Juno News - An insider’s view on the political situation in Alberta

00:00:00.000 The knives have come out for Premier Jason Kenney in Alberta. United Conservative Party members will

00:00:04.900 vote on the fate of Kenney's leadership in his time as Premier on April 9th. We'll get the

00:00:09.600 inside scoop on what is really going on in Alberta. I'm Candace Malcolm and this is The

00:00:13.480 Candace Malcolm Show. Hi everyone, thank you so much for tuning into the program. So a lot of

00:00:28.000 people ask me, I get a lot of emails and just friends asking me like, hey Candace, what is going

00:00:31.840 on in Alberta? What's going on with Premier Jason Kenney? Is he going to survive all this? And I

00:00:36.980 thought it would be good to dedicate an episode of the show to sort of doing a deeper dive and trying

00:00:41.740 to figure out what happened in Alberta, how we got to where we are and what is at stake, what is going

00:00:47.640 to happen to the Premier over there. So to do that, I am bringing in my friend Brad Tennant. Brad is the

00:00:53.920 vice president and Alberta lead of Wellington Advocacy, a national public affairs firm, and

00:00:58.600 he is based out of Calgary. Previously, Brad served as the executive director of the United

00:01:02.900 Conservative Party and was a senior member of Jason Kenney's leadership campaigns. So Brad,

00:01:07.640 welcome to the podcast. Yeah, thank you very much for having me, Candace. Okay, so you know,

00:01:12.960 there's really like a lot of drama going on in Alberta. If you read the headlines in legacy media,

00:01:18.440 they sort of make it seem like Kenney's days are numbered, but we know that Kenney is a very

00:01:23.740 resilient politician and he has beat the odds many, many times in his political career. So

00:01:28.960 why don't we just start, Brad, by talking a little bit about what is going on in Alberta

00:01:34.020 politics in a nutshell? What's happened in the last year? What is driving this whole leadership

00:01:38.820 review process? Yeah, well, I think it comes a lot out of what you were just saying, but there's

00:01:43.840 there's no shortage of drama in Alberta. And I think it's honestly been that way for more than a

00:01:48.300 year. It's almost been that way since, since Ralph Klein kind of left politics, Alberta has seen a

00:01:53.520 path of, you know, one term premiers ever since it's seen kind of disruption in the conservative

00:02:00.960 movement. And I think, you know, after almost, almost two decades of that chaos, we're kind of

00:02:06.120 getting to, you know, a conservative movement, I would say less so a conservative voter base and a

00:02:11.160 conservative member base, but a conservative movement that is almost so focused on infighting

00:02:16.180 that the first instinct when things get tough go towards infighting. And I think in the last year

00:02:21.560 there's been, you know, COVID policy, I think, has been unpopular in Alberta, more so in Alberta than

00:02:26.640 probably other parts of the country. That being said, Alberta's faced less lockdowns, less measures,

00:02:34.020 but that's almost aggravated those on the political left and those in the mainstream media

00:02:38.900 even more. And at the same time left some of the kind of conservative side, a little bit

00:02:44.720 disenchanted, you know, not liking the last series of lockdown, not liking some of the measures that

00:02:50.080 came with it. So that's led to a political environment that, like we said, is quite dramatic

00:02:55.440 here in Alberta. But again, like you said, I don't think it's anything that Premier Kenney's not used

00:03:01.020 to. Premier Kenney's been an effective conservative politician ever since he entered the arena almost

00:03:07.240 three decades ago. He has always been counted out by kind of the mainstream media, elitist pundits,

00:03:13.060 people that have not expected him to do something. And I think those people are already calling the

00:03:17.720 cards that, you know, Kenney isn't going to be successful in the months ahead. But when you

00:03:21.800 talk to people on the ground here and you talk to ordinary United Conservative members and,

00:03:26.700 you know, a little bit more of the activists at the ground level, I think that a lot of people

00:03:33.880 understand Premier Kenney was dealt a very tough hand in the last couple of years. And coming out

00:03:38.460 of it, there's really no better place to be than Alberta. We have a balanced budget for the first

00:03:42.660 time, really, you know, and you can go back and debate this, but a balanced budget leading into a

00:03:48.280 balanced budget probably the first time since those Ralph Klein days. And, you know, the economy is

