Chris Nelson is a Calgary-based regular commentator on Alberta politicsMaybe if Jason Kenney had been a more effective premier of Alberta we might not feel quite so frustrated today.Regardless, it certainly takes some gall to now chastise (as he recently did) those who might seek a more strident response to the relentless attacks upon this province’s energy-dependent economy by the remorseless Liberal Party, as being grubby grifters: seeking to make money on the backs of those Albertans totally fed up with the status quo.But that’s Kenney for you; a man who figured all he needed to do was drive around Alberta in a pick-up truck, to cement his reputation as a latter-day prairie saviour, arriving from Ottawa to lead us to some political promised land, where being the economic engine of Canada would garner respect rather than ridicule..Unfortunately for him in the end that didn’t wash with a good number of Albertans, who had joined the United Conservative Party that Kenney himself was instrumental in creating.Which is why a party membership vote of his leadership back in May, 2022 ended with Kenney receiving a bare minimum of supporting votes: 51.4 per cent to 48.6. His political goose was effectively cooked, so he had little option but to announce he would step down as Alberta’s 18th premier.Maybe he still feels the sting of that rebuke today. That’s fair enough. No politician would be overjoyed at being effectively rejected by the very party he had helped create. But there comes a time to let it go, not wait in the weeds, ready to exact a pound of political flesh when the time seems right..Kenney no doubt thinks that time is now, following the dismay Monday’s federal election of yet another Liberal government is causing to Albertans who suffered through almost a decade of the Justin Trudeau regime by clinging to the hope the Grits would finally be turfed from office.Sadly that didn’t happen.Now we face the strong possibility Prime Minister Mark Carney will continue the same type of anti-Alberta agenda his predecessor engaged in. Sure, Carney might talk about making this country an energy superpower — at least when he visits Alberta — but his power resides in those Quebec, Ontario and Maritimes ridings that show zero support for our energy industry, despite the largesse it provides through transfer payments..Oh, speaking of transfer payments. It was Kenney who made that issue a referendum question while he was premier, asking Albertans if Ottawa should rejig the program. And what happened when we voted Yes? Not a darn thing. It was totally ignored by the rest of Canada.So are we supposed to tag on another question upon the fall’s municipal ballot? Maybe ask if Canada should build another pipeline? Does anyone seriously believe our resulting answer in the affirmative would suffer a different ignominious fate?But what would wake this country from its convenient slumber is a question on whether the Alberta government should look into the benefits and drawbacks of becoming an independent state. Now that would stir the Canadian pot.But to Kenney this is heresy, the sort of move that appeals only to a wide-eyed fringe of Albertans. It would, he claims, be counter-productive.Really?.Was the 1995 referendum in Quebec, asking citizens if their province should become an independent country, counter productive? When only a tiny majority of 54,000 voted No did the rest of Canada shrug with the same nonchalance as they did to Kenney’s transfer payment referendum?Hardly. The central Canadian establishment understood how close they had come to disaster. If Quebec had left — along with its MPs — then suddenly the power centre of Canada would shift to the West.For the Laurentian elite controlling this country, that must never happen. Therefore Quebecers must be given everything they want in order to stay. The status quo could not change, no matter what the cost.That remains the case today. Could you, for example, imagine Carney making a joke at the expense of Quebec’s premier during the recent election campaign, as he did with Danielle Smith? Not a chance: there’s far too much at stake to even consider such a thing.Quebec has played its hand masterfully, ever since that referendum. Albertans should not be derided by the likes of Kenney in wondering if that might be a path to follow.Chris Nelson is a Calgary-based regular commentator on Alberta politics
