Western Standard - AB REPORT： Who do you think won the Alberta Leaders' Debate？

00:00:00.000 Good morning, I'm Derek Fuldebrand, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching

00:00:14.420 a special edition, an extra special edition of the Alberta Report.

00:00:18.960 We're going to be talking about the big leadership debate last night between UCP leader Danielle

00:00:24.440 Smith, and new Democratic Party leader, Rachel Notley. I always think it's weird how we call it

00:00:30.680 the new Democratic Party, because it's a party from the 60s and is actually the older, the oldest

00:00:35.720 of parties in Alberta. Joined, as usual, by Western-centered opinion editor, Nigel Hannaford,

00:00:41.080 how are you? Good morning, I'm great. And Western-centered news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:00:45.800 Hello, I'm wearing debate blue, as you can see. I looked at Rachel Notley and

00:00:49.720 Danielle Smith and I thought, the blue team wins. Any thoughts? I mean, it raised a couple

00:00:58.440 eyebrows. They're both dressed so similarly, both wearing conservative blue. Should we read

00:01:03.720 anything into that? I know you're not a fashion consultant here, but should we read anything into

00:01:07.800 it? No, I need to talk to my wife about that. But it just occurred to me that within the last two

00:01:14.840 weeks one of our columnists had pointed out that um as rachel notley can't win with just the left 0.99

00:01:23.320 in alberta she is positioning herself as kind of a centrist in the mold of jim prentis he made that 1.00

00:01:30.040 specific uh specific reference jim prentis raised even more taxes than she did well then she probably

00:01:36.120 looks to him with admiration so was that a little signal there that I'm actually much

00:01:44.460 I'm not a bread I'm not a commie I have commies in my party if that's what you want but I myself

00:01:52.240 am a trustworthy middle of the road conservatively small c-minded unlike Daniel Smith the

00:02:00.060 you know, who is so far out on the right. I think there might have been a message there. 0.58

00:02:06.060 To kind of telegraph conservatives can vote.

00:02:08.080 Subliminal stuff.

00:02:09.140 Before we get too far in it, though, I want to thank my favorite sponsor, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

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00:02:40.380 Okay, so I guess the big thing, we're going to kind of parse the debate apart here.

00:02:47.200 But who won?

00:02:48.400 I guess I'll actually, actually, before we get to who won, let's talk expectations.

00:02:52.580 What were the expectations of the parties and of voters in general and swing voters in particular of the two leaders?

00:03:02.540 Dave, what do you think those voters' expectations were, especially the undecideds and swing voters?

00:03:09.000 Well, I think after listening to the NDP the last month, the undecided voters were tuning in to see a bozo eruption from Danielle Smith.

00:03:19.120 And she didn't. 0.95

00:03:21.000 You know, and I don't think anybody was surprised by what Ms. Notley, her tactics were. 0.89

00:03:29.000 It was just attacking Smith's character.

00:03:33.180 So, yeah, I mean, if we're going to get right into winners and losers, I don't think there was a winner.

00:03:39.380 But except Danielle Smith, because she didn't lose.

00:03:42.440 She kept her cool.

00:03:43.520 There were no bozo eruptions.

00:03:45.200 I thought her closing speech there, her closing statement was brilliant. 0.86

00:03:51.000 The party, if they were smart, would just cut that out and put that on ads on TV and radio for the next couple of weeks.

00:03:58.560 So Daniel Smith won by not losing. Nigel, I remember back in 2000, 2015 federal election and Corey Tanaik, a conservative strategist, kind of famously said, you know, he'll be impressed if Justin Trudeau can show up to the debate with his pants on.

00:04:16.700 Essentially saying, like, the expectations were so low, you know, conservatives had run him as just a pretty boy who couldn't string a sentence together. And he showed up to the leaders debate in 2015, didn't do particularly well, but he had his pants on and he could string a sentence together.

00:04:36.440 And as such, massively exceeded expectations of voters who had been, I think, primed to expect some bumbling moron. 0.98

00:04:46.700 And yeah, many of you will still think he is a bumbling moron, but he was able to show up with a reasonable presentation here. 0.99

00:04:53.220 Similarly, I think the NDP have been priming voters to expect Daniel Smith to show up to the debate like the Tasmanian devil, drooling at the mouth, totally unhinged. 0.99

00:05:04.620 and as such set the bar very low.

00:05:08.580 And Danielle Smith going into this,

00:05:10.460 they just had to appear rational, calm, and collected.

00:05:15.240 I think by any measure,

00:05:16.380 she probably exceeded those low expectations set by the NDP then.

00:05:20.240 Yeah, well, first of all, thank you for bringing up the 2015 election.

