The Candice Malcolm Show - An insider’s view on the political situation in Alberta

00:00:00.000 The knives have come out for Premier Jason Kenney in Alberta. United Conservative Party members will

00:00:04.920 vote on the fate of Kenney's leadership in his time as Premier on April 9th. We'll get the inside

00:00:09.920 scoop on what is really going on in Alberta. I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm

00:00:13.920 Show. Hi, everyone. Thank you so much for tuning into the program. So a lot of people ask me, I get

00:00:28.840 a lot of emails and just friends asking me like, hey, Candace, what is going on in Alberta? What's

00:00:32.980 going on with Premier Jason Kenney? Is he going to survive all this? And I thought it would be good

00:00:37.600 to dedicate an episode of the show to sort of doing a deeper dive and trying to figure out what

00:00:42.940 happened in Alberta, how we got to where we are, and what is at stake, what is going to happen to

00:00:48.760 the Premier over there. So to do that, I am bringing in my friend Brad Tennant. Brad is the Vice President

00:00:54.580 and Alberta lead of Wellington Advocacy, a national public affairs firm, and he is based out of

00:00:59.220 Calgary. Previously, Brad served as the Executive Director of the United Conservative Party and was

00:01:04.020 a senior member of Jason Kenney's leadership campaigns. So Brad, welcome to the podcast.

00:01:09.440 Yeah, thank you very much for having me, Candace.

00:01:11.800 Okay, so, you know, there's really like a lot of drama going on in Alberta. If you read the headlines

00:01:17.620 in legacy media, they sort of make it seem like Kenney's days are numbered. But we know that

00:01:22.660 Kenney is a very resilient politician, and he has beat the odds many, many times in his political

00:01:28.260 career. So why don't we just start, Brad, by talking a little bit about what is going on in

00:01:33.800 Alberta politics in a nutshell? What's happened in the last year? What is driving this whole

00:01:38.460 leadership review process?

00:01:40.660 Yeah, well, I think it comes a lot out of what you were just saying, but there's no shortage of

00:01:45.160 drama in Alberta. And I think it's honestly been that way for more than a year. It's almost been that

00:01:49.200 way since Ralph Klein kind of left politics. Alberta has seen a path of, you know, one-term

00:01:56.960 premiers ever since. It's seen kind of disruption in the conservative movement. And I think, you know,

00:02:02.720 after almost two decades of that chaos, we're kind of getting to, you know, a conservative movement,

00:02:09.100 I would say less so a conservative voter base and a conservative member base, but a conservative

00:02:13.300 movement that is almost so focused on infighting that the first instinct when things get tough go

00:02:18.860 towards infighting. And I think in the last year, there's been, you know, COVID policy, I think,

00:02:24.040 has been unpopular in Alberta, more so in Alberta than probably other parts of the country. That being

00:02:29.700 said, Alberta's faced less lockdowns, less measures, but that's almost aggravated those on the political

00:02:37.120 left and those in the mainstream media even more. And at the same time, left some on the kind of

00:02:42.680 conservative side, a little bit disenchanted, you know, not liking the last series of lockdown,

00:02:48.600 not liking some of the measures that came with it. So that's led to a political environment that,

00:02:53.840 like we said, is quite dramatic here in Alberta. But again, like you said, I don't think it's anything

00:02:58.960 that Premier Kenney's not used to. Premier Kenney's been an effective conservative politician ever since

00:03:05.060 he entered the arena almost three decades ago. He has always been counted out by kind of the mainstream

00:03:11.580 media, elitist pundits, people that have not expected him to do something. And I think those

00:03:16.560 people are already calling the cards that, you know, Kenney isn't going to be successful in the

00:03:20.700 months ahead. But when you talk to people on the ground here and you talk to ordinary United

00:03:25.200 Conservative members and, you know, a little bit more of the activists at the ground level,

00:03:32.540 I think that a lot of people understand Premier Kenney was dealt a very tough hand in the last couple

00:03:37.080 of years. And coming out of it, there's really no better place to be than Alberta. We have a balanced

00:03:41.740 budget for the first time, really, you know, and you can go back and debate this, but a balanced

00:03:47.260 budget leading into a balanced budget probably for the first time since those Ralph Klein days.

