Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Premier Danielle Smith puts 'Alberta first' with carbon tax challenge

00:00:00.100 Hello, my friends. I'm very excited. I had a heart-to-heart with Danielle Smith, the Premier of Alberta.

00:00:05.160 She just announced she's suing Justin Trudeau. Well, that's music to my ears.

00:00:09.920 So we have a good conversation about that today. I want you to see it, though, not just hear it.

00:00:14.780 Because I asked Danielle Smith a few questions about other things, too.

00:00:18.000 I asked her what it's like to deal with Stephen Gilboa. I asked her what her prospects are,

00:00:22.940 because she's having a leadership review this weekend at her party's annual convention.

00:00:26.280 To see all of it, not just hear it, go to rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe.

00:00:32.760 It's eight bucks a month. You get the content, but you also get the satisfaction

00:00:36.480 in knowing that you're keeping Rebel News strong, because we take no money from government,

00:00:40.720 and it shows. That's rebelnewsplus.com. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:49.460 Tonight, a feature interview with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

00:00:52.980 It's October 30th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:59.320 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:11.220 I'm really excited. Danielle Smith joined me for a 20-minute interview about her new lawsuit 0.85

00:01:18.320 against Justin Trudeau. We'll have that for you in a minute.

00:01:21.180 I'm excited about it, because anytime someone sues Justin Trudeau, I'm excited. We've even done it a

00:01:27.520 few times over the years. You know, I think at one point we had seven lawsuits going against Trudeau

00:01:32.860 or his ministers, many of them quite successful, others not so much, but you got to be in the arena

00:01:38.720 and trying. I think that our interview with Danielle Smith is good on its own merits, and you'll see it.

00:01:46.040 I mean, I'm not praising myself. I'm saying it was a substantive conversation, and we were talking

00:01:50.940 about the news. But there's something else I like about it, and that is that Premier Smith thought

00:01:57.320 nothing of sitting down with Rebel News for 20 minutes on the news of the day. As you might recall,

00:02:01.920 just a few weeks ago, when we were in Calgary for the Rebel News Live day-long conference,

00:02:07.420 she came in person, and we had a fireside chat for about half an hour, which I thought was great.

00:02:13.860 And the reason I like those, again, the substance of that conversation was excellent,

00:02:19.340 is that how politicians on the right react to Rebel News is sort of a litmus test. And I know it's not

00:02:29.180 just about us, not everything is about me or about Rebel News, but it is a surrogate for other things.

00:02:36.060 Mainly, are you subject to peer pressure, especially from the other media? I think most conservatives

00:02:46.200 have some affection or affiliation to Rebel News and to Western Standard and to True North and to

00:02:53.300 Counter-Signal and even the Epoch Times. And they know that, you know, you could disagree with this or

00:02:59.620 disagree with that, but generally we are on the right side of the fence. And we might be a little

00:03:04.260 spicy at times, but we're generally doing the right thing. So if a politician refuses to do an

00:03:11.920 interview with Rebel News, it's not because we're truly evil. It's not because we are bad or odious

00:03:17.260 in some way. It can't be. If they are, I mean, you know, we may be more conservative or less

00:03:22.100 conservative than this guy or that guy, but it's not for that reason that a politician would decline.

00:03:27.880 It's because they're worried about what other people would say. They'll be worried about what

00:03:34.000 the mean girls at the CBC have to say. And we've seen this because whenever a conservative leader in

00:03:40.780 the past has talked to Rebel News like Aaron O'Toole or Andrew Scheer, the CBC grills them. Why would you

00:03:47.620 meet with this person? Why would you talk with this person? They do it for other people too. I remember that

00:03:52.960 Maxime Bernier was grilled about why he would meet with, I think it was Jordan Peterson. Maybe it was

00:03:59.060 the other way around. Yeah, that's right. Jordan Peterson was grilled for why he would meet with

00:04:03.620 Maxime Bernier. It's not real journalism. It's cancel culture. And the politicians who are afraid to meet

00:04:09.720 with Rebel News show that they're susceptible to cancel culture. And the reason that's important

