Western Standard - Battle River–Crowfoot by-election candidate forum

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00:30:00.000 Good evening, everyone, and welcome.

00:30:23.960 This evening, we acknowledge that we are gathered on Treaty 6 territory,

00:30:28.000 the traditional lands of many First Nations and Métis peoples.

00:30:32.600 We honour their history, cultures, and ongoing contributions to this region.

00:30:38.560 We are committed to reconciliation and to building a respectful relationship

00:30:42.700 in the spirit of partnership and understanding.

00:30:47.120 On behalf of the Cameras and District Chamber of Commerce,

00:30:50.280 thank you for joining us this evening's by-election candidates forum.

00:30:53.920 My name is Jennifer Fossen and I'm president of the Cameras and District Chamber of Commerce

00:30:58.820 and it is an honour to be here as we gather together in the spirit of civic engagement

00:31:04.400 and community dialogue.

00:31:06.980 As a non-partisan advocate for local business and regional prosperity,

00:31:11.600 the Chamber is proud to host tonight's forum.

00:31:14.760 By-elections may not always receive the same attention as a general election,

00:31:18.800 but they are just as critical.

00:31:20.060 They give us, the people of this riding, the opportunity to shape our representation and

00:31:26.900 ensure our voices are heard where our decisions are going to be being made.

00:31:31.880 Tonight is about listening, learning, and engaging.

00:31:37.440 It is your opportunity to hear directly from the candidates who are seeking to serve our

00:31:42.000 community, your neighbours, your families, and your businesses in Parliament.

00:31:50.840 Whether your priorities are health care, agriculture, rural economic development, or small business

00:31:56.380 supports, tonight is a time to learn where each candidate stands.

00:32:01.700 You might ask, why does the Chamber of Commerce host events like these?

00:32:06.760 Because we believe in nonpartisan education, informing voters without influence or endorsement.

00:32:13.680 Informed decision-making, providing tools to help you vote with confidence and with clarity.

00:32:19.720 Amplifying the business's voice, ensuring the challenges and the needs of our local

00:32:24.400 economy are a part of the conversation.

00:32:28.400 Community connection, encouraging respectful dialogue and broad civic participation.

00:32:35.320 accountability, giving candidates a platform to share their vision and

00:32:39.520 respond directly to your concerns. Trusted neutrality, offering a fair and

00:32:45.280 welcoming space where democracy can do its work. And with that, it is my pleasure

00:32:51.040 to introduce this evening's moderator, Shauna Feth, President and CEO of the

00:32:56.440 cameras or sorry of the Alberta Chambers of Commerce welcome welcome to this

00:33:08.680 cameras and district Chamber of Commerce federal by-election candidates forum so

00:33:13.900 as Jennifer said my name is Shauna Feth and I will be your moderator for this

00:33:17.740 evening so this program will give the candidates the opportunity to present

00:33:22.500 the political platforms on issues relating to the federal government. As your moderator I will keep

00:33:28.660 a close eye on the content of the candidates presentations. You know we are all here to give

00:33:33.860 the candidates an opportunity to express their views on these critical platform issues. All

00:33:39.620 presentations will receive specified times with a warning signal when the candidate is running close

00:33:45.060 to the end of their time and that's being with two big clocks on each side of the stage to pay

00:33:49.620 attention to. And so with that, I'd like to take a moment to familiarize everyone with the rules of

00:33:55.140 order for the forum. These were communicated to participating candidates prior to this evening.

00:34:01.060 So first of all, no signs may be brought in or posted in the auditorium attached to any walls,

00:34:06.420 curtains, or doors. The forum was called to order promptly at 7 p.m., and the doors to the room

00:34:12.980 have been closed, so anyone arriving late will not be able to be seated until intermission.

00:34:18.260 We will adjourn at 9.30 promptly as well.

00:34:22.720 So the candidates have been seated alphabetically, as you can tell, and will be at the speaker's table starting on the right facing the audience, and we will be introducing them in alphabetical order.

00:34:35.120 Candidates will have two minutes to expand on their political platform, and the format of the presentation is at the discretion of the candidates, so it's completely up to them how they use those two minutes.

00:34:45.460 The timer will give a 20-second warning, and a bell will ring at the end of the allotted time.

00:34:52.120 No candidate will be allowed more than their allotted time.

00:34:55.820 During the question period, I will read the submitted questions.

00:34:59.460 Each candidate will have a chance to answer in speaking order.

00:35:03.300 The candidate answer order will change in each round.

00:35:07.000 Answers to the question will then be limited to one minute to maximize the number that we can ask during the time that we have allotted.

00:35:14.600 We will move to the next question once those wanting to respond have been heard, and so not all candidates are required to respond to each question, but they cannot bank any time for future questions.

00:35:27.500 The question period will be limited to a maximum of up to 100 minutes.

00:35:32.320 Candidates will each have two minutes after question period to summarize their platform, and then as moderator, I will have final jurisdiction in all matters.

00:35:41.380 So now, a couple of guidelines for attendees.

00:35:45.340 Please be respectful of the candidates presenting their remarks, as well as fellow community

00:35:49.960 members here in attendance.

00:35:52.160 Any disruption that interferes with the candidate's ability to speak may result in time adjustments

00:35:57.780 at my discretion.

00:36:00.020 Individuals causing delays or disruptions will be asked to leave the theatre.

00:36:04.680 And please note, for your own awareness, that the emergency exits are located on the left

00:36:09.780 and right side of the theatre. So with all of that, please join me in welcoming the candidates

00:36:16.740 for this evening's forum. Welcome everybody.

00:36:39.780 Thank you.

00:37:09.780 Thank you.

00:37:39.780 or whether it's one that wants to see an Alberta strong, free and independent

00:37:52.800 that can actually stand up and make a difference in this world

00:37:57.720 and actually redefine Canada.

00:38:00.220 And so my discussion tonight, my platform is about a strong and sovereign Alberta

00:38:05.160 and its independence.

00:38:06.660 and I think there's a lot of things in Canada

00:38:08.960 that we're not talking about in relation to the public forum.

00:38:13.660 And I believe that farmers are producers and not polluters.

00:38:18.160 I believe that oil and LNG are a requirement for human prosperity.

00:38:23.660 I believe that reverse racism is racism.

00:38:27.560 I believe the nuclear family is the greatest form of governance

00:38:30.740 known to humanity.

00:38:31.600 I believe that compelled speech is not a Canadian value.

00:38:37.300 I believe that multiculturalism has failed, and I believe that there are only two sexes. 0.99

00:38:44.260 One of the challenges that we have here tonight is that there's a lot of trust,

00:38:47.820 and I had my trust in the Conservative Party of Canada as well.

00:38:51.860 But we are facing a threat in this nation of post-nationalism,

00:38:55.380 and in this last 10 years, we've had Justin Trudeau commit to Canada being the first post-nation state.

00:39:01.940 We've had a severe undermining foreign interference,

00:39:05.040 and Justin Trudeau has told us

00:39:08.580 that COVID would provide an opportunity for a reset.

00:39:11.600 There has not been one challenge to the world.

00:39:18.800 Thank you, Grant.

00:39:21.060 Jonathan Bridges.

00:39:23.900 Good evening, everybody.

00:39:25.760 Jonathan Bridges with the People's Party of Canada.

00:39:30.920 First and foremost, I am a Christian

00:39:32.800 and I believe that Canada was founded on Christian values.

00:39:36.860 With the People's Party, we believe that our platform is focused on freedom, fairness,

00:39:45.400 personal accountability, and respect.

00:39:49.780 So with all of that said, we see that there's not a lot of respect given to Alberta.

00:39:54.440 We want to rework the equalization formula to create it to be something that is a hand-up

00:40:00.800 to provinces that need it but doesn't maintain a essentially a welfare state going forward we also

00:40:08.000 want to see alberta be able to get its products to market with pipelines going across the country

00:40:14.480 and to ports i think it is absolutely atrocious that we're bringing in foreign oil to a country 0.66

00:40:20.400 that has more oil than just about anywhere else on the planet when it comes to small businesses

00:40:27.680 Because mostly what we're trying to do is to start off with paying off the deficit, which then brings lower taxes, which puts more money back in your pockets that you can then give back to your employees, which would create a much more robust economy in this country and bring back what I've seen there.

00:40:49.220 I know there's a strong appetite for separation in Alberta right now. 1.00

00:40:55.560 My goal is to bring Canada back to a place where Alberta wants to be.

00:41:01.500 And I do believe that is still possible.

00:41:04.620 However, I will say this, if Alberta does end up separating, I'm staying in Alberta.

00:41:11.760 And, yeah, that's me.

00:41:19.220 Thank you, Jonathan.

00:41:20.900 Bonnie Critchley.

00:41:22.560 Good evening, everybody.

00:41:23.640 I would like to echo Grant's comments, thanking the Chamber of Commerce for putting this together

00:41:30.180 and allowing us to have this time to discuss things all in one place without any spin or tall tales told.

00:41:39.940 Myself, I am running as an independent.

00:41:41.980 I don't have a party because I firmly believe that party politics would be damaging the Canadian politiscape.

00:41:48.120 We are not American.

00:41:49.560 We are not a two-party system.

00:41:52.340 And while I may have run as a centrist with Conservative leanings,

00:41:56.720 I firmly believe that the Conservative Party of Canada has lost its way,

00:42:00.920 and I fully intend on standing up for my neighbours.

00:42:04.740 When our previous guy sells us out to let the guy from Ottawa come in,

00:42:11.080 that is not right.

00:42:12.300 I firmly believe that we need somebody here who understands our local issues, who understands

00:42:19.660 the issues of right to repair, who understands that we do need proper oil sands development.

00:42:24.700 Yes, I saw you there.

00:42:26.280 I'm well aware where you are.

00:42:29.220 We do need proper oil sands development.

00:42:31.480 We need proper investment towards our farmers, and we need the federal government to wake

00:42:37.400 up and pay attention outside the western border of Ontario.

00:42:42.300 So that is who I am, and that is what I am here for.

00:42:46.200 I am here to stand up only for my neighbors.

00:42:49.740 My voice, your words, I don't have anything else to say.

00:42:58.420 Thank you, Bonnie.

00:43:00.580 Michael Harris.

00:43:02.780 I'm proud to be here representing

00:43:04.260 the Libertarian Party of Canada.

00:43:06.560 And why I'm running in this election

00:43:08.220 is because I am sick and tired of Ottawa taking advantage

00:43:12.300 Alberta on every level we have equalization where we are being our money is being taken away from

00:43:18.380 our province and being sent out east well small towns in this riding barely have enough money

00:43:22.700 to be able to repair the infrastructure whether that be roads or water development and we have

00:43:27.740 stuff where we have supply management where our farmers are being locked out of an industry where

00:43:32.940 which represents a majority of this riding and that also increase the costs of your groceries

00:43:38.380 when you go to the supermarket. We're also dealing with high taxes and high regulations

00:43:44.100 where businesses are struggling to get by. I was in Three Hills the other day and a couple

00:43:49.080 of businesses told me that they are on the brink of bankruptcy. And if their taxes go

00:43:54.640 up even 1%, they'll be out of business and they'll be leaving this writing. And I'm sick

00:43:59.180 and tired of that. And I also am here championing the idea of self-determination. A lot of people

00:44:05.860 in Alberta are wanting to see a referendum on next year's ballot to see if we want to

00:44:12.080 separate from this country. And I'm here to say that we are here to support it. Thank 0.92

00:44:17.580 you. Thank you, Michael. Ashley McDonald. Hi, everybody. My name is Ashley McDonald.

00:44:27.420 I'm the Green Party of Canada candidate. Thank you, everyone, for coming out tonight. And

00:44:31.620 Thank you also for the Chamber of Commerce for setting this up.

00:44:36.540 So if I'm the oddity at the table, I'm not a separatist.

00:44:39.520 I do believe that Alberta is best in Canada.

00:44:43.440 Maybe things aren't great, but we're sure a hell of a lot better off without...

00:44:48.580 Thank you, everybody.

00:44:51.160 So ultimately for me, the Green Party of Canada, we believe that change is possible, but we have to vote for it.

00:44:56.960 We can't keep trusting the same institutions that have been around doing what they've been doing for the past, you know, 100 plus years.

00:45:04.960 We as a society are at a precipice.

00:45:08.020 We're surrounded by growing authoritarianism in the world.

00:45:10.960 We're surrounded by climate disasters.

00:45:15.180 Like I said, the rise of authoritarianism.

00:45:18.060 Our hospitals are stretched beyond capacity.

00:45:21.660 Our society is at a breaking point in many ways.

00:45:25.580 and I believe that we need to come together

00:45:27.820 as a society and vote for change

00:45:30.180 like we are at a precipice

00:45:32.500 and we have to make a choice

00:45:34.540 do we want to go back or do we want to go forward

00:45:36.460 you know we may hear a lot of

00:45:38.640 rage farming from certain people

00:45:40.280 but we're not a party of that

00:45:42.040 we're a party of ideas, a party of people

00:45:43.960 we don't want to throw around a slogan

00:45:46.100 we want ideas from our leaders

00:45:48.000 we have ideas that we believe are the right ideas

00:45:50.500 so

00:45:51.560 hopefully I can convince a couple of you

00:45:54.620 to vote for us today. Thank you.