00:03:54.280 booming, oil and gas is back up. It's not just oil and gas, a bunch of other industries and commodity

00:03:59.220 industries are firing on all cylinders. So, you know, there's no better place to be than Alberta

00:04:04.340 for a lot of Albertans. I think there's renewed hope and optimism, which is a lot of what Jason

00:04:10.420 Kenney got elected on. But obviously, COVID threw a wrench in that. But coming out of that, I think,

00:04:15.940 you know, there is a sense of optimism that I don't think really shines through the mainstream

00:04:20.200 media a lot of the times here in the province, you know? Well, it's certainly one of those things

00:04:24.480 where no one was happy in Alberta with the COVID stuff. As you alluded to, you know, the left

00:04:29.340 wanted the premier to go so much further and lock down harder and follow some of the more draconian

00:04:34.920 measures that were taken. I'm not saying that there weren't draconian measures in Alberta. There

00:04:39.000 certainly were. And a lot of them, you know, I would be right there in line with people criticizing

00:04:44.140 the premier saying, why did you do this? Why did you do that? Unnecessary. However, I think that,

00:04:51.000 you know, people on the right were also had a very, very low tolerance for a lot of the COVID

00:04:55.940 measures. And because of that, the premier wasn't pleasing anybody because, you know, the more

00:05:01.220 conservative people in the province didn't want to have vaccine mandates. They didn't want the extra

00:05:07.360 lockdown. So it was hard for him to please either side. Let's talk a little bit about this

00:05:14.740 leadership review. Where did this come from? Why is it happening? And can you kind of walk us through

00:05:20.560 what that's going to look like? Yeah, so there is a typically a leadership review. You know,

00:05:25.920 federally, this doesn't happen after you win a majority government. In both legacy provincial

00:05:30.200 parties, there is a leadership review, even if you win a majority government, the legacy parties begin

00:05:36.300 the PC party in the wild rose. And they tend to have a lot of buildup, they tend to have a lot of,

00:05:42.760 you know, a lot of mystique and a lot of media buildup around them. Because there is an opportunity

00:05:50.220 for members to essentially vote down their leader. And at that point, you know, the leader has been

00:05:55.620 the premier of the province and in all but the wild rose cases. Personally, I think the first

00:06:01.280 convention I went to was the Ralph Klein one where they were actually voted down. And since then, I've,

00:06:07.300 you know, being a political activist here, I would have attended or observed the Alison Redford,

00:06:12.940 the Ed Stelmack, the Daniel Smith, the Brian Jean, all the kind of leadership reviews that followed.

00:06:20.600 So having been through these, like they're, they're somewhat regular here, they have a lot of drama

00:06:26.060 here. But I can tell why people in other provinces and other jurisdictions, you know, might be find the

00:06:31.080 most sometimes peculiar, because they are a unique opportunity. I think Saskatchewan has a semi-righteous

00:06:37.280 regular at their AGM process of doing this. But, you know, it is, it is something that's somewhat

00:06:42.140 at least unique to Alberta politics. That being said, you know, in the lead up, obviously, this is

00:06:49.160 kind of where Ralph Klein lost. It's also where Ed Stelmack and Alison Redford both kind of got second

00:06:55.120 wins in their premierships, like both were unpopular for their own reasons, facing challenges in the lead

00:07:01.660 up. I think both kind of surprised with getting their 77%. And they both, you know, were able to get some

00:07:09.520 extra wind in their sales. So they've been, they've been a unique thing, I think, divine defining conservative

00:07:14.240 premierships. And on the Wild Rose side, I think Danielle got 90% in one of hers and still obviously didn't carry on to the 1.00

00:07:20.580 next election. And Brian Jean, if I recall, got 78% or 77% rounded up, and didn't carry on to the next election. So, you know,

00:07:30.420 these things have been quite dramatic. And, you know, I think leaders have passed them more often than not. But they

00:07:37.480 kind of fueled this cycle in Alberta that, you know, keeps, I think, political leaders focused a lot on the kind of

00:07:44.280 internal workings of the party.