00:04:14.840 is not because my feelings get hurt when politicians refuse to talk to us, but rather that it's a predictor

00:04:21.960 of how these politicians will fare on any and every other issue. If they actually value what the mean

00:04:30.320 girls of the media party think, you know that they're going to fall down and be crumpled on anything 1.00

00:04:36.960 contentious. That's why a lot of people like Donald Trump so much, because he called out what he called

00:04:42.520 the fake news media. And that's one of the reasons Pierre Polyev is doing so well. He flips the script on

00:04:48.600 the media. He asks them prickly questions, and he's not afraid to take on the CEOs of the CBC and

00:04:55.340 recently of CTV. There are some politicians out there who aren't necessarily scared of us. They're

00:05:03.520 just not conservative. I would put Ontario Premier Doug Ford in that category. But I'm pleased to say

00:05:09.160 we have a rapport with other conservatives across the country. The new leader of the opposition,

00:05:14.760 Mr. Rustad in BC talks to Drea Humphrey all the time until he lost his recent election Premier Higgs

00:05:22.060 in New Brunswick. In fact, he actually advertised with us. So I think the fact that Danielle Smith

00:05:28.000 on a fairly regular basis sits down with Rebel News, not only do I find it interesting for

00:05:32.900 substantive reasons, but I think it's a sign that she just doesn't care what the mean kids in the media 1.00

00:05:39.580 party say. And that's what I like about it even more, don't you? I'll show you that interview in

00:05:45.080 one minute, but I also want to give you a little bit of news about what Rebel News is doing on election

00:05:49.460 night for the U.S. presidential election and the Congress and a third of their Senate and other

00:05:54.160 ballot initiatives. Very exciting. That's Tuesday, November 5th. It's coming up pretty quick, less than a

00:06:00.520 week from now. Let me tell you what Rebel News has going on. I'll be here in our world headquarters

00:06:06.100 command bunker, but we've got rebels all over the place. I'm just looking at my notes here,

00:06:11.240 so don't forget anything. David Menzies will be on location in Washington, D.C., outside the White

00:06:18.800 House. I think that's going to be very exciting. There's always crowds that gather, pro and con.

00:06:24.480 Alexa Lavoie will be in New York City, right outside Trump Tower. I think that's where Trump's going to

00:06:30.540 be, actually, on election day. And as we saw with the Madison Square Gardens rally, there are a ton

00:06:37.080 of New Yorkers who are proud to be Republicans for Trump, even though the city will most likely vote

00:06:43.040 Democrat again. And our friend Avi Amini from Australia, who for the last month has been driving

00:06:48.420 an RV across America. You'll remember he started in San Francisco. I went down there to welcome him to

00:06:54.560 North America, and he's made his way across the country. He will be in Florida, in the Miami area.

00:07:01.580 I'm not sure if he's going to be at Mar-a-Lago, not sure exactly where he's going to be. But we're going

00:07:07.980 to be, we're going to have you covered, whether it's New York City, Trump Tower, Mar-a-Lago, or other

00:07:13.100 places in Florida, Washington, D.C., out the White House. We're going to have a ton of experts and pundits

00:07:19.300 we go to. I think we're going to start fairly early, and we're going to go fairly late. I know

00:07:24.460 I won't want to quit until we know the results. Now, there's a chance that will be for days.

00:07:30.020 But on some of our election nights, as you know, we stay up to 1, 2, 3 a.m. even.

00:07:34.960 We're going to have you covered. So if you're looking for a fun and non-leftist way to watch the

00:07:42.980 U.S. presidential election, tune in here to Rebel News. And in the past, we have had tens of thousands

00:07:48.720 and even hundreds of thousands of people watch our coverage. And we're really pulling out the

00:07:53.900 stops this time. So that's next Tuesday night. But for now, enjoy my one-on-one interview with

00:07:59.780 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith about her latest lawsuit against Justin Trudeau. And I do ask her

00:08:05.860 a final question about her leadership vote. As you know, the United Conservative Party is having their

00:08:13.060 annual convention this weekend in Red Deer, Alberta. And some people, I can't even fathom it,

00:08:18.720 want to throw Danielle Smith overboard, even though she just won a majority election. So I asked her

00:08:23.680 to make the case for herself going into that vote. I'll be there in Red Deer for the conference too. So

00:08:29.100 if you'll be there, I look forward to saying hi to you in person. Without further ado, here's Danielle Smith.

