Surprising additions to pro-unity ranks

“Canada is broken.”

— Former UCP Leader Jason Kenney in a 2018 Twitter post

“It feels like everything is broken in this country right now.”

— Conservative Party of Canada Leader Pierre Poilievre, 2022

“Like the vast majority of Albertans, I’m both a proud Canadian, and a proud Albertan … Those who went before us built one of the most prosperous and generous societies on Earth. And we’re not going to let anyone tear apart our home, the true North strong and free.”

— Jason Kenney, in a post on X, May 2026

“It is the job of the prime minister of Canada to unite the country, and as prime minister in waiting, I will begin that work myself.”

— Pierre Poilievre, May 2026

As Alberta lurches forward toward an uncomfortable and unnecessary fall separation referendum — or in this case, a referendum on whether to hold a referendum to separate, (thanks for that, Premier Smith) — it seems that Canadians are being dragged into yet another unity debate.

Whether we like it or not.

And out of the head-spinning self-important mess that is Alberta politics have risen a pair of Captain Canada wannabes — former Alberta premier Jason Kenney and current Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre.

Living in Manitoba, we tend to see things through a different political lens given that our province’s financial stability rests largely on transfer payments from Ottawa. So it’s worth reminding ourselves that western Canadians do have legitimate complaints, including our fellow citizens in Alberta. And both of these high-profile individuals have a fair claim to represent those interests.

Yet to have these particular gents on the pro-Canada and pro-unity ticket is both constructive and confounding at the same time.

In a speech on Thursday, Poilievre told reporters in Vancouver that he and all Conservative MPs will press for Alberta to remain part of Canada in any separation referendum campaign that happens to actually take place in Alberta.

“I’m a strong Canadian federalist, a proud Albertan and a proud Canadian,” Poilievre said. “I want a strong Alberta within a united Canada, and all Conservatives will be campaigning for Canadian unity in Alberta.”

That is a great sentiment, but coming from Poilievre it seems a little out of place, considering the off-putting rhetoric that he has been peddling since taking on the Conservative leadership in 2022.

His political style has been characterized by grievance politics designed to dumb down difficult issues into catchy sloganeering — “stop the crime” and “axe the tax” were two of his favourites.

And while it certainly is the job of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition to hold the governing party accountable and literally be a government-in-waiting should the need arise, his messaging over the last number of years has leaned into stating how Canada was broken, how Alberta was being unfairly treated, and how it was all the federal government’s fault — or more specifically, Justin Trudeau’s fault.

He embraced the controversial politics of the truckers’ convoy in 2022, attacked Canada’s financial institutions and generally used legitimate western Canadian anger as a weapon for his own political gain.

So, too, Mr. Kenney, the former Alberta premier who aggressively fought against federal carbon pricing, and created a taxpayer-funded “war room” dubbed the Canadian Energy Centre to fight back against what he perceived were anti-Alberta environmental initiatives.

He also established several parallel provincial systems as a way to push Ottawa out of Alberta’s way. He appointed a provincial chief firearms officer to push back against federal gun control legislation, explored pulling out of the Canada Pension Plan with an eye to create a made-in-Alberta copy, and looked at replacing the RCMP with a provincial police force.

And, like Poilievre, he used Trudeau as a social media punching bag, suggesting that Trudeau get Ottawa’s foot “off the throat” of Alberta’s economy.

Since his disastrous tenure as premier, where he was essentially forced to resign in 2022 after an historically low approval in a leadership review, Kenney has been attempting to re-invent himself as a committed federalist and defender of Canadian unity.

It is fair to say that he has — perhaps — become the conservative-minded moderate he appears to be. But it’s hard to distance the man from his political past.

We’re certainly in favour of Poilievre’s and Kenney’s respective come-to-Jesus moments when it comes to Canadian unity. We only ask that they stop flirting with the anti-Canadian forces that have been trying to pull this country apart.