00:05:23.260 I'm still in counseling over that.

00:05:25.380 Now, with respect to expectations,

00:05:27.760 there is one group of undecided voters,

00:05:30.460 and they are people who habitually vote progressive conservative ucp they're on that

00:05:39.560 side of the spectrum but they were not sure about danielle smith i i get the feedback from several

00:05:47.680 sources that i can't bring myself to vote for rachel notley but i don't like smith all right

00:05:54.500 what does a person like that expect out of the debate and what do they actually get

00:06:00.460 you would have to have been a perversely anti-Smith person to watch that debate last night 0.86

00:06:10.100 and not come out thinking oh okay she isn't the Tasmanian devil that I thought she might be

00:06:18.780 she actually is gracious. She was the subject of some fairly pointed, if not actually vicious

00:06:26.040 questioning. And she handled it all with a smile and with a straight answer. I mean,

00:06:34.160 it's all politics. So your answers are messages. But she wasn't an awful person. So those people

00:06:42.360 should, should have seen that and thought, okay, I can vote for this person. That is, that is the

00:06:51.400 win that I think Dave was talking about there. Not a huge lift, but one that is going to be

00:06:57.700 very significant in a number of key constituencies in Calgary. So let's move to who won. I think

00:07:05.860 it's very fair to say, I don't think anybody who watched that debate is arguing that there was a

00:07:10.700 big, decisive moment, the knockout blow. I mean, any kid going through high school,

00:07:15.880 grade 10 social studies, they're going to open and see the Brian Mulroney, John Turner,

00:07:23.800 1988, or no, 1984 knockout blow where you had a choice to say no to the old ways of

00:07:33.100 title and the liberal party.

00:07:34.100 You could have said no.

00:07:34.780 Yeah, you had a choice. There was nothing approaching that.

00:07:40.700 In fact, we're thinking this morning, okay, what are some of the highlights we can put on a highlight reel here and I'm like, not much.

00:07:48.140 It was just more of a tempo throughout the thing.

00:07:52.800 But, I mean, Notley was feistier, I think, but not, one thing I noticed was Notley would call Smith by name, say, you, you.

00:08:04.160 And Danielle Smith, I don't think once even looked at Richard Notley.

00:08:08.480 I don't think she barely acknowledged she was in the room with her.

00:08:11.780 She looked at the camera and said, Miss Notley or the NDP.

00:08:17.300 She never said you and looked at her and engaged with her directly.

00:08:21.660 So, you know, shots fired from both sides, but no knockouts.

00:08:25.600 Nigel, did anyone win, though?

00:08:29.540 Well, it depends which, yeah, of course, both won according to their supporters.

00:08:34.280 because there wasn't a kind of dramatic torpedo in the middle of the side of the ship

00:08:39.280 and the thing fell over and sank.

00:08:40.920 You know, nobody tripped over the microphones or the furniture.

00:08:48.900 If you are a Smith fan, Smith won.

00:08:51.900 If you are a Knottley fan, well, my word, she stuck it to Smith last night, didn't she?

00:08:56.320 She was giving it.

00:08:58.020 So I come back to what Dave said earlier that Smith didn't lose.

00:09:04.280 She is the premier. She can afford to be magnanimous, gracious, answer the questions, not lose her cool. 0.97

00:09:12.360 The only way forward for Notley in that debate was to be aggressive.

00:09:17.500 She was, and to be honest, it didn't work. It didn't look good on her.

00:09:21.980 And let's remember that Notley was given a gift.

00:09:25.060 The ethics commissioner report the same morning that came out that found Premier Smith had violated the conflict of interest.

00:09:34.280 act by asking some legal advice from her justice minister. So that was a gift that was awesome,

00:09:40.260 it was Christmas Day for Rachel Notley. And, you know, she used it, came right out near the top,

00:09:45.460 you broke the law, you broke the law, nobody can trust you. And, you know, Smith handled it like

00:09:50.900 she should have. She, you know, she'd already apologized in the morning and said, you know,

00:09:55.340 what's a girl to do if she needs legal advice, talk to the justice minister. So yeah, and she

00:10:01.160 handled that well. And, you know, she even said, you know,

00:10:04.320 during the debate last night that, you know, she made a

00:10:06.600 mistake. And she said a couple times, including in her, her

00:10:10.920 final statement that she's not perfect.

00:10:12.680 Yeah, a little bit of humility. Yeah, humility does work very 1.00

00:10:15.740 well. You know, I'm not perfect, but I will do my best. And I

00:10:19.700 think that's all anybody can ask for.

00:10:21.800 Yeah, I mean, I think Smith got the upper hand of it, but

00:10:28.280 Definitely didn't, you know, knock Notley down, no big decisive moment, but I think just because it was just the expectations gained, and because of that, she won.

