edited by Duane Bratt, Richard Sutherland and David Taras
UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY PRESS
2023/$36.99/512 pp.
Populism is a mode of political messaging organized around a false dichotomy in which we, the good people, must defeat our enemies, who are evil elites. In Alberta, populism draws from two deep wells of cultural discontent. The first is the myth of western alienation, wherein the federal government treats Alberta like the goose that lays the golden eggs. This may have been true once, but arguably hasn’t been the case in decades. The second is a narrative in which Alberta is a victim of its own success. In my barbershop there is a sign that says, “Please, God, give me one more oil boom. I promise not to piss it all away next time.”
Nobody can control commodity price cycles, but in Alberta’s populist narrative, maybe the right leader can force Ottawa to treat us half as well as they treat Quebec. And this is where Blue Storm: The Rise and Fall of Jason Kenney picks up the thread. Edited by Duane Bratt, Richard Sutherland and the late (and greatly missed) David Taras, this collection of essays offers a robust analysis of that brief five-year period between 2017, when Kenney appeared to be poised to defeat the twin “tyrannies” of socialism and federalism, and his humiliation at the hands of his own party in 2022.
As with its companion volume, Orange Chinook, which documented the Notley government, every chapter in Blue Storm has been carefully chosen for the light it shines on a party, its leader and their impact on public policy. This book is certain to be the definitive scholarly account of the Kenney government for many years to come.
This thick volume has 22 excellent pieces, too many to mention by name in one short review. Melanee Thomas’s essay on gender, representation and populist victimhood, however, stands out, as does Bratt’s analysis of the public and private sides to Jason Kenney’s reluctant acceptance of the reality of climate change.
Roger Epp’s piece on what it means to live in rural Alberta is quietly powerful. As a resident of small-town Alberta, I have also come to understand that what is “rural” in this province cannot be easily plotted on a regressive/progressive continuum. As well, a section on the Kenney government’s war on doctors, nurses and teachers is highly insightful. The chapters on the damage wrought in the education and healthcare sectors ought to be required reading for anyone trying to understand these years.
Last but certainly not least, Chaseten Remillard and Tyler Nagel locate that infamous blue pickup truck in the larger tableau of populist mythmaking. They argue that populism’s ability to absorb useful visuals is both its strength and its weakness. Did Kenney regret leaning so hard on the myth of the truck-driving, Smithbilt-wearing man-of-the-people as he struggled to pump gas into his Dodge Ram in April last year? In that moment the truck betrayed him, the myth was a lie, and he looked desperate and afraid. Et tu, Blue Truck?
Today Alberta’s conservative movement is part of a global hurricane of authoritarian populism that is shaking the foundations of liberal democracy. The fact that Danielle Smith had to remind us that her party wants to remain in Canada, despite passing legislation that rejects federal oversight, tells you everything you need to know about the bloody-minded hypocrisy of the moment.
Like Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Kenney’s time at the top of Alberta politics was tragic and we struggle to find meaning in the chaos and cruelty. It is, to quote that other grasping striver, “a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Following his ouster, Kenney dug deep and discovered the moral fortitude to reject the extremism that rejected him first. But of course he did. So much for the blue storm.
Marc D. Froese is professor of political science at Burman University in Lacombe and co-author of Has Populism Won?
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