The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - June 17, 2023


Smith teases Conservative coalition


Episode Stats

Length

15 minutes

Words per Minute

176.80342

Word Count

2,781

Sentence Count

157

Misogynist Sentences

5

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is prepared to form a coalition with like-minded provinces to fight Ottawa's energy policies. We re also going to be taking a look at whether or not Danielle Smith was censored earlier this week. Meanwhile, Rachel Notley said she s going to take some time to consider her role as party leader. All that and more happening now on The Alberta Roundup.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel.
00:00:04.020 I hope that you guys are having a great week so far. Let's take a look at today's topics.
00:00:09.460 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is prepared to form a coalition with like-minded provinces
00:00:14.120 to fight Ottawa's energy policies. We're also going to be taking a look at Facebook.
00:00:19.580 Was Danielle Smith censored earlier this week? Meanwhile, you guys will be interested to hear
00:00:24.280 this. Rachel Notley said that she is going to take some time to consider her role as party
00:00:29.820 leader. All that and more happening now on the Alberta Roundup.
00:00:44.400 Okay guys, up first, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she's prepared to form a coalition
00:00:49.540 with like-minded provinces to fight Ottawa's energy policies. The Trudeau government plans
00:00:55.840 to impose an emissions cap on Canada's oil and gas sector and to introduce regulations
00:01:00.620 for a net zero electricity grid by 2035. On Tuesday, after speaking at the Global Energy
00:01:07.440 Show in Calgary, Smith said, quote, I prefer collaboration as the first option. I think
00:01:13.620 I have drawn the line in the sand. I've already raised it with my provincial counterparts that
00:01:18.500 if we need to develop a coalition so that we can fight back against Ottawa, if need be,
00:01:22.880 then that's what we're going to do. Those allies include Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe,
00:01:27.800 who told a conference that it would be impossible for his province to move to a net zero electricity
00:01:33.160 grid by 2035. About two thirds of Saskatchewan's electricity is powered by natural gas and to
00:01:39.280 a lesser extent, coal. Moe told media on Tuesday, quote, quite simply, it isn't attainable in Saskatchewan
00:01:45.120 and quite frankly, isn't attainable in many other jurisdictions either.
00:01:49.600 They, meaning Ottawa, come forward with unconsulted, ideological and unrealistic policies time and
00:01:56.440 time again. And now these policies are layering on top of one another. Federal Natural Resources
00:02:01.580 Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and Intergovernmental Affairs Minister Dominic LeBlanc will fly to Ottawa
00:02:07.620 next week to meet with the Premier. Smith said she's hopeful they can find common ground on the
00:02:12.980 issue. Moving into our next story here, Meta, the company that runs Facebook, is disputing
00:02:18.700 Alberta Premier Danielle Smith's claims that she was banned from her Facebook account. On Wednesday,
00:02:24.800 Smith took to Twitter to say that the social media site had banned her from using her account.
00:02:30.000 She wrote, quote, big tech and government censorship is becoming a danger to free speech around the
00:02:35.040 world. She also noted that she's premier of a province of over 4 million people. And if they can
00:02:41.120 lock her out of her account, she wondered what they could do to the rest of us. But Meta says no
00:02:46.700 restrictions were ever placed on the Premier's account. In a statement to Postmedia, a Meta
00:02:51.500 spokesperson said, quote, there were no restrictions placed on the Premier's page. One of the page's
00:02:57.700 administrators faced restrictions, but that did not impact the underlying page's ability to post
00:03:03.060 content. Shortly after that response became public, Smith returned to Twitter to say that her
00:03:08.500 Facebook account had been reinstated. She said, quote, happy to report my page is able to post on
00:03:14.280 Facebook again. This was the error that appeared on my page. I hope this is the last time it happens.
00:03:20.820 For those of you who are listening to the audio and not watching, she included a screenshot of the
00:03:25.900 message she had received on Facebook, which said, sorry, you can't post to Facebook from this account.