00:08:34.200 From where we're sitting, it looks an awful lot like one more attempt to divide our country,

00:08:48.040 to reward one region and punish another. And we're not going to sit back and let this unfair carve out

00:08:53.480 disadvantage Albertans for another winter. And so I'm pleased to announce that this morning,

00:08:58.080 Alberta filed an application for a judicial review of the exemption in the federal court.

00:09:02.200 We're asking the court to declare the exemption, both unconstitutional and unlawful. We hope that

00:09:09.880 this will force Ottawa to recognize the burden the carbon tax places on Canadians and eliminate the

00:09:15.840 tax altogether. Albertans know we've got their backs on this. Our government has been fighting

00:09:21.040 the federal carbon tax since 2019. Well, that was Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announcing a

00:09:26.840 constitutional challenge to Justin Trudeau's idea to give a special carbon tax break, but only to certain

00:09:34.800 parts of Canada where they use home heating oil, as opposed to Western Canada and other places where they

00:09:40.960 primarily use natural gas. Joining us now to talk about this is the Premier herself, Danielle Smith. What a pleasure

00:09:47.120 to have you on the show, Premier. Thanks for taking the time. Nice to see you, Ezra. Well, it's a great thing

00:09:53.880 to sue Ottawa. I think it should be the pastime of many Premiers, especially when you have an overreaching

00:10:01.480 federal government that's mucking around in business that's not its own. Tell me the theory behind the

00:10:07.580 Alberta lawsuit at the federal court that you just filed. Well, as you know, we have been fighting

00:10:13.940 against the retail carbon tax since the UCP got elected. They launched, first of all, they eliminated

00:10:20.320 it. And then, of course, Justin Trudeau came in and put it in any case. And then we ended up going to

00:10:26.220 court and unfortunately we lost. And we lost, I believe, because what the court looked at is that

00:10:32.140 they didn't really disagree with the need to do something about reducing emissions. And the attitude

00:10:37.660 was, well, if Ottawa is going to do this and you're going to do nothing, then I'll side with Ottawa.

00:10:41.360 And Ottawa was making arguments about how they needed to be able to set a floor price across

00:10:45.900 the entire country. They made it sound like only the national government could do this to

00:10:50.640 make sure that everyone was treated fairly. Well, then they just blew that argument completely

00:10:54.620 out of the water by giving a car vote to essentially those in eastern Canada that use home heating

00:11:03.560 oil, which is the most polluting, most emitting type of fuel. And so they've blown their argument

00:11:09.640 up on a number of fronts. First of all, the fairness argument, that's gone. Second of all,

00:11:14.440 trying to dissuade people from using the most polluting fuels, that one's gone. And thirdly,

00:11:19.400 they wanted to make sure that they were giving some support because of the cost at the same time

00:11:24.080 as they've been arguing that their carbon tax doesn't increase the cost of everything. So we feel

00:11:28.820 that not only is it breaking their own law, they have a Greenhouse Gas Emissions Act,

00:11:33.940 but we also think it's unconstitutional and we're prepared to fight it out.

00:11:37.440 Well, there's one more thing is when the liberals announced they were going to give that tax break

00:11:42.160 just to that region's primary choice of energy, their rationale was it was to lower taxes on people

00:11:49.720 to save money, which I think gives away the game. They used to say, oh, no, no, you got to eat your

00:11:54.900 spinach. You need this to save the world. This is about reducing greenhouse gases as if you can

00:12:00.700 change the weather with a tax. But I think that they gave it away when they said, no,

00:12:05.700 this is about tax relief. So that rationale you talked about earlier, the court saying,

00:12:10.920 well, we got to do something. It's like the liberals have conceded. This is just a political

00:12:16.000 bobble to bargain away for some regional votes. Well, you have to remember, it was post me if I

00:12:22.720 wondered if that was the case. And you have to remember that years ago, Atlanta, Canada voted 100%

00:12:27.820 for the liberals. And it's not looking that way for them now. And so I would I would hate to think

00:12:33.460 that the federal liberals would make a decision of this magnitude for simple vote buying and for

00:12:39.760 politics. But in the absence of a good argument, which I hope that they will be able to make in

00:12:45.640 court, I think that this this exemption has to be struck down. They've got to treat everybody fairly.

