‘Cowboy from Dubai’ Tariq Elnaga on his Maverick campaign
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Summary
Tarek El-Naga is running for the Maverick Party in the upcoming election in Alberta s riding of Banff Airdrie. In this episode, I talk to him about how he got into rodeo, why he moved to Alberta, and how he fell in love with the Calgary Stampede.
Transcript
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Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show, Canada's most irreverent talk show here on True North.
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I don't know if I've mentioned this in the past.
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Obviously, with 338 ridings in Canada and more parties than I can count,
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we can't interview every candidate in every riding.
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But I also, at the same time, know that sometimes local candidates
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are a tremendous part of the story of Canadian politics.
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They elect individual members of parliament at the local level.
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So what I've decided to do on this show in the next few weeks of the campaign
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is find the ridings where something interesting is happening,
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individual candidates who have a great story to tell
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or who I think are personally interesting or compelling,
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and also just people that may come across our radar for whatever reason in the campaign.
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But I will say one of the interesting stories that I've come across
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has been that of Tarek El Naga, who's running for the Maverick Party in Banff Airdrie.
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Now, as we'll talk about in a moment, Banff Airdrie is shaking up to be a pretty crowded field
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with a lot of candidates who you'd think would be going after the same voters.
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But only one of them has moved to Alberta because they fell in love with the Calgary Stampede.
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And that's Tarek El Naga, who joins me on the line now.
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Now, as I mentioned just in the introduction to this segment,
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I'm trying to find candidates across the country who have unique stories,
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And when I learned about what brought you to where you are today,
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living in Alberta and also running as a Maverick Party candidate,
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I know you became a citizen about five years ago.
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But tell me what happened when you visited Alberta in 2010.
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And I usually travel on vacation to go to a certain event,
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a sporting spectacle, a festival, a concert, et cetera.
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And I'd never been to a rodeo in my life and have zero animal experience.
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and I sat in the stands and I watched the rodeo,
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and I thought, man, that's the coolest thing I've ever seen.
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I'm going to be on the other side of that fence.
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And something happened, and I decided this was going to be it.
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and made plans to move to Alberta to start to get into rodeo.
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Now, home at the time was the United Arab Emirates,
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So, born and raised in Dubai, pretty much as city kids.
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What it is where the similarities are is actually it's a big oil and gas economy, too.
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And we could chat about that in a little while.
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But, you know, my corporate career as an engineer was relatively easy to transfer
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in the sense of I grew up in an oil and gas world.
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But my recreational, personal, and now athletic life is completely different.
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I know Dubai is a city that has lots going on, very, very worldly.
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What was it about the Alberta rodeo experience that grabbed you
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in a way that other places you had visited hadn't up until that point?
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So, the thing is, you know, Dubai is a pretty pristine city growing up.
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It's very, very pristine, very modern, very new, and very Western, too,
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like something about the grit and the perseverance of cowboy culture
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and that grit that you see very rarely anywhere else.
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And I was like, man, there's something about that.
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There's something about that value of, like, you see people getting bucked off
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pretty hard at a rodeo, and they're like, you know what?
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So, and there was a level of authenticity and the mystique of the Western culture,
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but also the values that it represents that were really attractive.
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And, you know, we talked about grit, but perseverance is another one.
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And it's also a culture that's built around community and respect.
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And those are all values that I'm like, this speaks to me, right?
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And it's very different than everything I've used to.
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And if there's one way to do it, then, you know,
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put myself entirely out of my comfort zone, Alberta was going to be it.
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I know even though I agree with most Albertans on most things politically,
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I still get it when I'm there, being from Ontario,
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And I'm curious how you felt in adjusting to being a Westerner,
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if you felt immediately accepted or even to this day accepted as a Westerner
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in a group of people that are very leery of even people that come from cities,
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let alone from another country and want to jump into this lifestyle.
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Andrew, I'll tell you, the reception was amazing.
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So I did three things on my first three days in Alberta.
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And in the first three days, I bought a pair of cowboy boots.
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I bought a set of power tools and I bought a pickup truck.
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And I thought, you know, I've got my Alberta starter pack ready here.
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But now you fast forward and the pickup trucks are like the things
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But then on the fourth day, I reached out to the local ag society in Airdrie here.
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And I said, hey, I want to get into the Western way of life.
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And then instantly door started opening where I had volunteer opportunities
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to be at the back end of a rodeo, learned how to ride,
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learned how to drive tractor, how to drive combine, etc.
