The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - October 15, 2022


Danielle Smith triggers Rachel Notley on Day 1


Episode Stats

Length

10 minutes

Words per Minute

201.50743

Word Count

2,121

Sentence Count

118

Misogynist Sentences

4

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

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00:00:26.420 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup.
00:00:28.560 I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel.
00:00:29.640 It has been a very interesting week in Alberta politics, and we have a great show planned
00:00:33.160 for you today.
00:00:34.000 So, let's take a look at what we're going to be talking about.
00:00:36.880 Alberta has a new Premier, Danielle Smith was sworn in earlier this week, and she's already
00:00:41.160 making waves.
00:00:42.540 In fact, so much so that it seems like the Alberta NDP are going to live in a constant state
00:00:46.780 of being triggered by the new Premier.
00:00:48.900 In fact, they're already calling on Premier Smith to apologize for comments she made earlier
00:00:53.040 this week.
00:00:54.560 Meanwhile, the Federal Emergencies Act Inquisition has begun in Ottawa, and Alberta is participating,
00:00:58.920 saying it was unnecessary.
00:01:00.900 We're going to be talking about all that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup.
00:01:04.680 Okay guys, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith was sworn in this week on Tuesday at a ceremony
00:01:08.540 at the Government House at Edmonton following the Thanksgiving weekend.
00:01:11.920 In her remarks following the ceremony, Danielle Smith said,
00:01:14.460 Albertans' freedoms and rights have been tested over the last two years, and she's looking
00:01:19.060 to strengthen them.
00:01:20.320 Like most Albertans, Smith said she believes freedom is foundational.
00:01:24.240 The Premier also said she's going to protect Alberta's jurisdictional rights from Ottawa,
00:01:28.060 something she campaigned on, as you know.
00:01:30.240 And she spoke about the need to protect Alberta's most vulnerable, especially during the cost of
00:01:34.580 living crisis that we're currently in.
00:01:36.540 Take a listen to her comments now.
00:01:38.020 Together, we will stand up to defend Albertans' charter rights, as well as defend Alberta's
00:01:42.840 exclusive rights over our areas of provincial jurisdiction, which are enumerated clearly in
00:01:49.140 Canada's constitution.
00:01:50.960 But we will also demonstrate the compassion Albertans expect of us by ensuring the vulnerable
00:01:56.460 and our seniors can afford the necessities of life during this time of inflation.
00:02:00.740 We must ensure our children have the support they need to succeed.
00:02:05.860 We must address the mental health crisis that is stealing our young people from us.
00:02:10.320 We must give real help to those on our streets who don't know where to turn.
00:02:14.520 In her first press conference, just hours after being sworn in as Premier on Tuesday,
00:02:18.660 Danielle Smith began making waves.
00:02:21.240 Premier Smith said she will no longer be relying on public health advice from Dr. Dina Henshaw.
00:02:26.100 Now, let's get this story right.
00:02:27.320 A lot of outlets were reporting that Henshaw had been fired or was going to be fired.
00:02:31.680 Now, that might be the case, but that's not what Premier Smith said on Tuesday.
00:02:34.600 She simply said she won't be taking health advice from Henshaw anymore.
00:02:38.260 I asked the Premier's office, does this mean Henshaw has been fired or will be?
00:02:41.280 And they said no decisions have been finalized currently.
00:02:44.380 Something else noteworthy from the press conference is Premier Smith said she has not been able to
00:02:48.300 get a hold of former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney.
00:02:51.320 Smith said she sent an invitation to Kenney to have a meeting and discuss an orderly transition,
00:02:55.080 but he hasn't responded.
00:02:57.320 Still, Smith was more than forgiving of the former Premier, who she said she still admires greatly.
00:03:04.000 Smith said the leadership race did not go the way Kenney would have liked and that he had a
00:03:07.220 preferred candidate, former Finance Minister Travis Taves, and she said he might need a little more
00:03:11.740 time just to adjust to things.
00:03:13.800 Let's move into the controversy of the week.
00:03:15.780 I'm sure you heard these comments by now, but we're going to go over them anyways.
00:03:19.120 Premier Smith made some more comments in her press conference, this time talking about the
00:03:22.240 discrimination the unvaccinated have faced.
00:03:24.100 She said she doesn't know of another group that faced more discrimination in her lifetime
