00:03:57.300for Quebec independence. Do you support Alberta independence? And is that the position of your
00:04:03.700party? What we believe in is what Albertans want to see happen. We were going to take direction
00:04:10.000from Albertans. And of course, there's a very, very important question to potentially have a
00:04:16.860referendum on October 19th. Let's see where that goes. Bloc Quebecois has been representing Quebec
00:04:24.040for 40 or 45 years now, and Quebec is still part of Canada. So that's why this is important.
00:04:32.200Let's get some Alberta now representatives in Ottawa. Let's get some Alberta now MPs that speak
00:04:38.040explicitly for the needs of Albertans, and that will only make Alberta stronger.
00:04:46.860I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that you're not trying that you're not trying to attract liberal or NDP voters in your province. You're going for conservatives. Those are the people you're looking for as candidates. What is your pitch to them that your party is going to be more conservative than the conservative party? Because I'm guessing that's really the pitch you're going to have to make, isn't it?
00:05:09.640That's one of the two pitches for sure. And that pitch is important because yes, the majority of Albertans believe in fiscal responsibility. They believe in smaller government, lower taxes. But Harrison, we also believe in stronger provincial autonomy. It is so time to get the federal government out of the environmental regulations and the oil and gas industry.
00:05:31.000We also believe in constitutional reform. The fact that it takes seven out of 10 provinces with 50% of the population to make any constitutional change, we know that's not going to happen with some of the smaller provinces in Quebec so connected to equalization. So we know that's not going to happen.
00:05:47.960But yeah, so fiscal conservatism is important for the majority of Albertans. But Harrison, what's maybe more important is Albertans are tired of seeing Conservative Party of Canada MPs having their votes whipped for the good and the needs of Eastern Canada, Ontario, and Quebec.
00:06:05.340Our constituents are going to be Albertans, Albertans that, you know, their votes will not be whipped for what's necessary in the East, and we will be a strong, solid voice for Alberta.
00:06:18.580it seems from my perspective that if if if i wanted to ensure that conservatives were
00:06:27.320were never going to be able to form government i would try to take their votes away in their
00:06:32.860really in their electoral base which is alberta um and also of course in saskatchewan the objective
00:06:39.560i am assuming of course is to try to be able to put yourself in a position where you can form some
00:06:44.360sort of coalition with a conservative government that would obviously generate the best results for
00:06:49.980your province. But what do you say to people who would put to you that if they wanted to ensure
00:06:56.620conservatives would never win, they would do exactly the same thing as this? Yeah, they're
00:07:01.740wrong. Again, our supporters and our constituents are different. Conservative Party of Canada
00:07:07.100constituent supporter believes more in a federalist uh canada where ontario quebec and the maritimes
00:07:15.680have all the power and all the say uh you support alberta now you're you're really saying that you
00:07:21.220realize alberta is a young growing province that needs to push for change it needs to push for
00:07:26.180fairness and that's exactly what we're going to do uh you know it goes on and on from the
00:07:30.900unfairness of equalization and quebec hydro revenue is not being counted to the fact that
00:07:36.040Alberta isn't even guaranteed one Supreme Court justice, never mind Ontario or Quebec's three,
00:07:41.900you know, we can list the unfairness forever. And we can also mention that it never changes.
00:07:48.080So, yeah, and we're also willing to, at some point in time, to form a coalition with the
00:07:53.380Conservative Party of Canada, if they are focused on what's best for Alberta, and Alberta being the
00:07:59.540strongest part of Canada. You know, Harrison, if you don't mind a comparison, and it's one from the
00:08:05.320left. The NDP for 60 years has never, ever formed the government. They've never been the first past
00:08:11.620the post winner with the most seats. And they look at how much influence they've had on Canadian
00:08:17.920politics, because when they are in a minority government, they hold the leverage, they hold
00:08:24.140the balance of power. And could you imagine Alberta now having the opportunity to make
00:08:29.540Alberta's needs and ideas way, way stronger in Ottawa? That's good for Alberta. That's good for
00:08:34.480canada so what would you how would you distill your party's philosophy you and and how would
00:08:46.360you say to you how would you say that really this is different from alberta-based conservative mps
00:08:52.840because i've spoken to alberta conservative mps as i know i'm sure you have they seem to be
00:08:59.220pretty on board with helping Albertans, um, helping, helping Albertans get a better deal
00:09:06.360with, with the federal government. So how would you distill down your political philosophy and
00:09:10.420what makes you different? Well, at times the philosophy is similar. And so let's look at how
00:09:16.620ineffective they've been for, for all these years, but also don't forget that they have formed a
00:09:21.180committee to uh to advertise and to promote that albertans vote no in this question so they're
00:09:29.300really saying reduce what any leverage they have they're really getting involved in a question
00:09:33.640that isn't directly their business uh you know and so i would say that uh the other principal
00:09:39.740difference too harrison is we're going to be really grassroots now we're very fortunate we're
00:09:45.000just forming our party. But we believe in open and fair nominations. We believe in annual or
00:09:51.780semi-annual meetings where our policy gets determined. And yes, we're starting with smaller
00:09:57.320government, lower taxes, more choice. We're talking with stronger property rights. But again,
00:10:02.840don't forget more provincial autonomy, more provincial strength. I certainly believe in
00:10:07.920abolishing the Senate and constitutional reform. With Canada's broken constitution ever since
00:10:14.340Pierre Elliott Trudeau, a young growing province like Alberta that has gone, you know, from two or
00:10:20.960three million in those days to over five million now. We deserve a better voice. We deserve more
00:10:25.860of our values represented in Ottawa. So it's a position on abolishing the Senate, not an elected
00:10:32.760Senate. I think that's a distinction. I wasn't fully, I thought many people in Alberta would
00:10:38.160want to have an elected Senate. You're saying no, scrap it all together. Yeah, that's my preference.
