Juno News - Former cabinet minister Rebecca Schulz seeks UCP leadership

00:00:00.000 you're tuned in to the andrew lawton show

00:00:05.920 the ucp leadership race is in full force we know that the party is going towards a contest to who

00:00:15.920 for who's going to become the premier of alberta and then lead the party into the next election

00:00:20.160 now that jason kenney has announced he's stepping down and one of the candidates is the former alberta

00:00:26.320 cabinet minister rebecca schultz who joins me on the line now rebecca good to talk to you thanks for

00:00:31.280 coming on today hi andrew it's my pleasure good to see you again yes we caught up at the canada

00:00:37.440 strong and free networking conference in ottawa and at the time we didn't even know there was going to

00:00:42.400 be a leadership race and here we are and you've announced your candidacy why is it that you want

00:00:48.400 to be the leader of your party and the premier of alberta you know i would say that first and

00:00:54.240 foremost i believe in the future of our party but also in the province of alberta we have so much

00:01:01.120 to offer and we need somebody who can stand up and defend the constitutional rights of albertans

00:01:07.680 make sure that we continue to drive economic growth and keep our party united so that we can defeat the

00:01:13.040 ndp in uh 2023 our provincial election next year uh is in the spring and so i think you know it's been a

00:01:20.880 really difficult time um you know i think obviously everybody knows that and i think instead of

00:01:26.400 vilifying each other and as conservatives you know um you know focusing on some of the things that

00:01:31.680 divide us we really need a leader who can bring us together remember who our true opponent is which is

00:01:36.960 the ndp uh and take them on here in alberta next year you know we had a leadership review for premier

00:01:44.000 kenny that was very close virtually 50 50 so no matter which way someone goes the party is divided

00:01:50.560 the party is split down the middle how do you not just build a winning coalition from that in the

00:01:55.840 leadership race but beyond that when you have that division in your party you know and it's tough and

00:02:02.160 i think you know everybody largely whether i'm talking to party members or albertans i think people

00:02:08.400 agree that they fully expect governments are going to make decisions that they disagree with um you

00:02:14.800 know i i don't think it's that what we've heard is that you know we've we've gotten off track our

00:02:19.760 government has done a lot of really great things our economy here in alberta um is kind of on fire

00:02:26.400 we're taking off coming out of you know like i said an economic recession a tough two years our

00:02:31.360 unemployment is at the lowest rate since 2015 more jobs created every day things are looking up but we did

00:02:38.080 get off track oftentimes people say it was our tone we felt like how you were communicating decisions

00:02:44.320 um didn't show that you heard what we were saying we didn't feel heard we didn't feel listened to um

00:02:51.520 and so i think a we have to switch the tone b i am so dedicated to the conservative movement um that is

00:02:58.320 not something that's new for me i think we need somebody who understands that the grassroots party members

00:03:03.680 engaging with people uh door knocking getting out there listening and taking action that's important

00:03:09.760 that's just as important as governing is keeping our coalition together and so i think you know it

00:03:15.440 takes somebody that's highly motivated very committed um the first thing i committed to do

00:03:20.160 is door knock in every single constituency across this province meet with our uh local ucp community

00:03:26.720 boards and those presidents make sure that they know that they have a seat at the decision making

00:03:31.440 table and that they're heard um i'm willing to do that you know our opposition here they are

00:03:37.200 highly motivated they are working very hard they are very disciplined um and we need a disciplined

00:03:43.120 team we have an awesome team we have amazing talented mlas um and they want their talents and

00:03:50.000 strengths to be used as well looking at the field itself two of the early candidates to get in brian

00:03:57.360 gene and danielle smith were coming into the race as outsiders from the the caucus well i guess brian

00:04:03.840 gene not as much of an outsider from the caucus now but but outsiders of the caucus over the last two

00:04:08.080 years and certainly from the cabinet you were a member of premier kenny's cabinet and obviously

00:04:13.920 there's been a lot of controversy about the handling of the covet file and i know you weren't the health

