00:01:37.280I know every time you come on the Alberta Roundup, everyone is always very happy to have you and to see your insight.
00:01:44.780So I think generally the people of Alberta are very happy that they're getting more conservative coverage of the province.
00:01:49.980So, you know, we've had another interesting week in Canadian politics, starting off with a big story coming out of Western Canada, not Alberta, but just next to us, BC.
00:02:01.440Basically, the collapse of the BC United this week with leader Kevin Falcon saying that he would be endorsing the BC Conservatives and that they would be suspending their election campaign entirely.
00:02:13.100I mean, I think a lot of people have been talking about how we are going to be seeing a blue wave in BC come this fall, but I didn't see this withdrawal coming.
00:02:24.900I heard about it a few hours before it was actually announced on Wednesday.
00:02:29.180Why don't we just let Kevin Falcon explain in his own words why he decided to suspend his campaign.
00:02:36.900The name is about trying to unite people.
00:02:40.620But what became apparent to me as I've crisscrossed the province and heard from literally tens of thousands of people is the number one major concern that they had.
00:02:52.500And that is, Kevin, if you guys don't do the right thing and be the adults in the room and help bring together that free enterprise, centre-right, common sense coalition,
00:03:02.940you are going to help elect an NDP government.
00:03:06.700And all of you that know me know that there is nothing more important to me, my children and your children and grandchildren,
00:03:13.800that we not give the NDP one more day in power than they absolutely have to have.
00:03:20.900And that's why I made the decision that I made as leader of BC United to suspend our campaign.
00:03:30.580I will be withdrawing our candidate nominations.
00:03:34.540And in cooperation with John Rustad, we will work together to assemble the best possible team of MLAs and candidates
00:03:45.800that can serve the best interests of British Columbians.
00:03:49.220So, I mean, I have to be honest, at the at the ripe old age of 26, I've been covering I've been covering politics in Canada for, you know, about five, six years now.
00:03:58.540I've already become quite the pessimist.
00:04:00.680So typically when I see a clip like this, especially when we're doing our Friday fun show, my first my first initial reaction would be to really make fun of Calvin Falcon.
00:04:11.380I mean, the irony of this being is that he obviously kicked John Rustad out of the party back in 2022.
00:04:16.960Rustad had posted a tweet basically denying the impacts of climate change and he was kicked out of the BC United for this.
00:04:21.860And here we are, you know, a year later and closer to two years later.
00:04:27.180And Kevin Falcon is with is suspending his campaign and essentially endorsing John Rustad's party.
00:04:32.200So there's certainly a level of irony here.
00:04:34.120That being said, I think we can all agree that this is actually the right thing for Kevin to do.
00:04:37.940And it's it's not very often that we see politicians doing the right thing nowadays.
00:04:43.480It's not very often that we see politicians recognizing when they are unpopular, when their policies are unpopular.
00:04:48.920Obviously, the best example of this currently is in the is in the liberal government.
00:04:52.780Jagmeet Singh is very unpopular politician.
00:04:55.420His party is not doing well and he's not willing to recognize this.
00:04:58.840He's also not willing to recognize the fact that the liberals are not polling well and that he should end his supply confidence agreement in which he doesn't even seem to be benefiting from politically anyways.
00:05:08.700So, you know, Kevin is actually doing the right thing here.
00:05:11.140And I think we can definitely commend him for that.
00:05:13.260But Sue Ann, you've been around for just a little longer than I have, maybe about five or 10 years.
00:05:21.060I've covered politics for, well, I would say 30 years.
00:05:24.620And I've seen municipal races, provincial races and federal ones where the conservatives have gone down to defeat because they have failed to understand that they need to unite various candidates.
00:05:40.720I mean, it just happened in our election race here in Toronto where there were three or four conservative candidates and the NDP squeaked through.
00:05:50.540And the NDP is very, very good at organizing conservatives, less so.
00:05:55.000And the egos that are involved in some of these races are unbelievable.
00:06:24.780I mean, when we're talking about this idea of conservatives, especially needing to unite to coalesce those conservative votes.
00:06:31.000I mean, Isaac, how successful do you think that this endeavor will be?
00:06:34.560Do you think that the conservatives will be successful in the fall election in BC?
00:06:38.120Yeah, when I first saw this, I initially thought, of course, this would almost guarantee that the conservatives come out with a victory in the following election.
00:06:48.440And interestingly, when I was talking about this on Daily Brief the other day, I did a quick historical analysis on other political downfalls in Canadian history.