00:46:01.000 Thank you, Ashley.

00:46:02.640 Pierre Paglia.

00:46:05.360 Thank you.

00:46:11.380 Thank you.

00:46:12.640 Thank you very much to the Chamber.

00:46:14.920 Thank you to the fellow candidates,

00:46:16.580 though I think that there are about 190 of them that are missing.

00:46:20.440 Maybe that's the audience out there.

00:46:23.040 But in all truthfulness, thank you to those who are putting their names forward.

00:46:25.940 And thank you to the great Damien Couric, who has given me the chance to speak for the people of Canada and for Battle River Crowfoot.

00:46:34.940 But most of all, thank you to Battle River Crowfoot, the region that feeds powers and protects this country.

00:46:41.460 Feeds through the great ranchers and farmers' powers through the ingenious energy workers.

00:46:49.220 and protects to the brave soldiers at CFB Wainwright.

00:46:54.140 Makes me proud to be an Albertan.

00:46:56.080 Now, in fairness, I'm from Calgary, born and raised,

00:46:59.040 and Calgary is a little ways from Camrose,

00:47:02.960 but there's a lot of shared values across this province and across this country.

00:47:08.440 And my Alberta values taught me about faith, family, and freedom,

00:47:11.720 hard work, helping your neighbours,

00:47:13.820 and those values guided me to fight for the values of this region

00:47:18.780 when I was leader of the party and member of parliament over a couple of decades that

00:47:22.500 I forced the liberal government to get rid of their carbon tax, which is a local issue

00:47:30.360 in rural communities, forced the debate on developing our resources, slowing down out

00:47:36.320 of control immigration, cracking down on drugs and crime. And now I want to take the local issues

00:47:42.220 and provide national leadership to fight against the electric vehicle mandate because driving a

00:47:48.560 pickup truck is a local issue in the communities across this region. To fight for law-abiding

00:47:55.040 firearms owners, to fight for farmers, and to expand our military. These are local issues

00:48:02.100 that require national leadership, and it would be a privilege to provide.

00:48:11.720 Thank you, Pierre. Darcy Spadey.

00:48:14.700 Thank you, Shawna. Thanks to Jennifer for the opening speech and Aaron and Shawna at the Chamber office. You've been very accommodating. I appreciate it. My name is Darcy Spadey. I'm from Three Hills and I don't want to be Prime Minister.

00:48:29.320 I grew up in the Three Hills area. My family has been in the area for many years. I've worked in

00:48:39.200 the energy industry. I went to the University of Alberta and went for engineering degree and have

00:48:44.920 been a petroleum engineer for many years. I've worked in the energy industry in this riding

00:48:49.380 from Wainwright to Moran to Camrose out to Brooks area. I've been involved in stimulating,

00:48:57.320 in cementing, in constructing, in doing intervention in wells all about this

00:49:02.880 province and more recently in the emissions reduction field. My family

00:49:07.580 originally came to the Battle River in about 1905. They wandered in till about

00:49:13.280 1920. So the Spadeys settled the Battle River area between Castor and Alliance.

00:49:20.300 they still live there to this day. I grew up in Three Hills. My wife's family is in the Irma

00:49:28.320 Viking area. Our families are in the agriculture business west of Acme, Three Hills, Linden. So I

00:49:34.800 understand this riding well, and it's been my entire life. I did get elected in 2017 to become

00:49:42.900 the international president of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, which is about 170,000 people.

00:49:47.720 and I got to see what the rest of the world sees about us and our technology.

00:49:53.560 It also made me realize that the people of Battle River Curlfoot need a centrist option.

00:49:59.220 I haven't seen one since about 1978.

00:50:03.040 So I would really love to be your responsible representative in Parliament.

00:50:07.540 I would love to be your Member of Parliament

00:50:09.120 and sit on the government benches where I could participate in caucus of the government.

00:50:14.940 Thank you.

00:50:17.720 Thank you, Darcy.

00:50:20.720 Sarah Spanier.

00:50:22.720 Hi, everyone.

00:50:24.720 My name is Sarah Spanier, and I am running as an independent.

00:50:27.720 And one thing that I've heard all of these amazing people do is talk at you.

00:50:32.720 They haven't offered you guys any solutions on what they're going to do.

00:50:36.720 And that's what I want to do for you guys.

00:50:38.720 I am not here to tow party lines.

00:50:41.720 I am here to listen and to actually go get funding where it is needed.

00:50:46.720 We have lost out enormously on the amount of funding because it has not been brought back due to party lines.

00:50:55.580 And I want to bring that back for you guys.

00:50:57.260 I want to help you guys build your small businesses and your agriculture and oil and gas.

00:51:01.600 These are all super important issues here.

00:51:05.200 And I'm listening and the funding is there.

00:51:09.180 It's just been left there.

00:51:10.820 We have it.

00:51:11.500 We can take it.

00:51:12.260 We don't need to raise taxes to do that.

00:51:15.080 And with me being an independent, I don't answer to any party.

00:51:19.920 I answer to you guys.

00:51:21.240 You guys are my boss.

00:51:23.140 Nobody else.

00:51:23.880 There is no middleman here.

00:51:25.440 So you can ensure that when you are speaking to me, we don't have to filter through anybody else.

00:51:30.660 I'm here for you guys.

00:51:31.620 I already have a draft of a bill ready to go to help the Affordable Food for All Act, which would lower the price of price gouging, which we are currently seeing through Loblaws and stuff.

00:51:44.380 and I want to ensure that government spending is done appropriately and we're cutting back on that

00:51:50.280 and like I said I want to bring funding back to this area because it's there and we can grow

00:51:56.880 this small rural community that we all strongly believe in. Thank you.

00:52:04.120 Thank you Sarah. Catherine Swampy.

00:52:14.380 Thank you so much to the Chamber for setting all of this up, and thank you so much to all of my fellow candidates for coming out here and for standing up for you.

00:52:24.400 I know that Damien is in the crowd.

00:52:27.920 I'll have you know I took down four of your signs that were still up.

00:52:31.060 You're very welcome.

00:52:32.760 I will not be reporting them as still up.

00:52:36.160 If any of you see any of my signs out there, because there's so many, please take them down after everything's done.

00:52:42.100 Let me know. I'll go get them.

00:52:44.380 But as we all know, we're basically sacrificial lambs when we come out here.

00:52:51.860 It's almost a guaranteed loss.

00:52:54.500 So why are we running?

00:52:56.160 We're running as advocates.

00:52:58.160 We want to be a voice.

00:52:59.340 We want to bring issues that are otherwise ignored by the government.

00:53:03.640 Issues like affordability, budget deficit, economy and jobs, the environment, our health care, our housing.

00:53:14.380 Indigenous relations, our management or should say proper management of natural resources, our mental health and addictions, our public safety and crime, taxation, dare I say, Trump, small businesses and seniors. 0.95

00:53:34.760 And I'd also like to bring it to some of my fellow candidates' attention that we are all treaty people.

00:53:43.760 So that separation you're thinking about has a few more people that you need to kind of talk to before that can even become a conversation.

00:53:53.740 Thank you all so much.

00:53:59.640 I'm also going to be here to listen to your concerns.

00:54:03.020 What do you want advocated? Because we all know this run really isn't for a new candidate.

00:54:14.100 Thank you, Catherine. Jeff Willerton.

00:54:18.800 Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Jeff Willerton. I'm representing the Christian Heritage Party of Canada.

00:54:23.660 If you remember one line from tonight, I hope you remember this.

00:54:26.820 If you always vote for the lesser of two evils, you'll always have an evil government.

00:54:30.280 Like wrestlers who practice their moves beforehand and go out for a beer after the match, the mainline parties often work together.

00:54:38.340 Brian Mulroney, for instance, signed the Rio Declaration in 1992, leading directly to Justin Trudeau's economy-crushing carbon tax in 2019.

00:54:46.980 It's been said by many that we wouldn't have had one without the other.

00:54:50.240 In 2007, Stephen Harper, along with a certain minister named Pierre Polyev, signed the United Nations Sustainability Act,

00:54:56.940 leading to Christopher Freeland declaring a third of Alberta off limits to development a few years

00:55:01.420 ago. And in 2009, the same Stephen Harper signed what was called the Codex Alimentarius. That

00:55:07.420 strange sounding beast regarding the labeling of food and drugs paved the way for the red team's

00:55:11.980 assault on our natural health products industry in 2023. So one sets up the shot, the other takes

00:55:18.920 it. The cause and effect may at times be years apart, obscuring the connection, but that's how

00:55:23.220 it works when you have two major parties that are wings of the same bird at other times their

00:55:28.100 cooperation could be right in your face like when not a single member of either party raised so much

00:55:33.540 as a finger to stop bill c4 in 2021 which threatens you with the five years behind bars if you have

00:55:39.380 to tell little johnny that he's a boy so to be clear the tories aren't the solution they're part

00:55:44.020 of the problem they always have been both they and the red team have been working together for

00:55:48.340 decades to land us in this climate change carbon tax gay worshiping freedom of speech

00:55:54.980 crushing hell in which we find ourselves how did we get here by bouncing between the blue

00:56:00.420 team and the red team for 158 years how do we get out of this mess well by changing course obviously

00:56:06.180 but better parties can't take government without winning their first seat in my closing comments

00:56:10.980 i'll tell you more about what i am convinced is simply the best outside of the box political

00:56:15.780 option in this country bar none thank you and god bless

00:56:23.300 thank you jeff so now we're going to go into the q a portion

00:56:29.300 of the the forum so in announcing the forum the cameras and district chamber

00:56:34.180 of commerce extended an invitation to the public to

00:56:37.620 submit questions ahead of this evening so i just wanted to say thank you to

00:56:41.700 those of you in attendance who submitted questions

00:56:44.500 or anyone who submitted questions for our candidates for the forum. Candidates will each

00:56:49.860 have one minute to respond to each question. We will move to the next question once those

00:56:54.900 wanting to respond have been heard. Again I will say candidates are not required to respond

00:57:00.740 but they cannot bank time for the next question either. So without further ado let's jump right

00:57:06.740 into the questions. So this first one we're going to start with you Grant on this one

00:57:11.780 is on economy and jobs. So, many Canadians recall when a single income such as that of a postal

00:57:19.400 worker, assembly line worker, or rig hand was sufficient to support a family. Today, that is

00:57:25.760 increasingly no longer the case. So, what specific measures would you propose to meaningfully

00:57:32.520 improve affordability and economic security for everyday Canadians?

00:57:37.080 Well, I'll tell you what, I think we need to look at immigration because our young people

00:57:43.040 can't get jobs because new immigrants are subsidized in all of the entry-level jobs. 0.98

00:57:48.180 Let's start there.

00:57:50.240 Let's start by talking about making sure we don't have flights to Amaristar back and forth

00:57:56.780 because we do have an immigration problem.

00:57:58.840 It is driving up our housing crisis.

00:58:01.340 We had a long time, Mr. Polyev, telling us that there was no link between demand and

00:58:06.340 supply in our housing and or the immigration issue. We simply have to look at that. I know

00:58:12.460 this question is about the economy, but let's start in terms of where our kids and our grandchildren

00:58:16.740 are in terms of trying to get on the ladder. There are many things that we need to fix. We

00:58:21.380 need to repatriate our industrial base to this country. We need to incentivize entrepreneurship

00:58:26.520 again, and we need to stop the flight of funds out of this country. The problem is that people

00:58:32.200 are leaving this country because we have deeper problems that we never talk about in this nation

00:58:36.840 and it's rooted in post-nationalism thank you grant jonathan

00:58:47.400 so fixing the economy um mirror a lot of what grant said i mean there is obviously

00:58:54.040 a lot of people coming to this nation over 1.2 million a year for the last several years

00:58:58.520 It is crowding out people in the housing market.

00:59:01.960 It is crowding people out of the jobs market.

00:59:03.740 So those are two very big things that contribute to affordability.

00:59:07.660 The other thing the People's Party would see done is lowering taxes.

00:59:12.360 The average Canadian is paying somewhere north of 42% of their paycheck straight to the government.

00:59:19.040 The American Revolution was fought over 3%.

00:59:21.460 We have got to the point of what I believe is ridiculous with taxes.

00:59:26.680 So with lower taxes, then we'd have more money to go forward.

00:59:32.420 And also, bringing more jobs back to Canada, we need our industry back so that we can shore up our supply chains

00:59:40.280 so we don't have a repeat of what happened during COVID where we couldn't find products to buy even.

00:59:48.040 Thank you, Jonathan.

00:59:50.060 Bonnie.

00:59:51.660 I've never done this sitting down speaking thing well, so I'll stand up.

00:59:55.840 yes basing our economy off of immigration numbers not a good idea but before we worry about our

01:00:04.140 economy we need to worry about our government spending when the federal government is bloated

01:00:10.320 and sending out third-party contracts such as veterans affairs contracting out care of veterans

01:00:17.040 to loblaws we need to deal with it the bloating has to stop we need our middle managers

01:00:25.440 to actually leave instead of just cutting the teeth.

01:00:29.220 We also need our MPs to stop spending excessive amounts of money

01:00:33.160 when we have one person who spends more than the next two of your money.