00:03:52.140 And, you know, the economy is booming, oil and gas is back up. It's not just oil and gas,

00:03:57.540 a bunch of other industries and commodity industries are firing on all cylinders. So,

00:04:01.240 you know, there's no better place to be than Alberta for a lot of Albertans. I think there's

00:04:06.580 renewed hope and optimism, which is a lot of what Jason Kenney got elected on. But obviously,

00:04:13.620 COVID threw a wrench in that. But coming out of that, I think, you know, there is a sense of

00:04:17.360 optimism that I don't think really shines through the mainstream media a lot of the times here in the

00:04:21.780 province, you know? Well, it's certainly one of those things where no one was happy in Alberta with

00:04:27.260 the COVID stuff. As you alluded to, you know, the left wanted the premier to go so much further and

00:04:31.720 lock down harder and follow some of the more draconian measures that were taken. I'm not saying

00:04:37.220 that there weren't draconian measures in Alberta, there certainly were. And a lot of them, you know,

00:04:41.140 I would be right there in line with people criticizing the premier saying, why did you do this? Why did you

00:04:46.140 do that? Unnecessary. However, I think that, you know, people on the right were also had a very,

00:04:53.900 very low tolerance for a lot of the COVID measures. And because of that, the premier wasn't pleasing

00:04:59.380 anybody, because, you know, the more conservative people in the province didn't want to have vaccine

00:05:05.800 mandates, they didn't want the extra lockdown. So it was it was it was hard for him to to please either

00:05:11.800 side. Let's talk a little bit about this leadership review. Where did this come from? Why is it happening? And

00:05:19.060 can you can you kind of walk us through what that's going to look like? Yeah, so there is a typically a

00:05:24.140 leadership review. You know, federally, this doesn't happen after you win a majority government.

00:05:28.700 In both legacy provincial parties, there is a leadership review, even if you win a majority

00:05:33.540 government, the legacy parties begin the PC party in the wild rose. And they tend to have a lot of buildup,

00:05:40.760 they tend to have a lot of, you know, a lot of mystique and a lot of media build up around them. Because there

00:05:49.580 is an opportunity for members to essentially vote down their leader. And at that point, you know, the leader

00:05:54.900 has been the premier of the province and in all but the wild rose cases. Personally, I think the first convention

00:06:01.640 I went to was the Ralph Klein one where they were actually voted down. And since then, I've, you know, being a

00:06:08.280 political activist here, I would have attended or observed the Alison Redford, the Ed Stelmack,

00:06:14.120 the Daniel Smith, the Brian Jean, all the kind of leadership reviews that followed. So having been

00:06:22.460 through these, like they're, they're somewhat regular here, they have a lot of drama here. But I can tell

00:06:26.880 why people in other provinces and other jurisdictions, you know, might be find the most sometimes peculiar,

00:06:32.340 because they are a unique opportunity. I think Saskatchewan has a semi regular at their AGMs

00:06:38.400 process of doing this. But, you know, it is, it is something that's somewhat at least unique to

00:06:43.040 Alberta politics. That being said, you know, in the lead up, obviously, this is kind of where Ralph

00:06:49.820 Klein lost. It's also where Ed Stelmack and Alison Redford, both kind of got second wins in their

00:06:55.760 premierships, like both were unpopular for their own reasons, facing challenges in the lead up.

00:07:01.920 I think both kind of surprised with getting their 77%. And they both, you know, were able to get

00:07:09.380 some extra wind in their sales. So they've been, they've been a unique thing, I think, divine,

00:07:13.320 defining conservative premierships. And on the Wild Rose side, I think Danielle got 90% in one of hers 1.00

00:07:18.900 and still obviously didn't carry on to the next election. And Brian Jean, if I recall, got 78% or 77%

00:07:25.760 rounded up and didn't carry on to the next election. So, you know, they, these things have been

00:07:31.360 quite dramatic. And, you know, I think leaders have passed them more often than not. But they

00:07:37.500 kind of fueled this cycle in Alberta that, you know, keeps, I think, political leaders focused a

