The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - November 23, 2024


Randy finally gets the boot — what’s next？

Topics
Randy Boissoneau scandals Stephen Harper appointment job growth in Alberta
Hosted by
Isaac Lamoureux
Mentioned
Randy Boissoneau Stephen Harper Jody Gondek Justin Trudeau Dale McPhee John A. Macdonald Stephen Anderson Pierre Poilievre Michael Barrett Danielle Smith John McDougall Cocaine Randy Mehdi Hassan Nate Horner Trump
Trudeau’s former finance minister SLAMS emissions cap Alberta fights Trudeau’s oil and gas cap

Episode Stats


Length

15 minutes

Words per minute

151.02

Word count

2,348

Sentence count

143

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Randy Boissoneau has stepped down from his ministerial position to focus on clearing the allegations made against him, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Also on the show today, we ll be discussing the return to the spotlight of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, how Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek asked her citizens to find any theoretical budget cuts she could make, which she deemed impossible, to not affect essential services. We ll also dive into how Alberta dominated Canada s job growth in October, accounting for more than 91% of national gains. Lastly, we'll cover the recent news of Edmonton Police Chief Dale McPhee stepping down.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.260 Randy Boissoneau is once again leading off our show today.
00:00:04.160 When hearing that, I'm guessing that a lot of you thought of the first question I thought myself.
00:00:08.540 Which Randy? Is it Randy Boissoneau, the other Randy, or the newest alias, Cocaine Randy?
00:00:15.760 Stay tuned for the rest of the show and you'll find out.
00:00:19.000 Also on the show today, we'll be discussing the return to the spotlight of former Prime Minister Stephen Harper,
00:00:24.340 how Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek asked Calgarians to find any theoretical budget cuts she could make,
00:00:30.120 which she deemed impossible, to not affect essential services.
00:00:33.720 But people answered her call.
00:00:35.520 We'll also dive into how Alberta dominated Canada's job growth in October,
00:00:39.560 accounting for more than 91% of national gains.
00:00:42.860 Lastly, we'll cover the recent news of Edmonton Police Chief Dale McPhee stepping down.
00:00:47.920 But I know you guys are probably itching to hear about Randy, so let's dive back into that story now.
00:00:54.340 Randy Boissoneau has officially stepped down from his ministerial position
00:01:06.880 to focus on clearing the allegations made against him, according to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
00:01:12.220 As for which of the many allegations against him he's focused on clearing,
00:01:15.740 that was not necessarily made clear.
00:01:18.500 Fans of the show will remember that Boissoneau was previously promoted to ministerial lead for Jasper,
00:01:23.980 despite being in the midst of an investigation for having allegedly received
00:01:28.340 nearly $120 million in government grants and contracts while being a minister,
00:01:33.780 potentially violating Canada's ethics laws.
00:01:37.120 That didn't seem to matter much, given Boissoneau's promotion,
00:01:40.640 but the straw, or straws, that broke the camel's back
00:01:43.540 seemed to be the further whirlwind of scandals that followed.
00:01:47.500 Conservative leader Pierre Poilévre had the following to say of Boissoneau when speaking in the House.
00:01:52.820 This Prime Minister, in nine years, doubled housing costs, doubled the debt,
00:01:57.640 doubled gun crime, doubled food bank use, and up until a minute ago,
00:02:01.920 he had a minister with a double identity.
00:02:04.820 The Prime Minister knew the minister was directing his business illegally from inside Cabinet.
00:02:10.060 He knew the minister had claimed there was another Randy when there was no other Randy.
00:02:14.400 He knew that the minister had falsely claimed to be Indigenous in order to take money away from real Indigenous people,
00:02:20.920 and yet he stood by him up until yesterday.
00:02:23.700 Why is it that he always stands up for corruption on his own side?
00:02:29.180 Boissoneau recently came under fire when it was revealed that he had made previous claims about a non-existent Indigenous ancestry.
00:02:36.580 He was called out by Indigenous leaders and various MPs.
