Juno News - Who will be Alberta’s next premier？

00:00:00.000 you're tuned in to the andrew lawton show

00:00:05.940 welcome back to the andrew lawton show when the ontario election was going on i got all these

00:00:13.880 uh angry messages not angry but uh pointed messages from people in alberta saskatchewan

00:00:19.140 and parts of bc saying oh you're focused too much on ontario and when i've talked about alberta and

00:00:23.700 saskatchewan in the past i get the messages from the ontarians saying you're you're focused too

00:00:27.860 much on the west so we to be honest the maritimers you guys have a right to uh be aggrieved right now

00:00:33.300 because i don't spend nearly enough time talking about what's going on in the maritimes and also in

00:00:37.640 newfoundland and labrador uh we'll get to you if stuff starts happening there but uh one thing i

00:00:42.820 do want to start talking about a little bit though because we have the united conservative party

00:00:46.900 leadership race is what's happening there in the bid to not just replace jason kenny as ucp leader

00:00:52.840 but whoever wins this race will become premier of alberta a lot like what's happening in the uk

00:00:58.400 right now where whoever wins the tory leadership race gets right to the top spot and becomes prime

00:01:03.720 minister so let's talk about this and some of the other broad issues here joining me is rachel

00:01:08.440 emmanuel who is true north's new alberta correspondent rachel good to talk to you thanks for coming on the

00:01:14.320 show today and welcome aboard yeah thank you very much happy to be on the show and happy to be with

00:01:19.480 true north i know we've had some conversations about me maybe joining the team a couple times so

00:01:23.840 it's great to be here at last i'm really excited about it and just as a wee bit of rachel emmanuel

00:01:28.660 trivia you were there like five seconds before i was pepper sprayed in ottawa covering the freedom

00:01:34.840 convoy i ran into you in front of the shadow laurier you had the wherewithal to get out of dodge

00:01:39.460 i was pepper sprayed moments later i don't blame you for it but you were there at the the moment it

00:01:44.140 happened or at least just before so uh good to see you well i actually have vision in both eyes right

00:01:48.900 now um let's start off with what's been happening in alberta politics generally because we we have

00:01:54.940 jason kenney who effectively lost his leadership review and very quickly a huge leadership race

00:02:02.220 coming it's wide open you've got all these ex-cabinet ministers that are coming in is there

00:02:06.820 at this point a theme or a thing that this leadership race is about i think that that depends on who you

00:02:13.740 are as a voter and what you're looking for in the next leader i think we're seeing two big questions

00:02:18.360 as what always happens in a leadership race you have a camp of people who are really just thinking

00:02:23.420 who can win a general election and so i think what we're seeing with a lot of people that are coming

00:02:27.780 out of kenny's government they're saying with some of the other candidates and you know from their

00:02:32.340 campaigns i'm hearing concern that maybe candidates like danielle smith or todd lowen doesn't have what it

00:02:36.900 takes to win a general election because they are a bit further to the right than some of the candidates

00:02:41.220 that are coming out of kenny's government so that's of course a question that everyone's asking

00:02:45.140 another question is of course you know a lot of people are really unhappy with what the kenny

00:02:49.280 government did on covet 19 and the policies that were implemented of course pastors here in alberta

00:02:54.140 were arrested during the pandemic that is not something the province is ready to forget anytime soon

00:02:58.800 so we're really seeing those two themes emerge and i think everyone is kind of saying you know kenny

00:03:03.720 didn't do enough with the federal government and getting a fair deal from ottawa we didn't see the

00:03:08.340 action on that that we were hoping for so i think one of the big questions is who's someone that can

00:03:12.800 win in a general election of course the province has a general election coming up next year just

00:03:17.100 about six months after their leadership race so that's really not a lot of time so they're looking

00:03:21.680 for somebody who can you know reunite the caucus the parties it's kind of fracturing there seems

00:03:26.140 to be some divides you know it's it's conservative politics you always have it in conservative

00:03:30.040 politics there's different groups people are very principled and they're not always willing to

00:03:34.000 bend their views for somebody else's to compromise and make it work so they're looking for someone

00:03:38.460 that can unite the party and win ahead of a general election coming up against rachel notley and the

00:03:43.000 ndp yeah i think you raise an important point and one of the things i felt jason kenny was always too

