CALGARY—After a short four years, the orange wave that swept into Alberta in 2015 was replaced Tuesday night by a sea of United Conservative Party blue.UCP Leader Jason Kenney — a former federal cabinet minister who entered provincial politics three years ago with a plan to reunite Alberta’s conservatives — will be the province’s 18th premier. The fledgling party, created by a merger of the Progressive Conservatives and the Wildrose in 2017, surged toward a majority government, toppling NDP seats in just about every corner of the province.“Hope is on the horizon,” Kenney told a crowd of cheering and whistling supporters in Calgary, adding that “Alberta is open for business.”“There is a deep frustration in this province, a sense that we have contributed massively to the rest of Canada, but that everywhere we turn we are being blocked in and pinned down,” he said. “Today we begin to fight back.”In his speech, Kenney lashed out against the federal government and other provinces that have made it harder for Alberta to get oil pipelines to tidewater. He vowed that his election would usher in a new era of perseverance and he would defy anyone preventing Alberta’s natural resources from reaching wider markets. He said the UCP’s success showed that “the silent majority has spoken, not the loud and angry voices on social media.”Read more:Blue UCP wave sweeps Alberta, NDP hangs on in EdmontonUCP faces discord if it forms government while under investigation, says professorIs a foreign-funded campaign the reason for Alberta’s pipeline woes?A huge cheer went up in the crowd as Kenney repeated a promise to scrap the carbon tax, which he called “all economic pain, no environmental gain.” He thanked several other Canadian premiers who have resisted a carbon tax, including Ontario’s Doug Ford and Saskatchewan’s Scott Moe, saying he looks forward to ...
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