00:07:46.560 Well, it's a great reminder of why you're there and who you represent. I think that a lot of the critique that comes to

00:07:52.560 conservative leaders in Canada is, I mean, the saying in Canadian federal politics is that politicians get auto washed, right? They

00:08:00.120 move to Ottawa, and they start representing the people around them, the bureaucracy, the media, the

00:08:05.240 sort of left wing society in Ottawa, and they forget about the people maybe that sent them there. So

00:08:11.520 it's a great way to connect with the authentic grassroots base of the party, and to make sure that

00:08:17.500 you're that you're governing for them. So, so it's, it serves a useful purpose. But let's talk about

00:08:23.120 a little bit of the drama that that happened with regards to the convention, because there was supposed

00:08:28.960 to be a in person review on April 9, in Red Deer. And there was a membership cut off that happened on

00:08:36.960 March 19. So after that, they were no longer able to purchase memberships. And then it was determined

00:08:41.860 on March 23, so four days after the membership cut off, that, that the, that the review was going

00:08:47.560 to be switched from in person, to a mail in ballot system, which, which obviously got a lot of people

00:08:54.680 worried, concerned, a lot of accusations that something foul was happening. Can you can you sort

00:08:59.720 of walk us through that decision making process? Why did it switch from a in person vote to a mail in

00:09:05.720 vote? Yeah, so I think the first switch, you got to go back to, I think, late last fall, some

00:09:12.040 individuals, particularly, it was more of some unhappy folks in the backbench, were speaking up

00:09:17.720 and wanting a leadership review quicker. This leadership review was originally supposed to be

00:09:21.640 at the AGM happening this fall, in Edmonton. I'm not sure if they've got that date scheduled,

00:09:27.400 but usually happens around October and November. So the leadership was going to be decided by delegates,

00:09:33.240 as was traditional through those previous leadership races I discussed. But you know,

00:09:38.280 there was some desire to have this out there. You know, Premier Kenny said himself, he welcomes it,

00:09:43.080 and he's always kind of happy to have that grassroots feedback on his premiership. So he,

00:09:48.360 he actually moved it up to an SGM to a special vote. Traditionally, these leadership reviews are done

00:09:53.800 at the AGM. And then, you know, I think that they ran into an issue quite quickly, there was,

00:09:59.800 there was first, a number of unhappy people that they weren't able to make it there for that single,

00:10:07.160 you know, six hour slot to join in Red Deer. And, you know, people kind of forget Alberta is a

00:10:12.920 province that's larger than most countries, you know, and, you know, some people were looking at,

00:10:18.040 you know, even living in some urban areas like Grand Prairie, where you were having to travel,

00:10:23.640 you know, six, seven hours, you know, you can name the other spot on the map, there was quite a bit of

00:10:27.480 travel that occurred for a lot of people. So I think some were unhappy with it being in one location,

00:10:32.440 it was obviously costing individuals $100 to go for paying for the registration and the fees that

00:10:38.760 usually go with an SGM. So I do feel for the party board is they were kind of hurt on that angle,

00:10:44.200 and that there were people already unhappy. And then obviously, you know, and I've managed these AGMs

00:10:50.520 before. So I've got a lot of sympathy for them. But even in Red Deer, at the exact location we were

00:10:56.520 having it, we've had AGMs before there, and we had 2000 people. And in all honesty, you can't get

00:11:01.880 parking within four or five city blocks. It's, it's a big mess. And that's with 2000 people.

00:11:09.160 And I think they saw more interest in this leadership than they expected. Obviously,

00:11:13.640 I believe at the end of it, there was something like 14,000 signups.

00:11:17.800 Yeah, there was a global report that said 13,700 people had registered to vote, which just to me,

00:11:23.320 thinking about the logistics of that to your point about finding parking, it's like

00:11:27.960 managing a crowd of that size is not something that a group of volunteers or your political parties

00:11:34.280 really used to, you know, unless you're talking about maybe a Donald Trump rally or something like

00:11:39.000 that. But that's not something that we're used to here in Canada.