00:07:43.420 lot on the kind of internal workings of the party. Well, it's a great reminder of why you're there and

00:07:48.920 who you represent. I think that a lot of the critique that comes to conservative leaders in Canada

00:07:54.420 is, I mean, the saying in Canadian federal politics is that politicians get autowashed, right? They move

00:08:00.340 to Ottawa, and they start representing the people around them, the bureaucracy, the media, the sort

00:08:05.420 of left wing society in Ottawa, and they forget about the people maybe that sent them there. So it's a

00:08:11.900 great way to connect with the authentic grassroots base of the party, and to make sure that you're

00:08:17.820 governing for them. So it serves a useful purpose. But let's talk about a little bit of the drama that

00:08:25.720 happened with regards to the convention, because there was supposed to be an in-person review on

00:08:32.320 April 9th in Red Deer. And there was a membership cutoff that happened on March 19th. So after that,

00:08:38.420 they were no longer able to purchase memberships. And then it was determined on March 23rd, so four days

00:08:43.960 after the membership cutoff, that the review was going to be switched from in-person to a mail-in

00:08:51.220 ballot system, which obviously got a lot of people worried, concerned, a lot of accusations that

00:08:56.880 something foul was happening. Can you sort of walk us through that decision-making process? Why did it

00:09:03.420 switch from an in-person vote to a mail-in vote? Yeah, so I think the first switch, you got to go back

00:09:08.580 to, I think, late last fall. Some individuals, particularly, it was more of some unhappy folks

00:09:15.760 in the backbench, were speaking up and wanting a leadership review quicker. This leadership review

00:09:20.420 was originally supposed to be at the AGM happening this fall in Edmonton. I'm not sure if they've got

00:09:26.700 that date scheduled, but it usually happens around October and November. So the leadership was going to

00:09:31.440 be decided by delegates, as was traditional through those previous leadership races I discussed.

00:09:36.780 But, you know, there was some desire to have this out there. You know, Premier Kenney said himself,

00:09:42.520 he welcomes it, and he's always kind of happy to have that grassroots feedback on his premiership.

00:09:47.960 So he actually moved it up to an SGM, to a special vote. Traditionally, these leadership reviews were

00:09:53.720 done at an AGM. And then, you know, I think that they ran into an issue quite quickly. There was first

00:10:00.600 a number of unhappy people that they weren't able to make it there for that single, you know,

00:10:07.560 six hour slot to join in Red Deer. And, you know, people kind of forget Alberta is a province that's

00:10:13.600 larger than most countries, you know. And, you know, some people were looking at, you know, even living

00:10:18.900 in some urban areas like Grand Prairie, where you were having to travel, you know, six, seven hours,

00:10:25.060 you know, you can name the other spot on the map, there was quite a bit of travel that occurred for

00:10:29.280 a lot of people. So I think some were unhappy with it being in one location, it was obviously costing

00:10:33.760 individuals $100 to go for paying for the registration and the fees that usually go with

00:10:39.600 an SGM. So I do feel for the party board is they were kind of hurt on that angle, and that there were

00:10:44.920 people already unhappy. And then obviously, you know, and I've managed these AGMs before. So I've got a lot

00:10:52.640 of sympathy for them. But even in Red Deer, at the exact location we were having it, we've had AGMs

00:10:57.960 before there, and we had 2000 people. And in all honesty, you can't get parking within four or five

00:11:03.520 city blocks. It's, it's a big mess. And that's with 2000 people. And I think they saw more interest

00:11:11.300 in this leadership than they expected. Obviously, I believe at the end of it, there was something like

00:11:15.480 14,000 signups. Yeah, there was a global report that said 13,700 people had registered to vote,

00:11:22.060 which I just to me, thinking about the logistics of that to your point about finding parking, it's

00:11:26.100 like, managing a crowd of that size, is not something that a group of volunteers or your

00:11:33.720 political party is really used to, you know, unless you're talking about maybe a Donald Trump rally or

00:11:38.740 something like that. But it's not something that we're used to here in Canada.

