Kenney’s plan to step down as UCP leader shows how hard merging 2 parties is: political commentator
Global News
Kenney spoke to UCP members immediately following the party releasing results from his leadership review vote.
The difficulty that can result from merging two political parties was underscored by Premier Jason Kenney’s announcement Wednesday that he intends to step down as leader of Alberta’s United Conservative Party, according to one political commentator.
“The first problem that has to be acknowledged, and we’re seeing this at the federal level as well, is that combined conservative parties are difficult to lead,” Lori Williams, an associate professor of policy studies at Mount Royal University, told Global News on Wednesday night.
Earlier in the evening, Kenney spoke to UCP members immediately following the party releasing results from his leadership review vote which saw his leadership earn support from only 51.4 per cent of those who cast a vote.
READ MORE: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney intends to step down as UCP leader after narrow leadership win
“(Combined conservative parties are) difficult to govern, they’re difficult to manage and indeed the only recent leader that’s been successful in doing so was (former prime minister) Stephen Harper,” Williams said.
“It has to be said that this was a difficult job to be done, and the fact that Jason Kenney brought the parties together and got them to agree to go forward was quite an accomplishment, but a difficult thing to sustain.”
Last year, several UCP constituency associations had pushed to have Kenney face an early leadership review. He had faced growing and more vocal dissent with some party members being angered by his response to the COVID-19 pandemic, seeing many of his government’s public health restrictions as unreasonably infringing on personal liberties.
Two constituency association presidents Global News spoke with Wednesday indicated they understand and respect Kenney’s decision.
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