Juno News - Separatist SURGE coming in Alberta byelections？ Republican leader speaks out

00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show. We have a great episode for you

00:00:07.420 today, folks. It is a very important week in Alberta politics next week. So on Monday,

00:00:14.280 there will be three by-elections, by-elections that will have an impact on the future of that

00:00:20.300 province, particularly the future of Premier Danielle Smith and her UCP party. So there's

00:00:26.540 two specific by-elections that I think are going to be really important and ones to watch.

00:00:31.540 The first one is Edmonton Strathcona. That is actually the writing I used to live in. It's

00:00:35.880 where the University of Alberta is located. It's typically seen as like an island of socialism in

00:00:41.380 an otherwise, you know, very sensible province. And Nahid Nenshi, the leader of the NDP party,

00:00:47.940 will be running in that writing. Now, you may have asked yourself, I asked myself this too,

00:00:51.340 why would Nahid Nenshi run in Edmonton, right? He's the longtime Calgary mayor. We were told that

00:00:56.460 he's popular in Calgary as part of the reason why he's leading the party is that maybe he'll be

00:01:01.560 able to appeal to a broader base than just the NDP. And yet here he is running in Strathcona.

00:01:08.380 Originally, he said he was going to wait for a Calgary seat, but I guess he became too impatient.

00:01:12.580 And when a safe NDP writing like Alberta Strathcona came around, Nahid Nenshi jumped at that. So it'll

00:01:17.740 be interesting to see how he does relative to Rachel Notley, the former NDP leader in that writing,

00:01:24.460 whether he'll be able to beat her numbers or whether he'll come in quite a bit behind how she

00:01:29.460 used to run. The other interesting and I think consequential writing in this election by election

00:01:35.240 is in Olds, Didsbury, Three Hills. Now that is a rural writing just north of Calgary. It's considered

00:01:42.520 to be the most conservative writing in the entire province. Most conservative writing in the most

00:01:48.400 conservative province. Hey, you might say that these are my kind of people. These are sensible,

00:01:52.560 good common sense folks in Olds, Didsbury. And 75% of them voted in the UCP for the UCP candidate

00:02:00.860 last time around in 2023. So why is it an interesting by-election? What's happening?

00:02:06.160 In Olds, we're going to do a bit of a deep dive to find out what is happening there. And I'm pleased

00:02:10.500 to be joined by one of the candidates that is running in that election. He is the head of something

00:02:15.960 called the Alberta Republican Party. Sorry, the Republican Party of Alberta. It is a registered

00:02:21.380 political party that has made joining the United States central to its platform. And so I'm very

00:02:28.480 pleased today to be joined by its leader, Cam Davis, who is the leader of the Republican Party of Alberta

00:02:32.720 and the candidate. He is a former Wild Rose figure and he was an early United Conservative Party supporter.

00:02:39.720 Now, I just want to preface this by saying that some of my friends in Alberta don't like this

00:02:45.420 character very much. And some of them told me not to have him on the show. But hey, he's a newsmaker

00:02:50.420 and it's an interesting proposition, right? This idea of Alberta separatism. He is running against

00:02:57.740 Premier Danielle Smith, though. And many see him as trying to undermine her, undermine what she's doing

00:03:03.480 in that province. So I'm going to let the audience make up their own mind on him. And I thought I

00:03:08.540 would give him the opportunity to speak for himself. So Cam, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much

00:03:12.640 for joining us.

00:03:14.360 Well, thanks for having me, Candace. And I would just preface with some clarity that we are in fact a

00:03:20.560 party that we want to see Alberta as an independent constitutional republic. And so joining the United

00:03:28.260 States is not something that is part of our platform at all. We are, and by definition of why we

00:03:35.220 call ourselves Republicans, is we see that the broken system of confederation is something that is

00:03:43.080 the source cause of all of the issues or most of the issues that Alberta faces within Canada. And so

00:03:49.820 our mission is to form Alberta into a constitutional republic.

00:03:55.420 Okay. Well, sorry for misstating that. I thought, I thought I read that you wanted Alberta to join the

00:04:03.280 United States. I know you yourself are a dual American Canadian citizen. It says here you served

00:04:08.040 in the United States Marines. So tell me, Cam, when did you get back into, when did you move to Alberta?

00:04:13.680 When did you get into Alberta politics?

