UCP AGM 2021: More United Than Yesterday
“Chaos and unrest at UCP AGM”. This is the headline we all expected heading into this weekend, but aside from a shockingly small number of protestors on the side of the road, everything was business as usual. The media and Kenney opposers led us to believe that Kenney’s leadership was sitting at two seconds till midnight, but someone must have hit the “snooze” button on the coup d'état because support for Kenney couldn’t have been higher among the AGM’s 1,600 attendees.
Despite the hundreds of “I stand with Jason Kenney” buttons worn by members, the membership still chose to block a motion that would prevent an early leadership review. The motion needed 75% approval to pass but only received about 57% support. Leading up to the AGM, 22 UCP constituency associations passed motions asking for a leadership review to take place before March of 2022. The proposed resolution would increase the number of constituency associations required to force a leadership review from 22 (which the party currently has) to 29. The resolution, drafted by the Edmonton North West association, argued that 22 associations is setting the bar “too low” and that the current threshold would “open the party up to trouble-making by a small minority of CA Boards.” The riding of Edmonton North West, which is currently held by NDP MLA David Eggen, was unable to convince the 670 members who voted down their resolution.
Kenney responded to reporters about the impending review by stating that he is “more confident about my leadership today than frankly I have been in a long time.” And he should be confident. The party elected a full slate of Kenney endorsing board members including newly acclaimed president Cynthia Moore who has never publicly wavered in her support for Kenney as leader. In a questionable decision by the UCP membership, they once again appointed Sonia Kont as VP Fundraising despite her embarrassing performance during the 2021 fiscal year. Conservative parties of various names have governed this province almost uninterrupted for nearly 100 years, but you wouldn’t know that based on the 2021 fundraising results. To date, the NDP have raised an impressive $4 million compared to a disappointing $2.6 million raised by the UCP in 2021. If these numbers are any indication, the results of the leadership review won’t matter because we will all be getting used to saying “Premier Notley”.
Some surprising decisions were made during the policy voting session that took place on Saturday. Most notably, the UCP membership took some pretty aggressive stances on healthcare. Policy resolution #6 proposed by Calgary-Edgemont said that “the government of Alberta should: support publicly-funded, privately-delivered health services and to give Albertans the choice of privately-funded, privately delivered health services where consistent with the Canadian Health Act.” This decision will fuel the ongoing opposition arguments that the UCP supports a “two-tier health care” system.
The membership also voted in favour of policy resolution #12 proposed by Athabasca-Barrhead-Westlock that stated that “the government of Alberta should: protect the rights of health care workers to freedom of conscience”. The rationale in the proposal argued that doctors and medical staff should be permitted to “try to dissuade someone from assisted suicide” if it goes against their beliefs. Members at the “NO” microphone argued that this policy would disproportionately impact members of the LGBTQ+ community. Founder of the LGBTory group and deputy press secretary and speechwriter for Kenney Harrison Fleming, implored the membership vote down this policy, a request they ultimately ignored.
The big-ticket event was, of course, the Leader’s address, which took place on Saturday evening. Kenney spoke to packed ballroom of members, elected officials, and newly elected board members. Kenney’s speech was received with multiple standing ovations and palpable enthusiasm from the crowd. One lone “boo” could be heard from the stands when Kenney mentioned vaccines. Kenney spoke about the eighty-something promises he kept, the quickly recovering economy, the plummeting unemployment rates, and much more in his 40-minute speech. He also took time to apologize to the membership and the province for the COVID-19 pandemic. He praised the healthcare workers, admitted he made some mistakes, and stood firm that the current restrictions were absolutely necessary to avoid enacting triage measures. Kenney spoke seriously to the membership about how close the province came to having to refuse care or take people off ventilators, much like what was seen in Italy during the height of the pandemic. He then ended his speech with optimism for the future and was thanked by a rowdy standing ovation, even vocal opponent Brian Jean was seen in the back of the room, applauding politely.
Kenney referred to the 2021 UCP AGM as a “family reunion” and for attendees, that is certainly what it felt like. People were happy and hopeful for the future and not nearly as disgruntled as the opposition wished for. If this is an indication of the future of the party, then there is a real chance that the unity will last.
