Juno News - June 05, 2023


What should Albertans expect from the UCP？ (ft. Rebecca Schulz)


Episode Stats

Length

11 minutes

Words per Minute

193.91508

Word Count

2,320

Sentence Count

114

Misogynist Sentences

1


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 To get into the serious stuff of the Alberta election, we're going to be talking about
00:00:14.680 the, I want to say the sweep. And I have to be cautious with how we describe the win because
00:00:22.140 Daniel Smith obviously was victorious. The UCP won. They did lose seats from what they had going
00:00:27.620 into it. But I think anyone could have said going into it that that was always going to be the case,
00:00:33.540 that that was always going to happen. Jason Kenney in 2019 did so well that it was going to be very
00:00:39.040 difficult for any UCP led by him or anyone else to rise to that same threshold. I think this is where
00:00:46.020 it's important to look forward because the campaign that the UCP ran was really sticking
00:00:51.460 to conservative strengths. It wasn't a campaign that was talking largely about sovereignty. It
00:00:56.380 wasn't relitigating the COVID file. It was talking about economy. It was talking about jobs. It was
00:01:01.620 talking about oil and gas. It was talking about all of these other things that are fairly, I don't want
00:01:07.500 to say, well, no, let's be real. They're safe conservative issues. These are things that the
00:01:11.620 conservatives, generally speaking, can talk about in a broadly appealing way. She wasn't campaigning
00:01:18.140 on the culture war, although obviously there are people that know her as that and expect her
00:01:22.320 to be that. But one of the things that I think a lot of people are going to be looking for
00:01:27.440 is what the path forward is. What's the plan here? So it's my pleasure to welcome back the newly
00:01:34.700 re-elected MLA for Calgary Shaw, also still in cabinet as Minister of Municipal Affairs, Rebecca
00:01:41.100 Schultz. Rebecca, good to talk to you. Congratulations again, and thanks for coming on today.
00:01:45.440 Hi, Andrew. Thank you so much. So obviously, Calgary was the nail-biter of the night. I mean,
00:01:53.440 you saw me upstage there at the Monday night event, just withering away because it was going
00:01:59.060 several hours, and some of your colleagues' ridings just kept flipping back and forth with
00:02:03.280 each poll. Why was Calgary so difficult for your party and the NDP to really claim? And why do you
00:02:11.340 think it went the way it did, with the NDP really picking up a fair bit of ground there?
00:02:15.520 You know, and I said this on election night, that the last four years have been a challenge. We ran
00:02:20.480 on jobs economy pipeline, and we faced things that we just couldn't predict, like an oil price crash,
00:02:26.940 an economic downturn, obviously COVID. And so there were some challenges there. But when I look at where
00:02:32.800 Alberta is today versus where our province was after four years of the NDP, I think Albertans wanted
00:02:38.960 certainty. I mean, the NDP and almost every media outlet asked me about the division in the campaign.
00:02:46.940 And of course, the NDP ran a highly divisive campaign. It was negative. A lot of it was
00:02:52.980 complete fear and misinformation, and they put a lot of money behind it, as did some of the unions.
00:02:59.060 And so that also made it a challenge. And we remain focused on our record, our four years in
00:03:05.000 government, where Alberta was in terms of leading the nation in economic growth, jobs, opportunity,
00:03:10.580 and a platform that built on our spring budget, and committed to things like keeping communities safe.
00:03:16.160 Again, making sure our economy is more diverse than ever before, balanced budgets, things that
00:03:20.920 resonate with the vast majority of Albertans. And so that's why I think, ultimately, Albertans decided,
00:03:26.060 look, we want a party that's going to give us something to vote for, that has some optimism,
00:03:30.580 both in our province and its people. And that's why I do think that we saw positive results overall,
00:03:37.200 just the other night.
00:03:39.120 One of the things I found interesting, to your point there, is that there really were two campaigns,
00:03:44.440 in some ways, there was the policy oriented campaign that you're talking about there. And
00:03:48.580 there was also the divisiveness and the negativity and the, I think the media obsessions over, you know,
00:03:53.280 what Danielle said in a blog post, you know, in, you know, 1942, or whatever. But it was interesting how
00:03:59.420 much the message that your party put forward broke through with people, though, in some ways. I
00:04:03.820 remember on the way back from the UCP election night party on Monday, so it was, you know, 1230
