As the United Conservative Party leadership race begins to take shape, I joined Chris Brown on his Cross Border Interviews Podcast to talk about the race, the declared and prospective candidates, and what impact it will have on Alberta politics.
It appears that the UCP will allow Calgary MP Michelle Rempel Garner to enter the leadership race, if she chooses, even though she has not had a current party membership for the full past six months as required (there is no doubt she is a committed Conservative partisan).
A similar request for an exemption by former Liberal Party leader Raj Sherman was denied.
Kenney’s caretaker cabinet shuffle
Outgoing Premier Jason Kenney announced a cabinet shuffle to fill in the spots left by ministers leaving to run in the race to replace him.
Changes to the caretaker cabinet, which will be in place until a new Premier takes office after the October 6 UCP leadership vote, include:
- Minister of Environment and Parks and Acting President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance Jason Nixon becomes President of Treasury Board and Minister of Finance.
- Associate Minister of Status of Women Whitney Issik becomes Minister of Environment and Parks.
- Calgary-South East MLA Matt Jones becomes Minister of Children’s Services.
- Minister of Infrastructure Prasad Panda becomes Minister of Transportation.
- Calgary-Currie MLA Nicholas Milliken becomes Minister of Infrastructure.
- Fort Saskatchewan-Vegreville MLA Jackie Armstrong Homeniuk becomes the Associate Minister of Status of Women.
- Deputy Government Whip Brad Rutherford becomes Chief Government Whip and Minister without Portfolio.
Unsurprisingly, everyone on the list is considered a loyalist, and a few, notably Issik, Milliken, and Rutherford, are considered vulnerable to strong NDP challenges in the next election.
Issik, Jones and Armstrong Homeniuk have publicly endorsed former finance minister Travis Toews for the UCP leadership, who is widely considered the establishment favourite in the race.
2 replies on “The race for UCP leader on the Cross Border Politics Podcast”
No. Pierre Poilievre does not pronounce his name Polyverr.
There are hundreds of videos to disprove what you said.
Why would you say something like that?
Gee the last two times a Conservative MP without previous experience in provincial politics ran to be Alberta Premier, it didn’t work out so well.
Maybe jumping into Alberta politics as a fall back, when their career in Federal politics is stalled or in jeopardy, is not a good long run plan.
As the saying goes, the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing again and again and hoping for a better result.