Alberta Premier Jason Kenney Went Off On Quebec & It Seems Like No One Was Impressed

Twitter isn't happy with Kenney and someone called him "an absolute embarrassment to Alberta."

Staff Writer

Raise your hand if you're tired of provincial premiers hating on Quebec over transfer payments.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney went off on Quebec over federal transfer payments at a recent Legislative Assembly of Alberta meeting and quite frankly, no one was impressed.

"Quebec saw its equalization transfers from the national government increase year after year after year to over $13 billion," said the premier. "Effectively, we had unemployed Albertans [...] through their federal taxes, transferring funds to a province which had lower unemployment."

Citing a lack of "fairness," Kenney explained that Alberta will "no longer abide [by] a system where we are compelled to subsidize public services in other parts of Canada while our ability to generate the wealth that creates those transfers is constantly impaired."

Several people were unimpressed by the Alberta premier's speech and disagreed with what he had to say.

A few people pointed out that Kenney only complains about transfer payments when Quebec gets them.

This isn't the first time Kenney has clashed with Quebec over transfer payments. In 2019, Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet drew the ire of several Albertans on social media after he called their province "an oil state."

Kenney fired back at Blanchet for being "keen on taking the money generated by oilfield workers." Some Twitter users agreed, calling Quebec a "parasite," among other insults.

This time, critics seem to be less keen to come to Kenney's defence.

According to reports, Kenney's approval rating has cratered to 22% — the lowest among all Canadian premiers.

Quebec Premier François Legault's approval rating, meanwhile, is sitting pretty in a three-way tie for first place at 56%.

  • Teddy Elliot
  • Teddy Elliot was a Staff Writer for MTL Blog. He was born and raised in Montreal, Quebec and has a B.A. in Literature. Teddy has been a journalist for three years and was once an English teacher. His creative work has appeared in The Blasted Tree and Parenthetical Magazine. When he's not chasing scoops, Teddy can be found cheering on Aston Villa and listening to 80s power ballads. He was shortlisted for a Digital Publishing Award in 2021.

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