NDP leadership candidates already taking aim at Smith
Episode Stats
Words per minute
198.68362
Harmful content
Misogyny
2
sentences flagged
Summary
Four Alberta NDP MLAs have announced they are running for the leadership of the party, along with a union leader and a very popular former mayor of Calgary. Today, we are joined by Cheryl Oates, who used to work for Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley. She was the Executive Director of Communications.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel.
00:00:14.860
Four NDP MLAs have announced that they are seeking the leadership for the Alberta NDP,
00:00:20.980
along with a union leader and a very popular former mayor of Calgary.
00:00:26.820
Today, we are joined by Cheryl Oates. She used to work for Alberta NDP leader and former premier
00:00:33.880
Rachel Notley. She was the executive director of communication, and she's going to break this
00:00:38.100
all down for us. Cheryl, thanks so much for joining the show today.
0.94
00:00:43.640
So when we look at the candidates, we've got a bunch of candidates joining so far. We have until
00:00:47.220
Friday, if anyone new wants to join. What direction do you think the NDPers are looking to go in? Are
00:00:54.020
they looking for someone more moderate, maybe someone like Nenshi, or are they looking for
00:00:57.960
someone who's going to take their party a little further to the right?
00:01:02.100
Yeah, I think there's a divergence of opinions, just like any party. This is a coalition of people,
00:01:07.080
and I think, speaking for myself, I'm looking for a unicorn. I'm looking for someone who can
00:01:12.260
uphold the values of the party and the history of the party and the things that the NDP has long
00:01:17.160
fought for and also have the ability to be competitive in 2027. We know that Daniel Smith
00:01:23.340
is an expert, expert communicator, and the next leader of the NDP will have to be just as good
00:01:29.060
of a communicator to be able to stand up to her. Right. When we look at the candidates, we've got
0.96
00:01:35.260
a bunch of MLAs and NDPs. I mentioned we've got two former cabinet ministers. We've got Kathleen
00:01:39.420
Gainley and Sarah Hoffman. They have a little more profile than some of the other Edmonton MLAs that
00:01:44.220
we have, including Raki Pancelli. She was just elected in 2019. We have another MLA who was just
00:01:49.900
voted in 2023. Those MLAs that have the ministry behind them, are they someone with a little bit
00:01:55.360
more profile? Do you think that will benefit them during the leadership race? For sure. I mean,
00:02:00.040
anytime that you're looking to win over existing members and continue to build the party, having
00:02:04.860
those decades, in some cases, of experience where you've had the chance to build one-on-one
00:02:08.740
relationships with people, build your profile, have a little bit of history of getting things done
00:02:13.820
behind you, obviously that's really helpful in terms of having people hear your message,
00:02:17.980
but also having a record to point to. And certainly the MLAs that have multi-terms as MLAs have tons
00:02:24.540
of profile and a really big base of relationships to work from. Let's talk about Nahid Nenshi for a
00:02:30.000
moment. He announced that he was going to be seeking leadership earlier this week. I think a lot
00:02:33.880
of people were sort of expecting him to jump in the race. He was obviously a very popular mayor of
00:02:37.880
Calgary, and I think a lot of people are taking this announcement pretty seriously. And he actually
00:02:42.400
already commented on Danielle Smith earlier this week. He took a stab at her government. Let's play
00:02:47.140
that clip now. $14,000 a bottle on Tylenol when the federal government had already ordered some,
00:02:53.120
just so you could own the libs. $100 million on the failed privatization of Dynalife. $9 million
00:03:01.240
on advertising for the Alberta pension plan, something that in the election she said she would never do.
00:03:07.680
And the list goes on and on and on and on. And yesterday I had a very busy day,
00:03:12.600
so I haven't had a chance yet to look at what they're suggesting they're going to fix
00:03:16.700
in the utility system. But what they broke in the utility system has caused utility bills to
00:03:22.620
quadruple in Alberta to be by far the highest in Canada. Our insurance rates, our auto insurance
00:03:28.180
rates are something like two and a half times what they are in Saskatchewan next door. This is direct
00:03:33.580
results of UCP government policy. Setting aside the crisis and family doctors, the closure of
00:03:39.280
emergency rooms, the fact that here in one of the wealthiest jurisdictions in the world,
00:03:44.340
you can't be guaranteed that you'll get an ambulance when you call 911 when you're in need.
00:03:48.460
This is sheer incompetence combined with the lack of any moral fiber. And, you know,
00:03:55.800
So I thought it was really interesting that Nenshi's already attacking Danielle Smith. Do you
00:03:59.180
think he's seeking to sort of place himself as her opponent? And by that, you know, gain some
00:04:04.520
profile for himself. I'm not running against the other candidates in this race. I'm actually
00:04:08.060
running against the current premier. Yeah, I think it's a little bit of both because
00:04:12.180
truly any party, whether it's the NDP or the conservatives, want to believe that they're
00:04:17.260
setting themselves up for success and they're choosing the best leader who can be competitive
00:04:21.500
in the next election and hopefully form government.
00:04:23.640
So I think Nenshi's tactic here is one to let people see that he has the ability to sort of go
00:04:29.840
toe to toe with Danielle Smith in terms of communication, but also to position himself
00:04:34.120
to say, I can take her on, I can win, and I'm the candidate position to do that. And I mean,
00:04:38.720
the NDP historically, leadership races have been pretty friendly. So I think it makes sense for him
00:04:43.320
to take his aim outside the party rather than at the other candidates.
