SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Jeffrey Park on the looming teachers’ strike
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Summary
Teachers in Alberta might be headed for a strike. On this episode of The Gunn Show, I'm sitting down with Geoff Park from the Alberta Parents Union to talk about the storm brewing in Alberta classrooms, a looming teacher strike, and how parents can finally claim their rightful voice in the education system.
Transcript
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Teachers in Alberta might be headed for a strike. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
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Despite the generous package, the ATA turned it down and now students and families are being held hostage to labor disputes they had no say in.
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As Geoffrey Park from the Alberta Parents' Union puts it,
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History and research show the impact of teachers' strikes and they're devastating.
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Test scores drop, absenteeism rises, students pursue less education over their lifetimes, future earnings shrink, families take an immediate financial hit when forced to scramble for child care or miss work.
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And we know COVID-19 closures proved just how damaging it is when schools shut their doors.
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A strike could even be worse because there's no fallback, there's no online learning, it's just disruption.
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Geoffrey makes the case for strike-proofing Alberta students through an education continuity allowance.
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If a child's school closes, the money should follow the student so the parent can choose.
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A different school that remains open, tutoring, home education resources, online courses or even vocational training opportunities.
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And with school board elections so close on the horizon, parents also have a critical opportunity to push for accountability and ensure their local boards prioritize students over union politics.
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Geoffrey Park lays out what's at stake and how Alberta families can fight back against being collateral damage in this latest union battle.
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On this episode of The Gun Show, I'm sitting down with Geoffrey Park to talk about the storm brewing in Alberta classrooms, a looming teacher strike, the upcoming school board elections, and how parents can finally claim their rightful voice in the education system.
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Joining me now is Geoff Park from the Alberta Parents Union.
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Geoff, I'm familiar with your work, but I think some Rebel News viewers may not be.
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Tell us a little bit about the Alberta Parents Union and how it came together.
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So we're a group of grassroots Alberta parents from all over the province.
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It came together during the COVID restrictions over frustrations with not being heard at the school level, the school board level,
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or even sometimes the provincial level, and a lot of frustration from parents.
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It seemed like the Alberta Teachers Association was strongly advocating for teachers,
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or at least the ones that were active with the Alberta Teachers Association,
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making their voice heard loud and clear on education policy issues.
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And parents were very frustrated about, where's the parallel organization to make parents' voices heard?
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Unfortunately, it wasn't coming from the Alberta Schools Councils Association,
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which is sort of the way voices were supposed to filter up from the local school councils to the government.
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And they were simply echoing the ATA talking points, regardless of what parents actually thought.
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So that was, we were born out of those sorts of frustrations, but we did a launch tour, 28 stops all over the province,
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and heard plenty of other issues from parents that they wanted us to advocate on.
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And, and, and we've been doing that ever since 2022.
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You know, I think the work that you guys do is so important because the ATA,
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the Alberta Teachers Association, is this powerful behemoth that can take on the whole of government.
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And the school boards, normally they're supposed to be reflective of the people who elect them
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but they are so often just parroting the ATA talking points.
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And at no place in the system do parents and children and parents,
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really have a voice that advocates directly for them.
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So I'm really happy with the work that you guys are doing.
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Um, now I'm a parent with a child in the Alberta school system.
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And just about every day, I get an update from the school about a looming labor disruption.
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And never in these emails do they ever explain what the labor disruption is all about.
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You know, if you watch the news, it's all about class sizes and what's in the best interest of the kids.
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But if that were the case, they probably would have had a strike vote over the summer
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So why don't you tell us what the threatened labor disruption is all about?
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So you're, you're, you're right that, um, that has been the rhetoric.
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There was actually a mediated settlement on the table, uh, from a mediator that both the Alberta teachers association and the government agreed on.
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Um, and, and her suggestion was, uh, a 12 and a half percent, uh, pay rise.
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Uh, so, uh, 3% a year over four years, uh, one of those retroactive.
