00:21:00.700I mean, I think that's a very interesting question.
00:21:03.700And one of the things that I think has been very interesting is normally in a leadership
00:21:08.400race, the front runners all tend to have held senior positions in the former government.
00:21:15.040Cabinet ministers almost always are in the leading spots.
00:21:18.820And if you look, I mean, just to jump in there, look at the 2017 federal conservative leadership race.
00:21:23.740You had like 13 candidates and of them, I think 50 of them were were cabinet ministers in Der Harper.
00:21:29.820Yeah, exactly. So I think the fact that that the two apparent leading candidates, Daniel Smith and Brian Jean,
00:21:35.900neither of them were in in Jason Kenney's cabinet.
00:21:40.100In fact, up until quite recently, neither one of them were even MLAs anymore.
00:21:45.260Brian Jean recently won a by-election in Fort McMurray.
00:21:47.880I think that does spell some trouble for those who were members of the Kenney government, in particular, because this was so much a government about Jason Kenney. He defined the united conservative government.
00:22:02.100And people used to make this criticism of Stephen Harper, that it was hard to name someone other than Stephen Harper in the Stephen Harper government.
00:22:11.680But I would say he actually did delegate a fair amount of responsibility to his individual ministers.
00:22:17.500I'm not 100 percent sure that was true with Jason Kenney.
00:22:21.380I think a lot of the files still ended up going across his desk and through his government.
00:22:25.760And as a result, there isn't a lot of name recognition, even for people who were senior cabinet ministers.
00:22:31.220You know, I had to anecdotally explain to my own friends who Travis Taves was, and I said, well, he's been our finance minister for the past three years, and they did not really know that. That was kind of news to them.
00:22:44.920So I think for them to break free of the perception that they're simply offering, quote unquote, more of the same, they may have to articulate specific decisions or policies which they disagree with when it comes to the Kennedy government.
00:22:58.760I think a lot of people would understand if they said, I had to go along with it because that's what governments do.
00:23:07.000When cabinet makes a decision, they go ahead.
00:23:08.960But here are some things that I had concerns with.
00:23:11.300And here's how I would have been different.
00:23:12.920And here's how I will be different if I become premier of Alberta in two months' time.
00:23:18.360And that's a really difficult needle to thread because you have to be critical of your own record in office.
00:23:25.900And a lot of politicians are reluctant to do that.
00:23:28.040I do think, though, that if they're going to be seen as anything more than just, you know, more of the same, they are going to have to be specific and not just say we need to do a better job listening or we need to do a better job communicating.
00:23:41.320Well, no, I think that that wasn't enough in order to be seen as truly different.
00:23:47.040Yeah, I think that's fair. And I will say it is interesting.
00:23:50.060At the beginning, a lot of people were telling me that Travis Taves was the frontrunner just by virtue of his role.
00:23:56.660You know, a finance minister in a majority government, this seems like an important thing.
00:24:00.140And he did, you know, I think shore up a lot of the establishment support.
00:24:04.180I don't even mean that in a derisive way, but he shored up a lot of those endorsements that you'd expect.
00:24:08.300But really has not been the one that I'm seeing crossing my social media feed.
00:24:13.220I know when Ali was on, he wasn't a name that he was seeing in the comments flooding by.
00:24:18.280So I don't actually think that he's resonated with people.
00:24:22.700Now, again, I mean, a lot of it is how you can get out your vote and do all that.
00:24:26.360But let's bring Ellie back on in a moment here or actually for a moment, because I'm
00:24:31.000curious, Ellie, what are the issues people are bringing up beyond the candidates?
00:27:44.180And at the same time, here's why, say, Daniel Smith is the wrong choice.
00:27:49.620Brian Jean, who, in my opinion, has had a pretty low-key campaign so far, which is surprising given that he was second to Jason Kenney in the last leadership race.
00:27:58.540And also a very high-profile by-election victory for him not that long ago.
00:28:02.280Nope, absolutely true. I think in some ways Daniel has eaten his lunch when it comes to this leadership race. I think a lot of the support that Mike have been seeing going to him, there's a perception it's maybe now going to Daniel instead.
00:28:16.580He has to try and define this race in a sexual way that he becomes, you know, the dominant player.
00:28:23.860If you are against the Jason Kenney status quo, you have to vote for Brian Jean and not Daniel Smith.
00:28:30.340But that also means he'll be taking some tough runs at Daniel.
00:28:33.900And for Daniel, I think she has to fend off accusations that her policies are either going to make her unelectable in a general election0.69
00:28:43.440or that voting for her would render the conservative choice,
00:28:49.040the United Conservative choice, too unpalatable for Albertans.
00:28:51.980So she'll be emphasizing that, you know, she's the voice you need,
00:28:56.560the right choice, the smart choice when it comes to standing up
00:30:37.840None of those things that Albertans like, by the way,
00:30:39.620either redistributing or equalizing we're against both of those things culturally are there any
00:30:44.260are there any candidates in this race that really have a proven track record with aggressive
00:30:48.940membership drives like in the federal race when patrick brown got in everyone knew okay patrick
00:30:53.360brown's gonna hustle and sell memberships is that something that danielle smith and brian
00:30:57.680gene who have led a party before were particularly known for uh you know the thing is is danielle
00:31:04.500became Wild Rose leader when the party was still very small. We're talking about a few thousand
00:31:10.760people choosing a leader, not tens of thousands or even more than a hundred thousand, depending on
00:31:16.320how membership sales go here. I would say Brian Jean, probably out of all the candidates, has the
00:31:21.760most experience selling memberships in a large pan-provincial leadership race. And of course,
00:31:28.140he did it three years ago, three and a half years ago, when he was up against Jason Kenney, who had
00:31:33.860quite a formidable sales machine. The next question is, does that Jason Kenney membership
00:31:39.320sales machine still exist in some capacity? And if it does, are they moving over to support
00:31:45.740Travis Taves? Are they going somewhere else? Are they sitting this race out? That's a big unknown
00:31:50.220that we don't know right now. Yeah, Rebecca Schultz had a very high profile endorsement0.95
00:31:55.120from Ronna Ambrose. We know is very popular in the conservative movement, quite a good friend
00:31:59.880of jason kenney's as well but i think a lot of the time we tend to overstate the role that
00:32:04.920endorsements have in membership sales unless it's accompanied by someone who has a machine who has
00:32:09.640a list and who's prepared to put that towards you we are running a couple of minutes behind here but
00:32:15.320you can see on this on the screen we'll cut to the debate the second the debate starts up and
00:32:19.400i see someone on the stage putting binders down so that seems to be a good start towards getting it
00:32:26.760off to the races here. Let me just ask you, William, about preparation here, because obviously
00:32:33.540it's a shorter race, but there's going to be another official debate. There's going to be
00:32:37.420other opportunities for candidates to speak out, to do interviews. Do you want to hold back some
00:32:43.580of your best material for later in this race, or do you want to come out swinging and really make
00:32:48.440that splash now? You know, it's interesting. I think for many of the candidates who will be on
00:32:55.380station tonight tonight is an important night to give themselves some profile and some differentiation
00:33:00.860from everybody else in the race the i always joke the worst place to be in a leadership race is when
00:33:06.800the media are describing it and they talk about a handful of the front running candidates and then
00:33:12.020they say also in the race are yada yada yada and what you did in like the first three minutes of
00:33:17.320this basically yeah absolutely and and it's a real problem because also in the race is are these
00:33:23.600people is a really difficult position to be in when you're trying to raise money, when you're
00:33:28.720trying to sell a bunch of memberships across the province. So tonight is one of the few times,
00:33:33.200I think, when hopefully a lot of UCP members or potential members are going to be watching.
