The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Will there be a federal election this fall？

00:00:00.000 hey everyone welcome back to the Alberta roundup I'm your host Rachel Emanuel today we are joined

00:00:15.580 by the one and only Andrew Lawton whenever I run into you guys in public you always tell me

00:00:20.180 how much you love Andrew and how he's your favorite true north personality so I thought

00:00:24.860 I would stop boring you all with myself and finally give the people what they want welcome

00:00:29.060 to the show Andrew I don't believe anyone's ever said that to you but it's a kind introduction

00:00:32.680 anyway so I'll take it so I have a surprise for you guys that I hadn't announced yet I was actually

00:00:37.880 supposed to have Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on my show this week we were going to record that on

00:00:42.320 Friday that has been moved it's still happening it will just be next week instead because Andrew who

00:00:47.600 is coming to us live from the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference which is still informally

00:00:53.120 known as the Manning Conference stole my interview with Alberta Premier Daniel Smith he will be

00:00:57.860 interviewing Premier Smith at the Manning Conference on Friday in my defense I didn't know

00:01:03.300 I was stealing Premier Danielle Smith from you I was just I they just told me where to go they told me

00:01:07.760 to go on a stage to moderate a fireside chat so with no intended efforts on my part to disrupt you

00:01:15.680 you'll be the one has the final word so that means that I'll just get it warmed up and then you'll be in

00:01:20.280 there with the real questions now this isn't the first time that this has happened but in Andrew's

00:01:24.900 defense I think I went on mat leave the last time so I guess it's not entirely his fault Andrew I'm

00:01:30.040 sure you don't want to give away your entire fireside chat with Danielle on Friday but what's

00:01:35.120 a little bit of a look ahead what are some of the things that you're hoping to ask the Premier about

00:01:38.120 I think certainly we'll be talking about parental rights I did an interview with her about this when

00:01:44.120 she was in Ontario actually a couple of months ago and I think there's a lot more on that and she's

00:01:48.320 speaking to a room full of people who are part of the conservative movement in the country so

00:01:51.860 my hope is that she'll be able to be a particularly candid compared to you know if she's on a CBC

00:01:57.260 interview or something like that not that she makes a habit of that so I also want to talk about

00:02:01.740 some of the affordability issues I mean obviously we know her position on the carbon tax and on

00:02:06.220 federalism but she's actually faced some criticism from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation for allowing the

00:02:12.860 Alberta gas tax to go up and I've never really heard her explain in too much detail how she rationalizes

00:02:20.140 that inherent contradiction so that'll be one thing I'd like to talk about as well and I also

00:02:25.880 think in general when you're speaking to a Premier in this particular point in time really that Ottawa

00:02:31.800 province relationship what is it what does it need to look like and what might a perhaps conservative

00:02:37.940 government do differently that she would rather see and help that relationship because we see these 1.00

00:02:42.780 criticisms from provinces not just Alberta Saskatchewan New Brunswick even Ontario to some extent like the

00:02:48.420 federalist project right now is broken. Now Andrew you obviously cover the federal government you cover

00:02:54.440 the federal conservative party when we're talking about parental rights especially of course Alberta

00:02:58.520 Premier Danielle Smith has come out and said what she intends to do here in Alberta we've had some

00:03:02.500 other provinces come out do you think that there is one province that's really setting the tone and

00:03:06.900 do you think the fact that provinces have come out in strong support of parents do you think that has

00:03:11.780 impacted federal conservative leader Pierre Polyev and his willingness to also come out and stand up for

00:03:17.860 parents whereas before he kind of just said it was up to the provinces to decide what to do.

00:03:23.140 I think it certainly made an effect I think New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs who I'm going to be

00:03:28.940 doing an interview with as well I think he really was the one that led the way on this in terms of

00:03:34.540 established political voices people in elected office moving on this issue but Danielle Smith when she took 0.80

00:03:40.880 it on she actually went beyond what happened in New Brunswick and beyond what happened in Saskatchewan

00:03:46.200 so I think it added to a current that already existed in Canadian politics which certainly made

00:03:51.580 it easier for Pierre Polyev who remember used to just say yeah this is a provincial matter and then

00:03:56.200 a few weeks back he's coming out and saying no biological men don't belong in female spaces so

00:04:01.580 he clearly has evolved to become more comfortable taking this on and I think it is really a reflection

00:04:07.020 of premiers such as Danielle Smith providing a political base and proving there is a political

00:04:13.400 base on these issues. Based on your observations of covering the federal government of covering the

00:04:18.160 federal conservative party do you think there is one province that's really setting the tone for

00:04:22.340 conservative policy in the country right now and potentially could impact a future federal

00:04:27.200 conservative government? It's a tough question I mean in some ways I'd say New Brunswick does stand out

00:04:32.740 because New Brunswick is not an especially conservative place so when they're doing what I would call red

00:04:38.020 meat conservative policies the stakes are a lot higher than they are in Alberta which for the most

00:04:43.220 part is a very conservative province notwithstanding the orange aberration of a few years back but

00:04:49.360 I think the important thing is that if you can't do it in Alberta you can't do it anywhere and to go back to

00:04:55.680 the COVID era when the Alberta government under Jason Kenney went down the road of vaccine mandates and

00:05:01.000 vaccine passports that really killed the idea that anywhere in the country could really reject

00:05:06.900 those so I think Alberta needs to be that line in the sand where we can get away with doing the 1.00

00:05:14.960 really big bold conservative things. So I know the conference hasn't really begun people are trickling

00:05:20.500 in right now and registering but I'm sure there's some excitement on the ground right now something

00:05:24.260 that I'm wondering is whether people are talking about a federal election I was watching an interview with

00:05:30.140 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau recently on CBC News actually and they were questioning him about a

00:05:34.820 federal election we know that the Prime Minister has been jetting all across the country you know

00:05:38.980 when he comes to Alberta he must have a good reason for it and he's been making some big budget

00:05:44.120 announcements so do you see that as a sign that we could see a federal election this fall?