00:04:15.420 I moved to Alberta in the early nineties. My parents were missionaries to Spruce Grove, Alberta. So just

00:04:22.800 west of Edmonton, small town. It's not so small anymore, mass, lots of immigration to Alberta. And

00:04:29.860 so it's a, it's a growing, it's a growing city. It's almost right next to Edmonton now. So

00:04:34.880 I began involvement in Alberta politics in 2008 with the early Wild Rose and the Alliance merger,

00:04:44.460 and then 2009 by-election 2012 Wild Rose campaign, which you were on and stayed around the

00:04:52.700 Wild Rose through the floor crossings. And I was Brian Jean's campaign manager in 2015 that we brought

00:04:59.760 the party back from the ashes and four seats up to 21. And, um, after that, I helped merge the Wild

00:05:06.600 Rose and PC parties. That's something that, uh, I think many Albertans, especially in rural Alberta,

00:05:12.020 regret supporting. In fact, um, there's a lot of understanding now that, uh, what we ought to have had

00:05:18.560 was two pragmatic conservative parties, uh, in a coalition to avoid some of the mistakes in the past.

00:05:24.800 And that's what the Republican party of Alberta is trying to accomplish today now. So, uh, my involvement

00:05:31.280 after that, of course, was with, uh, Jason Kenney and the leadership race of, uh, of the UCP as a founding

00:05:38.400 member of the UCP. And like many Albertans, I had high hopes for Jason. And I think like many Albertans,

00:05:45.300 we were disappointed. And, um, of course, as you've mentioned, there's, uh, lots of questions that,

00:05:51.400 uh, swirl. We've asked, uh, we've heard these questions, uh, many times. And, you know, when we

00:05:57.060 began to get involved with Jason Kenney and his campaign, um, I was a, I was a member of his

00:06:04.380 electoral district association. And as a young man in my mid twenties, um, I should have asked more

00:06:11.180 questions when I was told to do certain things for his campaign. And, uh, and I was told they were

00:06:16.620 okay to do, I should have investigated further and could have avoided some, uh, some of the heartache

00:06:22.060 and headaches that came along with that. And, but those are life lessons that you learn and you,

00:06:26.780 you move on from those mistakes and you learn from them and you pick yourself up like most Albertans do,

00:06:32.220 and you dust yourself off and you learn from it and carry on. So, um, fast forwarding, I,

00:06:37.180 I, I helped, uh, Danielle. Just to clarify to the audience, sorry to interrupt you there, Cam,

00:06:42.940 just to clarify, you were charged and I believe you were convicted of violating the elections laws

00:06:49.260 in, in that's, that's what you're referring to making some mistakes in the past. Is that correct?

00:06:54.460 Um, so charge and convicted is, is probably not the correct terminology. They were administrative

00:06:59.020 penalties. And so when you, when you use terms like charge and convicted, you're, you're referencing

00:07:03.740 a criminal investigation and that's not what occurred. Uh, so I think what you're referencing

00:07:08.780 is an administrative penalty, which is a very expensive parking ticket. There were financial laws

00:07:15.820 that the NDP government changed, uh, three or four times in an attempt to trip up and cause issues for

00:07:25.100 not only Jason Kenney, but the UCP in its fledgling days, uh, financial laws that were legal a few months

00:07:31.500 prior became illegal in the middle of a contest. And I did not keep up with those changes. I trusted the

00:07:37.980 financial agents to inform me as to what was legal and what was not. And I should have done my due

00:07:43.100 diligence at that time. And so, uh, I was fined an administrative penalty and I've paid those fines

00:07:49.980 and learned from that mistake almost a decade, almost a decade ago. Yeah. Fair enough. Okay. Let's,

00:07:55.740 let's move on to, I think you were heading this way in what you were saying, Cam, talking about

00:08:00.140 premier Danielle Smith, uh, because I understand that you previously supported her. You previously

00:08:04.860 campaigned for her. Um, and recently in her own leadership review in the party, she received 91%

00:08:11.900 support. So I'm wondering like what, what caused you to decide that, you know, the future that you

00:08:17.340 want for Alberta is outside of the UCP party? Well, this goes back to 2008 and the whole reason

00:08:27.180 the wild rose party was formed was for better governance. It was for smaller limited government.

