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Earlier this month Jason Kenney gave his weighty “fair deal” speech, during which he laid out a grand strategy for both defending the province and pulling it out of its economic funk.

In that speech, the Premier exhorted Albertans to keep their eyes on the prize. What really matters, Mr. Kenney said, is bringing back investors. The essentials are items such as getting the Trans Mountain expansion completed, getting liquefied natural gas (LNG) export facilities built or convincing Ottawa to provide more fiscal help to Alberta through its stabilization program. Those imperatives are even more important, he suggested, than fighting with Ottawa or weighing the pros and cons of the province establishing its own police force or pension plan.

But with the introduction of Bill 22 this week, Mr. Kenney’s government appears to have lost its focus.

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Alberta Premier Jason Kenney speaks at the Rural Municipalities of Alberta conference in Edmonton on Nov. 15, 2019.JASON FRANSON/The Canadian Press

Bill 22 does many things, but its most controversial provision is one to remove Lorne Gibson, the man who was the province’s election commissioner until Friday. The bill comes following Mr. Gibson’s investigations into allegations regarding the United Conservative Party leadership race that saw Mr. Kenney elected.

Mr. Gibson had already issued more than $200,000 in fines, including to many of former leadership candidate Jeff Callaway’s donors and members of his staff. Mr. Callaway has been accused of running a stalking-horse bid designed to help Mr. Kenney win the leadership, although both men deny the claim. Mr. Gibson was set to speak to MLAs at an all-party standing committee on Nov. 29.

Bills usually take weeks or months to get passed into law. But Bill 22, the Reform of Agencies, Boards and Commissions and Government Enterprises Act, was introduced on Monday and pushed through with breathtaking speed, in a matter of four days. It came into force on Friday.

The government has already said Mr. Gibson could, theoretically, be hired back. Speaking to reporters on Friday, the Premier said the move is about the elimination of redundant bureaucracies. He said the actual position of commissioner is not going anywhere, and the post will now simply fall under the purview of the province’s Chief Electoral Officer. Mr. Kenney also told reporters current investigations will "be ported over” from the Elections Commissioner’s office to the merged office.

When asked about the speed of the passage of the bill, he said Alberta’s agencies, boards and commissions need certainty so they can merge, consolidate and make administrative changes.

“In terms of the optics, if we waited and did this in two years or three years or four years, we’d have exactly the same accusations,” Mr. Kenney said, responding to concerns about government interference.

But both the content of the bill and the speed at which it made its way through the legislature mean those explanations ring hollow. Since Mr. Gibson had shown himself to be an active investigator of campaign financing, and is now gone, Bill 22 raises serious questions about the state of democracy in Alberta.

The bill appears to many to be brazenly focused on fixing a partisan political headache.

The Kenney government likely believes it can get away with this bad bill. Alberta is probably years away from an election, and the ruling party has reason to feel confident that voters will look to the UCP above all others – including Rachel Notley’s NDP – to fix the economy or stand up to Liberal indifference to energy-sector grievances. With economic pessimism riding much higher than the provincial unemployment rate, the ruling UCP is betting the economic imperative trumps any other concerns voters might have.

Mr. Kenney spent the week away from the fast fracas in the legislature. He was in Texas, hustling for investment dollars. He met with executives from Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., at least a dozen other companies in the energy and chemical industries, and private equity firms.

The Premier was back in Calgary on Friday, where he left a scrum with reporters to speak to Quebec Premier François Legault by phone. He will meet with other premiers in Toronto at the beginning of next month, and he hopes to meet the Prime Minister in December, too.

It is in these international and intergovernmental venues, when Mr. Kenney is advocating for Alberta’s economic interests, where he does his best work. But he could be easily distracted by developments on the home front.

At the very best, Bill 22 is an unnecessary and heavy-handed show of UCP majority force. And in this regard, Mr. Kenney should follow his own advice and keep his eyes on the prize.

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