01:00:38.700 Then we can look at cutting our taxes

01:00:40.780 and making our employment that much easier to manage.

01:00:47.820 Thank you, Bonnie.

01:00:49.300 Michael.

01:00:50.580 So first and foremost, we need to get rid of the welfare state.

01:00:54.420 main issues number one is that this government is spending way too much money. We are both in debt

01:01:00.180 and in a deficit at the same time where we are making no money. At the same time, we are paying

01:01:05.740 the highest amount of taxes that we have ever paid in our entire life. So we need to be lowering the

01:01:10.740 amount that our government is spending. I see all the time where money is being wasted and wasted

01:01:16.400 in random projects across the country where they're not actually going towards the services

01:01:21.780 that are needed here in this riding.

01:01:24.060 And to top on to that, after we got the welfare state,

01:01:27.420 we need to get rid of all taxes here in this country,

01:01:30.200 starting at the income tax level, going towards business taxes,

01:01:34.120 because you pay taxes on everything that you do,

01:01:36.440 whether it be on your paycheck, when you go to the store,

01:01:39.400 driving your car, anything.

01:01:40.920 You are paying taxes, and we want to fight to get rid of as many as possible.

01:01:44.000 Thank you.

01:01:46.760 Thank you, Ashley.

01:01:48.180 Pierre.

01:01:48.560 that was michael it's my turn now oh i'm so sorry

01:01:53.480 i feel bad we got your names turned around on the script so my apologies michael that would

01:02:01.540 be ashley again oh okay you have to have one faux pas i can't be perfect right sorry about

01:02:09.620 that ashley just so we're clear when we go into the ballot box i'm ashley mcdonald

01:02:14.500 just think of the golden arches it's close enough to my spelling it'll work

01:02:24.580 all right so basically for me the the green party platform believes in a restructuring

01:02:30.380 in canada's resource economy basically to establish national strategy reserves and

01:02:35.320 critical resources phase out raw resource exports by prioritizing domestic reserves

01:02:40.960 processing and manufacturing that will in turn create more jobs create more industry within

01:02:45.600 canada take our raw materials out of the hands of foreign governments who can control everything and

01:02:50.800 sell it back to us at a higher cost then in addition to that we are also very firmly against

01:02:56.240 you know wanting to end poverty we'll do that through a series of measures such as

01:03:00.480 strengthening the canadian disability benefits creating programs for families through

01:03:06.080 through poverty reduction incentives,

01:03:10.420 as well as the creation of.

01:03:15.800 Thank you, Ashley.

01:03:17.640 Pierre.

01:03:20.600 The cause of inflation is government.

01:03:24.140 Cost, yes, it's very simple.

01:03:27.120 Supply and demand.

01:03:28.620 The government is boosting demand and limiting supply.

01:03:33.620 They're boosting demand through out-of-control immigration and money printing that adds more money in people than new products for them to buy.

01:03:43.480 And they are restricting the supply of things by blocking everything from home building to natural resource development.

01:03:52.340 So what's the solution?

01:03:53.860 We need to cut back on immigration. 1.00

01:03:55.620 In fact, we need to have negative population growth for the next several years as more people leave than come.

01:04:00.160 we need to slash bureaucracy consultants foreign aid corporate welfare and handouts to fraudulent

01:04:09.460 refugees and we need to unlock our resources to produce cheap energy and affordable homes so

01:04:15.980 let's produce more stuff rather than adding more people and more money

01:04:20.020 thank you Pierre Darcy thank you I think one of the reasons I took this position to be the

01:04:33.640 candidate for the Liberals is because I'm impressed with the leader I come from about

01:04:37.760 a 35-year career in business and I'm very thankful for it and I like Mark Carney's

01:04:45.040 government and his approach to leading from a position of experience.

01:04:50.280 He has been the bank central banker for two major economies in the G7.

01:04:56.080 This is significant. And when I see his actions now, I'm impressed.

01:05:02.200 So for me as a farmer, I want commodity prices for my crops to be good.

01:05:07.560 And he is working on that by getting the economy going east to west,

01:05:11.680 as well as unrupturing the foreign markets.

01:05:15.040 Also, as an oil and gas guy, I want my product shipped to Tidewater, and Bill C-5 has already started the movement in that direction. Thank you.

01:05:27.360 Thank you, Darcy. Sarah?

01:05:31.320 My big thing on affordability is actually bringing funding back, like I said. We need more support for farmers. There are grants, there's funding out there that I am more than happy to bring back for you guys.

01:05:44.200 i have something called the affordable food for all act bill which would reduce the cost burden

01:05:49.720 of groceries on everyday canadians and it would ensure that edible food waste still gets put back

01:05:56.840 into food banks and stuff like that so you don't have to worry as much about how much your grocery

01:06:01.240 bill is going to cost i also want to put forth a second bill that would actually limit government

01:06:06.680 spending the 187.8 million dollars that our government just spent in taxpayer dollars

01:06:13.080 we need to cut that big time and i want to be the one to do that thank you

01:06:19.480 thank you sarah katherine

01:06:24.200 who will build an economy that works for the people not the powerful the heart of the economy is the

01:06:31.800 working people. When people are feeling this worried about whether they can pay the bills,

01:06:38.040 who is the economy really working for? And things are about to get even tougher.

01:06:44.280 Under the Liberals and Conservatives, the powerful and wealthy keep getting further ahead,

01:06:50.760 and the rest of us keep falling further behind. For them, the economy is about investors and

01:06:57.320 corporations and their profits and that doesn't work for me it shouldn't work for you i'm focused

01:07:06.040 on growth that works for you and your family where you have a chance to get ahead right now

01:07:11.880 that means a plan to buy canadian and build canadian to fight for every job including

01:07:18.040 jobs in the public sector saving canadian jobs is so vital especially considering

01:07:27.320 Thank you, Catherine.

01:07:29.280 Jeff?

01:07:30.440 Thank you for the question.

01:07:32.740 Ladies and gentlemen, the Christian Heritage Party is the only party that I'm aware of that advocates eliminating income taxes and business taxes and replacing them with a consumption tax called the fare tax.

01:07:42.860 That will absolutely leave more money in each of your pockets to make groceries more affordable.

01:07:47.680 I think that was the question, where the question started.

01:07:50.860 Economy and jobs.

01:07:51.780 Anyways.

01:07:52.460 anyways um so this will stimulate the economy and it's been said that the first country that

01:07:59.440 goes down this road is the winner because everybody's going to want to be there and

01:08:02.780 open up their businesses there i think it would be uh just a fantastic idea but on that's still

01:08:08.400 that's on the taxation side but on the spending side margaret thatcher turned england around 0.99

01:08:14.960 javier malay has turned argentina around first balanced budget in 128 years there's another

01:08:20.440 government, I don't know its name, down in El Salvador that's turned El Salvador around,

01:08:24.700 believe it or not, it can be done. We can downsize government and balance the budget and make it.

01:08:35.180 Thank you, Jeff. So the next question, we're going to start with you, Jonathan,

01:08:39.920 just to give you a heads up. So this one's immigration and population growth. So Alberta's

01:08:45.640 population, and we've kind of, we've already heard some of this already and some of the answers, but

01:08:49.760 Alberta's population is growing rapidly, raising concerns about pressure on public services,

01:08:56.000 the treatment of newcomers, and the ability of infrastructure to keep pace.

01:09:00.700 Do you support increased immigration, and how would you ensure newcomers are protected and supported

01:09:06.180 while ensuring services can meet the demands of a grown population?

01:09:10.660 the people's party's position on immigration at the moment is that we probably we need to actually

01:09:20.600 just press pause we shouldn't have more people coming to a country that can barely keep 1.00

01:09:24.880 our own fed we have veterans that can't afford a house to live in can't afford food to eat 1.00

01:09:31.880 it's unconscionable

01:09:34.660 I do believe that there is a place

01:09:40.600 for true refugees if they need assistance

01:09:43.500 to come in while there is unrest in their home

01:09:46.900 country but I also believe very strongly that when

01:09:49.960 that unrest is done they should be going back home

01:09:53.000 we have a great country and it's not going to stay that

01:09:56.980 way if we just keep letting absolutely everybody in

01:09:59.860 without any qualification at all.

01:10:02.860 That being said, my family was immigrants once upon a time

01:10:07.040 and I'm not opposed to controlled immigration.

01:10:13.240 Thank you, Jonathan.

01:10:16.340 Bonnie.

01:10:18.980 Well, I think Jonathan said it best,

01:10:20.720 controlled immigration.

01:10:22.380 It definitely needs to slow down.

01:10:24.880 We are not in a position right now

01:10:26.820 to take care of our own, much less other people.

01:10:29.860 But again, before we can look at immigration and costs,

01:10:34.520 we need to deal with our government bloat before we can deal with immigration. 0.99

01:10:38.800 We need to deal with all those middle managers who give immigrants stacks of paper this big 1.00

01:10:43.700 when they are doctors, they are the skills we are desperately needing,

01:10:49.660 but our government fails to acknowledge their skills, their education.

01:10:55.240 Yes, we need to slow down immigration. 1.00

01:10:57.600 Stopping it entirely is a bad thing.

01:11:00.500 Not acknowledging the skill sets that people bring to continue to deal with our country and the issues we've got is also something that needs to be dealt with.

01:11:11.440 We've got to cut the government bloat, then we can afford to feed everybody.

01:11:19.260 Thank you, Bonnie. Michael.

01:11:22.420 Honestly, I'm going to agree with Bonnie on this because a lot of the times people like to blame immigrants for a lot of problems in this country.

01:11:29.160 And most of the time, you can probably blame the welfare state.

01:11:32.940 A lot of the times, our government is just handing out cash to new people in this country.

01:11:37.940 I think there's a bill that was recently passed in Ontario where Doug Ford has given around $10 or so billion for hotel development for newer people coming into this country.

01:11:47.660 That is, in my opinion, a complete waste of money.

01:11:50.400 We need to be able to, if people are wanting to move this country, they need to be bringing their own money to come here safely.

01:11:55.620 And I personally believe it should be the decision of Alberta to choose who is coming into this province and who is not.

01:12:03.640 Thank you.

01:12:06.580 Thank you, Michael.

01:12:08.080 Ashley.

01:12:09.400 Okay.

01:12:12.780 So for me, immigration is one of Canada's greatest strengths.

01:12:16.520 It brings new skills, energy, ideas, and cultural richnesses to our communities.

01:12:22.600 At a time when many of our regions are suffering labour shortages and aging populations,

01:12:27.560 immigration can help build a more vibrant, sustainable future for newcomers and long-time

01:12:32.200 residents alike. But immigration must be planned and responsible. The Liberal government made a

01:12:38.600 serious error when they took the advice of McKinsey and Company and set an annual immigration target

01:12:43.320 of 500,000 people with no plan on where these people are going to live, what communities are

01:12:47.880 going to go to and how we are going to build and adapt these communities to all these newcomers

01:12:53.400 there was no published targets for temporary residents until just last year we believe in

01:12:57.720 learning from these mistakes immigration targets must be thoughtful transparent and aligned with

01:13:02.120 canada's real capacity and long-term planning for both temporary and permanent immigration

01:13:07.560 immigration is great when it's done right

01:13:09.400 thank you ashley here i agree and we did it right for 150 plus years whether it was the frontier

01:13:20.140 pirate frontier pioneers who came and settled the prairies or the great italians and portuguese who

01:13:26.960 came and built roads and founded families across canada or the or my wife who came as a refugee

01:13:32.840 her dad picked fruit in a farm field so that he could pay the rent and now they're a successful

01:13:37.940 story. But over the last 10 years, the Liberals have adopted a post-nationalist ideology. They

01:13:44.720 call it the century initiative to triple our population, to favor globalist interests and

01:13:50.200 multinational corporations at our expense. They've driven down wages with excess temporary foreign

01:13:54.940 workers, with abusing the international student program and allowing fraudulent and often criminal

01:14:02.360 arrivals to come in and abuse our system. That abuse must stop. We must have more people leaving 1.00

01:14:09.300 than coming over the next several years as we bring down our population and allow our health

01:14:13.600 care, our housing, our job market. Thank you, Pierre. Darcy. So I love meeting new Canadians

01:14:28.020 and I love working with new Canadians, they are a whole group of energy that you don't often see.

01:14:34.060 But we have to balance that with people who originally were here, people like myself who

01:14:38.880 came later, and it all has to work together. And I do believe it's time for a little bit of a pause

01:14:44.020 and an adjustment on the immigration. I believe we went a little too rapidly. I'm involved in the

01:14:49.600 University of Alberta and in the Petroleum Engineering Advisory Council, and one of the

01:14:55.820 things that has given the universities all across the country a lot of grief is this student visa

01:15:00.800 fiasco. So I believe the Kearney government is presently pausing things and looking at things

01:15:06.200 and that's critical. If I put myself back in my shoes my family arrived in the Battle River Valley

01:15:12.740 smelling of garlic sausage and getting off the train speaking all kinds of funny languages

01:15:17.220 and we were the backbone of this country so I think we need to continue but it has to be a

01:15:24.400 balanced approach that needs adjusting thank you Darcy Sarah I believe in

01:15:32.220 putting Canadians first I believe that we should lower immigration levels just 1.00

01:15:36.880 a little bit but also reinvest in Canadians we have tons of people who are

01:15:42.460 living here who have untapped skills and we can create programs that could

01:15:48.040 would reinvest into our economy.