00:10:41.440 I think she came across, you know, she smiled, and it didn't look like a pasted-on smile, for the most part.

00:10:46.380 It looked pretty, you know, fairly genuine smile.

00:10:49.420 Pretty genuine Daniel Smith, actually.

00:10:51.480 But she kind of had a happy warrior look about herself.

00:10:54.960 I mean, it was pretty boring stuff.

00:10:57.020 I mean, both of them were just, you could tell, neither of them are catering to their bases right now.

00:11:03.160 It's all about, like, 15% in the middle, and those people and those people only,

00:11:08.560 they're both bragging about how much money they spend and, you know, how much more they grow government.

00:11:14.840 It was very much pleading for those squint voters.

00:11:20.380 But the fact that Danielle Smith came across as reasonable and friendly, 1.00

00:11:24.380 I think she had a default win going into it. 0.98

00:11:28.680 If Danielle Smith could perform reasonably, she had a default win. 0.98

00:11:32.740 So Smith got a win by default. 1.00

00:11:34.940 Notley, for Notley to win, she needed to pull out the chair, come over the ropes, and beat the hell out of Smith. 1.00

00:11:42.620 She needed to knock her out in order to win. 1.00

00:11:45.960 That just didn't happen.

00:11:47.060 And, you know, I don't think that Notley's habit of repeating things that are clearly not true or relevant is helping her.

00:11:58.640 Oh, let's be fair. All politicians do that. Notley's not a lot, but let's be fair. They all do it to an extent.

00:12:04.940 But it's not working because people actually don't believe that Danielle Smith has a secret plan to charge you 100 bucks every time you go to visit the doctor 0.98

00:12:15.760 or whatever the number is that the NDP is pitching out.

00:12:18.060 The people don't believe that.

00:12:19.560 She may have speculated about it when she was on the radio,

00:12:22.760 but as she said, that was then.

00:12:25.360 The people are now my boss.

00:12:26.100 She actually wrote a whole report about it.

00:12:27.960 And it's a report I agree with.

00:12:29.220 I think it's a good policy.

00:12:30.800 It's just one that's obviously not going to be very popular with an election,

00:12:33.620 and she's not running on it.

00:12:35.220 But she did more than speculate.

00:12:36.600 She wrote a whole policy paper on it.

00:12:38.860 Yeah. 1.00

00:12:39.120 But she's not, as the NDP alleges, constantly going to sell hospitals. 1.00

00:12:42.700 No.

00:12:43.060 And she's not going to charge you.

00:12:44.880 You're not going to have to.

00:12:45.760 And I'm sure Rachel Notley probably in university wrote papers on, you know, all sorts of good, yeah, Che Guevara. 0.87

00:12:53.560 Rachel Notley is not running on, you know, murdering the bourgeoisie blacks and gays as Che Guevara did. 0.59

00:13:02.460 It's just not what she's running on, because that's not what Albertans are interested in.

00:13:05.920 So I've got to ask you a question.

00:13:07.920 As a seasoned debate moderator, how did you think the moderators did last night?

00:13:14.000 I thought, from my impression, they always, and I don't know if it was just me,

00:13:17.460 but they always seemed to let Notley have the last word.

00:13:19.960 Yeah.

00:13:21.460 I mean, it wasn't the worst I've seen, and I think it's easier when you have a small number.

00:13:25.940 They had two.

00:13:27.040 Two is the easiest.

00:13:28.960 Everything after that is company.

00:13:31.780 So some of it was just an easier job, having two.

00:13:35.020 I don't think they were terrible, but you're right.

00:13:36.960 I think you were keeping a rough tally, and Notley was given the last word much more often than Smith was.

00:13:43.900 And that's pretty easy to manage.

00:13:46.040 Okay, this question is to Notley, rebuttal here, rebuttal, rebuttal.

00:13:50.840 And then the next one starts here, and you go back and forth.

00:13:53.300 It's pretty easy to manage that to let it balance out, and they didn't let that happen.

00:13:59.780 One of the bigger problems, I think, is also just with the way they come up with questioning for these official debates.

00:14:05.740 They're bland.

00:14:07.360 They're on topics that the party's mostly on health care.

00:14:11.220 Spoiler, the NDP and the UCP are almost the same.

00:14:14.840 They just promised to manage the status quo better than the other guy.

00:14:18.560 There's not a lot of differences, which is why when we hosted a UCP leadership debate, we ignored everything they agreed on.

00:14:24.760 We picked questions where we knew they would disagree on.