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And when you, when you do the compounding interest there, that comes out to about 12 and a half percent.
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Um, so a 12 and a half percent pay rise, uh, and her solution that she recommended for class sizes
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was that they basically, uh, put together working groups, basically a committee, uh, at the school board level.
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Since after all, it is the, it is the school board level where those frontline decisions about class sizes, uh,
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how many teachers, how many education assistants, and those sorts of things are made.
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Uh, and so, so that, uh, that was her recommendation.
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The Alberta teachers association executive narrowly accepted that recommendation seven
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to six, but when they took it back to their members, they rejected it.
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And, and the, and again, the rhetoric coming from the members, the rhetoric coming from the
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ATA executive was that they would never consider striking over wages.
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They would only ever consider striking over classroom conditions.
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And, uh, and, uh, and so the executive went to their membership and asked, okay, what, what
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can we offer as a counteroffer, uh, to, uh, try to settle this labor dispute.
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And, uh, and their, their members gave them a salary increase that, um, that they thought
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We've never been told how much that was, but then on the classroom condition side, what
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they asked for was 1,000 teachers a year over three years.
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So 3,000 teachers, that commitment alone would cost the government $750 million, uh, plus,
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Plus they were also throwing in some, uh, classroom complexity grants and that kind of thing.
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And, uh, and, uh, and so multi-billion dollar, uh, uh, uh, commitment overall.
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And, and so the government actually called their bluff, you could say, and accepted their
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They said that they give the, uh, 3,000 teachers over three years.
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And, but, but since we all agree, this isn't over, uh, more of a pay rise than 12 and a
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This is really all the room we have in the budget.
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And the government has continued to insist that, uh, that any further negotiation, we're
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And so they suggested the only way to afford more of a pay rise would be to have fewer
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And the government alleges that at the bargaining table, the Alberta Teachers Association actually
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Now, when Jason Schilling, the president of the ATA was asked about that, every time he's
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been asked about it, he has said that was not a formal offer placed on the table, which tells
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me they did say that, but they just didn't present it as a formal offer, right?
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Is that he was very careful in how he denied that.
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So, uh, so we've really had a reversal in my opinion, not only of the rhetoric, which would
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be bad enough because, because you're, you're, you're already, you've told the public you're
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after one thing and you're clearly after another.
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But, but to me, I think that's an abandonment of the mandate they had from their own membership,
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um, that classroom conditions were what they were saying, why they were saying, they were
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saying, you know, a working group, essentially a committee is not enough to deal with, you
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And, and so for, for them to have that demand granted by the government and still walk away
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from the table, I think is an abandonment of their members, not to mention, uh, Alberta
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It's just atrocious when you think of it, that they would use kids as their excuse to do these
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And then when, uh, you know, when they're told there's only so much, so you can take
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from one and give to the other, they say, yes, take from the kids and give it to us.
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And if you don't, we're going to strike and hurt the kids.
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Well, and they, they insist that a strike wouldn't hurt the kids.
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Jason Schilling said that, um, that teachers are professionals.
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They know how to, uh, deliver the information, make sure kids don't fall behind in the event
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of a labor disruption, but again, all of us know that isn't true because we lived through
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the COVID restrictions and kids did fall behind and especially the most vulnerable kids fell
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Uh, the COVID shutdowns erased 20 years of progress, closing the gap between the highest achieving
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achieving and the lowest achieving students, 20 years of progress down the drain in two
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Um, and, uh, so the bottom fell out, especially for the kids who need the most support.
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So we already know, uh, that learning disruptions are that it, you know, I agree.
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You can't, you can't teach in the conditions of a, a learning disruption.
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Uh, you can't just catch the kids up, uh, as if there's some magic formula to do that.
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If, if there was, then, then they shouldn't have complained, uh, when the new curriculum
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rolled out and they said, uh, well, there's too much to cover in this new curriculum.
