Juno News - June 29, 2024


UCP sets sights on Nenshi

Topics
Alberta opting out of federal dental care program race posturing
Mentioned
Justin Trudeau Danielle Smith Jody Gonnick Nahid Nenshi Rachel Emanuel Hans Herschen Jagmeet Singh Rachel Notley Pathway Alliance Alberta Roundup Stephen Harper Kevin Buswallo Pierre Poilievre Andrew Fury Blaine Higgs Andy Nichols Head Nenshi Joel Antle Mark Henry Scott Moe and 2 more
Liberals in panic mode New report disproves Gaza genocide claims

Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

185.3

Word count

2,472

Sentence count

142

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

6

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

The Alberta government announced this week that it would opt out of the federal dental care program. Meanwhile, federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says he s united with Alberta New Democrats, even as that party s new leader distances himself from Singh.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 The Alberta government announced this week that it would opt out of the federal dental care program.
00:00:04.820 It's the right choice, of course, in the days since long-time business owners and dentists
00:00:09.700 have been reporting that the program is creating chaos at their places of work.
00:00:14.540 It's also being reported that the plan will create confusion,
00:00:17.540 which happens basically any time the Liberal government puts forward new legislation.
00:00:21.900 Justin Trudeau's Liberals are trailing the Conservatives by 20 points,
00:00:25.360 and this week faced a devastating loss in the once Liberal stronghold of Toronto St. Paul's.
00:00:31.680 But until an election is called, we're all just buckling down
00:00:34.660 and praying that the damage done to our country can and will be undone by a strong Conservative government.
00:00:40.480 The reason an election hasn't been called, of course, is the cowardice of Jagmeet Singh's NDP,
00:00:45.260 who make a big show about supporting the working class,
00:00:48.020 even when it's clear the working class no longer supports the government the NDP upholds. 0.97
00:00:52.680 Singh is simultaneously one of the most useless politicians, 0.96
00:00:55.880 who's also wreaking the most havoc on our country, 0.99
00:00:58.780 if you can wrap your head around that seeming paradox.
00:01:01.560 In fact, it's his party that's been pushing for a national dental care program
00:01:05.060 in return for supporting the Liberals.
00:01:07.160 But instead, the Liberals offered him this watered-down plan that Alberta doesn't want,
00:01:11.120 because even Trudeau doesn't respect him.
00:01:13.480 So it should come as no surprise that the new Alberta NDP leader wants to distance himself from Singh.
00:01:18.660 And if the effort to divorce the Alberta NDP from Singh's unpopular federal branch is successful,
00:01:23.680 it could spell a headache for Danielle Smith and the United Conservative Party. 1.00
00:01:27.740 I'm Rachel Emanuel, and this is the Alberta Roundup.
00:01:30.860 Rachel Emanuel brings the news each day
00:01:35.240 On Alberta Roundup, she has her say
00:01:39.740 Okay, everyone, taking a look at our first story here,
00:01:43.740 Alberta is opting out of the federal dental care program
00:01:46.220 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith told the federal government this week.
00:01:49.080 In a letter, she said the plan infringes on provincial jurisdiction.
00:01:53.120 She wrote, quote,
00:01:54.340 If a new health program was to be developed by the federal government,
00:01:57.560 it should be done in full collaboration with provinces and territories,
00:02:01.260 and discussions should have occurred before these intentions are announced.
00:02:04.980 Unfortunately, this did not occur.
00:02:06.800 The Premier also said that Alberta is still expecting its monetary portion of the federal program,
00:02:12.120 which they would then use to help low-income Albertans afford dental care.
00:02:16.940 She added, quote,
00:02:17.840 We anticipate our respective officials can negotiate mutually agreeable terms within a two-year time frame
00:02:23.200 and plan to opt out by 2026.
00:02:26.040 Last December, Ottawa promised to spend $13 billion over five years on the plan.
00:02:30.920 Canadians who filed a tax return earning less than $90,000 per year
00:02:34.560 and have no access to dental care insurance are eligible.
00:02:37.980 The program already covers kids under 12 and seniors over the age of 65,
