Danielle Smith, Brian Jean to run for UCP leadership as Kenney resigns

It’s no surprise that Danielle Smith wants Alberta’s top job.

Smith announced she will be running for leadership of the United Conservative Party (UCP) Thursday, the morning after Jason Kenney’s bombshell resignation following his leadership review.

Smith was the leader of the Wildrose Party for five years before crossing the floor to join the progressive conservatives in 2014. She proceeded to lose her caucus seat five months later.

Smith said the party needs to renew itself after being asked by reporters whether Kenney should leave right away.

But she also said Kenney, who is Catholic, has done a lot of work on the First Nations reconciliation file, which culminated in a recent apology by Pope Francis for the church’s role in the deaths and abuse of Indigenous youth in residential schools.

She noted the Pope is coming to Alberta in late July.

“If he wants to stay (through July) and be premier so that he can, I think, receive the honour that he deserves for helping make the Vatican realize they needed to take that important step, I wouldn’t object to that,” Smith said.

Smith added she would like to see others run for the post, mentioning MLAs Drew Barnes and Todd Loewen, staunch critics of many of Kenney’s policies.

Kenney’s adversary and former Wildrose Party leader Brian Jean however, called for Kenney to step away as leader immediately.

“The healing process can’t start until Jason Kenney leaves. He knows that. We know that and we need to start the renewal process of the UCP,” Jean said Thursday before heading into a UCP caucus meeting in Calgary.

“Jason Kenney knows parliamentary tradition,” added Jean.  “It would be parliamentary tradition for him to step down immediately, as he has indicated.”

Jean also announced his intention to run for UCP leader in a social media post Wednesday night.

“In the next several days I expect the party will announce a leadership race, and I intend to put my name forward and to campaign on a series of ideas and approaches that will renew the United Conservative Party,” Jean wrote on his Facebook page. “My campaign will demonstrate how we can do things differently, together, to recapture the enthusiastic support of the over one million Albertans who elected us in 2019. I will speak more on these issues in the coming days.”

READ MORE: Alberta Premier Jason Kenney stepping down as UCP leader

Meanwhile, MLA Drew Barnes, who was kicked out of the UCP caucus for his opposition to Alberta’s COVID-19 measures also chimed in, he said he is prepared to rejoin the UCP caucus.

“That’s up to Albertans to decide who they want to be the next premier,” Barnes said. “My message today is mostly it’s time for Jason Kenney to go away.”

Barnes did not explicitly say if he will run for UCP leader, but said he will not go back to the party until there is new leadership in place, stressing the need for an interim leader to be appointed as soon as possible.

“I’m very, very interested in continuing to serve,” Barnes said. “I’m going to watch and see what happens, including what’s best for my constituents, what’s best for my family, what the rules are going forward.”

Backbencher Leela Aheer, another Kenney critic kicked out of cabinet last year after criticizing him on his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, said on her way into the caucus meeting that it’s a “beautiful moment” for the party.

“The truth is that the only thing I’ve ever wanted was to have an opportunity to be able to prove to people who we are and to end the corruption and the cronyism and to be able to start a new day with hope for Alberta.”

–With files from the Canadian Press