00:14:27.760 on. And the debate last night, they focused on, they said, well, these are the big issues

00:14:34.000 Albertans care about. Yeah, but fine, the party platforms are just different rhetoric on the

00:14:39.180 same issues, but effectively the same policy. So it was not very good. To your point, I mean,

00:14:43.960 one of the softball questions was, name two things that you agree on. You know, that's...

00:14:51.180 Actually, I liked that one. Did you really? Yeah, although I know it was kind of a poofy thing,

00:14:56.320 but it was probably an unexpected question for the leaders. And it was a chance to show some 0.96

00:15:00.960 grace and humility. And on that one, I actually think Notley did better. Notley named two. Now,

00:15:07.040 the first one was not a policy being put forward by Smith. It was something that

00:15:12.080 her predecessor did. So she was able to praise Jason Kenney. Second one was also something that

00:15:16.960 the film tracks credit one, also something that was done under the Kenney government before her.

00:15:21.520 So she actually wasn't praising anything that Smith did. Smith actually mostly took half of her time to thank Notley for supporting her policies and then vaguely talked about some other stuff. I actually think it was a good question because it spoke more to character and grace and humility and not specific policy. I actually thought there was value in it.

00:15:42.900 But most of the other questions, what are you going to do to improve affordability?

00:15:48.940 What are you going to do to make health care good?

00:15:51.900 It was at that point that I put down my pen and just watched for a while.

00:15:55.000 And at least there were no trombones or sad trombones like the Federal Conservatives

00:16:02.320 and no questions like, hey, what book are you reading now?

00:16:05.920 So, yeah, I'm with Derek.

00:16:07.640 I like that one.

00:16:09.680 It should have only been one like that.

00:16:11.740 But it was more of a character question.

00:16:13.680 I thought it was a nice touch. 0.90

00:16:15.360 And certainly only having two candidates, that's got to be the way debates are held.

00:16:20.140 You look at the federal ones and it's just a mess.

00:16:23.480 I know, but it's a matter of fairness.

00:16:25.860 Like, yeah, it's better with two, but that works in a two-party system.

00:16:30.100 Right now in Alberta, we're a two-party system.

00:16:32.400 In the United States, they're a two-party system.

00:16:35.160 But if you've got multiple parties with a chance of winning seats, you've got to allow them in.

00:16:40.600 I think that's only fair. The problem is it does make for generally a less.

00:16:45.120 So even though the Green Party is only going to win two seats, they get to come in and play with the big boys.

00:16:49.880 Well, you've got to set the bar somewhere. What is it? Two seats, 10 seats, 20?

00:16:55.680 Even at 20 seats, you have no chance of forming government.

00:16:58.440 So I think just generally it should be, does your party have a seat?

00:17:03.580 That's the way it goes. Sometimes they get bigger, they get smaller.

00:17:07.280 In Alberta, you know, we had four in the last leaders debate.

00:17:11.280 They changed the rules specifically to keep me out.

00:17:13.280 There should have been five.

00:17:15.280 But this time we're down to two.

00:17:18.280 And I think it's just a fair way to do it.

00:17:21.280 And I prefer one-on-one debates, just two candidates.

00:17:24.280 But we've got to be fair, and I think that just goes by.

00:17:27.280 Do you have a seat?

00:17:32.280 Okay, well, let's focus in on Notley.

00:17:36.280 because I guess we've, a lot of this is a bit about Smith, I think she had, not only had some tactical victories, some little zingers, no big ones that really landed,

00:17:47.400 Smith had the strategic win, and she won by default, by appearing reasonable, and sane, and friendly.

00:17:56.140 But let's talk, let's talk more about Notley.

00:17:59.340 What were some of her, we'll start with you, Nigel, what do you think were Notley's big, strong moments that night?

00:18:05.520 Well, I think she started off with a good question, too, Danielle, saying, why don't you run on what you really believe in?

00:18:13.260 That was, given the character of the NDP attack on Smith, all this time, you said once you would do this.

00:18:22.000 You said you would sell hospitals and so forth.

00:18:26.260 Danielle Smith has been, for more than 20 years, a public commentator.

00:18:32.380 commentator. She has put out a lot of ideas. Some of them she deeply believes in. Some of them

00:18:38.640 she probably put out there to get a discussion going on 770. But, you know, she has said a lot

00:18:45.620 of things. And there is a consistency in her thought. I remember the early days working with

00:18:52.740 her on the editorial board of the Calgary Herald, the kind of discussions we have there. I hear

00:18:56.420 echoes of that, not even now. So it was actually a very fair question for Notley to put this,

00:19:04.340 why don't you run on what you really believe in? The answer, of course, was, well, first of all,

00:19:09.460 is why don't you run on your record, which was a good squelch. But other than that,

00:19:16.180 she was saying it's, here we are, this is the situation we're in now.

