'I've been in Alberta doing my job,' says low-profile Jason Kenney
Nola Keeler | CBC News | Posted: May 3, 2017 6:32 PM | Last Updated: May 3, 2017
Conservative leader says his party and Wildrose 'getting closer' to uniting
Alberta Progressive Conservative Leader Jason Kenney has kept a low-profile over the past six weeks, but says he has been busy doing his job, trying to unite his party with the Wildrose.
Kenney said his focus since he was elected on March 18 has been on behind-the-scenes work aimed at uniting the province's two right-of-centre parties.
He met with Wildrose Leader Brian Jean in March to discuss unification. After that meeting, he said, the two leaders were expected to report back to their parties around the end of April.
The newly minted PC leader said discussions between the two parties have so far gone well.
"We think we're getting closer to a potential agreement in principle about the creation of a united party," he told CBC News on Wednesday in a telephone interview.
Kenney said he expects to spend more time in the public eye if an agreement is reached.
"I suspect, once we get past an agreement, you'll probably be seeing more of me."
Any agreement, Kenney said, will be referred to PC party members so they can vote in a referendum.
Kenney kept up a busy public schedule while running for the PC leadership.
"I didn't think I needed to maintain quite that pace all the time," he said. "Apart from a week in B.C., where I was attending a conference, I've been in Alberta doing my job."
A Kenney spokesperson later said while the leader told CBC he spent "a week in B.C." he meant to say he spent a three-day "weekend" there.
Since he has no seat in the legislature, Kenney said he has been happy to let party MLAs in the house remain in the spotlight.
"I don't want to be peering over the shoulders of my colleagues, who do a good job there," he said.