My old friend Jason Kenney is back in the news again. We finally know how he really felt about the Freedom Convoy as he privately called the national anti-vax mandates protest a “magnet for every crazy in the province.” .His remarks came in a confidential teleconference with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other premiers, where the enclave of politicians held forth about the Emergencies Act. .“Folks at the core of this movement are not rational,” said Kenney, according to minutes of the meeting. “They are prone to conspiracy theories. Invoking what they will see as martial law will be seen as a serious provocation.” .Of course Kenney put Alberta through a series of lockdowns that made many Albertans feel they were living under martial law. .If people began to believe in conspiracy theories during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was because globalist groups like the World Economic Forum were dispensing abundant evidence of conspiracy — a pandemic could be used to take our freedoms away. .Kenney never seemed to get that. He drifted so far from the core values of conservatism and denigrated those voters whom he viewed as less enlightened than he, that he denigrated the Freedom Convoy as a waste of time and, indeed, potentially dangerous. .The provincial lockdowns, well documented by the Western Standard, were intensified by municipal crackdowns where the police in Calgary and Edmonton often resembled the security forces in a dictatorship. It was anything but this country’s finest hour. .But Kenney really failed in his consternation over evangelical pastors who believed it was their God-given right to hold church services even if the state didn’t approve. Ironically, considering Kenney is Jesuit-trained and a man of faith, he persecuted pastors with a vehemence that was unmatched by other provinces. .If Kenney began the pandemic as the popular premier who was regarded as a principled conservative, he was ultimately forced out of office by disillusioned grassroots voters who saw him as a phony politician who used them. .Remember the picture of Kenney dining unmasked with a group of politicians in violation of his own COVID-19 rules? .Ironically, Kenney’s best friend in politics might have been Ontario Premier Doug Ford who also waged war against the masses during the COVID-19 pandemic, but was able to sail to re-election this year despite a record that was not much better than Kenney’s.The difference? Alberta’s United Conservative Party is much more egalitarian and subject to the wishes of the membership than is the Ontario Progressive Conservative Party. (Don’t you just love political parties whose name is an oxymoron?).The slow eclipse of Kenney — a man who left top office in the federal Conservative Party to win the leadership of two provincial political parties — is a sad story that's vaguely reminiscent of the political legacy of U.S. President Richard Nixon. I’m not suggesting for a minute Kenney's guilty of any illegality — far from it, he enforced unjust laws. .But like Nixon, who was a folk hero to American voters, the consummate anti-communist politician who spoke for “the silent majority” — Kenney was ultimately a resounding disappointment who failed to deliver in the long-term. .As the Emergencies Act Inquiry continues this week in Ottawa — and as of yet there has been no bombshells as the “experts” discuss the validity and efficacy of the act — it’s clear Kenney’s view of the Convoy was little different than that of Trudeau and his arrogant clan of ministers who fear populism so much that they were prepared to resort to an authoritarian law to a suppress it. .Although Kenney did not support the Emergencies [War Measures] Act in legislation, he had always supported it in spirit.
