Juno News - August 03, 2025


Poilievre vows to fight for rural Alberta

Mentioned
Pierre Poilievre Elections Alberta Thomas Lukasik Damien Couric Jody Gondek Stetler Alberta Roundup Isaac Lamoureux Devin Drieschen Mike Ellis Jim Abel Catherine Swampy Kevin Sorensen Darcy Spadey Danielle Smith Mickey Amory Jeff Rath Mark Carney Chris Sims Drieschen and 3 more
Katy Perry grabs dinner with Trudeau while on Canadian tour Why Canada’s EV mandate won’t work + CBC stacked with six-figure bureaucrats

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

166.05

Word count

2,324

Sentence count

105

Harmful content

Toxicity

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

A look at the upcoming Battle River Crowfoot by-election, where Conservative candidate Pierre Polyev faced off against nine other candidates in a televised debate on Tuesday. Polyev told voters that sending him to Parliament would give rural Alberta a megaphone on the national stage. Meanwhile, locals are ridiculing a ballot stuffing stunt that s left Elections Canada scrambling to accommodate more than 200 names on the ballot. Also, Albertans could soon be signing competing referendum petitions, one for independence and one to remain in Canada. In Calgary and Edmonton, bike lanes are once again a flashpoint, and Alberta is celebrating the sharpest crime drop in the country. All that and more on this week s Alberta Roundup.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 .
00:00:11.000 Alberta's Battle River Crowfoot by-election is heating up after Pierre Polyev faced off
00:00:16.120 against nine other candidates in a cameras debate on Tuesday, telling voters that sending
00:00:21.000 him to Parliament would give rural Alberta a megaphone on the national stage.
00:00:26.000 Meanwhile, locals are ridiculing a ballot-stuffing stunt that's left Elections Canada scrambling
00:00:31.880 to accommodate more than 200 names on the ballot.
00:00:34.880 Also, Albertans could soon be signing competing referendum petitions, one for independence
00:00:40.160 and one to remain in Canada, after both questions were approved by Elections Alberta.
00:00:45.560 In Calgary and Edmonton, bike lanes are once again a flashpoint, and Alberta is celebrating 0.99
00:00:50.440 the sharpest crime drop in the country, even as the province blames Ottawa's bail laws for
00:00:55.440 putting dangerous offenders back on the streets.
00:00:57.960 All that and more on this week's Alberta Roundup.
00:00:59.920 I'm your host, Isaac Lamoureux, and let's dive right into that first story.
00:01:03.700 So Concerted Leader Pierre Polyev is making the case that Battle River Crowfoot voters
00:01:07.880 can turn their local concerns into national priorities by sending him back to Ottawa.
00:01:13.280 At a candidate forum hosted by the Camrose Chamber of Commerce on Tuesday, Polyev faced
00:01:18.080 nine opponents in front of an estimated 500 people.
00:01:21.200 He told residents that while a party leader spends much of his time traveling the country,
00:01:25.640 having a leader as their MP would give the writing a, quote, very powerful megaphone.
00:01:30.020 He said, quote, I'll be honest, having a leader of a political party as your local member of
00:01:33.940 parliament is a trade-off.
00:01:35.580 On one hand, the leader, in truth, lives in hotel rooms and low-budget hotel rooms across
00:01:39.840 the country.
00:01:41.020 The other side, though, is that a leader can bring a very powerful megaphone to the local
00:01:45.340 issues of the community.
00:01:46.200 Polyev listed issues he said mattered to rural Albertans, but needed national leadership
00:01:51.520 to achieve, like pipelines to the West Coast, protecting firearm rights, scrapping electric
00:01:56.980 vehicle mandates, lowering immigration, cutting taxes, and supporting farmers.
00:02:02.260 He said, quote, these local issues require strong national leadership, and it would be
00:02:06.220 the privilege of my life to provide both the local representation and the national leadership
00:02:11.460 for the community.
00:02:12.460 He also blamed inflation on government spending, arguing that Ottawa is fueling demand with
00:02:17.140 out-of-control immigration and money printing, while restricting supply with excessive regulation
00:02:22.400 and blocked resource projects.
00:02:25.220 In fact, Polyev actually called for negative population growth in Canada, along with cuts