01:15:50.980 If we create programs, more programs,

01:15:53.920 where doctors can come from different

01:15:56.520 countries, but they're already here,

01:15:58.520 and reintegrate faster, we can have

01:16:00.560 more doctors, we can have more

01:16:02.080 healthcare professionals.

01:16:03.660 You know, we have people here who

01:16:06.220 can help us, and we need to focus on

01:16:09.460 immigration with balance and compassion,

01:16:11.940 but we also need to recognize that we

01:16:13.760 do need to slow it down a little bit.

01:16:15.360 Thank you.

01:16:18.040 Thank you, Sarah. Catherine.

01:16:22.040 I think a handful of my colleagues up here need to check their privilege.

01:16:28.040 Immigration is vitally important to our country, and when you look on a global scale,

01:16:35.040 there's a war happening in Gaza, in Ukraine, and significant unrest in the United States.

01:16:43.040 Where will these people be able to go?

01:16:46.040 we should be welcoming people here in canada we should allow them to come here and that doesn't 1.00

01:16:52.440 mean that there won't be programs or services for everyone else it's not pie it doesn't mean

01:16:59.480 that it's cut and they get everything and you get nothing that's not the way it works

01:17:04.360 canada is vast there's more than enough area this writing is vast it takes me eight hours

01:17:11.000 just to get across it there's more than enough space and if anything the farmers need hands

01:17:17.720 every farmer i spoke to needs help

01:17:24.040 thank you catherine jeff thank you shauna um the liberals have done everything they can to ruin

01:17:31.640 this country they spent they tax as much as they can thank you i don't have much to say this time

01:17:40.440 around so keep it up i'm just kidding um they've done everything they can to ruin this country as

01:17:45.320 fast as they can they tax as much as they can they spend as fast as they can they give it what

01:17:49.560 away as much money as they can and they open the doors to everybody who wants to come here

01:17:54.760 uh i believe in controlled immigration but i believe that there needs to be a 0.58

01:17:59.160 uh a pause on immigration until we get our own house in order and get things under control here 0.99

01:18:04.440 so i i agree that people in war-torn countries my neighbor catherine here um they would they would

01:18:12.680 not be refugees so much as uh sorry they would not be immigrants so much as refugees and so

01:18:17.640 there's there's an argument for that but we need to take make a complete just about a complete

01:18:23.640 pause on on immigration at this moment thank you thank you jeff grounds i'm going to stand up here

01:18:31.880 because my legs are sore. Well, I'll say this. My family is an immigrant family. We pioneered land

01:18:39.560 about 125 miles from here. And I'm a very proud Western Canadian. I'll tell you this,

01:18:45.320 you guys are being sold a bill of goods here tonight from Mr. Polyev because he's talking

01:18:50.520 to you about unleashing our energy sector. I would like to know how Mr. Polyev is going to do that

01:18:56.680 when he refuses to tell us whether he'll leave the UN climate accord that completely restricts

01:19:03.560 our carbon. I would like to know about inflation. Inflation is government. No, no, no. Inflation is

01:19:09.400 government debt. And the reason we have lost 40% of our spending in this nation is because of

01:19:16.840 rampant spending that is destabilizing our country. And that is exactly why we have a US

01:19:23.720 president looking at a post-national government that is careening towards destruction. We need

01:19:30.780 to have deeper... Thank you, Grant. So this next question, Bonnie, we're going to start with you.

01:19:41.240 This one is around government accountability and democracy. So given that several candidates do

01:19:47.720 not reside within the boundaries of this writing, what does local representation mean to you

01:19:53.400 and what specific actions will you undertake to ensure the perspectives and priorities

01:19:58.140 of the constituents are authentically represented?

01:20:02.820 Oh, goody. You found my favorite one.

01:20:06.760 I absolutely 100% agree.

01:20:10.520 If you want to run for an area, you need to live here.

01:20:14.060 this longest ballot crap that's got to stop we need one person who will

01:20:27.760 be the official agent that way we don't have one person sponsoring 200 people

01:20:34.400 but first and foremost you don't know what's going on here unless you live here

01:20:40.520 As for government accountability, I absolutely would use my position as a swing vote within a minority government to push for government accountability.

01:20:54.140 I want to release everybody's spending.

01:20:58.320 Thank you very much.

01:21:01.620 Thank you, Bonnie.

01:21:03.100 Michael.

01:21:04.200 I believe first and foremost, you have to be able to live in the writing to be able to represent it.

01:21:09.160 Number two, you have to be able to show up to all the events.

01:21:12.760 You have to be able to go from town to town.

01:21:14.720 This is a big writing and talk to every single person in this writing that you can.

01:21:19.120 And I've seen we out of the 200 or so candidates that are running in this election, I don't think even 75 percent of them are stepping foot in the province.

01:21:27.140 And that's got to stop.

01:21:28.440 I don't know what Thomas or whatever his official name is, is trying to chorus in our writing here.

01:21:35.640 But that's got to stop. I'm sorry.

01:21:37.260 And for representation and accountability for my bid for the member of parliament position would be, I'm not running for a wage.

01:21:46.920 I'm wanting to be a member of parliament for free.

01:21:49.680 I'm not willing to take a wage.

01:21:50.840 I don't want a pension.

01:21:52.060 I want to make sure that at the end of the day you have good representation, and I'm doing it for free.

01:21:55.860 Thank you.

01:21:58.140 Thank you, Michael.

01:21:59.480 Ashley.

01:22:01.800 Well, right off the bat, I'll admit I do not live in this riding.

01:22:04.960 I live in Red Deer.

01:22:05.880 so i'm adjacent to the riding i'm not thousands of kilometers away but uh no i do not live in the

01:22:12.760 within brc myself one of the quickest easiest ways possible to make sure something like this

01:22:19.320 doesn't happen with the long ballot committee is electoral reform the green party's been pushing

01:22:23.740 for this for decades the liberal party campaigned on it in 2015 came into office swearing this was

01:22:29.460 the last election by first past the post gave it to an inexperienced junior mp who had no idea what

01:22:35.380 they were doing, then underfunded it, under-advertised it, had tiny little town halls that hardly anybody

01:22:40.420 went to, and then just, poof, it disappeared. So now here we are, 210 people, most of them

01:22:47.040 out of here as a protest because they're angry at first past the post, now it ignores people.

01:22:51.940 This system needs to be changed. A Green MP would fight for that every day that they're in Parliament.

01:22:59.080 Thank you, Ashley. Pierre.

01:23:00.840 Thank you very much. Look, I'll be honest, having a leader of a political party as your local Member of Parliament is a trade-off. On the one hand, the leader, in truth, lives in hotel rooms and low-budget hotel rooms across the country. I can assure you they live in St. John's, Newfoundland one night and in Sault Ste. Marie the next and maybe Port Alberni after that.

01:23:27.460 at the the other side though is that leader can bring a very powerful megaphone to the local

01:23:33.860 issues of the community for example

01:23:36.480 getting a pipeline built from hardesty over to prince rupert or to uh to uh kitimat that is a

01:23:47.200 local issue that requires national leadership protecting your right to own a hunting rifle

01:23:53.540 That is a local issue that requires national leadership.

01:23:56.960 Fixing the prison in Drumheller is a local issue that needs national leadership.

01:24:01.300 I will provide that strong...

01:24:02.540 Thank you, Pierre.

01:24:09.100 Darcy.

01:24:11.160 I'm Darcy Spadey.

01:24:12.940 I'm from Three Hills, and I don't want to be Prime Minister.

01:24:18.200 Kudos to you, Pierre Corbin.

01:24:20.200 I really have had a great career, I've been part of this East Central Alberta community

01:24:27.820 for my whole life, and I really want to just represent the key issues here onto the government

01:24:34.760 benches.

01:24:36.100 I feel very strongly as an energy, oil and gas guy, I've known what happens here in

01:24:44.520 the exploration in the coal bed methane here across this region, in the deeper Duvenay

01:24:48.680 to the south, and I've watched the production grow, the reservoirs, the field engineers who do

01:24:55.100 the work, the service companies, I want to see that prosper. And I want to see the agriculture

01:24:59.880 sector prosper. I'm not asking for much. I'm asking to be your local responsive representative

01:25:07.120 on the government benches. Thank you. Thank you, Darcy. Sarah?

01:25:13.840 for me i want to be your representative i don't want to be a representative for anybody else

01:25:19.900 other than the people of battle river crowfoot i do not care what side of the political spectrum

01:25:24.580 you guys are on we are all on different sides of the spectrum and that is a-okay but i am here to

01:25:29.440 listen and to help and to bridge the gap between this political spectrum that we are continuing to

01:25:34.180 see a divide in it is time that we actually pay attention and listen to what each other are saying

01:25:39.600 and understand that we are essentially all fighting for the same thing.

01:25:44.080 We're just saying it a different way.

01:25:45.500 And I want to be somebody here who can be accountable, be representative for you guys.

01:25:51.560 And like I said, at the end of the day, you guys are my boss.

01:25:55.380 Nobody else. I answer to nobody else but you.

01:25:58.440 Thank you.

01:26:00.520 Thank you, Sarah.

01:26:01.960 Catherine.

01:26:04.480 Well, I'm from Muskegee, Alberta.

01:26:07.060 and once upon a time that used to be a part of this riding it's no longer a part of the riding

01:26:11.960 I was back in 2015 when I ran against Kevin thank you for being here

01:26:18.200 but I mean I'm a hop skip and a jump away from the border it literally is two minutes walk from

01:26:27.380 my house but with all that said I'm an hour out of cameras or 40 minutes out of cameras

01:26:36.200 but Drumheller is two three hours away from you guys so I don't know if that matters all that

01:26:44.480 much I'm not in Ontario I'm not from Ontario and I come to the riding or I come throughout this

01:26:51.460 entire riding on the regular I'm here every other day so I'll still be here even after all of this

01:26:58.980 Thank you, Catherine. Jeff?

01:27:03.980 Ladies and gentlemen, I call Airdrie home, and I also don't want to be Prime Minister.

01:27:09.980 But the issue of, and of course I will relocate here in a heartbeat if I win, that's not a problem,

01:27:15.980 but the issue of first-past-the-post came up. The Tories, the issue came up in Parliament,

01:27:22.980 and there was a free vote on it not long ago and the tories almost to the man only three

01:27:30.820 dissented but uh the tories uh resisted and rejected the idea of even talking about first

01:27:38.500 past the post about talking sorry proportional representation which would help small parties

01:27:43.460 like ours get a voice in this country um so they're good with first past the post because it

01:27:49.540 works for them that's not good for for for the country it's not good for democracy but anyways

01:27:55.140 and in i i can hardly believe it was a free vote um i think they were whipped thank you

01:28:02.900 thank you jeff grants i think the people of battle river and crowfoot are interested in

01:28:09.060 the truth the truth is the conservative party voted for bill c4 that will criminalize you if you

01:28:14.340 stop your child transitioning each of you will go to jail for five years 1.00

01:28:18.020 pier polia talks about faith family and freedom that's a sham and i think the other conversation

01:28:23.620 we continue to need to have is what is really going on what's going on in this country

01:28:28.980 is that our sovereignty is being portrayed on a national level and the only response

01:28:33.940 is the people of alberta that have the faith the resiliency the strength the wealth and the grit

01:28:40.420 to actually stand up to the selling out of the nation and so while we're talking about this

01:28:44.980 tonight remember we are talking about two canadas because what's happening in this country is a

01:28:50.580 pandering to ontario and quebec to get this gentleman elected and you're paying the price

01:28:55.860 that's what's going on thank you brad jonathan

01:29:02.100 so electoral reform it's been a problem for quite some time where we see large portions of this

01:29:13.640 country voting and actually more i believe more votes for the conservative party than the liberals

01:29:18.700 in this last election yet the liberals have the government it doesn't really make sense that

01:29:23.560 that's the case. I will be honest, between raising five children and working full time,

01:29:32.020 I haven't been able to go out and hammer out the details on electoral reform, but I would

01:29:36.220 definitely bring that up before Parliament if I was elected. And for those who are interested,

01:29:43.520 I was born and raised in the Battle River Crowfoot area. I spent all of my life here. So

01:29:49.040 it's very near and dear to my heart and I very much want to stay here and see it become

01:29:55.520 a very prosperous region in this country of Canada.

01:30:02.460 Thank you, Jonathan. So next question, we're going to start with you, Michael.

01:30:07.860 This one is around healthcare and social services. So Canada's public healthcare system is a core

01:30:13.880 part of our identity yet many are concerned about the quiet rise of privatization services being

01:30:20.280 outsourced user fees increasing and private clinics becoming more common do you believe

01:30:26.760 this trend threatens universal health care and what would you do to protect and strengthen our

01:30:32.280 public system thank you uh first of all i want to point out uh the libertarian party is in favor of

01:30:40.040 private health care. I personally believe in a little bit of a hybrid system where we still have

01:30:45.440 free health care for those that can't afford basic access to health care while still allowing

01:30:50.100 health care for those that can afford it. If they want to pay for it, they should be able to get it

01:30:55.000 fast and easy. Because right now, there are currently waits for up to about eight hours on

01:31:00.860 average just to see a doctor. Not to get treatment, but just to see a doctor. And that's across the

01:31:06.580 board in this communal system that we call the public health care system. And if people are able

01:31:12.240 to afford better health care or be able to get it faster, why not? We can still keep our public

01:31:17.360 health care system, but why not let those that can afford it get better health care? Thank you.

