CALGARY – Jason Kenney (in the pic, from his Twitter profile) quit as leader of his party, and premier of Alberta, Wednesday night after receiving a slight majority of support in his United Conservative Party leadership review. “While 51 per cent of the vote passes the constitutional threshold of a majority, it clearly is not adequate support to continue on as leader,” Kenney told at Spruce Meadows in Calgary. 

Exactly 34,298 members voted, party officials said, in a mail-in ballot process that began on April 9 as part of a virtual Special General Meeting. Ballots were sent to nearly 60,000 eligible party members with the simple question: “Do you approve of the current leader? Yes or No?”. 51,4% said “yes”. The party announced the results at 6:30 p.m. during a virtual address streamed on the UCP website and Kenney made his speech immediately after.

“I’m sorry, but friends, I truly believe that we need to move forward united. We need to put the past behind us, and a large number of our members have asked for an opportunity to clear the air through a leadership election” Kenney said. Before leaving the stage, he congratulated his party on a balanced budget and said he delivered on 90 per cent of his promises as premier.

Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver confirmed the UCP will have a caucus meeting on Thursday and more about the future of the party could be announced afterwards.