00:06:14.400I wish we could start every episode with story time.
00:06:16.400But hopping into the news from Alberta this week.
00:06:19.400As you can imagine, President-elect Donald Trump's tariffs have dominated the headlines.
00:06:24.400And Smith has taken a surprising stance against not only the tariffs but Trudeau and even the other premiers.
00:06:29.400So following her meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago, which was thanks to an invite from Shark Tank star and her recent business partner Kevin O'Leary, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith came back with the slightly surprising news that the proposed tariffs were imminent.
00:06:44.400I honestly thought Smith would return from her meeting with Trump with better news.
00:06:47.400But less surprisingly, she said that Canada would have to leverage its energy muscle to avoid the tariffs or to deal with them once they're in place.
00:06:55.400Smith said that because of Trudeau's announced resignation, she's actually been speaking with U.S. administration independently.
00:07:01.400She reiterated that this was the very reason she was calling for an immediate election.
00:07:06.400Then Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Jolie said that, quote, everything's on the table when asked about cutting off energy supply to the United States.
00:07:14.400Smith said a few things in response to this.
00:07:16.400Firstly, that oil and gas is under provincial jurisdiction and this would not be happening.
00:07:21.400She also suggested that Jolie pick up a map to look at where the Enbridge Line 5 travels.
00:07:26.400If supply to the United States were cut off, so too would supply to Ontario and Quebec.
00:07:31.400Smith said, quote, you should never, ever threaten something you can't do.
00:07:36.400She added, quote, there's no point in making empty threats that cannot be executed on and we cannot do anything that harms Canadians in any substantial way.
00:07:45.400Smith also said she does not expect Alberta to be granted any tariff exemptions despite being an energy exporting behemoth.
00:07:52.400Smith will be attending Trump's inauguration in person on January 20th.
00:07:57.400And on the opposite end of the spectrum, Trudeau is having his last cabinet retreat in Quebec on the same day Trump is sworn in.
00:08:04.400So it gets even more surprising with this next bit about Smith.
00:08:08.400And I mean, this one took me by complete shock.
00:08:10.400So a few days after the previously mentioned statements, Trudeau and the premiers met on Wednesday.
00:08:15.400Smith was attending the conference virtually and she did not attend the closing press conference.
00:08:21.400Following the conference, all of the premiers and the prime minister released a joint statement of the Canada United States relationship.
00:08:30.400At the bottom of the statement, it reads, quote, the government of Alberta did not approve the joint statement between the government of Canada and the Council of the Federation.
00:08:40.400And in case you've forgotten, the Council of the Federation is Canada's premiers.
00:08:43.400So this means that Smith opposed all of the premiers and the prime minister.
00:08:47.400Their joint statement had various quotes that touched on several things like the border issues and Canada reaching its 2% NATO spending target as soon as possible.
00:08:56.400But it didn't say anything really that shocking that Smith would have to oppose it.
00:09:02.400But she did go on to release her own statement.
00:09:05.400She said, quote, federal government officials continue to publicly and privately float the idea of cutting off energy supply to the U.S.
00:09:13.400and imposing export tariffs on Alberta energy and other products to the United States.
00:09:18.400Until these threats cease, Alberta will not be able to fully support the federal government's plan in dealing with the threatened tariffs.
00:09:25.400Smith said that Alberta will not agree to export tariffs on energy or any product and will not support banning these products.
00:09:33.400She said she would do anything in her power to protect Albertans from such destructive federal policies.
00:09:39.400She added that the whole country should use the threat as an opportunity to fix Canada's, quote, misguided direction and start supporting infrastructure projects that support oil and gas.
00:09:50.400She concluded by saying, quote, I will be traveling to Washington, D.C. this week for the inauguration and will be returning to the United States several times over the coming months to meet with U.S. lawmakers and officials to continue to make the case against the imposition of tariffs on Canadian products and to strengthen and grow the trading relationship between our two great and independent nations.
00:10:11.400Let me know in the comments what you think about Smith standing up, not only to Trudeau, but now against all the other premiers.
00:10:18.400So sticking with provincial news, the Alberta government has taken its next step in fighting Canada's catch and release bail system that has let high risk and repeat offenders roam free.
00:10:27.400This is by implementing the provincial ankle bracelet electronic monitoring program, which came on Wednesday.
00:10:34.400The program will allow offenders and accused who are deemed a public safety risk to be subject to court ordered 24 seven electronic monitoring by Alberta Correctional Services.
00:10:44.400Alberta Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis said, quote,
00:10:47.400You might remember that Canada's provincial and territorial premiers previously called on the federal government to reform the bail system.
00:11:17.380following various murders by those out on bail.
00:11:20.380Then the federal government shifted the blame to the provinces, saying it was up to them to fix the crime issues caused by the catch and release bail system.
