Alberta takes aim at Trudeau’s handgun ban
Episode Stats
Words per minute
185.63188
Harmful content
Misogyny
2
sentences flagged
Hate speech
2
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Summary
In this week's edition of The Alberta Roundup: Alberta's Chief Firearms Officer has some strong words for the federal government's ban on the importation of handguns for the civilian market, Gas prices in Alberta have dropped after Premier Jason Kenney asked the Competition Bureau to investigate whether there was price fixing going on in the province. We'll be taking a look at the premier's former chief of staff, who left the provincial government to take a job with a non-profit that receives provincial funding, but then only weeks later signed a contract with the province for $119 per hour. We ll also look into the ongoing fight between Athabasca University and the Alberta government, which has taken a new turn, and of course, we'll have our update on the UCP leadership race.
Transcript
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Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel. I'm happy to report
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that I'm back home in Edmonton after a couple weeks on the road. I was actually surprised with
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how much I missed Edmonton, so certainly happy to be back and reporting from home once again.
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Let's take a look at today's topics. Alberta's Chief Firearms Officer has some strong words for
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the federal government, who last week announced a ban on the importation of handguns for the
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civilian market. Gas prices in Alberta have dropped after Premier Jason Kenney asked Canada's
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Competition Bureau to investigate whether there was price fixing going on. We'll be taking a look
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at the Premier's former Chief of Staff, who left the provincial government to take a job with a
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non-profit that receives provincial funding, but then only weeks later signed a contract
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with the provincial government for $119 per hour. We'll be taking a look at the ongoing fight
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between Athabasca University and the Alberta provincial government, which has taken a new
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turn. And of course, we'll have our update on the UCP leadership race, and we'll be taking a look at
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a controversial essay that has taken leftist Twitter by storm. Let's move into today's topics.
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Alberta Chief Firearms Officer Terry Bryant has said the Trudeau government's ban on importing
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legal handguns will have no impact on crime. The federal government announced last week that
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handguns for the civilian market will be barred from importation as of August 19. This was a
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directive issued without the oversight of Parliament, meaning MPs were not given the opportunity to vote
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on this. It was simply passed by the federal government. But Bryant said the directive continues a
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pattern of Ottawa, which is, quote, attempting to eliminate firearms ownership of all kinds,
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one slice at a time, end quote. The chief firearms officer invited any minister responsible for the
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directive to spend a weekend with Bryant at shooting events to see the people Ottawa is impacting.
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Bryant says it's probably not the people Ottawa expects it is. Let's talk about gas prices. Gas prices
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in Alberta have plummeted. Okay, that might be being a bit generous, but they have gone down quite a bit
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since Jason Kenney asked Canada's Competition Bureau to investigate whether there was price fixing in
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the province. Here in Edmonton, prices at some gas stations are about 50 cents per liter lower than
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they were last month at this time. So that's some huge savings being passed onto consumers. You guys
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might remember we talked about this a couple weeks ago. The premier asked for the investigation
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after it was revealed that prices in Alberta and cities like Calgary and Edmonton were actually higher
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than they were in Ontario's greater Toronto area. Now that's significant because prices in Alberta
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are typically cheaper than they are in Ontario due to A, regulations, but B, our proximity to
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refineries. As well, the Alberta government earlier this year removed the provincial sales tax from the
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cost of gas. And Kenny said we were just not seeing those costs being passed onto consumers, hence why he
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requested the investigation. And now we've seen gas prices certainly plummet. I'd also note that the drop in gas
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prices is coinciding with the drop in world oil prices. So two things to consider there. Okay guys, this is
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the story that we're going to be watching over the next couple of weeks. I'm curious to see what happens
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here and what direction this takes. There's been an ongoing fight between Athabasca University and the
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Alberta provincial government. Athabasca is an online university and the provincial government has said
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they wanted 65% of the institution's staff to be based in the small town by the 2024-2025 academic
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year and they threatened to pull 41 million in annual funding if the university did not agree
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to meet the residency target. Now for those of you who aren't aware, the reason of the residency target
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is to sort of bolster the town's, you know, economy. I don't know if you guys are familiar with
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Athabasca. It's about two hours north of Edmonton. I visited recently. It's very cute. There's not a whole
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lot to do there for someone who prefers maybe a bit more of a city life. So the university has been
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really low to implement this target and there's been a lot of back and forth between Athabasca and
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the province on this. Now the province is saying that they're willing to be flexible on the 65%
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target and they might not necessarily pull the funding. So we're going to have to keep our eyes
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on this to see what happens if they're able to reach an agreement that might see some of the
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executives return to the area or not. Okay guys, now it's time for our UCP leadership race update.