00:12:50.220 And what we're aiming for is to have the entire carbon retail carbon tax struck down. We've already

00:12:56.160 seen it is not doing anything to reduce emissions. All it is is punitive. It's making the cost of

00:13:01.320 transportation fuel, home heating, electricity go nothing but up. And those are the base fuels

00:13:07.260 for every single thing we buy. So it's increased the cost of everything in the middle of an

00:13:11.380 affordability crisis. They should be eliminating it. You know, I saw in your remarks today, you

00:13:17.640 you didn't go to war against other provinces. You sort of said, well, you guys are lucky to have

00:13:22.980 this tax cut. Can we get some of that too? Here's a clip of you earlier today.

00:13:26.640 I've sent text to both Premier Eby as well as Premier Mo congratulating them on returning to

00:13:33.580 office. I told Premier Eby I'm looking forward to working with him collaboratively on some of the

00:13:38.920 energy files that we've been talking about together, building out the hydrogen economy, exporting ammonia,

00:13:45.000 getting more export capacity for LNG. And I spoke with Premier Mo about potentially considering joining

00:13:52.460 this case. So we'll we'll see what I mean, he's already demonstrated that he believes that the

00:13:58.400 federal government is treating his province unfairly. He acted in a bit of a different way

00:14:01.500 than we did. And I hope that he's able to join this this case as soon as he gets his cabinets worn in.

00:14:06.460 How has your lawsuit being received by other provinces? Maybe it's too early to get feedback

00:14:12.620 on it. For example, Saskatchewan just reelected Premier Scott Mo, who has also been very vocal

00:14:19.360 against the carbon tax and this regional favoritism. Do you think there's a possibility that other

00:14:25.500 premiers will get on board? And also, do you think some of those Atlantic premiers might say,

00:14:31.360 you know, hey, Alberta, shut up. Don't don't mess up a good thing. Like, what are the other provinces

00:14:37.200 saying with your lawsuit? Well, I'll be seeing them in a couple of months time because we're going for

00:14:42.340 a Council of the Federation meeting. I can tell you that what I've found at the premier's table is

00:14:47.720 is everybody wants to get treated fairly by the federal government. Everybody's upset with federal

00:14:52.640 overreach. And even in the case of those provinces that are benefiting right now, it's only a three

00:14:58.500 year reprieve. And so they're going to be facing exactly what everybody else is facing within a

00:15:02.720 couple of years time. So I would hope that others would see that this is not the pathway to reduce

00:15:08.020 emissions. We believe the pathway to reduce emissions is through technology, innovation,

00:15:12.500 as well as as exporting our cleaner burning fuels internationally to reduce emissions elsewhere.

00:15:18.100 That that should be the formula that Canada follows, as opposed to continually putting in punitive

00:15:23.480 measures that is disadvantaging one region over another.

00:15:26.520 Premier Scott Moe has been very vigorous on this, but Premier David Eby, who also just was reelected

00:15:33.020 in a squeaker, he has been in the past a very vocal supporter of the carbon tax. Where is he now? And

00:15:40.060 I'm sure you gave him a quick congratulatory call or something. Where, where does he stand on this

00:15:46.620 issue? Has he sort of had second thoughts because the voters gave him a bit of an attitude adjustment?