00:07:00.000And though Sue N's been covering politics in Canada longer than I've been alive, I'll try and do my best here.
00:07:17.820So, yeah, just the most notable one that stood out to me and I looked through various was obviously Kim Campbell's defeat when she became prime minister after Brian Mulroney resigned.
00:07:30.400And then, interestingly, I found that prior to the election, she had pretty favorable approval ratings above 50%, but her campaign was an epic failure.
00:07:49.620So, it'll be interesting to see how this BC United debacle, let's call it, goes down in Canadian history as a political defeat, I suppose, if you want to call it that.
00:08:02.220And, like, when we talk about watching this, how this plays out, Sue Ann, you've seen these types of situations play out a little more than Isaac and I have.
00:08:09.340One of the things that I'm wondering is, you know, federally, I think a lot of people are hoping that we're going to have an election sooner rather than later.
00:08:15.420But I think, obviously, we'll have one in 2025.
00:08:19.320With, you know, Pierre Polyev's Conservatives, do you think that Maxime Bernier's People's Party of Canada is going to be a problem for the Conservatives?
00:08:28.340Do you think it is going to split that Conservative vote?
00:08:30.900Or do you think that the PPC really shone during the COVID era when they were the one federal party criticizing government policy around COVID-19?
00:08:40.540And that we won't see that same level of support for them next year?
00:08:43.600I don't think we're going to see the same level.
00:08:45.040I think he's sort of, you want to say flawed because he's just, you know, embarrassed himself on the, he hasn't kept up, let's say, with the times.
00:08:56.740And, you know, you've got to be conservative, fiscally conservative, tough on law and order, but you have to understand some of the social realities of Canada.
00:09:05.700I mean, not bend to transgender philosophy and crazy people and give them all kinds of money.
00:09:12.320But in the same token, understand, like, I call myself a fiscal conservative, but I'm socially liberal.
00:09:20.640So I think he's pretty much dead in the water.
00:09:25.600And I don't think he'll have an impact next year.
00:09:32.740I'd be surprised if we see a resurgence of the PPC in 2025.
00:09:36.880I don't know if it's quite the year to make it the wedge issue, especially with the Conservatives.
00:09:40.480I know only in the last few months, but coalescing to Canadians' concerns around immigration.
00:09:45.300Now, obviously, when this story came out this week of the BC United suspending their campaign, I suspect conservative households like ours across the country were sort of celebrating, you know, taking this as a good sign of good conservative momentum out West.
00:10:00.780However, it was a little overshadowed in my household by this slight irritation.
00:10:06.440A member of my family, I'm not going to name names, left the house this week.
00:10:12.300I don't remember which day it was to, you know, go to the convenience store and to pick up a pack of Zonic and, you know, have some tobacco pouches, which is really quite a successful method for people who are trying to quit smoking is to use these tobacco pouches.
00:10:26.420And apparently the federal government has passed new regulations.
00:10:30.360You can no longer buy them at convenience stores.
00:10:33.860So this member of my household basically spent a few hours driving around trying to get his hands on some Zonic or another form of tobacco pouches.
00:10:44.840I guess you can only buy them at pharmacies now, but it seems like the pharmacies aren't even really on top of this.
00:10:57.440Well, firstly, I'll note that you called them tobacco pouches, which they're actually nicotine pouches, which is kind of the Liberals' whole reasoning behind this change that took place on August 28th, which was that these nicotine pouches, known under the brand names of Zonic and Zin, are no longer able to be sold at convenience stores prior to the change.
00:11:17.800You'd obviously find them most commonly at 7-Eleven.
00:11:20.060But now they can only be sold in pharmacies.
00:11:23.360And the Liberals' explanation for this was that youth were acquiring them, as I mentioned, because there's no tobacco in them.
00:11:30.680They fell outside of the purview of tobacco or vaping laws.
00:11:34.200So I guess any aged person could buy them, although many of the companies had made them 18-plus, but some of the convenience stores, I guess, weren't honoring this request from the companies.
00:11:45.860And in fact, the vice president of Imperial Tobacco, Eric Gagnon, he said, quote, the biggest losers right now are adult smokers that have been using Zonic.
00:11:56.020And I know there are many of them, myself included.
00:12:00.160This really took me by surprise because I think it was the August 27th, I went to the store to get some, and I seen the sign that said, we will no longer be selling these after the 28th because of federal law, which obviously we'd reported on.
00:12:15.580But that was a while ago, and I had forgotten about it.