00:11:41.400 Yeah, no, and it would have been, like, logistically, like, you know, the amount of

00:11:46.120 volunteer staff you would have had, again, it's just like, it was fundamentally unserious. And I

00:11:50.520 think it would have swelled quite a bit, because members still could buy delegate passes after that

00:11:55.400 date. So I think it would have swelled to north of 20,000. And I think that would still be a fairly

00:12:00.680 conservative estimate. So, you know, all that being said, you're not going to fit that group into a hotel

00:12:05.720 ballroom. You know, I respect the party volunteer board, because they do have to make some tough

00:12:11.800 decisions. And here, like, if they would have went through with Red Deer, it would have been a

00:12:16.520 logistical nightmare. And everybody would have been crying foul that day, the next day and crying, you

00:12:21.240 know, if Kenny were to win it, the issue would have been that it was unfair, and you couldn't get in

00:12:26.440 there and everything of the sort. So I think the party, you know, made the the, you know, this situation

00:12:32.360 was pretty unprecedented. What they did is they opened it to the maximum amount of voters and maximum

00:12:36.520 amount of members. They it's now so if you have a UCP party membership, you can vote, you will be

00:12:42.920 getting a ballot package. You know, fundamentally, it's the most, you know, democratic and open way to

00:12:49.240 do it. But Alberta does have like, a hyper online culture that there are people that will complain about

00:12:56.280 something, no matter what those people kind of have done that. And there is, you know, this isn't

00:13:01.480 a the Wild Rose Party, both of our leadership elections, I came from the Wild Rose side, personally,

00:13:08.200 both of our leadership elections were done through the mail, every federal leadership has been done

00:13:13.000 through the mail. It's an auditive process with an independent auditor. I can't help but think there's

00:13:18.680 a group that would cry no matter how the process goes, if they lose. And, you know, that being said,

00:13:23.720 I think this is probably the best situate our best way to do it given a hard situation. And I've

00:13:28.920 got to sympathize with the board as, you know, the kind of town criers kind of kept their voice 1.00

00:13:34.520 very loud after the decision, you know? Well, it's very much one of those like the analogy that

00:13:39.080 the squeaky wheel gets the grease. It's like, we hear a lot from the people who oppose the premier,

00:13:44.920 we hear a lot from Jason Kenney's opposition. And it is hard to sort of speculate and quantify,

00:13:52.280 like, what percentage of the party does that represent? You know, is it 10%? Is it 20? Is

00:13:58.120 it 50? Like, it's hard to it's hard to gauge and to your point about the online culture, it's like

00:14:03.400 the same thing with the comment sections. You know, the people who sometimes are the loudest on the

00:14:08.600 comment boards are the ones that have the more extreme positions on the issues, they don't necessarily

00:14:13.320 represent the medium or the everyday person. So let's talk a little bit about who is driving this

00:14:19.880 revolt, who who who are Kenny's main opposition and in your view, your estimation as being sort

00:14:25.880 of a grassroots conservative in Alberta? How large is it? How much of the party does it represent?

00:14:32.920 Yeah, no, I think, I think that there is a group there that hasn't been happy, obviously, you know,

00:14:39.560 and I think it's been that way since the United Conservative Party with football was formed. I do

00:14:43.400 think like, where you were mentioning at the start, Alberta does tend to have a little bit of that. But

00:14:48.360 Albertans also like they're, they're very involved, like it's a community where you get the most

00:14:52.280 volunteers, you have the highest average per capita charitable donation, like it is a province that

00:14:57.800 people are involved in their community, people are involved in their politics and stuff like that.

00:15:01.640 So I do think that there's a much quieter, you know, part of the party's membership and the party

00:15:07.880 support base, who just want to see politics done the right way and see things effectively move

00:15:12.840 forward. So well, like you say, the squeaky wheel does sometimes get the grease. But you know,

00:15:17.160 I think in Alberta, what still will drive this party, and what will drive this membership and

00:15:21.240 this leadership will be the more, you know, common everyday conservative, which is a good process in

00:15:27.240 this. As far as what's driving the opposition, like, you know, I think that there is, you know,

00:15:33.080 and it was no easy process to unite two conservative parties that actually did not like each other at

00:15:38.840 all like there was a point I could tell you, even from my point, as a former Wild Roser,

00:15:43.240 I did not like the idea. And, you know, I think a lot of people came around came together. Not

00:15:50.040 everybody did. So there's still a little bit of, you know, former rivalries that I think drive a

00:15:55.240 little bit of it. And, you know, just, obviously, a lot of this, well, not, I wouldn't say a lot of

00:16:01.400 this, but one of the lead proponents, and it's Brian Jean, who I think is still bitter about losing the

00:16:05.640 last leadership election and the last time members had their say, there is some caucus

00:16:10.520 members speaking out who might be unhappy about something else, one way or another. You know,

