Juno News - June 05, 2023


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

Topics
changes in cabinet party unity
Mentioned
Danielle Smith Andrew Lawton Show Rebecca Schultz Rachel Notley Jason Kenney Clay Shaw Madhu
Libs meltdown over Smith win What does Danielle Smith’s win mean for Alberta？

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

193.92

Word count

2,320

Sentence count

125

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In the wake of the Alberta election, there are many questions about the outcome of the election and what it means for the future of the United Conservative Party of Alberta. In this episode, Andrew and Danielle discuss the win for Jason Kenney and his victory, and what the party should do moving forward.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
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 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 0.99
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.