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I can tell you after eight or nine years of being here,
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there isn't a rodeo I could go in a 500-kilometer radius
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where I don't know at least 200 people there and I feel 100% at home.
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which is the biggest equestrian magazine in Canada,
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reached out and did an interview and featured me on the cover.
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You know, it's just exceptional, the level of doors that are open here.
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And I will say this, as long as you come with a level of authenticity
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and respect around Western culture, the West welcomes all.
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Like it's a very inclusive, very welcoming community.
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What it is, is are you willing to put in the hard work and live the way of life?
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Like I've never once, never once in nine years of being here ever felt on the outside.
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I know that you became, as we mentioned, a citizen in 2016,
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but you're also identifying with a party that is very much Albertan over Canadian,
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And I'm wanting you to explain, if you can, about that dynamic.
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Because you've talked about in other materials and online,
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this thing that a lot of Canadians who are from Ontario and Quebec and BC don't get,
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But I'm curious how you first, first off, acknowledge this was a thing
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which is actually running as a candidate for this party.
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And one, you know, we're a West-focused party rather than just Alberta.
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So the four Western provinces, I think Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and BC.
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But this comes from my professional life where I'm in oil and gas.
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And very quickly, within the first 10 minutes, and I grew up in the Middle East.
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It was Saddam invaded Kuwait for their oil resources.
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And I remember my parents taping down the window seams
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because they were worried about a biological attack the night before Gulf War I started.
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And then so very quickly, you learn that oil is a precious commodity.
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And then I move here and we're given the gift of the third largest resource
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or third largest oil resources, rather, in the world.
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Yet, that's the resource that provides wealth and prosperity
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to build all the social programs that we love as Canadians.
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So that's, you know, our healthcare systems, our education systems,
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And I looked at that and I said, we are getting completely battered.
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80% of Canada's wealth is generated in the West.
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The East continues to take from that wealth, but shuts down our industries.
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Either you, we have trade barriers within our own country.
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I mean, heck, you couldn't bring in a case of wine from BC into Alberta.
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So we've got trade barriers within our own country.
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So the question becomes, either those trade barriers open up and it's a fair trading system
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within Canada, or we start to say, well, that wealth that you're taking, let's keep it here
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because as it is, our industry has been battered over the last eight or nine years that I've been here.
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So, I mean, a long answer, but the reason why I'm looking at a West-only party is I've always,
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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,
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And the CPC, well, we've seen what the 2019 election looks like,
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but there's all these spending commitments that they continue to pander to Quebec for.
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And then the straw that broke the camel's back and really why the Maverick Party is the carbon tax.
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So Aaron O'Toole comes in with his own carbon levy.
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There's four major industries in my writing here.
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Oil and gas, agriculture, tourism, and aviation, all massively impacted by a carbon tax.
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But Andrew, I think a carbon tax, it's naive to think that that's what's going to save the planet.
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And all it does is it punishes our industries and then continues to support foreign industries.
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If they're not going to produce in Alberta, they're going to move somewhere else.
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Or it shocks me that we still buy 60 to $65 million a day of foreign oil a day in Canada
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Let's talk about your writing for a moment because the Banff Airdrie is shaping up to be one of the more unique ones.
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You've got a Conservative with a very strong margin in 2019 that's seeking re-election.
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You've got a PPC candidate going after right-of-centre voters.
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You've got the Maverick Party, which generally is going after right-of-centre voters.
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You've got an Independent in Derek Sloan who's going after generally right-of-centre voters.
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And even though that Conservative support in 2019 for the CPC was very strong,
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is there a risk that all of these people going forward saying that,
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you know what, we want to do things differently than the Conservative incumbent wants to do things,
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do you think that actually risks someone getting in that is very similar to the things that you oppose,
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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.
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So, you know, this is still the Free West, and we celebrate that people have a choice.
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Now, in terms of where my opponents are and fellow candidates, you're absolutely right.
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We have a long-serving Conservative candidate, 13 years in office, who also happens to be –
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and I'm not one to do character attacks on any of my opponents, so I strictly speak on policy and platform.
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So we've got – who happens to be the chief whip of Aaron O'Toole.
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Aaron O'Toole doesn't represent the Conservative interests of the West anymore,
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and this is the reason why you're starting to see more Conservative options in that field,
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is because, sadly, the Conservative Party, I think, is –
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Alberta and Saskatchewan could not get any more blue.