00:16:16.200 whether that's not getting into cabinet or not being in a certain role or, or something leadership's

00:16:20.600 not seeing things their way and they're balancing that back with, you know, talking about, you know,

00:16:26.520 being unhappy with the leader, unhappy with the process, this, this typically happens in politics,

00:16:30.600 uh, you know, even in Saskatchewan, Ontario, other conservative governments, uh, they've seen some

00:16:36.600 backbenchers kicked out and stuff like that in the last couple of years. Kenny's almost allowed for

00:16:41.560 more of this, um, kind of backbench speaking up. And I think that there's like a Puritan

00:16:48.040 conservative and all of us that likes that, that likes allowing for more dissent in the party,

00:16:52.840 but because Kenny's kind of allowed it, I think there's been a more vocal opposition to him. And,

00:16:57.080 and to answer your question more fully, I think there's some people bitter about them not being

00:17:01.320 in leadership and some people, you know, just genuinely who aren't happy with the, uh, direction

00:17:06.280 of the party that are kind of driving this. Well, it's, it's kind of almost confusing, uh,

00:17:11.560 from an outsider perspective because Jason Kenny didn't come from either camp really. Uh, he was a

00:17:17.240 federal conservative, he represented Calgary, but he was, you know, an MP in Ottawa. So he wasn't really

00:17:23.080 part of the conservative fracture in, in Alberta between the Wild Rose and the PCs. And, and it's

00:17:29.960 interesting because, you know, I know that he has a lot of, uh, support from Wild Rose people,

00:17:34.920 uh, former Wild Rose people working in his office and, and, you know, it's not, it's not an immediate

00:17:39.160 like, oh, Jason Kenny came from the PC side or the Wild Rose side. He, that, that was why he was sort of

00:17:43.960 the perfect person to merge the party because he didn't have baggage on either side. Um, but, but it's

00:17:49.240 interesting because the, the, the opposition to him seems to come from sort of the more rural

00:17:54.600 MLAs and people who are really unhappy with the vaccine mandates and the lockdowns. Um, and yet

00:17:59.320 the sort of main person that's coming out against him, Brian Jean seems to me, I mean, I know that

00:18:05.160 he has the endorsement of, uh, Peter McKay, a very prominent sort of red Tory in the left sort of

00:18:11.560 flank of the, of the federal conservatives. And when asked, uh, when Brian Jean was asked,

00:18:16.920 what would you do differently if you were running the province? He said that he would have invited

00:18:21.080 the NDP opposition leader, Rachel Notley to be part of cabinet, which, you know, for all of the,

00:18:25.960 all of the critiques, uh, that you might have about how premier Kenny governed over the last two years,

00:18:30.920 you know, not including Rachel Notley in the decision-making seemed like a really strange

00:18:35.080 opposition. So it's, it seems, it seems hard to really understand from an outside perspective,

00:18:40.680 uh, whether the opposition is coming from the left or the right, whether it's coming from the Wild Rose

00:18:44.760 camp or the PC camp, or whether it's just, I know that there was a, I wanted to ask you about this

00:18:49.640 leaked audio, uh, of, of premier Kenny, uh, sort of saying that, you know, a lot of this is just

00:18:54.440 people that are personally bitter that they didn't get a portfolio or they didn't get a position that

00:18:58.440 they wanted, their companies aren't getting government contracts. Um, you know, he also

00:19:02.840 characterized his opponents as being hateful bigots, which I'm sorry to say sounds a bit like what

00:19:07.960 Justin Trudeau would say. Um, but, but maybe you could, um, help explain that, help us understand

00:19:14.040 that. Well, yeah, I wouldn't, you know, I think that, you know, we, we all have had, uh, conversations

00:19:20.200 before where, you know, somebody else can take it and blow it up. I think, look, uh, Jason, um, you

00:19:26.120 know, was one of the most, uh, the, you know, out of all of Canadian politics and all of Canadian

00:19:31.400 punditry and media, Jason was one of the most, uh, aggressive defenders of kind of the truckers

00:19:37.720 rights during that time. He's been one of the biggest counterweights to Justin Trudeau. I can

00:19:42.040 only imagine, uh, how big of a mess we'd be in, in the last couple of years of the kind of Notley

00:19:46.600 Trudeau alliance had continued over that time. Um, so, you know, Jason has been, I think, you know,

