NDP, UCP leaders continue to trade barbs following news of RCMP investigation
Jason Kenney deflected criticism from his political opponents Saturday, instead attempting to turn the focus on the NDP’s economic policies, as the UCP leader continued to face questions related to news that RCMP are probing allegations of wrongdoing during the fledgling party’s leadership contest.
Following a policy announcement in Edmonton, Kenney reiterated he has not been contacted by the RCMP and that officials are investigating a donation to a different leadership campaign.
It’s been alleged by one-time UCP insiders, including MLA Prab Gill, that party operative Jeff Callaway ran as a so-called kamikaze candidate during the 2017 leadership race to undermine Kenney’s main rival, former Wildrose leader Brian Jean. They allege Callaway’s campaign was improperly funded by individuals who put money into the campaign through other people who falsely claimed to be the actual donors.
On Friday, Premier Rachel Notley questioned Kenney’s qualification to be premier.
“If the shoe was on the other foot and a politician seeking to lead the province were under investigation by the RCMP, he’d likely say that person is unfit to be premier and he’d be right,” she said. “We need Mr. Kenney to come clean on all the different elements of this.”
Deputy premier Sarah Hoffman repeated similar comments when asked about the subject in Calgary Saturday, and added that she thinks the fact that RCMP are investigating is significant.
“I don’t think we’ve seen that before in Alberta when it comes to leadership campaigns. I guess we’ll see what surfaces in the days to come, but RCMP looking into this, I think, is very serious,” she said.
Asked to respond to Notley’s comments Saturday, Kenney said he expects “nothing less from the premier than the politics of personal destruction.”
“That’s all the NDP can do because they cannot defend their failed economic record,” Kenney said in Edmonton. “What’s unfit for Albertans is a government that has overseen the worst economic record in Alberta’s modern history since the Great Depression, driving us towards a hundred billion dollars in debt.”
Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt said he expects Kenney will continue to face questions about the investigation in the run up to a spring election, which has yet to be declared.
“I don’t think the investigation will conclude before the election, no matter when that election is,” he said.
“But he’s going to be asked about it every time he’s in public, and his answer, I think, is going to be the same. Yesterday it was, ‘well, that was someone else’s leadership race, that occurred 18 months ago.’ Today it was, ‘people are focused on pipelines and the economy and things like that.'”
Bratt described the news that the investigation had been handed over to the RCMP as an “escalation” of the situation.
“The question is: is there more that is going to come out, because this story has just been drip, drip, dripping,” he said.
— With files from Anna Junker