Off the Record - Cities clash with province over Alberta’s election reform bills

00:00:00.000 Well, William, I know that the viewers have been complaining about how your hair always looks bad on camera.

00:00:03.900 So I think it was nice of you to put a little effort in this morning.

00:00:07.180 Well, I would take issue with always complaining, considering I've really only been in camera once in the entire time.

00:00:14.580 But I want to look good for our True North supporters and True North people who like our programming.

00:00:21.100 That's not true. You were a pretty regular during the Alberta election, if I remember correctly, and on our election night show.

00:00:28.420 Well, that's true. We, you know, as an Albertan, I'm always excited when we cover Alberta topics.

00:00:36.060 A real strength that we have as an organization is we have dedicated and wonderful journalists like you and Isaac covering Alberta and its important issues.

00:00:45.280 It's the second time you've lied on the show. You're talking about how much you admire us and that you only did your hair the one time.

00:00:51.700 We are covering CBC later.

00:00:54.800 Or maybe I'm just getting in a CBC frame of mind by delivering false news.

00:01:00.280 It's also, Isaac, how do you feel that you're losing your, your True North podcast virginity today?

00:01:07.900 I don't know that I necessarily feel that way because I do the daily brief usually at least once a week, sometimes numerous times.

00:01:16.200 And that feels like a podcast to me, although there's no video portion, of course.

00:01:19.540 Yeah. The videos, I don't know how I feel about it.

00:01:24.180 You know, of course, I, I, I, I'm excited to have the opportunity to be on video, but it is definitely new.

00:01:32.280 So, well, maybe next time you'll remember to do your hair when you're on camera, but I think, all right, guys, let's get it started.

00:01:37.320 Hey, everyone. Welcome to Off the Record.

00:01:48.420 In the words of Andrew Lawton, our regular show host, this is sort of True North's fun Friday show.

00:01:54.340 I'm Rachel Emanuel. I'll be hosting the show today and I am joined by William McBeath and Isaac Lamoureux.

00:02:01.060 Isaac is new to the video podcasting format.

00:02:03.760 Welcome to the show, both.

00:02:05.740 Thank you. Nice to be here.

00:02:07.460 So we actually have a Alberta-based crew today, which is a pretty rare thing.

00:02:12.940 Everyone here on the show is based in Alberta.

00:02:14.760 William and I coming to you from Calgary and Isaac from Edmonton.

00:02:17.480 I actually believe that Isaac is coming for my crown as, as the Alberta reporter.

00:02:21.620 He's actually introduced himself on a couple of occasions now as a new Alberta reporter.

00:02:24.880 So we'll see how he does today.

00:02:26.060 You guys can let us know in the comments what you think.

00:02:27.980 Maybe, you know, I might have to give up my Alberta roundup show and replace of a new fan favorite.

00:02:31.960 But Isaac, you've actually, you've been doing some great work on the Alberta coverage.

00:02:34.460 I use it regularly in my shows on Saturdays.

00:02:36.860 And I know that you've been following Bill 20 pretty closely.

00:02:39.580 This is a very controversial piece of legislation.

00:02:42.280 Alberta Premier Daniel Smith.

00:02:43.840 She's had to defend this multiple times since it was announced.

00:02:46.120 Alberta government said, you know, there's going to be amendments introduced.

00:02:48.720 So why don't you break it down for us?

00:02:50.020 What's really going on here?

00:02:51.200 Why is this bill so controversial?

00:02:54.380 Yeah, thanks.

00:02:55.380 So obviously there's a lot of things within Bill 20.

00:02:58.260 But when I first read it, one of the things that stood out to me was the introduction of political parties at the municipal level.

00:03:05.420 I mean, obviously, this is a huge change to municipal politics within Alberta.

00:03:13.200 And so they're introducing a pilot project for local political parties, which will occur in Edmonton and Calgary during the next municipal election.

00:03:23.480 And local candidates aren't required to join a political party, but will be given the opportunity to do so.

00:03:28.680 As far as I understand, all the candidates on the voting list will have a party next to their name.

00:03:34.280 And obviously it could show independent if a candidate did not want to join a party.

00:03:39.380 Also, something interesting to note is that each municipal party will be independent in the sense that a municipal party within Edmonton versus one in Calgary will have no relation.

00:03:48.460 There's lots of rules around that, how they can't even share with the provincial government, the federal government, their parties within those.

00:03:55.460 They can't share any information, that kind of thing.

00:03:57.040 I think that was one of the more, you know, people, something we're more excited about that part of the bill.

