Juno News - March 31, 2022


An insider’s view on the political situation in Alberta


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Summary

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The knives have come out for Premier Jason Kenney in Alberta. United Conservative Party members will vote on the fate of Kenney s leadership in his time as Premier on April 9th. We ll get the inside scoop on what is really going on in Alberta with Brad Tennant.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
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Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
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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.