00:10:44.340But in all honesty, once our party is signed, once our signatures are in and we're up and running, we will be holding conventions and polity discussions and we will decide that.
00:10:54.760But at this point in time, my personal preference is we don't need another patronage house.
00:10:59.140We don't need more government waste and patronage.0.90
00:11:01.520Let's abolish the Senate and make the provincial power stronger.
00:11:06.120Okay, so can you fill us in on the status of your party as it is right now?
00:11:11.540You are awaiting official status, but perhaps you can explain the kind of support that you've
00:11:17.560been able to receive. Are you reaching out to potential candidates, that sort of thing?
00:11:23.000Yeah, thank you, Harrison. We have to submit 250 verified signatures to Elections Canada,
00:11:29.800and then they will need, I presume, two or three months to verify and approve us. We have our
00:11:34.700people in place, our chief financial officer, our board of directors. And we just have our rollout
00:11:42.120actually this week, our website and our database management system. And we put out the word in a
00:11:47.880soft way at Virgus Hodgson's morality and capitalism event in Calgary last weekend.
00:11:54.620And it has snowballed. Yesterday, at least 10 Albertans texted me or messaged me on Facebook
00:12:01.940and said hey i like that i want to be part of it and some of them i would describe as as more
00:12:06.180centrist than a lot of the albertans i talked to so so our plan is to get the signatures to
00:12:11.940elections canada as soon as we can to register the alberta now party and get our official status
00:12:17.540and then we're going to hold a policy and and platform and strategy meetings with all of our
00:12:24.580members and we are going to develop a strong grassroots party alberta now here for all albertans
00:12:31.940Are you going to be using the party system that you're building right now to try and influence and try to make your presence felt on the upcoming provincial referendum that is going to be put before Albertans?
00:12:46.380Yeah, thanks for that question. Absolutely. We're going to respect whatever Albertans decide. And part of the reason we're doing this is, of course, on October 19th is just a successful vote on option two is just to have another question seeking independence.
00:13:05.680So we're a long ways away from, you know, what may happen there.
00:13:10.100And in the meantime, Harrison, we're in a system where Ottawa is not listening to us, where the people we send to Ottawa aren't giving us effective representation.
00:13:19.660So that's what this is about, is kind of playing the long game, making sure that Albertans' voices can be heard, you know, close to the Rideau Canal.
00:13:29.280now talk about some of the areas in which the areas in your province that you feel your new
00:13:36.780party will be the most successful what where where are you looking at in alberta to think to
00:13:42.360say to yourself all right we might actually be able to make a difference in this particular
00:13:46.960riding can you lay those out for us yeah well we're going to run in all 37 that includes all
00:13:52.960the rural ones all the mid-sized municipalities like medicine had and lethbridge and grand prairie
00:13:57.620And of course, Calgary and Edmonton. I expect to be very, very successful everywhere. Of course, Edmonton is always a bit more of a challenge because of the size of government and whatnot there. But Harrison, I'll say when I was MLA, there is a lot of conservatives in Edmonton whose voice they feel is more muted there than it should be.
00:14:21.040So possibly we will have greater strength in Edmonton.
00:14:25.220And there's a lot of champions from up there that have already reached out to me.
00:14:28.920So we will be able to put forward some really good people.
00:15:06.080And that's a perfect example of why we're doing this.0.98
00:15:09.240You know, they appear to be all whipped.
00:15:11.160Pierre appoints a person to be the point to stay in Canada,
00:15:15.600encourage Albertans to vote to stay in Canada.
00:15:17.980And they all fall in line. So our Alberta Now Party with members of parliament will have a different message. Go out and talk to your constituents, see what they want to do and vote with your conscious and your heart. And if you feel that Alberta will be stronger on its own, if you feel we need to gain some more leverage with Ottawa, vote yes for option two. And we will respect Alberta's decision.
00:15:42.620uh we'll we'll we'll have to leave it there drew barnes the leader of alberta now soon to be
00:15:48.880official federal party we know we know you're busy so we thank you for taking the time to join
00:15:53.920us and speaking with juno news thank you all right that's gonna do it for us this week on
00:15:57.300the show a reminder that you can use my code junonews.com slash harrison return to get a
00:16:02.080discount on a juno news subscription a further reminder to answer the comment question of the
00:16:06.220video, is a new Alberta block style party a good idea? Let me
00:16:11.380know in the comments down below. My name is Harrison