00:11:41.620 Yeah, no, and it would have been, like, logistically, like, you know, the amount of volunteer staff you

00:11:47.260 would have had. Again, it's just like, it was fundamentally unserious. And I think it would have

00:11:51.120 swelled quite a bit, because members still could buy delegate passes after that date. So I think

00:11:56.240 it would have swelled to north of 20,000. And I think that would still be a fairly conservative

00:12:01.220 estimate. So, you know, all that being said, you're not going to fit that group into a hotel

00:12:05.400 ballroom. You know, I respect the party volunteer board, because they do have to make some tough

00:12:11.860 decisions. And here, like, if they would have went through with Red Deer, it would have been a

00:12:16.660 logistical nightmare. And everybody would have been crying foul that day, the next day and crying,

00:12:21.320 you know, if Kenny were to win it, the issue would have been that it was unfair, and you couldn't get

00:12:26.360 in there and everything of the sort. So I think the party, you know, made the, you know, this situation

00:12:32.400 was pretty unprecedented. What they did is they opened it to the maximum amount of voters and maximum

00:12:36.500 amount of members. They it's now so if you have a UCP party membership, you can vote, you will be

00:12:43.060 getting a ballot package. You know, fundamentally, it's the most, you know, democratic and open way

00:12:49.220 to do it. But Alberta does have like a hyper online culture that there are people that will complain

00:12:56.080 about something no matter what those people kind of have done that. And there is, you know, this isn't

00:13:01.620 a the Wild Rose Party, both of our leadership elections, I came from the Wild Rose side, personally,

00:13:08.240 both of our leadership elections were done through the mail, every federal leadership has been

00:13:12.880 done through the mail. It's an auditive process with an independent auditor. I can't help but think

00:13:18.540 there's a group that would cry no matter how the process goes, if they lose. And, you know,

00:13:23.180 that being said, I think this is probably the best situation, our best way to do it given a hard

00:13:27.820 situation. And I've got to sympathize with the board as, you know, the kind of pound crier has kind

00:13:33.980 of kept their voice very loud after the decision, you know? Well, it's very much one of those like the

00:13:38.620 analogy that the squeaky wheel gets the grease. It's like, we hear a lot from the people who oppose

00:13:44.340 the premier, we hear a lot from Jason Kenney's opposition. And it is hard to sort of speculate

00:13:51.660 and quantify, like, what percentage of the party does that represent? You know, is it 10%? Is it 20?

00:13:58.120 Is it 50? Like, it's hard to gauge. And to your point about the online culture, it's like the same

00:14:03.820 thing with the comment sections. You know, the people who sometimes are the loudest on the comment

00:14:09.000 boards are the ones that have the more extreme positions on the issues. They don't necessarily

00:14:13.340 represent the medium or the everyday person. So let's talk a little bit about who is driving this

00:14:19.940 revolt. Who are Kenney's main opposition? And in your view, your estimation as being sort of a

00:14:26.120 grassroots conservative in Alberta, how large is it? How much of the party does it represent?

00:14:32.340 Yeah, no, I think, I think that there is a group there that hasn't been happy, obviously,

00:14:39.120 you know, and I think it's been that way since the United Conservative Party was formed. I do think

00:14:43.820 like, where you were mentioning at the start, Alberta does tend to have a little bit of that. 0.58

00:14:48.360 But Albertans also like they're, they're very involved, like it's a community where you get the

00:14:52.220 most volunteers, you have the highest average per capita charitable donation, like it is a province

00:14:57.700 that people are involved in their community, people are involved in their politics and stuff like

00:15:01.580 that. So I do think that there's a much quieter, you know, part of the party's membership and the

00:15:07.740 party support base, who just want to see politics done the right way and see things effectively move

00:15:12.940 forward. So well, like you say, the squeaky wheel does sometimes get the grease. But you know, I think

00:15:17.660 in Alberta, what still will drive this party, and what will drive this membership and this leadership

00:15:21.940 will be the more, you know, common everyday conservative, which is a good process in this.

