(Ottawa) Minister Randy Boissonnault, who is one of only two Liberal MPs in Alberta, judges that the conservative movement in the country is going through a “really dark” moment since the resigned Alberta Premier, Jason Kenney, is in his opinion the one of the last conservatives in the country to have had to pay the price for not being “extreme enough”.
Posted at 2:00 p.m.
He believes this is why Mr Kenney was able to garner the support of just 51.4 per cent of United Conservative Party (UCP) members in a vote of confidence, leading him to tender his resignation on Wednesday evening.
“Mr. Kenney has been kicked out of his party for not being extreme enough. That’s what happened to (Erin) O’Toole and (Ed) Fast no longer has his role as financial critic because he criticized Mr. Poilievre,” Mr. Boissonnault before going to a meeting of the Council of Ministers.
Photo Dave Chidley, archives The Canadian Press
Jason Kenney
The Minister of Tourism and Associate Minister of Finance thus made a link between Mr. Kenney’s case and the ousting of Erin O’Toole as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada (CCP) in early February, since he was dismissed by his caucus members.
The parallel also extends, Mr. Boissonneault believes, to the fact that Conservative MP Ed Fast resigned his position as finance critic on Thursday evening, hours after criticizing Pierre Poilievre’s repeated attacks on the Bank. from Canada.
Without naming him, Mr. Fast deplored that the commitment of the one who is considered the leader in the race for the leadership of the CPC to fire the governor of the central bank harms the credibility of the party.
Mr. Fast is co-chairing the campaign of another aspiring leader, Jean Charest, but said he was making his comments as finance critic.
Photo Adrian Wyld, archives The Canadian Press
Ed Fast
“The Conservatives have entered a really dark place and this is for me a very concerning issue for people across the country who need their politicians to work on the real things,” Mr. Boissonnault said Thursday to sum up his thoughts. .
Asked to explain how he could share such a diagnosis as a liberal not part of the conservative movement, he pleaded that he was basing this on information circulating on social networks and in the media.
“Quite honestly, a good part of the UCP would prefer that there were no (sanitary) restrictions at all. They want the Wild West and Mr. Kenney was leaning in the middle, trying to do what he could to keep people alive. It hasn’t done enough for extreme people or for progressives,” he said.
He added that disinformation had its role to play in the “extreme” fringe of conservatism.