00:15:52.600 I think I've watched a little bit of his commentary since getting reelected and, and, and it was a

00:15:59.980 squeaker. And he said, you know, we received a message from British Columbians and there were two

00:16:04.160 major policy reversals that he had. One was on the issue of the carbon tax and the other was on the

00:16:08.500 issue of compassionate care for those who are suffering in the throes of addiction. So I think

00:16:15.560 those are two issues where he heard loud and clear he had to switch course on. You even saw it in

00:16:20.280 Saskatchewan, the Saskatchewan NDP leader who also gained ground in this last election was talking about

00:16:25.940 eliminating the carbon tax or fighting against it. Uh, and so you're, you're beginning to see

00:16:31.000 that even the NDP, which, which really has, has, has been such a champion of this type of approach

00:16:36.840 have come to the conclusion that it is not working and it is, it is punitive and it's,

00:16:42.420 is hurting people in the pocketbook. I have no idea why that hasn't had an impact at the federal

00:16:47.400 level, but there's two avenues to solve problems. One is through politics. The other is through the

00:16:51.760 courts. We had some success in the past at getting other provinces to join us in the, in this, in our

00:16:56.800 previous action. And I hope that others will join us in this one too. I want to talk in a minute about

00:17:00.920 some of those other court actions, but just before we move on, you say the, the NDP, uh, is,

00:17:07.080 is moving over in Saskatchewan. There's a different kind of NDP in the prairies, I think,

00:17:12.420 Jagmeet Singh is a very woke progressive. Uh, I think he's, he, he is probably worse in every

00:17:21.060 way than Justin Trudeau on these things. Are there any signs other than the federal conservatives

00:17:27.860 that any other party would perhaps consider reducing the carbon tax? I mean, maybe I'm wrong.

00:17:35.180 Maybe Jagmeet Singh is, has expressed some skepticism about it. I, I presume the Bloc Québécois 0.87

00:17:40.580 loves the carbon tax. Do you have any allies federally other than Pierre Polyev?

00:17:45.320 Well, I think, I mean, Pierre Polyev is the obvious one. And I think in fact, it's his

00:17:49.720 leadership at the, at the federal level that I think has created an environment where others

00:17:55.240 are asking the same questions that he's been asking, um, and have come to the same conclusion

00:17:59.540 that, that this isn't the way to, to try to reduce emissions. This isn't the way to,

00:18:04.860 if you're concerned about emissions, there's better ways to do it rather than punishing your

00:18:09.000 own citizens with, uh, excessively high consumer taxes that they can't avoid. That's the thing that

00:18:14.640 I think has been the most frustrating is that in whether it's for diesel or gasoline, that there

00:18:19.640 just, there just isn't another alternative that works in our cold climate. Um, electric vehicles may

00:18:26.460 work in some jurisdictions and certainly in, in Metro areas, but we've got a vast, vast country with

00:18:32.720 large distances between our municipalities. Uh, we've got a lot of trucking industry where we

00:18:38.720 have to get our products to market across vast, vast distances that once again require diesel fuel

00:18:44.080 in, in Alberta, our home heating is almost a hundred percent natural gas. Our electricity grid

00:18:49.560 is 90% natural gas. And the federal government has put on a carbon tax that is three times the

00:18:56.400 base costs of natural gas. It's absurd. And I think people are beginning to see that there,

00:19:01.920 there may have been more acceptance when it was a nuisance tax, when it was a, when you saw it on

00:19:07.440 your bill, now it's a punitive tax and people are reacting to that. And it goes up every year,

00:19:12.860 ironically on April fool's day, you know, I think it was an abacus poll that showed recently a major

00:19:20.720 shift among young people for their top priority and climate change or global warming absolutely

00:19:27.360 plummeting. And I think it's because, you know, that's sort of a luxury issue to care,

00:19:32.640 to think that a tax will change the weather. And it's very abstract. Whereas paying that price in

00:19:38.640 this inflationary high cost environment, I think young people are now panicking about,

00:19:43.440 can I afford a house? Can I afford groceries? I think that the biggest movers on the carbon tax are

00:19:49.360 young people. And it's sort of the boomers for whom that's still a luxury issue. Do you detect any

00:19:55.040 movement amongst young people? I think 10 years ago, youth would have been absolutely in lockstep