00:19:20.740 I think that was a fair point. I mean, running on what she believes in. I mean, I'd probably like the UCP more if she was running on that stuff. But obviously, some of that stuff is just too hardcore for that, you know, those swing voters in the middle that that are now left to decide the election.

00:19:40.140 How well do you think Dave Smith answered that question? Because she's struggled with that question for some time now. A lot of her ideas that she ran on in the leadership race, she hasn't repudiated necessarily, but she's taken from the shop window and kind of put into the warehouse for now.

00:20:03.400 Well, they're there, but they're not up front.

00:20:07.180 And other things from her time previous to politics, you know, for talking, you know, small user fees in health care and stuff like that.

00:20:14.760 She's just saying absolutely not going to happen.

00:20:18.100 She is not running as Danielle Smith, the radio host.

00:20:22.100 She's not running as Danielle Smith, the Western Standard host.

00:20:25.300 She's not even running as Danielle Smith, the UCP leadership candidate.

00:20:28.780 She's running as Danielle Smith, premier.

00:20:32.600 How well do you think Smith addressed those questions?

00:20:37.420 I think she did okay.

00:20:39.480 You know, as Nigel said, she's been in the media spotlight for 20 years.

00:20:43.600 Who amongst us hasn't said things 20 years ago that you might look back on and have a bit of a cringe?

00:20:49.340 Oh, we're saying things today.

00:20:50.340 Exactly.

00:20:51.080 We'll be looking back at lunchtime and cringing.

00:20:53.860 But, you know, I think she's come to realize that, if she didn't before, that it's not a dictatorship.

00:21:01.520 As a premier, you have to lead for everybody.

00:21:04.620 You have to lead for all your caucus.

00:21:07.200 And stuff you may want as an individual is not going to fly as the premier because it doesn't have the support of, you know, the population or the caucus.

00:21:17.600 So I think she's come to realize that now, and that's the reason you see the change of views in some cases.

00:21:25.660 I think the exact words were, these days I work for the people of Alberta, they're my boss.

00:21:30.660 Yeah, exactly.

00:21:31.900 So it's not about her anymore, it's about the people.

00:21:35.900 I think that was really the first time I've heard her make any kind of response that's approaching adequate.

00:21:42.780 So far, you know, when she's asked by media under pressure from Notley, she just kind of didn't directly answer the question.

00:21:50.540 Well, you said this for, you know, let's say user fees.

00:21:55.200 You're saying this now.

00:21:57.480 What's changed?

00:21:58.460 And she just said, well, I'm not going to do that.

00:22:00.700 And she wouldn't explain why that is.

00:22:02.900 And we've talked about this.

00:22:04.180 And it's fair to say, you know, hey, I have beliefs, but not every belief I have is going to become law because Albertans don't want it.

00:22:13.880 They're just not there. Justice Stephen Harper used to answer questions on abortion.

00:22:17.980 I'm personally pro-life, but majority of Canadians are not, and they don't want to go there.

00:22:24.480 And so I'm committing that we're just not going to do anything about it.

00:22:27.560 And enough Canadians said, well, good enough for me.

00:22:31.700 And I think Smith kind of started to approach that kind of answer to it now, which is approaching adequate, I'd say, rather than before, which was just kind of ignoring the question was there. 0.59

00:22:45.700 I think she finally she understood she had to answer that question.

00:22:49.700 All right. Oh, I guess one last thing before we wrap up.

00:22:53.700 A huge change in Rachel from Rachel Notley last night.

00:22:57.700 After the debate, she decided to start answering Western Standard questions again. 0.88

00:23:03.700 Are pigs flying?

00:23:05.700 Yeah, I think, you know, why don't we place a video of that?

00:23:09.700 How do you think you did in the debate? Are you claiming victory?

00:23:12.700 You know what, I am going to let Albertans decide who did best in the debate and who said the things that they cared more about.

00:23:20.700 I think that's what these debates are for.

00:23:22.700 Okay, so Rachel Notley, since the beginning of the campaign, I will answer all of your questions and all of your follow-ups, unless you're from the Western Standard, of course, your famous showdown with Notley, where you were so rude and mean to her, just right up in her grill.

00:23:42.740 Wishing her a happy birthday and everything. 0.98

00:23:45.200 Yeah, I mean, you are such a jerk, but last night, now, but this is, these have always happened at NDP kind of curated events where she's surrounded by NDP supporters and a small number of media. 0.99

00:24:01.080 Last night, though, there's no NDP supporters there. 1.00

00:24:04.020 This is just the debate.

00:24:05.300 She is surrounded by mostly just media.

