Former Alberta premier Kenney links stunning UCP byelection loss to separation vote

Former Alberta premier Jason Kenney is linking the governing United Conservative Party’s stunning byelection loss in Calgary to the province’s looming vote on separation.

Kenney, in posts on social media Tuesday, says the Opposition NDP’s victory Monday in the conservative stronghold of Calgary-Shaw sends a strong message about the Oct. 19 referendum’s impact on conservative supporters.

He says the debate on quitting Canada is alienating conservative voters who also love Canada while pushing disaffected nationalist supporters into the arms of left-centre opponents such as the NDP.

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Kenney, who won multiple elections representing the people of south Calgary as both a provincial and a federal politician, says the one thing he knows for sure is that “the overwhelming majority (of them) are proud, patriotic Canadians. ”

Kenney has been a vocal opponent of UCP Premier Danielle Smith’s decision to hold the vote on whether Alberta should stay in Canada or hold a second binding referendum on setting up the process to quit Confederation.

Smith has said she had no choice but to call the vote and put the contentious issue to rest.

Opponents say she has no mandate to quit Canada, there is no raging public debate to leave, and she’s just trying to hold separatist hardliners in her party at bay.