00:02:42.840 and it's now been expanded to cover those under the age of 18,
00:02:46.700 as well as those with a valid disability tax credit certificate.
00:02:50.280 The Alberta Dental Association president-elect said the program creates a lot more paperwork.
00:02:55.320 He added, quote,
00:02:55.940 On top of that, though, there is just such an unknown.
00:02:59.500 We don't quite know who is even covered.
00:03:01.860 Dr. Hans Herschen is one of the 60 to 70 percent of Alberta dentists not yet signed up for the program.
00:03:08.000 He's concerned over misinformation and said patients come in expecting free dental care
00:03:12.720 when they may still have to pay out of pocket.
00:03:14.860 Dr. Herschen also said, quote,
00:03:16.220 This is not a free program.
00:03:18.260 That's a very real concern.
00:03:19.860 So many Canadians have been told their dental will now be free.
00:03:22.480 Meanwhile, president of the Canadian Dental Association said he's hearing reports of dental offices
00:03:27.480 where administrators are now spending up to an hour a day explaining the program to patients.
00:03:32.560 Dr. Joel Antle also said the program will limit patient choice, saying, quote,
00:03:37.280 You are also going to have people left in a very sad situation of having to go to dental office to dental office,
00:03:43.640 asking, are you taking part?
00:03:45.560 Taking a look at our next story here,
00:03:47.240 federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh says he's united with Alberta New Democrats,
00:03:51.120 even as that party's new leader seeks to distance himself from Jagmeet Singh's NDP.
00:03:56.740 On Saturday, former Calgary Mayor Nahed Nanshi was crowned leader of the Alberta NDP in a decisive leadership contest.
00:04:03.960 And he quickly told reporters that he would be putting the question to his membership
00:04:07.500 of whether they should divorce from the federal party, something he first pitched during his campaign.
00:04:12.400 But Singh says the two parties remain united in their goal of defeating conservatives federally and provincially.
00:04:17.860 Take a listen.
00:04:18.400 Right now, at the provincial level in Alberta, provincially in a lot of places,
00:04:23.280 conservatives are a threat to the people.
00:04:25.840 Conservatives are directly attacking health care, education.
00:04:29.380 They're even attacking pensions.
00:04:31.800 So in Alberta, New Democrats are united with a very clear goal of defeating Daniel Smith,
00:04:37.600 who is a real threat to Canadians, who is a real threat to Albertans. 0.60
00:04:40.520 And nationally, New Democrats are also united.
00:04:45.140 We've got to replace Justin Trudeau.
00:04:47.980 We've got to defeat conservatives.
00:04:49.460 Pierre Polyev also wants to do the same things as Daniel Smith.
00:04:53.280 He wants to cut health care.
00:04:54.900 He wants to take away people's services.
00:04:57.040 He wants to cut and gut the things that you need.
00:04:59.400 Members of provincial NDP branches automatically become members of the federal NDP.
00:05:03.700 That feature is unique to the NDP of Canada's major political parties.
00:05:08.300 And it's also something the United Conservative Party government has used to successfully attack the Alberta NDP,
00:05:14.420 considering Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's extreme unpopularity across Canada,
00:05:18.920 but of course in Alberta as well,
00:05:20.520 and the fact that the federal NDP continue propping him up.
00:05:23.840 They are the reason we are not already in an election.
00:05:26.220 On Saturday, Nenshi told reporters,
00:05:28.840 Differences in party policy has created problems for the provincial party in energy-rich Alberta.
00:05:44.440 For example, Nenshi and former Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley both supported the Trans Mountain Pipeline project,
00:05:50.400 but federal leader Jagmeet Singh didn't.
00:05:52.140 Still, Notley told the Calgary Herald last week that plans to divorce from the federal party 0.89
00:05:57.180 are, quote, silly, superficial, and short-sighted. 0.74
00:06:00.980 It's been one week since former Calgary Mayor Nahed Nenshi was crowned leader of the Alberta NDP, 0.98
00:06:06.180 and already the United Conservative Party has released two attack ads about the new leader.
00:06:10.140 Those ads have criticized his record on taxes as the mayor of Calgary
