Juno News - ‘Cowboy from Dubai’ Tariq Elnaga on his Maverick campaign

00:00:00.800 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:00:04.740 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show, Canada's most irreverent talk show here on True North.

00:00:10.680 I don't know if I've mentioned this in the past.

00:00:12.960 Obviously, with 338 ridings in Canada and more parties than I can count,

00:00:18.540 we can't interview every candidate in every riding.

00:00:21.580 But I also, at the same time, know that sometimes local candidates

00:00:25.320 are a tremendous part of the story of Canadian politics.

00:00:28.980 Indeed, Canadians elect candidates.

00:00:31.560 They don't elect prime ministers.

00:00:33.280 They don't elect parties per se.

00:00:35.200 They elect individual members of parliament at the local level.

00:00:38.380 So what I've decided to do on this show in the next few weeks of the campaign

00:00:42.340 is find the ridings where something interesting is happening,

00:00:46.520 individual candidates who have a great story to tell

00:00:48.940 or who I think are personally interesting or compelling,

00:00:52.540 and also just people that may come across our radar for whatever reason in the campaign.

00:00:58.200 I don't want to box ourselves in here.

00:00:59.880 But I will say one of the interesting stories that I've come across

00:01:03.140 has been that of Tarek El Naga, who's running for the Maverick Party in Banff Airdrie.

00:01:08.620 Now, as we'll talk about in a moment, Banff Airdrie is shaking up to be a pretty crowded field

00:01:14.680 with a lot of candidates who you'd think would be going after the same voters.

00:01:18.680 But only one of them has moved to Alberta because they fell in love with the Calgary Stampede.

00:01:25.980 And that's Tarek El Naga, who joins me on the line now.

00:01:29.220 Tarek, thanks for coming on.

00:01:30.420 It's great to talk to you.

00:01:31.620 Andrew, likewise.

00:01:32.380 Thank you for having me.

00:01:33.420 Now, as I mentioned just in the introduction to this segment,

00:01:36.360 I'm trying to find candidates across the country who have unique stories,

00:01:40.260 unique perspectives on things.

00:01:41.960 And when I learned about what brought you to where you are today,

00:01:45.580 living in Alberta and also running as a Maverick Party candidate,

00:01:49.320 I said, OK, I have to talk to him.

00:01:51.100 I have to get him on the show.

00:01:52.600 You actually are a relatively new Canadian.

00:01:55.420 I know you became a citizen about five years ago.

00:01:58.420 But tell me what happened when you visited Alberta in 2010.

00:02:02.760 So, yeah, I was here on vacation.

00:02:04.980 And I usually travel on vacation to go to a certain event,

00:02:08.200 a sporting spectacle, a festival, a concert, et cetera.

00:02:10.780 And I'd never been to a rodeo in my life and have zero animal experience.

00:02:16.260 And I'd come to the Calgary Stampede in 2010,

00:02:19.120 and I sat in the stands and I watched the rodeo,

00:02:21.800 and I thought, man, that's the coolest thing I've ever seen.

00:02:23.940 I'm going to do exactly that.

00:02:25.140 I'm going to be on the other side of that fence.

00:02:27.100 And something happened, and I decided this was going to be it.

00:02:30.440 I went home.

00:02:31.180 I quit my job, sold the house, sold the car,

00:02:33.660 and made plans to move to Alberta to start to get into rodeo.

00:02:37.200 Now, home at the time was the United Arab Emirates,

00:02:39.980 which I'm guessing is not a big rodeo spot.

00:02:42.680 It is not, no, no.

00:02:44.520 So, born and raised in Dubai, pretty much as city kids.

00:02:48.040 What it is where the similarities are is actually it's a big oil and gas economy, too.

00:02:52.820 And we could chat about that in a little while.

00:02:54.960 But, you know, my corporate career as an engineer was relatively easy to transfer

00:03:00.640 in the sense of I grew up in an oil and gas world.

00:03:03.300 But my recreational, personal, and now athletic life is completely different.

00:03:10.560 I know Dubai is a city that has lots going on, very, very worldly.

00:03:14.940 You obviously had traveled the world.

00:03:16.940 What was it about the Alberta rodeo experience that grabbed you

00:03:20.720 and made you say, I want to move there

00:03:22.640 in a way that other places you had visited hadn't up until that point?

00:03:26.480 I think it was how unclinical it was.

00:03:30.220 So, the thing is, you know, Dubai is a pretty pristine city growing up.

