Jean, UCP MLAs organizing anti-Kenney votes as byelection called
Brian Jean is so confident that he'll win his byelection he's turning down door-knocking help from UCP MLAs in favour of building support to remove the premier.
Jean is running for MLA of Fort McMurray-Lac La Biche in a March 15 vote, but he's also made it clear he wants to replace Premier Jason Kenney after a leadership review in April.
"Please don't come out and help me doorknock, I'm OK in my riding…you need to get as many people as you can to Red Deer April 9 to vote in the leadership review," Jean said of a recent conversation he had with a UCP MLA from Calgary.
Jean doesn't expect Kenney to come out and drum up support for him either.
"I think the premier doesn't need to help me campaign in Fort McMurray because he's confident, after the nomination race, that I'm able to win the hearts and minds of the people of Fort McMurray," he said.
Jean has been calling for Kenney to resign for months. Other UCP MLAs have done the same, with two of them being kicked out of the party.
The premier recently formed a "campaign team" to fight for his job, and he was asked Wednesday about Jean carrying his party's flag while simultaneously trying to take his job.
Kenney answered by saying that his attention is on running Alberta, including passing an upcoming budget.
"I'm going to focus on those things, not on sideshow politics. We are focused on the business of Albertans," he said.
Jean calls what he's doing a "movement to renew the UCP." He claims he's received support from several UCP MLAs but he won't put an exact number to that.
"I believe if we don't change leaders, after the next election in the next 14 months, we will have an NDP majority. I am very concerned about that," Jean said.
'PEOPLE ARE TIRED OF THE DRAMA'
Before Jean is able to sit in the legislature, he'll have to defeat NDP byelection candidate Ariana Mancini. A local teacher, she believes Albertans in her riding are sick of internal UCP politics.
"The rhetoric has been that people are tired of the drama between Jason Kenney and Brian Jean. They have no absolutely no interest, they feel forgotten," she argued.
Mancini and Jean faced off in the 2015 election, with the NDP candidate finishing second to Jean, then leader of the Wildrose. He received 44 per cent of votes while she had 31 per cent.
Mancini said a lot has changed in seven years, though, including the creation of the UCP.
"We have been a conservative riding for gosh, decades. Two decades at least, and people have said, 'Enough, we are done,'" she stated.
The Jean versus Kenney dynamic that's overshadowing this byelection is something experts say hasn't happened often, if ever, in Alberta politics.
"It's really quite exceptional to have a candidate running for election under a party's banner who has called for the leader of the party to step down," said political scientist Lisa Young.
She believes more than just one legislature seat is at stake in the next few months. The future of the UCP and Kenney as its leader is also hanging in the balance.
"Having the leader of the movement against him (if Jean wins) in his caucus, it's going to make life very complicated for the premier," Young said.
Byelection polls open March 15 and official results are expected 10 days later, just two weeks before Kenney's leadership vote.
Paul Hinman, Marilyn Burns, Abdulhakim Hussein, and Steven Mellott are also registered to run.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Chelan Skulski
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Canadian former Olympic snowboarder wanted in Ontario double homicide: DOJ
A Canadian former Olympic snowboarder who is suspected of being the leader of a transnational drug trafficking group that operated in four countries is wanted for allegedly orchestrating the murder of an 'innocent' couple in Ontario in 2023, authorities say.
Ontario school board trustees under fire for $100K religious art purchase on Italy trip
Trustees with an Ontario school board are responding to criticism over a $45,000 trip to Italy, where they purchased more than $100,000 worth of religious statues.
A photographer snorkeled for hours to take this picture
Shane Gross, a Canadian marine conservation photojournalist, has won the title of Wildlife Photographer of the Year.
Tobacco giants would pay out $32.5 billion to provinces, smokers in proposed deal
Three tobacco giants are proposing to pay close to $25 billion to provinces and territories and more than $4 billion to some 100,000 Quebec smokers and their loved ones as part of a corporate restructuring process triggered by a long-running legal battle.
More Trudeau cabinet ministers not running for re-election, sources say shuffle expected soon
Federal cabinet ministers Filomena Tassi, Carla Qualtrough and Dan Vandal announced Thursday they will not run for re-election. Senior government sources tell CTV News at least one other, Marie-Claude Bibeau, doesn't plan to run again, setting the stage for Justin Trudeau to shuffle his cabinet in the coming weeks.
Robert Pickton's handwritten book seized after his death in hopes of uncovering new evidence
A handwritten book was seized from B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton's prison cell following his death earlier this year, raising hopes of uncovering new evidence in a series of unprosecuted murders.
Former members of One Direction say they're 'completely devastated' by Liam Payne's death
The former members of English boy band One Direction reacted publicly to the sudden death of their bandmate, Liam Payne, for the first time on Thursday, saying in a joint statement that they're 'completely devastated.'
Israel says it has killed top Hamas leader Yayha Sinwar in Gaza
Israeli forces in Gaza killed top Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, a chief architect of last year's attack on Israel that sparked the war, the military said Thursday. Troops appeared to have run across him unknowingly in a battle, only to discover afterwards that a body in the rubble was Israel's most wanted man.
Indian government employee charged in foiled murder-for-hire plot in New York City
The U.S. Justice Department announced criminal charges Thursday against an Indian government employee in connection with a foiled plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader living in New York City.