00:04:02.420 Not everyone accepted it, but I think that was one of the more accepted things of the bill.

00:04:05.920 Another thing that it's going to do is it's going to ban tabulators.

00:04:08.620 So in provincial elections and in municipal elections, tabulators, which are used to tally the vote, will not be allowed to be used anymore.

00:04:15.640 Of course, some people took issue with this, but a lot of praise for the premier on this.

00:04:18.840 And then on the controversial side of things, one of the things that the bill would also do is it would allow the provincial government to fire city councillors

00:04:26.960 in extreme circumstances and also to basically undo city bylaws, say, you know what, we're going to cancel that city bylaw.

00:04:34.160 We have Calgary Mayor Jodi Gondek responding to this bill.

00:04:36.820 She was very critical of it.

00:04:38.200 Let's play that clip of what she had to say about it and some of her concerns.

00:04:41.220 So right now, all it says is removal of the council member if it's in the public's interest, but public interest is not defined.

00:04:50.140 I do know that Minister McIver has said something to the effect of public interest can be defined as public push or, you know, public request.

00:04:59.780 I still don't know what that looks like.

00:05:01.120 And in an age where recall exists, does it now mean that you can file a recall petition against someone and that becomes the grounds for cabinet making a move towards removal?

00:05:12.320 It's all unclear.

00:05:13.640 It doesn't mesh together well.

00:05:15.160 And public interest has to be defined very clearly for the public.

00:05:21.020 William, what's your take on this?

00:05:22.700 Well, I would have to laugh because I think one of the reasons Mayor Gondek is so concerned is because of how deeply unpopular she is.

00:05:31.060 And of course, she's concerned about a public push because at 30 percent approval, she could well be a target of removal. 0.99

00:05:38.780 So I can understand why she's a big concern.

00:05:40.780 All of that being said, I think the goal of the bill is simply to have a mechanism to remove city councillors or other municipal elected officials

00:05:50.300 when they really go off the wire and maybe move into areas or adopt policy positions that are completely contrary to what has been established in areas like that that are outside their area of jurisdiction.

00:06:04.360 So areas that are under the governance of the province.

00:06:06.740 That being said, there's already mechanisms to deal with errant elected officials. 0.66

00:06:13.100 I'm not sure there's a lot of need to have a separate bill to enshrine that power.

00:06:19.220 But I do think it reflects the fact that so many of our city councils have gone way off the deep end on issues.

00:06:24.920 Mayor Gondek herself, for example, said one of her jobs was to lead the resistance to the province's changes to gender rights and parental rights policy.

00:06:34.200 Well, I really don't think that's actually the job of the mayor of Calgary.

00:06:37.200 The job of the mayor of Calgary is to try and deliver the core services that Calgarians expect.

00:06:42.140 Plowing the snow, filling the potholes, collecting the garbage.

00:06:44.900 All things, by the way, that Calgary does not do particularly well, despite taking a lot of dollars from our property taxes.

00:06:52.400 Yeah, I have to say that I'm inclined to agree with you.

00:06:54.760 I think there's already mechanisms for a lot of the things that the government can deal with here, especially when it comes to removing city councillors.

00:07:00.080 I do like the areas of this bill that focus on, for example, banning the tabulators.

00:07:04.020 I don't have any issue with creating, you know, political parties and municipalities.

00:07:07.680 I'm totally fine with that.

00:07:08.960 I don't like the provincial government stepping in and saying we're going to undo city bylaws.

00:07:13.660 We're going to fire councillors.

00:07:14.640 Even in extreme circumstances, I don't think the solution to bad government is more government.

00:07:19.380 I think this is government overreach from the provincial government. 0.99

00:07:21.460 I think that in Calgary, if we say this city councillor sucks or our city council as a whole sucks, 0.98

00:07:26.860 that's when Calgarians need to get involved and do what they can to remove those councillors. 0.98

00:07:30.940 We just had a recall petition for Jody Gondik.

00:07:34.020 That was unsuccessful, partly because the parameters for the petition were so extreme.

00:07:38.720 They needed over half a million signatures.

00:07:40.720 I interviewed the individual leading the petition on many occasions.

00:07:44.260 He said, well, there's no way we're going to get that many signatures

00:07:46.120 because there's such a large portion of the population in Calgary that doesn't speak English.

00:07:50.140 We can barely talk to them to, you know, explain to them what we're doing here.

00:07:53.580 But the provincial government has already said, you know what, we're going to look at the petition

00:07:56.700 and we're going to amend that legislation so that it's more reasonable.