00:03:33.540 It's very, very pristine, very modern, very new, and very Western, too,

00:03:37.220 in the sense of, like, just modern.

00:03:39.340 But there was something about the dirt,

00:03:41.680 like something about the grit and the perseverance of cowboy culture

00:03:46.320 and that grit that you see very rarely anywhere else.

00:03:51.600 And I was like, man, there's something about that.

00:03:53.340 There's something about that value of, like, you see people getting bucked off

00:03:56.540 pretty hard at a rodeo, and they're like, you know what?

00:03:58.640 We're getting right back on, you know?

00:04:00.260 So, and there was a level of authenticity and the mystique of the Western culture,

00:04:06.260 but also the values that it represents that were really attractive.

00:04:10.200 And, you know, we talked about grit, but perseverance is another one.

00:04:13.580 Risk-taking is another.

00:04:14.780 Hard work is one.

00:04:16.320 And it's also a culture that's built around community and respect.

00:04:20.220 And those are all values that I'm like, this speaks to me, right?

00:04:23.240 And it's very different than everything I've used to.

00:04:25.460 And if there's one way to do it, then, you know,

00:04:27.700 put myself entirely out of my comfort zone, Alberta was going to be it.

00:04:31.600 I know even though I agree with most Albertans on most things politically,

00:04:36.360 I still get it when I'm there, being from Ontario,

00:04:39.220 being viewed just as an Easterner.

00:04:41.000 And I'm curious how you felt in adjusting to being a Westerner,

00:04:45.260 if you felt immediately accepted or even to this day accepted as a Westerner

00:04:49.560 in a group of people that are very leery of even people that come from cities,

00:04:53.580 let alone from another country and want to jump into this lifestyle.

00:04:57.440 Andrew, I'll tell you, the reception was amazing.

00:05:00.180 So I did three things on my first three days in Alberta.

00:05:03.560 So I didn't know a soul in the province.

00:05:05.400 And in the first three days, I bought a pair of cowboy boots.

00:05:08.600 I bought a set of power tools and I bought a pickup truck.

00:05:11.300 And I thought, you know, I've got my Alberta starter pack ready here.

00:05:15.300 But now you fast forward and the pickup trucks are like the things

00:05:18.680 that are under attack now.

00:05:19.760 No one's allowed to drive them, they say.

00:05:22.100 Exactly, exactly.

00:05:23.440 But then on the fourth day, I reached out to the local ag society in Airdrie here.

00:05:27.780 And I said, hey, I want to get into the Western way of life.

00:05:30.320 What do I do?

00:05:31.220 And then instantly door started opening where I had volunteer opportunities

00:05:35.320 to be at the back end of a rodeo, learned how to ride,

00:05:38.140 learned how to drive tractor, how to drive combine, etc.

00:05:40.620 So an incredibly welcoming community.

00:05:43.360 I can tell you after eight or nine years of being here,

00:05:46.320 there isn't a rodeo I could go in a 500-kilometer radius

00:05:50.380 where I don't know at least 200 people there and I feel 100% at home.

00:05:54.720 Like I feel so unbelievably accepted.

00:05:58.520 Just recently, the Western Horse Review,

00:06:00.660 which is the biggest equestrian magazine in Canada,

00:06:03.740 reached out and did an interview and featured me on the cover.

00:06:07.620 You know, it's just exceptional, the level of doors that are open here.

00:06:12.540 And I will say this, as long as you come with a level of authenticity

00:06:15.800 and respect around Western culture, the West welcomes all.

00:06:19.720 Like it's a very inclusive, very welcoming community.

00:06:22.540 They don't care what your background is.

00:06:25.180 What it is, is are you willing to put in the hard work and live the way of life?

00:06:28.560 So it's been an amazing trip.

00:06:30.420 Like I've never once, never once in nine years of being here ever felt on the outside.

00:06:36.660 I know that you became, as we mentioned, a citizen in 2016,

00:06:40.840 but you're also identifying with a party that is very much Albertan over Canadian,

00:06:46.120 a lot of people would argue.

00:06:47.300 And I'm wanting you to explain, if you can, about that dynamic.

00:06:50.560 Because you've talked about in other materials and online,

00:06:54.380 this thing that a lot of Canadians who are from Ontario and Quebec and BC don't get,

00:06:59.520 which is this Western alienation.

00:07:01.600 But I'm curious how you first, first off, acknowledge this was a thing

00:07:06.420 and why you wanted to go where you are now,

00:07:08.600 which is actually running as a candidate for this party.