00:20:00.560 with Greta Thunberg and Stephen Gilbeau. But I think in 2024, they're, they're sober minded and

00:20:06.320 think we've got to cut taxes. Do you get that read from young people? Yeah, completely. I mean,

00:20:11.760 when you look at, first of all, food costs, 80% of every aspect of producing food requires fossil fuels,

00:20:19.200 whether it's the fertilizer, whether it's the equipment to harvest the grain or do the seeding

00:20:25.840 or dry the grain, whether it's taking the transportation to market, or even whether it's

00:20:30.800 the grocery stores and how they're heated and powered, every aspect of that has a fossil fuel

00:20:38.880 attached to it. And so you're just compounding the cost. That's part of the reason why we have

00:20:43.120 a crisis right now in, in the increase year over year in food. And then as well, I mean,

00:20:49.440 I think our young people, they started going out there, renting houses and, and renting apartments,

00:20:55.840 and they're seeing the rents go up. So they're thinking, well, maybe I want to buy a house one day.

00:21:00.320 And of course the interest rates have gone up dramatically because of the inflation crisis,

00:21:04.000 again, created by, by Justin Trudeau with his loose money policy, but layered on top of that,

00:21:09.600 the impact that these carbon taxes have. So I think that, that people pay attention

00:21:14.160 to what's happening with their pocketbook. They, they aspirationally want to be able to

00:21:17.760 own a home, have a good job, get married, have kids, be able to take their kids to soccer and

00:21:22.640 hockey practice. And I think a lot of young people are saying, is that going to be out of reach for me?

00:21:26.880 And that's something that the federal government has created. They own that. And so how do you begin

00:21:31.120 to address it? Well, I think you start by getting rid of a tax that isn't serving its purpose

00:21:36.560 and is causing this kind of harm. And, and then you can, you can start addressing

00:21:40.800 the issues that really matter to people. I think earlier in your announcement,

00:21:44.800 you mentioned that when Alberta got rid of its carbon tax, inflation went down.

00:21:49.040 Here's a clip of that from today. Or consider the savings in a time

00:21:53.360 when, when Canadians are coping with levels of inflation that we haven't seen in decades.

00:21:58.560 The carbon tax is adding to inflation. In fact, according to the Bank of Canada,

00:22:02.240 the federal carbon tax increases inflation by 0.15% per year, year over year. But we also know

00:22:09.120 that the impact that taxes have on inflation, because when we paused the collection of our

00:22:13.600 13 cent per liter of provincial fuel tax, we saw inflation slow in our province. We've seen the same

00:22:18.720 thing in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Imagine the impact on inflation. If we removed three times that

00:22:24.640 amount in 2030, the carbon tax on fuel will reach 39.6 cents per liter. According to the Canadian

00:22:32.400 Energy Centre, the carbon tax will account for 24% of annual fuel costs. Imagine the savings to

00:22:38.480 Canadians if their bill was a quarter the cost when they filled up. If the federal government is now

00:22:43.760 saying that removing the carbon tax on home heating oil will lower costs, then this carbon tax exemption

00:22:48.800 for eastern Canada blows a big hole in their justification for the carbon tax. Furthermore,

00:22:54.800 applying it unequally is unconstitutional and it runs counter to Ottawa's own carbon tax legislation.

00:23:02.080 Our end goal is the same as a growing number of Canadians from across the country to get rid of 1.00

00:23:07.440 the retail carbon tax. If Ottawa won't axe this heartless tax altogether, they can at least play fair

00:23:14.400 when imposing it on Canadians. And that's what we'll be heading back to court to achieve. 0.95

00:23:19.840 Is Stephen Gilbeau reachable through any kind of dialogue or compromise or communication? Or is he

00:23:28.400 like a zombie, a robot, like a terminator? I wonder if he is just an ideologue or is he a log-rolling,

00:23:37.200 deal-making politician? What's he like on this stuff to deal with?

00:23:41.360 An ideologue. There's no question about it. And I've talked to others who have dealt with them.