00:07:59.480 So they already have an avenue for dealing with that.

00:08:01.780 You know, if Calgarians take issue with their government,

00:08:03.600 they need to really get involved and vote them out at the next election or seek to recall them.

00:08:07.740 But I don't like this provincial government stepping in and saying we're going to have rights.

00:08:11.240 And for people who do support this, for conservatives who do support this piece of legislation

00:08:15.520 and the mechanism specifically for the provincial government to step in and fire city councillors,

00:08:20.280 how would they feel if we had an Alberta NDP government right now pushing forward this legislation?

00:08:24.380 Because we might have an Alberta NDP government again one day,

00:08:26.680 and I would be curious to see which city councillors they're going to be targeting.

00:08:29.840 So I think this legislation needs to be severely, severely amended.

00:08:33.300 I take some serious issues with it.

00:08:35.680 Another thing the Alberta government is doing right now is they are pushing a high-speed railway.

00:08:40.900 Now, I did a show on it earlier this week, and I had a lot of viewers say,

00:08:44.020 oh, we've been talking about high-speed rail in the province for years, never going to happen.

00:08:47.900 Well, Alberta Premier Daniel Smith seems to love trains and seems that she really wants to push this forward.

00:08:53.320 The government has said they're going to spend $9 million studying what this would look like.

00:08:58.100 That includes ridership demand and infrastructure needs.

00:09:00.960 $9 million just to study this.

00:09:02.740 That's before anything is even built.

00:09:04.620 And there would be six phases to this plan.

00:09:07.140 First of all, they want to connect the airports in Edmonton and Calgary to the downtown cities.

00:09:12.400 They also want to connect Edmonton and Calgary to each other through a high-speed rail.

00:09:16.380 And they want to connect places like Calgary to Banff and Edmonton to Jasper.

00:09:22.060 So it's an interesting idea.

00:09:23.640 I don't know that we're really in the place to be spending money on this right now.

00:09:26.820 I think a lot of people would rather see that money spent on one-time payments to families

00:09:30.440 or, you know, removing the fuel tax altogether.

00:09:33.160 But I had the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Chris Sims, on my show this week to discuss.

00:09:38.900 Here's what she had to say about it.

00:09:41.040 That's a great question.

00:09:42.220 It kind of surprised me when I saw the announcement.

00:09:44.820 And so the answer is no.

00:09:46.660 We hear from supporters of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who are, by the way, by and large, pretty big fans of Premier Daniel Smith.

00:09:54.400 So they're quite often on her side.

00:09:56.200 I hadn't seen one email in the last two years asking for this sort of a thing.

00:10:01.380 So, William, you've lived in Alberta for a long time.

00:10:06.380 You've lived in Calgary a long time.

00:10:07.320 What do you think of this plan?

00:10:08.140 Is a high-speed rail something that you're just desperate to have in the province?

00:10:12.160 Yeah.

00:10:12.640 I mean, Daniel Smith has always been a big fan of rail.

00:10:16.520 This was something when I worked for her back in the Wellrose days.

00:10:20.100 She was very gung-ho on rail opportunity.

00:10:23.640 The question is, is there a business case for it?

00:10:25.820 Does it make financial sense for Alberta?

00:10:27.720 Anyone who's driven Highway 2 in the past couple years knows that we are absolutely at capacity on that corridor, that you can't put thousands more car trips every day onto that road at just two lanes for large chunks of it.

00:10:43.600 So I do think there's a conversation to be had around what we're going to do about overcrowding on Highway 2 between Edmonton and Calgary and how we can alleviate that.

00:10:54.160 Speaking personally, I would love a train that goes from downtown Calgary to the airport.

00:10:59.760 You know, I think my family who lives in Edmonton, they live in downtown Edmonton.

00:11:03.840 And getting from downtown Edmonton to their airport is a $120 taxi trip, and that's each way.

00:11:10.400 So $240 tacked onto your trip in order to be able to take a flight somewhere, go away for a vacation, I think is an issue.

00:11:20.180 Whether or not high-speed rail or commuter rail is the answer, I don't know.

00:11:22.800 I suppose that's what we'll learn from the study.

00:11:25.380 But I don't think we should commit to anything just because we like rail or we think trains are cool.

00:11:31.520 I thought trains were cool when I was a kid.

00:11:33.520 I didn't get billions of dollars to go out and build a train set or build a train because of it.

00:11:38.200 So let's see, I guess, what the study turns out.

