00:00:00.000If you thought the joy of the election was over, well Albertans might be in for a treat.
00:00:15.620Three by-elections will soon be taking place in Alberta, with the leader of the Alberta NDP,
00:00:20.840Naheed Nanshi, set to run in one of them. The leader of the Republican Party of Alberta,
00:00:25.580Cam Davies, will also be running. These three by-elections are set to occur while Alberta
00:00:30.800Premier Danielle Smith is running hot, with even the CBC showing that her government would
00:00:36.300cruise to an easy majority if another provincial election occurred. The Alberta Prosperity Project
00:00:41.500also officially filed its petition application to Elections Alberta while requesting that the
00:00:47.060office prioritize its question over potential counter-questions from other groups that might
00:00:52.420not warrant a citizen-initiated referendum. The province also cracked down on schools that
00:00:58.000refuse to deal with the presence of explicit pornographic materials in K-12 school libraries.
00:01:03.760Also, the province has been cracking down on commercial truck-driving schools for violating
00:01:08.620the Traffic Safety Act. All that and more on this week's Alberta Roundup. I'm your host,
00:01:13.600Isaac Lamoureux. Let's get into that first story now. Three Alberta by-elections were recently called
00:01:18.660by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith across the province. The by-elections for Edmonton Strathcona,
00:01:24.800Edmonton Ellerslie, and Old Didsbury Three Hills will occur on June 23rd. The seat in Edmonton
00:01:31.380Strathcona became vacant when Rachel Notley resigned her seat last year. The seat has been held by the NDP
00:01:37.260since 1997. It has not been held by a conservative since Julian Koziak, who held the seat between 1971 and 1986. Now, Alberta NDP leader Nahid Nenshi is set to run in the riding, which is, of course, the safest NDP seat in the province.
00:01:54.240Perhaps even more interestingly for some is the riding of Old Didsbury Three Hills, where the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta, Cam Davies, will run in the by-election.
00:02:04.160This riding will be interesting to monitor as constitutional lawyer Keith Wilson has warned that the Republican Party of Alberta might split the vote on the right and grant the NDP power.
00:02:15.080Since 1997, the seat has been held by the Wild Rose and conservative parties. It recently became vacant because Nathan Cooper resigned to become Alberta's representative in Washington, D.C.
00:02:27.180The Alberta NDP are running Bev Taves as their candidate in the riding.
00:02:31.060The three by-elections are taking place while provincially, the UCP would soar to another easy majority if a provincial election took place based on recent polling.
00:02:40.520And this is coming from polling from the CBC, so if they're saying that the Conservatives are way ahead, you know it must be pretty dominant.
00:02:47.680The CBC conducted a poll between May 7th and 21st, showing that over half of Albertans currently support the Alberta UCP.
00:02:55.000The poll showed that Smith's favourability rating was 4.5 out of 10 last year, which rose to 4.7 this year.
00:03:01.640Conversely, Nenshi received an average impression rating of 4.1.
00:03:06.540And speaking of polls, a recent Leger poll showed that support for separation in Alberta might be rising,
00:03:13.000with 41% of Albertan respondents saying they would vote to separate in a referendum, with only 44% saying they would vote no.
00:03:20.780The third by-election is occurring in Edmonton, Ellerslie, because the seat was vacated by Rod Loyola,
00:03:26.940who stepped down to run for Mark Carney's Liberal Party.
00:03:30.180Remember, Loyola joined the Liberals despite blasting the party for years.
00:06:38.200And wait for official petition sheets.
00:06:40.860Alberta Premier Danielle Smith will also have to decide how to deliver the referendum.
00:06:45.000She previously pledged that the question on separation would be put to a vote in 2026 if enough signatures were collected.
00:06:52.900Rath cautioned Albertans, however, not to sign any petitions until Elections Alberta issues official sheets and canvassers receive proper training.
00:07:28.560We'll discuss how the Alberta government is cracking down on school boards that allow pornographic materials to remain on K-12 library shelves.
00:07:37.100Education Minister Demetrius Nicolaides announced a new public consultation to develop mandatory standards for library content.
00:07:44.500Standards that will now be enforced province-wide.
00:07:48.560The province says books like Genderqueer, Flamer, and Fun Home, which include passages involving sexting, sexual violence, and profane pornographic content, have been discovered in libraries for children as young as kindergarten.
00:08:14.360The content of these books has sparked outrage among parents who claim schools are exposing children to pornography under the geese of diversity and inclusion.
00:08:24.360And to be honest, some of the quotes we covered in this article are so obscene that I'm not going to say them here.
00:08:30.680And remember, this is available for children.
00:08:34.080Previously, Alberta only offered voluntary guidelines.
00:08:38.240But with inconsistent vetting by school boards, the province says it's stepping in.
00:08:42.740The new rules will apply to public, Catholic, Francophone, Charter, and independent schools.
00:08:48.560And school boards will be required to publish their policies for evaluating library materials.
00:08:53.880However, the new rules will not apply to public libraries, including the 55 municipal libraries housed inside school buildings.
00:09:01.940Albertans are being invited to weigh in through an online survey where they can share their views on what should be accessible in school libraries.
00:09:08.860The province says it will collect feedback and then issue a ministerial order ahead of the 2025-26 school year.
00:09:16.620That means explicit material will soon be on its way out, permanently.
00:09:22.140For our last story today, we'll discuss how Alberta is clamping down on truck driving schools that have been skirting the law.
00:09:37.960Following multiple investigations, Transportation Minister Devin Dreschen told True North that several driving schools and instructors have had their licenses revoked and have been fined up to $10,000 for, quote,
00:09:50.100serious violations of the Traffic Safety Act.
00:09:53.420Those violations include fake student records, cheating on road tests, and falsified assessments, all of which, Dreschen says, put Albertans at risk.
00:10:03.940Any school or instructor that compromises public safety will face serious consequences.
00:10:09.680Our enforcement strategy is proactive, data-driven, and uncompromising when it comes to protecting Albertans.
00:10:16.320The minister said the province regularly inspects driver training schools, instructors, and examiners to ensure compliance with provincial traffic laws.
00:10:24.880Dreschen pledged that the province would continue to take strong actions against bad actors in the commercial driving industry.
00:10:30.680The crackdown comes as the province rolls out its new Class 1 learning pathway, which replaces the MELT program and introduces tiered apprenticeship-style training for new drivers.
00:10:40.560The crackdown follows several recent incidents.
00:10:43.620In March, an Albertan-based semi-truck driver and their company were charged with 28 offenses after a load struck an overpass on Shorewood Park Freeway.
00:10:51.820The driver faced 13 tickets totaling around $25,000, and the company faced 9 tickets totaling around $13,000 for a cumulative $38,000.
00:11:01.920Last fall, another Albertan driver was fined after a modular home he was hauling slammed into a BC overpass, the 24th overpass strike of the year in BC, far surpassing the 17 recorded in all of 2023, and by year's end, BC recorded 29 overpass crashes involving commercial vehicles.