00:12:18.240So this was, it sent me into, well, it made me a bit mad, especially I went in and I joked with the cashier.
00:12:26.640I said, oh, but don't worry, I can still get a crack pipe for free from the federal government down the corner.
00:12:31.880And she didn't seem to find that too funny.
00:12:34.100But this, of course, was the same day, the very same day I wrote the article about drug vending machines in British Columbia, in Victoria, where MLAs were showcasing that you could get a cocaine snorting kit, crack pipes, crack inhalation kits for free from a vending machine outside of an emergency room.
00:12:53.620So this really seems to be kind of flawed in that sense.
00:12:58.640I mean, when you look at what's happening with drugs across the country, and really this is the step we're taking.
00:13:08.720Well, I mean, I just don't understand why the regulation couldn't have simply been that you had to be over 18 to buy these from convenience stores and said they've made it very difficult for people who want to buy these products to sort of have to jump through hoops.
00:13:23.620I'm curious for now, if you're buying it at the pharmacy, is there going to be an uptick in price?
00:13:30.080I mean, if it's not going to become more expensive, okay, like it's not the worst thing.
00:13:34.140But at the end of the day, I think it's just the irritation, the annoyance.
00:13:37.740Like it's so quick and easy to run into a convenience store to pick something up.
00:13:40.780Now you're going to have to track down a pharmacy.
00:13:42.280There's probably going to be a bit of a longer wait.
00:13:44.700And, you know, we should actually be promoting these products for people who are trying to quit smoking because like taking one of these, as you said, correct me, yes, nicotine pouches is obviously a lot.
00:13:53.620It's a lot less harmful for your body than inhaling smoke.
00:13:56.480So if anything, we should be kind of, and I already know that there's more restrictions on the products that we offer here in Canada or yeah, because for example, I know in the States you can get Zin, which is really popular for people who are quitting smoking.
00:14:08.620I believe Tucker Carlson sort of infamously always has, has some Zin in his mouth.
00:14:15.080So there's already a lot of restrictions around what you can get here in Canada and they've just made it even harder to get.
00:14:20.220And I am just curious, like, let's follow the money.
00:14:22.260Let's see who's actually benefiting from the fact that this is now only going to be available at pharmacies because it just doesn't make sense when they could have gone the route of enforcing it at convenience stores and telling convenience stores they had to be checking IDs for people who were buying these products like they already do for people who are buying cigarettes.
00:14:41.140Well, I think there's a tremendous irony.
00:14:44.160I mean, you already talked about, you have to be 18 to walk into a safe injection site and get your arms shot up with some sort of illegal drug.
00:16:10.720I just loathe what the drug industry has done to these people.
00:16:14.600When we talk about, sort of, Sue-Ann, as you mentioned, the government seems to want to keep people dependent, which I absolutely agree with.
00:16:23.360Let's just dig into that, Foxo, a little bit more.
00:16:25.840Like, what do you think are the actual reasons for the government wanting to keep people so dependent on these really life-altering substances in the worst possible way?
00:16:58.340There's big bucks in keeping those safe injection sites alive.
00:17:02.000And that's why people here in my province of Ontario went so crazy in the last week with the announcement by Doug Ford that he was going to shut down sites by schools within 200 meters that have created just absolute havoc with these poor kids.
00:17:17.960I mean, I've done numerous stories on how these schools have been impacted.
00:17:23.740They just, just want to keep the industry thriving.
00:17:27.340You got a ragtag group of drug activists standing up at the legislature here in Ontario talking about how people are going to die because of these, the closures.
00:17:45.060And when you talk about, you know, the safe injection sites being close to schools, like as, as a recent parent myself, I just feel like life in Canada is getting harder and harder for parents.
00:17:54.160Like there's so few places that you can bring your kids that's safe nowadays.
00:17:58.160Like for me, the desire is just to sort of kind of be at home or like in a small town.
00:18:02.900Like I just don't even want to go out with my son anymore because I feel like there's danger lurking at every, every corner.
00:18:08.040Maybe that's a symptom of me being online too much.
00:18:10.480But we, I think definitely are all feeling the impacts of how unsafe Canada has become under the true liberals.
00:18:17.540And they're, you know, they're, they're just bail system, everyone getting out on bail all the time and all these other policies like safe injection sites.
00:18:24.200Isaac, you know, for this story that we're looking at here, specifically on the nicotine pouches, do you think that this is something that Canadians are really aware of?