00:03:50.220 quick to do and there was probably a strategic element there is say that the only criticism about him

00:03:55.080 was really about the covet handling he had said that anyone who was against him was against him because

00:04:00.340 they didn't like lockdowns they didn't like vaccine mandates he he tried to really do his own version

00:04:05.080 of the fringe minority thing to some extent and what you just mentioned there a range of issues that

00:04:10.840 people had with the kenny government even pre-covid or in the very early days of covid and yeah the

00:04:16.280 fair deal i mean obviously it hasn't been top of mind for a lot of albertans because of pandemic

00:04:21.120 related stuff but the equalization referendum was really i think for a lot of people just the beginning

00:04:28.240 of a bigger discussion they want to have about independence that really wasn't happening

00:04:32.600 yeah that's exactly it um there was a lot of unhappiness with the copa 19 pandemic policies as

00:04:38.300 you mentioned but there was also a lot of resentment for other issues that being said i don't know if

00:04:42.460 covet hadn't happened if kenny still would have had the same leadership as your results that he had

00:04:46.840 and you know maybe his energy could have been spent more on some of these issues obviously

00:04:50.140 copa 19 was overwhelming for the government and it seemed like sort of all hands on deck to address

00:04:54.420 this issue and kenny of course was the person who came out and did the press conferences i think he

00:04:58.940 was in front of the cameras like three times a week we didn't see that in every other province

00:05:02.880 some premiers put their you know health officer in front of the cameras so it's kind of like you've

00:05:07.660 just spent two years seeing kenny in front of the camera delivering bad news repeatedly and then we go

00:05:11.900 on to this leadership review but certainly now that we are looking for a new premier there's other

00:05:16.200 issues coming up that people had with the kenny government and another big thing i'm hearing a lot is just

00:05:20.320 sort of a lack of communication albertans didn't really feel like kenny government was consulting

00:05:24.600 with them or being clear and open with them about what they were doing on the coba 19 pandemic

00:05:29.160 i think it really felt like a top-down approach that albertans typically really don't appreciate

00:05:33.120 i don't know if we really see that same sentiment in ontario the politics are very different here

00:05:37.120 um so we're seeing some leadership candidates appeal to you know we need to communicate better

00:05:40.820 we need to kind of give the power back to the hands of the members and not have that top-down

00:05:44.580 approach so these are all issues that we're seeing flow out of the leadership race right now

00:05:48.360 and things that people are talking about and discussing yeah let's talk about some of the

00:05:52.020 players here because you have a lot of former kenny cabinet ministers people like uh rajan sonny

00:05:57.360 and lila here and travis taves that have stepped forward rebecca schultz another one who just got a

00:06:03.280 pretty i'd say significant endorsement in ronna ambrose coming aboard her campaign and then you have 1.00

00:06:08.280 that wild rose flank of brian gene and danielle smith and you've got some other people i mean todd low and

00:06:15.020 i don't think he's in that top tier right now but to be fair he's there and he's appealing to some of

00:06:19.900 those same people and i think it will be interesting to see which way this goes even early on as far as

00:06:26.740 momentum and fundraising and all that because i would see certainly from my perspective and i could

00:06:31.820 have my own little echo chamber here i would say that there's a lot more momentum behind the danielle

00:06:36.800 smiths and the brian genes because of those covet frustrations because of those equalization

00:06:41.960 referendum and broader western alienation frustrations but at the same time if someone

00:06:46.860 is happy with the kenny government there's a lot of appeal to people that were in that government

00:06:51.420 like rebecca schultz like travis taves you have it exactly right so i'm seeing tons of support for

00:06:56.440 danielle smith i don't think anybody on any campaigns like maybe a couple people but i've been

00:07:00.800 here at the calgary stampede talking to everyone everyone seems to be pretty much on agreement smith is

00:07:05.500 in the lead right now she's the clear front runner you know the polling from last month showed brian 0.99

00:07:10.220 gene was just just behind her like a point behind her still within the margin of error i'm not really

00:07:14.840 hearing a lot of support for him at the stampede i'm not hearing that people feel super confident

00:07:19.200 in his campaign or believe that he's likely to become the next leader even though the polling as i

00:07:23.240 mentioned last month showed him just just behind smith but i am hearing you know people think smith

00:07:27.620 is the clear front runner and that's because she has done such a good job of appealing to those

