The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - August 13, 2022


Alberta takes aim at Trudeau’s handgun ban


Episode Stats

Length

8 minutes

Words per Minute

185.63188

Word Count

1,534

Sentence Count

92

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel. I'm happy to report
00:00:17.120 that I'm back home in Edmonton after a couple weeks on the road. I was actually surprised with
00:00:21.580 how much I missed Edmonton, so certainly happy to be back and reporting from home once again.
00:00:26.300 Let's take a look at today's topics. Alberta's Chief Firearms Officer has some strong words for
00:00:32.120 the federal government, who last week announced a ban on the importation of handguns for the
00:00:36.640 civilian market. Gas prices in Alberta have dropped after Premier Jason Kenney asked Canada's
00:00:41.880 Competition Bureau to investigate whether there was price fixing going on. We'll be taking a look
00:00:46.760 at the Premier's former Chief of Staff, who left the provincial government to take a job with a
00:00:51.920 non-profit that receives provincial funding, but then only weeks later signed a contract
00:00:56.260 with the provincial government for $119 per hour. We'll be taking a look at the ongoing fight
00:01:02.220 between Athabasca University and the Alberta provincial government, which has taken a new
00:01:06.860 turn. And of course, we'll have our update on the UCP leadership race, and we'll be taking a look at
00:01:12.280 a controversial essay that has taken leftist Twitter by storm. Let's move into today's topics.
00:01:17.320 Alberta Chief Firearms Officer Terry Bryant has said the Trudeau government's ban on importing
00:01:22.460 legal handguns will have no impact on crime. The federal government announced last week that
00:01:28.300 handguns for the civilian market will be barred from importation as of August 19. This was a
00:01:33.760 directive issued without the oversight of Parliament, meaning MPs were not given the opportunity to vote
00:01:38.360 on this. It was simply passed by the federal government. But Bryant said the directive continues a
00:01:43.680 pattern of Ottawa, which is, quote, attempting to eliminate firearms ownership of all kinds,
00:01:49.660 one slice at a time, end quote. The chief firearms officer invited any minister responsible for the
00:01:56.020 directive to spend a weekend with Bryant at shooting events to see the people Ottawa is impacting.
00:02:01.500 Bryant says it's probably not the people Ottawa expects it is. Let's talk about gas prices. Gas prices
00:02:07.120 in Alberta have plummeted. Okay, that might be being a bit generous, but they have gone down quite a bit
00:02:11.920 since Jason Kenney asked Canada's Competition Bureau to investigate whether there was price fixing in
00:02:17.020 the province. Here in Edmonton, prices at some gas stations are about 50 cents per liter lower than
00:02:22.780 they were last month at this time. So that's some huge savings being passed onto consumers. You guys
00:02:28.660 might remember we talked about this a couple weeks ago. The premier asked for the investigation
00:02:33.560 after it was revealed that prices in Alberta and cities like Calgary and Edmonton were actually higher
00:02:39.500 than they were in Ontario's greater Toronto area. Now that's significant because prices in Alberta
00:02:44.880 are typically cheaper than they are in Ontario due to A, regulations, but B, our proximity to
00:02:50.800 refineries. As well, the Alberta government earlier this year removed the provincial sales tax from the
00:02:56.420 cost of gas. And Kenny said we were just not seeing those costs being passed onto consumers, hence why he
00:03:01.800 requested the investigation. And now we've seen gas prices certainly plummet. I'd also note that the drop in gas
00:03:08.240 prices is coinciding with the drop in world oil prices. So two things to consider there. Okay guys, this is
00:03:13.640 the story that we're going to be watching over the next couple of weeks. I'm curious to see what happens
00:03:17.680 here and what direction this takes. There's been an ongoing fight between Athabasca University and the
00:03:22.760 Alberta provincial government. Athabasca is an online university and the provincial government has said
00:03:27.700 they wanted 65% of the institution's staff to be based in the small town by the 2024-2025 academic
00:03:35.400 year and they threatened to pull 41 million in annual funding if the university did not agree
00:03:41.060 to meet the residency target. Now for those of you who aren't aware, the reason of the residency target
00:03:46.220 is to sort of bolster the town's, you know, economy. I don't know if you guys are familiar with
00:03:51.020 Athabasca. It's about two hours north of Edmonton. I visited recently. It's very cute. There's not a whole
00:03:57.600 lot to do there for someone who prefers maybe a bit more of a city life. So the university has been
00:04:03.140 really low to implement this target and there's been a lot of back and forth between Athabasca and