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I thought, I thought we could just magically speak this up somehow, right?
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Like it's, it's contradictory at multiple levels in their, in their, uh, messaging, but, uh,
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We know for a fact that kids will be harmed if there's a labor disruption.
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Um, so it's a, it's a real, um, it's a real abandonment of Albertans, uh, for them to
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Now, uh, I want to ask you about an opportunity for parents to sort of right the ship in some
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Um, and that is in the upcoming school board elections.
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I don't think people realize how easy it is to flip a school board if everybody gets real
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Um, but you know, I think as, as conservatives, and I think the Alberta Parents Union is largely
00:12:46.220
non-partisan, but as a conservative, we're always looking at the macro issue.
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We're looking at Mark Carney spiraling us into out of control debt.
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We're always wondering, you know, how are they going to take on Mark Carney?
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Um, and we forget about the things that are closer to home.
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And when you think that, you know, politics is downstream of culture, if we want to change
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politics, we need to change the culture, but we also have to protect the culture.
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And if we don't have the right culture at the school board, um, that honors and respects
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parents and children first, we're never going to fix all the other stuff.
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And, but the good news is that's the thing I think we're, if we just get a little bit
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organized, we can really make a difference because not a lot of people vote in those
00:13:32.720
So tell us about what the Alberta Parents Union is up to in the school board elections.
00:13:39.360
You're right that, that politics is downstream of culture, of course, but, uh, schools are
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a culture making institution that unfortunately are run too much by politics.
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And, and, and so we, you know, uh, you know, the old saying, you may not care about politics,
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but politics cares about you and politics cares about your kids.
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And it's, and, and, and school board is, is where the rubber meets the road in the same
00:14:05.340
way that, uh, you know, if you're, if your garbage isn't getting picked up, no matter
00:14:10.720
how much you might care more about who your MP is than your city counselor is, your city
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counselor is the one that matters to you when your garbage isn't getting picked up.
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And, and, uh, and when your, your kids are being threatened by a strike because school
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boards haven't done their job in terms of, uh, making sure that, uh, class sizes and classroom
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complexity are being addressed, or they haven't done their job in removing, uh, uh, graphic
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sexual material from libraries, or they haven't done their job in, uh, banning cell phones from
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classrooms so that learning can occur or all these various things where the school boards
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And, uh, unfortunately in too many cases, the province has been forced to step in.
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Um, uh, when, when the rubber meets the roads on those issues, it, it doesn't matter if you
00:15:01.320
care more who your MP is, or you care more about Mark Carney, uh, the thing that, that will
00:15:05.900
affect your day to day, day to day with your own kid are the people at the school board level.
00:15:10.380
Um, and you're right, uh, that, uh, the, the turnout for school board is very poor.
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And I think one of the reasons for that is, uh, if you're, um, if you're with the Alberta
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Teachers Association or CUPE or, or, uh, uh, uh, one of the union labor union organizations,
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um, they'll tell you who to vote for essentially.
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And, and, and, you know, there, there's, there's easy information accessible, uh, if, if you're
00:15:48.340
voting, uh, if, if your values are aligned with the labor unions and you, and, and that's
00:15:55.360
what you want to see from the education system, it's easy to find out who to, who to vote for.
00:16:00.080
So we don't want to tell people who to vote for, but we do want people to be able to more easily
00:16:06.160
find out, uh, where their, where their values are aligned, uh, which, which trustees, their
00:16:15.020
So what we're doing is, um, we have way back in December, we, uh, we started surveying our
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own parents, grandparents, and taxpayers, uh, that are involved with the Alberta Parents
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Union, asking them what questions they would like to ask a school board trustee candidate
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And, uh, and we compiled the, uh, results of that survey.
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Um, and then unfortunately, um, we had a chance to take a dry run at it because there was a
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death on the Calgary Catholic school board and they already had one vacancy.
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Um, so they were forced to have a by-election in January.