00:07:12.840 You bet.

00:07:13.600 So thanks for that question, Andrew.

00:07:15.020 And one, you know, we're a West-focused party rather than just Alberta.

00:07:19.640 So the four Western provinces, I think Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and BC.

00:07:23.740 But this comes from my professional life where I'm in oil and gas.

00:07:28.580 And very quickly, within the first 10 minutes, and I grew up in the Middle East.

00:07:32.740 So there's a perspective.

00:07:34.120 I lived through Gulf War I and Gulf War II.

00:07:36.260 And Gulf War I was 100% a commodity at war.

00:07:39.360 It was Saddam invaded Kuwait for their oil resources.

00:07:41.780 And I remember my parents taping down the window seams

00:07:45.560 because they were worried about a biological attack the night before Gulf War I started.

00:07:50.980 And then so very quickly, you learn that oil is a precious commodity.

00:07:55.060 And then I move here and we're given the gift of the third largest resource

00:07:59.840 or third largest oil resources, rather, in the world.

00:08:03.860 And we've decided as a country, you know what?

00:08:05.780 Keep it in the ground.

00:08:06.700 We don't want to use it.

00:08:07.760 We'd rather buy the Saudis. 1.00

00:08:09.240 We'd rather buy foreign oil.

00:08:10.440 And that became apparent within 10 minutes.

00:08:13.720 Yet, that's the resource that provides wealth and prosperity

00:08:16.920 to build all the social programs that we love as Canadians.

00:08:20.800 So that's, you know, our healthcare systems, our education systems,

00:08:25.060 our social support systems, etc.

00:08:27.420 And I looked at that and I said, we are getting completely battered.

00:08:32.120 We pay a gigantic amount of our wealth.

00:08:35.560 80% of Canada's wealth is generated in the West.

00:08:38.300 85% of it is spent in the East.

00:08:41.280 So we generate this wealth.

00:08:43.260 The East continues to take from that wealth, but shuts down our industries.

00:08:47.540 So one of the two things has to give.

00:08:49.620 Either you, we have trade barriers within our own country.

00:08:52.640 I mean, heck, you couldn't bring in a case of wine from BC into Alberta.

00:08:55.640 That's illegal.

00:08:56.280 So we've got trade barriers within our own country.

00:08:59.900 So the question becomes, either those trade barriers open up and it's a fair trading system

00:09:04.300 within Canada, or we start to say, well, that wealth that you're taking, let's keep it here

00:09:10.960 because as it is, our industry has been battered over the last eight or nine years that I've been here.

00:09:15.080 So, I mean, a long answer, but the reason why I'm looking at a West-only party is I've always,

00:09:23.660 and this is no secret, it's on the internet and so on, I've always been, as soon as I was a Canadian citizen,

00:09:28.960 a CPC supporter.

00:09:29.840 And the CPC, well, we've seen what the 2019 election looks like,

00:09:35.140 but there's all these spending commitments that they continue to pander to Quebec for.

00:09:39.280 And then the straw that broke the camel's back and really why the Maverick Party is the carbon tax.

00:09:43.940 So Aaron O'Toole comes in with his own carbon levy.

00:09:46.420 There's four major industries in my writing here.

00:09:49.360 Oil and gas, agriculture, tourism, and aviation, all massively impacted by a carbon tax.

00:09:55.240 And I'm all for environmental responsibility.

00:09:58.680 But Andrew, I think a carbon tax, it's naive to think that that's what's going to save the planet.

00:10:03.260 And all it does is it punishes our industries and then continues to support foreign industries.

00:10:11.080 Oil companies are mobile.

00:10:12.460 If they're not going to produce in Alberta, they're going to move somewhere else.

00:10:16.020 Or it shocks me that we still buy 60 to $65 million a day of foreign oil a day in Canada

00:10:22.580 when we've got it right here.

00:10:25.240 Let's talk about your writing for a moment because the Banff Airdrie is shaping up to be one of the more unique ones.

00:10:31.980 You've got a Conservative with a very strong margin in 2019 that's seeking re-election.

00:10:38.020 You've got a PPC candidate going after right-of-centre voters.

00:10:41.520 You've got the Maverick Party, which generally is going after right-of-centre voters.

00:10:45.220 You've got an Independent in Derek Sloan who's going after generally right-of-centre voters.