00:05:49.000 Yeah it's a good question I think that the fact that conservatives really really want an election

00:05:53.080 means the Liberals don't have an incentive to call one people on the right would love to go to the polls now

00:05:58.940 I had on my show Jamil Javani the newly elected conservative member of parliament who even though

00:06:03.900 he just won a by-election is saying that he wants to go back to the polls for a general election like now

00:06:08.620 because it's looking so great so when the conservatives are posting like 10 15 20 point leads depending on

00:06:15.460 the poll over the Liberals I don't think the Liberals are in any hurry to go to an election I think maybe

00:06:21.840 theoretically if something big happens this summer and the Liberals start to do really well

00:06:26.540 they might be motivated to pull the trigger but I'm kind of thinking at this point it's going to be

00:06:31.240 fall 2025 which is the scheduled election date. Another thing I have to ask you about is the

00:06:36.720 carbon tax I know that there is going to be a panel on the carbon tax this weekend of course we've had

00:06:42.240 the acts of tax protest going on here in Calgary for over a week now I know there's a couple other

00:06:47.400 locations where a remnant of protesters had stayed for now over a week to protest the carbon tax now of

00:06:53.360 course there's not too many people these protests at least not during the week we typically see them

00:06:56.620 swell on the weekends when more people are off work and can show up but do you think that these

00:07:00.660 protests are actually making an impact or is it really just too few people for people to be talking

00:07:04.680 about it in the news headlines and also just in discussions at the at the conference? Well people

00:07:10.260 are certainly talking about it I mean I'm right now across the hallway from the Canada the Canadian

00:07:15.240 Taxpayers Federation booth and they've certainly been sounding the alarm about this I know you've been

00:07:20.100 doing tremendous coverage of people in the west that weren't just content to have a one-day protest

00:07:24.580 that have kept this on now for approaching two weeks so I think people are talking about it I think

00:07:29.800 the carbon tax is one piece of a broader affordability question where you know even if the carbon tax

00:07:35.360 were to disappear overnight it doesn't make inflation go away it doesn't make government debt go away

00:07:39.820 it doesn't make all of these things go away the issue is not that it's a panacea to get rid of the

00:07:44.200 carbon tax the issue is that it's government deliberately aggravating a lot of people in this

00:07:49.480 country who are already struggling and I think in that sense it's become a very meaningful political

00:07:54.040 issue for people. So I know federal conservative leader Pierre Polyev is slated to speak at the

00:07:58.720 conference he also spoke last year there's been other times where we haven't seen a federal

00:08:02.680 conservative leader attend the conference but this year there's a pretty good lineup do you think

00:08:06.440 that with Pierre speaking and some of the other big conservative names they have like

00:08:10.200 Danielle Smith do you think that the Manning conference is really setting itself apart as

00:08:14.120 the place to be to discuss conservative policy in the country? So I actually believe that Prime

00:08:20.480 Minister Stephen Harper when he was the Prime Minister never spoke at one of these and that was

00:08:25.320 when you'd assume he would want to but it just didn't happen it didn't have the relevance of say

00:08:30.420 CPAC in the U.S. on these sorts of things so I think there's been a change I think the movement in the

00:08:36.540 right in Canada has evolved a lot in the last few years in particular I see we we see the

00:08:41.440 proliferation of independent media we see the COVID era and how that has really caused there to be this

00:08:46.580 expansion this swelling of the conservative base and then you have a guy like Pierre Polyev who has

00:08:50.860 really come up age in the development of the conservative movement he was on Preston Manning's

00:08:55.860 riding board when he was 14 the Canada Strong and Free Network used to be the Manning Centre

00:09:00.200 I think he has a guy who was there when the right was uniting the reform and then the alliance

00:09:05.300 uniting with the PCs to birth the Conservative Party of Canada so I think the fact that he's here

00:09:10.160 is that he's reflecting that he is a movement conservative he's not one of these guys that's

00:09:14.520 from the red Tory tradition or a social conservative background he's really coming from that grassroots

00:09:20.820 western-led conservative movement and I think he has a soft spot for the organization and the people

00:09:27.100 here. And Andrew I have to ask which panel are you most looking forward to? Well I've got to be my

00:09:31.700 own if I just do that but no no I wouldn't say my own I'm actually interested in Tony Abbott who's

00:09:37.860 the former Prime Minister of Australia and he's actually going to be a guest on my show as well

00:09:41.540 but he was a very fascinating figure in Australia again he was a very hard-line conservative in a

00:09:48.040 country that isn't inherently conservative and I think there might be some perhaps lessons he can

00:09:52.040 bring to Canadians on the right from his experiences in Australia. And finally just before I let you go

00:09:58.000 I'm wondering where our viewers who are interested in following your content can find that this

00:10:03.040 weekend? We are live every day on the Andrew Lawton show at True North at 11 a.m mountain time and we'll

00:10:09.540 have some other interviews coming out over the course of the weekend and also next week. Okay Andrew

00:10:14.600 thank you so much for joining the show. For the rest of you I'll be back on Saturday with my regular

00:10:19.120 episode and of course with some coverage of the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference

00:10:23.660 including what Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Andrew Lawton talked about on Friday. I will see

00:10:29.280 you guys on Saturday. I hope that you have a great rest of your week and God bless.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - April 10, 2024

Will there be a federal election this fall？

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