00:19:52.280 one of the more vocal opponents of the kind of Trudeau era and the Trudeau kind of, um, you know,

00:19:58.120 comments and everything around that. Um, but largely like, um, you know, I think that it's,

00:20:04.360 it's a unique spot. I don't think it's, um, an ideological driven, uh, opposition to Premier

00:20:09.800 Kenney, quite frankly, I think, I think, you know, Jason Kenney, um, and, and I understand,

00:20:15.000 I like, I sympathize with a lot of the people that have frustrations about the COVID policies

00:20:19.000 of the last couple of years, because I was certainly there at points too. Uh, but Jason has

00:20:22.680 been one of the more effective conservatives, not just in Alberta, but nationally in the last,

00:20:26.360 like 20, 30 years. He was one of the most trusted individuals within the Stephen Harper government.

00:20:30.840 He is, uh, a genuine, uh, works 20 hours a day conservative, which in my opinion is what

00:20:36.440 Alberta kind of needs to push forward right now. Uh, his opposition comes from a lot of bitterness, 0.97

00:20:41.160 which, um, you know, and I, uh, I was lucky to be executive director of the party. I've been lucky

00:20:45.720 to be involved in, uh, kind of party politics. And, and I genuinely love, like, you know, the people

00:20:51.240 that donate, the people that support this party are kind of your ordinary, hardworking,

00:20:55.400 not overly political Albertans and it almost the process, especially I would think since Ralph,

00:21:01.320 uh, has left, um, political partisans have been so obsessed with infighting and, and everything along

00:21:06.760 that end, uh, within this province. And I think it's hurt our ability to, um, to, uh, you know,

00:21:12.680 do what I think ordinary conservative voters and supporters want us to do. Um, and I think

00:21:17.560 premier Kenny's falling a little bit victim to that because it is, you know, uh, campaign more driven

00:21:22.440 by bitterness. Like, um, you know, Brian Jean, he's a individual who's, um, you know, uh, when

00:21:28.680 he was leader, he said he would support some form or his own form of a carbon tax. Like,

00:21:34.360 uh, like you were saying, I can't imagine that, like, if you asked any Alberta conservative what

00:21:39.000 they should have done differently over COVID, I think Brian Jean's the only one who would call

00:21:42.760 himself conservative and say the first thing he'll say is we should have let Rachel Notley into cabinet.

00:21:47.720 Um, because I think that there's, you know, natural reasons for conservatives to be unhappy,

00:21:51.960 but it hasn't been what I think has been driving a lot of the opposition to, uh, Kenny. I would also

00:21:57.480 say, and this is pretty unique, but like, obviously we balance the budget here and, you know, despite

00:22:01.960 what Justin says, budgets don't balance themselves. And, um, you know, uh, a lot of the opposition to

00:22:08.520 Kenny even came from some in the conservative, uh, rank and file when he was holding the line on public

00:22:13.560 spending early in his term. Uh, a lot of people thought that there were like public servants that,

00:22:18.280 you know, they weren't getting the raise they want. And some from even like rural MLA backgrounds

00:22:23.160 were attacking him for not spending enough money, um, and not spending it on these issues. He held the

00:22:27.960 line today. We have a balanced budget. So, um, you know, getting back to your, your main question

00:22:32.840 here, I don't think it's really a kind of conservative thing. I think, you know, as, and, um,

00:22:38.040 I love this party, I love this movement, but like, uh, we've had a lot of fracture in the last 15 years

00:22:43.560 or so. And I think that's led to, you know, the activist crowd, almost liking infighting,

00:22:48.760 I think more than our supporters and, and ordinary members do, you know?

00:22:52.040 Right. No, absolutely. Uh, one of the other questions that came out of that and, and I, you know,

00:22:58.440 I, I, when I listened to the audio of that, uh, that, that, that leaked audio that I think went to the

00:23:04.760 CBC, I don't understand who, I don't, I don't understand who working for Jason Kenney would

00:23:09.960 think it was a good idea to record what he was saying in private conversation and then give it

00:23:12.920 to the CBC of all people. Uh, what does that say about the premier's office and, and sort of the

00:23:19.080 loyalty towards the premier that someone, someone did, some people were like speculating that maybe

00:23:24.440 it was all planned and that, that, that it wasn't like a candid conversation that he was doing it on

00:23:28.040 purpose, but maybe you can shed some, some light onto, uh, how that happened. If there's any idea of who

00:23:33.800 did it and, and we, you know, what were they thinking basically?

