Smith tells Kenney to stay out of leadership race
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Summary
This week on the Alberta Roundup: UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith asks Premier Jason Kenney not to interfere in the ongoing leadership contest to replace him, a new blueprint for provincial policing would add hundreds of officers to rural municipalities, Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange has won the UCP nomination in Red Deer North after a challenge, a UCP MLA is blaming the COVID19 restrictions on Calgary MLAs who advocated for them, and UCP Leadership Candidate Travis Teews says assisted dying should not be offered to those suffering from a mental illness. And of course, we ll have our update on the leadership race and the Alberta Liberal Party, who attracted no applicants to run in its deadline for party leader last week. All that and more happening now on The Alberta Roundup.
Transcript
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Hello everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host Rachel Emanuel. Today
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we're going to be talking about UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith, who has asked Premier
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Jason Kenney not to wade into the ongoing leadership contest to replace him. A new blueprint
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for provincial policing would add hundreds of officers to rural municipalities. Alberta
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Education Minister Adriana LaGrange has won the UCP nomination in Red Deer North after
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a challenge this week. A UCP MLA is blaming the COVID-19 restrictions on Calgary MLAs who
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advocated for them. UCP leadership candidate Travis Teews says assisted dying should not
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be offered to those suffering from a mental illness. And of course we'll have our update
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on the UCP leadership race and the Alberta Liberal Party, who attracted no applicants to
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run in its deadline for party leader last week. All that and more happening now on the Alberta
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Roundup. Let's get into today's topics. UCP leadership candidate Danielle Smith has asked
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Premier Jason Kenney not to interfere into the ongoing leadership contest to replace him.
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On his radio show last weekend, Premier Kenney called Smith's Alberta Sovereignty Act nuts
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and said it would make Alberta a laughing stock. You guys know what this is, we've talked about
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it many times before. The Alberta Sovereignty Act would essentially bar federal legislation
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deemed harmful to Alberta. Smith has pitched it as a means to get major projects built in Alberta
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again without federal interference. It is a pinnacle piece of her platform promises.
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In response to Kenney's statement, Smith said his comments are premature,
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ill-informed, and disrespectful to a large and growing number of UCP members that support this
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important initiative. Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro has unveiled the government's blueprint
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for provincial policing, which promises to add hundreds of officers for rural municipalities.
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The blueprint said a provincial police service would add 275 police officers to the smallest 42
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detachments. The model also proposes a minimum of 10 frontline police officers per detachment.
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Currently, there is no minimum for a number of officers and some have as few as three.
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Minister Shandro told me this week that provincial policing is a conversation happening all over the
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And we think that Alberta is on the precipice of being a leading voice in modernizing policing in
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the country. Alberta Education Minister Adriana LaGrange has won the UCP nomination in Red Deer
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North. As I previously reported, she was being challenged by popular freedom fighter Andrew Clues,
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the co-founder of Hold the Line. Hold the Line was a group that helped Albertans during COVID-19
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restrictions, including to help them resist vaccine coercion. That vote happened in Red Deer on
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Thursday. I was there for it. The polls closed at 8pm and the results were announced about one hour
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later. LaGrange won the contest with 298 votes. That's 78 more than Andrew Clues received, but
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pretty high turnout for a nomination contest. After the victory, LaGrange told me she was very grateful
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and thankful for the support and that her victory was democracy in action. Let's talk about the
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controversy of the week. UCP MLA Grant Hunter has said that COVID-19 restrictions came about because
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Calgary MLAs on the committee overseeing pandemic policy outweighed the number of rural MLAs who did
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not want restrictions. He made the comments on an unrelated Facebook post in which constituents
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began responding and asking him why he did not speak out against the restrictions and he was forced
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to address their comments. He said Calgary and Edmonton wanted the restrictions and so MLAs living in
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those jurisdictions advocated for them. Those MLAs outweigh the number of rural MLAs on the committee
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which made decisions about pandemic rules. He also said that the whole caucus was never given
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the opportunity to vote on restrictions. He wrote, quote, if we were able to vote, I'm confident
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because the majority of MLAs come from rural Alberta, we would have had a regional approach.
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Hunter was Alberta's Associate Minister of Red Tape Reduction from April 2019 until July 2021.
