Alberta Premier campaigns for Conservatives in Brampton
Published October 7, 2019 at 3:22 pm
It appears the federal Conservatives have imported some Western Canadian star power to shore up their fortunes in the GTA for the October 21 federal election.
It appears the federal Conservatives have imported some Western Canadian star power to shore up their fortunes in the GTA for the October 21 federal election.
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has landed in Ontario and wasted little time making campaign stops for various GTA Conservative candidates, including Brampton North’s Arpan Khanna and Brampton Centre’s Pawanjit Gosal.
Before becoming Alberta premier, Kenney was a long serving Alberta MP and former Immigration minister under Stephen Harper. He spent so much of his time courting immigrant and ethnic votes when the Tories were last in power he earned nicknames like “Minister of Curry in a Hurry” and “Smiling Buddha.”
These days, Kenney has very little smile about when it comes to Alberta’s economy and in particular blames Liberal leader Justin Trudeau for his province’s economic woes and what he calls Trudeau’s bungling of the pipelines file as well as being a staunch opponent of the federal carbon tax.
“Trudeau killed two pipelines and bungled two others. He’s passed a no pipelines act that’s killing our economy and preventing us from exporting our energy and not importing it from dictators. But we need Alberta’s economy to be strong so that Canada’s economy can be strong,” Kenney said at Khanna’s campaign office.
He also said a Conservative majority government is needed to prevent Trudeau from forming a ‘Frankenstein’ coalition made up of other parties, alluding to the possibility of a minority government situation after the election.
In another appearance at a Chinese dim sum event in Richmond Hill, he said that “Albertans urged me to come to Ontario to ask you to vote out Justin Trudeau and the carbon tax.” To which one Alberta resident replied in the most direct way possible:
No we fucking didn’t. https://t.co/WyPAe8QEFe
— Megan (@meganbielby) October 7, 2019
But amidst all this fawning over Jason Kenney by the Conservatives while he’s over here touting Andrew Scheer’s credentials to be the next prime minister is…where is the actual premier of Ontario, Doug Ford?
Ford’s last press conference was in mid September and the Ontario premier has been almost in hiding, except for some sporadic appearances and local Tory events. Many observers say Ford has effectively been muzzled so as to give Scheer a better chance of winning the election and prevent giving Trudeau a target to go against to sway Ontario votes.
The prorogation of the Legislature until after the election only served to reinforce that notion.
Ford has been unpopular in public opinion for several months and the Liberal leader has mentioned his name on the campaign trail more than once, calling Ford out for cuts to education and other services.
In contrast, Kenney is a more experienced and astute politician who better understands the pulse of the ethnic communities around the GTA that the current federal Conservatives are courting. The GTA is one of the areas where this election will ultimately be decided.
Do you think the Alberta Premier’s visit will sway Brampton voters away from the Liberals?
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