00:33:38.900And in which case, yeah, you have to stand out. You have to make a bit of a splash.
00:33:43.680The other factor, of course, is that there is about only, I think, 16 or so days until that
00:33:50.100membership cutoff happens you are running out of what we would call in politics runway to get your
00:33:55.280campaign into a competitive position and so if you aren't really coming out of the gate i think
00:34:01.960in a good position tonight you're just going to have such a hard time trying to build a membership
00:34:07.020sales machine and sell a lot of memberships in the next two and a bit weeks i think it was the 2012
00:34:12.320presidential republican presidential primary where they had so many candidates running they
00:34:17.720had two debates. They had like the upper tier candidate debate and the lower tier candidate
00:34:22.400debate. And I'm like, how bad would it be if you were just relegated to, you know, debating Carly
00:34:26.500Fiorina or whatever? Well, everyone else debates in the big one. So in this particular case, you
00:34:31.600know, at least everyone's on one stage. But you're right. I mean, if you're going into this and
00:34:35.360certain people in the audience are only paying attention to what Danielle Smith has to say and
00:34:39.980what Brian Jean has to say, that's a bit of a problem. And interestingly enough, Rachel Emanuel,
00:34:45.620who is our Alberta correspondent on the ground there has said that the UCP is not telling
00:34:50.960reporters the format they've not published it anywhere I've gotten little bits of it from
00:34:55.880contacts I have on the leadership campaigns but they're keeping the format a secret but what we
00:35:00.740do know is that there's going to be a lot of interaction there's going to be a lot of one-on-one
00:35:05.240one person said they heard there was going to be like a almost a cross-examination of sorts where
00:35:10.440A candidate gets to put another candidate on the hot seat. And interestingly enough, I've moderated debates that have some element of that. And there's a strategy to who you pick, because on one hand, you want to be able to fire the silver bullet that goes towards the front runner that makes them look bad.
00:35:28.360But on the other hand, if you ask someone a question, you're also giving them 60, 90 seconds, whatever it is of time to speak to the camera.
00:35:36.920Whereas, you know, if you ask a nobody a question or a less well-known candidate, then you don't you're elevating them in a way.
00:35:44.820So I think that's the big challenge here. It sounds like we have the debate just about to start here.
00:35:51.860We'll throw to that as soon as we have it ready. But let me just say, William, do you have any predictions here?
00:35:57.520Who do you think is going to come out on top?
00:35:59.920You know, that's an interesting question.
00:36:02.080Out of the candidates who have run before, Brian Jean and Daniel Smith have both done debates.
00:57:35.160One person does not balance a budget as a minister who worked hard to transform every area of her ministry
00:57:40.080to do better by Albertans, not only in the types of programs we offer, but the amount of dollars we invest.
00:57:45.420That's it. That's 45. I know it's fast. All right, Ms. Sani, 45 seconds.
00:57:48.980Thank you. And yes, of course, affordability is on top of mind for most Albertans.
00:57:53.420And these issues with inflation hit middle-class, hardworking families the most.
00:57:58.360And I had announced earlier on, several weeks earlier, that I was planning to ensure that we index income tax brackets
00:58:06.820and we index social support such as seniors' benefits and age recipients as well.
00:58:12.500because, again, vulnerable communities are also hit very, very hard with the inflation rate that
00:58:18.880we haven't seen these rates since the early 80s. I also want to make a comment about GDL. While it
00:58:25.380is a good policy on paper, I would have to say that it sounds like there has been limited
00:58:29.340consultation done because driving schools would be impacted very severely with this kind of policy.
00:58:35.620All right. Ms. Smith, over to you, 45 seconds.
00:58:38.240All right. As I said, as a columnist over 25 years, I've mused on a lot of issues. And I want to put into context my musing. It was when we were at $24 billion in a deficit. We only had $2 billion worth of resource revenue. I think when you have those circumstances, it's no surprise that the Premier and the Finance Minister and I were talking about how do we solve that problem.
00:58:58.660Fortunately, resource revenues have bailed us out again, notwithstanding what the former finance minister said.
00:59:05.300We have a $4 billion surplus. That's great.
00:59:08.280We've got $16 billion with the resource revenue this year.
00:59:11.760That means we have a $12 billion structural deficit that we still haven't solved.
00:59:15.720I wrote a major paper for the School of Public Policy that had several elements about how we would restructure,
00:59:21.160how we would create house spending accounts so that we could address this issue and grow our heritage savings trust.
00:59:26.080That's time. There we go. Okay, first question out of the way. No takers on any other things?
00:59:30.840All right, okay, we're going to move on. Question two, this question is for you, Ms. Smith.