00:03:31.480 For security reasons, your account has limited access to the site for a few days. The Premier's office
00:03:37.380 did not respond to my request for clarification about whether in fact they had been banned from
00:03:43.260 Facebook or it was simply the mistake of one administrator who had been locked out. For those
00:03:48.820 of us who use Facebook, we know how arbitrary it can be. Sometimes you go into your site and you have
00:03:54.420 been locked out of it for seemingly no apparent reason. I'll never forget a couple of years ago,
00:03:59.220 I had posted something on Facebook Marketplace and all of a sudden Facebook had informed me that I had
00:04:04.420 violated its terms of service and that I was no longer able to use Facebook Marketplace. I had absolutely
00:04:10.640 no idea what I did wrong and I sent them a message requesting to appeal their decision and also just
00:04:17.180 to get a little more information about what had happened. I did not receive a response and I was
00:04:21.600 banned from Marketplace for about a year until I eventually sent them another appeal and they
00:04:26.200 decided to let me back on. To this day, I have no idea what I did and I know that those experiences
00:04:32.260 are very similar for those of us who use Facebook. That being said, it could also be the case that
00:04:36.900 one administrator tried to log onto the premier's page in this case, wasn't able to do so and they
00:04:41.880 quickly were led to the conclusion that the entire page had been blocked by Facebook. I doubt Danielle
00:04:48.480 Smith herself came to that conclusion. Obviously, she has people who are running her social media
00:04:52.560 accounts for her and it could have been the mistake of one of those individuals. But let me know what you
00:04:57.360 guys think in the comments below and I will get to some of those comments next week.
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00:05:18.400 Okay guys, moving into a True North exclusive, I have been covering this story pretty closely
00:05:23.700 ever since the Alberta provincial election. But Tyler Shandro and Whitney Isik have both decided
00:05:29.620 to proceed judicial recounts in their respective ridings of Calgary Acadia and Calgary Glenmore.
00:05:35.880 We know that both those ridings were decided by less than 100 votes. Of course, last week I brought
00:05:41.480 you guys the official recounts, which increased the number of bouts for the NDP in both cases,
00:05:47.480 but still both ridings were decided by less than 50 votes. In Calgary Acadia,
00:05:53.280 it was determined that the NDP MLA elect Diana Batten had won by 25 votes following the recount.
00:06:00.880 Over in Calgary Glenmore, the NDP candidate won by 42 votes. So still pretty close margins on both
00:06:06.920 sides there. And the UCP has decided to proceed with that judicial recount where they will argue
00:06:12.400 the specifics of each ballot before a judge in hopes of turning the tides in their favor.
00:06:19.240 Now, I should also note that I have been told and Elections Alberta has confirmed to me that while
00:06:24.760 they did undergo official recounts in both those ridings, because they were decided by less than 100
00:06:30.000 votes, they still relied on the tabulators to calculate the advanced votes in those ridings.
00:06:37.920 Some conservative strategists I have spoken with have said they would like to see each and every one
00:06:43.060 of those ballots recounted by hand. The Elections Alberta said they use the tabulators to recount
00:06:48.700 the advanced vote and that if a judicial recount is requested at that time, they would proceed with
00:06:54.220 recounting those ballots by hand. So I suspect that is maybe one of the reasons why they decided to
00:06:59.640 proceed with this judicial recount. I should also mention that people working on those campaigns
00:07:04.420 have a pretty good sense of what those ballots look like. I did hear some reports that in some of the
00:07:10.480 ridings, voters had actually written Rachel Notley on the ballot. You can write in the UCP or the NDP,
00:07:17.880 but it gets a little bit trickier when a voter is writing in Rachel Notley's name because she was a
00:07:23.720 candidate in an entirely another riding. So the argument could be made that that voter was attempting
00:07:28.860 to cast a ballot for a different riding altogether. So I suspect these are some of the issues that we're
00:07:33.920 going to see come up in the judicial recount. UCP spokesperson Dave Prisco also told me, quote,