00:18:32.260As I mentioned, like there is a member of my household who regularly uses these things and went to buy his pack this week and realized that, oh, the regulations have changed.
00:18:41.960Do you think this is something that was understood and was sort of people were given advance notice of or was this sort of slipped in quietly?
00:18:51.340As I said, we had previously reported on it and it still slipped to my mind until literally the day before when I went to the 7-Eleven and they had the signs plastered on their doors.
00:19:02.100So in that sense, I want to think that people had either not heard about it or probably forgotten about it.
00:19:08.420This definitely wasn't something that was in the news, like breaking tomorrow, nicotine pouch is no longer available.
00:19:13.380I don't think legacy medias were reporting that specifically.
00:19:16.880So, yeah, I don't think that they necessarily were aware of it prior to the change, but they certainly are now because one thing I wanted to mention with convenience stores no longer selling them, many people would have probably gotten these pouches, for example, let's say before night out, you know, before going out on the town.
00:19:34.480So late at night, whereas pharmacies obviously aren't open 24-7 like convenience stores are.
00:19:40.140So that really is a big part of the change, I think, because the time frame where you can actually go to a pharmacy is much more limited than, say, a 7-Eleven.
00:19:49.240So that's definitely a bad thing because I think the nighttime, you know, is definitely a common time for people to be consuming nicotine.
00:19:57.740Yeah, you raise a really good point there.
00:20:02.620And if I'm up past 9 p.m., which I usually am, usually about that time, I'm like, I wonder what we have that I can snack on.
00:20:10.460And for that reason, I just I never keep sugar in the house because I get the munchies in the evenings.
00:20:15.600It's just better if I don't have it makes it difficult for me to get.
00:20:18.160Then usually I can manage to not have any.
00:20:20.180But I mean, even as you mentioned, Isaac, we, True North, covered this this story.
00:20:24.700But I mean, Canadians even have a hard time finding our news because you can no longer get it on Facebook and Instagram and all these crazy things.
00:20:30.980I don't really use those platforms very much anymore.
00:20:33.480So I sometimes forget that we're not really on them.
00:20:35.440But it does baffle me, or at least we can't very easily post our articles on them.
00:20:39.540So makes it just more difficult for Canadians to even have access to these news, which is why it's important that we do shows like this to tell people what's going on and to keep them informed.
00:20:48.880And speaking of Isaac, I know that you had a good exclusive this week.
00:20:52.180Why don't you share with us what that was about?
00:20:54.800Yeah, so people, again, going back to the past may remember hearing about this.
00:20:59.300Five years after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau pledged to plant two billion trees by by the year 2030, the Liberal government is barely a quarter of the way there.
00:21:09.700So, first of all, I was trying to find these numbers when I was writing the article on like, OK, how many trees have they planted to date?
00:21:16.980The last update the Liberals did was August 2023.
00:21:20.620So I emailed Natural Resources Canada and they told me they actually gave me the most updated number that you'll find anywhere, which was 553 million.
00:21:30.360But the caveat there is that they said this is an agreement, essentially, to plant 553 million trees to date.
00:21:37.240So it's not that they've planted 553 million trees.
00:21:40.140It's that in some way, shape or form, they have theoretically agreed to plant 553 million trees.
00:21:46.140But even with that number, this theoretical hypothetical number, they would have had to have planted 700 million trees so far to be on pace for that two billion goal.
00:21:56.260So they're already behind that, even with their imaginary number, if you want to call it that.
00:22:00.240And this all came from a press release where Forest Ontario was bragging that they planted 2.7 million trees this year, bringing their national total to 46 and a half million.
00:22:11.960Though another story we did in the past was a 2023 audit done by Canada's Environment Commissioner, Jerry DeMarco, where he found that the goal would basically, it was impossible to meet unless, quote, significant changes were made.
00:22:27.360So by the time of that audit, the goal was 30 million trees by 2021, 60 million by 2022.
00:22:34.000And he said that they were already 45 million trees behind the targets.
00:22:40.920His projections, in fact, showed that 76 million trees.
00:22:45.440So that's 3.8% of the 2 billion promised would be planted by 2030.
00:22:49.920So, I mean, they're nowhere near this.
00:22:51.520And this is, of course, another empty promise by the liberal government.
00:22:55.260One last thing I'll add is something Blacklock's reported, where they said they found an internal memo from the Natural Resources Department that said the 2 billion trees number, the 2 billion trees number was just a slogan, and it wasn't to be taken literally.