01:31:23.480 Thank you, Michael. Ashley.

01:31:28.640 Okay. So here in Alberta for a number of years, we've heard about, you know, privatizing health

01:31:35.600 care. Our system is broken. Our system is being attacked. It's not broken by its very nature.

01:31:42.240 It's being attacked by forces that want to privatize it. And I get what Michael's saying

01:31:46.540 about how he supports a blended system of sorts, where there's hybrid, sorry, hybrid system

01:31:52.500 of a blended private and public. But if we don't have enough doctors and nurses and social workers 0.99

01:31:58.680 and psychologists and pharmacists now, we're going to have even less when the for-profit side

01:32:04.120 can pay them more than what the government can pay them.

01:32:06.880 So this doesn't actually fix the system.

01:32:08.360 It's going to make it even worse.

01:32:09.940 A green government believes that everyone deserves a doctor,

01:32:13.240 deserves access to pharma care,

01:32:14.620 deserves access to dentistry,

01:32:18.080 mental health services, therapy, and so on.

01:32:20.480 We would pass a primary care health act

01:32:23.460 that would guarantee every citizen's access to these much...

01:32:27.480 Thank you, Ashley.

01:32:31.660 Pierre.

01:32:32.260 quite frankly it's the liberal government in ottawa that has denigrated our health care system

01:32:38.180 to start with to start with uh with the the out of control population growth of particularly the 0.90

01:32:45.940 last five years our ratio of patient to doctor is now worse than it's ever been we need to cap

01:32:53.380 immigration to ensure that we can add doctors and nurses faster than we add people second we need to

01:33:00.180 grow our economy faster because our federal healthcare transfer grows at the same rate as our

01:33:04.400 economy. And that means unleashing our resources, lowering

01:33:08.340 taxes, and making our economy stronger. And third,

01:33:12.400 we have 20,000 immigrant doctors, 32,000 immigrant nurses who

01:33:16.160 cannot work because they can't get a license. We have a red seal

01:33:20.020 that's already in place for the trades, a national license for the licensed trades.

01:33:24.420 We should do the same thing with a blue seal based on a high

01:33:28.100 standard that immigrant doctors can take a test, prove they're qualified, and get to work in our

01:33:33.500 hospital. Thank you, Pierre. Darcy. Thank you. I love the Canadian healthcare system. I've been a user of it my

01:33:46.280 entire life, except for when I was out of the country, and I think we have the greatest system

01:33:50.640 on earth. And frankly, the present government and the work they're doing to make sure it's

01:33:55.660 consistently across all the provinces is a lot of work, and I'm happy the way it's working.

01:34:02.800 Myself, I have two new knees brought to me by the Alberta system, and I want to ensure that if I

01:34:09.260 live in New Brunswick or Ontario as a Canadian, I want to make sure I have consistency. So to me,

01:34:15.640 the system as a whole needs to continue as it is and get better with time because it is one of the

01:34:24.960 best in the world.

01:34:26.620 I've lived out of the country a couple

01:34:28.840 times in the United States and come back into

01:34:30.860 our system and I can say our system

01:34:32.920 given that we have our neighbours to the south

01:34:35.040 with theirs is certainly

01:34:36.980 a preferred system for me.

01:34:39.360 Thank you.

01:34:41.420 Thank you, Darcy. Sarah?

01:34:43.560 I want to say thank you to Pierre

01:34:44.820 first for elaborating on my point

01:34:47.160 about increasing

01:34:49.060 doctors, international doctors.

01:34:50.840 Thank you for that. Glad we agree on that.

01:34:53.060 but one thing I can do as an independent is this is exactly where my leverage comes in place in a

01:34:58.820 minority government. I can go in and if somebody wants my vote I can say yeah sure I will give you

01:35:04.960 my vote but I want to write in that we can have something that will benefit the people of Battle

01:35:09.960 River Crowfoot. You want more rural health supports? Sure let's write that into the bill. Let's make 1.00

01:35:14.300 sure that happens. Let's use the leverage that an independent would have in a minority government

01:35:19.020 to get the things that we need in this province.

01:35:21.860 We need more doctors, we need more health care workers,

01:35:24.620 and an independent is going to be a great way to try and get that here.

01:35:28.280 Thank you.

01:35:31.100 Thank you, Sarah.

01:35:32.360 Catherine.

01:35:34.400 An estimated 6.5 million Canadians don't have a doctor.

01:35:39.160 And the problem is only getting worse.

01:35:41.800 And when Pierre Polyev was in government with Stephen Harper,

01:35:45.700 he cut 43.5 billion in health care transfers. Nearly 4 million Canadians will have diabetes

01:35:54.700 medicine for free and nearly 10 million Canadians will have free birth control because the NDP

01:36:01.480 fought for it. Almost 3.5 million Canadians can see a dentist because the NDP fought for it.

01:36:09.580 At a time like this, Canadians want to fight for the public healthcare, more than ever.

01:36:16.780 And we will take steps to crack down on privatization.

01:36:20.000 We won't sell out our healthcare to American style, for-profit system.

01:36:25.040 NDP promised four years ago to fight for pharmacare and dental coverage, and we never stopped.

01:36:30.940 And now millions of people will benefit.

01:36:33.940 Next.

01:36:34.940 Thank you, Catherine.

01:36:38.940 Hi, ladies and gentlemen. Socialist governments and liberal governments

01:36:43.940 promise you the sun, the moon, and the stars. But at the end of the day, as

01:36:50.940 Vladimir Lenin said, socialism was the first necessary step on the road to

01:36:53.940 communism. So it's where these things go that you have to be concerned about.

01:36:57.940 Nice to have everything for free, but nothing is free. And the CHP government

01:37:02.940 is committed to maintaining our universal health care insurance.

01:37:08.940 But it doesn't matter to me who delivers it as long as it's delivered in a time free, first of all, and in a timely manner.

01:37:16.420 Did I say free? Sorry about that.

01:37:18.360 Anyways, so we need to maintain the best of the universal health care system that we have.

01:37:24.780 That is our insurance system.

01:37:26.600 But again, it really doesn't matter who delivers the service as long as it's done in a timely manner.

01:37:31.640 Thank you.

01:37:34.800 Thank you, Jeff.

01:37:35.920 Grant.

01:37:36.180 Well, I find it very interesting that we're speaking about a provincial issue in a federal election debate.

01:37:43.180 I'd remind you that the only relevant issue in the discussion about our health care in Alberta

01:37:48.180 is the fact that we're submitting equalization payments to Ottawa

01:37:51.500 and we're dropping about $10 to $12 billion a year.

01:37:56.340 If we actually had that money, we could have an amazing health care system.

01:37:59.980 And where that money is going is to support the broken infrastructure within this nation

01:38:05.780 and to prop up Ontario and Quebec.

01:38:08.760 So if you really want to talk about a healthcare system that's working,

01:38:11.660 let's actually look at where that money's going that's from Alberta. 0.90

01:38:15.240 And I celebrate our healthcare system.

01:38:17.420 I celebrate the universal healthcare system.

01:38:19.360 It's led the world.

01:38:20.520 But let's be real about the economics of this

01:38:22.700 because it's equalization that's the problem here

01:38:27.020 and the country's broken.

01:38:29.040 And we are going down the drain economically.

01:38:32.500 inflation is because we're burdened with debt

01:38:35.920 and there's no plan.

01:38:41.280 Thank you, Grant.

01:38:42.460 Jonathan.

01:38:44.260 Grant, I'd like to thank you for reminding us all

01:38:46.540 that it is the province that chooses how to spend the money.

01:38:51.320 I need each and every one of you to go out and talk to your MLA

01:38:54.420 and ask them why there is so much bloat on the top of AHS.

01:38:58.380 There are way more managers than there are workers.

01:39:01.320 It does not work that way. If my company worked that way, we'd never get anything done.

01:39:07.240 As far as private versus public health care, I truly believe that we already have a two-tiered system.

01:39:15.140 We have lots of people spending lots of money outside of our country to get care faster.

01:39:21.820 If we allow private enterprise to provide this care inside of our country,

01:39:27.020 that keeps more money in our economy, which then increases our economy and gives everybody else

01:39:33.260 a better chance at making, sorry, you know, it's tax revenue, it's everything. It keeps the money

01:39:40.140 here where it should be. Thank you, Jonathan. Bonnie. Well, first off, I want to pull everybody's

01:39:49.060 attention to the fact that Mr. Poiliev totally skipped the accountability portion of the

01:39:54.620 government accountability question. But carrying on, I do appreciate that he reiterated my point

01:40:02.520 about immigration and the Canadian government not accepting the governments and the qualifications

01:40:09.060 of people. However, health care is provincial. I hate to say it. I want to help. I want to fix it.

01:40:18.300 it's provincial. I personally would love to see it go federal, because I've gone province to

01:40:24.960 province to province with my job, and suddenly the things I can do in Alberta, I can't do in

01:40:30.500 Saskatchewan, I can't do in BC, I can't do in New Brunswick. I would like to see it come back

01:40:35.520 provincial, so that we do not have individuals such as Ms. Smith completely selling us out.

01:40:48.300 Thank you, Bonnie.

01:40:51.880 So now we are going to take a 20-minute break and come back at 8.30.

01:40:58.120 So get up, refresh yourselves, use the facilities, you know, have conversations amongst yourself and enjoy.

01:41:07.500 And we'll be back here promptly at 8.30.

01:41:09.600 Thank you.

01:41:18.300 Thank you.

01:41:48.300 Thank you.

01:42:18.300 Thank you.

01:42:48.300 Thank you.

01:43:18.300 Thank you.

01:43:48.300 Thank you.

01:44:18.300 Thank you.

01:44:48.300 Thank you.

01:45:18.300 Thank you.

01:45:48.300 Thank you.

01:46:18.300 Thank you.

01:46:48.300 Thank you.

01:47:18.300 Thank you.

01:47:48.300 Thank you.

01:48:18.300 Thank you.

01:48:48.300 Thank you.

01:49:18.300 Thank you.

01:49:48.300 Thank you.

01:50:18.300 Thank you.

01:50:48.300 Thank you.

01:51:18.300 Thank you.

01:51:48.300 Thank you.

01:52:18.300 Thank you.

01:52:48.300 Thank you.

01:53:18.300 Thank you.

01:53:48.300 Thank you.

01:54:18.300 Thank you.

01:54:48.300 Thank you.

01:55:18.300 Thank you.

01:55:48.300 Thank you.

01:56:18.300 Thank you.

01:56:48.300 Thank you.

01:57:18.300 Thank you.

01:57:48.300 Thank you.

01:58:18.300 Thank you.

01:58:48.300 Thank you.

01:59:18.300 Thank you.

01:59:48.300 Well, welcome back, everybody.

02:00:02.380 Thank you for returning.

02:00:05.320 And I just want to send a shout out to all of those who are viewing on the live stream as well.

02:00:10.840 Thank you for coming back after that break.

02:00:15.400 And just for anyone who's not aware, the live stream will also be available for 48 hours.

02:00:20.840 So if you have any friends, relatives, family, neighbours that you think would benefit from being able to see the forum,

02:00:28.640 it will be available on the cameras.live website.

02:00:33.720 All right.

02:00:34.180 So again, just a reminder of the format.

02:00:36.220 Each candidate will have one minute to respond to each question.

02:00:39.680 We will move to the next question.

02:00:41.340 And again, you can choose not to respond, but obviously we're not having that issue at all as we go forward.

02:00:49.480 So the next question, we start with you, Ashley.

02:00:53.580 Government accountability and democracy.

02:00:56.300 So serious concerns have been raised regarding the fairness and effectiveness of Canada's electoral system.

02:01:02.940 What is your position on electoral reform?

02:01:05.580 And do you support transitioning away from the current first-past-the-post model?

02:01:10.200 If so, what alternative system would you advocate for?

02:01:17.840 So, yes, I absolutely do believe we should move away from the first-past-the-post system.

02:01:23.580 It's been a part of the Green Party platform for decades now, I would say.

02:01:27.700 For me personally, I've ran in a few elections.

02:01:32.020 Like, let's say everybody in this room, like, if you're a representative of this riding,

02:01:36.180 Damien got, what, 84%, 85%.

02:01:38.840 So there's about 16% didn't vote for the Conservatives.

02:01:44.920 Yeah, it's an amazing thing to get that many votes,

02:01:47.700 but those 16% of you that didn't vote for them were ignored.

02:01:52.420 You have no say for the next upwards of four years.

02:01:55.260 So I believe we do need to reform the system

02:01:57.800 so that people's votes actually matter.