00:11:41.400 Yeah, I think that what you've addressed sort of goes back to one of the reasons that the government is pushing this is just the population growth.

00:11:47.280 There's about 4.9 million people in Alberta now.

00:11:49.720 That population has already increased rapidly just in the last few years.

00:11:52.680 And the government is predicting 7.1 million Albertans by 2051.

00:11:57.320 So they are expecting rapid population growth.

00:11:59.360 I don't think that surprises anyone.

00:12:00.880 We've seen how people are flooding to the cities from elsewhere in Canada in search of more affordability.

00:12:05.760 But one of the questions I have is, you know, yeah, okay, a rail from downtown Calgary to the airport, I'm sure that would be useful for a lot of people.

00:12:12.600 You know, even maybe there's an argument for a railway from Calgary to Edmonton.

00:12:16.880 We're talking about a railway from Edmonton to Jasper, from Calgary to Banff.

00:12:21.080 It's like, what are you going to do when you get there?

00:12:22.120 Are you going to wait around in the cold for the bus?

00:12:23.700 It sounds awful.

00:12:25.380 What do you think, Isaac?

00:12:27.680 Yeah, I don't know.

00:12:28.820 Obviously, I've lived in Alberta almost all of my life.

00:12:31.980 And it's nice to conceptualize, I suppose, a railway system similar to the ones they have in Europe where you can kind of just take the train wherever you want to, especially the mountains.

00:12:42.840 But like you said, I mean, that's without thinking of all the issues that come along with it, like, oh, when you actually get to the mountain, then what?

00:12:49.340 But just speaking quickly to the rails, I remember when I first wrote my rail story, the lead I went with was the Alberta government said that this time will be different.

00:13:00.000 Because as you both know, we've been talking about railways in Alberta for what seems like forever now.

00:13:06.000 But the key difference to note here is that the government has said, look, in the past, we've kind of just tried to focus on this project or this project or this project.

00:13:14.600 But this thing we're doing now, this master rail plan, is a holistic approach.

00:13:18.600 We're looking at all these projects together.

00:13:20.040 How can we get this thing done?

00:13:21.420 This is the way forward.

00:13:22.860 So maybe that's the way to do it.

00:13:24.760 And this holistic approach will actually come to fruition.

00:13:27.800 We'll see, I guess.

00:13:30.220 Speaking of holistic approaches, the Ontario Provincial Police are looking at ways to reduce bad driving in the province, I guess.

00:13:38.220 Seems like there's been an exponential increase of accidents and the OPP is becoming increasingly concerned.

00:13:43.120 They have a new initiative to try to deal with some of these issues.

00:13:47.720 Isaac, you covered the story this week.

00:13:49.120 What is going on in Ontario right now?

00:13:51.540 Yeah.

00:13:51.940 So this is really interesting.

00:13:54.440 Basically, if you're pulled over on an Ontario highway, you will be forced to take a breath test no matter what.

00:14:04.200 They don't need suspicion because of legislation that was passed in 2018,

00:14:11.060 which essentially gives police the right to do this if they have an approved screening device on their persons,

00:14:15.620 which when I talked to criminal defense lawyer Sean Robichaud, he said that all police forces are starting to just equip all their officers with these automatic devices.

00:14:26.920 So basically, anyone who's pulled over on the highway, regardless of the reason, so speeding, seatbelt, anything,

00:14:32.480 you're going to be forced to do a mandatory breath test.

00:14:35.600 And if you refuse to do it, I wouldn't recommend that because you'll be subject to essentially being guilty by default.

00:14:42.740 And, yeah, just a quick note was that when I initially wrote the story, I just used breathalyzers.

00:14:48.520 But Robichaud reached out to me saying, hey, just so you know, automatic screening devices,

00:14:55.080 which the police have on their persons, are different from breathalyzers, which are normally at police stations,

00:14:59.000 which are a much larger device.

00:15:00.780 And as far as I understand with the legislation, they don't actually need cause to administer the breath test with the automatic screening device,

00:15:09.700 but they do need cause to do the breathalyzers at the police station.

00:15:14.300 And what's been some of the public reaction to this so far?

00:15:16.840 Are people generally supportive or are people taking issue with this, Isaac?

00:15:20.400 Yeah.

00:15:20.860 So the public reaction, especially on our Twitter posts that we've posted on True North,

00:15:25.480 people are very, I guess, upset.

00:15:29.440 You know, a lot of people are obviously concerned about this being a charter violation.

00:15:33.460 When I talked to the criminal defense lawyer, Sean Robichaud, he said the opposite kind of.