00:11:28.380The Alberta government said ankle bracelet monitoring will help secure offender restricted areas such as victims residences, places of employment and other areas deemed off limits by an accused bail release conditions.
00:11:41.380The previous system saw probation officers monitor high risk individuals only during regular business hours and did not include GPS monitoring.
00:11:50.380Alberta's Justice Minister Mickey Amory repeated the call for bail reform.
00:11:56.380Alberta's government continues to call for federal bail and sentencing reform to stop violent criminals from reentering our communities.
00:12:02.380The Alberta government allocated $2.8 million to cover the implementation costs for the 2024-25 fiscal year.
00:12:10.380Alberta previously released a provincial police force plan and stricter penalties for repeat offenders.
00:12:15.380Bill 11, which was part of the previous announcement, provides legislative amendments to establish the ankle monitoring program for violent and sexual offenders out on bail.
00:12:25.380The ankle bracelet monitoring program is part of the Alberta United Conservative Party's Safe Streets Action Plan.
00:12:32.380The plan was put forward in their 2023 election campaign and has various measures to increase public safety.
00:12:38.380So that wraps up our stories for this week.
00:12:40.380I'm really looking forward to the comments this week on the questions that I've raised.
00:12:44.380But bringing it back to last week's comments, let's hop in to the comment roundup.
00:12:48.380The first comment I'll highlight from last week comes from at Bumpsy58, who said, quote,
00:12:53.380Advances in technology should be the primary focus.
00:12:56.380In the meantime, hybrids are a good path.
00:12:58.380Fully electric cars are not suitable for Canadian geography and climate.
00:13:02.380Or for that matter, the electrical grid cannot sustain that surge in power usage.
00:13:07.380Yeah, I decided to highlight this because of how closely it aligns with what Energy Minister Brian Jean said when I interviewed him.
00:13:13.380Essentially, he said that the Liberals are trying to supersede technology with emissions reduction goals that will obliterate Canada's economy and job market.
00:13:21.380Whereas if they were a bit more patient, technology would catch up and emissions reduction would follow suit.
00:13:28.380We've seen research showing that carbon taxes and emissions reductions tactics of the like do little to nothing to reduce emissions.
00:13:35.380And in Canada's case, even increase emissions.
00:13:38.380On top of that, Canada's impact on global emissions is negligible at best.
00:13:43.380And in reality, we could have more of an effect by being pro energy and supplying our responsible clean energy over that of dictatorships from their coal plants.
00:13:53.380The next comment comes from at Thomas Herman 12, who said, quote, Alberta will be both stronger and have greater freedom as a U.S. state.
00:14:01.380We would have to start as a territory, but statehood would be achieved swiftly.
00:14:05.380The American Constitution is better than the Canadian one by a country mile.
00:14:12.380So I decided to highlight your comment, but it could have been any number of comments from the last video of people suggesting that Alberta separate from Canada and become the 51st state to bolster our economy, security and other things.
00:14:24.380I wonder what this would result in for Albertans and how negatively the rest of the country would be affected without Alberta's oil and economy.
00:14:31.380In fact, I thought this was a widespread belief in Alberta, but a recent poll suggested otherwise.
00:14:37.380So a recent poll conducted by the Angus Reid Institute highlighted that 90% of Canadians do not want to become the 51st state.
00:14:44.380And OK, that's a pretty high number, but I thought Alberta would be an anomaly.
00:14:48.380And it was, but not to the extent I had imagined.
00:14:51.380Alberta favored separation the most, but still only 18% of Albertans said that they would vote for Canada to become the 51st state in a referendum.
00:15:01.380This was the most among any province, but it was much lower than I expected.
00:15:07.380The last comment comes from Vinny379L4, who said, quote, never again with NDP in Alberta.
00:15:13.380Never forget what Notley did to this province.
00:15:16.380Yeah, this is a sentiment I've highlighted before, but something I think Albertans who lived here during the NDP's reign will never forget.
00:15:23.380That being the economic ruin that the Alberta NDP put the province in and how much poorer everyone was during their tenure and thereafter.
00:15:31.380However, as I've previously mentioned with immigration, there are a lot of new Albertans who may not have lived here during the NDP's rule.
00:15:38.380And so they may not have the same strong held opinions as so many Albertans do.
00:15:42.380Before Rachel Notley took office in 2015, conservatives in Alberta had held office for 44 years straight.
00:15:49.380Given how poorly the NDP's recent reign was in Alberta and how vehemently rural Alberta is against the Alberta NDP.
00:15:57.380I was meaning to ask you guys if you think there will be another multi-decade rule of conservatives in Alberta or what will end up knocking them out of office eventually, if anything.
00:16:07.380That wraps up our comment roundup in this week's show.
00:16:10.380My name's Isaac Lamoureux, your host of the Alberta Roundup.