02:01:59.780 As for the type of system that I would implement,

02:02:02.740 that would have to be studied, analyzed,

02:02:04.360 look to see what the most fair and comprehensive system is

02:02:07.040 that everybody's vote can count as much as possible we don't want to leave anybody out

02:02:12.160 of the democratic process so they feel that their voice is ignored and people stop it

02:02:19.280 thank you ashley here well first of all this longest ballot thing is a total scam and it must

02:02:25.040 be stopped i'm the only leader that this interest group seems to have targeted for some reason

02:02:35.920 and that i find interesting but it is a total scam and there is no good public interest reason

02:02:43.060 to do it i think anybody should be allowed to run but they should have to get unique signatures

02:02:48.000 and they should have a unique financial agent if you did that you'd guarantee this would never

02:02:52.580 happen again when i god willing if i have your support and i get to parliament i will put forward

02:02:58.140 legislative changes to make sure that this never happens again anywhere in canada

02:03:02.760 And speaking of accountability, we need to build on Stephen Harper's Accountability Act to crack

02:03:12.380 down on the loopholes that Liberals, including Mark Carney, have exploited. We need to ensure

02:03:17.340 that our leaders are working for you and not for their private profit. Thank you.

02:03:25.040 Thank you, Pierre. Darcy.

02:03:27.760 My comments are similar on the longest ballot. I think it's been quite problematic.

02:03:32.760 And I think especially people who have difficulty initially when the ballot was going to be very long in physical length would be just difficulty handling it.

02:03:41.980 And now that it's different, it's going to be a pain and it confuses everything.

02:03:48.620 And I do not think it has a place, but it is put together as part of our system.

02:03:55.220 So I will just say I don't like it and I would like that we should, I think we should try and change it.

02:03:59.820 As far as being a Canadian and as far as our system and the workability in the world, I had the privilege as international president of the Society of Petroleum Engineers of traveling in that term of three years to 49 different countries.

02:04:13.320 And my pride grew with every country because there are so many places that have systems that don't work, systems that are corrupt.

02:04:20.700 So I stand here as a proud Canadian and I'm proud of our prime minister and I'm proud of our system.

02:04:25.680 And it works generally, and I would love to...

02:04:28.780 Thank you, Darcy.

02:04:33.300 Sarah.

02:04:34.780 I have said many times that I think protest, healthy protest, is a good idea.

02:04:42.100 But the way the longest ballot is going about it is not okay.

02:04:45.160 You know, they've kind of hindered us here.

02:04:47.100 And I do agree that we should have electoral reform.

02:04:50.100 And I do agree with Ashley when saying that it is something that needs to be studied.

02:04:53.960 It is something that we need to ensure that everybody is getting a, they feel like their 0.87

02:04:58.960 voice is heard.

02:05:00.120 And it's unfortunate that this is where we're at, but we, you know, we're Albertans.

02:05:06.140 We're tough.

02:05:06.680 We can get over this.

02:05:08.840 We can write a name.

02:05:10.220 Nobody thinks we can, and I know we can.

02:05:12.660 So please, please go find the name that you want.

02:05:14.900 Please write it down.

02:05:15.920 My last name is spelled S-P-A-N-I-E-R.

02:05:18.580 Thank you.

02:05:21.840 Thank you, Sarah.

02:05:23.040 Catherine.

02:05:23.960 electoral reform is exactly what the longest ballot wanted so the fact that everybody here

02:05:31.880 is talking about electoral reform means that their form of protest is in fact working they

02:05:38.840 actually didn't just start neither they were doing this since 2021 so it's interesting and

02:05:46.520 And, you know, they are targeting Pierre because he's, sorry, but almost a circus.

02:05:56.340 Look at the stuff going on around him.

02:06:00.320 They know it's going to cause an uprising and they want people to speak out about it.

02:06:09.160 So if that's what they're looking for is that attention, that's exactly what you're giving them.

02:06:14.720 So electoral reform, having that happen, shh, you're giving them what they want.

02:06:26.220 Thank you, Catherine.

02:06:30.060 Jeff.

02:06:31.380 Thank you.

02:06:32.480 I misspoke earlier.

02:06:33.780 I said there was a bill discussed in Parliament about proportional representation.

02:06:38.460 Actually, it was a motion to talk about proportional representation, not a bill on the subject.

02:06:43.780 And again, all but three Tory MPs and the Liberals voted against it.

02:06:50.280 So first-past-the-post works for the major parties because, of course, they benefit from the system.

02:06:55.860 They're not interested in looking at alternatives.

02:06:57.580 If we had proportional representation in this country, a small party like the Christian Harris Party ran 343 candidates across the country and got, say, 2% of the vote, we'd have 2% of the seats.

02:07:09.260 and we have a voice in Parliament.

02:07:10.760 You, who care about the social issues that we are concerned about

02:07:14.300 and other issues, would have a voice in Parliament.

02:07:18.020 And I think it would be a fine thing.

02:07:21.320 And I am ashamed of the Tories and others who voted against it.

02:07:24.880 Thank you.

02:07:27.500 Thank you, Jeff.

02:07:28.740 Grant.

02:07:30.140 We need electoral reform.

02:07:31.800 We need to tidy up the system.

02:07:33.280 But the reality is in Western Canada,

02:07:34.980 even if we had the tightest voting system in the world,

02:07:39.260 We have to recognize that Western Canada was set up as a colony of a colony.

02:07:45.020 The disproportionality of senators and or MP seats in this country, the way it was set up from 1867 forward through 1905,

02:07:55.480 the establishment of Alberta and most of the Western provinces, has been to have us pay to make that system work

02:08:03.560 and neutralized by the imbalance in the electoral system.

02:08:08.460 So we can talk about voting and ballots and making sure that Elections Canada reforms, or at least does a review with vital statistics, so there's no voting cards going into old folks' homes, whatever. 0.53

02:08:22.420 But we have to recognize that that isn't changing the constitutional lockdown of Western Canada, and you're going to continue to pay.

02:08:33.720 Thank you, Grant. Jonathan?

02:08:35.420 I think electoral reform is long overdue in this country.

02:08:41.180 Proportional representation might be a very good option.

02:08:44.280 We'll have to study that a lot more.

02:08:48.920 Sorry, I had a thought.

02:08:53.220 There's a lot of pressure being up here sometimes and you get thinking

02:08:56.080 and then you talk about something else and forget it.

02:08:58.200 But what it comes down to is we tend to see in a lot of writings

02:09:04.120 where people get 35% of the vote and they become the representative.

02:09:07.920 So what happens to that other 65% of people in that area?

02:09:13.440 I also see a lot of gatekeeping from the administration of a constituency office.

02:09:20.960 People send in emails and they never get a reply back.

02:09:24.360 I don't think that all of the MPs are trying not to skirt around people,

02:09:29.920 But I do believe that MPs need to make sure that all the questions that come into them do get addressed.

02:09:39.080 Thank you, Jonathan.

02:09:40.460 Bonnie.

02:09:44.380 So once again, I noticed Monsieur Poeliev skirted the question.

02:09:48.640 He said nothing on electoral reform and was angry at the longest ballot.

02:09:52.380 Granted, we all are angry at the longest ballot, yeah?

02:09:56.280 Yeah, I thought so.

02:09:58.520 But no, it benefits, our current system benefits the two big parties.

02:10:03.140 I very much want to see electoral reform.

02:10:06.060 I am currently looking into proportional representation.

02:10:08.760 I am emailing people.

02:10:10.380 It is not on my platform as of yet because I don't know the ins and outs.

02:10:15.300 We need it.

02:10:17.240 You're not going to give it to us.

02:10:18.980 Liberals aren't going to give it to us. 1.00

02:10:21.120 We need it.

02:10:25.520 Thank you, Bonnie.

02:10:26.700 Michael.

02:10:27.520 First of all, I would like to point out a previous comment on the last panel that we had that Ashley admitted that health care workers would get paid more under a private system than our public system, so I just want to point that out.

02:10:39.540 Number two, I refuse to give any more attention to the longest ballot people because, honestly, they're doing this for attention.

02:10:46.720 This isn't a protest. They're asking for attention.

02:10:49.440 If anybody knows any of those names on those ballots, I recognize four of them.

02:10:52.560 They're being supported by the Rhino Party of Canada. 0.98

02:10:55.280 They're a joke. This isn't a protest.

02:10:57.520 And in my opinion, for electoral reform,

02:10:59.900 the Liberal government has been promising for over 10 years

02:11:03.080 that they were going to offer us electoral reform

02:11:05.220 and remove the first-past-the-post system.

02:11:07.680 I don't know where that's going.

02:11:10.100 We're still stuck with it.

02:11:11.400 In my opinion, we need to focus and push towards a ranked ballot system.

02:11:16.940 And that would be what I'd be fighting for.

02:11:18.480 Thank you.

02:11:21.760 Thank you, Michael.

02:11:23.380 So this next question will start with you, Pierre.

02:11:25.960 It's around agriculture and rural development.

02:11:29.660 So how will you support farmers and rural communities in adapting to the growing impacts of climate change,

02:11:35.680 such as droughts, wildfires, and extreme weather,

02:11:39.020 while also promoting sustainable agricultural practices, rural infrastructure, and rural economic development?

02:11:47.440 Well, there's a lot in that question.

02:11:49.780 Let's start with infrastructure.

02:11:51.180 And I was very pleased to meet with the special areas, Oyen and special areas representatives who are working on getting a direct train route that would allow produce to go through Camrose straight to the west coast rather than having to go all the way east to Saskatoon.

02:12:11.320 Right now, farmers from the area have to add 600 kilometres of extra transit in the wrong direction

02:12:19.000 in order to get to the West Coast and ship to world markets.

02:12:23.460 And I will hope to work with the region to try and get that short line track completed.

02:12:29.460 I know that Damien has done great work on it.

02:12:31.560 We also need to do other things.

02:12:32.920 We need to get rid of the liberal regulations that are cracking down on our farmers.

02:12:36.600 get rid of the industrial carbon tax that's driving up the cost of fertilizer in this country.

02:12:43.660 We need to respect the firearms rights of our farmers and allow them to use.

02:12:53.180 Thank you, Pierre.

02:12:56.300 Darcy.

02:12:56.900 speaking of fertilizer i dream of the day when fertilizer will be less than 1200 a ton and canola

02:13:08.280 will be more than 700 a ton in fact i'd like to switch them my canola is going in the bin in the

02:13:13.660 fall lord willing i think it's looking good right now and i want to make sure that when it hits the

02:13:18.720 bin that i get the best world price that i can when i grew up dad had a wheat board ticket that

02:13:24.840 We took, every time we took a load of grain to the elevator, and Canada was known as a global superpower in cereals.

02:13:31.980 We want to be back in a strong economy as a country where we can trade side to side and abroad and have strong leadership.

02:13:40.560 I like the way things are moving with Prime Minister Carney talking about being the most growing economy in the G7.

02:13:49.280 These are important to me as farmers.

02:13:51.300 Clearly, we don't have farmers in the audience

02:13:52.880 because they're booing about getting our product to market.

02:13:55.780 I think it's time we have pipelines that sell our oil and gas

02:13:59.880 and solid trading practices around the globe.

02:14:05.280 Thank you, Darcy.

02:14:06.880 Sarah.

02:14:08.940 Economic development is exactly where an independent can help you guys.

02:14:13.560 And like I said, you guys are my bosses here.

02:14:16.600 I can go and I can take that funding.

02:14:19.080 I can bring it back.

02:14:20.000 and that funding is already in the budget i don't i don't want anybody to think i'm here

02:14:23.520 wanting to raise taxes or anything but we have the funding we have the means we have the people here

02:14:31.360 in order to work on rural economic development and you know i i want i kind of want you guys to

02:14:37.760 be selfish here for a second think about put your guys put yourself first and then canada

02:14:42.640 we can build up battle river crowfoot first and then we can help build up the rest of canada

02:14:47.600 thank you

02:14:50.960 thank you sarah catherine so before i get into uh agriculture ian would probably kill me if i

02:14:59.040 didn't mention uh part of the electoral reform as sortition so i'll leave it at that you guys

02:15:04.880 can look that up as an option um for agriculture the many of the farmers that i've gone out to

02:15:10.880 speak to they're not looking to be at a forum and they're not looking to come out and speak most of

02:15:18.880 them born and raised conservative there's no changing that they're going to be the way they

02:15:23.440 are but they did let me know some of the areas that they needed help they're they're lacking

02:15:30.320 in hands working on their farms they're all coming together and working together

02:15:34.480 and they're aging and they need people to come and help them immigration could help you know

02:15:42.220 Trump's getting rid of all his his people working on his agriculture we'll take them 0.56

02:15:48.060 send them our way we'll put them in our farms they can help us

02:15:51.420 thank you Catherine Jeff farming is everybody's bread and butter that is about as much I know

02:16:00.800 about about the subject but personally but carbon taxes drive up the cost of

02:16:08.360 everything including farming practices and so on and the price of food and the

02:16:14.900 Tories were happy with $30 a ton on a carbon tax so whereas the Liberals were

02:16:21.080 recommending or the NDP was recommending 50 the Liberals said they wouldn't go

02:16:26.240 past that but of course they went past like it was standing still but we need to and another

02:16:37.740 thing is the price of not just carbon but nitrogen in the fertilizer they're trying

02:16:42.640 to restrict farmers liberals and governments are trying to restrict farmers ability to

02:16:47.340 grow crops etc etc and all this needs to change we need to eliminate not just reduce carbon

02:16:55.220 taxes to $30 a ton, like the Liberals have.