00:02:39.740 The company he co-owned was allegedly claiming to be Indigenous-owned while bidding on federal contracts.
00:02:45.440 Instead of shifting the blame to the other Randy, this time, Boissoneau blamed his business partner, Stephen Anderson.
00:02:52.620 On top of that, it came out that Boissoneau shared a post office box with a cocaine smuggler in Edmonton.
00:02:59.440 Liberal MP Ahmed Hassan got mad at Conservative MP Michael Barrett for calling Boissoneau cocaine Randy.
00:03:06.280 He responded with this.
00:03:07.620 Speaker, I'm sure that I was referring to the other Randy as cocaine rand. 0.56
00:03:13.160 Honestly, I can hardly keep it together when watching these clips.
00:03:16.880 I just find it so funny.
00:03:18.600 But in reality, this is making a mockery of our parliamentarians who should hold themselves to a higher standard
00:03:25.800 than being caught in a whirlwind of so many scandals that nobody can seem to keep track.
00:03:31.100 Despite him stepping down, Randy will still make over $200,000 a year as a backbench MP.
00:03:37.620 Also, it's unclear to me whether he's stepping down from his Jasper ministerial role.
00:03:41.780 I haven't been able to find any confirmation on that, but I assume that he is.
00:03:46.640 And just to clarify quickly about Randy, he's stepping down, meaning he's not fired.
00:03:51.140 So I'm curious to ask whether you think that he'll ever be held accountable,
00:03:57.520 either by the Liberal government or the RCMP.
00:04:01.020 All right, so getting into a more lighthearted story now.
00:04:03.960 Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper has officially been appointed as the chairman of the board
00:04:09.420 of the Alberta Investment Management Corporation.
00:04:12.500 The finance ministry told me last week that it would officially announce the new chair within a few weeks.
00:04:17.740 And the announcement came slightly ahead of schedule on Wednesday.
00:04:21.280 It was rumored that Harper would be taking over as chair,
00:04:23.900 but he allegedly had to sort out some conflicts of interest before taking the position.
00:04:28.820 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith thanked Harper for accepting the position.
00:04:32.840 She said, quote,
00:04:34.480 As one of Canada's most successful prime ministers managing our national economy,
00:04:39.000 our province is thrilled to have you take charge of AIMCO
00:04:41.940 and get this fund performing to the level Albertans expect.
00:04:45.840 Harper revealed that he would be chairing the board for free because he believes, quote,
00:04:50.700 It is a meaningful act of public service to my adopted home province of the last 46 years.
00:04:55.980 Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner said Harper's nearly decade-long experience serving in government
00:05:02.180 and as a G7 leader proved a strong track record of fiscal responsibility with tax dollars.
00:05:07.720 He said, quote,
00:05:08.540 I am confident that the former prime minister and his board colleagues will provide the necessary oversight
00:05:13.880 and direction to AIMCO's management to ensure AIMCO is strategically well-positioned for long-term success.
00:05:19.820 AIMCO ranks among Canada's 10 largest pension funds managing over $160 billion in assets.
00:05:26.820 It achieved a 7.3% annualized return over the past decade, including an $8.9 billion net investment return in 2023.
00:05:35.480 The Alberta government fired the entire board in early November and appointed Horner Interim Director.
00:05:40.820 The Alberta government cited that between 2019 and 2023, AIMCO's third-party management fees increased by 96%,
00:05:48.640 the number of employees increased by 29%, and the salary, wage, and benefit costs increased by 71%.
00:05:55.780 The increases came despite managing a smaller percentage of funds internally.
00:06:00.840 Harper served as Canada's 22nd prime minister from 2006 to 2015.
00:06:05.600 During his time in office, Harper reduced federal taxes to their lowest level in 50 years,
00:06:11.860 created over 1.3 million jobs, and balanced the budget while investing in infrastructure and healthcare.
00:06:18.400 He also created the Modern Conservative Party of Canada and was the longest-serving conservative prime minister since Sir John A. Macdonald.
00:06:26.460 Harper serves as chairman and CEO of Harper & Associates Consulting and chairs Vision One, an investment fund he co-founded.