00:15:27.540 As far as what's driving the opposition, like, you know, I think that there is, you know, and it was

00:15:33.940 no easy process to unite two conservative parties that actually did not like each other at all. Like

00:15:39.400 there was a point I could tell you, even from my point, as a former Wild Roser, I did not like the

00:15:44.120 idea. And, you know, I think a lot of people came around came together. Not everybody did. So there's

00:15:51.320 still a little bit of, you know, former rivalries that I think drive a little bit of it. And, you

00:15:57.440 know, just, obviously, a lot of this, well, not, I wouldn't say a lot of this, but one of the lead

00:16:02.640 proponents, and it's Brian Jean, who I think is still bitter about losing the last leadership election

00:16:06.920 and the last time members had their say. There is some caucus members speaking out who might be

00:16:12.300 unhappy about something else, one way or another. You know, whether that's not getting into cabinet or not

00:16:18.080 being in a certain role or something, leadership's not seeing things their way and they're balancing

00:16:22.660 that back with, you know, talking about, you know, being unhappy with the leader, unhappy with the

00:16:28.420 process. This typically happens in politics, you know, even in Saskatchewan, Ontario, other

00:16:34.320 conservative governments, they've seen some backbenchers kicked out and stuff like that in the last couple

00:16:39.320 of years. Kenny's almost allowed for more of this kind of backbench speaking up. And I think that

00:16:46.560 there's like a Puritan conservative and all of us that likes that, that likes allowing for more

00:16:51.720 dissent in the party. But because Kenny's kind of allowed it, I think there's been a more vocal

00:16:55.940 opposition to him. And to answer your question more fully, I think there's some people bitter about

00:17:00.800 them not being in leadership and some people, you know, just genuinely who aren't happy with the

00:17:05.420 direction of the party that are kind of driving this. Well, it's kind of almost confusing from an

00:17:11.940 outsider perspective, because Jason Kenney didn't come from either camp, really. He was a federal

00:17:17.640 conservative, he represented Calgary, but he was, you know, an MP in Ottawa. So he wasn't really part

00:17:23.460 of the conservative fracture in Alberta between the Wild Rose and the PCs. And it's interesting,

00:17:30.580 because, you know, I know that he has a lot of support from Wild Rose people, former Wild Rose

00:17:35.640 people working in his office. And, you know, it's not an immediate like, oh, Jason Kenney came from the

00:17:40.880 PC side or the Wild Rose side. That was why he was sort of the perfect person to merge the party,

00:17:45.840 because he didn't have baggage on either side. But it's interesting, because the opposition to him

00:17:52.580 seems to come from sort of the more rural MLAs, and people who are really unhappy with the vaccine

00:17:57.580 mandates and the lockdowns. And yet the sort of main person that's coming out against him,

00:18:03.320 Brian Jean seems to me, I mean, I know that he has the endorsement of Peter McKay, a very prominent

00:18:08.820 sort of red Tory in the left sort of flank of the federal conservatives. And when asked,

00:18:15.700 when Brian Jean was asked, what would you do differently if you were running the province,

00:18:19.780 he said that he would have invited the NDP opposition leader, Rachel Notley, to be part of

00:18:24.000 cabinet, which, you know, for all of the critiques that you might have about how Premier

00:18:29.320 Kenney governed over the last two years, you know, not including Rachel Notley in the decision

00:18:33.320 making seemed like a really strange opposition. So it's it seems it seems hard to really understand

00:18:39.460 from an outside perspective, whether the opposition is coming from the left or the right, whether it's

00:18:43.980 coming from the Wild Rose camp, or the PC camp, or whether it's just I know that there was I wanted

00:18:48.280 to ask you about this leaked audio of Premier Kenney, sort of saying that, you know, a lot of this is

00:18:54.260 just people that are personally bitter that they didn't get a portfolio, or they didn't get a position

00:18:58.340 that they wanted their companies on getting government contracts. You know, he also characterized

00:19:03.320 his opponents as being hateful bigots, which I'm sorry, say sounds a bit like what Justin Trudeau

00:19:08.720 would say. But but maybe you could help explain that help us understand that.

00:19:15.020 Well, yeah, I wouldn't, you know, I think that, you know, we we all have had conversations before where,

00:19:21.060 you know, somebody else can take it and blow it up. I think, look, Jason, you know, was one of the most

00:19:27.360 you know, out of all of Canadian politics, and all of Canadian punditry and media, Jason was one of

00:19:33.680 the most aggressive defenders of kind of the truckers rights during that time, he's been one

00:19:39.640 of the biggest counterweights to Justin Trudeau, I can only imagine how big of a mess we've been in

00:19:45.080 the last couple years of the kind of not Lee Trudeau alliance had continued over that time.