02:17:02.020 Thank you, Jeff.

02:17:03.420 Grant.

02:17:05.680 Well, this is a great conversation.

02:17:08.000 You know what?

02:17:08.680 We need to look at farmers in China

02:17:11.400 and the tariffs that we're paying for canola

02:17:13.760 and get those stripped down.

02:17:15.400 But why can't we do that?

02:17:16.820 Because this nation is riddled

02:17:18.840 with foreign interference.

02:17:21.460 David McGinty in 2020

02:17:23.140 made a very clear report about that

02:17:25.100 ample evidence of severe and sustained foreign interference that's undermining our political

02:17:30.980 process and democracy. Yet, we have a leader of a political party here to my left who will not

02:17:37.360 attain his clearance, security clearance. Hey, that's the truth. He won't attain his security

02:17:44.460 clearance to actually tell you who the 11 MPs were that you were put in front of to vote.

02:17:51.820 so would i get some more time for that or yeah so i'm gonna say that you could have 15 more

02:17:58.080 seconds thank you very much and i appreciate that because we had 11 mps in this federal election

02:18:03.260 where the that were the direct agents of are under the influence of foreign interference

02:18:07.700 and you weren't told and why can't we actually deal with foreign governments that are influencing us

02:18:12.880 because our loyal opposition won't tell us thank you very much mr polyev

02:18:18.320 thank you grant jonathan

02:18:23.280 we all know that a great deal of the money and the infrastructure and everything else in western

02:18:31.440 canada has to do with farming the amount of taxes that are being put on the fertilizer and co2 is a

02:18:41.440 little bit ridiculous in fact it's a lot ridiculous last i checked co2 is required for plant life

02:18:48.320 So, if we're going to tax it to the death, we're going to have less plants growing instead

02:18:55.700 of more.

02:18:57.900 We have greenhouses that have to pay carbon tax because they put CO2 in there to make

02:19:03.060 the tomatoes bigger.

02:19:04.780 That carbon never gets outside of that plant except for inside of a tomato, but yet they

02:19:09.700 have to pay taxes on it.

02:19:12.080 The People's Party of Canada and I would see taxes reduced severely so that farmers have 1.00

02:19:16.880 more money to put back into their farm and make it better thank you jonathan bonnie

02:19:26.960 when i was running around knocking on doors did one quick tour of the riding and then i'm taking

02:19:32.560 my time going around again one of the things that came up was agricultural innovation

02:19:38.000 our federal successive federal governments both parties have sold off our innovation

02:19:44.560 to big corporations. These corporations now charge our farmers royalties for seed,

02:19:53.340 or they will sue your neighbor if your seed blows over into his field. This has got to stop.

02:20:00.380 I intend to fully stand up for my neighbors. And if you tell me that agricultural innovation is

02:20:07.020 the private member's bill you want me to put forward, that's what I will do. Because this

02:20:11.820 has to come back to you so you can continue to feed the entire country because they seem to have

02:20:16.700 forgotten that fact thank you bonnie michael quick question do we have any history buffs in this room

02:20:26.260 right now does anybody know anything about the goss plan by any chance in the soviet union

02:20:31.140 it was a plan of centralized economy for that was regulating the soviet union and we have our very

02:20:37.100 own Goss plan here in Canada called supply management. And it is limiting the amount of

02:20:43.560 produce of milk, poultry, eggs, all of that, of all of the above every single month. And if you

02:20:50.200 go over that quota, well, it's got to go in the garbage. I've been going around talking to a lot

02:20:54.140 of farmers in Drumheller, Acme, and Three Hills, where they have to dump hundreds of liters of

02:20:59.580 milk every single month because of this policy. I'm the only candidate that's on this stage saying

02:21:04.640 that we need to end the policy of supply management now, not later.

02:21:08.240 We need to end it now.

02:21:09.340 Thank you.

02:21:13.040 Thank you, Michael.

02:21:14.460 Ashley.

02:21:16.320 Okay.

02:21:20.100 So the Green Party of Canada platform effectively states that,

02:21:23.420 and as we all know, Canadians need good, healthy, nutritious food

02:21:27.580 that isn't absurdly expensive.

02:21:30.020 That makes it to the point that we can't feed our families.

02:21:32.380 We have to choose which meals, who gets what meal, and what meal we have to skip, and so on.

02:21:38.100 You know, the green plan is to strengthen agriculture and food security,

02:21:42.700 and that is built on the idea that we must strengthen and increase local and regional food production.

02:21:48.340 We need to give, you know, Bonnie touched on it, with big corporations buying up large tracts of land.

02:21:55.020 For me, family farms need to actually be run by families,

02:21:58.700 not by a family that runs a corporation

02:22:00.560 and that can claim that it's a family farm

02:22:02.920 and get all these tax breaks

02:22:04.020 and then screw over the small farmers. 0.97

02:22:06.300 We need an actual system that serves the people,

02:22:09.420 not these big corporations.

02:22:11.100 We need to create regional food hubs

02:22:12.780 that can better supply the people of this country.

02:22:18.380 Thank you, Ashley.

02:22:20.220 So this will be our final question of the evening,

02:22:23.100 and Darcy, we're going to start with you.

02:22:25.020 So around education and workforce development, student loans are a giant financial burden to young Canadians, but education is required for even basic jobs.

02:22:36.880 Given restrictions on international students and a lack of university funding, how will you ensure Canadians can access affordable, top-tier educations without drowning in debt?

02:22:47.240 Good question. We do have one of the best educational systems on earth and I'm very proud of it and I'm very proud to be a rural student of that educational system. A ragtag bunch of us would leave Three Hills Sunday night and head up to U of A and we generally regroup at the end of the week and head back to Three Hills. There wasn't much support from us.

02:23:10.320 And I think we've seen some tremendous movements over the last number of years.

02:23:15.520 I think we need a federal government that supports education across the board.

02:23:20.300 We need to support our institutions, even though I realize that in cases it's a provincial jurisdiction.

02:23:25.180 We need to support skilled trades.

02:23:27.240 With the Build Canada program, we need more tradespeople.

02:23:30.580 We need competent tradespeople to be operators on oil and gas wells.

02:23:34.800 We need to be educated at every level.

02:23:39.260 And we have the best system.

02:23:41.620 We need to keep and maintain the best system.

02:23:43.880 Summer job programs, a federal responsibility, that has to keep going.

02:23:48.660 So I think the...

02:23:51.260 Thank you, Darcy.

02:23:53.660 Sarah?

02:23:54.920 We all know education is a provincial issue, but that doesn't mean that the federal government can't step in and do something.

02:24:02.000 We know that Alberta education is kind of lacking a little bit compared to other provinces.

02:24:07.660 but we can still pick that up. And I believe that that would involve having more post-secondary

02:24:15.160 institutions in rural areas so more people can access these type of things. And we can run more

02:24:21.520 programs to get people certificates that they need. We can kind of focus on some type of different

02:24:28.300 repayment program for student loans that doesn't exactly hinder and kind of suffocate you.

02:24:34.040 you should be rewarded for getting an education not being stuck in debt for years and years after

02:24:40.240 and i think it's time that we just kind of revamp the whole system and i think that there should be

02:24:45.720 some type of federal accountability in that as well thank you thank you sarah catherine

02:24:53.120 so shout out to university of alberta right here um i'm very very uh educated over educated um

02:25:05.900 i don't know if there's a job out there that really needs all this education

02:25:10.980 but i had a point to prove and i proved that i guess that i can make myself crazy um anyways

02:25:19.840 With education, I feel like there are different obstacles in place for people that want to go to school, whether it be location, the amount of admitting students into the schools, there are three very well-off areas in this riding, Camrose, Three Hills, and Drumheller.

02:25:42.860 And I'll say it's due to the post-secondary institutions that they house.

02:25:47.860 It creates economic activity in the area.

02:25:52.700 I think we need more.

02:25:57.280 Thank you, Catherine.

02:25:58.620 Jeff?

02:25:59.640 I agree that we need more education.

02:26:02.100 But if you have spent the last four years getting a degree in gender studies, I'm not responsible for that.

02:26:09.380 Sorry.

02:26:09.840 That's on you.

02:26:10.500 Thank you.

02:26:12.860 I don't know, not you. I'm not saying you personally, Catherine, anyone. But yeah, don't take me wrong. Anyways, yeah, education is important. I have a high school education, and I sell a book that I wrote, and the guy says, what education do you have? It's high school. I say that my pristine mind has not been polluted by our post-secondary institutions.

02:26:34.000 Anyhow, I'm glad somebody appreciates that.

02:26:41.000 But education is important.

02:26:43.000 It's a shame that a person has to have a degree now to get a job in a factory in Winnipeg

02:26:49.000 where they make cardboard boxes, but that is the reality today.

02:26:53.000 A university degree has become what used to be a high school education.

02:26:57.000 That has to change, and we need more training in the trades and so on and so forth.

02:27:03.000 Thank you, Jeff.

02:27:04.320 Grant.

02:27:05.860 With regard to education, I think we need to look closely at what our universities are doing in terms of funding themselves with foreign students.

02:27:13.800 It's contributing to the immigration problem and we're not exactly even sure what happens after the educational visa requires.

02:27:20.560 So it's intertwined.

02:27:21.900 We need to get our country's tertiary, second and third level institutions back to actually the job creation that we need to develop the infrastructure that we have offshored in these last 40 years in terms of a globalist agenda for this nation.

02:27:39.520 And we start building things, making things, smelting things.

02:27:43.360 Again, we will actually be the wealth, create the wealth that our parents and our grandparents knew.

02:27:48.840 And I think the other thing that we need to do is once we stop that budget of income for all of the immigration issues that are feeding our institutions, then we can actually say, what is the plan?

02:28:00.040 And we need to purge out this DEI woke agenda that's feeding. 0.70

02:28:10.440 Thank you, Brent. Jonathan.

02:28:14.340 I'd like to challenge the premise of the question.

02:28:16.780 do you actually need a university degree to get a good job as a mechanic i had a high school

02:28:24.940 education i went into an apprenticeship four years later i was making very good money and i had no

02:28:30.800 student debt to pay off we have student counselors that are straight up lying to students telling

02:28:37.380 them that they have to go to university to make anything of themselves and then they end up with

02:28:41.840 hundreds of thousands of dollars of student debt that they can't pay back because they're getting

02:28:46.360 a job that only pays sometimes 50, 70% of what I make as a mechanic. It just doesn't

02:28:52.640 make sense. We need to educate people on finance and how money actually works in junior high

02:28:58.320 and high school so that they can go out and make better decisions.

02:29:03.920 Thank you, Jonathan. Bonnie?

02:29:07.820 Well, as Ms. Spanier mentioned, education is a provincial responsibility. I would like

02:29:15.820 to see more barriers to students getting into trades, and I would like to see our trades

02:29:22.300 go smoother as you move province to province. However, the one thing that I can touch as

02:29:32.940 an independent in a minority government, I can start funneling the federal student work

02:29:39.500 experience program back where it should be this is what i have been told as i toured

02:29:46.140 by various assorted town councillors and municipalities is our students our youth don't

02:29:53.500 have jobs we need to have this work experience program and we need to have these funds

02:29:59.500 back into our community to give our youth the experience they need for the future

02:30:03.580 thank you bonnie michael first of all i'd like to give a shout out to the university of calgary and

02:30:11.260 my fellow students that are watching this live stream uh first of all i just want to say do

02:30:16.300 not be fooled the issues that we are facing in this province due to education are completely

02:30:20.940 the result of our premier and the provincial government here in alberta we need to see more

02:30:26.940 support for students i as a member and student of the university of calgary i see a lot of

02:30:32.780 corruption and our student boards for our teachers our professors where they are taking massive

02:30:37.660 bonuses every single year which almost doubles their income while students are struggling to

02:30:43.900 get by and to be able to pay for their education all the while we have a government that is

02:30:48.460 disavowing the ability to for people to homeschool for people to be able to learn their trades and

02:30:55.260 as johnny was saying we're pushing people that you to get a good job you have to go to university

02:30:59.740 That is not true. Good-paying jobs in this province are from trade jobs, not from university jobs.

02:31:05.540 Let's get more people into trade jobs, please. Thank you.

02:31:09.500 Thank you, Michael. Ashley?

02:31:13.840 Okay. So, for the Green Party, post-secondary education and the proper investment and the proper structuring of the programs is very important.

02:31:24.320 We need to look at the jobs of the future, not the jobs of the past.

02:31:28.280 We need to be training people, educating people to meet the demands of the future.

02:31:33.840 I know that people denigrate a gender studies degree, a history degree, woke culture, commie dictators running the student unions, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

02:31:43.300 But people go there for an education.

02:31:46.540 They don't go there to get a massive debt.

02:31:48.960 Like when I left university in 2005, I had $40,000 in debt.

02:31:55.060 It took me so long to pay that down, never even to actually finish paying it off.

02:31:59.340 To be honest, it took so long that the amortization period lapsed

02:32:03.020 and the federal government seized it, and this sits as a debt today that I still can pay off.

02:32:07.680 But people are getting even more and more and more in debt for degrees

02:32:11.180 that they can't actually use in the job.

02:32:16.140 Thank you, Ashley. Pierre?