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At the beginning of the week, Angela Pitt resigned as Raj and Sonny's campaign chair.
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I think this is pretty devastating for the Sonny campaign because the campaign has really struggled
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to gain momentum and traction. Sonny has been pulling pretty low and she's been positioning
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herself as the antidote to Danielle Smith, who is the front runner. Now on Sunday, Pitt resigned,
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citing a need to realign with her values and with her constituents values. Meanwhile, UCP leadership
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candidate Todd Lowen wants an investigation into all the COVID bonuses that were paid out. So as we
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know, Dina Henshaw, as we talked about last week, was paid about $228,000 in a COVID bonus.
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On top of her salary, she took over well over half a million in 2021. But she wasn't the only one who
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got a COVID bonus. In fact, 107 Alberta management employees collected 2.4 million bonuses in 2021.
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2.4 million. I don't know about you guys, I certainly did not receive a bonus during the COVID-19
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pandemic. I actually probably made a lot less considering inflation. The cost of everything
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was so much higher while my wages stayed exactly the same. So Todd Lowen wants an investigation
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into how these bonuses were paid out and the NDP agree with him, also writing a letter to the
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Auditor General this week requesting an investigation. I thought Todd Lowen's response
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to this was so funny. He wrote on Facebook, quote, the awkward moment when even the NDP follows
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my lead. It won't earn Rachel Notley a spot in my cabinet, but thanks for coming on board
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anyway. UCP frontrunner Danielle Smith is starting to rack up the endorsements. Alberta Labor and
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Immigration Minister Casey Maddow endorsed Smith and his riding of Edmonton Southwest at a Smith
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campaign event on Thursday night. That makes Maddow the second cabinet member and seventh UCP
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MLA to endorse Danielle Smith. And that includes two UCP MLAs who first endorsed Travis Taves,
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but then pulled those endorsements to back Smith. And that of course is service Alberta Minister
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Nate Glubish and MLA Pat Wren. Okay guys, let's end today on a bit of a lighter note. You guys might
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have heard about this essay that's taking the Alberta Press Gallery and leftist Twitter by storm.
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People are absolutely outraged over this essay. So here's what happened. There was a Her Vision
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Inspires Contest, which the Alberta government agreed to post the essays on their website.
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And two female UCP MLAs also helped judging in the contest. There were three winners. And the third
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place winner was basically an essay that urged women to have children, which is, as you know,
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very controversial in the year 2022. The essay said, Albertan women are taught that children are a
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burden while importing foreigners to replace Albertan culture and Albertan people, essentially.
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The essay also wrote that men and women aren't exactly equal because women have the unique ability
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to bear children. And obviously there's a bit of a biological difference. And the essay writer wrote
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that modern culture really chooses to ignore this difference or to rewrite it. And the essay said,
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men and women have an important role in preserving their speeches and culture. And women often regret
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having children later in life. I'm sure you guys won't find it surprising that people were outraged
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over this essay. They couldn't believe that it was third place. It was later revealed that there
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were two other essays that did not place in the contest and people couldn't understand how this
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essay placed above those others that did not place. And of course the UCP MLAs that were involved in
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the judging have been forced to apologize. So I'm wondering, what do you guys think? Is this essay as
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controversial as everyone says it is? Was it wrong to have chosen this person to win third place?
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Or does she maybe have a point or, you know, maybe she just has some different thoughts,
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but she should still be allowed to express those. Let me know what you guys think. You know where you
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can reach me on Twitter or Facebook. That's all I have for you today. Thanks so much for tuning in