When I was still a youngish reporter working in rural Alberta back in 2018, I noticed the United Conservative Party (UCP) — then still the opposition party — was making news almost weekly over a scandal, a gaffe or some other bizarre behaviour.
Naive towards the political powers I was messing with, I began compiling a list of curious incidents throughout the year. I left out silly gaffes like Jason Kenney’s then-famous “finger bowl” comment, along with things that couldn’t be directly linked to the party. Even as I tried to keep it to newsworthy items, I ended up compiling 44 separate cases of eyebrow-raising incidents ranging from individual party member troubles with the law, to leaked evidence of intent to privatize health care services and shut down safe injection sites, to several cases where Kenney directly contradicted himself describing his intentions, if elected.
When the year was done and I had some free time to put it all together, I published the whole thing as a Twitter thread and it went viral. My inbox overflowed with hate mail and threats.
I admit I had followed the example of seasoned journalists I saw on the platform, who didn’t seem concerned about speaking truth to power in public. So I made my fair share of snide comments to politicians — of all stripes — using the platform to push their narratives.
It was a rookie mistake that came back to haunt me. My new found internet-fame put me in the crosshairs of the UCP. My boss received a letter from a person named Matt Wolf — Jason Kenney’s “issues manager” and later his chief of staff — with a carefully picked selection of my tweets, coloured with comments about maintaining a professional relationship. My publisher informed me that if the local UCP MLA, Glenn van Dijken, told him he would no longer give me interviews, I would no longer have a place at the paper.
I’m not sure if that ever happened, but I was fired without cause the Friday before the Alberta 2019 election was called. Kenney’s message of “Ottawa is out to get you” resonated with voters and the government changed hands. I suddenly found myself unemployed for doing my job and blacklisted by the government in what felt like a hostile media landscape.
So when the opportunity to come North and see Canada from a different perspective arrived, it was not a hard choice. It’s still one of the best life decisions I ever made.
This week, Kenney’s tenure as Alberta premier came to a close. The party that once literally called him a “saviour” turned on him in less than a single term.
I was collateral damage in his quest for power, but I survived.
On social media, politicians can get around major inconveniences to their craft, like fact checking. When politicians accuse journalists of lying or bias, it’s frequently because we’ve determined what they’re saying is inaccurate.
Our job is to ensure you’re getting factual information, regardless of whether it’s what people want to hear.
Always worth remembering, reporters aren’t the ones who want your vote.