Jason Kenney vehemently defended both himself and the actions of his leadership campaign’s senior team on Monday after emails obtained by some media outlets — including Global News — over the weekend suggested his team worked with an adversary in the UCP race to defeat his primary rival.

“There was staff communicating on communications material and stuff like that,” Kenney told Global News Radio on Monday, while speaking about his campaign staff’s dealings with members of Jeff Callaway’s leadership campaign. “This is not the least bit unusual that campaigns will communicate.”

Kenney also denied helping to finance Callaway’s campaign.

“But there was no material financial support — absolutely not.”

The 2017 UCP leadership campaign — that saw Kenney secure an impressive win and become the party’s first leader (on a non-interim basis) — has come under intense scrutiny in recent weeks. Alberta’s election commissioner has levied fines in connection with attempts to block an investigation looking into the Callaway campaign and for violations with regard to financial contributions made to that campaign.The RCMP has since confirmed that the election commissioner has referred the matter to them and that they are now looking into it.

For months, political commentators have suggested it appeared Callaway’s decision to join the leadership race was made in order to attack Kenney’s main rival, Brian Jean, in order to help Kenney’s campaign. Callaway later dropped out of the race and endorsed Kenney.

On Sunday, Global News obtained emails that appeared to validate that theory. The emails show that the campaigns shared talking points and mock advertisements that could be used against Jean. However, on Monday, Kenney indicated he believes Callaway’s campaign was a legitimate bid to at least explore the possibility of becoming the leader of the UCP.

Watch below: (From March 17, 2019) Emails obtained by Global News from the Jason Kenney and Jeff Callaway campaigns reveal the two worked together to attack and undermine Brian Jean’s UCP leadership run. Julia Wong reports.

“I went there to ask for his endorsement for my campaign for the leadership,” Kenney said of a meeting he took part in at Callaway’s house in July 2017. “He told me that he was considering running his own leadership campaign. He said he thought because there was a group of Wildrose [Party] supporters that wouldn’t support Brian [Jean] or I… they needed a voice. He also had some issues he wanted to articulate around the natural gas industry, access to Hudson’s Bay and some other issues, and it was no secret he had no love lost for Brian. I think they had a longstanding… some kind of personality feud.

“I wanted to get his (Callaway’s) endorsement or support [but] I left that meeting with the impression he would be at least launching an exploratory campaign and possibly going all the way to the end,” Kenney said.

On Sunday, Global News obtained an email sent to the UCP caucus by the party’s deputy chief of staff after the contents of emails suggesting the Kenney and Callaway campaigns worked together were published by various media outlets.

“Once Mr. Callaway entered the race, it was also clear that his team was receptive to keeping some communication channels open between our respective campaigns,” Matt Wolf wrote. “This is of course completely normal in politics, especially in a leadership race that could see multiple ballots in the end. It would be imprudent to push away someone whose second ballot support might be required at a later time.”

Wolf said while he did “push things like research” to Callaway’s team, it was not a “puppet-type operation.” He also wrote that the Kenney campaign had nothing to do with funding the Callaway campaign. “We told Mr. Callaway that the decision on whether or not to run was his, and that he would need to find his own funding should he choose to do so.”

“Our leadership campaign did not in any way funnel donations to the Callaway camp — an act that would clearly be in violation of the Election Finances and Contributions Disclosure Act,” he wrote. “I am very confident that even a suggestion of doing so would firmly be rejected by our campaign’s leadership team at the time, and rightly so.”

While fines levied by the election commissioner have raised questions about how the Callaway campaign was financed, a report published by Maclean’s on Monday shed new light on where tens of thousands of dollars may have come from.

Maclean’s reports it has obtained personal bank documents showing a $60,000 payment being deposited into the personal bank account of Callaway’s campaign manager, Cam Davies, from a corporate entity listed as “Agropyron.” Maclean’s reported that Davies has told them the money was then funnelled to Callaway’s campaign in a way that may have broken provincial laws. The magazine also reported that Davies said the source of the funds was then covered up.

Earlier this month, Davies was fined $15,000 by Alberta’s election commissioner for blocking an investigation. Through his lawyer, Davies has denied doing so and indicated he will mount a legal fight to try to have the finding overturned.

Global News reached out to Davies on Monday to ask for comment about the Maclean’s report on the Callaway campaign.

“[My campaign] didn’t offer or provide any material or financial support [to Callaway’s campaign],” Kenney said on Monday. “If there are questions about irregularities, I hope that the authorities get to the bottom of it and that people are held accountable if they’ve done anything wrong.”

Premier Rachel Notley briefly commented on the latest developments on Monday while taking questions from reporters and described the questions about the UCP leadership race as “a very significant scandal.”

“At its very best, it amounts to very dark, backroom politics, focused on thwarting democracy,” she said. “At its worst, it is criminal in nature.

“When the dust settles, with respect to what happened with money there as well with other cases where we are actually still seeing big money able to play a larger role than perhaps people would like to see, then all of that will inform a review that will be done after the election.”

Kenney told Global News he has already taken steps to try to determine if there is anything unusual about how Callaway’s campaign was funded.

“When we first heard rumours about this… (in) the fall, I had staff call everyone who had been in a leadership role in my campaign to double-check and triple-check if any of them had heard of sources of funds to Jeff Callaway’s campaign and it came back no, that no one was aware,” he said. “One individual wasn’t forthcoming with us, his name is Randy Kerr. He had been a candidate in… (Calgary-Beddington) when we discovered that he had not been forthcoming. We removed him as a candidate and referred that information to the elections commissioner.”

Global News has reached out to Callaway for comment about the communication between his campaign and Kenney’s and about allegations of potentially inappropriate or illegal financial contributions being made to his campaign.

Notley said she believes the revelations about the UCP leadership race, along with still unanswered questions, should prompt Albertans to question Kenney’s integrity.

Kenney suggested he believes the NDP is trying to use questions about the UCP leadership campaign to distract from the government’s economic record ahead of the provincial election.

“It’s the classic fear and smear campaign and now people are trying to relitigate a leadership election that I won with over 60 per cent of the vote,” he said. “I was honoured to receive a huge mandate like that.

“I’m not going to be distracted for the next month talking about the sour grapes group that doesn’t want to come to terms with the decisions our members made.”

–With files from Global News’ Julia Wong and Slav Kornik

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