Kenney said he wanted a new base..But, the base said they wanted a new leader. So despite Kenney’s political games seeking to manipulate his own democratic checks and balances, he lost. Popular sovereignty won..Popular sovereignty is the principle that the authority of government is created and sustained by the consent of its people. Benjamin Franklin expressed this principle as follows, "On free governments, the rulers are the servants and the people their superiors and sovereigns”. More than 200 years later, there is too much power concentrated in the hands of our political leaders and Alberta is an example: This province needs more popular sovereignty and more checks and balances on the use and abuse of power..This is no overstatement. Let us consider Premier Kenney's record..Mr. Kenney gave a “grassroots guarantee,” so the grassroots said 'stand up to Ottawa.' Mr. Kenney said, “Yes!” But he did, “No”..Alas, Kenney is a career politician. He has a vested interest in the status quo. (Soon he will be able to start receiving his Ottawa gold-plated pension at 55. That's considerably more than $100,000 annually, for the rest of his life.) .So much for performance..Then there's the tone issue. Great leaders lead in love and inspire the best in those they serve. They remember the principles of popular sovereignty, that their position is only “of the people, by the people, for the people.”.In his leadership review however, Mr. Kenney called the people of Alberta who disagreed with him “kooks”, “lunatics” and “bugs”. Now, he is calling the Sovereignty Act proposal “nuts”, “cockamamie” and “catastrophically stupid”. How did calling people names work out for him? Is a tirade against the Sovereignty Act going to produce unity? .No. Mr. Kenney not only engages in patterns of name calling, but also patterns of saying one thing and doing something else. Many no longer trust him..Now Mr. Kenney says he is “not endorsing or opposing a particular candidate.” We all know that is not true. Is he thinking that if he or someone in his inner circle cannot win, then he will try to make sure no one can? Mr. Kenney has taken to calling the Free Alberta Strategy — the organization that formulated the original version of an Alberta Sovereignty Act — a “far-right extremist group”. I participated in some of their townhalls. So did Danielle Smith and Todd Loewen. So did some of my MLA colleagues seeking to protect Alberta businesses and families from Ottawa. Are we now part of a “fringe minority” with “unacceptable views”?.Mr. Kenney sounds like Trudeau. He knows it is inappropriate to meddle in the leadership race to replace him, so he is trying to be sneaky, doing indirectly what he knows he should not do directly..Is Mr. Kenney also acting like Trudeau in fact? Doesn’t Ottawa seek to do indirectly, what constitutionally it is not allowed to do directly, such as with Alberta’s constitutional authority over its oil and gas resources? Didn’t Alberta’s Court of Appeal describe Trudeau’s carbon tax as a sneaky “constitutional Trojan horse?” Isn’t Mr. Trudeau proposing a new carbon tax or cap-and-trade that singles out and disproportionately punishes Alberta? Wouldn’t that inflict more economic chaos, chasing out additional billions in investment and Alberta jobs with it? What is Mr. Kenney doing about it? Drafting a sternly worded letter? Isn’t the purpose of the Sovereignty Act, to assert and defend constitutional parameters that Ottawa habitually ignores and attacks?.I know and respect each of the UCP leadership candidates. Some need to take care not to act like Mr. Kenney. They need to put away the straw men. They should stop misrepresenting the Sovereignty Act and then attacking the worst version of it manufactured out of misrepresentations that exist only in their own minds. If the Sovereignty Act is so bad, instead of fearmongering with straw men, let’s hear your ideas and solutions..If candidates want to walk the talk on unity, stop looking the other way. Ask Mr. Kenney to do what he said he would do, and be quiet..That will produce more unity and that is what Albertans want.