00:04:09.540 a.m., I'm going to my hotel, and the driver of the Uber said, thinking I was a UCP guy and not a
00:04:15.580 journalist, you know, I voted for you guys. And for the first time in my life, he said, and I said,
00:04:21.760 well, I'm, you know, I'm a journalist, but I'm still curious, why did you vote UCP? And he said,
00:04:25.540 well, his 21-year-old daughter told him to, because she believed that the UCP was the party
00:04:30.860 that would guarantee economic security. And he said, it was very moving. He said, you know,
00:04:34.940 I was voting for my daughter's future. And that's the type of story, when I share it,
00:04:39.220 that makes it sound like I'm campaigning for you guys. But in reality, it was actually interesting,
00:04:44.280 because I had seen all of the CBC stuff and the Rachel Notley stuff. But here's a guy
00:04:48.220 that really is, I think, your model voter in what you were trying to tell people.
00:04:52.220 Yeah, and it really was a platform that focused on just the top of mind issues for everyday
00:04:58.420 Albertans. And as conservatives who run on balanced budgets, we're not the party that has a commitment
00:05:03.700 for everybody, right? We have commitments, or I mean, like in terms of dollar amounts and the big
00:05:09.560 spending amounts, it's a commitment to maintain fiscal responsibility. You have to manage your
00:05:14.620 finances in your household, and we're going to manage your tax dollars responsibly. We're going to
00:05:18.680 make sure we have a strong growing economy. Why? Because if we don't, we can't invest in our
00:05:23.820 healthcare system, in our education system, in mental health and addictions, and keeping
00:05:28.760 communities safe, whether you live in Calgary, Edmonton, or rural Alberta. These are things
00:05:32.760 that matter to people. And I had a lot of people, I mean, we were door knocking, I think I finished
00:05:37.140 door knocking on election night at 10 after seven, like we went until the very end. And I had people
00:05:43.280 say, man, like, I just had to stop watching the news through this campaign. I can't believe how
00:05:47.560 negative it was. And so I was really encouraged to see that our message resonated. And we did have,
00:05:54.740 you know, it wasn't just about because some people said, do you think it's a election campaign between
00:05:59.140 two leaders? Is it, you know, two people? And I said, it's also two records. We have the NDP who had
00:06:04.900 a record of four years in government, that a lot of people just said, look, we can't afford to go back
00:06:09.020 to that. And we also had a record that also through a difficult time, we came out here in Alberta,
00:06:14.720 a place of hope, optimism, opportunity, where more people are choosing to call our province home,
00:06:19.520 record investments in healthcare and education and a balanced budget and a commitment to keep
00:06:23.400 communities safe. You know, I think people just felt like, look, I can, I can get behind that.
00:06:29.140 And I think they started to see through, you know, some of those ads. No, you're not going to have to
00:06:34.100 pay to see a family doctor. You know, you're not. Danielle Smith made that commitment. And I think
00:06:40.000 people started to see through some of the negativity too. I know when a government comes
00:06:44.880 into power, and I'm referring specifically to Danielle Smith, not the UCP, through a leadership,
00:06:50.160 there's a, there's a bit of nervousness in going too bold with policies because you didn't really
00:06:54.700 receive a mandate from voters. And now you have received that mandate. So do you see there as being
00:06:59.900 a more significant change, of course, in your government's priorities? Or do you really see
00:07:05.000 continuity from what have been the priorities of the cabinet for the last eight months?
00:07:11.000 Yeah, I'll say, you know, Danielle Smith, when she was elected leader of the United Conservatives,
00:07:15.620 really put effort into bringing our caucus and our team together and maintaining that,
00:07:20.280 you know, we are a big tent coalition of the centre-right. And I also think that when you look
00:07:25.700 at our platform and you look at the top issues, look, whether you live in rural Alberta or you live
00:07:29.620 in Calgary, community safety matters, making sure that there are police officers, and that, you know,
00:07:35.580 when you're in an emergency, somebody's going to come and respond. EMS response times. This was a huge
00:07:41.600 win for Danielle Smith, where, you know, she just reached out to paramedics and said, what is the
00:07:46.540 barrier? Why are our response times so long? And she took their feedback and made changes that they've
00:07:51.620 been asking for for over a decade. And so I think when you look at what we're committing to do,