00:59:35.580It has to do with the environment. Conservative Albertans are often villainized as not caring
00:59:40.880about the environment despite having a track record of clean and ethical energy production
00:59:45.200that supports a healthy Canadian economy. The opposition targets conservatives with
00:59:50.200negative rhetoric around ghg reduction decarbonization net zero policies and adaptation
00:59:56.440of physical planning all under the umbrella of a climate emergency spending billions without any
01:00:01.720defined outcomes alternatively most conservatives would say they care a great deal about the
01:00:06.920environment today and what they will leave behind for generations to come albertans value our clean
01:00:12.360air lakes outdoor spaces trails and mountains to name a few what would you do to change the
01:00:19.400narrative around this negative environmental stereotype and what specific targets would you
01:00:24.920strive to achieve in order to create a greener more sustainable alberta you have two minutes
01:00:29.480thanks so much jeff i remember getting hit by graham thompson years ago in 2012 when i talked
01:00:35.160about how the science wasn't settled on climate change and i can tell you uh what i've come around
01:00:40.600full circle on that i am i am now probably the first and early adopter of thinking that we can
01:00:46.120hit a net zero target and we can get there faster than anyone anywhere else and i'll tell you why i
01:00:51.960believe that number one has been the incredible innovation that we have seen among our entrepreneurs
01:00:57.720and in the business community and we as conservatives have always believed that
01:01:01.080technology was going to be the answer and i can tell you it is the answer whether we capture the
01:01:06.520co2 and bury it underground or whether we turn it into useful products like carbon nanofiber which
01:01:11.720can be a replacement for steel cement so we can make a more durable construction material plastics
01:01:17.640we can also turn it into industrial minerals that can be turned into soap my favorite one is you can
01:01:22.120turn it into alcohol there is a a company called airco that takes a pure stream of co2 and makes
01:01:28.120it into vodka you can just imagine the marketing opportunities on that one so when i look at the
01:01:33.080at the challenge that we have that is the message that we have to get out there is that we have
01:01:37.000immense poor space in Alberta that will allow us to capture CO2. Our conversion of our economy
01:01:43.000to a hydrogen economy is already well underway with this government. We're building a hub
01:01:47.000in the Edmonton area. If we start building hydrogen fueling stations all over this province,
01:01:52.600we'll be able to change over our long-haul vehicles to be hydrogen-based. Then we will be
01:01:58.040able to be a hub for the construction of hydrogen vehicles. Why not attract Toyota here so that they
01:02:15.320Once we get the issue of CO2 out of the way and people see that we are serious about solving it and getting there faster than anywhere else,
01:02:21.940we also have to tackle the issues of air quality, of water quality, of making sure that we're doing habitat protection,
01:02:28.440which our farmers and ranchers do so well.
01:02:30.140And I can't wait to sell that message.
01:04:45.360it's absolutely essential to getting our products to market because what I would like to see is us
01:04:50.900take the lead on developing economic corridors. We have been waiting since the 1930s for Ottawa
01:04:57.160to develop economic corridors. It's been almost 100 years. They are not going to develop economic
01:05:02.260corridors for us, but we've got such a huge opportunity to partner with our First Nations
01:05:06.500community. We've got the treaty settlements that have happened in Alberta, Saskatchewan,
01:05:10.960and Manitoba. There's a group of 14 First Nations that want to take the lead on developing
01:05:15.200an economic corridor and it would be 10 kilometers wide and the nice part about it is by making it
01:05:19.940wide enough you can take care of your caribou habitat you can make sure that you're doing
01:05:24.020your landowner protection you can identify endangered species and habitat and wetlands
01:05:28.420and you can take care of that as well but then you can also develop the rail line I just want
01:05:33.440to say that yeah we don't need an unconstitutional impractical sovereignty act to develop economic
01:05:39.920corridors in fact that work is already underway as the minister of transportation this was one
01:05:44.660of my key priorities and I worked with MLS Shane Getson on this because what happened when we had
01:05:50.760the BC storms and those highways and bridges were decimated, all the traffic came through highway
01:05:56.920number three and that is why one of the first things that I did when I interacted with the
01:06:01.940federal government was to tell them that we need to develop that economic corridor, that's an
01:06:07.020agri-food corridor and I applied for money through the National Trade Corridor Fund. I'm going to go back here for a minute because the question is on the environment, right?
01:06:13.640we're looking for tangible pieces to move forward in terms of how do you change that negative
01:06:18.360stereotype right and what specific targets are you going to move forward with to achieve a more
01:06:23.480sustainable greener alberta so well part of that that's a big membership question part of that
01:06:28.680conversation is ensuring that we're maintaining investor confidence because if we are going to
01:06:33.480invest in greener technology and we are going to encourage people from across the globe to
01:06:39.400come to alberta for example if we want to invest in high-speed rail that could be powered by
01:06:44.440hydrogen-powered locomotive that investor confidence needs to be maintained any work
01:06:50.200that you want to do on environmental initiatives requires bringing investment in and it requires
01:06:55.800being entrepreneurial and it requires supporting our local residents as well but if we have a
01:07:00.840situation where we have a candidate who is inviting a situation of turmoil of chaos and inviting
01:07:07.720investors to stay away from our province because we're too politically risky that is the problem
01:07:13.400not just for the environment for energy and agriculture ottawa has created chaos ottawa has
01:07:18.920cancelled our projects ottawa has caused energy east and tech frontier mine and tens of billions
01:07:24.200of other projects to be cancelled the reason these are linked is because part of our strategy
01:07:30.040in reducing greenhouse gas emit is exporting our clean lng to displace coal in india and china we
01:07:36.920We cannot do that because Ottawa keeps standing in our way.
01:10:25.620Thank you, Jeff. Excellent question, because health care is another issue that's been on top of mind for Albertans.