00:07:32.060 freedom-loving albertans who are so frustrated with what happened in their province over the last few

00:07:35.920 years and the thing that all politicians need to remember right now is a lot of people who are in

00:07:41.040 the freedom movement are people that were never involved in politics before but when they saw what

00:07:45.400 was happening in their country during the coven 19 pandemic they thought i need to get involved now

00:07:49.900 if there was ever a time to stand up for something it's today and so they've been organizing over the

00:07:54.480 last two years so this has mobilized a lot of canadians who might not have been involved in politics

00:07:58.800 before you know there's just massive email list their organization is very excellent it's one of the

00:08:03.080 reasons that kenny had to resign as premier following you know his core leadership review

00:08:06.840 results at just 51.4 of party support so she's done a really good job of appealing to those people

00:08:12.300 she's been very clear we're not going to do lockdowns again if ottawa pressures us we're going

00:08:16.260 to have to resist that pressure on vaccine mandates and lockdowns and then you know she's been talking

00:08:20.400 about an alberta sovereignty act which would mean the province wouldn't enforce federal laws that

00:08:24.480 they didn't like or think were advantageous to alberta so she's been very clear at appealing to those

00:08:28.960 you know to those albertans and even things on like nominations nominations are open during the

00:08:33.260 leadership race some people think that shouldn't be the case they think they should wait for the

00:08:36.700 new leader to be chosen to open noms and she said you know if the members in that area are unhappy i

00:08:41.120 would consider reopening nominations and that is some of the more moderates a bit concerned because they

00:08:45.720 think some of these ideas are a bit radical like reopening nominations what kind of legal issues could

00:08:50.680 that cause as well as you know an alberta sovereignty act is it really something that's practical

00:08:54.780 will give us economic certainty i think we'll see a lot of investment pull but she's definitely 0.99

00:08:59.640 pulling ahead right now because she's appealing to those people and i think they've just organized

00:09:03.360 so well and so officially over the last few years the concerns i'm hearing with her campaign is whether

00:09:07.860 or not she can win a general election and i don't have a lot of clear answers on that i'm not hearing a

00:09:12.080 lot of clear answers about that at this time just on that note and i know you're a recent a relatively

00:09:17.640 recent alberta transplant but there was a lot of bad blood to danielle smith after the whole floor 1.00

00:09:23.800 crossing debacle and she's i mean had to answer to that time and time again but have people forgiven

00:09:30.400 that have they forgotten it or has the political discussion just changed so much that they're

00:09:35.960 operating on a different wavelength now the people that were against her a lot of them came from that

00:09:40.400 wild rose side the right flank of the party have they just moved on from that entirely

00:09:44.720 i don't think anybody's forgotten about it i think it's something that's always there in the back of

00:09:49.920 people's minds it's something that gets brought up very often um it's just i think she spent six

00:09:55.160 years on the radio and i think a lot of people have forgiven her for it and they're ready to give

00:09:59.060 her another chance so that's one big part of it as i mentioned you know there are still some people

00:10:03.180 that hold on to it people have pretty clear when you when you're speaking to people it's pretty clear

00:10:07.460 right away they say i'll never trust her again because of the floor crosser or they say you know 1.00

00:10:10.720 what we heard her on the radio for six years we understand why that happened and where she was coming

00:10:15.200 from it's a different time now so there's definitely a big wave of people that are ready to forgive her

00:10:19.680 they might not have forgotten that it's happened but they understand why it happened and i think that

00:10:23.660 as we saw with ralph klein who was one of alberta's most popular premieres if you have a leader a

00:10:28.500 political leader who's willing to say you know i made a mistake and explain to people what that

00:10:32.380 mistake was and why they made it people are very quick to to forgive them and move on from it and i think

00:10:37.620 that was again one of the criticisms with kenny is people didn't feel like they got a clear answer

00:10:41.400 from him or a clear owning of mistakes just sort of uh well you know we did the best we could and

00:10:46.820 and people just were not satisfied with his answer so i do get the sentiment that people are ready to

00:10:51.040 forgive her you know there's of course people that are not going to believe her or trust her again as

00:10:54.480 a politician but the sentiments definitely seem to be changing let's turn to some of the bigger picture

00:10:59.540 stuff obviously you're coming aboard not just as true north's next alberta correspondent but really i