00:07:57.400 it is committing to keep our finances in order to grow the economy. But to have a common sense
00:08:02.780 approach to government to reduce some of the barriers facing whether it's businesses or Albertans,
00:08:08.460 there's a very real commitment to do that. And I think the changes she made in healthcare to bring
00:08:13.520 down the surgical wait times, to bring down the EMS wait times, I think, my goodness, if we were able
00:08:19.440 to do some of that in seven months, that's a good sign for our healthcare system and for frontline
00:08:25.440 healthcare workers, which is, you know, that's something top of mind for Albertans right now,
00:08:29.220 too, that you have a government that's willing to take a common sense approach, get rid of some of
00:08:33.680 the bureaucracy and say, how do we make sure that we have a system that works for Albertans?
00:08:39.600 You know, I think that that also is a big difference between us and obviously the NDP,
00:08:44.820 they grew red tape, they grew the bureaucracy. And so, of course, we're always going to have a
00:08:49.260 different approach on that front. But we want to focus on addressing the problems of
00:08:53.640 Albertans right across Alberta. I know that obviously, with the losses in Calgary,
00:08:59.640 and in the case of Minister Madhu in Edmonton, there are some changes that are going to have
00:09:04.540 to come about in cabinet. And I know you're not speaking for the Premier right now on this, but
00:09:09.000 do you have any kind of indications of, I'm not going to ask you who's going in what role,
00:09:13.840 but of what sort of changes will be made and what the message will be with the next cabinet?
00:09:18.540 Yeah, and I really don't have any insight into that.
00:09:22.340 Make your pitch. Tell me the spot you want.
00:09:24.580 You know, I always say this, that when I first decided to run back in 2018, I told people, like,
00:09:30.040 why I wanted to get into this is because I think that Albertans deserve government that knows that
00:09:35.540 we're here to serve people, that we're here to serve our neighbours. I work for Albertans. And my first
00:09:41.540 and most important job is always as MLA and a local representative. So that is my top priority.
00:09:47.800 But I'm also, of course, happy to serve wherever I'm needed or asked. But yeah, I don't really make
00:09:53.360 those predictions.
00:09:55.380 All right, fair enough. Well, I guess the one thing I'll ask you in closing on this, obviously,
00:09:59.980 there was a leadership race, you know, what, eight months ago, that was relatively divisive in some
00:10:06.540 ways, but there was a fair bit of unity after. Again, I mean, a lot of the people that were running
00:10:10.660 against Danielle Smith, including yourself, ended up being brought into cabinet and have been
00:10:15.120 very big champions. Do you see the party as being unified moving forward? Because even during the
00:10:20.140 last campaign, there were some people that nominally were conservative activists or called themselves
00:10:25.540 conservative activists that are saying, you know, I can't get behind the UCP for whatever reason or
00:10:30.560 another. You know, I do believe that our team is unified. And I know media was saying, oh, you know,
00:10:35.620 there's a couple of longtime UCP supporters that are going with the NDP. Those are people who weren't
00:10:40.440 largely as supportive of the UCP after unity. When we went through the leadership race, I give
00:10:46.480 Danielle Smith a lot of credit for bringing our team together. And I would say this on the doors
00:10:51.380 too, right, that she, you know, really wanted to see our team to come together. She took our feedback
00:10:57.360 or our concerns, because even during the leadership race, I think, you know, for the most part, the
00:11:03.380 debates were about records or policy positions or things like that. And so when other leadership
00:11:09.400 candidates had concerns about specific policies, Danielle Smith took that feedback and made changes
00:11:16.180 to legislation to policy approaches. And, you know, I think that that went a long way in building trust
00:11:23.300 amongst our colleagues. And that's why, you know, I'm so optimistic in the unity of our team, because
00:11:29.400 that also then creates unity amongst our party members as well. And I've seen that at events
00:11:35.600 throughout the last couple of weeks. And I think that that's what we can continue to see in the
00:11:40.920 months and years to come.
00:11:42.720 All right. Well, newly reelected Calgary Shaw MLA Rebecca Schultz. Congratulations again. Thanks for
00:11:47.280 coming on today.
00:11:48.320 Thanks so much. Great to see you again, Andrew.
00:11:50.000 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show. Support the program by donating to True North
00:11:54.440 to True North at www.tnc.news.