01:10:31.300When I launched my campaign, one of the first things I did was to indicate that I will launch a transparent, open inquiry into the pandemic response,
01:10:41.200because we have done a number of things right in this response and we have done a number of things
01:10:46.400wrong we all know that and there are a diversity of opinions on this matter and we need everyone
01:10:51.040to come to the table to discuss that the outcome of that inquiry will show us where the gaps are
01:10:57.120in the health care system that arose as a result of the pandemic so that is number one number two
01:11:03.280my intention is to repair relationships with doctors physicians health care workers nurses
01:11:10.240because we cannot move forward in any significant fashion on any kind of health care reform
01:11:16.000if we don't have those who are central and intrinsic to the system at the table many of you
01:11:22.480know that your physicians are community leaders as well and we have to stop this war with the
01:11:27.520physicians number three i think everybody in this room will agree that there are issues with alberta
01:11:33.760health services we know that i was in rural alberta not too long ago in a room full of elected
01:11:40.320officials and there was a big screen on the tv with a representative from ahs he told everybody
01:11:46.640in that room that there is nothing to see there here you have what you need and you have enough
01:11:52.480doctors the data shows it there is a woman several people actually who are crying in that room she
01:11:58.720said to me i will die in this community because first of all we won't get an ambulance and secondly
01:12:04.400if an ambulance does come there will be no doctor at that hospital so alberta health services is an
01:12:11.040inverted triangle it needs to be flipped it's too top heavy and one of the comments that came up
01:12:17.760actually from physicians in edmonton was that maybe we need to move back to regional boards
01:12:22.720there are many aspects of asia that need to be dismantled all right that's two minutes
01:12:27.760who would you like to debate on the health care topic uh miss daniel smith all right miss smith
01:12:32.880i'll repeat the question one more time for you all right let's settle down folks with specifics
01:12:38.800as leader how would you ensure that albertans get the tests procedures and health services they need
01:12:44.240when they need them you have a minute and one sure i just want to take a moment to clarify
01:12:48.640a comment i made in a podcast last week about cancer that was misunderstood i know that cancer
01:12:55.360can strike anyone at any time without any relation to lifestyle especially kids but not just kids
01:13:02.080it happened to my mother-in-law too she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and only survived
01:13:07.280three months after diagnosis and by the time they found out she was so malnourished that they weren't
01:13:12.800able to continue her chemo treatments that's why i became such a proponent of early detection early
01:13:19.840treatment nutrition and holistic medicine there are so many more options if you diagnose early
01:13:27.520then you can treat early and that's what i was trying to say i'll be in very awkwardly but it's
01:13:32.720in that vein that is why i proposed health spending accounts because we spend so much money
01:13:38.880on the back end when people have a disease that manifests and we spend no money on the front end
01:13:44.080on prevention to keep people well and so if we were to establish health spending accounts with
01:13:49.200$300 in it. We'd all be able to deal with the trauma of the last two years. Mental health,
01:13:55.320counseling, nutrition, dietician, naturopathic doctors, chiropractors, physiotherapists. If we
01:14:01.660can start spending some money at the front end, I think it's going to be transformative in the
01:14:05.800system. And we will save money as people are not going into the system. And when we get into fall
01:14:10.280respiratory virus season, we're going to make sure that we have enough room to be able to handle that
01:14:14.680surgeon patient load. That's the first step I take. All right. Thank you, Ms. Smith. All right,
01:14:18.920let's start the clock for four minutes of debate. Ms. Soni, kick us off. Okay, thank you, Jeff. And1.00
01:14:24.080thank you, Ms. Smith, for your clarification of your comments. But I'm sorry, I'm not buying it
01:14:30.340because you made a subsequent video where you actually doubled down on your perspective. And
01:14:34.960the reality is, is that those comments are very hurtful to any Albertan, any Canadian who has
01:14:40.440lost somebody from cancer, or anybody who is suffering from cancer right now. There is another
01:14:46.020aspect to cancer that i want to talk about right now when i had launched i had talked about mental
01:14:51.060health supports it's a reality that many cancer survivors experience debilitating depression
01:14:57.060after their treatments so to the comments that were made basically diminishes the experience
01:15:02.980of cancer survivors and their families and i want to know when are you going to apologize to alberta
01:15:08.420for the comments that you made i did apologize because i was clearly misunderstood uh one of
01:15:13.460the main points i wanted to make as well i've been talking with icor blood services they have
01:15:18.180i mentioned this in the podcast as well they have a test of thirteen hundred dollars that
01:15:22.980would allow us to look at biomarkers in the blood i think every one of us who've had a loved one die
01:15:27.940of cancer have always said gosh if only we caught it earlier the reason we say that is because we
01:15:34.020know that when you catch it earlier there are far more treatment options that was the intention
01:15:38.260of what i i wanted to say i know that the that icor blood services has approached the government
01:15:43.060to see if they would fund a pilot program into this 1300 test you know what if i was premier
01:15:48.820you bet absolutely i would because i know that if somebody has a pre-existing condition if they have
01:15:54.180some kind of genetic predisposition towards cancer if they're beginning to see early symptoms it will
01:15:58.820be the very best way for us to diagnose and then we can get them the wraparound services that they
01:16:03.700need the nutrition the exercise the additional support as well as traditional chemotherapy and
01:16:09.060surgical uh intervention and radiation excellent i'm just going to jump in here because clearly
01:16:14.100you've had time to think about this and think it through after the outcry from your original
01:16:18.740remarks and if the apology was indeed delivered then that is great but i think it needs to be
01:16:23.940clarified because i have doctors and physicians and former stakeholders from community and social
01:16:29.220services telling me that this kind of rhetoric is harmful it's harmful to albertans and and
01:16:35.540miss smith you have a platform you are an influencer you have people who listen to what
01:16:40.420you say those kind of irresponsible comments actually speak to me that there is an issue with
01:16:46.180impulsiveness here and there is an issue with somebody who is making rash statements holding
01:16:51.780this public platform so let's move on to the healthcare spending account i was talking about
01:16:56.900mental health anybody in this room who has ever been to a counseling session knows that 300 will
01:17:03.860pay for a session and a half. I actually have grave, I guess I'm very skeptical about this
01:17:10.900health care spending account. What do you do when somebody goes to the naturopath and they have one
01:17:15.500and a half appointments? That is not enough. You're just getting your consultation and you're just
01:17:19.760getting started on your next half of an appointment. What do you do when that health care spending
01:17:24.280account is exhausted? Right now, our public service, our government has negotiated with our
01:17:29.480public service, they get a $950 health spending account. You bet. I'd love for every Albertan
01:17:34.600to have the same level of support on health spending accounts that we give to our public
01:17:38.620service. And that's the reason why I'm advocating for it now. Maybe it starts with $300. Maybe it
01:17:44.700only allows you to take your child in to get four treatments from a counselor or a psychologist,
01:17:50.820but that's going to be a good start. And it's certainly better than nothing. When we look at
01:17:55.280what happened over the last two years of COVID lockdowns, and I haven't heard any apology from
01:17:59.840any of the cabinet ministers who imposed that on us for the last two years, I'd like to see an
01:18:03.740apology there. When we look at what happened over the last two years. What did we talk about folks?
01:18:13.220I get it. I get it. But let's not take away time from the candidates. This is about healthcare
01:18:17.520reform, not what happened in the past. Okay. So remember, we're all on the same team here. Okay.