00:06:13.540 and his relationship to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
00:06:16.360 Take a look.
00:06:17.340 New NDP leader Nahed Nenshi is Justin Trudeau's choice for Alberta.
00:06:21.000 That's Nenshi helping Justin Trudeau defeat Stephen Harper in the 2015 federal election.
00:06:27.600 When asked about Nenshi running for the NDP,
00:06:30.540 Trudeau called Nenshi a strong mayor and said we should welcome his candidacy.
00:06:35.820 Trudeau even tried to get Nenshi to run for his federal liberal party.
00:06:40.040 We've had enough of Trudeau in Ottawa.
00:06:42.160 We don't need one in Alberta.
00:06:44.060 Nahed Nenshi, Trudeau's choice for Alberta.
00:06:46.720 The Calgary mayor has responded in kind.
00:06:48.860 Here's what he had to say.
00:06:49.660 You know what?
00:06:52.020 They are nothing, if not predictable.
00:06:55.800 I've said for a long time that Danielle Smith and the UCP government only know how to do two things.
00:07:00.680 They know how to pick fights and they know how to waste money. 0.86
00:07:03.200 And now here they are, picking a fight with me and wasting big bucks on ads doing so.
00:07:08.520 What do you think they're so scared of?
00:07:10.140 They're trying to define me for you, but they can't do it because you know me.
00:07:14.800 I've been around and Lord knows no one has ever accused me of being quiet.
00:07:19.000 And I am proud of what we built together.
00:07:21.180 Moving into our next story here, a new survey from the Angus Reid Institute found that Alberta Premier Daniel Smith is the fourth most popular premier in Canada.
00:07:29.860 She received the green light from 45% of Albertans, trailing Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furry, and in first place, Manitoba Premier Wob Canoe.
00:07:41.280 Ontario's Doug Ford and New Brunswick's Blaine Higgs tied for dead last.
00:07:46.180 Moving into our controversy of the week, while speaking at the Black Canadian Women in Action Conference in Calgary on Thursday,
00:07:52.260 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith said that the province has to address systemic barriers to entrepreneurs of colour to grow international and domestic trade.
00:08:00.420 The Premier said, quote,
00:08:01.360 We recognize that local businesses and entrepreneurs face challenges relating to this community, and support for the black community must extend beyond strictly business supports.
00:08:11.280 And we're happy to address anti-racism and systemic barriers faced by offering feedback that some face difficulty addressing capital.
00:08:18.360 Meanwhile, Calgary Mayor Jody Gonick tried to draw commonalities between the water crisis in Calgary and women in sub-Saharan Africa dragging water to their homes.
00:08:28.260 She said, quote,
00:08:29.860 The gendered burden of water collection and conservation is true amongst traditional North American Indigenous cultures, as well as in Africa, and quite frankly, throughout the world.
00:08:39.140 In nearly 80% of households that are lacking direct water access, women and girls bear the primary responsibility for water collection.
00:08:46.780 I am, of course, not surprised to see Calgary Mayor Jody Gonick resort to race posturing, although I do think it is quite ironic that she's comparing women who have to carry water to their homes to the crisis ongoing in Calgary, which, of course, was caused by her government.
00:09:00.660 So, please don't try to seem relatable on that front.
00:09:03.280 Maybe if your government was less focused on banning plastic bags and Canada Day celebrations, you would have had a little more time to check out what's going on with our basic water infrastructure.
00:09:13.120 However, I was disappointed to see Alberta Premier Daniel Smith resort to this race posturing.
00:09:17.640 I think people are getting a little tired of it.
00:09:19.460 It's my question of the week for you all.
00:09:21.180 Do you think these comments are appropriate, or are you, too, tired of the race pandering?
00:09:25.720 Speaking of Calgary Mayor Jody Gonick, that brings us to what we're watching in the weeks to come.
00:09:30.400 There's only one politician in Canada who is less popular than Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and it's the Calgary Mayor herself.
00:09:38.220 According to new data from Think HQ, Calgary Mayor Jody Gonick has an approval rating of just 26%.
00:09:44.700 That's two point less than Justin Trudeau, who sits at 28%.
00:09:48.800 Think HQ has been collecting data since 2014 when Head Nenshi was the mayor.