00:19:49.720 So, you know, Jason has been, I think, you know, one of the more vocal opponents of the kind of

00:19:55.400 Trudeau era and the Trudeau kind of, you know, comments and everything around that. But largely,

00:20:01.420 like, you know, I think that it's, it's a unique spot, I don't think it's an ideological driven

00:20:08.380 opposition to Premier Kenney, quite frankly, I think, I think, you know, Jason Kenney, and I

00:20:14.580 understand I like I sympathize with a lot of people that have frustrations about the COVID policies of

00:20:19.260 the last couple years, because I was certainly there at points to, but Jason has been one of the more

00:20:23.380 effective conservatives, not just in Alberta, but nationally in the last like 2030 years, he was

00:20:27.760 one of the most trusted individuals within the Stephen Harper government, he is a genuine works

00:20:33.920 20 hours a day conservative, which in my opinion, is what Alberta kind of needs to push forward right 0.99

00:20:38.460 now. His opposition comes from a lot of bitterness, which, you know, and I, I was lucky to be executive

00:20:44.540 director of the party, I've been lucky to be involved in kind of party politics. And, and I genuinely love

00:20:50.280 like, you know, the people that donate the people that support this party are kind of your ordinary,

00:20:54.720 hardworking, not overly political Albertans. And it almost the process, especially I would think

00:21:00.420 since Ralph has left, political partisans have been so obsessed with infighting and and everything

00:21:06.520 along that end, within this province, that I think it's hurt our ability to, to, you know, do what I

00:21:13.520 think ordinary conservative voters and supporters want us to do. And I think Premier Kenney is falling a

00:21:18.780 little bit victim to that, because it is, you know, campaign more driven by bitterness, like,

00:21:23.940 you know, Brian Jean, he's a individual who's, you know, when he was leader, he said he would

00:21:30.320 support some form or his own form of a carbon tax, like, like you were saying, I can't imagine that,

00:21:36.700 like, if you asked any Alberta conservative, what they should have done differently over COVID,

00:21:41.180 I think Brian Jean is the only one who would call himself conservative and say, the first thing he'll

00:21:44.980 say is we should have let Rachel Notley into cabinet. Because I think that there's, you know,

00:21:50.060 natural reasons for conservatives to be unhappy, but it hasn't been what I think has been driving a

00:21:54.840 lot of the opposition to Kenny. I would also say, and this is pretty unique, but like, obviously,

00:21:59.340 we balanced the budget here. And, you know, despite what Justin says, budgets don't balance

00:22:03.800 themselves. And, you know, a lot of the opposition to Kenny even came from some in the conservative

00:22:10.560 rank and file when he was holding the line on public spending early in his term. A lot of people

00:22:15.980 thought that there were like public servants that, you know, they weren't getting the raise they want.

00:22:20.340 And some from even like rural MLA backgrounds were attacking him for not spending enough money

00:22:25.500 and not spending it on these issues. He held the line today, we have a balanced budget. So,

00:22:30.160 you know, getting back to your main question here, I don't think it's really a kind of conservative

00:22:35.280 thing. I think, you know, as and I love this party, I love this movement, but like,

00:22:40.380 we've had a lot of fracture in the last 15 years or so. And I think that's led to, you know,

00:22:46.460 the activist crowd almost liking infighting, I think more than our supporters and ordinary members do,

00:22:51.980 you know? Right? No, absolutely. One of the other questions that came out of that and,

00:22:56.880 and, you know, I, I, when I listened to the audio of that, that, that leaked audio that I think went to

00:23:04.800 the CBC, I don't understand who, I don't, I don't understand who working for Jason Kenney would

00:23:09.480 think it was a good idea to record what he was saying in a private conversation and then give

00:23:12.960 it to the CBC of all people. What does that say about the premier's office and, and sort of the

00:23:18.860 loyalty towards the premier that someone, some would, some people were like speculating that maybe