00:02:29.900 to foreign aid and stopping welfare for fraudulent refugees.
00:02:33.760 The debate featured a wide spectrum of voices, including candidates from eight federal parties
00:02:37.980 and two independents.
00:02:38.980 NDP candidate Catherine Swampy acknowledged she could not win the conservative stronghold,
00:02:44.400 but argued that Canada should accept more refugees, even those rejected by U.S. authorities.
00:02:49.980 Liberal candidate Darcy Spadey praised Prime Minister Mark Carney's policies, but was repeatedly
00:02:54.740 booed.
00:02:55.920 And other candidates pitched separatism, libertarian economies, proportional representation, or
00:03:00.820 grocery price controls.
00:03:03.220 And True North actually hit the ground in Camrose and Stetler on Tuesday and Wednesday to speak
00:03:07.320 with residents about the upcoming by-election.
00:03:10.060 And while speaking with them, three key themes emerged.
00:03:13.180 That was, residents were appreciative and very fond of former Conservative MP Damien Couric,
00:03:18.360 who stepped down for Polyev to run.
00:03:20.660 The longest ballot committee, no one had good things to say about that.
00:03:24.120 And an overwhelming support emerged for Pierre Polyev.
00:03:27.020 The writing is, of course, one of the safest Conservative strongholds in the country, where Damien Couric
00:03:31.000 won with 83% of the vote in the recent federal election before he stepped down for Polyev.
00:03:36.960 Residents described his resignation as, quote, very honorable, with many saying that they
00:03:41.320 appreciated his years of service and respected him greatly in his decision to make way for Polyev.
00:03:47.000 Jim Abel, a man who lived in Stetler for five decades and actually helped Kirk get elected by
00:03:51.680 introducing him to local businesses, said he expects Polyev to garner a similar vote share in the 80th or higher percentile.
00:03:59.000 And at Tuesday's forum, where the debate took place, Polyev actually said he was being mentored by Couric,
00:04:04.960 along with the Conservative MP who held the writing before him between 2000 and 2015, Kevin Sorensen.
00:04:09.960 And in fact, actually, Couric was in the crowd at the forum.
00:04:12.960 Another woman who volunteered at the Conservatives' local office told me that Couric was still very involved, despite stepping down.
00:04:19.960 None of the locals that spoke with True North had one positive thing to say about the longest ballot committee. 1.00
00:04:25.920 In fact, some recurring words that were used by interviewees were stupid and ridiculous. 0.99
00:04:30.920 Abel said, quote, 1.00
00:04:32.880 Another woman said it was ludicrous and that it made her very angry.
00:04:39.880 Elections Canada has ordered special write-in ballots for this by-election, as the ballot was set to be over two meters or seven feet long,
00:04:46.880 to accommodate the now over 209 candidates.
00:04:49.880 And apparently, if the spelling is close to accurate, then the vote will be counted.
00:04:54.320 However, it will also not suffice to simply write Conservative instead of Pierre Polyev's full name, despite him, of course, being the only Conservative candidate.
00:05:03.160 But True North asked every single interviewee when I was in Stetler and Cambros to try and spell Polyev, and only one got it correct.
00:05:09.720 So hopefully, that doesn't cause any problems.
00:05:12.160 For our next story, we'll cover the conflicting referendums, because Alberta's sovereignty debate is heating up as dueling referendum petitions take shape, each with very different hurdles.
00:05:22.180 The Alberta Prosperity Project filed its official constitutional petition with Elections Alberta back in May, but asked Elections Alberta to hold on to it until Bill 54 was in effect.
00:05:31.960 It officially became filed on July 4th.
00:05:34.600 The question asks, quote,
00:05:35.920 Do you agree that the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?
00:05:40.600 And under the new rules passed in Bill 54, the Alberta Prosperity Project has 120 days to collect roughly 177,000 in-person signatures based on 10% of the ballots cast in the last provincial election.
00:05:53.360 The group has already reported more than 250,000 pledges from Albertans who say they intend to sign, and Premier Daniel Smith has promised that if the APP clears the threshold, she will place the question on a ballot in 2026.