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Um, and so we, we got to do a little bit of a, a dry run in January of this survey system.
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And, uh, and we were pleased to see that, that all but one of the candidates, including actually
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both of the ATA aligned candidates, uh, returned our survey.
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Uh, and so people had a lot of information, uh, to go off of.
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Um, and we were, we were also pleased to see that from the feedback we got, uh, from our
00:17:30.320
own folks, uh, that, that they were easily able to, our, our parents, grandparents, and
00:17:38.560
taxpayers did a great job of selecting the questions so that people can easily tell which candidates
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align with their values, uh, from looking at the survey.
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And then we were also pleased to see that if you searched for Calgary Catholic school board
00:17:54.040
by-election, we were the third result, uh, on Google.
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If you search for the candidates' names, sometimes we were even the first or second result.
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Um, uh, uh, and so, so for, for, you know, there are basically three ways people decide
00:18:10.260
if they're going to vote in the school board elections.
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And, um, again, way too many people don't, uh, there are basically three ways they decide,
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uh, they, uh, they either are just going off the names they heard, and that's probably how
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Uh, they ask someone in some voluntary community they're in, usually a church or, or something
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They ask someone who knows, someone who's political, who knows, I'm sure you've been that
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Uh, I've been that person in every church I've ever been to.
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Uh, and, um, and so, uh, so they just, they ask someone they know, um, uh, to, to help them
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Um, or they just Google all the names, usually on the day of, uh, on the day they're on the
00:19:05.900
And so for that last group, so hopefully, hopefully for that second group, um, they're
00:19:12.360
You can go to albertaparentsunion.ca, sign up for our emails, make sure that you're getting
00:19:17.200
And then, and then you'll get the results of the survey in your inbox.
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We have, we have had, uh, opponents of ours on the labor union side of things, unable to
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figure that out, but it's right there, whole front page.
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And, uh, uh, and so you can sign up for our emails, make sure to get it.
00:19:45.400
So hopefully a large group of those, of that second are, are hearing from, from people who
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were able to get that information from us, uh, to know which candidates are, are worthy
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But then that whole third group who's Googling it on the way to the polls, basically, um,
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we're hoping, and we, we have strong reason to believe that our survey will be very high
00:20:07.640
in the Google results for the candidates' names, for the name of the, uh, the awards, for the
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Um, and, uh, and so we really hope that we can sort of close that information gap and,
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You know, I think you will, um, you know, you see other organizations do this, like
00:20:30.520
They send out their surveys of the MP candidates, and it helps, you know, where they land on
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As you say, you're not telling people how to vote.
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You're just giving them the information to inform their vote, which I think is a valuable
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You know, we can't wonder where all these cultural and educational problems are coming
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from if we aren't actively getting involved in the systems that so often create them.
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Um, I want to ask you about some of the other issues that the Alberta Parents Union touches
00:21:07.620
One of them was the, uh, I'm going to use the language of the left here, the book ban, which
00:21:14.360
It was a graphic materials prohibition in an elementary school library, um, which seems
00:21:19.960
like a crazy thing to actually have to do, but, uh, I'm glad they did.
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I was surprised to see the amount of misinformation on it coming from the media who were also in the
00:21:40.980
same media briefings privy to the same embargo documents that I had.
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And yet they are the misinformation peddlers on this.
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I'm going to ask you to speculate why, why are they getting this stuff so wrong?
00:21:56.020
Well, at least part of it is because their, their classic move to, uh, get both sides of
00:22:05.340
the story is, is to get the, the government side and the Alberta Teachers Association side
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or get the government side and the, uh, uh, the, uh, Library Association of Alberta, I think
00:22:18.980
is the correct order of those words, uh, get their side.
00:22:22.240
Um, and, uh, and, and, and thankfully we've more and more, uh, had, uh, even traditional
00:22:33.320
media starting, starting to realize that, that they, they also need to reach out for the
00:22:40.240
That's one of the, that's one of the reasons for the name Alberta Parent Union.
