02.15.2011 06:54 AM

In today’s Sun: Jason Kenney not-so-hidden agenda

How much of what Jason Kenney has to say these days – about Sikh kirpans in the Quebec National Assembly, about veiled voting – is about governing?

And how much of it is about Jason Kenney, and his Conservative leadership ambitions?

Because, make no mistake, the Calgary MP is running to replace Stephen Harper.

It’s an open secret in federal Conservative circles. And, if the current Conservative leader were to abruptly resign, it’s widely acknowledged Kenney would be the frontrunner to replace him.

21 Comments

  1. Malcolm Barry says:

    Most Leaders really do not want someone to replace them if the new leader is better qualified. Mr. Kenney should be extremely careful in the days ahead as there probably are factions at work trying to set him up. He knows how devious the PMO can be and it appears there are problems from within. Mr. Kenney is aware of the deals that are occuring similar to what happened in the Leadership of Mr. Harper with Mr. McKay. He better keep his head up, skate hard both ways and stay on his own wing and come off when tired.

  2. scanner says:

    Ha!
    Like Saruman replacing Sauron.

  3. MississaugaLibPeter says:

    Even the once Liberal bastion of Polish folks is now solidly in the Cons column due to Kenney.

    The BS in Mississauga East didn’t help Libs with a few other minorities.

    • Are you asking how many viable candidates from the front bench of the CPC will be capable of taking the helm if our PM decides to retire after securing his first majority? The shelf life of the Conservative government

      Jason Kenney won’t miss the support of the immigration lawyer lobby. He won’t miss the support of special interest groups that put the likes of Omar Khadr ahead of the law abiding population. Canada has a stellar record on immigration since the Conservatives have been given their first mandate five years ago.

      A majority will allow them to close the loopholes being blocked by the opposition parties.

      Jason with the support of the Bloc and NDP was able to pass immigration reform last year. A few liberals decided to sabotage the work between Maurizio and Jason. How did that work out for the Liberals in Vaughan?

      Visible minorities voted for Rob Ford in Toronto in spite of the Liberal media trying to paint him as intolerant. The re-branding exercise of the Liberals of defenders of the “middle class”, family values interests does not resonate outside the Ottawa bubble.

  4. Cath says:

    I know that Kenney’s on the right track when my die hard NDP immigrant grandparents are on side with all of this. The LPOC should be worried.

  5. Johnny Tuna says:

    His treatment of refugees is shameful – deliberately misrepresenting success rates, deliberately conflating refugees and immigrant processing, deliberately misleading the public about why a backlog developed in refugee processing, deliberately trying to influence what are supposed to be arms length tribunals like the IRB . Most recently, going after Federal Court Judges (despite his government having appointed the last few) when even the stats he uses to support his attack don’t match what he says. Ethnic groups should be wary of him instead of running to embrace him. He is a bully and has no hesitation for stretching and distorting the truth. Apples falling from trees and all that.

  6. Mike says:

    Harper will be around for some time yet!!

  7. Jane says:

    Kenney has some skeletons in his closet that he won’t be forthright about that would surely come out in a leadership race (through opponents shadowy surrogates if not from his opponents themselves). I don’t know why he hasn’t just gotten out and front of it. If he wants to be Prime Minister he should be honest about who he is and not hide it. In this day and age, very few Canadians (except hardcore social conservatives) would judge him negatively for it, he should just be honest already, it would certainly win him some respect in the eyes of the overwhelming majority of Canadians. If he’s not forthright someone else is just going to bring it up for him soon after he declares for the leadership (after Harper is gone). And when you don’t control the message and rumours about you it becomes much more difficult to win.

    • MJH says:

      What information are you hiding? Why dont you come out and tell us. If you have facts what are you skirting around?

    • I think they are considering just annointing him after Mr. Harper is sent away.
      Why not?
      It’s worked before…….

    • Derek Pearce says:

      Well, I think the Conservative Party in general and not just hard-core socons would actually not be comfortable with him as leader– whether he was forthright about it himself or if it leaked out from other camps. Debating how good a leader he could potentially be is moot, he will not get the leadership.

