A day before members of Alberta’s United Conservative Party (UCP) begin voting for their new leader, and just three days before the new party’s first-ever leader is announced, leadership candidate Brian Jean says he is confident about his chances as he makes his final push to appeal to the party’s supporters.
“Most people have made up their minds, there is about 10 to 15 per cent of people who haven’t and we’re going to try and talk to as many people as we can over the next few days and just convince the people that are supporting us to get out and vote and convince the people that are maybe on the fence to think about us and to answer their questions,” Jean told Global News on Wednesday.
READ MORE: United Conservative Party leadership vote begins Thursday morning
Watch below: The clock is ticking for the three men seeking the leadership of the United Conservative Party. Members will begin casting their ballots on Thursday. Tom Vernon reports.
Jean is running against former federal cabinet minister Jason Kenney and Calgary lawyer Doug Schweitzer and says he hopes party members decide who becomes leader based on who can win the most seats in the next provincial election.
READ MORE: Jason Kenney making final push for Alberta UCP leadership
“It’s not about the most popular person in the party, that shouldn’t be the question,” he said.
“The question should be who will win every seat, or as many seats as possible… in the next election… that person is me.”
Jean said he has shown he can win votes in Calgary and rural Alberta and that he believes he can win more seats in Edmonton than Schweitzer or Kenney.
READ MORE: Doug Schweitzer’s ‘new blue’ campaign making final push before Alberta UCP leadership vote
The former leader of the Wildrose Party said both the merger of the Wildrose with the Progressive Conservatives to form the UCP was “fast,” along with the leadership campaign itself and that it wasn’t always as smooth as he would have liked.
READ MORE: United Conservative Party: Alberta’s Wildrose, PCs agree to merge
“But the most important thing is that we’re ready for the next election,” he said. “Rachel Notley and the NDP are doorknocking in and outside of Edmonton, in and out of Calgary – so we know they’re getting ready.”
Jean also said he was disappointed with criticism from within his own party that he was “weak on the carbon tax.”
“I stood up in the legislature, and stood outside the legislature in -20 C in the rallies talking about the carbon tax and was out against the carbon tax the very first day it came in,” he said. “I’m not weak on the carbon tax. I’ve been the strongest voice on the carbon tax and I’ve indicated that we’d get rid of it within 30 days.
“Some of the rhetoric was over the top and frankly people spouted lies. None of those things were helpful but I recognize the bigger picture. The bigger picture is that we have to be the bigger person, we have to put that stuff behind us.”
Jean said uniting Alberta’s two conservative parties was the best way to get a conservative government back in power after the NDP crushed the PC party in the 2015 election, marking the first time in 44 years the PC party did not form Alberta’s government.
READ MORE: Orange crush: NDP stomps out 44-year PC dynasty, Jim Prentice resigns
“We’ve seen what happens when you have a party that’s separated, obviously we get NDP premiers,” he said.
“It’s not good for us. We need to put that stuff behind us, we need to move on.”
On Wednesday, Jean said not only does he want the carbon tax scrapped, he also opposes the NDP’s coal phase-out plan.
“I’m hoping we can reverse their decision on coal,” he said. “We burn very clean coal here and we need to go in lockstep with the rest of North America on our coal policy.”
A recent poll suggested nearly half of all Albertans are worried the new UCP will be too right wing. On Wednesday, Jean said he believes the NDP has been trying to “drive social issues as a wedge between us.”
“Let’s take for example this new Catholic school board situation, they’re using our kids as a political wedge, I don’t think that’s a good thing to do,” he said. “This is the only place in the entire country that has a minister that is bringing forward political issues through the media to argue with parents and school boards.
Catholic school superintendents are currently drafting the alternative sex education curriculum they want the NDP government to approve for their schools. They say the government’s teaching plan is at odds with faith-based instruction because it covers issues like homosexuality and gender identity differently from one’s biological sex.
Documents filed with the province show the superintendents also take issue with the province’s teaching plan for sexual consent by a partner in marriage.
READ MORE: Not up to Premier Notley to dictate how Catholic schools teach sex education: Jason Kenney
Watch below: The Council of Catholic School Superintendents is clarifying its stance after Premier Rachel Notley shot down its alternative sex-ed curriculum.
LISTEN: Brian Jean on the Danielle Smith show
“What I’d be comfortable doing is first of all, sitting down… and making sure we don’t violate the Charter and the Constitution,” Jean said of the Catholic school board debate. “They have a constitutional right to do what they’re doing and to teach Catholic children in the Catholic way. That is constitutional. We need to sit down with them, have a mature constitution and work it out so we can protect the vulnerable kids in the school and the classroom, which is the most important thing we can do… This is one of those social issues I’ve removed from the discussion because it is divisive.”
The next provincial election is expected to be called in 2019 and Jean said the UCP has come together quickly to get ready for it.
“Ultimately it might be two years away or even three years away but we need to be ready every step of the way.”
Voting to select the first UCP leader will begin at 9 a.m. on Thursday. Voting ends at 5 p.m. on Saturday. The leader will be announced at a media event in Calgary soon after voting closes.
-With files from The Canadian Press
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