00:10:50.060 And even though that Conservative support in 2019 for the CPC was very strong,

00:10:55.800 is there a risk that all of these people going forward saying that,

00:10:59.020 you know what, we want to do things differently than the Conservative incumbent wants to do things,

00:11:03.120 do you think that actually risks someone getting in that is very similar to the things that you oppose,

00:11:09.620 pro-carbon tax, anti-oil, anti-Alberta?

00:11:12.260 Right. So, Andrew, it's a great question.

00:11:14.460 And I'll say, one, let's celebrate that it's a democracy because if you only had one choice, then it wouldn't be.

00:11:20.260 So, you know, this is still the Free West, and we celebrate that people have a choice.

00:11:25.800 Now, in terms of where my opponents are and fellow candidates, you're absolutely right.

00:11:31.060 We have a long-serving Conservative candidate, 13 years in office, who also happens to be –

00:11:35.740 and I'm not one to do character attacks on any of my opponents, so I strictly speak on policy and platform.

00:11:42.380 So we've got – who happens to be the chief whip of Aaron O'Toole.

00:11:46.600 Aaron O'Toole doesn't represent the Conservative interests of the West anymore,

00:11:50.020 and this is the reason why you're starting to see more Conservative options in that field,

00:11:54.900 is because, sadly, the Conservative Party, I think, is –

00:11:58.260 Alberta and Saskatchewan could not get any more blue.

00:12:01.920 Every riding except one went blue in the last election.

00:12:06.760 But I look at it and I say, have they really taken our vote for granted?

00:12:10.320 And then for our loyalty, they give us a carbon tax.

00:12:13.700 Aaron O'Toole's first meeting with Premier Legault says Energy East is off the table.

00:12:18.080 This is a pipeline that's already 70% in the ground and will create jobs across Canada.

00:12:24.300 So that Quebec pandering is what really turned me off from the CPC.

00:12:28.740 And then I look at the other two parties.

00:12:30.700 So one is still a federalist party that is run by a Quebecer.

00:12:34.920 And for them to truly secure seats in Quebec, then they're still going to still have to need to rely on that Alberta wealth.

00:12:41.520 No more, right?

00:12:42.720 There's no more pandering is where I'm saying.

00:12:45.440 Now, the independent candidate – and I'll talk about myself.

00:12:48.660 So the independent candidate, he's never lived a day in the West, never lived a day in this riding,

00:12:55.320 never worked in a Western industry.

00:12:57.140 And if I was one of his constituents on Ontario and I'd say, I believe in your message and I'm voting for you,

00:13:05.120 and suddenly you've abandoned me and moved halfway across the country in an area which you've never lived in

00:13:11.900 because you have a lot of your policies ready-made, like Alberta is more open than everyone else, etc.,

00:13:17.360 and say, well, here it is, I would feel disappointed.

00:13:20.920 I would feel betrayed by my own MP to say, hey, you're the person I voted for and you've just left and deserted me.

00:13:27.500 Like, I'm pretty sure if I ran in this riding, my constituents would say the exact same thing if I moved to Ontario, right?

00:13:33.320 You've just deserted us.

00:13:34.320 And then the difference between the Maverick Party, Andrew, and all the other three candidates

00:13:39.180 is that we're the only party that speaks exclusively for the West.

00:13:43.200 We have zero votes to lose in Ontario and in Quebec and in the Maritimes.

00:13:47.720 And the premise of the party is incredibly simple and beautiful.

00:13:51.720 If it's good for the West, it's good for us. 0.98

00:13:53.960 And that's our job.

00:13:55.420 My job is to speak only and exclusively for a Western constituent.

00:13:59.040 One of the challenges we see in politics in Canada is that the only region that's really allowed to do that is Quebec.

00:14:07.540 And in a lot of cases, politicians encourage it when Quebec asserts its independence.

00:14:11.680 But when the West does it, you get people saying, oh, yeah, they're just whining, they're just complaining and all of that.

00:14:17.120 And I'm curious, though, when you see and hear the anger coming from a lot of people in the West,

00:14:21.800 and when I've been out there speaking, interviewing people, I hear it as well.

00:14:25.200 Do you get a sense that people want to make things better, or is it just we want out?

00:14:30.880 We want to separate?

00:14:31.920 Because I know even in the more independence-minded community in Alberta, this is a big challenge.

00:14:37.580 You get some people that are saying Canada's done, Confederation's done, we want an independent Alberta,

00:14:42.340 and others that say, okay, let's try to fix it first.

00:14:45.120 Let's try to tiptoe our way forward, start with equalization.

00:14:48.540 Maybe we do an Alberta police force, an Alberta pension, and so on.