00:22:43.540
It makes it, makes it, makes it a little easier for journalists to realize, okay, I've talked
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Uh, and so, and, and, and so, uh, so thankfully we, uh, we have been able to get our voices in
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there, uh, even, even at, at places like the CPC and, uh, and so forth.
00:23:04.440
Uh, and, uh, and, and so that's helpful, but I think, I think a large element of it is,
00:23:11.320
uh, uh, I think a lot of, uh, legacy media journalists are, are coming from the perspective
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that, so the government is making a claim and then the experts on whether that claim is
00:23:29.320
true or not, or on, on how to evaluate that claim are the Alberta Teachers Association or
00:23:36.540
So, they're going to, frankly, the misinformation peddlers, uh, as the, as the experts to respond
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And, and I think that's where they're going to the people who brought these horrible materials
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into the libraries in the first place to say, uh, so they're there, uh, is this a bad
00:24:01.900
And of course they say no, because they're the ones who did it.
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Because it's, it's, it's, it's the most bizarre thing.
00:24:10.220
And, and I'm just so glad, although at the same time, I've never seen anything quite like
00:24:15.680
it where our premier has to stand at a podium and show the graphic materials that they uncovered
00:24:24.000
in school libraries, just because nobody will get the story straight.
00:24:29.580
It, and it happened at least on two separate occasions where they couldn't even broadcast
00:24:37.960
She had to give a trigger warning before she showed the materials in a press conference.
00:24:42.040
And thank goodness these press conferences are live streamed because, uh, I think a lot
00:24:46.940
of delicate minds might not have even believed it if they hadn't been able to see it.
00:24:50.780
I, I, I saw a political cartoon, uh, trying to make fun of Danielle Smith, showing her holding
00:24:57.380
up, uh, holding up a copy of Archie and Jughead, uh, and, and depicting her as being outraged
00:25:06.840
And I pointed out, they can't show what she was actually outraged at because if they put
00:25:12.660
that in their newspaper, um, people, uh, if they didn't, if they didn't have some legal
00:25:20.380
action against them for it, people would unsubscribe in mass numbers, right?
00:25:24.440
Um, is that is so, uh, what, one of the elements here is that the actual content that children
00:25:33.240
were being exposed to, uh, uh, uh, in elementary libraries, uh, is too graphic to be shown on
00:25:43.700
the news, too graphic, uh, to be, uh, to, to be really engaged with publicly, uh, you know,
00:25:54.600
you can't, you can't post the pictures on social media and keep your social media account.
00:26:03.240
I think that's, I think that's a, a large, um, element of the problem.
00:26:07.960
And, and, and you, you hit it right on the head saying that, that these are the people
00:26:13.720
who, uh, you know, they're the traditional media is going to the people who brought these
00:26:20.540
And, uh, I, I have to go back again to the discussions around curriculum.
00:26:26.120
These are the same people who said that, uh, six year olds learning about Charlemagne, uh,
00:26:32.520
the emperor of the Franks or the Silk Road or, uh, uh, or certain elements of Alberta history
00:26:43.100
that we were, that, that, that was age inappropriate was the exact word they use age inappropriate
00:26:49.780
to learn about Charlemagne age inappropriate to learn about the Silk Road, not age inappropriate
00:27:01.580
Homoerotica cartoons were, were age appropriate for six year olds, but learning about, uh, the
00:27:09.840
settling of Alberta was a little bit too, uh, over the heads of six year olds.
00:27:15.100
Um, a couple of more things before I let you go.
00:27:19.300
And I know I only promised that I would take up 20 minutes of your time, but we're beyond
00:27:23.620
Uh, uh, what are some of the other policies that, or issues, I guess I should say that the
00:27:33.900
We, uh, so, um, two organizations have, um, have, uh, sued the government.
