With the exception of a small contingent of dedicated constituents and fans, the plight of Jennifer Johnson had largely been forgotten by Conservative Albertans.
The MLA for Lacombe-Ponoka has been sitting as an independent since she left the United Conservative Party caucus during the 2023 general election campaign following controversial comments she made about the trans community.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has not committed to allowing Johnson back into caucus. And over time, Johnson was forgotten by both the press and Smith’s base, buried beneath a myriad of more pressing issues like high living costs and the immigration crisis.
Until, earlier this week, when a video surfaced of Johnson meeting with a member of the trans community at the request of the Lacombe Pride Society, the Ponoka Pride Society, and the Central Alberta Pride Society. The so-called trans woman “Karla Marx” asked Johnson if she would commit to saying that trans women are indeed women.
Johnson paused.
“I’ve never been asked that before,” she said. “ I want to take some time to think on that.”
The response was not nearly good enough for Marx — nothing but total, uncritical obedience ever is for the woke mob. Marx lambasted the MLA, saying the incident would be made public and Marx would be speaking against Johnson and her bid to rejoin the UCP caucus.
Only, no one had been talking about Johnson rejoining caucus. Not really. Not in mainstream Conservative circles, not among organizers privately.
And now, the issue is front and centre ahead of the UCP AGM next month in which Smith will face a review on her leadership. It might not be an easy victory. The premier has been accused of moving to the centre since winning the party’s leadership contest with detractors lamenting a lack of tax cuts, lack of progress on a provincial police force or pension plan, and a parental rights legislation that’s been promised but not yet tabled.
And now, for continuing to punish Johnson, who speaks for Smith’s base when she continues to uphold biological reality.
In the days since the clip was released, Johnson has been the subject of an outpouring of sympathy and gratitude. Even J.K. Rowling, an outcast among the Harry Potter cast whose careers she constructed, weighed in, agreeing with an X user who said the video showed a man trying to control a woman.
The clip has made the rookie politician from a rural riding an unlikely hero in the Conservative movement.
Marx’s effort to cancel Johnson for good has spectacularly backfired. Across the province, Conservatives are demanding that Premier Smith welcome Johnson back into the party.
Smith has said she will raise the matter with her caucus. But she might not have a choice.
It’s a concession she can make at a time when she needs to hold onto support from the membership, not the province.