00:15:38.780 He said, look, the charter is a simple document.

00:15:41.860 It's used to help courts determine what legislation and laws are.

00:15:46.180 But once those laws are determined in the courts, which he said this has been up to the Supreme Court of Canada,

00:15:51.420 the laws are what they are.

00:15:52.640 So the charter doesn't really help you in that sense.

00:15:54.580 And just to read the charter here, Section 8 of the charter states,

00:15:58.260 everyone has the right to be secure against unreasonable search or seizure.

00:16:02.220 And Section 9 states, everyone has the right not to be arbitrarily detained or imprisoned.

00:16:06.760 But I guess the Supreme Court of Canada found that this is a minimally intrusive thing

00:16:12.900 that the police are doing with these automatic breathalyzers.

00:16:15.440 So, or sorry, breath tests.

00:16:17.820 You know, I have to say that I think this is largely a response just to some of the mass immigration 0.65

00:16:22.120 that we're seeing, especially in Toronto in the GTA area.

00:16:24.860 I lived in Niagara for most of my life.

00:16:27.140 In the past few years, there's so much traffic from Toronto to Niagara, from leaving Toronto,

00:16:32.880 heading out towards the east, towards Ottawa, increasing amounts of accidents.

00:16:36.900 The highway's always plugged up.

00:16:38.960 Seems like people don't know what they're doing on the road these days.

00:16:41.460 I obviously haven't lived in Ontario for a couple of years now,

00:16:43.720 but it seems like every summer my family's messaging me saying traffic is just getting worse and worse.

00:16:47.500 You can't even get in that stretch from Beamsville to St. Catharines without getting plugged up.

00:16:51.820 And there's just been a lot of really horrific accidents.

00:16:53.680 So I would assume this is sort of a response to some of the issues that we're seeing with people

00:16:57.640 really not driving well.

00:16:59.380 Maybe there's also some issues with people actually not really knowing how to drive

00:17:02.580 in addition to people driving under the influence,

00:17:05.420 which is becoming more common since we've legalized marijuana, obviously.

00:17:09.240 You know, I'm not going to say I'm in favor of the policy,

00:17:11.280 but I would say that it's sort of a natural reaction

00:17:13.220 to simply letting too many people in the country think that we actually need to start

00:17:17.000 fixing some of the real issues as opposed to just putting band-aid fixes on things.

00:17:21.300 William, what's your take?

00:17:23.380 Yeah, I mean, I don't think anyone objects to getting drunk drivers off the road.

00:17:28.260 I think as a policy goal, pretty well everybody's united that

00:17:31.260 we shouldn't have people who are drunk out there driving.

00:17:35.340 The worry is that well-intentioned pieces of legislation can set bad precedents

00:17:41.320 and they can allow the erosion of our freedoms and our rights

00:17:45.720 under the guise of trying to achieve positive policy outcomes.

00:17:49.780 So I think we have to be very careful whenever there's a new law

00:17:52.940 that in some way curtails or limits something that we have enjoyed as a right or a freedom,

00:17:59.540 even if we think that the goal of the policy is well-intentioned.

00:18:04.000 And I think that's in this case what the concern a lot of people have

00:18:07.340 is not about getting drunk drivers off the road, but simply giving law enforcement more power

00:18:12.700 to exercise in an arbitrary manner against ordinary Canadians.

00:18:18.640 Yeah, absolutely.

00:18:20.580 Well, while we're taking a look at Ontario, let's go over to Ottawa.

00:18:23.120 There was a little bit of drama in one of the House of Commons committee meetings.

00:18:26.000 I know, I know, that never happens.

00:18:28.080 William, you've went all over this one.

00:18:29.820 What happened in the House of Commons Canadian Heritage Committee this week?

00:18:33.180 Well, I think I'm amongst many people who enjoy seeing the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

00:18:39.480 get a swift kick in the pants. 0.99

00:18:42.080 We find them very high-handed and taking an awful lot of our tax dollars.

00:18:48.160 So what happened was that the president of CBC, Catherine Tate,

00:18:53.680 was brought before the Heritage Committee and asked yet again about bonuses for CBC executives.

00:19:00.400 As you may know, CBC executives get annual performance bonuses.

00:19:06.000 Not a lot of good news, though, at CBC.

00:19:08.460 So a lot of people are starting to wonder whether or not these bonuses are merited.

00:19:13.780 I can tell you my personal opinion that they're not.