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He also said he was removed from cabinet for fighting against COVID restrictions.
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What we're watching this week, UCP leadership candidate Travis Tape said assisted dying should
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not be offered to those suffering from a mental illness. Of course, medical assistance in dying,
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commonly referred to as MAID, was legalized in 2016. But the Trudeau Liberals recently expanded
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the eligibility for it. They expanded it to include the disabled, despite every Canadian national
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disability organization saying they did not want that expansion because it makes the disabled feel as
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though they are a burden to society and valueless. Yet the Trudeau Liberals took it one step further
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and they expanded the eligibility to those suffering from a mental illness beginning March 2023.
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So beginning in March 2023, you would be eligible for assisted dying if you have depression, anxiety.
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I don't even want to say this out loud because it's so disgusting that this would be considered a
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treatment option for those people. We should be telling them that there is hope available and that
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there is a way to recover from these illnesses and to go on to live a happy and normal life.
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Legalizing and expanding doctor-assisted suicide creates a slippery slope, as evidenced by the
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shifting conversation to protect those with mental illness, Travis Tape told me this week.
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Of course, we're having this conversation now because Global News reported earlier this week
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that a Canadian Forces veteran seeking treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and a traumatic brain
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injury was unexpected and casually offered assisted dying by a Veterans Affairs Canada employee.
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This is just the latest example of the federal government's assisted dying regime gone wrong,
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and there is certainly no shortage of examples here. The Associated Press recently reported on a
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recorded audio from a London, Ontario hospital that appeared to show the director of ethics raising the
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subject of euthanasia with a disabled patient and saying that patient was costing the system,
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quote, north of $1,500 a day. Travis Tape said, this is immoral and it should be illegal to even
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mention the cost of services in a conversation about assisted dying. I'm curious to hear what
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the rest of the UCP leadership candidates have to say about this. Of course, assisted dying falls
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under the criminal code and as such is federal jurisdiction, but health care is administered by the
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province. So what solutions, if any, do the other UCP leadership candidates have to offer to the
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federal government's massively radical assisted dying regime. Let's move on to our UCP leadership
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race update. Danielle Smith, who is emerging as a frontrunner with recent polls, placing her far
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ahead of the remaining six candidates, won't seek to represent the riding of Calgary Elbow should there
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be a by-election this fall. Smith is currently the only candidate in the riding who does not already
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have a seat in the legislature. And it looked like one might be opening up for her this fall with
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MLA Doug Schweitzer, who currently represents Calgary Elbow, saying he's going to step down
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later this month or on another date established close to the time. He's already resigned his
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cabinet position as a minister of jobs, economy, and innovation. But Smith isn't going to run in
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this riding which is not a conservative safe seat. She wants to run in Living Cinema Cloud, which is
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her home since 2011, and also a conservative safe seat. She says she's traditional. She thinks people
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should run in the riding where they live. However, this seat is currently held by UCP MLA Roger Reed.
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And even if Smith does win the nomination, Reed would stay in the seat until the next provincial
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election, which is scheduled for spring 2023. This means that Smith wouldn't have a seat in the
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legislature for the first six months of her leadership if she wins the premiership on October 6.
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Let's move on to our funniest moment in Alberta politics this week. Looks like no one is interested to
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be the leader of the Alberta Liberal Party. Not a single person submitted a nomination to run in
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the Alberta Party Leadership Contest. That deadline was last Friday at 5 p.m. The party has since removed
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the leadership section from their website, and they did not respond to my request for comment. But I
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spoke to former Alberta Liberal Party leader Raj Sherman, who said nobody's interested in running to be
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leader of the party because it struggled to elect any MLAs in the previous two provincial elections.
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He's right, of course. In the 2015 election, the Liberals elected just one MLA. And in the most recent
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2019 election, they did not elect a single MLA to the legislature. So if you're looking to get your
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start in provincial politics, you could be easily acclaimed as a leader of the Liberal Parties,
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something you're very interested in, I'm certain. Okay, guys, that's all for today. That's everything
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I have for you. If you like what we do here at True North, please go to donate.tnc.news and support
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our work. You can reach me on Facebook and Twitter as always. I look forward to hearing from you,