00:09:54.140 And for context, he had an approval rating of 74% at the start of his term, and that dropped to 57% by the time he left the role in 2021.
00:10:03.500 Think HQ president Mark Henry said, quote,
00:10:05.920 These ratings are unprecedentedly low.
00:10:08.760 They've managed to break their own record for low approval ratings set in December of last year,
00:10:13.340 and it seems driven primarily by negative public reactions to policies like the single-use bag bylaw and blanket rezoning.
00:10:20.720 Finally, moving into our weekly comment roundup, and make sure you stick around till the end as I have a very exciting announcement, as I promised you all, this week on Wednesday.
00:10:30.220 But first, taking a look at some of these comments, user Kevin Buswallo says,
00:10:33.920 If you have the best lawyers and an endless budget, then why jump to Trudeau's bozo laws?
00:10:39.380 Confront them and challenge them in court.
00:10:41.380 This is lunacy.
00:10:42.460 That was, of course, in response to my question last week as to whether or not companies should fight the Trudeau government when they infringe on our charter rights.
00:10:50.860 That was in response to news that Pathways Alliance had scrubbed their website because of new legislation proposed by the Trudeau government,
00:10:58.760 which would force companies to prove their environmental record against some undefined global standard.
00:11:05.620 Companies responded and said, this is unclear, and we could be held liable for this.
00:11:10.920 So companies like Pathway Alliance scrubbed their website.
00:11:13.360 And I said, you know, maybe some people with the big bucks should stick around and actually fight the Trudeau government.
00:11:18.720 I think this is a big problem that we have in Canada.
00:11:20.780 Nobody wants to put their money where their mouth is.
00:11:22.960 People are very apathetic.
00:11:24.160 They also don't want to put their time where their mouth is.
00:11:27.540 So they roll over and they comply too quickly with bogus policies and laws when they should stand up and fight.
00:11:34.600 And that's the reason why our country looks the way it does today.
00:11:37.840 Finally, user Andy Nichols said, quote, why are you living in Alberta?
00:11:41.320 You obviously don't understand the Western culture.
00:11:44.300 Albertans work hard and play hard.
00:11:46.360 The Stampede is a celebration of agriculture, ranching, and yes, indigenous contribution to the Western way of life.
00:11:51.880 If you think that the Midway is what it's about, you missed the boat, or should I say the chuck wagon, when you moved here.
00:11:56.420 Calgary brings in the best Canadian and international country and Western musicians, as well as popular music.
00:12:02.620 So put on a cowboy hat and cowboy boots and learn to square dance.
00:12:05.480 You might actually have fun.
00:12:07.000 He was responding to my controversial statement last week that I don't really enjoy the Calgary Stampede.
00:12:12.340 I would prefer to spend my free time in a bit of a quieter and more relaxing environment.
00:12:17.800 Listen, this may come as a surprise to you, but not everyone moves to Alberta or even to Calgary for the Calgary Stampede.
00:12:23.660 And some of us don't enjoy loud crowds and lots of drinking.
00:12:28.260 There are other ways to enjoy Western culture.
00:12:30.220 I would argue that if you want to get a true Stampede feel, you're probably better off doing that in Pinocca.
00:12:36.000 I definitely enjoyed seeing all the races, like the chuck wagon races.
00:12:40.940 They were a few years ago, and I think I would prefer to drive up and check out their Stampede than be stuck in busy and loud Calgary.
00:12:48.080 But to each their own.
00:12:48.900 Okay, everyone, and as promised, my big announcement for you all, beginning next week, I will be starting a new podcast on Wednesdays called Rachel and the Republic, in which, you guessed it, I will be covering American politics, beginning with a close look at the U.S. election.
00:13:05.560 I hope that you all caught Thursday's debate, but if you didn't, I'll be sure to have a rundown for you on Wednesday.
00:13:10.480 So make sure that you are subscribed to True North so you don't miss that show.
00:13:14.000 Okay, everyone, that's all we have time for today.
00:13:15.720 Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:13:16.720 As always, I hope that you guys have a great weekend, and I will see you on Wednesday.