00:27:45.080
Over the, uh, uh, name and pronoun legislation that, uh, that the province brought in last
00:27:54.380
Uh, well, it, I guess it, it just took effect on September 1st, um, uh, came into force on
00:28:01.300
September 1st and, uh, and promptly there was a lawsuit.
00:28:04.820
Um, so, uh, we plan on being heavily involved in that and bringing, uh, parents perspectives,
00:28:12.680
uh, uh, that, uh, so parents have a real interest in, uh, this court case as well.
00:28:20.840
Our interest is that we shouldn't have information withheld from us.
00:28:24.900
We shouldn't be lied to about, uh, what's happening with our kids at school on anything.
00:28:38.860
We'll have, uh, we'll have more to say about that as, uh, uh, as things develop, uh, with
00:28:47.140
That's definitely one of the things that we're working on.
00:28:50.360
Um, we've got some, uh, grade seven through nine, uh, curriculum, uh, that's being advanced
00:28:59.120
We will, we will probably have more to say about that after the school board elections
00:29:04.120
to be frank, just cause there's a lot to talk about right now.
00:29:07.580
Um, and, uh, so we, we, we've sent out one email about that, but we'll, we'll probably
00:29:12.880
have more to say and be looking for more input on that.
00:29:15.820
Um, and, uh, well, and then in the, in the event of a strike, um, I know a lot of parents
00:29:25.500
are going to be scrambling for alternative arrangements.
00:29:27.800
There are some teachers who are going to be scrambling for alternative arrangements.
00:29:32.960
Uh, so we're, we're already, uh, helping parents and teachers, uh, and talking them through
00:29:39.800
what their options are, uh, to, uh, legally, um, uh, have alternate arrangements in, in the
00:29:49.180
event of a work stoppage, uh, and, and a learning disruption with kids.
00:29:55.000
Um, and, and the, uh, and, and I should say real quickly that, that, uh, for everyone
00:30:03.560
to know that the, the ATA has promised a strike if, if they can't negotiate a settlement by October
00:30:12.560
6th, but September 29th is the September count date.
00:30:18.240
And that is when the funding flows to all the education options on the basis of how many
00:30:25.860
kids are in a seat in that education option on September 29th.
00:30:31.400
So if you, if, if, if a strike on October 6th would make you want to do something different,
00:30:42.300
So that, so that, you know, that the funding will be there.
00:30:48.580
So we're also advocating for something we're calling an education continuity account for
00:30:54.100
the money to follow the child for the duration of the strike.
00:30:57.520
So that, so that parents are able to switch to home education and have some of those costs
00:31:05.260
reimbursed, or if they can find a seat in a charter school, most charter schools don't
00:31:11.900
Um, they're, they're already well oversubscribed, but if they can find a seat in an independent
00:31:17.760
school, some of those are oversubscribed, but not all of them.
00:31:20.840
Um, those are not, those are not ATA, uh, shops.
00:31:25.800
Uh, well, there's one independent school that is unionized.
00:31:34.020
Uh, home education, obviously you don't have to join the union to teach your own kids,
00:31:38.740
Uh, and, uh, and, and in Alberta, uh, $910, uh, of your home education expenses are reimbursable,
00:31:52.160
Uh, if, if you choose to go that route and if you, uh, sign up under another school authority,
00:31:58.760
uh, what, what the government calls a supervising authority, uh, they're just, they just meet with
00:32:03.860
you twice a year to make sure that, uh, everything's on track.
00:32:07.640
Um, and then, sorry, not the government, the supervising authority.
00:32:12.440
So if you sign up to home, home educate through a private school, for instance, someone from
00:32:17.340
that private school will come meet with you twice a year.
