Alberta’s governing United Conservative Party (UCP) is in the midst of a leadership race after deeply unpopular premier Jason Kenney received a dismal 51.4 percent in his May leadership review. For context, former premier Alison Redford resigned three months after receiving 77 percent approval from her party in 2014. Those hoping that Kenney’s resignation will make way for a more moderate conservative leader — one who will shave the edges off the rigid austerity Kenney promoted during his time in office — will be sorely disappointed.

There are seven candidates vying to be the next UCP leader and, by extension, the next Alberta premier — the Canadian equivalent of governor. Two former leaders of the Wildrose Party, which merged with Alberta’s Progressive Conservatives (PCs) to form the United Conservative Party, are in the race — Danielle Smith, a podcaster and conspiracy theorist, and Fort McMurray member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA) Brian Jean, who returned to the legislature this year on an explicit platform of removing Kenney from power.

Three of the candidates, who represent the establishment wing of the party, had to resign from Kenney’s cabinet in order to run for the leadership. Former finance minister Travis Toews, former children’s services minister Rebecca Schulz, and former transportation minister Rajan Sawhney are stuck between touting their experience in cabinet and distancing themselves from Kenney’s tumultuous premiership. Schulz, for example, claims she was “not part of the inner circle, although I sat at that table” before shifting the conversation to her own “humility and hard work.”