Former federal Conservative cabinet minister and Alberta premier Jason Kenney is throwing cold water on the possibility of a party leadership run, as Conservative MPs privately question Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s future at the helm. Asked in an interview on The Graham Richardson Show on Friday whether he would run to replace Poilievre is the opportunity arose, Kenney said: “No.” “Twenty-five years in elected office, a great privilege, I’m really enjoying having some more normal life in the private sector,” Kenney told Richardson. “Look, I’m 58, never say never, in the future who knows what might happen? But it’s not an aspiration of mine, certainly not in the foreseeable future.” The question comes as several Conservative MPs privately express deep concerns about Poilievre’s leadership, with some telling CTV News earlier this month they do not believe he will still be leading the party when the next federal election is called. Specifically, MPs were asked about a recent Nanos Research poll commissioned by CTV News, which concluded that Prime Minister Mark Carney has “no obvious challenger” when presented with a list of Conservative politicians. Notably, only five per cent of respondents in that poll said Kenney — if he were Conservative leader —would be able to beat Carney in a general election. Tory MPs should blame Trump for trade war: Kenney Kenney also discussed the protracted trade war with the United States, saying while he believes Poilievre’s approach to the issue has been “responsible,” he also thinks some Conservative MPs need to more explicitly lay blame for the conflict on U.S. President Donald Trump. “He made an excellent statement last Saturday in the wake of the U.S. negotiations falling apart,” Kenney said of Poilievre. “He called for once again dollar-for-dollar reciprocal tariffs, which is what he campaigned on.” But, Kenney added of some Conservatives MPs: “I don’t think that I have seen in their public commentary ascribe responsibility for this trade war to the protagonist, to the person who launched it and sustains it, with belittling attacks on our country’s dignity, threats to our sovereignty and actual practical attacks against our economy, that’s Donald J. Trump.” The longtime federal cabinet minister chalked the position of some Conservative MPs, who he did not name, up to the amount of time they’ve been on Opposition benches. “That’s the old saying like ‘to a hammer everything looks like a nail,’” Kenney said. “Well, to a very partisan opposition MP, everything looks like an opportunity to criticize the incumbent government.” Kenney said the Conservatives need to balance holding the Liberals accountable, especially on domestic policy issues, with blaming the right person for the trade war. “If you ever want to form government, you’ve got to demonstrate on something like this that patriotism comes before partisanship,” he said. “Which does not mean giving Prime Minister Carney and his Liberal government a blank cheque, it means holding them to account.” With files from CTV News’ Stephanie Ha, Vassy Kapelos, and Graham Richardson