00:23:37.240 Yeah, no, I look, I can't imagine, especially, you know, in this year, um, any principled conservative

00:23:43.640 leaking that sort of stuff to the CBC, you know? Um, and look, I think, you know, governments,

00:23:49.080 um, you know, governments nowadays employ hundreds of people within an internal government to make sure

00:23:54.440 it runs properly. Um, just like any business, um, you never kind of strike a hundred percent in hiring

00:24:00.760 that number of people. And sometimes there are individuals that are frustrated. I'm disappointed

00:24:05.160 that I think any individual, um, you know, and I've had this privilege, like it's a privilege to

00:24:09.480 work in this movement. It's a privilege to work in this province. Um, it's disappointing that any

00:24:13.560 individual would think, you know, leaking an internal conversation to the CBC would be a good thing.

00:24:18.600 Uh, but I, I had to laugh too. People were acting like, oh, this was some Kenny chess move because he

00:24:23.160 wanted that out there. Just meaning like what he's saying behind the scenes, isn't, you know, that,

00:24:27.960 that a normal for, um, you know, I think regular conservative talk and, you know, um, uh, regular,

00:24:35.160 what, what I think conservatives are joining together and fight for. Um, so it was unique.

00:24:40.840 And, um, yeah, I think obviously that came from one person disgruntled, but in a government where

00:24:45.880 you're hiring hundreds, it's, it's sometimes too bad. But what I would say is, um, you know, for,

00:24:51.960 and I think true Norse put an awesome culture together, but for individuals who want to work in 1.00

00:24:56.760 politics, like, I think there's an awesome opportunity in this movement in politics. And

00:25:01.240 I would recommend you to recommend your family members to yourself. Like if you want to be

00:25:05.400 involved in politics, uh, I would say that the bar isn't sometimes as high as some people expect.

00:25:10.440 Um, and like, we need more good people elected. We need more good people working for government too.

00:25:15.640 So, um, you know, hopefully some people will, will hear that. And maybe even our culture of kind of

00:25:21.000 internal staff will improve over the years. Yeah, no, it's always a hard to find good people,

00:25:26.680 but, uh, you know, I lived in Alberta for several years during university and afterwards. And

00:25:31.640 you know, from someone who's a total outsider, politics can seem really like an insider's game

00:25:36.440 and almost intimidated. But I always found that the political culture in the conservative

00:25:41.160 movement, Alberta was so welcoming. Like, you know, you, you just show up to one event and 10 people

00:25:46.600 introduce themselves to you and be, you know, people invite you back to events. And, and there,

00:25:51.080 there really is a great culture, um, that's very inclusive and inviting, uh, to, to outsiders. And

00:25:57.480 so, uh, it's, it's really, uh, a big family of conservatives in Alberta. And that's, that's one of

00:26:02.760 the best parts. Uh, just, just on a final note here, Brad, I, I, I have to ask you about this because

00:26:08.680 I've seen a couple of recent polls in Alberta that indicate that the, that the NDP, uh, are ahead. I've

00:26:15.480 seen one poll that shows them like up 15 points, uh, another poll though, that shows the conservatives

00:26:20.200 up. So, uh, what do you make of these polls? Do you think they're accurate? Do you think that the

00:26:24.120 conservatives should be afraid on a broader level? Uh, I know there's an election, uh, coming up a

00:26:29.240 general election coming up in May, 2023. Do you think conservatives should be worried about their

00:26:33.960 chances, uh, uh, against an NDP, uh, party and the potential of an NDP government again in Alberta?

00:26:40.920 Totally. Well, conservatives should never take anything for granted, right? Like, um,

00:26:44.680 we need to work hard. We need to prove that, you know, there's, there's, uh, the reason we will

00:26:49.480 continue to be elected is the reason, um, you know, is quite simply because we're, we're the better

00:26:55.000 party. We're more representative of Albertans. So you can never take that for granted. You got to go

00:26:58.680 forward, um, with that attitude, uh, the recent polling. So, uh, I think during the, during the height

00:27:04.920 of COVID, like Jason was essentially taking it from both ends and his polling went down. Like, uh,

00:27:09.880 I saw the recent, um, uh, there was one polling company from a firm and I can say this because

00:27:15.240 I've worked internally in Alberta politics, like some firms here, they do online samples and their, 0.77

00:27:20.120 their data is usually garbage. Like some were putting like Trudeau, uh, right up with the

00:27:25.240 federal conservative party last election in Alberta. And obviously it didn't come close to that.

