The Conservative National Convention kicks off today in Calgary, where delegates will decide whether Pierre Polyev will lead the party in the next election campaign. We'll also hear from Juneau News' Alex Brown, who reports from inside the leader's office.
00:02:38.360Yeah, and that's that's unprecedented, particularly when you take into account that there is a there were an awful lot of months after the federal election.
00:02:46.300And so there's I also work in the third party space.
00:02:49.720I'm the director of the National Citizens Coalition, a conservative legacy organization.
00:02:54.660There are all kinds of groups and organizations, as is the norm, that come out of an election cycle.
00:03:01.280If they've been third party advertising, if there's been a version of disappointment, that it can be occasionally kind of hard to rub nickels together.
00:03:08.880And it's not that you don't, you know, keep running things and keep balancing the books.
00:03:13.600But it's that they continue to do that, you know, after what was to many a generational disappointment, who felt like they were finally getting, you know, some urgent reforms and results may vary on that front, even as liberals borrow much of what the conservatives laid out.
00:03:31.100That number is frankly astonishing, because I would have totally understood if people just sat on their wallets for a while because they were raising so much money.
00:03:43.600And the economy not being particularly strong, people dug in deep and came up with a huge number.
00:03:52.000And, you know, I think there's a, there must be a buzz around election talk.
00:03:57.240I mean, there must be some buzz around the fact that, you know, might as well stick with Pierre.
00:04:03.080I mean, we could be going to the polls this spring and, you know, who wants to go through the whole trouble of picking another leader, you know, having a convention and all.
00:04:13.600That sort of thing is there that kind of talk that you're hearing that kind of talk that you're hearing as well, election talk.
00:04:18.900Yes, I think anyone would be foolish to not be on guard for a spring election, to not to to not appreciate that that could be a consideration.
00:04:29.380But there is also there is no obvious other person.
00:04:34.380There's there's from talking with people inside the leader's office and from talking with some MPs who have good relationships with.
00:04:41.480It's no one is angling for his position right now.
00:04:45.200If if you have this solidified 38 to 41 percent, you don't just toss that aside right now and potentially run a kind of diet carny approach.
00:04:55.800Why would people go out for diet carny when you've got the real thing at home?
00:05:00.100And so I think that no matter what even the number is tonight, unless it's some shock below 70, I think he is in for the short term.
00:05:08.800It is a question of, you know, coming out of this weekend, coming out of a kind of reset, how long he stays after that.
00:05:15.300But they are they are certainly sort of positioned to understand that, you know, an election could be coming in the spring.
00:05:21.320Is there any talk of independence? Because I thought there might be a bit of a cloud around that with all the talk around the independence movement, the group that are spearheading that movement and the referendum going to the United States, holding talks with U.S. officials, perhaps connected with the Trump administration.
00:05:41.660How much talk around that is going on at the convention?
00:05:46.860It's definitely part of it. I mean, it's there's the recent numbers.
00:05:50.040I think, as Daniel Smith highlighted yesterday, you know, there's over a million people who are who are, you know, showing showing interest in this.
00:05:57.760And I think that many are empathetic to the situation of those who feel drawn in by it.
00:06:04.660But there's no there hasn't been any actoring, though.
00:06:19.300Canada has a tone policing thing that particularly as a younger guy, it drives me nuts, whereas we're so good at hectoring others, but not getting our own house in order.
00:06:27.760And so I do think that the conservatives have a line to walk.
00:06:30.660I think they're walking it well so far, which is that they are they are being empathetic to the situation.
00:06:35.300They can appreciate the squeeze that Alberta has felt and continues to feel.
00:06:39.740They're not going to do the Doug Ford thing or the David Eby thing where they just seemingly throw gas on the fire to make things worse.
00:06:47.440But there's, of course, the the whole agreement coast to coast needs to work better for Alberta.
00:06:53.240These these MOUs need to be worth more than the paper they're printed on.
00:06:56.460And so it's it's it's part of the conversations is not the main one and the main one is in in some ways centered around, you know, what, you know, how things go for Pierre this evening.
00:07:06.780But no, it's it's it's omnipresent, but it's not everyone.
00:07:11.820Everyone's on the same page, I think, and just hoping for a for a resolution and to get everybody, you know, together in the same boat.
00:07:19.120Yeah, I mean, this happens, this happens right after the sniping that we've heard from people like Doug Ford, as well as Eby taking shots at the independence movement in Alberta, even shots at Daniel Smith for not being firm enough in her opposition to that movement.
00:07:36.200And I suspect that that might end up backfiring because Albertans are going to say, you know what, we're going to decide that for ourselves.
00:07:43.900Yeah, I think you're not going to decide that.
00:07:45.820So, you know, you might want to button your lip.
00:08:28.700And he's even walled himself off further from accountability and is hiding behind the federal convention.
00:08:34.660It'll be interesting to hear from Pierre today.
00:08:39.020I mean, usually you get the unity speech, you know, in a circumstance like this, but there might actually be a little bit of campaign talk.
00:08:47.820You know, there might be some buzz around that.
00:08:50.700Are you hearing anything about what that message might contain?
00:08:53.400Yes, I can tell you what I'm hearing is is what people don't want to hear the message to, you know, I don't I, too, as a Juno host and correspondent and I wear many hats is I don't want to hear the same stump speech.
00:09:09.960I can appreciate the importance of populism.
00:09:14.620I can appreciate very much so keeping your young working class coalition.
00:09:18.860And you've you've got such a fascinating blue tent right now, but I don't think that they can come out tonight and say axe the tax, build the homes, boots, not boots, not suits, our home, your home.
00:09:37.420Not that it isn't great comms, but it's kind of a laughing matter around convention where it's like, I hope that speech doesn't come back because I think they know they certainly understand there's very intelligent people in that room working with him.
00:09:48.340That they need to be positioned away from, you know, some of these impressions of them that I don't think are accurate.
00:09:57.240They do need to appeal a little bit more so to to these kind of swing vote, mushy, carny supporters.
00:10:05.700And so I think you need to get off of some of the rhetoric of the past.
00:10:09.220And so I'm hoping to see a little bit more of an articulation of future.
00:10:12.580I be incredibly positive, positive balance is an absolute winner right now.
00:10:17.620It's not that Canada isn't broken, but evidently, you know, the carny supporters are furious.
00:10:23.400And when you ever mention any criticism of the country, even though it is all kinds of problems, like I am in a hotel in Calgary right now and I'm surrounded by drugs and squalor and this is conservative Calgary.
00:10:33.140It's like there's all kinds of problems, but no, positive balance, switch up the rhetoric.
00:10:39.160I don't want to hear too much alliteration.
00:10:41.500I'm really hoping that they they offer something a little bit different tonight.