  8. Cath says:

    Warren – please note the above post @1:55pm is not from me – check your email please.

  9. Namesake says:

    “gives him a wide berth”?! I think you probably meant “a lot of latitude,” and that was another revealing Freudian slip.

    Latitude like: not disciplining him for talking out of school and tipping Harper’s hand on things like his covert war on the judiciary, or on — oops! — revealing what he took to be the true reason for KAIROS losing its funding:

    which had nothing to do with the phony talking points about it not meeting the gov’t’s new priorities about only targeting the poorest nations or direct needs, but being, as so many of Harper’s curious decisions are, all about ISRAEL:

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/second-reading/radwanski/jason-kenneys-mixed-messages/article1487161/

    http://www.thestar.com/opinion/editorials/article/743907–kenney-s-double-speak

    http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/12/28/chris-selley-the-kairos-hoax.aspx

    http://www.thestar.com/news/article/743930–text-of-jason-kenney-speech

    http://dennisgruending.ca/pulpitandpolitics/2010/03/20/jason-kenney-as-st-francis-not/

    http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/ottawa-ignored-cida-green-light-when-it-halted-aid-groups-funding/article1774918/

    (and lots more about the Oda/Kenny NOT Friends of Mr. KAIROS two-step at:

    http://www.kairoscanada.org/en/who-we-are/cida-funding-cuts/press-media/

  10. Liberal for a New Liberal Party says:

    Discussions like this always disappoint me. Not necessarily the content of the discussion but rather the people providing the content.

    How many people on replying to this topic are actual immigrants? How many are people are “visible minorities?” I would bet that most of the people who replied are a lot like me; white, middle to upper-class (possibly “urban”) Liberals. Sure there are a few cons on here posting now an again but my point is that Liberals sound patronizing when dealing with “new Canadians” and it isn’t helping our party.
    Our argument to immigrants can’t be:

    “Oh, don’t fall for the Conservative Party, they’re really just racist, homophobic Reform party members dressed in blue sweaters… they don’t really care about you they just want to win a majority so they can ban abortion!” (Yes, I know that I have committed “Reductio ad absurdum”)

    Because if we are being honest, many new comers to Canada have their own “racist, homophobic” conservative prejudices that they bring with them from the old country. How many Hindu’s do you know (if you know any) that can’t/won’t marry outside of their caste let alone their religion or god forbid race? (Hell, how many Canadians do you know that won’t marry out of their religion? JDate anybody?) I know some Indian’s that had family shun them for having a relationship with an Indian of the same caste but with much darker skin. What about the those new Canadian’s that believe women are inferior or that homosexuals are an affront to God? These people also come from places where there is no social safety net and so they in some part share the view that our social programs promote laziness. Yes they all share one thing in common and that is the dream of a better life in Canada but they still carry their old societal precepts. It is in this sense that the Conservative Party and the Honourable Minister Mr. Kenny (as is his title) speak to and are heard by immigrants.

    The Conservatives are boasting (rightly or wrongly) of so far successful stewardship of Canada through a global recession and that their party believes in the same core values as new Canadians. Primarily these values are: family, religion and finances.

    It is the Liberal’s problem that we have allowed ourselves to be painted as an out of touch, anti-religious, tax and spend political party which we are not… except for maybe “out of touch.”

    Instead of wasting time trying to convince new Canadians that the CCP are racist immigrant hating rednecks we should be spending our time informing and educating the immigrant population of our past affiliations with new comers and what we plan to do in the future in order to help New Canadian’s, like themselves, their friends and family yet to come over, that better adapt to our society, laws and customs. We should be telling them how we are going to make sure that a Pakistani Neural-Surgeon and an African Engineer will not be spending the rest of their adult lives driving cabs in downtown Toronto but working in the profession they were trained in because we, the Liberal Party of Canada are going to put together programs and fund those programs if we are elected to Government.

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