00:03:28.720 than the unvaccinated.
00:03:30.400 Of course, Alberta, like all other Canadian provinces, implemented a vaccine passport,
00:03:35.480 barring the unvaccinated from places of work at times, as well as movie theatres and things
00:03:39.540 like restaurants.
00:03:40.960 They were treated like second-class citizens during the COVID-19 pandemic while the vaccine
00:03:45.140 passports were replaced.
00:03:46.800 And Smith acknowledged this discrimination in her first press conference as Premier on Tuesday.
00:03:50.500 The community that faced the most restrictions on their freedoms in the last year were those
00:03:56.980 who made a choice not to be vaccinated.
00:03:59.080 I don't think I've ever experienced a situation in my lifetime where a person was fired from
00:04:05.580 their job or not allowed to watch their kids play hockey or not allowed to go visit a loved
00:04:11.500 one in long-term care or hospital or not allowed to go get on a plane to either go across the
00:04:17.500 country to see family or even travel across the border.
00:04:20.720 So they have been the most discriminated against group that I've ever witnessed in my lifetime.
00:04:25.860 That's a pretty extreme level of discrimination that we have seen.
00:04:29.520 I don't take away any of the discrimination that I've seen in those other groups that you
00:04:33.700 mentioned.
00:04:34.500 But this has been an extraordinary time in the last year in particular.
00:04:39.900 And I want people to know that I find that unacceptable, that we are not going to create
00:04:44.460 a segregated society on the basis of a medical choice.
00:04:48.920 Some say the bubbles in an arrow truffle piece can take 34 seconds to melt in your mouth.
00:04:53.680 Sometimes the very amount you're stuck at the same red light.
00:04:57.120 Rich, creamy, chocolatey arrow truffle.
00:05:00.180 Feel the arrow bubbles melt.
00:05:02.200 It's mind bubbling.
00:05:03.180 Now, today's victimhood culture was out in full swing following a press conference with
00:05:08.180 everyone and their mother taking to Twitter to say no, they in fact have been the most
00:05:11.680 discriminated against.
00:05:13.260 But the loudest of these voices was, of course, you guessed it, the Alberta NDP, who are demanding
00:05:17.920 that Premier Smith apologize.
00:05:19.880 In fact, NDP leader Rachel Notley hosted an entire press conference for the sole purpose
00:05:24.500 of asking the Premier to apologize for her comments.
00:05:27.620 You can't make this stuff up.
00:05:28.860 Take a listen for yourself.
00:05:29.740 Given the amount of hurt and pain that has genuinely been expressed to us over the last
00:05:35.320 two days, I call on Premier Daniel Smith to reconsider her decision to not apologize and
00:05:42.960 in fact to offer up an immediate and authentic apology to the hundreds of thousands of Albertans
00:05:54.180 whose experiences she has negated and and who she's her remarks have hurt.
00:05:59.840 The following day, Smith released a clarification statement, but did not apologize.
00:06:04.400 She said she did not mean to trivialize the discrimination that marginalized groups in
00:06:08.440 Alberta have faced.
00:06:10.120 I suspect she won't apologize.
00:06:11.540 It's already been a couple of days and we haven't heard anything from her about that
00:06:14.780 apology.
00:06:15.740 But the NDP are not stopping their calls and are demanding the Premier to apologize nonetheless.
00:06:20.040 Okay guys, let's briefly move over to discuss the Emergencies Act Inquisition which began
00:06:25.020 in Ottawa this week.
00:06:26.300 On Thursday, witnesses gave their opening remarks.
00:06:29.140 Alberta, along with the government of Saskatchewan, is participating in the process.
00:06:33.140 Now for those of you who need a little refresher, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in February
00:06:36.640 invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time in Canadian history to grant himself special
00:06:41.300 emergency powers to deal with freedom convoy protesters who were in Ottawa to protest the
00:06:46.060 federal government's COVID-19 restrictions, including vaccine mandates.
00:06:50.000 Now I can say with some certainty that the protesters were peaceful because I was in Ottawa covering
00:06:54.340 the federal government at the time of the freedom convoy.
00:06:56.940 And we already know that the Ottawa police say they did not ask the federal government
00:07:00.440 for the Emergencies Act to be invoked, contradicting earlier claims from Public Safety Minister
00:07:04.880 Marco Mendicino.
00:07:06.180 Now the government of Alberta's and Saskatchewan are saying they also didn't need the Emergencies
00:07:10.240 Act to deal with their respective border blockades.