00:23:46.720 And in fact, some of my colleagues, premier colleagues say, well, you know, you can go and try

00:23:51.280 to negotiate with this minister, but we haven't had much success. So lower your expectations. I've

00:23:56.800 talked to members in the auto manufacturing field as well. They thought that they were working in good

00:24:01.520 faith to see if they could come up with some way around the aggressive net zero electricity rules.

00:24:08.800 And they had no luck. You look at even the approach that we took on trying to get something

00:24:13.760 reasonable around the net zero power grid. We know that that's not possible in Alberta with 90% of

00:24:18.480 our grid being fueled by natural gas at the time that we had just phased out coal. There's no possible

00:24:24.640 way. We'd have billions of dollars in stranded assets. We'd have unreliability in our grid and we'd

00:24:30.720 have an affordability crisis. And we're not making much headway there either. And then we keep hearing

00:24:35.440 that they want to put on an emissions cap, which we know would actually be a production cap on our

00:24:39.680 energy. So it seems like for some reason that minister has been given carte blanche, whether

00:24:46.000 it's emissions caps or methane caps or net zero power grids or net zero vehicles or net zero buildings

00:24:53.120 and net zero homes. It seems to me that for some reason, he has been able to direct the policy of the

00:25:00.880 liberals. And I think that they're foolish if they think that that isn't a lot to do with the reason 0.97

00:25:05.760 why they're tanking in the polls. 0.91

00:25:08.400 While we're on Gilboa, before we move on, give me one minute about his mismanagement

00:25:12.640 of the Jasper wildfire. We don't want to make that a partisan issue, but it is a fact,

00:25:18.080 as parliamentary testimony has shown, that it was decisions made by Ottawa that just magnified

00:25:27.360 everything that happened. Give us a minute on that, Premier. Well, I can tell you, I mean,

00:25:31.280 the province, we fight literally hundreds of fires a year. I think we had over a thousand last year.

00:25:37.040 Parks Canada only fights dozens of fires and we were ready on standby to be called in to do unified

00:25:43.280 command. And unfortunately, there were some decisions made and we heard about it in the testimony

00:25:50.160 where it sounds like there were some fire, structural firefighters who were turned away. Prior to that,

00:25:56.880 though, there was also and we've been raising it. In fact, I talked to my former environment minister.

00:26:03.600 We were raising it with them since 2018, knowing that the pine beetle kill and the fuel growing up

00:26:09.200 around Jasper was getting to a point where it was dangerous. And we were pleading with them to do

00:26:15.200 something about it. So that goes back in our records to 2018. And we're not the only ones. Parks Canada

00:26:20.560 scientists have also raised the alarm, not just with Jasper. But remember, we had a big wreck

00:26:25.520 in Waterton Park as well. And they're also concerned about Banff. And so we've seen that

00:26:31.440 they just turned a blind eye to it. Look, when we have an old forest, when our forests get to be

00:26:36.480 about 80 to 100 years old, they die. And when you've got a lot of dead trees, there's only a few things

00:26:41.200 that will happen. Either take them out mechanically so that they don't end up igniting. You do prescribe

00:26:46.560 burns so you get rid of that fuel or nature takes its course. And so I don't think it's been a surprise

00:26:51.520 to a lot of people who've been warning of this, that that occurred. It's very disappointing. We're

00:26:55.840 now working with the federal government to make sure that we can rebuild in a timely way. And we'll

00:27:01.120 continue to do that. But we can't allow this to happen again. I know you got to run. Let me ask

00:27:05.920 one last question, because we're on the eve of your party convention in Red Deer. I'll be there,

00:27:10.880 along with Sheila Gunn-Reed, our chief reporter. I am astounded by the fact that your party constitution

00:27:16.560 allows for a leadership review right after a successful majority government. And I'm even

00:27:22.560 more astounded that there would be critics who would call for your defenestration.

00:27:31.280 And this is not me being a fanboy. This is me saying, oh my God, what are you doing? You beat

00:27:36.720 the NDP. You're running the most conservative pro-Alberta government imaginable. What's going on in

00:27:43.440 the UCP? And what's your message to Alberta delegates who will be meeting in Red Deer in

00:27:49.280 a few days? Give me a closing argument for you for that leadership review. I'm astonished by it.

