Thread by @Vitormarciano

@calgaryherald Jason Kenney has figured out the problem: He was too nice. He promises never to be too nice again.
Now go out and vote for him so that he can be a less nice Premier. That will make everything better.
Floggings will get much more severe and frequent until morale improves!

@calgaryherald #ableg #ucp In the early days of the Kenney govt they had a senior person in the Premiers' office in charge of caucus relations. That person talked to caucus and came back and told the boys and girls in short pants how caucus was feeling: disgruntled.
Kenney was not pleased. 1/X

@calgaryherald Kenney didn't want the caucus relations person to listen to feelings and report back. NO! Their job was to tell caucus how and what to feel. Worship the leader, never doubt the leader, never bother the leader. No one is smarter than the leader. He doesn't need your advice. 2/X

@calgaryherald Caucus members' job was not to represent their constituents to the Kenney gov't but to represent the Kenney government to their constituents. If constituents weren't happy it was the MLAs fault because everyone knew that Kenney had no faults. 3/X

@calgaryherald Over time, the Premier's office got so frustrated with their caucus liaison people that they got rid of the role completely. But that still didn't make caucus happier. So more and more privileges and resources were taken away from caucus members. Starve them into adoration. 4/X

@calgaryherald Taking away talented staff from caucus also had the benefit of moving them into Ministers' offices, which for some reason couldn't find or keep good staff. Even though these jobs are very desirable elsewhere in Canada & in Alberta they pay particularly well. Odd that. 5/X

@calgaryherald Since their was no longer a caucus liaison in the Premier's office, & since making the Premier's most loyal MLAs the caucus whips hadn't helped, the Premier's office decided they would control the management of caucus staff and be extra sure no one got any extra help. 6/X

@calgaryherald Premier's office staff & Ministerial staff quickly understood that providing good customer service to backbench gov't MLAs was a no-no. So things got worse. Any one who suggested changes or who pointed out that there were better ways to handle these things got moved along. 7/X

@calgaryherald Removing MLAs ability to be good representatives had an interesting side bonus for Kenney. If MLAs can't advocate efficiently for you, then you have to hire lobbyists! And some of the Premier's most loyal people either already had or quickly set up a lobby firm. They did OK.
8/X

@calgaryherald But it's not just lobbyist $$$. In AB, lobbying firms also run full campaign consulting teams. So Kenney's lobbyist friends are also the exact same people running his leadership review campaign. They are also the people who run nomination campaigns at the Premier's direction 9/X

@calgaryherald It didn't take long for major corps wanting major favours from govt to figure out which lobbying firms to hire.
Why pay just any lobbyist, when you can hire the folks who are closest to the man who makes all the decisions in the govt? #Toryland is back & it's on steroids. 10/X

@calgaryherald So, you start with not listening to caucus, it devolves into the sort of crooked practices that led to the need for Harper's Accountability Act. But Premier Kenney thinks the actual problem was that he was too nice. He will be less nice going forward. That will fix things. 11/11