As Albertans will testify after experiencing the Tory dynasty and the last couple of UCP premiers, conservatives are not all built the same.
Jason Kenney took Alberta in directions past Progressive Conservative leaders never dared to, while Danielle Smith rose to leadership by repudiating Kenney’s COVID management — and he did his share of rebuking her Sovereignty Act idea.
The current Alberta premier, a former talk-show host and lobbyist, similarly never seemed to have much in common with Ontario Premier Doug Ford, a business owner from a sort of political dynasty family. But both have often worn the “populist” tag; Ford and Smith gave direct payments to residents to ease the affordability crunch.
Until this week, there was generally chumminess and accordbetween the pair of conservative premiers from Canada’s oil province and from its manufacturing heartland. They’d even been the twin Canadian regulars on Fox Business and Fox News, both pitching to the U.S. conservative …