00:04:46.240
Out of all the candidates currently in the race, who do you think would have the best chance of
00:04:50.640
Stuck in that winter slump? Try Dove Men plus Care Aluminum Free Deodorant.
00:04:57.540
All it takes is a small change to your routine to lift your mood. And it can be as simple as
00:05:01.940
starting your day with the mood boosting scents of Dove Men plus Care Aluminum Free Deodorant.
00:05:06.460
It'll keep you feeling fresh for up to 72 hours. And when you smell good, you feel good.
00:05:14.540
Honestly, this is an awesome slate of people. And any of them would make a really great leader. I
00:05:21.120
think I'm waiting to sort of see how their positioning comes out, what they think of
00:05:25.180
themselves in terms of what they see for the party going forward and how they're going to
00:05:28.460
listen to the membership. And the person who will do the best is a person, like I said, who can be a
00:05:33.080
concise, compelling communicator, because we know that's what Danielle Smith is, and someone who can
00:05:37.880
uphold the values of the party and bring Alberta along with them. We need the party to continue to
00:05:42.500
grow if we want to be competitive. The NDP has seen incredible success growing over the last
00:05:47.380
decade. And if we want to win in 2027, we need to continue to grow. We need to win more seats in
00:05:52.920
Calgary and more seats outside of both the major cities. And whoever positions themselves to best
00:05:58.240
do those things is the person who's going to be successful.
00:06:00.500
Raki Pancheli said that she would abolish the carbon tax if she was elected the leader. What do you think
00:06:04.880
of that? Is she maybe seeking to attract people who wouldn't have traditionally voted for the NDP? Or is
00:06:10.000
this a policy that's actually quite popular within the party's base?
00:06:14.880
I think, you know, having served in government at the time that the carbon tax was brought in,
00:06:19.460
I still believe this was the most effective and efficient policy to curb emissions. Now we have
00:06:25.000
seen it is absolutely not the most popular policy, and it doesn't have durability. This is politically
00:06:30.140
poisoned now. And I think it makes sense for candidates to start talking about how do we,
00:06:35.360
is there a better approach? How do we combat climate change in a way that we can bring Albertans
00:06:40.080
along with us, something that people can buy into? And the carbon tax just isn't politically
00:06:44.760
popular in Alberta, and it's not politically palatable. So I think she's one of many candidates
00:06:49.000
saying, is there a better solution here? Yeah, I think that's really interesting to hear you say
00:06:52.280
that you thought it was a good policy, but it's obviously not very politically popular anymore.
00:06:56.500
Do you think that it's always been that way? Or has something changed to make it just
00:06:59.720
such a detrimental policy to any party that tries to put it forward?
00:07:04.140
Yeah, I think, I mean, certainly at a time of peak unaffordability, it's hard to swallow an
00:07:09.520
additional tax. Even if people are getting a rebate that is beyond what they're paying for the tax,
00:07:13.640
it's hard at the time to swallow the fact that we're paying more. So I think at the time the NDP
00:07:19.660
looked at this, we got the advice from experts, we got the advice from outside academics to say,
00:07:24.320
what is the best way to curb emissions in our province? And this is the advice that we got.
00:07:28.840
But since then, the policy has been weaponized, it has been brought into public discourse in the
00:07:35.620
realm of affordability. And, and it's just not durable. It's just not a, it's not a policy that's
00:07:40.800
going to last beyond multiple changes in government. So I think it's time for us to look at what could
00:07:45.020
actually work, and what could stay in place for multiple changes of government to come.
00:07:49.740
As I mentioned before, candidates have until Friday for anyone else hoping to join the race.
00:07:54.180
I'm wondering if you think there's anyone else that might jump in? I know there's been some
00:07:57.720
speculation online that former cabinet minister Thomas Lukasik might join in the race. What do
00:08:02.460
you think? I think it's probably set like I could be surprised and see someone, you know,
00:08:08.040
jump out of the woodwork in the last couple of days here. But I think most of these people who have
00:08:13.300
announced that they are in the race have been thinking about it for a long time and have been
00:08:17.120
doing some work behind the scenes. And once they were approved doing, you know, a lot of work on the
00:08:22.180
ground to sell memberships and raise money. And I just, I think it would be hard for anyone joining
00:08:26.640
the race at this point. Sure. Just my last question for you here. If you think this is everyone who's
00:08:30.160
going to be in the race, any predictions for who might win it? I do not have any predictions for who
00:08:35.540
might win it. I think that we are going to see a lot more debate and ideas and platforms from
00:08:42.000
candidates in the coming weeks. And I think that NDP members, a lot of them are still open and still
00:08:46.480
thinking about who's best to lead the party. And as we see those ideas and demonstrations held up
00:08:52.100
in contrast, I think a lot more people are going to start making up their minds. Cheryl, thanks so
00:08:55.960
much. Thanks for having me. All right, everyone. That's all we have time for today. As always,
00:09:00.280
I will be back on Saturday with my regular programming. You guys will not want to miss
00:09:03.580
this week's episode. We've had some crazy news in Alberta this week, something to do with the
00:09:07.960
prime minister being here and guests who wasn't allowed into his press conference. I'll be back with
00:09:13.020
that on Saturday. Have a great week and God bless.