00:19:16.360 But MP Rachel Thomas took aim at Catherine Tate and wanted to know the details of when we'd learn 1.00

00:19:23.280 about bonuses.

00:19:24.600 And you can see that in the clip.

00:19:26.200 It was quite a fiery exchange between the two.

00:19:28.460 Have you made recommendations with your management team as to whether or not the eight top executives

00:19:34.720 get bonuses for the 2023-2024 fiscal year?

00:19:38.220 We have not.

00:19:39.220 No recommendations have been made?

00:19:40.840 No, we have not.

00:19:42.320 When will those recommendations be made?

00:19:43.880 At the June board meeting.

00:19:46.600 So by the board, management team will have nothing to do with the recommendations?

00:19:50.220 We will present the results.

00:19:52.840 We will present the results of the financial year and the results of the KPIs.

00:19:58.680 And we will have an opportunity to discuss them.

00:20:02.240 And the HRGC, which is the Human Resources and Governance Committee, will review them.

00:20:08.520 Thank you.

00:20:08.640 And they will make their recommendation to the board.

00:20:12.000 Basically, Thomas pushed and said, we really want to see some data on whether or not they're

00:20:18.460 getting bonuses.

00:20:19.900 Catherine Tate in a pretty emphatic manner saying that information isn't available, which

00:20:25.820 I think is surprising for a lot of people considering the fiscal year is already well over.

00:20:29.460 And just, you know, looking at CBC's performance, particularly in the past year or so, you really

00:20:35.820 have to wonder how they're justifying executive bonuses.

00:20:39.380 They're laying off hundreds of their employees.

00:20:42.220 They're planning to lay off hundreds more of their employees.

00:20:45.920 Viewership is at an all-time low.

00:20:49.020 There is an absolute crisis happening about what the role of the CBC is, whether or not it's

00:20:53.580 justified, whether or not existing in its current format is in any way a positive net for

00:20:58.820 Canadians.

00:20:59.380 And of course, likely future Prime Minister Pierre Pallievre has said that there will

00:21:04.720 be a massive shakeup at CBC, if not an outright defunding and shutting it down.

00:21:10.340 So all of that put together, I'm not sure, equals big bonuses for CBC executives are justified.

00:21:17.140 Catherine Tate was actually the winner of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation Teddy Waste Award,

00:21:22.440 beating out even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

00:21:24.420 So I don't think it gets much worse than that, beating out Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for

00:21:28.120 an award on waste.

00:21:30.080 But yeah, you can see how indignant she is there when she's being questioned.

00:21:33.960 You know, seems a little bit like someone who maybe has a little bit something to hide.

00:21:37.440 But this is the issue that we always see, whether it's with just the federal government

00:21:40.460 or anything that receives federal funding, is just sort of the lack of accountability.

00:21:43.940 And as soon as there's government money in a situation, it seems that people, they just

00:21:48.160 don't care.

00:21:48.540 They're not accountable to the private sector where there's actually much higher standards.

00:21:51.620 They're handing out bonuses for who knows what, I guess, for losing all those viewers,

00:21:56.220 for handing all of them to us, I think is probably what they're celebrating there.

00:22:00.000 Maybe Catherine Tate is secretly a conservative and she's actually celebrating that, you know,

00:22:04.600 her organization's bad coverage, biased coverage has sent a lot of people over to outlets like

00:22:09.400 us.

00:22:10.300 Isaac, what's your take?

00:22:12.760 Yeah, I don't know.

00:22:14.380 The first thing that comes to mind is, as you mentioned, Rachel, there's obviously a lack

00:22:17.580 of accountability there.

00:22:18.760 The CBC is getting over a billion dollars in taxpayer dollars on an annual basis and

00:22:23.760 all their shows are bleeding money.

00:22:27.180 Their organization as a whole can't even show a profit.

00:22:30.460 So I don't know how any of that money is warranted.

00:22:33.280 And as you mentioned, William, it'll be very interesting to me to see if Polyefra takes

00:22:37.640 office, what he's going to do with the CBC, because obviously he's been very vocal in his

00:22:44.740 pledge to defund them.

00:22:46.260 But I don't know that he can, I don't know that he can really just squash the company as

00:22:52.260 a whole.

00:22:52.820 And I don't know how either how it could really be reformatted into something that could be

00:22:59.700 justifiable long term in the sense that it won't be biased towards whatever governments

00:23:03.880 in power and can actually be what it's supposed to be, which is, I guess, an unbiased state

00:23:09.020 broadcaster.

00:23:09.640 I mean, that would be nice, wouldn't it?