00:07:39.380 in light of the close election results in Calgary Acadia and Calgary Glenmore, the United Conservative
00:07:45.360 Party candidates in those electoral districts have filed for judicial recounts. This action,
00:07:51.300 taken with full respect for the electoral process, reinforces our firm commitment to complete
00:07:56.600 transparency. It enables a thorough examination, especially of the yet to be reviewed advanced
00:08:03.440 polling ballots to ensure intention of each eligible vote is accurately accounted for. So in his statement
00:08:09.780 there, we can see him alluding to what I was referring to about the tabulators doing the recount for
00:08:15.220 the advanced polls. The party would like to see those counted by hand. And I'm told this process is going
00:08:20.700 to take about a month all in all. So I'll have an update for you guys in a few weeks. Moving into the
00:08:25.720 controversy of the week here, the Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the case of a dying unvaccinated
00:08:32.920 woman who has been denied an organ transplant. We have talked about Sheila Annette Lewis on a number of
00:08:38.880 occasions on this show, and I have just learned that she will not be able to bring her case to the Supreme
00:08:44.840 Court. Of course, she was denied that life-saving organ transplant because she refused to be vaccinated
00:08:51.300 against COVID-19. And it looks like she's nearing the end of her legal road. In an interview with
00:08:57.260 Rebel News, Lewis said the Supreme Court of Canada owes her an answer as to why they won't hear her
00:09:03.000 case. She said, quote, this is the highest court in Canada that doesn't want to do right by the people
00:09:09.480 of Canada. Lewis was unsuccessful at both the Alberta Court of Queen's Bench and the Alberta Court of Appeal
00:09:15.780 in 2022. With both levels finding that the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not apply to
00:09:22.440 COVID-19 vaccine policies of Alberta Health Services, the Alberta hospital where Lewis would have received
00:09:29.580 her transplant or her transplant doctors. Both courts also dismissed Lewis's case under the Alberta
00:09:36.540 Bill of Rights. In November, the appeal court ruled that without a transplant, it is a, quote,
00:09:42.100 virtual certainty and, quote, that Lewis will die. Lewis has now filed a negligence claim to Alberta
00:09:49.020 Health Services. Under new lawyers, she was previously using the Justice Center for Constitutional
00:09:53.620 Freedoms. She has now moved over to a different lawyer and she is awaiting a court date on that case.
00:10:00.160 Here's what she had to say about it in an interview with Rebel News.
00:10:02.940 Well, it's my life. What do they want me to do? To sit back here in this place in my home and just die?
00:10:12.100 Is that what they want me to do? Of course they do. They want me to go away. They want me to stop.
00:10:17.780 They want me to shut up. That was the purpose of the gay court. Why? You tell me.
00:10:25.420 Nobody is saying, and no high official is even saying anything about it. The media will not contact me.
00:10:32.760 The media will not cover my story. Like MSN, like CTV, CBC, Edmonton, CTV. Nobody. Nobody will touch this story.
00:10:43.560 Why? Are they that scared? Because of what's going on?
00:10:48.120 Why are people denied life-saving surgeries? Not just me, but all over Canada is people being denied life-saving surgeries.
00:10:59.620 Some say the bubbles in an Aero Truffle piece can take 34 seconds to melt in your mouth.
00:11:04.380 Sometimes the very amount you're stuck at the same red light.
00:11:07.860 Rich, creamy, chocolatey Aero Truffle. Feel the Aero Bubbles melt. It's mind bubbling.
00:11:13.880 Okay, guys, moving into what we're watching in the weeks to come.
00:11:17.940 Does Alberta NDP leader Rachel Notley have plans to resign?
00:11:22.060 In a press conference earlier this week, Rachel Notley said she will take some time to consider her role as party leader.
00:11:28.220 On May 29, the Alberta NDP secured 38 seats to Danielle Smith's UCP's 49 seats.
00:11:35.600 That marks the second time Rachel Notley failed to form government since losing government to Jason Kenney's UCP in 2019 after just one term in office.
00:11:48.260 Notley said she will consider a range of factors that will take too long to outline.
00:11:53.620 She also said she doesn't know when she will have an answer.
00:11:57.400 I do think it's interesting how little information Rachel Notley had on this process.