00:11:04.820 think it's true north's first alberta correspondent we've had alberta coverage i know a lot of it has

00:11:09.080 fallen on me which is just what albertans want someone coming in from ontario every time something

00:11:12.840 happens to uh report on it even though i i do have an alberta sensibility many have argued but

00:11:17.860 what is it that you think are the big issues on the alberta agenda right now um hs people are really

00:11:26.180 unhappy with their health care and they're looking for someone who's saying we cannot have unelected

00:11:30.940 public health officials making decisions for the province again so they're looking for political

00:11:35.880 leaders that are going to offer answers on that just to jump in there do you think this is like

00:11:40.460 a general concern that everyone in canada is dealing with or do you think it's a

00:11:44.220 particularly acute for albertans it's definitely a concern that conservatives libertarians across

00:11:50.880 canada are feeling right now um and i'm hearing it brought up in alberta politics at the grassroots

00:11:55.660 level at like local meetings all the time gets talked about all the times people are saying you know

00:11:59.760 this is really a problem of how our public system is designed and a problem with ahs so how can we

00:12:04.380 redesign our public health system so that we don't have a situation like this again and again you

00:12:08.820 know candidates like daniel smith and todd lowen they have specific solutions and they have ideas

00:12:13.240 as to how to address this so that we don't have public health orders that are just passed without

00:12:18.100 you know public officials elected officials being able to debate debate them in the legislature and

00:12:22.480 decided they're actually something they'd like to proceed with so i would say ahs is at the top of

00:12:26.760 mind again you know freedom from ottawa some more famous fair men on equalization payments um you know

00:12:32.860 people are really unhappy with the high taxes right now and the high cost of living government

00:12:36.080 spending is of course an issue um yeah those are the big issues that i'm seeing come across the

00:12:41.340 board right now that get kind of brought up everywhere that we're going but affordability

00:12:44.640 is i think top of mind for everybody in canada so we're seeing a lot of conversation around that as

00:12:49.140 well during the early part of the conservative leadership race keeping in mind you don't really have

00:12:54.200 any candidates from the west i know pierr polyev was born there so he's tried to say that

00:12:58.920 he's the western candidate leslin lewis did very well there in the last leadership race so

00:13:03.040 she's trying to say that that makes her a western candidate but but you have ontarians and a quebecer 0.81

00:13:08.940 that are running in this race and it really didn't seem like alberta issues or western issues were

00:13:14.280 getting much discussion at all in the leadership race until i'd say the last week once they all want

00:13:19.240 to go to alberta and get their white hats for the calgary stampede they start talking about oh i want

00:13:23.300 to change equalization and all that but do you feel that there has been enough of a push by the

00:13:29.780 federal conservative leadership candidates to go after these western issues i think so i think they've

00:13:36.220 all done different things to sort of try to appeal to the west the question is whether they really mean

00:13:39.860 it and if we'll see action on that once they're elected i think you know everyone knows like even

00:13:43.900 patrick brown very early into early into his campaign when michelle rumple garner was still his

00:13:47.860 campaign chair he released like a whole platform on how we would deal with issues in the west we saw

00:13:51.580 something similar from john shere i believe it was just early last week so you know they are coming

00:13:56.560 out with proposals that specifically address western issues it's just the question of how much they really

00:14:01.100 mean it and how much they're going to advocate for these issues once they're in elected office and you

00:14:05.360 know hold the highest office of the land so i think that's sort of a question everyone is wondering

00:14:08.820 you know trustability but you know peer polyev is incredibly popular out here he's pulled massive crowds

00:14:14.420 to his rallies in edmonton there was 4 000 people at his at his rally you know a couple months ago so he's

00:14:20.180 pulling massive crowds all across canada and we're definitely seeing like a ton of support for him

00:14:24.300 here so you know maybe he hasn't lived in calgary anytime soon but i think people still like to see

00:14:28.780 him a little bit as as one of their own drew north alberta correspondent rachel emmanuel rachel

00:14:33.720 thanks for coming on and welcome again to the team great to be working with you yeah absolutely thank

00:14:37.640 you thanks for listening to the andrew lawton show support the program by donating to true north

00:14:42.300 at www.tnc.news

Juno News - July 17, 2022

Who will be Alberta’s next premier？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript