If elected premier, United Conservative Party leader Jason Kenney will repeal the carbon tax, halt the province’s curriculum overhaul and cut oil shipments to B.C., if the TransMountain pipeline does not get built.
Those, as well as a promise to address federal equalization payments, were made to a sold-out crowd at Memorial Hall March 23.
“It is time we had a premier who stood up and fought for a fair deal for Alberta,” he said to a standing ovation.
“I’m prepared to hold a referendum on taking equalization out of the constitution, to force binding negotiations with the federal government.”
Kenney spoke for roughly 45 minutes about his concerns over the provincial budget, questioned the motivations of the Alberta Teachers’ Association for bringing David Suzuki in as a public speaker and talked about his experience uniting the right wing in the province.
“When I first came up to this area 18 months ago, it was with this crazy idea of uniting free-enterprise Albertans and conservatives on the basis on the province’s historic values,” he said.
“We had a full slate of delegates from Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock go down to the PC leadership convention a year ago. They ratified the agreement by 95 per cent.
“Ninety-five per cent. The North Korean dictator — I think Trump calls him “Rocket Man”— was jealous. He doesn’t even get that number.”
During his speech, he ranged from critiquing his political opponents to teasing his colleagues.
“I must confess, I’m always a bit nervous when I come up to Westlock. Way back in 1997, I was just a rookie, wet-behind-the-ears Reform MP and I looked to one of my elder statesman, John Williams,” he said. “John had me give a speech and at the end there was a farmer who stands up and asks me, ‘How many politicians does it take to lubricate a combine?
“He said just one, but sometimes you got run them through a couple of times.”
He thanked the crowd for their ongoing support, asking them for any volunteering or financial support they could give the party and outlined his strategy to win the next provincial election slated for spring 2019.
“We shouldn’t let the polls go to our head. We’ve got to stay humble and earn every vote,” he said.
“We have to be professional and disciplined. We can’t go out and say whatever pops in our mind, because the media holds us to a higher and double standard.”
Kenney did not stick around after his speech to answer questions, citing an event in Edmonton he had to be at within 45 minutes.
Barrhead-Morinville-Westlock MLA Glenn van Dijken said he was pleased with the turnout.
“I talked to quite a few people as they were leaving,” he said. “People enjoyed the evening and were glad to be able to come out.
He did not have an exact figure on how much they raised, but said that it would be “north of $20,000.”
While the original plan for the evening was for Kenney to take questions from the crowd following his speech, van Dijken said he did not hear any complaints about the fact he had to leave early, noting that the fundraiser was planned several weeks back before the party was aware of the exact date the provincial budget was being announced.
He said the crowd was quite understanding of the busy schedule the party leader was under.
“Nobody said anything about that,” he said. “When you do a fundraiser it’s a pretty receptive group. He had to get to the next event as quick as possible and I think everyone understands there are a lot of demands on his time.”
van Dijken added that Kenney had been working since six in the morning, pointing out they had breakfast before he headed to Calgary to make an announcement, then he headed back to Edmonton, up to Westlock and then back to Edmonton.
“It becomes really tight in trying to make things go,” said van Dijken. “I don’t think he was looking to speak to the media in Westlock anyways.”
Overall, van Dijken said he was pleased with how fast tickets sold out.
“It wasn’t hard to get people to come and overall people were happy the leader was able to come to Westlock.”
