Banff-Cochrane MLA Cam Westhead says the election of Jason Kenney as leader of the United Conservative Party (UCP) is good news for the reigning NDP Alberta government.

Westhead believes Kenney's idea are a giant leap backwards and are out of step with what Albertans want.

"I congratulate Jason Kenney on winning the leadership of the UCP, but I find he's got a very divisive agenda that wants to move Alberta backwards, so I'm going to fight that every step of the way because what I hear is that Albertans want to move forward. They value their public services and they aren't buying what Jason Kenney's selling. They know he can't live up to his promises."

Westhead takes issue with Kenney's position of cutting government expenditures by 20 per cent and uses the example of its potential impact upon government's initiative for affordable $25 a day child care.

"Jason Kenney talks about taking 20 per cent of the budget away. Affordable child care costs money and so I think the opposition and the UCP have to explain to Albertans where their priorities are.The NDP's priorities are to invest in early childhood expectations so kids get a good start in life and so far we don't know what the UCP stands for. So I think they owe Albertans an explanation."

He also believes Albertans are smart enough to not fall into the trappings of cuts with no pain. 

"They make these magically predictions that they're going cut this money and not have any service cutbacks. Albertans are smarter than that and they know there's going to be cutbacks, so they want to know where the UCP values lie."

 Last weekend, Kenney won the first UCP leadership race on the first ballot by an overwhelming majority of opponents Brian Jean and Doug Schweitzer.