00:06:33.220 He also serves as the director of Collier International Group, Alimentation Couchetard, and Recover Incorporated.
00:06:41.880 Following his retirement in 2016, Harper returned to Alberta and has lived there ever since.
00:06:47.500 Now hopping into beloved mayor Jyoti Gondek, who was faced with a wave of backlash following some comments she made regarding the city's budget,
00:06:56.620 when she claimed that there was no room for cuts.
00:06:58.840 Gondek celebrated her budget on Monday, saying she stuck to her promises by not increasing the budget by more than 3.6% while addressing key concerns,
00:07:08.360 suggesting that there were no improvements to be made when it came to reducing city spending.
00:07:13.000 The mayor challenged anyone to cut anything that didn't include the budget's three critical components,
00:07:18.000 infrastructure, transit, and public safety, which she said compromises 75% of the budget.
00:07:24.520 This challenge many residents took up on social media.
00:07:27.340 So kudos to everyone who chimed in, as there were almost 500 comments on Gondek's post to X,
00:07:32.980 generally offering the very ideas that she suggested did not exist.
00:07:37.040 So I compiled a top 5 list of the most common or salient suggestions.
00:07:42.060 They were,
00:07:42.600 Also, the day after Gondek issued her challenge, Second Street re-released a policy brief it had written in 2021,
00:08:05.060 containing 10 examples on how municipalities could cut their spending.
00:08:09.660 So yeah, let me know in the comments if you have any other ideas on how Gondek could cut wasteful spending and where that money could be better utilized.
00:08:17.220 So hopping into our next story here, this, that Alberta accounted for 91% of Canada's net job growth in October.
00:08:24.400 Now I know that sounds almost impossible given our limited population compared to big provinces like Ontario and Quebec,
00:08:31.880 but it's key to understand that this is net job gains.
00:08:35.020 So Canada saw employment grow from 20,582,400 in September to 20,596,900 in October.
00:08:45.460 Alberta saw jobs grow from 2,529,800 in September to 2,543,000 in October, which was a gain of 13,200 jobs,
00:08:56.800 or 91% of the total 14,500 jobs gained in Canada.
00:09:01.760 So some provinces, like British Columbia, saw similar rises of 8,300 jobs.
00:09:07.020 However, these were offset by the 10,900 jobs lost between September and October in Ontario.
00:09:13.360 The job losses in Ontario came despite the population growing by 39,000.
00:09:18.780 In fact, the entire country saw its working age population rise by 85,200 people between September and October.
00:09:25.540 Therefore, while the country saw an increase of 14,500 jobs,
00:09:31.680 it saw 70,700 more working age individuals enter the job market than the number of jobs created.
00:09:39.300 So the working population grew at 587.5% of the job growth rate between September and October.
00:09:47.060 Alberta has previously led the country in gains from interprovincial migration
00:09:50.880 as Canadians are fleeing expensive cities for greater affordability.
00:09:55.260 The trend of interprovincial migration driven by affordability has seen rent decrease
00:09:59.400 in Canada's most expensive provinces while it has increased in the most affordable.
00:10:04.240 While Alberta's population grew, it fared much better than the rest of the country.
00:10:08.360 So between September and October, Alberta's population grew by 14,400.
00:10:12.780 And of course, as I said, the employment grew by 13,200.
00:10:16.040 Therefore, only 1,200 more working class people enter the job force than did jobs, or a rate of 109%.
00:10:23.300 Average hourly wages grew 4.9% to $35.76 an hour year over year in October,
00:10:31.400 rising further from the 4.6 annual increase seen in September.
00:10:35.800 Despite the rise in wages, only 61.3% of Canadians reported being very satisfied with their job.
00:10:42.080 This was a decrease of 0.9% since October of last year.
00:10:46.040 The younger people were, the more likely they were to be dissatisfied.
00:10:50.960 So hopping into our last story here, Edmonton Police Chief Dale McPhee announced on Wednesday
00:10:56.920 that he would be stepping down on February 21st after just over six years on the job.
00:11:02.660 The Edmonton Police Commission said that it will determine the hiring process of selecting a new chief within the coming months.