00:12:01.380 I would be curious as to what some of the things that she's going to be looking at, for example, as to whether she should stay on.
00:12:07.660 But that leads me to my question of the week.
00:12:10.940 Will Rachel Notley resign?
00:12:12.840 Comment on the video below and let me know what you think.
00:12:15.540 Is she holding on for another four years or is she going to step aside and let someone else have their shot?
00:12:22.920 Okay, guys, and now it's time for my weekly comment roundup.
00:12:26.820 Stay tuned to see if I included your comments in this week's show.
00:12:30.120 So user CrimsonDragon said,
00:12:32.300 I like Danielle, but I hope she will also reign in the out-of-control activism in the 2SLGBTQIA plus community.
00:12:41.760 I have nothing against a person's gender, but the violence and child grooming is a line you just do not cross and they crossed it.
00:12:49.140 They need to be held responsible.
00:12:51.200 Also, just establish a trans sport league so they can stop competing against biological women.
00:12:56.020 That is not fair, nor is it a good competitive environment.
00:13:00.120 I couldn't agree with you more.
00:13:01.960 I cannot stand when I see a biological woman lose out on a medal that they have worked so hard for to a biological man.
00:13:10.260 We know that bodies are just different and that it is not a fair competitive environment whatsoever.
00:13:15.440 However, I also hope to see some action taken on this and I think that we are seeing a lot of frustration rise across North America with the gender ideology that is being so pushed in schools right now.
00:13:29.060 User Harold Lipschitz says,
00:13:31.160 Thank you, Rachel, for your unbiased views.
00:13:33.720 There are two sides of the story to the row housing rejection.
00:13:37.700 Homeowners bought in the areas that they live in for specific reasons.
00:13:41.140 One of them being the R1 zoning.
00:13:44.100 Build a row housing in the new areas of construction so that they know exactly what they're getting when they buy.
00:13:49.760 Not changing the rules later and devaluing the property values of those who paid the price in the first place.
00:13:55.000 The part-time resident MPs who have weighed in on this have absolutely no clue or staking what would happen if this had gone through.
00:14:03.260 And no, it's not NIMBYism.
00:14:05.420 On the other note, yes, these mysterious wildfires need to be investigated by reliable sources.
00:14:09.920 Those are my thoughts.
00:14:10.800 So that was in response to my question last week about affordable housing.
00:14:15.400 Calgary City Council voted down a proposal to basically get more affordable housing built in the city
00:14:21.000 because many councillors were uncomfortable with the fact that it would change zoning within their regions
00:14:27.140 and they said their communities would never agree to it.
00:14:30.340 Then we had another comment on the other side with user Bill Cox saying,
00:14:33.900 townhouses and such are better looking than tents for homeless.
00:14:37.580 And finally, one other perspective from Tom Corr.
00:14:40.340 I'm not going to read his whole comment here, but he said basically,
00:14:43.320 if immigration was stopped, there would be plenty of affordable housing.
00:14:46.820 But instead, they want to tell those starting out that tearing down all the older rentals and starter houses
00:14:52.300 and replacing them with tiny and expensive new units
00:14:54.860 while simultaneously bringing in half a million people a year
00:14:57.880 that will compete for their living spaces and jobs will somehow make things better.
00:15:02.020 Pierre has some good policies, but this is definitely not one of them.
00:15:04.920 Young people aren't stupid, but if they're never told the truth,
00:15:08.120 they'll have a hard time figuring it out by themselves, just like anyone else.
00:15:11.580 There you guys have it.
00:15:12.420 There's so many different perspectives on the housing issue, just as I knew there would be.
00:15:16.800 I thought that the comment at the end about sustainable immigration levels
00:15:19.940 is a conversation we need to have more often.
00:15:23.920 It's also worth considering in light of our healthcare crisis,
00:15:27.260 can we provide family doctors for all of the people coming in?
00:15:30.780 Hint, we cannot.
00:15:31.760 Okay, guys, that's all I have time for today.
00:15:34.480 Thank you so much for tuning in.
00:15:36.200 As always, if you're able, please consider supporting our work over at donate.tnc.news.
00:15:41.940 Have a great weekend and God bless.