00:32:19.320
No, not, not a, not a huge, um, and then, uh, uh, and, or, or if parents can find, um, some,
00:32:31.960
some online tutors, well, some in-person tutoring or some online tutoring, or, or like now there's,
00:32:38.560
uh, uh, now there's AI bots that can teach your kid math, that, that can, uh, figure out where
00:32:45.040
your kid is, where they're, where they're missing things, and, and you can keep those math skills
00:32:53.520
Um, or if you find an internship opportunity that your, your kid can have, um, so that they've,
00:33:01.520
they've got something to do to grow their mind and enrich themselves, uh, during a teacher strike.
00:33:06.800
We think the money should follow the child to any of those choices, anything that the parents find,
00:33:11.760
to, uh, to make sure that their child's education continues in the event of a work stoppage.
00:33:18.640
And so we're advocating very strongly that the, uh, the provincial government, uh, not just save all
00:33:26.800
the money, which I can understand why that would be tempting, but, um, you do that, it's going to hurt
00:33:31.280
a lot of kids, especially if there's a lengthy work stoppage.
00:33:34.240
So we're, we're encouraging them to have the money, follow the child, uh, to non-union
00:33:40.800
education options of all kinds, including the, including just reimbursing the parents themselves
00:33:45.600
for their own costs of educating their kids, uh, during, uh, during any work stoppage.
00:33:54.400
You know, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, I think an unintended consequence of the teacher's
00:34:02.320
union that every time they do something like this, it drives people into the other options.
00:34:08.400
And I guess that's the, like the silver lining in all of this, including the COVID lockdowns
00:34:15.120
of the schools was that parents realized that they have a lot of choices out there.
00:34:20.640
Um, and those choices are getting more and more all the time.
00:34:24.000
Every time these teachers unions try to use our kids, uh, to their benefit.
00:34:28.880
And, uh, I'm, I guess I'm just, I'm glad to see it.
00:34:32.800
And I'm glad that the Alberta parents union, uh, offers advice to help parents find those resources.
00:34:39.360
Now, how do people get involved in the Alberta parents union?
00:34:43.040
Because you are up against a behemoth of the ATA.
00:34:48.160
Um, and you, you really are, I don't want to say your mom and pop shop, but I mean, they,
00:34:54.080
they're massively well-funded with union dues and you're just parent led.
00:35:00.240
And we, we, we don't take, uh, any money involuntarily.
00:35:05.520
That's our, that's our, is anyone, anyone who gets money has to, uh, you guys have the same value
00:35:11.920
is, is, uh, anyone, anyone who gives us money has to be doing it of their own free will.
00:35:19.360
Um, and, uh, uh, and, uh, and we, we don't, we can't, we can't force anyone to join our union,
00:35:29.840
So, so we're, we're, uh, we're fully funded by voluntary donations from, uh, parents and some grandparents.
00:35:40.240
Um, and, uh, and we, we have a, uh, a membership option, which is just designed to, you know,
00:35:47.760
cause most folks, uh, most folks sort of tune in to education policy at back to school time.
00:35:56.720
And, uh, when there's something bad happening, like a teacher strike or, or, uh, inappropriate
00:36:04.400
Um, but they don't have the bandwidth to pay attention to education policy all the time.
00:36:11.440
Is we'll, is, uh, we, we can pay attention all the time and let you know when there's
00:36:18.480
Um, and, uh, and, and so we have a membership model so that we can know how much we can expect,
00:36:28.640
uh, each month and we can plan ahead, uh, without, without being quite so subject to the, uh, uh,
00:36:36.080
the cycle of attention, uh, that gets paid to education policy.
00:36:40.960
So, uh, uh, so, uh, so folks can join, but, uh, but even just, uh, signing up for our mailing list
00:36:49.440
goes a long way just to make sure that you're informed and that you can, and we'll never,
00:36:56.640
Um, uh, uh, uh, but, but, uh, just to make sure that, uh, make sure that you're informed
00:37:04.960
and that, uh, and, and that, you know, we're not going to tell you to call your MLA every month,
00:37:11.120
but we will tell you that if you call your MLA this month, it might actually make a difference.