01:19:17.660physicians in Edmonton who could save us $20,000 a day by allowing them to be innovative instead
01:19:23.480of squabbling about their salaries. We do have to be careful of the words that we use because I
01:19:28.220would say this, bad judgment, flippant comments erode trust in our government and that is not
01:19:33.200helpful in 2023. All right, thank you Ms. Schultz. Ms. is here. Thank you so much. I would like to
01:19:39.080bring forward a different thought process. We have an opportunity to triage here. We have nurse
01:19:43.900practitioners and we also have something called a physician assistant which has been around since
01:19:48.7002013 if we fund these opportunities these folks could actually be a gateway into doctors and
01:19:54.860absolutely being able to cover the gaps particularly in rural areas and i think it's really important
01:19:59.260when candidates are speaking about rural health you speak to rural mlas and you speak to rural
01:20:04.780folks when we're talking about women's care sars nurses domestic violence sexual assault
01:20:10.060making sure that we have access to cultural sensitivity there hasn't been one comment up
01:20:14.540here talking about the multicultural people in this province and the absolute barriers there
01:20:19.420are to folks having health care thank you all right thank you mr tapes good thank you health
01:20:24.220care is failing in rural alberta full stop that's my experience in the northwest and that's what i
01:20:30.060hear from albertans right across the province now i don't pretend to have all the answers around
01:20:35.100health care but i've made some observations in the last two years number one ahs needs complete
01:20:41.580restructuring and we have to decentralize their decision-making structure that structure right
01:20:46.940now is not only failing albertans it's failing our frontline health care professionals and that's
01:20:52.460tragic i have to agree with a couple of the other speakers as well there were some very
01:20:57.500irresponsible comments made this last week around cancer and around health care we have to be
01:21:02.860accountable for our language our words matter that's the value of a leadership
01:21:06.640race right now so conservative I'm gonna stop you there all right mr. gene go
01:21:10.900ahead please 45 seconds the system's broken I always find it amusing when
01:21:15.320people from Calgary and Edmonton tell me how our health system is going I'm from
01:21:19.000Fort Brunner and I'll tell you we haven't had a health care system there
01:21:21.400for years and years and years well I'm from the other forgotten corner that
01:21:25.360will change if I'm premier we need to do things and we don't need to blow up HS
01:21:29.920what we need to do is work with the great doctors and nurses that we have and the
01:21:33.680technicians that we have and make things better the Auditor General in 2017
01:21:38.240actually set out how we need to fix it specifically said it's not an issue of
01:21:42.460cost it's not an issue of money you are not going to fix it by throwing money
01:21:45.940at it I've lived it we need to focus on outcomes for patients and have the money
01:21:55.680follow them but danielle all right that's very disappointing i'm sorry mr gene comments on
01:22:00.240cancer all right okay you know what i'm going to come back to you for 30 seconds after mr lowen
01:22:05.440floor is yours 45 seconds thank you very much yes i agree that with others that the system isn't is
01:22:10.480broken we need an investigation into what happened with the coveted response i have colleagues here
01:22:15.520that were in the coveted cabinet and uh now that it seems the public tide is changing that all of
01:22:19.920a sudden they're trying to distance themselves from the decisions that they made there i agree
01:22:23.440also that throwing money at it doesn't isn't going to solve the problem we have an ehs system
01:22:27.840that needs a severe renovation they've had 15 years to get it right and they've been failing
01:22:31.760all the time we have a shortage of healthcare workers we have emergency rooms being shut down
01:22:35.760in rural alberta we have a post-secondary system in alberta that doesn't graduate the needs of our
01:22:40.800society when it comes to healthcare workers and other other uh other educational opportunities
01:22:47.360and we have a college of physicians that isn't helping either we need to get the test done and
01:22:52.160the treatment done that we need all right that's zero mr loan thank you all right uh you got called
01:22:56.960out there miss smith i'm going to give you 30 seconds to just rebut that and then we're going
01:22:59.840to move on to the next question well you know i invite uh people to to listen to my full podcast
01:23:04.400this is the reason why even though rajan doesn't think there's value in being a talk radio host i
01:23:09.120can tell you there is i can tell you i shouldn't wouldn't be given a snow job by alberta health
01:23:13.040services when they tell me i should jail pastors and shut down businesses and mass kids and tell
01:23:18.560tell them they can't go to school and create the mental health crisis that they did and bring in
01:23:22.160vaccine passports when they said they wouldn't wouldn't do that i would have consulted broadly
01:23:26.720and made sure that we didn't make those kinds of mistakes because we will be dealing with the
01:23:30.160consequence of that for decades all right okay thank you everybody let's get set for another
01:23:36.160question all right stop clapping over here you're gonna make jeff have to stand up again nobody likes
01:23:40.320that all right thank you rebecca schultz this question is for you and it is on the federal
01:23:46.560government all right collaborative relationships with other orders of government are often the key
01:23:52.000to funding large-scale capital programs providing sustainable sources of base funding for projects
01:23:56.800such as transit initiatives and are generally beneficial to driving solutions that benefit all
01:24:01.760albertans however the majority of albertans feel the federal government is determined to make life
01:24:08.640difficult for our economic prosperity and are intentionally causing division between albertans
01:24:14.400and other canadians how would you as leader address topics such as bill c2169 and equalization
01:24:23.440payments with the federal government in order to affect a better outcome for albertans and i want
01:24:28.880to hear specifics here tangible actionable items all right you've got two minutes floor is yours
01:24:34.000thank you very much this is something i hear every day in every corner of this province that
01:24:38.080albertans absolutely want a leader and a government who will defend our constitutional rights we are
01:24:44.320not asking for anything special we are just asking for fairness in the constitution now i am
01:24:49.840in fact the only candidate on this stage that has successfully negotiated with the federal
01:24:54.240government and justin trudeau was that easy absolutely not it took a lot of hard work behind
01:24:59.120the scenes i was not about to leave four billion in albertans hard-earned tax money sitting in
01:25:04.960ottawa to invest in parents and families right across this country and not invest in parents
01:25:11.680here i don't believe that albertans would have been okay with that and that's why we went toe
01:25:16.240to toe with justin trudeau to make that happen in a way that respected small business and
01:25:21.920incorporated parent choice i am the only i am the only person standing on stage who is able to do
01:25:28.160that and i do believe in collaborative working relationships in fact when i look at my campaign