00:24:08.360 And I, perhaps, I'll start with you, Nigel.

00:24:11.840 So do you think that's why she decided to answer questions from the Western Standard last night, that she didn't kind of have the mob, NDP mob with her?

00:24:19.320 And she does feel a little bit embarrassed around the entire press gallery to not be taking questions from an accredited outlet.

00:24:28.140 Well, there's a couple of things going on there.

00:24:30.120 In her mind, she's the future premier of Alberta.

00:24:33.140 And at some point, she's going to have to work it out so that she can talk to all of the press.

00:24:37.820 I'm not convinced.

00:24:39.300 Well, I'm not convinced that she's going to be the premier of all time.

00:24:42.140 No, I'm not convinced that she would ever try to reconcile the standard.

00:24:47.460 But, I mean, manifestly, she did last night decide to take the question.

00:24:52.680 The other thing that, much as we are critical of some of our colleagues in what we refer to as the mainstream media,

00:25:00.460 after the incident that you refer to, there was a considerable amount of support for the idea that,

00:25:06.540 Well, the Western Standard, whatever you think of them, should be able to ask questions of the leader of the opposition.

00:25:13.560 What's the matter with you, Ms. Notley?

00:25:15.640 I think maybe she's just decided to move on.

00:25:19.000 I think she would.

00:25:20.460 She didn't recognize Arthur.

00:25:21.660 That's the most of the possibility.

00:25:22.640 Oh, she definitely knows who Arthur is.

00:25:23.980 Yeah, and the accent.

00:25:25.960 Even if she can't see him, she knows his voice.

00:25:30.360 I think she was probably caught a little bit off guard. 0.99

00:25:33.340 And I think it was a question of, you know, did you win the debate, that she would just look really stupid if she didn't answer. 0.97

00:25:41.280 So she's got, if she doesn't answer, then she's almost admitting that she lost the debate. 0.69

00:25:47.760 So she did answer the question, but apparently Arthur says the look on the press secretary's face, you know, head down, eyes closed, probably told more of the story than the answer.

00:26:01.100 That's an interesting angle.

00:26:02.300 I hadn't thought about it yet, just that the question, and the question would have been audibly heard because it wasn't a big rally where, you know, he might be drawn out because it's in a microphone.

00:26:11.380 This was kind of a scrum.

00:26:12.760 This is a press scrum, close quarters.

00:26:15.260 All of the cameras would have picked it up.

00:26:16.940 All the press would have heard it.

00:26:19.100 And to not answer that question, do you think you won the debate, would have looked really bad.

00:26:24.800 So I suppose there's a couple of theories.

00:26:27.040 I actually hope it's yours that she's just decided this is a fruitless fight with a standard.

00:26:32.360 Let's move on.

00:26:33.040 We'll just answer their bloody questions and be done with it.

00:26:35.920 I hope that's it.

00:26:37.160 But it could be either.

00:26:39.200 I definitely don't believe the theory, though, that she doesn't know who Arthur is or couldn't recognize his strong Newfie twang.

00:26:46.040 Yes.

00:26:46.960 Okay.

00:26:47.520 Well, we'll wrap it up there.

00:26:49.340 Dave and Nigel, thank you very much for joining.

00:26:51.280 It was a pleasure.

00:26:52.280 And thank all of you for joining us today.

00:26:53.620 Remember, if you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, go to westernstandard.news, click on membership.

00:26:58.520 It's only $10 a month or $100 a year for unlimited access to all of the Western Standard's bailout free content.

00:27:06.000 Thank you very much for joining us today. God bless.

00:27:09.040 This election, Albertans have a choice between a UCP government that has lowered taxes, balanced the budget, and returned Alberta to its place as the economic powerhouse of Canada.

00:27:19.620 Or we can choose to go backward with the same failed NDP policies that hiked taxes, drove out jobs and investment, and almost bankrupted our province.

00:27:30.140 We can't afford to go back.

00:27:32.000 Tonight, I want to talk about a better future for Alberta, where we fix health care, lower household costs, and create jobs.

00:27:40.000 This election is about trust, and it's about leadership.

00:27:43.380 We have to build a power grid based on it being reliable and affordable as opposed to based on ideology.

00:27:50.900 We have a federal government that is propped up by the NDP that has put war on natural gas.

00:27:56.780 Our power grid here is almost 90% natural gas.

00:28:00.960 And yet we have a federal government that wants us to be able to be completely abated on natural gas by 2035.

00:28:06.800 That is the commitment that Ms. Notley has signed on to.

