Premier Jason Kenney brushes off Brian Jean’s comments about UCP leadership

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is dismissing comments from former political opponent and Wildrose leader Brian Jean.

Jean has been vocal in criticizing Kenney and has called on Kenney to resign.

He’s also said that he has his sights set on leadership of the UCP and eventually the premiership.

Premier Jason Kenney is rejecting the premise of Brian Jean's comments. Jean wants Kenney to resign and for him to become UCP leader & Premier. Kenney says Jean undermined him the last election and "we won the largest mandate in Alberta electoral history."#Alberta #ableg #abpoli pic.twitter.com/CXeolzMtWI

— Saif Kaisar (@StaySaif) November 9, 2021

“No, I don’t think so because he was doing that before the last election and we won the largest mandate in Alberta electoral history,” Kenney responded when asked if the UCP is in trouble with people like Jean undermining his leadership.

Jean has announced he would seek UCP nomination in a by-election for Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche.

Kenney responded to that announcement by questioning Jean’s reliability but saying he would endorse him if that’s what the party wanted.

“Mr. Jean has been trying to destabilize our party for going on three -years now. I regard that as a distraction, we are focused on doing the people’s business, right now? Economic recovery,” Kenney added.

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“I’m happy for this government to be judged by our results, I’m not going to be distracted by somebody trying to settle scores with internal political games.”

Jean would be running to fill the void left by Laila Goodridge, who left provincial politics to run in this year’s federal election.

Elections Alberta says a vote would need to be called within six months of her departure. So, we should see a by-election prior to Feb. 15, 2022.