00:04:18.800 minister you weren't responsible for for that file specifically but how have you felt the the reception in

00:04:25.440 the last day since you've announced from the members towards you being a part of a government

00:04:29.200 that wasn't popular by the last by the end of it with the last with a large chunk of the members

00:04:35.280 you know and i think it the reception has actually been really positive like we kicked off the campaign

00:04:41.840 yesterday and we've seen a lot of support i think part of it is because um largely what i've heard is

00:04:48.240 people it's not just the decisions that were made and even on covet even at my announcement yesterday in

00:04:52.880 my constituency there were people on all sides of the covet issue uh in one room united around

00:04:59.200 our conservative movement on my around my candidacy and largely i think again it's people had an issue

00:05:05.680 with how some of those decisions were made how they were communicated the tone um they want to see

00:05:11.440 people's differing views respected right and that people aren't being vilified for for holding different

00:05:17.040 views um me being able to say that out loud and say look we didn't do everything right and my

00:05:22.880 colleagues i i know many of them sitting at that table would say the same thing we didn't get it all

00:05:27.360 right but i'm willing to tell you now here's what i'm hearing from you i want you to hear it from me so

00:05:33.040 that you know i'm listening and that i'm going to show you the humility that you want to see in your

00:05:38.480 government and your elected officials because we're it's true we're not going to do everything right all the

00:05:42.800 time but i think people want somebody who is committed to them who wants to hear them and

00:05:47.360 who shows some humility and not just talks about it were vaccine passports in your view a policy

00:05:54.880 itself that was wrong or were they a victim of that poor communication that you just mentioned

00:06:00.400 so i would say you know we in alberta did do things a little bit differently we tried to make

00:06:05.120 sure that there were exemptions uh to that program the restriction exemption program recognizing that

00:06:10.160 there were people um making different choices for for various reasons we also had major issues

00:06:15.760 with hospital capacity we did uh we knew that was an issue even before the election even before covid

00:06:21.840 um but you know it's really i i think it's hard to say it's easier to sit on the sidelines and look at

00:06:29.120 some of those issues but when we were really truly making some decisions around full icus hospital

00:06:35.840 capacities essentially crisis in the health care system and i think that's the issue we need to

00:06:41.680 focus on is fixing that because we don't want to be in that position ever again i know we'll do we'll

00:06:46.960 have you back on for a more formal interview later on in the race as with the other candidates this is

00:06:51.280 more of an introduction so i'll give you a question that you can take any way you'd like here

00:06:57.200 what is it that your campaign is about

00:06:59.680 so for me our campaign is really focusing on getting back on track saying that look as conservatives

00:07:08.080 we do well when we come together when we do not compromise on our conservative roots um but i also

00:07:14.080 think that we need to show some compassion and common sense when we're making decisions that is you

00:07:19.040 know largely i think what albertans want to see um and i think that that's going to help us unify and stay

00:07:24.960 um motivated and focused on like i said who our opponent really is um you know i do bring a unique

00:07:32.240 perspective in terms of i am you know just as excited about grassroots campaigning uh as every other

00:07:38.960 aspect of the job i firmly believe that albertans want to see a competent conservative government i know

00:07:44.640 they do especially with what we're seeing in the economy right now um but also making sure that people

00:07:50.000 are communicating people like me communicating um you know what i'm listening to the concerns of

00:07:56.720 everyday albertans right we want a strong economy we want jobs but we also want to make sure that you

00:08:01.040 got a family doctor when you need it i have two young kids i want to make sure that they have a great

00:08:04.880 education that matters to me um and so we got to talk about that stuff as well uh and that's what i'm

00:08:10.800 committing to do all right well rebecca schultz the calgary jaw mla and former uh children and youth

00:08:16.960 services minister in alberta congratulations on the campaign launch we'll talk to you soon

00:08:21.040 and thanks very much for joining thanks andrew anytime thanks for listening to the andrew lawton

00:08:25.840 support the program by donating to true north at www.tnc.news

Juno News - June 21, 2022

Former cabinet minister Rebecca Schulz seeks UCP leadership

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