00:23:24.520 it was all planned and that, that, that it wasn't like a candid conversation that he was doing it

00:23:28.020 on purpose, but maybe you can shed some, some light onto how that happened. If there's any idea of who

00:23:33.900 did it and, and we, you know, what were they thinking basically? Yeah, no, I look, I can't

00:23:38.880 imagine, especially, you know, in this year, any principled conservative leaking that sort of stuff

00:23:44.960 to the CBC, you know? And look, I think, you know, governments, you know, governments nowadays

00:23:51.320 employ hundreds of people within an internal government to make sure it runs properly. Just like

00:23:56.760 any business, you never kind of strike a hundred percent in hiring that number of people. And sometimes

00:24:02.260 there are individuals that are frustrated. I'm disappointed that I think any individual,

00:24:07.240 you know, and I've had this privilege, like it's a privilege to work in this movement. It's a

00:24:10.640 privilege to work in this province. It's disappointing that any individual would think,

00:24:14.700 you know, leaking an internal conversation to the CBC would be a good thing. But I, I had to laugh

00:24:20.040 too. People were acting like, oh, this was some Kenny chess move because he wanted that out there.

00:24:24.240 Just meaning like what he's saying behind the scenes, isn't, you know, that, that unnormal for,

00:24:29.360 you know, I think regular conservative talk and, you know, regular what, what I think conservatives

00:24:36.880 are joining together and fight for. So it was unique. And yeah, I think obviously that came from

00:24:43.560 one person disgruntled, but in a government where you're hiring hundreds, it's, it's sometimes too

00:24:49.160 bad. But what I would say is, you know, for, and I think True Norse put an awesome culture together,

00:24:54.560 but for individuals who want to work in politics, like, I think there's an awesome opportunity in

00:24:59.620 this movement in politics. And I would recommend you to recommend to your family members, to yourself,

00:25:04.720 like if you want to be involved in politics, I would say that the bar isn't sometimes as high

00:25:09.120 as some people expect. And like, we need more good people elected. We need more good people working

00:25:14.820 for government too. So, you know, hopefully some people will, will hear that. And maybe even our

00:25:20.040 culture of kind of internal staff will improve over the years. Yeah, no, it's always hard to find

00:25:26.020 good people, but you know, I lived in Alberta for several years during university and afterwards. And

00:25:31.240 you know, from someone who's a total outsider, politics can seem really like an insider's game

00:25:36.440 and almost intimidated. But I always found that the political culture in the conservative

00:25:41.220 group in Alberta was so welcoming. Like, you know, you, you just show up to one event and 10 people

00:25:46.740 introduce themselves to you and, you know, people invite you back to events. And there really is a

00:25:52.160 great culture that's very inclusive and inviting to outsiders. And so it's really a big family of

00:26:00.460 conservatives in Alberta. And that's one of the best parts. Just on a final note here, Brad, I have

00:26:07.860 to ask you about this because I've seen a couple of recent polls in Alberta that indicate that the NDP

00:26:13.700 are ahead. I've seen one poll that shows them like up 15 points. Another poll, though, that shows the

00:26:19.500 conservatives up. So what do you make of these polls? Do you think they're accurate? Do you think that

00:26:23.680 the conservatives should be afraid on a broader level? I know there's an election coming up,

00:26:29.160 a general election coming up in May 2023. Do you think conservatives should be worried about their

00:26:34.020 chances against an NDP party and the potential of an NDP government again in Alberta?

00:26:40.300 Totally. Well, conservatives should never take anything for granted, right? Like, we need to

00:26:45.300 work hard. We need to prove that, you know, there's, there's a, the reason we will continue to be

00:26:50.280 elected is the reason, you know, is quite simply because we're, we're the better party. We're more

00:26:55.680 representative of Albertans. So you can never take that for granted. You got to go forward

00:26:59.160 with that attitude. The recent polling. So I think during the, during the height of COVID,

00:27:05.380 like Jason was essentially taking it from both ends and his polling went down. Like I saw the

00:27:10.560 reason there was one polling company from a firm. And I can say this because I've worked internally

00:27:16.260 in Alberta politics, like some firms here, they do online samples and their, their data is usually