01:25:32.480launch i not only had my local city councillor but my local mp standing there in the room because i
01:25:38.000do believe teaming up and working together on issues will get us a lot further than going at
01:25:43.280it alone and that would be my approach jeff when you're asking specifically on those bills c21 c69
01:25:49.200and overcoming equalization changes that we are not the only province that wants to see changes
01:25:54.720to however our approach has been to write letters angry tweets light our hair on fire run around
01:26:01.200creating chaos making headlines and not getting results for albertans that's what albertans are
01:26:06.880tired of it is and i would rather go at it with an army of other provinces than going at it alone
01:26:13.280as what others may see as alberta being angry and you know what for you albertans who are angry
01:26:19.040i hope you know that i'm angry too and i hear you i see it in every area where the federal
01:26:24.960trudeau liberals are trying to push and infringe on areas of provincial jurisdiction we can't let
01:26:30.080them do that when it comes to the emissions cap let's be clear production all right absolutely
01:26:35.360provincial. We've got to fight. We've got to stop you there. Okay. Who would you like to debate on
01:26:39.000this topic? Danielle Smith, please. All right. Ms. Smith, you're back up. You're going to have
01:26:45.320a minute and a half to address the question. How would you, as leader, address topics such as Bill
01:26:50.360C-21, 69, and equalization payments with the federal government in order to affect a better
01:26:56.360outcome for Albertans? And again, we're looking for some specifics here. I know we've been passive
01:27:00.880for so long that we tend to forget that the constitution actually gives us sovereignty
01:27:07.600in the matters that are enumerated to us go on to wikipedia and they talk about our parliamentary
01:27:12.400system that's what they say about canada is that legislatures in canada are sovereign in matters
01:27:18.800that are enumerated to them if you look up section 92 92a 93 94 and 95 and i read them frequently
01:27:26.640you will see that we have allowed the federal government to walk all over us in every single
01:27:30.480area of our jurisdiction and with due respect to uh to rebecca i know she did a she did a good
01:27:36.720negotiation but we still lost we always lose when we go up against ottawa they take all of our money
01:27:42.560and they dribble it back with conditions they steal the rest and they use it to win votes in
01:27:46.880quebec and atlanta canada and on the child care proposal you probably saw the cbc story a couple
01:27:52.000of days ago from our private child care operators they're now forbidden from expanding their
01:27:56.480operations when they have a profit it's called an overage and they have to go to the bureaucrats to
01:28:01.600get permission on how to spend it they're not allowed to use any of the money for their capital
01:28:05.920projects so many of them have invested in buildings and now they're not able to use any of the money
01:28:10.320for that i don't look at that as a win implementing justin trudeau's socialist daycare system and
01:28:16.160squeezing out the private daycare operators that vote for us looks to me like a step backwards and
01:28:22.160And it's exactly the reason why we have to draw a hard line, say our jurisdiction is our jurisdiction under the Constitution, and stay out of our lane.
01:28:30.740That's what the Sovereignty Act would do.
01:28:50.420When it comes to child care, we have private operators every single day that are grateful that we kept their businesses open and included in this plan.
01:28:58.040We also, an article in the Financial Post, if we want to quote the media, highlighting private operators from other provinces right across this country saying that they wish we had a fair deal.
01:44:07.540So one of the things that I plan to do as Premier
01:44:09.800is to speed up the credentialing process.
01:44:12.860We have a health care workers shortage in this province.
01:44:15.960We've got a shiny new hospital in Grand Prairie
01:44:18.920that doesn't have doctors and it's short of nurses it's a travesty so credentialing is something that
01:44:25.460we do need to speed up and of course as we talk about labor shortages there are other sectors that
01:44:30.580we need to support as well but i want to go back to the question all right let's let's see what
01:44:34.300well i just wanted to add to what rajan was saying um and i want to give a shout out to
01:44:38.520medicine hat actually right now because right here in this awesome city you guys started a
01:44:44.840uh hydrogen task force in i believe it was in 2021 that hydrogen task force has taken light and and
01:44:54.440has grown with the government and the opportunities to see what zero emissions would look like every
01:44:59.880single large company corporation energy company is looking at zero emissions right now it is an
01:45:06.920environment and energy collective that we do together to show our responsible development
01:45:13.160we have to make sure it's not just about alberta folks we have to make sure that places like the uk
01:45:19.400are not calling us dirty oil that places like other other countries in the world are not looking
01:45:24.600at us as not even opportunity to be able to get our products to them we have to make sure
01:45:30.120okay i just and i appreciate all these comments uh wonderful comments but i just want to get back
01:45:37.000to the question on diversification um i was talking about agriculture and some of the key
01:45:42.200messages that i'm hearing from farmers by the way we have the most sophisticated and smartest
01:45:47.080farmers here in alberta in the world i'm not from a farming background but i hear that all the time
01:45:52.600some of the key issues that they're having are around water water is an issue for economic
01:45:58.360growth and it's certainly an issue for farmers they have issues around electricity and they also
01:46:04.200have issues as i've mentioned before around agri-food corridors we need to invest in our
01:46:09.320highways and we need to invest in our road system so some of that product can actually be delivered
01:46:15.640i'd like to speak about water a little bit one of the biggest issues that we've had is the
01:46:19.560government not investing enough into water and pivots into areas in order to create arable
01:46:26.840fields in alberta in order to have irrigation available pivots are very very difficult thing
01:46:32.680to come by right now because of the way that the world is working in the markets are going however
01:46:38.120if we're actually talking about water consumption when we use pivots in in agricultural areas we
01:46:43.560actually reduce water consumption by almost 80 all right that ends our four minutes of open debate
01:46:48.760time okay miss smith i'm going to come to you for 45 seconds you're going to hold off all right
01:46:53.240anybody else i just want to say mr caves and miss it here you only have one remaining rebuttal left
01:46:58.200so just to remind you miss schultz you want to go 45 seconds yeah absolutely i'd like to just touch
01:47:03.080on a couple of things as well you know when we're talking about obviously energy of today yes
01:47:07.960we need to attract and retain in the highly skilled workers we have and i do want to thank
01:47:12.600all of the energy workers across our province that obviously give us access to safe reliable
01:47:17.800energy we also have to start talking about energy of the future co2 hydrogen we've got
01:47:22.600to keep talking about lng this is the energy of the future this is what will help keep
01:47:26.840some of our best and brightest minds right here in Alberta. Yes, we have to speed up credentialing.