00:07:12.680 In Alberta, we had the Coutts border blockade.
00:07:14.440 And the Alberta government says it was able to deal with that blockade without powers needed
00:07:18.520 under the Emergencies Act.
00:07:20.140 Okay guys, what we're watching in the weeks to come.
00:07:22.640 Just after Danielle Smith was announced the new Premier in the UCP leadership race, I had
00:07:27.000 a 30-minute interview with her, and I asked her about what some of her plans are in the
00:07:30.060 weeks to come.
00:07:31.100 I also asked her about the $160 million that former Premier Jason Kenney announced in his
00:07:35.780 final week in office.
00:07:38.020 That includes $73 million to the aviation sector and with a partnership with WestJet.
00:07:42.740 And Premier Smith said she might have to take a closer look at some of those funding announcements.
00:07:47.600 She has said her chief of staff, Marshall Smith, who worked in the Kennedy government,
00:07:51.340 flagged some of the items and said the government might need to take a closer look at them.
00:07:55.000 So it'll be interesting to see if she decides to roll back any of those funding announcements.
00:07:59.440 One other thing for you guys to be aware of and to watch for in the weeks to come is
00:08:02.640 that Danielle Smith confirmed that she will be running in the Brooks Medicine Hat by-election.
00:08:06.440 As you know, UCP MLA Michaela Fry resigned on Friday morning, just after Smith won the
00:08:12.400 UCP leadership race, and encouraged Smith to run in that riding.
00:08:16.340 Smith confirmed on Saturday that she will run in the Brooks Medicine Hat by-election, and
00:08:20.820 if she's confirmed in that seat, she could be in the legislature as early as November
00:08:24.180 29.
00:08:24.820 So I think we can see the House being recalled in late November.
00:08:27.920 It is worth noting that the seat is a conservative safe seat, and it's also a rural riding, with
00:08:32.460 Smith saying that she wants to run in that region because she wants to present
00:08:35.280 rural Albertans.
00:08:37.220 Something else worth noting that I told you I'd follow up with is that UCP MLA Todd
00:08:41.020 Lohan has been confirmed back to the UCP caucus.
00:08:43.600 I told you guys last week that he was in the UCP caucus meeting on Friday morning, and
00:08:47.180 he's confirmed that he's now back in the party once again.
00:08:50.180 Okay guys, moving into the Alberta politics funniest moment of the week.
00:08:52.940 Premier Smith has announced that she will run in the Brooks Medicine Hat by-election, but
00:08:55.960 she said she's going to leave the Calgary Elbow Sea open.
00:08:59.280 You guys might remember the former MLA, Doug Schweitzer, who was also a Kenny cabinet
00:09:02.880 minister, resigned from both his cabinet post and later his month, his seat in Calgary Elbow.
00:09:08.680 That seat's been sitting open since then.
00:09:10.620 A couple of people have expressed interest in running for it, including John Horseman.
00:09:13.720 He told me he's interested in the seat.
00:09:15.160 He, of course, was a UCP leadership candidate for a brief period of time.
00:09:19.460 Daniel Smith said she's going to leave that seat open because there needs to be a race
00:09:22.020 between all the candidates who are interested in running for the UCP and winning that nomination.
00:09:25.900 And of course, the Alberta NDP just can't handle it.
00:09:28.800 They have decided to make an enormous deal about the fact that Smith is leaving this
00:09:32.300 seat open, despite the fact that seats sit open all the time ahead of a general election.
00:09:37.560 In fact, listen to Rachel Notley's comments for yourself.
00:09:40.180 For over a month, this area hasn't had an MLA.
00:09:43.020 And so we're here today to call on the UCP to call a by-election in this area before the
00:09:48.760 next election so that the people of this area can have their voice.
00:09:52.260 It's no surprise that the opposition would want to attack the government that is in fact
00:09:55.260 their role.
00:09:55.660 But you'd think that the opposition in this case would be able to find something a little
00:09:59.080 more meaningful or substantial to attack the premuron.
00:10:02.760 I guess we'll have to keep hoping.
00:10:04.500 All right, guys, that's all I have for you today.
00:10:06.600 I want to take a quick moment and thank my listeners.
00:10:08.660 This show has grown so much in the number of weeks since we started it.
00:10:11.780 We're at about 17,000 to 19,000 weekly listeners, which is so exciting.
00:10:15.280 I feel so lucky that I get to do this.
00:10:17.060 I love my job.
00:10:18.020 So thank you so much for tuning in.
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00:10:29.060 Thank you so much.
00:10:29.940 Have a great week and I'll see you next weekend.