00:14:52.400 So the beauty of the Maverick Party is it takes both folds in.

00:14:57.260 So we have what we call our twin-track approach, track A and track B.

00:15:02.120 And I'll tell you the politics behind it and also the general language that I use in my town halls with folks.

00:15:08.060 So track A is to bring what you talked about, is fairness and equity back to the West.

00:15:12.800 And say these are the things that we want to bring representation, equalization, manage our own resources,

00:15:20.440 and have provincial autonomy on not just money, but things like law enforcement.

00:15:24.860 And you touched upon that.

00:15:26.420 Even things like firearms laws.

00:15:28.080 So I look at it and I say, this is a very different approach than any of the other federal parties.

00:15:33.320 Even the conservatives are saying, well, you're going after illegal gun owners.

00:15:36.120 I'm like, you know what, Toronto dictates a lot of that policy for the rest of the country.

00:15:41.700 If Toronto want to ban all their guns, have at her. 1.00

00:15:44.900 It's none of my business.

00:15:46.140 But for the West, we want our own regional chief firearms officer,

00:15:49.820 which right now sits in Miramichi, New Brunswick, and, you know, administers firearms laws for the entire country.

00:15:56.980 No, we're looking at a regionalized approach for any of those things, including representation, fairness, and so on.

00:16:02.500 That's track A.

00:16:03.200 Now, if that is not enough, and we go out into our constituents and say it's not what Tarek said,

00:16:09.520 it's not what the Maverick Party says, but if our constituents say that is not enough,

00:16:13.700 then track B is a push for independence.

00:16:16.620 And we have, yes, members that want independence right away,

00:16:20.240 and we have members that are still very attached to the maple leaf, but not necessarily attached to Ottawa.

00:16:26.600 So the way I say it and the way I kind of, you know, differentiate track A and track B is one is a divorce of Ottawa,

00:16:33.200 which all of our members agree on.

00:16:35.620 So they're all very much in favor of.

00:16:38.600 The second one, which is a divorce of Canada, some are there, some aren't there yet.

00:16:43.080 And I think it will depend on what our constituents want once track A is done.

00:16:48.220 Where are you, though?

00:16:49.100 So I sit on both.

00:16:52.560 And I say, you know, I mean, I'm glad that you asked, but I sit on both.

00:16:55.660 And I say that if track A is enough to make Western Canada an equal and well-represented partner in Canada, great.

00:17:04.140 And then I think we've accomplished a very solid part of what we want to do.

00:17:08.440 But if that's not enough, then I am not afraid in any way, shape, or form to push for independence.

00:17:15.140 It's the platform I'm running on.

00:17:16.900 It will be my job.

00:17:18.280 And I am not afraid to do it.

00:17:20.060 But you're saying you want to try to make it work first.

00:17:23.480 Exactly.

00:17:24.180 So, I mean, and our track is very transparent, is, yes.

00:17:27.660 So rather than push for independence from the first five minutes, even laying the foundations of independence, the right way to do it would be to do track A first, which is to get, you know, provincial autonomy back.

00:17:38.880 Let us manage our own affairs, because then that makes the push for independence much easier.

00:17:43.520 So it is the first logical step of it.

00:17:46.380 Banff Airdrie in Alberta has a number of candidates.

00:17:50.100 The Maverick Party candidate there is Tarek Elnega, who joins me now.

00:17:53.820 Tarek, thanks very much for coming on and sharing a bit about your background and what you hope for the riding.

00:17:58.520 Very much appreciated.

00:17:59.700 My pleasure, Andrew.

00:18:00.500 I've been following you for a long time.

00:18:01.940 You're an absolute rock star.

00:18:03.440 Thank you so much for having me.

00:18:04.760 Thank you.

00:18:05.580 Well, that is very kind of you to say, Tarek.

00:18:07.980 Thanks very much.

00:18:09.000 And that does it for us for today.

00:18:10.280 Thanks to all of you for tuning in.

00:18:12.340 As mentioned earlier, the coverage is going to look a bit different in the next couple of days,

00:18:16.540 as I am joining the Conservative Party of Canada tour to report on what's happening there.

00:18:21.980 But we will be back with another show early next week.

00:18:25.320 This is Canada's most irreverent talk show here on True North, The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:18:29.620 Thank you, God bless, and good day to you all.

00:18:31.640 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:18:33.840 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.

Juno News - August 27, 2021

‘Cowboy from Dubai’ Tariq Elnaga on his Maverick campaign

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