'Belongs on House of Cards': NDP slams Kenney in wake of document reveal
By Clare Clancy & Emma Graney
Documents showing Jason Kenney’s UCP leadership campaign corresponded over a so-called kamikaze campaign to undermine competitor Brian Jean during the party leadership race is like something out of “House of Cards,” says Deputy Premier Sarah Hoffman.
“It belongs on House of Cards, it belongs on Netflix, it doesn’t belong in Alberta politics,” she told reporters outside the Federal Building on Sunday.
“We have seen over the weekend that Mr. Kenney and his campaign will stop at nothing to take power away from Rachel Notley,” she said.
Documents published by CBC Saturday night and later obtained by Postmedia show regular communication between Matt Wolf — Kenney’s current deputy chief of staff and a senior member of his leadership campaign staff — and leadership candidate Jeff Callaway’s campaign manager, Cameron Davies.
Last month, Alberta’s election commissioner handed a $15,000 penalty to Davies for “obstruction of an investigation.”
‘Spit-balling copy’
Emails document months of communication between Davies and Wolf, including proofs of ads and memes, research, timelines of ad drops, strategy tips and talking points.
Take a Sept. 6, 2017, email with the subject line “spit-balling copy.” In it, Wolf sends Davies potential lines for Callaway that take aim at the former Wildrose leader, slamming Jean for a comment about taxes and the death of hard-right governments.
Two days later, Davies wrote to Wolf, saying he was thinking about pushing out Callaway messaging and ads.
“Makes sense to me,” replied Wolf.
Wolf was not speaking with media Sunday. When asked for comment, UCP spokeswoman Christine Myatt said he had gone home.
‘I recognize that my emails might look unflattering today’
In an email sent to the UCP caucus Sunday morning, obtained by Postmedia, Wolf admitted he had political communications with the Callaway campaign during the leadership.
“I’ve made no secret about that for those who have asked,” he wrote.
Wolf wrote that Kenney’s leadership team would have preferred Callaway not enter the race, but once he did, “it was also clear that his team was receptive to keeping some communication channels open between our respective campaigns.
“This is of course completely normal in politics, especially in a leadership race that could see multiple ballots in the end. It would be imprudent to push away someone whose second ballot support might be required at a later time,” Wolf wrote.
Still, Wolf insisted it was “not a ‘puppet’ type operation.
“Mr. Callaway made his own decisions for his own reasons. And while communicating with the Callaway campaign was hardly my preoccupation during the leadership, I did, at times, push things like research materials to Mr. Callaway’s team,” Wolf wrote.
“I recognize that my emails might look unflattering today, and I’m willing to accept that. You are all familiar with politics also know that this is sometimes the nature of the business we’re in.”
Wolf also doubled down that the Kenney leadership campaign “did not in any way funnel donations to the Callaway camp,” which would have been against the law.
“I understand some on the other side will try to characterize my actions with the menacing term ‘collusion,’” Wolf wrote.
“It was politics. It wasn’t personal. It wasn’t against the Party rules, and I’m confident it wasn’t against any laws.”
Randy Kerr, who was recently removed by the UCP as their candidate for Calgary-Beddington after the party said he wasn’t forthcoming about financial contributions to the Callaway campaign, was also involved in the communications.
“(The documents) clearly outline that there was a kamikaze candidate, that Mr. Kenney knew about it,” Hoffman said.
She claims the documents call Kenney’s character into question.
“It is 100 per cent an issue of trust,” she said.
Kenney has repeatedly denied his leadership campaign team was involved in a kamikaze candidate plan. Most recently on Friday, he told reporters that he asked his staff in late fall whether they had heard or seen anything related to the Callaway campaign issues, and the answer was no.
UCP executive director Janice Harrington said communication between leadership campaigns is “perfectly normal” and within party rules.
“Mr. Kenney’s campaign has previously and repeatedly confirmed that there was communication between the Kenney leadership campaign and the Callaway leadership campaign,” she said in a statement Saturday.
More to come …