00:28:09.280 A lot of Albertans aren't aware that in the pre-election period, the UCP put a cap on what

00:28:15.860 folks are paying for their electricity just for the last four months. What they don't know is that

00:28:20.860 in fact, come June, they're going to have to pay that back. And that's going to cost about half of

00:28:26.100 Alberta families about $200 million. What we know is that there is roughly $16 trillion of

00:28:33.700 international investment floating around out there looking to invest in renewable energy.

00:28:38.460 Well, I know Ms. Notley says she believes in science and she believes in experts,

00:28:41.920 but somehow the experts at the Alberta's electric system operator, she wants to discredit.

00:28:45.980 But you notice that she didn't disavow the 2035 target for net zero,

00:28:50.680 even though the Saskatchewan NDP did.

00:28:52.560 Saskatchewan NDP voted with Premier Scott Moe, saying it is unachievable.

00:28:56.060 If we want to have a realistic plan, a practical plan, we have to fight back against Ottawa.

00:29:01.120 This candidate will not.

00:29:03.000 We have to fight back against Ottawa and make sure that we put a target that's reasonable, realistic and achievable.

00:29:07.600 And that's carbon neutrality by 2050.

00:29:10.060 You want to fight with Ottawa.

00:29:11.540 You want to fight with the media.

00:29:13.380 You want to fight, frankly, with your former self.

00:29:16.420 It's actually quite exhausting.

00:29:18.740 Here's what I need Albertans to know.

00:29:20.660 I will always stand up for Alberta.

00:29:23.520 I will always stand up for the interests of Albertans.

00:29:26.680 I did that when I was premier.

00:29:28.580 I made sure we got a pipeline to Tidewater, the first one in 50 years.

00:29:33.280 I did that standing up against the B.C. government.

00:29:35.740 I did it standing up with a federal government, and that's my record, and that will also be my blueprint.

00:29:43.240 So beyond dollars spent, what are your creative and transformative approaches to restoring confidence in the system for Albertans?

00:29:52.200 And Ms. Smith, we'll let you have the first crack at that question.

00:29:55.640 When I first got elected, I was being told that the AHS system was on the brink of collapse.

00:30:01.460 you had unions saying that we needed to go back to mandates and start masking kids in school and

00:30:07.260 i said absolutely not we are not going back to that if the problem is hs then let's fix hs so

00:30:13.640 we talked to doctors and nurses and paramedics on the front line we listened to them and we

00:30:17.600 implemented their ideas and guess what it's working hospital wait times are down ems response times

00:30:23.300 are down we've effectively ended red alerts for ems in both of our major cities ambulances in

00:30:29.460 rural or staying in rural and we're reducing surgical wait times there is a problem we've

00:30:34.660 put forward a reasonable practical solution the answer is to get more albertans access to a family

00:30:41.040 doctor by doing that with our costed plan we can take the pressure off of our emergency rooms off

00:30:47.560 of our surgical wait times off of our ambulances and we can also make sure that nobody ever ever

00:30:53.540 ever has to pay to see a family doctor we have more health professionals today than we did

00:30:59.440 when Ms. Notley left office. 8,500 more, in fact, including 700 more doctors. And in April, our

00:31:05.160 plan to recognize credentials is working. We had 1,400 nurses who are now licensed and able to

00:31:10.840 practice in Alberta, more than any time in the previous three years. Your numbers around job

00:31:16.660 losses, I think we need to kind of talk a little bit about that, Danielle. Many, many experts have

00:31:21.000 reviewed that, and they've said they're absolutely ridiculous. In fact, at the end of our term, 0.88

00:31:25.560 We had, after a very difficult recession, we came out about 45,000 jobs ahead.

00:31:32.020 These kinds of policies end up chasing away investment and it costs average taxpayers and it costs average citizens the most.

00:31:38.720 Ms. Notley won't agree to that. 0.98

00:31:39.780 And the reason for that is she wants to increase corporate taxes, which are going to, once again, chase out investment just like it did last time.

00:31:46.360 Alex says, please tell us one specific policy your opponent has put forward that you agree with and why.

00:31:54.060 Very early on in the UCP mandate, it was under the former Premier Jason Kenney, they introduced the Alberta Indigenous Opportunities Corporation as a means to expand Indigenous participation in our economy.

00:32:07.140 We like it. We're going to expand it.

00:32:09.280 Another one was they expanded funding of the film and TV tax credit.

00:32:16.080 And that was a good idea.

00:32:17.940 It's brought more excitement into our industry.

00:32:20.240 We will absolutely maintain that.

00:32:22.320 I'm very proud of both of the initiatives that Ms. Dotley mentioned. The Indigenous Opportunities

00:32:28.240 Corporation has been so successful, I think, in addressing true economic reconciliation.

00:32:33.440 And the film and TV tax credit brought the last of us here, which I think all of us

00:32:37.200 feel pretty excited when we watch that on the big screen.