00:27:56.480 But maybe it's just a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. Give me 60 seconds on that

00:28:01.840 before you go. Well, look, we put forward a bill of rights so that people have the ability to make

00:28:06.400 their own medical choices, including the choice to refuse a vaccine. We're bringing forward policies

00:28:11.440 that will make sure that kids who are suffering with gender dysphoria don't prematurely make

00:28:17.120 decisions that are going to prevent them from being able to have kids of their own one day.

00:28:20.480 We support parental rights and parents need to be included in all of those decisions.

00:28:24.880 We've run balanced budgets for the last three years. We put money into savings and we're continuing

00:28:30.640 to have the best economic performance in the entire country. 100,000 new jobs that were created,

00:28:35.600 mostly in the private sector. So I'm feeling like we're doing very well. We are leading the nation.

00:28:41.360 What I worry about with conservatives is they sometimes make the perfect the enemy of the good.

00:28:46.240 There will always be little things that members think that we could move faster on or we could

00:28:51.360 have done in a bit of a different way. But I think that we've seen in other jurisdictions what happens

00:28:55.600 when the conservative movement splits. We just saw a result in Saskatchewan where the NDP

00:29:01.360 sure got a lot closer than anybody's comfort. We saw as well in New Brunswick where unfortunately

00:29:06.320 Premier Higgs ended up losing as a result, I think, of losing of that vote split as well.

00:29:12.560 So I want our movement in Alberta to stay united. I've been responsible in the past for seeing it

00:29:18.240 divided and I sure like it when our conservative family is together under one roof. I think that that

00:29:22.880 is the pathway to success. Yeah, I hope that the party is sober-minded and we'll be there to report

00:29:29.440 on it. Premier Smith, thanks very much for spending some time with us. Congratulations on this lawsuit.

00:29:34.480 I believe that everyone should sue Justin Trudeau from time to time. I've done it once or twice

00:29:39.040 myself. Good luck this weekend. We'll see you there in Red Deer.

00:29:42.480 You bet. Thanks, Ezra. You're welcome. There you have it.

00:29:45.200 Premier Danielle Smith of Alberta giving us the scoop on the new lawsuit. Stay with us. More ahead.

00:30:00.240 We've got some letters about Danielle Smith's decision to sue the feds. She made that

00:30:05.920 announcement yesterday, so that's why these letters are here today. Patrick Rusk 8168 says,

00:30:11.200 just refuse to collect the tax, the carbon tax. By the time it goes to court,

00:30:16.080 true dope will be out of power and the tax will be gone if Polyev keeps true to his word of action

00:30:21.760 and tax. That's exactly right. I was going to ask her that question, but I sort of ran out of time

00:30:26.240 with her. You just have to rag the puck for a year or so, because when Polyev takes over,

00:30:32.080 I am quite certain he'll keep his promise to axe the carbon tax. And so not only Alberta,

00:30:37.520 but all other provinces will be free of the tax. Alberta Patriot says,

00:30:42.000 if Alberta was a republic, all of this would go away. Well, I know that there's been a lot of

00:30:48.400 dreams in Alberta for it to become a republic, for it to be part of a United West or an independent

00:30:53.600 West. There used to be a party called the WC, Western Canada Concept. I've seen it with three

00:30:58.880 provinces and the prairies. I've seen it with BC added to it. And of course, there are those who say,

00:31:03.920 join the United States of America. They would certainly love to have Alberta with its enormous

00:31:09.200 oil reserves, many times larger than America's. And then you wouldn't need any approvals for

00:31:14.640 pipelines, would you? Because even under Joe Biden, American pipelines get built. The business

00:31:19.440 of America is business. Thanks for your letters. That's our show for today. Until tomorrow,

00:31:24.400 on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night,

00:31:28.080 good night, good night, good night, good night, good night. And keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - October 30, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Premier Danielle Smith puts 'Alberta first' with carbon tax challenge

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