The words flow with fear.

Bullying. Extreme views. Intolerance. Frightening. A threat that’s not going away. A tone like Trump.

Verbal abuse. Moving backwards. Extremists. A tone not helping people feel safe. A tent not big enough. The legacy of former premier Peter Lougheed kicked to the curb.

Dogwhistle politics. Chilling actions. Eroding public education. Taking away women’s reproductive rights. Trying to out gay kids in schools.

All these scary words come out Thursday afternoon.

They come out of the mouth of Sandra Jansen as the member of the legislature for the northwest suburbs of Calgary decides she is no longer a Progressive Conservative and is now is at home with the NDP.

Without actually spitting out his name and triggering her gag reflex, the fear is pinned on Jason Kenney, running to be PC leader, wanting to unite all conservatives in one party and quickly becoming the biggest pain in the NDP’s butt.

It doesn’t take long to figure out what and who is really being played here.

It’s the fear card and Albertans.

Our dear NDP government is down in the dumps, need a big boost and fear worked like a charm back in 2012.

Who could forget? Albertans bought the fear and we got Redford.

Once again, the curtain goes up, the villain is cast. The bogeyman is under the bed. This time the scary, nasty one is not Danielle Smith and her Wildrosers.

No, it’s Kenney. Kenney and all that rotten crowd supporting him and his plan to no longer split the conservative vote and really put a wrench in the NDP’s plans.

Look at him. Kenney will do bad things to you. So goes the script.

Now Kenney hasn’t actually said he would do these bad things but that makes him even more scary. For God’s sakes, he’s got a hidden agenda!

Shiver Albertans, shiver.

Oh yes, the old trick. If you’re saddled with a bad image create a worse picture of someone else and hope the people aren’t paying attention and pray like hell the sliming sticks.

As for Jansen, just weeks ago she liked the NDP so much she told us she was running to be the new Progressive Conservative leader to get rid of them as the government.

Then Jansen went to the PC party hootenanny earlier this month and met reality.

She saw the strength of Kenney’s organization and her own lukewarm reception and bailed on the PC leadership, but not before alleging Kenney supporters harassed her.

Jansen says the Calgarians she represents are actually “very progressive” and they don’t want to be represented by a conservative.

But, just last year, Jansen ran on a very different platform than the NDP. Premier Notley points out the differences as often as she can.

“Define the term very different. If you’re fiscally pragmatic I think it is what it is,” says Jansen.

Huh.

The defector didn’t struggle with going over to the Dippers but struggled with “the turn towards conservatism” in the PCs.

Er ... don’t the PCs have the word conservative in their name?

The NDP figure this Jansen move is big stuff.

By taking her, they can claim they are not blinkered lefties. Oh no, the Notley NDP welcome all self-styled progressives, all centrists.

Look at the breadth of their embrace. They took in Sandra Jansen.

The premier figures it all “really aligns quite nicely.”

“We’ve talked about being a pragmatic, progressive, moderate alternative to an out-of-touch and increasingly extreme version of what was the conservative movement in Alberta,” says Notley.

Ah-ha. The NDPs are now the moderates. Kenney is the extremist. Nice try with that backflip.

Kenney hopes those who disagree with Jansen’s decision are civil about it.

He figures the people Jansen represents might want a byelection to have a say on whether they support the newest NDPer.

Like that’s going to happen.

No matter. Jansen now feels good. She got heartfelt hugs from her new BFFs in the NDP.

“It’s good to have a family,” she says.

There goes my gag reflex.

rbell@postmedia.com

READ MORE: Constituents baffled by Jansen's flip