CALGARY—The United Conservative Party nomination candidate who came under fire last week for social media posts casting doubt on the legitimacy of climate change won the party’s official nomination Tuesday.

Randy Kerr, a former campaign manager for UCP Leader Jason Kenney, will run for the party in the riding of Calgary-Beddington in next year’s election. In Facebook posts, Kerr called climate change a “hoax” and linked to dubious sources — including a website with connections to Breitbart News, a far-right U.S. media outlet that has been accused of promoting white nationalism.

In a statement, Kenney congratulated Kerr, adding that the candidate’s 15 years of experience working in the energy industry “will be a huge asset to our team as we work to restore the Alberta advantage and get our province back on track.”

Scientific consensus is that climate change is real, and humans and their heavy creation of carbon dioxide are the main cause. This summer, extreme heat, wildfires and flooding worldwide have killed hundreds — conditions climatologists have attributed to the effects of climate change.

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In Facebook posts from 2007 to last month, Kerr denied the existence of climate change. He also linked to websites that spread hoaxes and conspiracy theories, including one whose managing editor had also written for Breitbart.

In a previous interview with the Toronto Star, Kerr confirmed the posts were his, but said sharing a link doesn’t mean he agrees with its content. He also said he does believe in climate change, but doubts the degree to which humans have contributed to it. Kerr didn’t respond to the Star’s request for an interview Wednesday.

Alberta Environment Minister Shannon Phillips said Kerr’s views are “astonishingly irresponsible,” and the UCP are “increasingly detached from reality.”

“This is a Jason Kenney insider who is known for his conspiracy theory views,” she said. “Folks like this are being welcomed with open arms by Jason Kenney onto his team.”

The proof of climate change, Phillips added, is just outside the window — on Wednesday, most of Alberta was blanketed by brown skies and air quality warnings caused by wildfire smoke from British Columbia. Climatologists have said Western Canada can expect longer and more intense wildfire seasons, on average, as the effects of climate change set in.

“We all know someone who is struggling to breathe today,” Phillips said. “There comes a point where we must say, there are not two sides to this. ... The question is what we should do about it.”

UCP executive director Janice Harrington didn’t answer direct questions about how Kerr was vetted before becoming a nomination candidate, and whether the party was aware of the social media posts. “The leader’s comment stands,” she said via email, referring to Kenney.

Harrington previously redirected the Star to an interview where Kenney said: “Climate change of course is a permanent factor of the natural environment. But there’s clearly scientific consensus around it being a significant anthropogenic element to recent climate change, and that’s why I support prudent, reasonable measures to control and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Nomination contests happen in a “very narrow world” of a few hundred party faithful and don’t typically represent the province’s beliefs as a whole, said Mount Royal University political scientist David Taras.

“It’s maybe a surprise victory given the publicity that’s surrounded it, but there you go,” he said. “This may be the nature of the party.”

Though the majority of Albertans do believe in climate change, Calgary-Beddington is a “winnable riding” for the UCP, Taras added.

Taras said nomination votes raise important questions for the party as it decides on a direction — and for voters trying to decide who to support, Taras said. Climate change, for example, has become a symbolic issue, with voters connecting it to larger questions of identity and the province’s economic future, he added.

“How this issue explodes out from here becomes really important,” Taras said.

“What will the party’s position be on climate change, and will (Kerr) toe the line on it? Or is it up for debate within the party, because there’s links to the carbon tax and rejection of the carbon tax?”

Though Kenney has said extreme views aren’t welcome in the UCP, several of the party’s nomination candidates have come under fire in recent weeks for expressing such ideas online.

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In July, nomination candidate Sandra Kim apologized for a Facebook post denouncing homosexuality and same-sex marriage. She is still seeking the nomination for Maskwacis-Wetaskiwin.

Weeks earlier, Brooks-Medicine Hat nomination candidate Todd Beasley was ousted after a social media post surfaced in which he called the Islamic prophet Muhammad “a dark age warlord” and a “pedophile.”

Kerr’s opponent, Josephine Pon, declined an interview request from the Star.

Emma McIntosh is an environment, justice and investigative reporter with StarMetro Calgary. Follow her on Twitter at @EmmaMci

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