00:23:11.520 Well, I don't I just don't think we need a state broadcaster.

00:23:13.880 I think we don't need to squash the CBC.

00:23:15.860 We just need to take taxpayer dollars from them.

00:23:18.640 You know, if they want to do the hard work of finding those private dollars on their own,

00:23:21.460 which I know they already do receive some private funding, they can continue to do that

00:23:25.200 and make a go for it on their own.

00:23:26.520 It's just I don't want to be funding it.

00:23:28.020 I don't agree with my tax dollars being used to push a liberal narrative and to run cover

00:23:33.000 for the Trudeau liberals time and time again.

00:23:34.920 It's actually very frustrating.

00:23:36.460 But if they want to continue running as an organization without my tax dollars, I have no issue with that.

00:23:40.520 I think we're kind of in an era where people more and more are saying, listen, media is partisan.

00:23:45.340 A lot of media, they seem to have bias.

00:23:46.860 They seem to have they seem to have an ideology which sort of frames their coverage.

00:23:51.320 I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with that.

00:23:53.600 But what is the issue is, one, when people try to hide it and say, oh, we're you know, we're we're we're

00:23:58.280 we're fair mainstream media, we cover the government equally, which is obviously not the case.

00:24:02.240 Or alternatively, when they're receiving taxpayer dollars for it.

00:24:05.360 And we have one party which says we'll continue funding you, we'll give you all the money for your bonuses

00:24:09.480 and for all your reporters that, you know, are pushing the trans agenda, things like that.

00:24:15.220 And another party, the Conservative Party, which is saying we would actually pull funding from the CBC.

00:24:19.880 So even at space, you just know you're not going to get fair coverage, which we're not getting.

00:24:22.900 And we've pointed it out here at True North time and time again, I think one of my favorite

00:24:26.800 things that Pierre Polyev has said time and time again is that he would actually empty

00:24:30.900 the CBC headquarters in Ottawa and make it make it housing.

00:24:33.900 He often talks about the young families you can see moving in.

00:24:35.860 I think that's a pretty nice image for us all.

00:24:38.000 But William, what's your prediction?

00:24:39.400 If we were to have a Conservative government, what do you think they would actually do on the

00:24:43.760 CBC?

00:24:44.180 Would we really see them remove all those taxpayer dollars?

00:24:46.560 Do you think they'll maybe wash down what they've promised to do?

00:24:50.360 Yeah, I you know, it's a great question.

00:24:52.100 I can say personally, I really hope so.

00:24:55.200 I think for people who supported Stephen Harper and the Harper government for a 10 year period,

00:25:02.000 the failure to do something about CBC really stands out as something left undone and something

00:25:08.640 that a lot of people were really wishing that Prime Minister Harper could have tackled during

00:25:13.780 his time in office.

00:25:14.820 Because, of course, it is not a fair and unbiased news machine.

00:25:18.200 This is a network funded by taxpayer dollars who sued the Conservative Party during an election

00:25:24.400 campaign and then had their lawsuit dismissed as being frivolous and without merit.

00:25:29.800 So the fact that they make that kind of poor decision just shows you that the rot that has set in at CBC

00:25:36.220 right up to the top, right up to Catherine Tate, who enjoys apparently, although we don't know the 0.99

00:25:41.800 details, some form of executive compensation bonus, I think there is a lot that can be done.

00:25:47.480 And I would say particularly French, English language, CBC television is where most people

00:25:53.020 are directing their their ire.

00:25:55.080 The idea that we have an English language television network when there's already five, six, seven, eight

00:26:01.060 more private sector competitors just shows that this is not needed anymore.

00:26:06.800 And yeah, fingers crossed that a new quality of government will do what it takes to fix or ditch CBC. 0.66

00:26:14.840 You know, I can say that back when I worked on Parliament Hill covering the federal government,

00:26:18.860 that was, I guess, three, three and a half years ago now, maybe not quite that long.

00:26:22.200 But there wasn't a lot of love for the CBC, even among the other mainstream journalism outlets.

00:26:28.500 People felt like the CBC got an unfair deal, that they had extra funding.

00:26:32.580 And there was even some complaints that with the amount of funding that the CBC gets,

00:26:36.620 they are not breaking big stories.

00:26:39.320 It's other outlets like Global News, The Globe and Mail.

00:26:41.740 They're the ones who are breaking a lot of the bigger stories.

00:26:44.060 CBC then is following those stories.

00:26:45.800 But considering the insane amount of funding they're getting, they're not really doing entrepreneurial journalism.