00:27:29.640 Uh, the two polls I watched most closely, um, I believe there was, um, a syndicate from Janet

00:27:35.400 Brown and a syndicate from, uh, Yorkville, uh, both of which I came out, those both gave the UCP leads

00:27:41.240 a four and 5% respectively because the conservatives are, are stronger in Calgary, uh, and rural and

00:27:47.640 weaker in Edmonton that would work out to a pretty big win for him. Now I think, look, last election,

00:27:52.920 Jason Kenny won with 55% of the vote. Um, that's a massive victory in Alberta politics. I think that's

00:27:58.440 larger than Ralph or, um, uh, Peter Law. He's like first victory. It's a, it's a very massive win.

00:28:04.360 Uh, so a high bar to keep up. And I don't think he's a guy that'll be content at all with a four

00:28:08.600 to five point win. Um, we've got to continue to do better, which I think Alberta really, uh, the UCP

00:28:15.000 has a team in place, despite us sometimes being more dramatic than I think the ordinary voter might

00:28:19.720 like, uh, a team to rebound out of COVID a lot is going well and, uh, a lot's going well in the

00:28:25.960 economy. Um, a lot of, I think what Jason Kenny and the initial UCP got elected to do is coming to

00:28:31.560 fruition now. And that's great. And I think too, like, um, you know, some of these same polls were

00:28:36.600 giving Rachel Notley and the NDP a 20 point lead like four or five months ago. So you don't see it

00:28:42.280 in the mainstream media at all, but like, it's also a story that I think any conservative that blew a 20

00:28:47.960 point lead in five months would be all over the news. Rachel Notley blew a 20 point lead and, um,

00:28:53.560 you know, is, is continuing down the same path of really the same style of opposition. So I think there's

00:28:59.240 some reasons to be optimistic, but there's nothing bigger that should be a priority than work hard,

00:29:03.320 make sure you're out there representing your voters, which, which I am happy to see that I

00:29:07.000 think the UCP is kind of, um, getting back to out of COVID, you know? Yeah. Listen to the grassroots,

00:29:12.360 listen to the base and, and the whole leadership review, uh, is, is exactly that. I remember I was

00:29:18.040 out in Alberta in 2019 for the UCP convention. And at the time, uh, you know, the media and the,

00:29:24.360 the narrative in the, in the headlines was so anti Kenny. It was like, there was some revolt of

00:29:29.480 nursing, uh, the nursing union and the, uh, you know, the economy that the price of oil was really,

00:29:35.320 really low. And everyone was talking about how the party was turning on Jason Kenny. And I, you know,

00:29:40.200 I walked into the main room and Jason got, you know, an overwhelming standing ovation that was like

00:29:46.360 extended on and on. And the room was going crazy. They were absolutely elated to see him. And

00:29:51.080 it couldn't have been a starker difference, Brad, between, you know, the stories that we were told

00:29:55.320 and the understanding that you would get from following the legacy media, uh, versus being in

00:29:58.760 the room and seeing like, okay, this is, this is, this is an incredibly popular premier that has the

00:30:03.560 full support of his party, despite, uh, the grumblings that you may hear. So, um, I, I don't think

00:30:08.600 it's a good idea to write off Jason Kenny. I think that, uh, he he's, he's come from behind so many

00:30:14.200 times. So I really appreciate your time today and helping us kind of get a better perspective, uh, that,

00:30:19.160 that you definitely won't see in the legacy media because they definitely have an agenda to push

00:30:23.720 a one way. And, and, and when it comes to the opposition as well, the, you know, the very, uh,

00:30:28.520 disgruntled people are sometimes the loudest. So I appreciate your time. Thanks Brad for joining us.

00:30:33.560 Yeah. Thank you very much, Candice.

00:30:35.480 All right. That is Brad Tennant. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is the Candice Malcolm show.

Juno News - March 31, 2022

An insider’s view on the political situation in Alberta

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