00:04:08.480 the province on this. Now the province is saying that they're willing to be flexible on the 65%
00:04:13.680 target and they might not necessarily pull the funding. So we're going to have to keep our eyes
00:04:18.500 on this to see what happens if they're able to reach an agreement that might see some of the
00:04:22.540 executives return to the area or not. Okay guys, now it's time for our UCP leadership race update.
00:04:29.120 At the beginning of the week, Angela Pitt resigned as Raj and Sonny's campaign chair.
00:04:34.260 I think this is pretty devastating for the Sonny campaign because the campaign has really struggled
00:04:38.420 to gain momentum and traction. Sonny has been pulling pretty low and she's been positioning
00:04:44.840 herself as the antidote to Danielle Smith, who is the front runner. Now on Sunday, Pitt resigned,
00:04:50.280 citing a need to realign with her values and with her constituents values. Meanwhile, UCP leadership
00:04:56.380 candidate Todd Lowen wants an investigation into all the COVID bonuses that were paid out. So as we
00:05:01.580 know, Dina Henshaw, as we talked about last week, was paid about $228,000 in a COVID bonus.
00:05:07.560 On top of her salary, she took over well over half a million in 2021. But she wasn't the only one who
00:05:13.120 got a COVID bonus. In fact, 107 Alberta management employees collected 2.4 million bonuses in 2021.
00:05:20.640 2.4 million. I don't know about you guys, I certainly did not receive a bonus during the COVID-19
00:05:25.840 pandemic. I actually probably made a lot less considering inflation. The cost of everything
00:05:30.200 was so much higher while my wages stayed exactly the same. So Todd Lowen wants an investigation
00:05:35.320 into how these bonuses were paid out and the NDP agree with him, also writing a letter to the
00:05:40.620 Auditor General this week requesting an investigation. I thought Todd Lowen's response
00:05:45.220 to this was so funny. He wrote on Facebook, quote, the awkward moment when even the NDP follows
00:05:51.220 my lead. It won't earn Rachel Notley a spot in my cabinet, but thanks for coming on board
00:05:55.820 anyway. UCP frontrunner Danielle Smith is starting to rack up the endorsements. Alberta Labor and
00:06:02.100 Immigration Minister Casey Maddow endorsed Smith and his riding of Edmonton Southwest at a Smith
00:06:07.620 campaign event on Thursday night. That makes Maddow the second cabinet member and seventh UCP
00:06:12.780 MLA to endorse Danielle Smith. And that includes two UCP MLAs who first endorsed Travis Taves,
00:06:19.700 but then pulled those endorsements to back Smith. And that of course is service Alberta Minister
00:06:24.700 Nate Glubish and MLA Pat Wren. Okay guys, let's end today on a bit of a lighter note. You guys might
00:06:30.560 have heard about this essay that's taking the Alberta Press Gallery and leftist Twitter by storm.
00:06:35.140 People are absolutely outraged over this essay. So here's what happened. There was a Her Vision
00:06:40.420 Inspires Contest, which the Alberta government agreed to post the essays on their website.
00:06:45.640 And two female UCP MLAs also helped judging in the contest. There were three winners. And the third
00:06:52.340 place winner was basically an essay that urged women to have children, which is, as you know,
00:06:58.100 very controversial in the year 2022. The essay said, Albertan women are taught that children are a
00:07:04.380 burden while importing foreigners to replace Albertan culture and Albertan people, essentially.
00:07:10.480 The essay also wrote that men and women aren't exactly equal because women have the unique ability
00:07:15.960 to bear children. And obviously there's a bit of a biological difference. And the essay writer wrote
00:07:20.520 that modern culture really chooses to ignore this difference or to rewrite it. And the essay said,
00:07:26.800 men and women have an important role in preserving their speeches and culture. And women often regret
00:07:31.860 having children later in life. I'm sure you guys won't find it surprising that people were outraged
00:07:36.820 over this essay. They couldn't believe that it was third place. It was later revealed that there
00:07:41.860 were two other essays that did not place in the contest and people couldn't understand how this
00:07:46.260 essay placed above those others that did not place. And of course the UCP MLAs that were involved in
00:07:51.540 the judging have been forced to apologize. So I'm wondering, what do you guys think? Is this essay as
00:07:57.140 controversial as everyone says it is? Was it wrong to have chosen this person to win third place?
00:08:02.380 Or does she maybe have a point or, you know, maybe she just has some different thoughts,
00:08:06.240 but she should still be allowed to express those. Let me know what you guys think. You know where you
00:08:10.500 can reach me on Twitter or Facebook. That's all I have for you today. Thanks so much for tuning in
00:08:14.740 and we'll catch up next week.