a joint public letter saying he had chosen the wrong path..Public anger at the new lockdown is also growing across the province with numerous businesses vowing to ignore the order in which they are forced to close at noon on Friday. And people also became furious when they saw AHS officials, with the help of the Alberta RCMP, raided and barricaded the GraceLife Church of Pastor James Coates..Coates was thrown in jail for more than a month for refusing to accept bail conditions requiring him to stop preaching at church services that did not comply with the provincial government’s restrictions..The initial group of 16 MLAs were:. Micheala Glasgo, Brooks-Medicine Hat Miranda Rosin, Banff-Kananaskis Todd Loewen, Central Peace-Notley Angela Pitt, Airdrie East Drew Barnes, Cypress-Medicine Hat Jason Stephen, Red Deer South Tracy Allard, Grande Prairie Roger Reid Livingston-McLeod Nate Horner, Drumheller-Stettler Nathan Cooper, Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills Glenn van Dijken, Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock Ron Orr, Lacombe Ponoka Dave Hanson, Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul RJ Sigurdson, Highwood Mark Smith, Drayton Valley-DevonGarth Rowswell, Vermilion-Lloydminster-Wainwright..Kenney knew the knives would be out..“I fully expect to hear some of those opinions publicly in the coming days, and I welcome that,” he said..“I’ve always welcomed a wide-ranging debate on how best to rise to the challenge of this pandemic. I just ask that the debate be informed by facts. Alberta is a diverse province, and that includes diversity of opinion.”.Kenney added “it’s not surprising that Albertans elected officials also have diverse views on how best to handle the pandemic.”.“And I also know that in our society there has been a real polarization of views on how best to deal with the challenge of this pandemic,” he said..“On the one hand, we have some people who want what are called hard lockdowns, and have one of those in a long-term basis. Others who believe that the threat is massively exaggerated, and we should have few or no restrictions.”.“But Alberta’s approach has been to find a sensible, safe middle ground, a common ground that you can unite most Albertans. Our goal from Day 1 has been to control viral spread, to prevent an overwhelm of our healthcare system to avoid large-scale preventable deaths, while minimizing the damaging effect of public health restrictions on the broader social and economic health of our society.”.Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.,dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com,.Twitter.com/nobby7694
