The United Conservative Party (UCP) has faced a significant and surprising wave of criticism by fellow backbenchers prompting doubts about its standing in the Albertan political sphere and its political viability in the years to come. The UCP lead by Jason Kenny — incumbent first minister of Alberta and former federal cabinet minister — is facing the toughest political battle of its very short existence, putting the party on the brink of not only losing the next provincial election in 2023 to Rachel Notley’s NDP, but also its status as Alberta’s dominating conservative party. It all derived after Kenny’s government enacted new COVID-19 restrictions due to the exponential increase of infected people with coronavirus in the province — Alberta reported more than 2,400 cases on May 1 alone, according to data gathered by the COVID-19 Tracker Canada