00:08:34.460 It was for eliminating the corruption and entitlement and arrogance of the 44 year PC dynasty. That's why

00:08:41.580 we created the wild rose party, um, back then. And so you're, you're correct in that I did assist Danielle

00:08:49.820 in her leadership race. And subsequently, um, over a dozen of the current UCP MLAs in their contests and

00:08:58.220 have many friends in the UCP. And, and, um, you know, when we look at what kind of transpired over the last

00:09:04.940 year, we see that there's been a drift back towards, uh, some of those same habits, if you will,

00:09:12.700 of the 44 year PC dynasty, some of the, the, um, corruption things are bubbling up the lack of

00:09:20.140 ability to speak up within the party. And so when you see things like that, it became clear that

00:09:27.980 if MLAs in the party can't speak up with truth, uh, against massive deficit spending, like the MLA for

00:09:36.300 Lesser Slave Lake did in standing up for his constituents and was subsequently removed from the party.

00:09:43.100 If, if UCP ministers who see corruption occurring and procurement issues and pressure from the

00:09:50.700 premier's office on procurement occurring within their ministry, and they speak up and they're

00:09:57.100 subsequently removed from the party. And we're not talking about, uh, you know, troublemakers.

00:10:01.500 We're talking about people who actually stood up to Jason Kenny, uh, during COVID and they're removed

00:10:07.660 from the party where we're going down the same path of the 44 year PC dynasty. And I begin to see the,

00:10:14.780 the correlations between the UCP and the PC 44 year government under Redford. And in fact,

00:10:20.300 Redford's back in, I don't know if you're, if your viewers watch that, but Danielle Smith reappointed

00:10:25.500 Redford. Um, so there's a troubling occurrences that are happening, uh, last year at the AGM that you

00:10:32.060 referenced, um, UCP members voted for what I thought was a very, very strong, uh, articulate,

00:10:39.900 a bill of rights amendment. And then what ultimately ended up getting passed in the legislature

00:10:46.940 was a watered down version that became a bill of privileges. And government does not give you

00:10:52.700 your rights. Your rights come from God. And if government can give you those rights, they can

00:10:56.940 take them away. And I was very disappointed to see that that was what the legislation that got passed.

00:11:02.380 And, uh, those are things that, uh, as a wild rose, uh, member from, from back in 2008 to 2015,

00:11:09.980 we fought for smaller government for, for lower taxes, for more frontline workers, less managers for

00:11:14.860 managers. Uh, we fought for those things and I see that fight continuing now and being even more

00:11:20.620 important than ever before, as we face yet another four or maybe five years of a Mark Carney government.

00:11:26.860 Well, certainly I think that following the federal election, uh, I mean, I've, I've never seen anything

00:11:32.220 like it, Cam, like the interest and the spark of separatism in Alberta. I mean, it was simmering

00:11:37.900 ever since president Trump made his 51st state comments. Um, but following the reelection of the

00:11:43.660 liberals, I, I, it's, you know, there's always been this sort of Wexit movement and every time

00:11:47.900 Justin Trudeau got reelected, you would see the frustration in Alberta, but it seems to be

00:11:53.260 bigger than ever. Uh, I was really surprised. I read the Calgary Herald, uh, Don Braid's column.

00:11:58.460 Uh, he, he was right. He wrote that nobody would be surprised if separatist Cam Davies

00:12:03.340 wins up to 30% in his writing. So is it, is that sort of what you're predicting? What do you

00:12:09.020 think is going to happen on Monday night? Well, two weeks ago, they were saying I

00:12:13.900 wouldn't win more than the PPC. And they were trying to, to label our party as, as a PPC party

00:12:19.980 that was going to get 5% of the vote and, and this and that. And now they're saying we might get 30%.

00:12:27.420 Uh, you know, the votes on Monday, uh, we're a brand new party. We're, we're two months, roughly two

00:12:32.380 and a half months old in this, in this rebrand. And I've been leader since the end of April.

00:12:36.860 And, um, I would just say, look, you know, in 2008, the wild rose ran in this writing.