00:26:50.480 We're seeing that from a lot of the outlets that receive far less federal funding, of course.

00:26:55.060 All outlets basically receiving some funding nowadays, except for independent outlets like ours.

00:26:59.320 But I think defunding the CBC in some capacity, if not all capacity,

00:27:03.340 I would like to obviously see it defunded in an entire capacity,

00:27:06.500 is what's going to make the difference for how the future of our country is shaped.

00:27:09.860 Because there is still a lot of people who tune into those shows,

00:27:12.540 who especially read their stories and who are not thinking critically about these issues.

00:27:16.180 When we look at the states, I know Donald Trump, President Trump,

00:27:19.020 he recognized that the issues with media were one of the greatest problems facing his presidency,

00:27:25.220 that he had a media that was out to get him.

00:27:28.380 And it wasn't just the media, it was also things on social media.

00:27:30.420 Of course, he tried to make truth social.

00:27:32.160 That never really took off.

00:27:33.300 But I think one of the things that we were really grateful for in independent media

00:27:36.380 was Elon Musk actually buying Twitter and making it a place for free speech again.

00:27:40.500 And we've seen a lot of improvement with that,

00:27:42.060 especially basically being blacklisted on places like Facebook.

00:27:44.840 Twitter is one of the main outlets that we have to get our news out nowadays.

00:27:48.200 Of course, we also have YouTube, but there's a fair amount of censorship.

00:27:50.520 So these are really the areas that we need to apply pressure on

00:27:53.560 if we're going to want to see positive change in the country

00:27:56.120 and make sure that people who wouldn't otherwise have heard of places like True North

00:27:59.380 are able to hear us and that we're able to get our message out.

00:28:02.180 Isaac, what's your take on this?

00:28:05.700 Yeah.

00:28:06.100 Obviously, I'm very grateful that Elon Musk, I guess, essentially took a financial loss

00:28:14.920 in trying to fight for free speech in buying Twitter at the time, what is now known as X.

00:28:20.840 Yeah, as you mentioned, yeah, it's one of the best ways, not only for us to get news out,

00:28:24.280 but for me and I'm sure many other young people and people, all sorts of Canadians to consume news

00:28:29.520 is through Twitter and I think it always has, or sorry, X, I think it always has been that too

00:28:35.020 in that I remember seeing some data a few years ago in that like the most amount of politicians

00:28:41.300 were on X as compared to other social medias.

00:28:44.620 And so obviously, it's always been kind of a political social media in that sense.

00:28:49.120 So obviously, it has a lot of influence, especially surrounding elections.

00:28:53.360 It'll be interesting to see what happens in our next federal election,

00:28:57.400 especially with the mainstream media and their potential fight against Poilievre

00:29:03.540 and how hard they're going to be on him, which I know, I think a lot of young people

00:29:10.920 maybe aren't watching mainstream media as much, but I really do think that their main user base

00:29:15.860 would probably be the older generation as well as I'm thinking immigrants probably watch a lot

00:29:21.180 of mainstream media because, I mean, if you just have like, if you just watch TV,

00:29:25.480 those are probably the news channels you're going to watch and then subsequently,

00:29:28.780 you'll probably follow their journalism online as well.

00:29:33.120 So yeah, that's kind of what I think.

00:29:36.080 Well, everyone, that's about time for today.

00:29:38.020 Thank you so much for joining us on this week's episode of Off the Record.

00:29:41.100 I believe Andrew Lawton will be back next week.

00:29:42.920 I'm not going to make any promises though.

00:29:44.980 Thanks, Isaac, for joining us for your first ever video podcast.

00:29:49.020 We'll hope that you'll be back for more.

00:29:50.240 And William, of course, it's always great to get some insight on Alberta

00:29:53.300 as, you know, you're an Alberta lifetimer.

00:29:55.600 So we'll be back next week.

00:29:56.820 We hope that you guys have a great weekend.

00:29:58.160 Take care.

00:30:06.320 Rachel, is this where I remind you that my last name is Macbeth?

00:30:09.620 Not Macbeth.

00:30:12.180 I was going to ask you before we started and I was like,

00:30:14.640 I was like, oh, no, it's definitely Macbeth.

00:30:21.300 Oops, I forgot to say everything you've heard was off the record.

00:30:23.880 I forgot that's how we closed it.

00:30:25.000 I was going to ask you before.

00:30:43.740 Okay.

Off the Record - May 10, 2024

Cities clash with province over Alberta’s election reform bills

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