Juno News - October 29, 2021
Albertans want equalization gone. What's next?
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Summary
Coming up, Albertans have voted in favour of ending equalization, but is that enough to quell the rising tide of independence? Also, climate hypocrisy abound at COP26, and some other stories along the way. The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.
Transcript
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This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
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Coming up, Albertans have voted in favour of ending equalisation,
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but is that enough to quell the rising tide of independence?
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Also, climate hypocrisy abound at COP26 and some other stories along the way.
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Hello and welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.
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Great to have you tuned in to the Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.
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I mentioned on the weekend that I had been in Calgary speaking at the Economic Association of Alberta's Freedom Talk Conference.
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But in general, there was a lot of frustration about the state of affairs in the West.
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Now, just to put this in context, we didn't have the results from the equalisation referendum at the time that we were all meeting.
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And a lot of folks there very frustrated with the status quo.
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A lot of people very frustrated with Jason Kenney's leadership
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and eyeing ways in which Alberta can assert itself and assert its independence to get a better deal.
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And one of the interesting things that came up is a conversation that I had that we'll share very shortly with Paul Hinman,
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who's the leader of the Wild Rose Independence Party.
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But the Wild Rose Independence Party, which has a lot of people that are growing its support base,
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was originally a party talking about a way to just get, you know, a better deal for Albertans.
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And now they're moving more and more towards this idea of being an outright separatist party.
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And I want to talk a little bit about that evolution because I think that's a very important one,
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But first, I do want to take a look at the results of the referendum.
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So when all the votes are counted from across the province,
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61.7% of Albertans who voted said they were in favour of removing equalisation from the constitution.
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The message that Jason Kenney says can be taken away from this is that a clear majority of Albertans
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The results have given Alberta's government a powerful mandate to secure changes to equalisation
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and other federal transfers that have treated Albertans unfairly for so long.
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He says Ottawa has to respect Alberta and the huge role the province plays in Canada's economic prosperity.
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Now, the interesting thing about that is that for a long time now,
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Jason Kenney has had the ability to put all of the frustrations that people have
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with Alberta's place in Canada towards this referendum.
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You're going to be able to have your say there.
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I think I made the point last week or two weeks ago on our live show about this
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We are actually in a point now in which there's nowhere for Jason Kenney to hide.
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Now everyone's looking at him and they're going to be saying,
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OK, you said this was a way that we could flex a little bit,
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And there still is the looming question of what happens if Justin Trudeau doesn't want to play ball.
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And I have to go back to what a lot of the pro-referendum equalization people have been saying here,
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the people that are supporting the Yes campaign, which ultimately was successful.
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They've put a lot of stock into the Supreme Court's review,
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its reference case, they call it, of the Quebec secession referendum,
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which found that if in a democratic way on a clear question,
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when people in a province vote on something that is similar to secession or independence,
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then the federal government has a duty to negotiate,
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that they have to say, all right, clearly there's a real problem here.
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the government, the federal government doesn't have to give up anything in that negotiation.
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The federal government has to sit down ostensibly in good faith.
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But there's a lot of dispute about whether the government actually has to sit down.
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Even if Alberta were to take this all the way to the Supreme Court,
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now, Justin Trudeau, you have to sit down in a room with Jason Kenney.
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there's no guarantee that Trudeau would do anything about it.
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So I asked Jason Kenney about this earlier in the week.
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What do you do if you can't extract from the federal government,
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the concessions or even the process that you want?
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Well, you know, first of all, we've just released this result today.
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And so the legislature now will debate a motion,
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effectively to ratify the democratic choice of Albertans.
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And of course, I'll also formally make my fellow premiers aware
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We will make the strongest case we possibly can for reform
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and for fairness for Albertan and the federation
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continue to pursue other aspects of our fair deal agenda,
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including building a stronger and more resilient province,
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Later this week, we'll be, for example, releasing the initial study
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conducted by the Department of Justice and Solicitor General
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on the cost, benefits, and potential advantages
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We continue at our Treasury Board and Finance Ministry
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carefully to study the potential benefits of an Alberta pension plan,
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which I think would be enormous given the big demographic advantage,
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the age advantage of Alberta for the past 40 or 50 years.
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We have continued, we just appointed an Alberta chief firearms officer
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in the application of federal firearms legislation.
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We have created the Alberta parole board to have Albertans
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making common sense decisions over parole applications
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And of course, we continue to pursue the broader fair deal agenda
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while at the same time expecting the government of Canada
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I mean, look, he's saying all the right things,
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You can't force the federal government to do it.
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and I don't really think he addressed this in the response,
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And this is where we get to the independence threat.
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I am not someone seeking to break up the country.
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What I want is a country in which provinces like Alberta
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without needing to feel like that has to take place outside of Canada.
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But at the same time, I'm very sympathetic to the frustrations
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and that's why I've been covering them so extensively on the show.
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And I sat down with Paul Hinman, as I mentioned earlier,
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the leader of the Wild Rose Independence Party,
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although clearly a lot of the people were involved
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which Paul Hinman was the leader of for a time.
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the federal government has no incentive to give you anything.
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And this is, I fear, going to be part of the discussion and dilemma now.
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But here's my interview in Calgary with Paul Hinman.
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what I think a lot of people who've been talking about
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Western independence were expecting and perhaps hoping for.
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And I know that a lot of people I've spoken to,
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have said that that is not an accurate reflection
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of where Albertans' frustration is with the status quo right now.
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this party that was trying to speak to Albertans
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that are dissatisfied with, you know, the Canadian Federation,
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and that getting 2.3% in the ridings of which it ran candidates
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and your hope for a future for the Wild Rose Independence Party?
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becoming independent is a provincial matter, not a federal one.
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And the Maverick Party and Jay Hill very much talked about
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and emphasized that we're going to go down and represent you.
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Albertans realized that even when we sent the Reform Party
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and if we have 100% representation speaking out for Alberta,
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and they're not going to change their treatment.
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I think there's probably more of an accurate reflection
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of the frustration in the referendum results on equalization,
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And despite, I have to put the obligatory disclaimer,
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They do understand that we're footing the bill.
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the distraction for behind-the-scenes activities,