00:11:09.300 McPhee said, quote,
00:11:10.420 This support was essential in allowing us to do our critical work.
00:11:36.780 I know that everyone at the EPS will continue forward with this good work.
00:11:40.860 Chair of the Edmonton Police Commission, John McDougall, thanked McPhee for his service.
00:11:45.720 He said, quote,
00:11:46.920 Dale transformed our city's police service into an organization focused on innovation
00:11:51.200 and delivering policing as an outcome-based public service driven by community safety and well-being.
00:11:56.740 As a result, the EPS is now internationally recognized as one of the most innovative police organizations in North America.
00:12:04.080 So yeah, let me know if you had any opinions on McPhee and what you expect the next chief to hope to accomplish in Edmonton.
00:12:12.280 So that wraps up our stories for this week, but let's hop into the comment roundup now.
00:12:15.820 At Rhea Timmersman, 5177 said, quote,
00:12:19.580 Voter ID is the most important ID there is.
00:12:22.680 The states that are still blue in USA don't need ID.
00:12:25.700 If you don't pay taxes, you should not be able to vote.
00:12:28.780 Adding to this, the Shane Hansel said, quote,
00:12:31.700 So yeah, I agree with both of these sentiments.
00:12:50.200 Voter ID should be necessary in every single democratic process.
00:12:54.520 It is a vital aspect of democracy.
00:12:56.560 I mean, illegal immigrants should not be voting in our elections. 1.00
00:12:59.560 I don't know why anyone would argue against this.
00:13:02.920 The next comment comes from At Ordinary Canadian, Y6P, who said, quote,
00:13:07.880 I'm a lifelong conservative supporter.
00:13:10.000 I think the conservative party should not take a 15 or 20 point lead for granted.
00:13:15.000 These numbers are bound to go up and down between now and the election day.
00:13:18.720 The conservatives should attempt to build a broader coalition consisting of young females, 0.97
00:13:23.580 moderate Muslims, and yes, even with the PPC of Maxime Bernier.
00:13:26.860 Come election day, every vote will matter.
00:13:29.560 That's how Trump won down south and also work out some sort of deal with other opposition
00:13:34.320 parties to force an election instead of painting all of them with the same brush.
00:13:39.180 Trudeau has become too costly and destructive to Canada for another day.
00:13:43.660 Yeah, I wanted to highlight this because I agree that the conservatives have a long way
00:13:47.360 to go before the latest day the next federal election could take place, which is October 2025.
00:13:53.360 And if they get complacent, they could certainly lose the lead they've seen in the polls.
00:13:57.700 And on top of that, these polls are meaningless at the end of the day if the election results are different.
00:14:02.220 I think the conservatives should do everything in their power to keep growing their base and aim
00:14:06.980 to get as close as they can to 100% of the vote instead of thinking they already have the election in the bag.
00:14:14.060 Because remember, nothing is guaranteed in this life.
00:14:17.420 The last comment comes from at Spare Parts Army 2.0 who said,
00:14:21.020 Yeah, so this was a theme I saw develop in the comments among some of you that said you weren't interested
00:14:32.920 seeing Harper return in any way, which took me by surprise because many Canadians I've spoken with
00:14:38.880 consider Harper to be the best conservative prime minister in our country's history.
00:14:43.680 I'm curious now if your opinions have changed, seeing the role that Harper will take
00:14:47.320 and that he will be doing so for free on a pro bono basis.
00:14:51.020 Harper was always touted for his economic mind, so do you not feel that he will manage
00:14:56.300 Alberta's investment portfolio properly?
00:14:59.060 Let me know in the comments.
00:15:00.880 And that wraps up our comment roundup and this week's show.
00:15:04.840 My name's Isaac Lameru, your host of the Alberta Roundup.
00:15:08.000 Have a great weekend.
00:15:09.120 Thank you and God bless.
00:15:10.380 May Alberta prosper strong and free.
00:15:21.020 Thank you.
00:15:22.520 Thanks.
00:15:23.360 Kiita.
00:15:23.700 Thank you.
00:15:23.940 Thank you.
00:15:24.940 Thank you.
00:15:28.300 Thank you.
00:15:28.560 Thank you.
00:15:30.020 Hear Rame.
00:15:30.580 You're welcome.
00:15:31.180 Trade.
00:15:32.400 Remember?