Alberta Premier Jason Kenney intends to step down as UCP leader after narrow leadership win

Jason Kenney has stepped down as leader of the United Conservative Party after narrowly winning the party’s leadership vote.Kenney received 51.4 per cent support in voting results released tonight in Calgary.He told supporters that the number is not what he hoped for and is not enough for him to continue on as leader.If Kenney had received less than 50 per cent plus one, he would have had to quit as per party rules and a leadership contest would have been called.Normally, leaders consider 75 to 80 per cent — or higher — the minimum credible mandate to continue leading their party.Kenney had earlier said he would accept a slim majority, because the voting pool was skewed by last-minute members interested only in scuttling his big-tent conservative party.“While 51 per cent of the vote passes the constitutional threshold of a majority, it clearly is not adequate support to continue on as leader,” Kenney said.“I’ve informed the president of the party of my intention to step down as leader of the United Conservative Party,” he said to gasps in the audience.“We need to move forward united.

We need to put the past behind us. And a large number of our members have asked for an opportunity to clear the air through a leadership election.”The leadership review took on heightened importance over the past year as Kenney was buffeted by poor polling numbers, sluggish fundraising and open dissent from some in his party and caucus.It was also punctuated by controversy.

It had already been delayed by a year when it was set for an in-person ballot on April 9 in Red Deer, Alta.When 15,000 members signed up — five times more than expected — the party said it couldn’t handle the logistics and moved to a mail-in ballot open to all 59,000.