00:12:41.900 Um, we were, we were a newer party. We were around for about a year at that point. Uh,

00:12:46.940 the merger had occurred and I believe Paul Hinman was the leader and, uh, the party,

00:12:52.860 the wild rose party got 20% in the general election. So, uh, typically, you know, you can

00:12:58.620 do a little better in, in those scenarios when everyone's paying attention and more people are

00:13:03.020 talking about it. So by elections, uh, there's been, uh, 31 by elections, I believe in the last

00:13:09.500 50 years and only five of them have ever changed hands. Uh, I was involved in two of those campaigns,

00:13:15.980 one for Paul Hinman and Glenmore in 2009. And of course, Prasad Pandas in, uh, 2015 in Calgary,

00:13:22.300 I managed that campaign. Uh, so the history of, of by-elections, changing hands, uh, certainly

00:13:30.140 doesn't, uh, lean in favor of parties, uh, gaining seats during by-elections. However,

00:13:36.460 they do serve as a, as a wake up call that the electorate is prepared to move if action isn't

00:13:43.580 taken. And particularly what I'm finding is that voters in Alberta wholeheartedly reject this notion

00:13:52.300 that's come from the UCP of, we have to give Mark Carney a chance that we have to give him,

00:13:57.340 whether that be six months or 12 months or whatever the case may be. Uh, voters here don't want to give

00:14:02.780 Mark Carney a chance. They recognize that he is worse than Justin Trudeau. Uh, Mark Carney wrote the

00:14:08.540 book on how to be a socialist. Trudeau just might've read a couple of pages. Uh, this man is dangerous

00:14:13.740 and he's focused on a mission to fundamentally alter Canada in a way that isn't helpful to Albertans.

00:14:19.820 Just a few weeks ago, he announced a $340 million to confiscate legally owned firearms. Uh, you know,

00:14:27.820 Justin Trudeau said, uh, budgets will balance itself. This guy doesn't even think he needs a budget.

00:14:32.700 And so fundamentally Albertans don't believe that giving him a chance is something that any

00:14:38.140 government should consider, let alone a conservative government. And so we're starting to see, well,

00:14:43.180 do we actually have a conservative government? Is this the direction they want to go? As you know,

00:14:47.820 last summer, uh, the UCP premier decided to tell on a very, uh, large podcast audience that she wanted

00:14:55.420 to double Alberta's population from 5 million to 10 million. Uh, those are things that Albertans don't

00:15:01.740 align with. And so we're seeing the, the negative consequences of that mass immigration needs to come 1.00

00:15:06.780 to a rapid halt across this country. And so we're standing with Albertans on those issues and, uh, on

00:15:13.980 June 23rd, uh, we'll see what they have to say. And it'll be, it'll be, it'll be a clear signal for

00:15:18.780 both our party, uh, and the UCP as to what direction Albertans want to go and where they have concerns.

00:15:25.820 And so I'm wondering, like, uh, you know, we, we mentioned on the top that Old Stidsbury is

00:15:30.140 probably the most conservative writing in the province. It actually has a history of voting for

00:15:35.420 a separatist in, in the eighties. Uh, briefly there was a separatist candidate that was elected as an MLA

00:15:41.820 in that writing. Um, but, but some say, you know, this is sort of like for, for the Alberta Republican

00:15:46.780 party, if you can't win here, you know, what, what chance do you, uh, run in, in, in a regular,

00:15:53.020 general election? Like, do you see this as sort of make or break for your party?

00:15:56.940 Not at all. Not at all. The writing was much different in the eighties. Um, it had, uh, regions

00:16:03.340 further west, which tend to have higher separatist, uh, leanings, uh, independence-minded Albertans

00:16:09.660 in the sundry area. And in subsequent boundary changes, it picked up areas, uh, like three hills,

00:16:16.220 which, uh, you know, as their, their former hockey team was called the monarchists. Uh,

00:16:20.620 so, uh, independence, uh, pockets, uh, are, are not necessarily as strong in parts of the new

00:16:27.740 boundaries. So, you know, when we look at, uh, when we look at, uh, the writing and our perspective,

00:16:33.580 uh, we've, we've started at zero. And so, uh, in previous by-elections, there's been, uh,

00:16:39.580 independence parties that have run. And, uh, I think the last one, uh, got around nine,

00:16:44.300 maybe 10% in Fort McMurray. And so that's kind of our metrics for success. Of course,

00:16:49.500 it is a conservative area. There's no question about that. Um, but there are also areas of the

00:16:54.700 writing that are more traditional. And so we have to take those things into consideration,

00:16:59.820 as well as being a brand new brand and a brand new party. And so as voters get to know us and

00:17:04.860 what we're about and why we're fighting for a vision for Alberta that sees us as truly strong

00:17:10.940 and free independent Alberta Republic, uh, as voters warm up to that, I think we'll see

00:17:16.380 more success in subsequent elections as well. Now, I just want to raise this, uh, point and

00:17:22.700 bring it to your attention, Cam. You probably know this, but the 2023 election was really close,

00:17:28.460 right? Danielle Smith did win a majority government. Uh, but I want to share this graph.