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Every riding except one went blue in the last election.
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But I look at it and I say, have they really taken our vote for granted?
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And then for our loyalty, they give us a carbon tax.
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Aaron O'Toole's first meeting with Premier Legault says Energy East is off the table.
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This is a pipeline that's already 70% in the ground and will create jobs across Canada.
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So that Quebec pandering is what really turned me off from the CPC.
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So one is still a federalist party that is run by a Quebecer.
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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.
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Now, the independent candidate – and I'll talk about myself.
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So the independent candidate, he's never lived a day in the West, never lived a day in this riding,
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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,
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and suddenly you've abandoned me and moved halfway across the country in an area which you've never lived in
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because you have a lot of your policies ready-made, like Alberta is more open than everyone else, etc.,
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and say, well, here it is, I would feel disappointed.
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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.
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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?
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And then the difference between the Maverick Party, Andrew, and all the other three candidates
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is that we're the only party that speaks exclusively for the West.
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We have zero votes to lose in Ontario and in Quebec and in the Maritimes.
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And the premise of the party is incredibly simple and beautiful.
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If it's good for the West, it's good for us.
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My job is to speak only and exclusively for a Western constituent.
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One of the challenges we see in politics in Canada is that the only region that's really allowed to do that is Quebec.
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And in a lot of cases, politicians encourage it when Quebec asserts its independence.
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But when the West does it, you get people saying, oh, yeah, they're just whining, they're just complaining and all of that.
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And I'm curious, though, when you see and hear the anger coming from a lot of people in the West,
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and when I've been out there speaking, interviewing people, I hear it as well.
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Do you get a sense that people want to make things better, or is it just we want out?
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Because I know even in the more independence-minded community in Alberta, this is a big challenge.
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You get some people that are saying Canada's done, Confederation's done, we want an independent Alberta,
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and others that say, okay, let's try to fix it first.
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Let's try to tiptoe our way forward, start with equalization.
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Maybe we do an Alberta police force, an Alberta pension, and so on.
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So the beauty of the Maverick Party is it takes both folds in.
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So we have what we call our twin-track approach, track A and track B.
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And I'll tell you the politics behind it and also the general language that I use in my town halls with folks.
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So track A is to bring what you talked about, is fairness and equity back to the West.
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And say these are the things that we want to bring representation, equalization, manage our own resources,
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and have provincial autonomy on not just money, but things like law enforcement.
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So I look at it and I say, this is a very different approach than any of the other federal parties.
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Even the conservatives are saying, well, you're going after illegal gun owners.
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I'm like, you know what, Toronto dictates a lot of that policy for the rest of the country.
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If Toronto want to ban all their guns, have at her.
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But for the West, we want our own regional chief firearms officer,
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which right now sits in Miramichi, New Brunswick, and, you know, administers firearms laws for the entire country.
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No, we're looking at a regionalized approach for any of those things, including representation, fairness, and so on.
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Now, if that is not enough, and we go out into our constituents and say it's not what Tarek said,
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it's not what the Maverick Party says, but if our constituents say that is not enough,
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And we have, yes, members that want independence right away,
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and we have members that are still very attached to the maple leaf, but not necessarily attached to Ottawa.
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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,
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The second one, which is a divorce of Canada, some are there, some aren't there yet.
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And I think it will depend on what our constituents want once track A is done.
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And I say, you know, I mean, I'm glad that you asked, but I sit on both.
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And I say that if track A is enough to make Western Canada an equal and well-represented partner in Canada, great.
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And then I think we've accomplished a very solid part of what we want to do.
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But if that's not enough, then I am not afraid in any way, shape, or form to push for independence.
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But you're saying you want to try to make it work first.
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So, I mean, and our track is very transparent, is, yes.
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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.
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Let us manage our own affairs, because then that makes the push for independence much easier.
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Banff Airdrie in Alberta has a number of candidates.
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The Maverick Party candidate there is Tarek Elnega, who joins me now.
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Tarek, thanks very much for coming on and sharing a bit about your background and what you hope for the riding.
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As mentioned earlier, the coverage is going to look a bit different in the next couple of days,
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as I am joining the Conservative Party of Canada tour to report on what's happening there.
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But we will be back with another show early next week.
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This is Canada's most irreverent talk show here on True North, The Andrew Lawton Show.
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Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
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Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.