01:47:41.000Yes, we have to take more ownership over our immigration. But the other thing we have to do
01:47:45.020is cut through some of the bureaucracy, whether it's talking about nuclear or ag. When I ask
01:47:50.240people who's leading, oftentimes they say it's not us because our bureaucrats are still working
01:47:54.640on the org charts and the other provinces are hustling investment all right thank you all right
01:47:59.040that ends question five question six we're going to move on here quickly to mr taves it's for you
01:48:03.920question is on unity and leadership at regional levels around the globe conservative movements
01:48:09.360have faced internal struggles to main a thoughtful maintain a thoughtful big tent approach there's no
01:48:14.880secret that many here on this stage have been early adopters of unity yet have struggled to
01:48:19.040bring people together in an effective way the topic of unity is one of great importance to
01:48:24.000the membership as many feel the infighting must stop
01:48:36.160or it will lead to another harmful ndp government in a world of division
01:48:40.720intolerance and lack of understanding how will you as leader unite the party
01:48:45.920and move our province forward for the benefit of all albertans you have two
01:48:49.440minutes yeah thanks for that question jeff i think
01:48:52.160this is the most important question of the evening because consistent with my opening comments unity
01:48:57.520is mission critical for this movement because if we're not united we will not beat rachel notley
01:49:12.000in 2023 and friends leadership matters when it comes to unity it's absolutely critical
01:49:18.320You know, I've been in the private sector right until 2019.
01:49:21.760But even when I was Minister of Finance, I drew on some of my experience that I'd gained in the private sector in past leadership roles.
01:49:28.980You know, whether it was leading our business teams or whether it was during the time that I served as president of the Canadian Cattlemen's Association,
01:49:45.580a time post-BSE, when there was significant loss, emotion, and division.
01:49:52.620I had to hold disparate provincial members together, all wanting to go their own way,
01:56:12.560She debated in a provincial leaders debate.
01:56:15.280brian mason way back in the day and you saw that and not to make mention by the way hosting a radio
01:56:21.720for many many years all of those skills on on display tonight and i don't know if the decision
01:56:28.180that's to give her so much air time was an actually good idea yeah well that's a good
01:56:37.400point william we'll check back in with you in a couple of moments i think we're having some
01:56:40.540internet issues on your end too. So maybe you and the UCP might share an internet service provider,
01:56:45.600but thanks for chiming in with that. We will pop back in with you very shortly. Let's go to my
01:56:51.260colleague Ellie Kenton-Nantel on this. I know you have been monitoring Ellie the, well I should say,
01:56:57.900I mean Ellie has been monitoring the social media reaction to this and I'm going to ask him when he
01:57:02.640joins us to filter out the people complaining about the UCP live stream and focus on the substance
01:57:08.840and content here but what is it that people have really been focusing in on from what you've
01:57:14.080analyzed here uh sure so so first of all we were kind of cut out at first and i would say
01:57:20.340really before this debate started the biggest issue seemed to be covid and people were you know
01:57:26.580as we said earlier the pastors the lockdowns that that seems to be an issue uh really what
01:57:32.320has taken center stage of this debate and i've seen chatter online is the alberta sovereignty act
01:57:36.920So I actually went and I asked my Twitter followers, what do you think of the Alberta Sovereignty Act? And a lot of them seem to have a pretty positive response about it. There was one tweet that I thought was pretty interesting. It was from Aidan. He said, I've heard more about how terrible the Sovereignty Act is compared to from these candidates versus Daniel Smith talking about it.
01:58:00.800that are a lot of them are talking about this sovereignty act uh a lot of people say you know
01:58:06.320what else can we do because ottawa is mistreating alberta so badly uh one cure from twitter user
01:58:12.740mountain man i just want to live my birthday life without ottawa so it's clear that albertans are
01:58:18.120are clearly very frustrated with the way that they've been treated by the trudeau government
01:58:23.480and other governments in the past i remember when i was in alberta working there uh the trudeau
01:58:29.000senior trudeau's junior there's this legacy with the trudeaus and how they were being mistreated
01:58:33.960so i think an idea like the sovereignty act even if if if there's legalities and questions around
01:58:39.720it i think it's very popular with the base the grassroots that they're just fed up and they want
01:58:44.200something different they want something new especially i gotta cut you off there ellie it
01:58:49.000sounds like the debate stream is back so we're gonna cut immediately back to medicine hat for
02:03:14.040That means we have the largest surpluses we will probably ever see.
02:03:18.060We should save those surpluses, pay down debt as it becomes due.
02:03:21.120In the meantime, we should use the income from those surpluses to actually reduce the cost of transmission and distribution charges to families in Alberta.
02:32:16.060oh my goodness I was nodding off a little there I think it might have been the question about
02:32:26.480well I think all of them actually for the first half of the debate we are coming to you live this
02:32:33.600is true north's coverage of what was a glitch filled united conservative party debate as people
02:32:40.560square off in medicine head Alberta for who gets to be the next leader of the UCP
02:32:45.420replacing Jason Kenney, but also who gets to be the next Premier of Alberta. And I was talking
02:32:54.240about this on my show the other day. It's very interesting when the stakes are a lot higher than
02:32:58.500they are, say, in the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race underway right now,
02:33:03.260that once you win this leadership race, you are the Premier of Alberta. So you are seeking
02:33:09.340re-election in the election coming up in nine months time rather than just trying to seek
02:33:15.640election for the first time. And I think that actually is important because whoever comes in
02:33:20.040is going to have an existing caucus. They'll have to manage heading into an election,
02:33:25.680which means they'll have to set a tone very quickly. They'll have to assemble a cabinet
02:33:30.120very quickly. And they're going to have to do this in a way that gives them enough momentum
02:33:35.060and puts them on solid enough footing that they are able to win an election in nine months time
02:33:39.680against Rachel Notley, who's running again for the NDP. I want to explain here a few different
02:33:46.380things that have happened here. So the rules of the debate were a little bit chaotic, but basically,
02:33:53.260as mentioned, it prioritized having people debate each other, that one-on-one debate.
02:33:58.320But the result of this is that it gave Danielle Smith a lot more time. It was the frontrunner0.91
02:34:02.740pile on. All of the candidates virtually tried to devote their time asking questions to her with0.97
02:34:08.440the exception of maybe Brian Jean, which means they were trying to sink her. And whether they
02:34:13.560did sink her, it is tough to say. My colleague William Macbeth is standing by. We'll get to him
02:34:18.420in just a moment. But first, I want to check in on the social media desk with Elie Kendenantel.