00:23:09.600So that's what this liberal promise is, just an empty slogan.
00:23:15.740Are you guys surprised to hear that this promise is not going to be kept?
00:23:20.840Not the slightest, but I'm surprised that they didn't plant more trees because clearly, pardon the pun, it's Friday and it's off the record, clearly the liberal government thinks that money does grow on trees.
00:23:33.900So the more trees they have, the more money they will have.
00:23:37.340I just feel like their efforts would be better focused instead of worrying about planting all these new trees is protecting some of the ones that we already have.
00:23:46.860So, for example, take a look at, like, the crazy forest fires that we have going on in Western Canada specifically.
00:23:53.260I do believe that forest fires are a natural part of the cycle, but it would go, it would be a great benefit to all of us if we were to prioritize some controlled burns in areas where, for example, all the trees have been killed by bugs.
00:24:08.860What's the pine beetles is once, yes, pine beetles coming through, you know, focus on controlled burns with those areas where the trees are dead instead of just letting the dead trees pile up.
00:24:18.500And then we get a forest fire that it's very hot and out of control and burns, you know, hectares of good, healthy trees.
00:24:24.820And then, you know, then they would be able to sort of save money in the process and they could count that as success because instead of planting new trees, they had sort of saved existing trees.
00:24:33.420So I just feel like their efforts here are not exactly, they're a bit misguided.
00:24:37.620I don't have an issue with planting new trees, but I just believe let's sort of prioritize, like, the natural cycle of nature and things.
00:24:45.160And I would say also that in cities, and it filters right down to cities, development is out of control.
00:24:53.100And whenever you develop large apartment buildings or large condos or whatever, affordable housing, which is not so affordable, you take down trees.
00:25:05.460And there is not, I guess, an imperative to replace these trees.
00:25:38.520I happen to be very fortunate to live near a trail that's been reconverted.
00:25:42.580It was a railway line, and now it's called the Beltline, and it's in Midtown Toronto, and it's beautiful.
00:25:51.460And I run on it, I bike on it, and those kinds of things should not be the exception to the rule in cities.
00:25:58.000Isaac, with this policy being, you know, from the Liberal government, obviously they're not going to be able to fill that pledge before the next election, which seems like they'll lose.
00:26:08.980Do you think that this is something that the Conservatives are going to be interested in carrying forward, or do you think that this is sort of just something Trudeau wanted and obviously has not succeeded through that?
00:26:19.180Yeah, that's a, hmm, I hadn't really considered whether the Conservatives would pick up this goal, though.
00:26:26.240I would imagine that they might use it as background in a debate against Trudeau.
00:26:31.040Of course, this wouldn't be a main talking point, but if they're talking about the many broken promises from this Liberal government, certainly this could be on the list.
00:26:39.920As for whether the Conservatives will pick it up, I mean, who knows?
00:26:43.580I could certainly see that happening, though.
00:26:45.240I mean, they'll say, hey, look, we'll do what the Liberals said they would and failed to do.
00:26:49.660We'll actually plant the 2 billion trees, or the goal could be revised by then.
00:26:53.740But yeah, obviously, as Sue Ann said, trees are just an important part of life, and really nature in general shouldn't be the exception.
00:27:02.980So it'd be great to see them pick it up.
00:27:05.700You know, one of the things that I think still surprises me most about Alberta is obviously it being a prairie is how few trees there are in certain parts of the province.
00:27:13.560Obviously, there's a lot of trees in the mountains, you know, a decent amount in the foothills.
00:27:17.340But when you get to the actual prairie, you know, then a lot less other than in certain little ravines and things.
00:27:25.060Is there trees a lot, which a lot of trees where you live in Edmonton, Isaac?
00:27:29.560Yeah, I'd say there's a decent amount of trees.
00:27:31.680And obviously, I used to live in northwest Alberta, when I when I worked for the French radio station there.
00:27:38.800And that was there was a lot of trees up there.
00:27:41.140I'll tell you that much because, yeah, there were there weren't that many people, right?
00:27:50.120Well, and the prairies offer their own sort of unique beauty to things.
00:27:55.180My my husband and I just bought a house and I was very excited that there's a big tree that the last owners planted in the backyard.
00:28:01.760So I feel like it's a little piece of, you know, Ontario for me in Alberta.
00:28:05.800Yeah, we have a huge tree in our backyard.
00:28:07.700But given its angle and it could be a problem in years to come because it is a good we might need to cut it down so it doesn't crash into the house.