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Regardless of when Premier Rachel Notley chooses to send Albertans to the ballot box, it is the candidates, staff and supporters of the United Conservative Party who will first have to make a choice on the province’s political future.

The choice is a simple one on its face, but difficult in its dynamics.

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To decide whether Jason Kenney has lost the moral authority to govern Alberta, or whether to stick it out with a party leader who has ensnared himself in a scandal that has put his character and credibility in doubt — a scandal with the potential to threaten the UCP’s election ambitions.

Enormous consequences come with either option, not just for the policy direction Alberta will take over the next four years, but for what kind of politics Albertans endeavour to practice.

You’d wish such a choice wasn’t necessary.

But Kenney himself has made it so, by repeating the denials — despite growing evidence to the contrary — that he and his campaign team played any role in an alleged plot during the 2017 UCP leadership race to have Jeff Callaway run as a kamikaze candidate against chief rival Brian Jean.