00:06:06.340 However, recently, Elections Alberta has referred the petition question to the Court of King's Bench for constitutional review, and leaders of Alberta Prosperity Project have accused the agency of using, quote, delay tactics, with general counsel for the project, calling the rival petition filed by Thomas Lukasik a, quote, mischief application.
00:06:24.000 And Justice Minister Mickie Amory actually sided with the separatists.
00:06:27.960 He said, quote,
00:06:29.220 Albertans have a democratic right to participate in the citizen initiative process.
00:06:33.440 They shouldn't be slowed down by bureaucratic red tape or court applications.
00:06:37.560 And the rival petition from Lukasik comes from Forever Canada, which he leads.
00:06:42.000 Their question asks,
00:06:43.280 Do you agree that Alberta must remain in Canada and any form of separation be rejected?
00:06:48.540 But unlike the APP, Lukasik filed before Bill 54 was proclaimed, meaning his group faces a much higher bar, 293,976 signatures in only 90 days.
00:07:00.600 One other thing I wanted to highlight just quickly was Elections Alberta told True North that Lukasik's requirement was based on 10% of provincial electors on the post-election day list of electors.
00:07:10.340 And according to Election Alberta's website, legislative or policy proposals require support from 10% of electors, while constitutional referendum proposals must meet a higher threshold, 20%, which would be 587,952 signatures, or the more widely cited target of 600,000 signatures.
00:07:27.140 Therefore, Elections Alberta considers Lukasik's question a legislative or policy proposal, not a constitutional referendum.
00:07:35.040 And you might remember that Jeffrey Rath said, quote,
00:07:37.300 The question is not a proper referendum question to be used on a constitutional issue.
00:07:41.980 Furthermore, to the extent that the question seeks nothing more than to preserve the status quo, it is not a suitable question for determination through a citizens' initiative referendum.
00:07:51.540 Alongside its petition, the Alberta Prosperity Project unveiled a sweeping fiscal plan that says it proves Alberta would thrive outside Confederation.
00:07:59.980 According to its 44-page report, Alberta currently sends $68 to $75 billion to Ottawa each year, while receiving only $22 to $26 billion in return, resulting in a net loss of up to $47 billion.
00:08:13.320 An independent Alberta, however, it claims could generate $4.71 trillion in revenue between 2025 and 2045, saving nearly $700 billion, creating as many as 450,000 jobs, and generating around $1.4 trillion for the Heritage Fund.
00:08:31.360 The plan calls for scrapping provincial and federal income taxes, eliminating the GST, and creating a new Alberta dollar backed by oil, gold, and Bitcoin.
00:08:40.700 It also proposes strict balanced budget rules, deporting non-citizens convicted of crimes, and building an Alberta pension plan with $167 billion in assets transferred from the CPP.
00:08:51.100 With both petitions moving forward, Albertans may soon find themselves signing sheets for two opposite futures, one that breaks away from Canada and one that reaffirms the Federation.
00:09:01.140 For our next story, we're actually going to talk about bike lanes.
00:09:03.420 So, Transportation Minister Devin Drishan is once again weighing in on Alberta's bike lane battles, this time applauding Calgary's Mayor Jyoti Gondek for her sudden change in tone.
00:09:13.760 Speaking in Airdrie after a meeting with her, he said, quote,
00:09:16.620 I was pleasantly surprised that Mayor Gondek has the view that bike lanes are temporary.
00:09:21.320 She said even though the concrete barriers may be made out of stone, they can obviously be removed.
00:09:26.580 So I think that commitment by Calgary, at least for right now, is a step in the right direction.
00:09:31.000 Drishan argued that bike lanes disadvantage the vast majority of commuters.
00:09:35.480 He said only 2% of Calgarians use bike lanes, while of course 98%, face congestion, despite having no use for them.
00:09:43.940 Drishan explained that instead of taking lanes away for cyclists, further congesting traffic,
00:09:49.040 the province planned to spend $700 million on Calgary's Deerfoot Trail to add more lanes and reduce the daily commute of residents by 20%.
00:09:57.960 The Transportation Minister added that City Council's removing traffic lanes for bike lanes has caused, quote,