00:27:21.320 garbage. Like some were putting like Trudeau right up with the federal conservative party last

00:27:26.840 election in Alberta. And obviously it didn't come close to that. The two polls I watched most closely,

00:27:32.100 um, I believe there was, um, a syndicate from Janet Brown and a syndicate from, uh, Yorkville,

00:27:37.960 uh, both of which I came out. Those both gave the UCP leads, uh, four and 5% respectively,

00:27:43.060 because the conservatives are, are stronger in Calgary, uh, and rural and weaker in Edmonton

00:27:48.800 that would work out to a pretty big wing for him. Now I think, look, last election, Jason Kenny won

00:27:53.920 with 55% of the vote. Um, that's a massive victory in Alberta politics. I think that's larger than Ralph

00:27:59.340 for, um, uh, Peter Law, he's like first victory. It's a, it's a very massive win. Uh, so a high

00:28:05.200 bar to keep up. And I don't think he's a guy that'll be content at all with a four to five point

00:28:09.280 win. Um, we've got to continue to do better, which I think Alberta really, uh, the UCP has a team in

00:28:15.940 place, despite us sometimes being more dramatic than I think the ordinary voter might like, uh, a team

00:28:21.240 to rebound out of COVID a lot is going well. And, uh, a lot's going well in the economy. Um, a lot of,

00:28:27.720 I think what Jason Kenny and the initial UCP got elected to do is coming to fruition now. And that's

00:28:33.160 great. And I think too, like, um, you know, some of these same polls were giving Rachel Notley and

00:28:38.180 the NDP a 20 point lead like four or five months ago. So you don't see it in the mainstream media

00:28:43.260 at all, but like, it's also a story that I think any conservative that blew a 20 point lead in five

00:28:49.080 months would be all over the news. Rachel Notley blew a 20 point lead and, um, you know, is, is

00:28:54.460 continuing down the same path of really the same style of opposition. So I think there's some

00:28:59.560 reasons to be optimistic, but there's nothing bigger that should be a priority than work hard.

00:29:03.520 Make sure you're out there representing your voters, which, which I am happy to see that. I

00:29:07.120 think the UCP is kind of, um, getting back to out of COVID, you know? Yeah. Listen to the grassroots,

00:29:12.380 listen to the base and, and the whole leadership review, uh, is, is exactly that. I remember I was out

00:29:18.340 in Alberta in 2019 for the UCP convention. And at the time, uh, you know, the media and the,

00:29:24.540 the narrative in the, in the headlines was so anti Kenny. It was like, there was some revolt of

00:29:29.260 nursing, uh, the nursing union and the, uh, you know, the economy that the price of oil was really,

00:29:35.520 really low. And everyone was talking about how the party was turning on Jason Kenny. And I, you know,

00:29:40.340 I walked into the main room and Jason got, you know, an overwhelming standing ovation that was like

00:29:45.880 extended on and on. And the room was going crazy. They were absolutely elated to see him. And

00:29:50.820 it couldn't have been a starker difference, Brad, between, you know, the stories that we were told

00:29:55.420 and the understanding that you would get from following the legacy media, uh, versus being in

00:29:58.920 the room and seeing like, okay, this is, this is, this is an incredibly popular premier that has the

00:30:03.720 full support of his party, despite the grumblings that you may hear. So, um, I, I don't think it's a

00:30:08.940 good idea to write off Jason Kenny. I think that, uh, he he's, he's come from behind so many times. So

00:30:14.740 I really appreciate your time today and helping us kind of get a better perspective, uh, that,

00:30:19.400 that you definitely won't see in the legacy media because they definitely have an agenda to push

00:30:23.460 a one way. And, and, and when it comes to the opposition as well, the, you know, the very,

00:30:28.120 uh, disgruntled people are sometimes allowed us. So I appreciate your time. Thanks Brad for joining us.

00:30:33.540 Yeah. Thank you very much, Candice.

00:30:35.520 All right. That is Brad Tennant. I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is the Candice Malcolm show.

00:30:44.740 Thank you.

The Candice Malcolm Show - March 31, 2022

An insider’s view on the political situation in Alberta

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