00:17:32.540 It shows here, it says, Andy, this is a tweet from an individual called Blake Schaefer. So the NDP

00:17:37.340 needed 2,611 votes across six ridings to win a majority. And so even though there were, you know,

00:17:45.900 it ended up being that Danielle Smith won her majority by a few safe seats. Um, there was a lot of

00:17:52.780 seats. I think there's 10 seats that were won by fewer than a thousand votes. So it's pretty easy for an

00:17:57.420 upstart right-wing party to come and spoil, uh, everything for premier Danielle Smith and the UCP 0.99

00:18:04.620 and enable what happened in 2015, which I think everyone agrees is a nightmare scenario where the

00:18:10.140 right is split in half and it enables the NDP to win and form government with only 40% of the vote. So

00:18:16.940 is that something that is, you know, that you're, you're, you're consciously aware of that's something

00:18:21.260 you're nervous about. Like, you know, I I'm just wondering like what, what, what, what happens if

00:18:26.700 you're successful and you create that sort of scenario. I don't think anyone wants that in Alberta.

00:18:32.620 So as the manager for the 2015 wild rose campaign, I can tell you that there were only two ridings

00:18:39.260 that were direct cause of vote splitting. Uh, the vast majority of ridings that went NDP saw a net

00:18:46.060 reduction in overall turnout. And so it wasn't as if a flick, a switch got flicked and, and 35% increase

00:18:55.100 in socialists in Alberta happened overnight. That is not what occurred in 2015. What did occur is that

00:19:00.460 after 44 years of a PC government that became entitled, arrogant and corrupt, and the devastation

00:19:07.660 of the floor crossing to the wild rose is that conservative voters stayed home. Many of them stayed home.

00:19:14.060 Some of them chose to hold their nose and protest vote with the NDP. Uh, and so when conservatives

00:19:21.660 stop being conservative, we divide ourselves and we lose elections. And so the real message that we

00:19:28.620 should have taken from the 2015 election is that stick to being conservative, stop watering down where

00:19:34.700 we are on the issues, stop doing the finger in the wind, uh, style of, of politics, um, stay true to our

00:19:41.340 values and principles as conservatives and we'll win elections because, uh, the electorate doesn't

00:19:46.060 want conservative light. They want actual conservatives to run and represent them. And so

00:19:52.540 you mentioned the 2023 election and I was heavily involved in, in that election. And many of those

00:19:57.260 seats that narrowly won, uh, I was involved with helping, uh, including the justice minister and making

00:20:03.580 sure that the UCP did have a majority government, but what we saw in many of those election, uh, on the

00:20:09.900 ground is that, um, again, conservatives were not happy and a lot of them stayed home. In fact, if you

00:20:16.540 look at the numbers between 2019 and 2023, 111,000 conservatives stayed home. They just chose not to even

00:20:24.060 show up. Uh, and at a time when our province's population grew significantly from 2019 to 2023,

00:20:30.700 we can't afford to lose 111,000 conservatives staying at home because they didn't like the

00:20:35.660 leader. They didn't like some of the policies. They didn't feel that there was adequate, um,

00:20:41.020 reconciliation with what occurred during COVID. Uh, there was no accountability during COVID

00:20:45.900 and those conservatives stayed home and, and almost cost the UCP the election. Uh, but I don't put

00:20:52.940 that on the voters. I actually put that on the parties that run. If you're running to represent

00:20:57.900 conservatives, then you promised, uh, Alberta sovereignty and you change it to a sovereignty

00:21:03.500 within a United Canada. If you promised Albertans accountability on COVID and you delivered that

00:21:08.300 and you actually elevate the people who, uh, oppressed Albertans, then they're going to stay home.

00:21:13.500 And that's what happened in 2023. All right. Well, Cam, I really appreciate your time. Best of luck

00:21:21.020 in the by-election on Monday. We'll be watching it very closely. Thank you for joining the show today.

00:21:25.420 Thank you, Candace. Appreciate having me on.

Juno News - June 21, 2025

Separatist SURGE coming in Alberta byelections？ Republican leader speaks out

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