00:10:03.860 traffic congestion and chaos, and it slows down people's daily commutes and actually makes their life worse.
00:10:10.820 Also, Alberta often sees snow for 8 months of the year, meaning the bike lanes only are used for a third of the year.
00:10:17.100 Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Chris Sims, told True North that $100 million is dedicated to the bike lane infrastructure in Edmonton between 2023 and 2026,
00:10:27.360 which costs $11 million per year to maintain.
00:10:31.160 Meanwhile, she added that Edmontonians have seen property tax increases to accommodate these bike lanes,
00:10:36.800 and at the same time, the mayor of Edmonton has a higher salary than the province's premier.
00:10:41.620 She said, quote,
00:10:42.760 So this is a huge waste of money.
00:10:44.760 The vast majority of the time, very few cyclists actually use these lanes,
00:10:49.360 and it's going to cost a ton of money to remove these lanes,
00:10:52.500 because it's not as if these are a couple of pylons and some green paint.
00:10:56.600 So this is, again, another example of city governments being terrible with people's money and making really unpopular decisions.
00:11:03.860 Of course, municipal elections are coming up in Alberta on October 20th, 2025,
00:11:10.180 and Sims actually said that Gondek's sudden change in stance is likely because she's getting into election mode.
00:11:16.660 She said bike lanes could become an election issue.
00:11:20.540 Edmonton mayoral candidate Raheem Jaffer has said that he would halt the expansion of bike lanes in Edmonton if he was elected.
00:11:27.740 One Edmonton community submitted a formal petition to the city council with a clear majority of residents opposing bike lanes in their neighborhood,
00:11:36.120 but it was ignored.
00:11:37.320 The province, of course, could override a municipality and halt the bike lanes.
00:11:42.060 Sims celebrated the fact that Alberta actually has referenda at the municipal and provincial levels,
00:11:47.200 and she said that if a referendum occurred on bike lanes, she expects that 80% of residents would be in opposition.
00:11:53.260 And if a referendum occurred in Alberta's major cities and bike lanes were voted against,
00:11:58.620 the municipalities would have to get rid of them, but if they didn't, the province could step in and force them to.
00:12:04.720 Drieschen said that bike lanes can be good, but should never come at the expense of driving lanes.
00:12:10.260 He said, quote,
00:12:11.360 And for our next story, we'll stick with the Alberta government, but move a bit more federally,
00:12:18.680 because Alberta is celebrating a major victory in its fight against crime.
00:12:22.460 But it's also saying that Ottawa's policies are still failing Canadians.
00:12:27.360 According to Statistics Canada, Alberta's police-reported crime severity index fell 9% in 2024,
00:12:33.640 more than double the national average of 4%.
00:12:36.740 The province's overall crime rate also dropped 9%, marking the steepest decline of any province.
00:12:42.740 Officials say the results highlight Alberta's investments in policing and community safety.
00:12:47.520 Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis praised frontline officers,
00:12:50.140 but pointed to the federal bail policies as a continuing problem.
00:12:54.160 He said, quote,
00:12:55.040 These local successes stand in stark contrast to the ongoing inaction from the federal government,
00:13:00.740 whose policies have broken the bail system,
00:13:03.320 allowing violent repeat offenders back on our streets,
00:13:06.360 contributing to a national increase in crime.
00:13:09.040 And the Conservative Party took it a step further, drawing attention to longer-term trends.
00:13:14.020 Since 2015, gun crime nationwide is up 130%, violent crime up 55%, homicides up 29%, and sexual assaults up 76%.
00:13:25.920 The party said, quote,
00:13:27.020 The Conservatives also highlighted a few recent criminal cases that were of notable concern.
00:13:40.040 In one, a man murdered his wife just hours after being released on bail.
00:13:43.960 In another, a man attempting to buy sex from a 15-year-old received only three months of house arrest.
00:13:50.240 And Ellis said Alberta would continue lobbying Ottawa for bail reform.
00:13:54.160 That wraps up this week's Alberta Roundup.
00:13:56.320 My name's Isaac Lamoureux.
00:13:57.580 Have a great weekend.
00:13:58.520 Thank you, and God bless.