00:37:15.680
And so we, we, uh, try to provide, provide that as a service to busy parents,
00:37:21.680
uh, to, uh, to help them, uh, not have to, uh, you know, do politics every time they're sitting
00:37:29.680
at soccer practice or hockey practice, um, and, uh, and, and that they're, they're able to,
00:37:36.720
you know, fully engage in, in the life of their family and, and, and have us there to let them know,
00:37:46.640
Well, Jeff, I appreciate the work that you're doing on behalf of Alberta parents and kids.
00:37:51.680
So much, um, the Canadian taxpayers federation says that they engage an army of people who
00:38:00.560
are involved in the issue. And, uh, uh, you, as I said before, you're really up against
00:38:06.160
a well-funded machine that has the media on their side. And even I learned something today
00:38:11.280
about the negotiations ongoing with the ATA that I hadn't really seen reported
00:38:17.040
in the mainstream media. So, um, you know, uh, I, I just think it's such a valuable resource and,
00:38:22.800
uh, I think you should really be proud of the work that you're doing.
00:38:25.520
And I want to thank you for coming on the show.
00:38:28.080
Thank you so much for having me. And thank you for the kind words.
00:38:30.400
Well, the last portion of the show is always yours. I sort of turn the show over to you and let you
00:38:43.280
tell me what you think about the work that I do at Rebel News, but not just me, all of us.
00:38:47.760
It's why I give you my email address right now. It's Sheila at rebelnews.com. Please put gun show
00:38:54.480
letters in the subject line so I know exactly why you're emailing me. Now, last week's letter comes
00:39:00.400
by way of a regular viewer. Some, oh, I should tell you, sometimes I take your comments from
00:39:06.080
YouTube or Rumble as well. So leave a comment there. Also, if you don't want to send me an email
00:39:12.080
directly, so if you're watching a free clip of the show, put it there. Um, and your engagement with that
00:39:17.520
content means that it will be served up to more people's eyeballs. And it's a great free way to support
00:39:23.760
our work here at Rebel News. But getting back to this week's gun show letter, it comes to me from
00:39:30.560
the email inbox and it's from a regular viewer, strong supporter of Rebel News for years and years.
00:39:37.200
It's Bruce Atchison from beautiful Radway, Alberta and his little cat Delta. And he writes to me about my
00:39:45.280
interview with Nadine Wellwood. She's the author of Alberta Rising. She is someone who is really
00:39:54.000
looked into Alberta independence, Alberta separation and what that would mean for Albertans. She's done
00:40:03.440
some work on what an Alberta pension would look like and answering those objections that might come
00:40:12.640
from, from, I guess, Albertans who are scared, apprehensive, have uncertainties about Alberta's ability
00:40:25.600
to leave Confederation should Albertans choose to do so. And Bruce writes, what a great show tonight. I
00:40:36.080
bought a copy of Alberta Rising. It's on Amazon. Just search Nadine Wellwood and I'll donate it to the
00:40:44.000
local library. What a great thing to do. My know nothing senior friends are afraid we'll lose our pension.
00:40:50.400
This book will show them the economics which will give us an even better pension. We don't even need
00:40:56.800
to leave Canada to get it. Bruce with sidekick Delta the cat. Yeah, that was a point that Nadine made is,
00:41:04.160
you know, we don't even need to leave Canada to get a better deal managing our pensions. We could have
00:41:13.120
an Alberta pension plan and it would have a greater return than the current CPP. We just need the
00:41:21.040
political will to do it and the proper education of the people to overcome those fears, apprehensions and
00:41:27.360
objections. I think Nadine does a great job of that in her book. Again, the book is called Alberta Rising. You
00:41:32.320
can get it on Amazon and you would be supporting a great Alberta author. And I think Nadine is one.
00:41:40.400
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'll see everybody back
00:41:44.000
here in the same time in the same place next week. And as always, don't let the government