Ken Boessenkool

May 29th 2023 - Alberta - The Line

Why I won’t vote in this election

I won’t choose between bad and worse, and don’t make me say who is which As an outspoken conservative critic of United Conservative Party (UCP) leader Danielle Smith, the Alberta election has put me in a bit of a quandary….

May 1st 2023 - Alberta - The Line

Jared Wesley and Ken Boessenkool: Danielle Smith is not a conservative

Her politics amount to libertarian-laced populism, directly opposed to the sort of principled, incrementalist politics Albertans have had before. To be conservative … is to prefer the familiar to the unknown, to prefer the tried to the untried, fact to…

October 26th 2022 - Alberta - CBC

Alberta’s newly minted UCP cabinet will need to lead Premier Smith, lest there be trouble

Danielle Smith’s signal of political stability was to largely reappoint Jason Kenney’s cabinet Ken Boessenkool · for CBC Opinion · Oct 26, 2022 This column is an opinion from Ken Boessenkool, a professor at the Max Bell School of Public…

October 7th 2022 - Alberta - The Line

Premier Smith is a kamikaze mission aimed at the UCP, conservatism and Alberta

Only Rachel Notley can win. By: Ken Boessenkool I listened very carefully to Danielle’s victory speech on Thursday night, but what kept running through my head was not her prepared remarks, but two Japanese words: “Tennōheika Banzai.” Banzai translates literally…

May 26th 2022 - Alberta - The Line

Alberta isn’t conservative

Figure this out now, or risk losing Alberta to the NDP for a generation “A propensity to use and enjoy what is available, rather than to wish or look for something else; to delight in what is present rather than…