It’s been 26 years since Jason Kenney stepped into the national spotlight just outside the Alberta legislature cafeteria.
That’s where the 24-year-old tax-fighter calmly eviscerated the MLA platinum pension plan in verbal sparring with a cranky then-premier Ralph Klein as a gaggle of us watched with jaws dropped and cameras recording every word.
The very next day Klein realized the public relations battle to defend the indefensible was lost. He killed the pension plan outright and often credited that dramatic move for his Miracle on the Prairie election victory later that year.
This exemplifies the danger Jason Kenney poses to any and all things Liberal which challenge his blueprint for an Alberta resurgence under United Conservative Party rule.
He rarely loses a coherent argument in either official language. He usually keeps his cool. His brain is a Canadian political encyclopedia; his memory almost photographic. And he doesn’t share his life with traditional family obligations. He is married to politics with a single-minded orientation to preserving Conservative rule.
Watching Kenney in the hours after his swearing-in Tuesday was to watch a political animal unleashed on his dream job. A true blue cabinet was sworn in, a tanker ban attacked, a carbon tax repeal bill announced and a dash to Ottawa booked. Most controversially of all, a legislative tap-turn-down revenge on pipeline opponent B.C. was proclaimed.
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See Also:
(2) Behind Jason Kenney’s bluster, there is real rage in Alberta
(3) Alberta Premier Kenney cleared after questions raised about MP housing expenses
(4) Premier Doug Ford hosts Alberta Premier Jason Kenney in love-in for carbon crusaders
(5) Sask. carbon tax challenge: Court of Appeal rules in favour of federal government
