"Even though Andrew Scheer might be the official head of the federal Conservative party, you get the impression Kenney is the unofficial leader of the federal conservative movement, someone who is more fluent, both linguistically and politically, than Scheer."

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney announces a panel with a mandate to find a way to balancing the budget without raising taxes at the Alberta Legislature Building in Edmonton, Alberta, on Tuesday, May 7, 2019. (Codie McLachlan/Star Edmonton)

We’re not exactly in “Where’s Waldo?” territory yet but Albertans could be forgiven for wondering, “Where’s Jason?”

Even though he won the provincial election less than two months ago, Premier Kenney is not exactly a fixture in the province these days. He’s certainly not a regular in the legislature, now in its third week of Kenney’s self-proclaimed “summer of repeal” where his new UCP government is daily undoing the legacy of the former NDP government.

After his election victory, Kenney barely broke stride before sprinting off on another offensive, this one aimed at defeating the federal Liberals in this year’s October federal election.

Kenney seems to be something of a political shark, always moving, always manoeuvring, always campaigning.

Two weeks ago, when a vicious fire season was turning northern Alberta forests into charcoal and 5,000 residents into refugees, Kenney headed to Ontario on a business trip — and then stayed there over the weekend to campaign for federal Conservatives.

Last week, he was in Saskatchewan meeting with Premier Scott Moe to sign a memorandum of understanding on the movement of oil and gas rigs between the two provinces — but also to campaign against the federal carbon tax in general and Prime Minister Trudeau in particular.

This week, he’s in Quebec, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island.

It has been billed as a business trip to emphasize that under the UCP, Alberta is “open for business.”

Besides meeting with the respective premiers, Kenney’s agenda includes speaking to an international business forum in Montreal.

Premiers, of course, make business trips from time to time and Kenney is touting his new government’s pro-business ethos just as his predecessor, Rachel Notley, made a point early in her mandate of travelling to other provinces to tout her government’s pro-environmental ethos (as a way to get support for more energy pipelines).

But Kenney is very good a multi-tasking.

He can promote Alberta while also criticizing the federal Liberal government. In fact, for Kenney, the two go hand-in-hand.

This week, as he began his trip east, six conservative premiers (including Kenney) wrote a joint letter to Trudeau criticizing two pieces of federal legislation: the Bill C-48 “tanker ban” on the northern BC coast; and Bill C-69 that Kenney has dubbed the “no more pipelines” act.

“Bill C-69, as originally drafted, would make it virtually impossible to develop critical infrastructure, depriving Canada of much-needed investment,” said the letter from half-a-dozen premiers that sound suspiciously like something from Kenney’s campaign speeches. “Our governments are deeply concerned with the federal government’s disregard, so far, of the concerns raised by our provinces related to these bills. As it stands, the federal government appears indifferent to the economic hardships faced by provinces.”

Kenney kicked it up a notch Wednesday after the federal government accepted some, but not all, of the Senate’s proposed amendments to Bill C-69.

“This is not a partisan issue,” said Kenney, trying to avoid looking partisan … but failing. “Prime Minister Trudeau came to office promising a federalism of openness with the provinces and instead we are regrettably getting a door slammed in our faces.”

Of course it’s partisan. Kenney has taken shots at Trudeau, personal and professional, for years.

He’s not about to stop now.

The difference is he’s trying to appear less like an attack dog and more like a watchdog, that he’s just speaking out in the face of perceived federal incursions into provincial jurisdiction.

In some ways he’s trying to look less like an Alberta premier focused solely on Alberta’s rights and more like a champion for provincial rights in general.

Given his itchy feet the past month as he glad-handed from province to province, talking about free-enterprise, investment, more jobs and fewer taxes, Kenney is looking like a national champion of conservative values.

It doesn’t hurt that he is fluent in French, something on display in Quebec this week.

Even though Andrew Scheer might be the official head of the federal Conservative party, you get the impression Kenney is the unofficial leader of the federal conservative movement, someone who is more fluent, both linguistically and politically, than Scheer.

Not that I’m ascribing any hidden motives to Kenney, of course. He seems to be doing all he can to help elect Scheer this fall.

But you have to think that if Scheer fails this October and the Conservatives go looking for a new federal leader, they’ll know just where to look.

They won’t need to wonder “Where’s Waldo?”

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