00:32:40.880 We are now going to head to our closing remarks. Each leader will have 90 seconds.

00:32:46.240 I first want to say how much of an honor it's been to be your premier for these last seven

00:32:51.280 months i've been overwhelmed by the generosity and kindness of albertans that i meet every single day

00:32:57.200 these last three years have been difficult for all of us and now the wildfires are testing our

00:33:03.200 resolve as a people once more but i know that together we will overcome every challenge we face

00:33:08.960 whether it's a pandemic flood fire or economic headwinds we will take care of one another and we

00:33:15.200 will move our province forward to a better future my commitment to each of you if re-elected is to

00:33:21.600 serve you with everything i have and to the best of my ability however imperfect that may be at

00:33:28.080 times i will continue to focus on growing and diversifying our amazing economy making life

00:33:34.320 more affordable and our communities safer and improving health care for all albertans and i

00:33:40.240 will carefully listen to you and my UCP caucus because whatever I may have said or thought in

00:33:46.240 the past while I was on talk radio, Albertans are my bosses now and my oath is to serve you

00:33:53.120 and no one else. I love this province and everything it stands for. We are a land of

00:33:59.200 entrepreneurs and innovators, of pioneers and farmers, of families and communities,

00:34:05.680 a place where the best and brightest come from every corner of the world to join us

00:34:09.760 and building one of the greatest places on earth to live and work and raise a family from a bottom

00:34:15.360 of my heart thank you tonight ask yourself who do you trust to build a better future who will focus

00:34:23.280 on the things that actually matter to you now miss smith has spent her entire career campaigning

00:34:30.720 for albertans to pay out of pocket for basic health care she's also campaigned to pull alberta 0.74

00:34:37.600 out of the canada pension plan something that would create huge instability in your retirement 0.88

00:34:43.840 today she was found to have broken the law by interfering with our justice system this is just

00:34:51.200 not how our province should be run every day is a new drama you just don't need to put up with this

00:34:58.400 enough is enough so my offer to you is stable predictable thoughtful leadership that you can

00:35:05.120 count on it's time to get back to the things that matter to people i will make life more affordable

00:35:11.360 capping car insurance and lowering your utilities i will support our entrepreneurial spirit by

00:35:17.520 cutting to zero small business taxes and creating more jobs and because i'm a passionate about

00:35:23.440 making sure your family has health care when you work that you always need without paying for it

00:35:28.560 i have a balanced costed plan to make sure you get a family doctor so that is a better future

00:35:34.880 for alberta now you may not always agree with me and i may not have always gotten it right

00:35:39.680 but i say what i mean and i mean what i say if i am premier again i will work daily to

00:35:46.560 earn your trust and to focus on your priorities well between stake on the shirt and the markets

00:35:52.720 being red i think there's going to be a lot of subtle indicators for someone to have a rare

00:35:57.600 steak tonight. Let's take a look at these prices here. Cash barley is holding steady at $4.05 a

00:36:02.880 metric. Feed wheat is down $1 to $4.04 a metric and corn is holding at $3.88 a metric. Moving to

00:36:09.500 the milling wheat markets, July Minneapolis futures are down $0.13 to $8.15 per bushel with

00:36:15.600 local hard red spring bid for May movement at $10.15 per bushel delivered. In the oil seeds,

00:36:21.300 nearby canola futures are, you guessed it, down $3 a ton to $700 a ton even with delivered

00:36:27.420 values for may movement at sixteen dollars per bushel continuing on to the pulse markets nearby

00:36:33.260 red lentil prices are trading at 34 cents per pound and yellow peas are holding at 11.25 per

00:36:39.420 bushel finishing up with the cattle markets june live cattle are actually the only futures months

00:36:44.220 that are down right now they're down 10 cents the rest of the futures months are actually green and

00:36:49.180 up at the moment but june is down 10 cents to 165 500 per hundred weight for more information on

00:36:57.020 pricing and picked up on farm options give me a call at 403-394-1711. I'm Mike Van Dyke at

00:37:03.580 Marketplace Commodities, accurate real-time marketing information and pricing options.

00:37:08.060 Canadian Shooting Sports Association, without the CSSA our gun rights would have been taken

00:37:13.020 long, long ago. These guys are on the front lines helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms

00:37:19.820 regulations and legislation in Canada and more importantly educating the public about how we

00:37:25.420 We keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.

00:37:27.720 To become a member, it's absolutely worth every penny.

00:37:32.600 You can become a Western Standard member for just $10 a month or $99 a year for unlimited access.

Western Standard - May 20, 2023

AB REPORT： Who do you think won the Alberta Leaders' Debate？

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