02:34:24.240Obviously, we spoke at the beginning, Elie, about what people were thinking about who was going to
02:34:28.960win. Looking back on it, did people articulate a clear winner or at least who they think the winner
02:34:34.160was? Yes, there's actually quite a consensus in the chat. People say it's Danielle Smith is number
02:34:43.620one. Despite her being attacked constantly tonight, we heard a lot about Danielle Smith
02:34:48.540and the Sovereignty Act. People think she did a good job at fighting back. And Todd Lowen also is0.57
02:34:53.940a popular one. And honestly, I'm not surprised. Well, he might not be known outside of Alberta
02:34:58.600very much people have a lot of respect because he stood up to jason kenny as he was locking down
02:35:03.080the province i remember that letter that very strongly worded letter telling kenny he should
02:35:08.120resign um some people said brian gene but there's mixed comments on brian gene somebody uh wrote
02:35:14.920gene is annoying me no longer my second choice it's low and uh i was a little i i found gene
02:35:21.160kind of underperformed especially at the beginning of the debate i was wondering where is brian gene
02:35:24.680how come we're not hearing from him i mean this is somebody who like kind of started the whole
02:35:30.040revolution against this the revolt against kenny and the lake uh lake uh fort mcmurray lake lavish
02:35:35.800uh by election and he seemed a little bit quiet for somebody who you know clearly wants to be
02:35:40.280premier he's this is his third time trying to basically be premier uh as yeah just to jump in
02:35:46.200on brian gene there ellie the thing that was interesting so by the end of it i mean let's
02:35:50.120let's just look at the numbers. He had two of his little rebuttal paddly things left, which means
02:35:54.700that he was a lot more judicious and a lot more restrained about jumping in and getting into the
02:35:59.600debates at the beginning. And yeah, I would agree for the first half, I kind of forgot he was in
02:36:03.900there. And he was affected by the dropout of the stream as well. So it was when he was speaking
02:36:10.140that one of the longer dropouts took place, which is when I jumped back in. He did speak a little
02:36:15.720bit more near the end uh but one thing i would point out about brian gene's performance i mean
02:36:20.860he had i'd say the strongest or one of the strongest in terms of delivery like when he
02:36:26.420spoke it sounded very natural it sounded very authoritative but it also if you looked past
02:36:31.780the style i i don't know how much he was saying so what were what were people specifically raising
02:36:37.440with brian gene that they weren't fans of well it appears that people were kind of i guess a bit
02:36:43.860unimpressed uh in total i will say personally on my personal observation he came off again as you
02:36:50.400said he was very he can't he seemed to know what he wanted to do you know when he said like about
02:36:54.860the sovereignty act he said look this is not you know he came off as somebody who kind of knew his
02:36:58.680stuff a bit you know uh but as i said doors i asked my supporters my my followers what they
02:37:05.020think of the sovereignty act they all support it and unfortunately in politics often it's not
02:37:09.860about the quality or the substance of an idea, but more about the cover of the book and what
02:37:16.460something sounds like on the outside. And that's what people like. And again, the Alberta Sovereignty
02:37:20.700Act, given how Ottawa has been treated, is very popular. Yeah. And one thing I would say,
02:37:27.920just looking back on the context, I know a lot of people were jumping up about the Sovereignty Act.
02:37:35.780The challenge that I would raise just as far as strategy goes is that whenever Travis Taves and Rajan Sani were criticizing it, they were saying it, they were repeating it, they were saying sovereignty act, sovereignty act, sovereignty act. And anytime you hear that, it's like, well, that actually sounds like a good thing. And it actually gives more name recognition for what is really Danielle Smith's flagship policy.
02:37:58.460Now, again, if the policy is unpopular, then maybe it's a good idea to keep tying it to her. But I think that people actually are going, I think it's going to backfire on them. Let's bring in William Macbeth on this. Because William, I know you've covered as an Albertan, the Alberta independence discussion, and no one was coming out and saying we need separatism.
02:38:17.700But certainly, Danielle Smith's Sovereignty Act is really directed at that growing movement of people that are dissatisfied with Ottawa, that want a more autonomous and a more sovereign Alberta.
02:38:29.980Do you think the blows on the Sovereignty Act landed?
02:38:32.600uh to be honest no i i think what's interesting about the sovereignty act context of what the
02:38:43.000kenny government had done previously on discontent and they had a series of provincial uh town halls
02:38:53.880this process but i think a lot of people felt it didn't really result in anything it didn't result
02:39:00.280concrete measures being taken. There was no Alberta Provincial Pension Plan. There was no
02:39:07.160of course. There was a referendum on equalization but the moment the
02:39:12.720referendum was heard about it again. So I think there's a pent-up concern that
02:39:18.760not enough with the Act is a very politically visible response to what
02:39:28.840people are asking about. Yeah, thank you very much, William. And I'll also say thank you as
02:39:33.780well for your contributions this evening. It's been very welcome. So we appreciate that very
02:39:37.960much. And of course, when we touch back on these issues at the next debate, we'll be sure to have
02:39:42.060you back on. So thanks again to my colleague, William McBeth here. I will say as well, I mean,
02:39:47.980we did a live show the night of the referendum. We did a live show because it was on the Calgary
02:39:53.400and Edmonton and other municipal elections as well. And the results, I don't think were all
02:39:57.740that surprising. We knew that, you know, 62%, roughly, of Albertans were probably going to
02:40:02.560support it. It was going to be around there. But I think William's point is right, that
02:40:06.780it is a big question mark of how you leverage that into something. And I'm curious if Western
02:40:14.620independence, Western separatism were things that you were seeing in the social media chatter, Ali?
02:40:20.740I was seeing a bit of it. I was seeing a lot of Western alienation. Some people are telling me,
02:41:21.320Like sovereignty, freedom, these things are intertwined.
02:41:23.260And I think, again, that is why the Alberta sovereignty is so popular, because it's a form of independence, a form of freedom without going full independence, which, you know, would be challenging, given Alberta doesn't have any ocean or doesn't have any ports to export his oil.
02:41:37.460yeah one one interesting thing and this just sort of goes to the danielle smith question more
02:41:42.800broadly is that she is not well liked it sounds like certainly not widely supported by a lot of
02:41:49.020the people in the ucp caucus and i mentioned a few moments ago that whoever wins this leadership
02:41:54.440race is going to become the leader of caucus have to lead that caucus through the next i mean it
02:41:59.760won't be the next nine months but the next several months and then lead that caucus into an election
02:42:04.000And, you know, the the big question mark will be for all they talk about unity, how much will the party and specifically the MLAs unify behind the next leader?
02:42:15.420Are they going to unify behind Danielle Smith? Are you going to have candidates that say, I don't want to run for the party anymore if Danielle Smith's the leader?
02:42:22.120So I think that's the big question. And again, I'm not talking about this as though it's a fait accompli, because there is a lot that still is going to happen.
02:42:28.740And this is the first debate, but I bring it up just as we talk about the themes here