02:32:18.020 Bluntly speaking, this generation of youth has been totally screwed,

02:32:22.380 totally screwed like never before.

02:32:25.060 Start with their wages.

02:32:27.660 The government's bringing in unprecedented numbers of low-wage temporary foreign workers, 0.99

02:32:32.380 taking away the retail, accommodation, and restaurant jobs that normally pay the tuition of our youth.

02:32:38.660 That has to stop.

02:32:39.880 We have to cut back on that.

02:32:41.760 Secondly, our universities are not equipping people with the right skills.

02:32:48.560 I got a university education.

02:32:50.620 U of C was great.

02:32:51.520 But I'll tell you, what we need is more emphasis on the trades.

02:32:55.760 We need more of the people who can make stuff, move stuff, fix stuff, and move stuff.

02:33:00.380 And we need to shift more of our resources to making it possible for our young people

02:33:04.860 to sign on to the trades.

02:33:06.680 And finally, we need to remove the red tape and the taxes to build homes that our young

02:33:11.600 people can actually afford so that when they graduate with student debt, they can still

02:33:16.320 afford to buy a home and start a family and build a Canadian.

02:33:22.480 Thank you, Pia.

02:33:27.380 So now I would like to say thank you to all of the candidates

02:33:30.860 and the audience for that engaging question period.

02:33:34.220 So now we're going to go to two-minute closing remarks,

02:33:36.700 and we're going to go in reverse speaking order.

02:33:39.280 So I would like to invite the candidates again

02:33:41.680 to provide a two-minute closing statement,

02:33:43.720 and we'll start with you, Jeff.

02:33:48.060 Thank you.

02:33:49.140 Ladies and gentlemen, my opening statement,

02:33:51.040 I explained how the Tories and liberals have been working together for decades to bring us to our

02:33:55.180 current state of affairs. This of course includes society's embrace of the culture of death in which

02:34:00.600 we abort our future, indoctrinate and sexually mutilate our youth and euthanize our past. Now 0.98

02:34:06.120 many of you will be familiar with the parable of the Good Samaritan. In it there's a wounded man

02:34:10.780 in a ditch who had an unfortunate encounter with some robbers and the upstanding religious people

02:34:16.800 of his day walked right by him. Thankfully for him, a Samaritan with a functioning conscience 1.00

02:34:22.260 stopped and gave him some help. Now that man in the ditch today isn't a man. He's a boy who's had

02:34:28.600 it drilled into his head since his first day of school that he might be a girl. Or maybe he's one

02:34:32.420 of the 2,000 young girls in this country who've had their breasts removed after years of said 0.98

02:34:37.100 indoctrination. Or maybe he's the little old lady sitting alone in a hospital bed, hoping the doctor

02:34:43.120 who just walked into the room with a needle in his hand isn't there to prematurely send her

02:34:47.080 to her final reward. Well, folks, those are the people

02:34:51.120 in that ditch today. And you have an opportunity to be that

02:34:55.140 good Samaritan for all of them by sending the first Christian Heritage Party member of

02:34:59.060 Parliament to Ottawa. If you do, it will awaken millions of Canadians

02:35:02.640 to the existence of the CHP. Some good pro-life Tory MPs will probably

02:35:06.880 cross the floor to it. And God willing, we'll run a full slate

02:35:10.980 of candidates in the next general election, making that election a de facto referendum

02:35:15.340 on these and many other issues on which you've been telling until now had no say.

02:35:21.600 The choice is yours.

02:35:22.940 My name is Jeff Willerton.

02:35:24.220 It's an honour to represent the Christian Heritage Party of Canada and be able to offer

02:35:26.940 you not a slight deviation in policy, but a 180 degree change of course on these many

02:35:33.620 and serious issues.

02:35:35.100 And when you're on the wrong road, moving in the wrong direction, it's precisely what

02:35:39.020 you need.

02:35:39.440 and thus I believe that the party that I represent is exactly what the doctor ordered

02:35:43.980 and I ask for your vote. Thank you and God bless.

02:35:48.500 Thank you, Jeff. Catherine.

02:35:52.600 Thank you all so much for coming out and showing us your very, very enthusiastic

02:35:59.440 behaviors, both for and against. You know, it lets us know. We do live in a democracy. We're

02:36:07.600 not in some kind of crazy authoritarian regime we are allowed to have different viewpoints and

02:36:13.480 although we might not always agree on everything I think everybody here has the mindset that we

02:36:20.160 want to make things better I didn't hear anybody saying anything about making things well I don't

02:36:26.940 know making things worst and I just want to bring a voice of reason to the table again I understand

02:36:36.660 this is a losing run for me, and that's fine. I've been doing this for 10 years, right, Sorenson?

02:36:43.640 Yes, but I'll still be here. I'll still be here advocating for issues, again, that are otherwise

02:36:49.920 ignored by the government. I'm here to fight. I'm here to advocate. In my last run, I will say I was

02:36:57.580 lucky enough to have a number of things brought forward to the Liberal platform. They stole from

02:37:04.780 my platform right here in battle river crowfoot like an inquiry on missing and murdered indigenous

02:37:11.020 women they actually did that uh like the clean drinking water um they actually moved forward not 1.00

02:37:18.780 not that successful but they did move forward on that and the navigable waters protection you know

02:37:25.100 um we were able to reverse some of the the lost protections there so even though i lost i still

02:37:33.020 one i still got things to the table and i still got things successfully moved forward so i'm

02:37:40.620 looking forward to doing that again in this run um i'll be here to meet you all again i'm not

02:37:46.620 trying to sway you i get it but bring your uh issues to me and i'll bring them to the forefront

02:37:52.380 thank you thank you catherine sarah so i also want to say thank you to everybody and uh

02:38:00.540 everybody here, this has been absolutely amazing. This is my first time. So this has been really

02:38:06.140 fun. I enjoyed this. But being independent, you know, I get it. It's scary. You make a choice for

02:38:12.800 an independent. You are taking a risk. But I have shown up and I can show that I can listen and I

02:38:19.060 can show that I can be here for you. You know, I have had people just berate me online, berate me

02:38:25.060 at the door. That's fine. It's okay. I'm still going to sit here and show up for you guys. I'm

02:38:29.400 going to sit here and I'm going to listen. And you guys, with an independent, you guys have a shot

02:38:35.440 at deciding how Canada goes forward. You know, this riding could be the determining factor for

02:38:43.660 what passes bills and what doesn't. This vote and your guys' leverage and your guys' voice is more

02:38:48.980 important now than ever before. And that's something that somebody in a party is not going

02:38:54.940 be able to do for you i am somebody who is here for you i've said it before you guys are my boss

02:39:00.540 nobody else there's no middleman here and i want to fight for you guys i can sit there i can pull

02:39:06.780 numbers i can pull funding i can show you guys on paper where the numbers are what i can do for you

02:39:12.780 guys and i really hope that over these next three weeks that you guys can listen and we can engage

02:39:19.740 and i am more than happy to listen to you guys and i just when it comes down to it i really just

02:39:24.780 want to help you guys because i have experienced that same hospitality from many people in this

02:39:30.220 riding and i would like to return that favor thank you thank you sarah darcy

02:39:39.820 thank you again to the organizers thank you the fellow participants it's been eye-opening for me

02:39:44.620 i'm a bit of a neophyte in politics my name is darcy spady i'm from three hills and i do not

02:39:51.260 want to be prime minister i would actually really like to represent you in ottawa on the government

02:39:58.780 benches as a member of parliament i've had the privilege in my technical career of testifying

02:40:04.460 before uh common subcommittees and senate committees and i know that behind all the theatrics

02:40:11.020 and i have a 20-year veteran beside me here beside all behind all the theatrics things really get

02:40:16.700 done things get policy gets made people get heard i think i'm a person and i've been heard at least

02:40:23.020 twice so i really am interested in being part of the process for this riding this is my home this

02:40:32.700 has been my family home for a hundred years and frankly i would love to represent you we are the

02:40:39.100 best in the world. Our energy production, the people, the women and men every day who are out

02:40:44.720 there in the fields, in the CBM fields, just south of here, they're the best in the world. I know it,

02:40:51.300 I've seen it. They are making the energy transition happening. Carbon pricing is financing

02:40:57.520 efficiency devices on wellheads. We are world leaders. I know this. I've worked there. Our

02:41:04.400 farmers are the best our crop outputs are the best we need more plants we need more plate why are we

02:41:13.060 shipping our durum to italy for pasta why don't we do it right here in battle river crowfoot

02:41:16.900 why don't we build and broaden our infrastructure system both highways and pipelines to to move oil

02:41:24.820 and gas equipment north and south we are the best and i would love to be your local representative

02:41:30.460 in government in Ottawa on August 18th.

02:41:38.280 Please vote Darcy Spadey. 1.00

02:41:42.200 Thank you, Darcy.

02:41:43.540 Pierre.

02:41:44.560 Well, thank you very much.

02:41:45.680 And thank you to all the candidates on the stage.

02:41:48.180 I think it's been a great debate.

02:41:49.760 What do you think?

02:41:50.760 A great conversation, and it's not even over yet.

02:41:54.440 And I want to thank all of you.

02:41:55.840 And most importantly, in addition to the great Damien Couric,

02:42:00.460 who's mentoring me and teaching me every day things I didn't know.

02:42:04.960 I'm not a farmer, but he tells me if I were that I'd be outstanding in my field.

02:42:10.500 And his mentor, Kevin Sorensen, my longstanding friend who served you,

02:42:15.780 you've had great representation here.

02:42:17.640 And thank you to all the people of Battle River Crowfoot.

02:42:20.500 I want to tell you it's been a privilege to get to know you better.

02:42:24.040 And I have to say it's been a lot of fun.

02:42:26.340 It's been great fun to be on the ranches and the farms,

02:42:28.860 to be out at the rodeos and the bronc matches

02:42:32.860 and even to whirl around a little bit in riley on the four-wheeler.

02:42:37.940 I might still get a ticket at some point for that.

02:42:40.840 But, you know, my mission here is to give national leadership

02:42:45.200 to the issues that are of local importance.

02:42:47.200 For example, reversing that EV mandate to allow you to drive your truck,

02:42:52.760 that is a local issue.

02:42:53.960 and it will take national leadership to overturn it the way i overturned the carbon tax

02:43:01.240 your right to protect and keep your firearms that is a local issue if you're a hunter

02:43:07.520 an empress or troshu or consort cutting taxes or for example letting our farmers have 0.71

02:43:15.640 zero capital gains when they reinvest the sale the proceeds in our communities that is a local

02:43:22.040 issue reforming our prisons so that our guards down in drumheller are safe that's a local issue

02:43:28.680 but that requires national leadership fighting against the chinese tariffs on our canola that

02:43:33.960 is a local issue these local issues require strong national leadership and it would be

02:43:40.360 the privilege of my life to provide both the local representation and the national leadership to the

02:43:45.960 the community Ashley okay thank you for that

02:44:06.140 all right ashley all right well thank you everybody for coming out tonight

02:44:19.200 um i think we all know this is uh pierre's riding to lose here he's definitely going to win

02:44:25.700 so please take a chance vote your conscience don't be swayed by fear of you know a liberal

02:44:34.740 MP from your area or an NDP MP for your area or an independent or so on vote your conscience

02:44:40.320 phone however you want to vote my name is Ashley McDonald like the restaurant like I said earlier

02:44:45.040 so it's easy to remember you know I'm sure they'll accept an MC instead of an MAC so

02:44:51.260 but you know a lot's been said about how the benefits of an independent MP from this writing

02:44:58.440 would be you know like not swayed not whipped by a party the Green Party is one of those

02:45:04.260 federal parties that are an

02:45:06.180 unwipped party. So you could elect a

02:45:08.280 Green MP in any riding across this

02:45:10.200 country, and they will be able to vote their conscience,

02:45:12.940 vote how they feel, and

02:45:14.300 not be told by central

02:45:16.340 authority in what they're supposed to do and how they're

02:45:18.240 supposed to vote. So your vote

02:45:20.360 is safe when given to

02:45:22.260 a Green MP. They're not going to be

02:45:24.240 swayed by some special interest somewhere.

02:45:26.580 So keep that in mind.

02:45:28.300 Feel free to protest in my favor.

02:45:30.380 You know?

02:45:33.160 Thank you, everybody,

02:45:34.020 for coming out tonight again thank you for the chamber for having this and um thank you for

02:45:39.620 well i actually would like to say i'm a little disappointed in pierre i try to get everybody to

02:45:44.600 do a drinking game backstage where we where we would all take a drink of water when he said woke

02:45:49.700 and he's not once said it so it's really kind of disappointing to me i was really looking forward

02:45:57.520 to this. All right. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Ashley. Michael. I'd first of all like to

02:46:07.500 thank the Chamber of Commerce for inviting me out to this debate. There's not too many times

02:46:11.700 that libertarians are invited to these type of things, but when we do get invited, we come swinging

02:46:15.280 like a hammer, as I always like to say. And I've been out here, if you guys don't know me, my name

02:46:19.800 is Michael Harris. I've been out here since May knocking on doors. I've knocked on a couple thousand

02:46:23.200 doors on this ride, and I've been hearing the issues of this ride, and people might be

02:46:27.240 disagreeing with me, people might not even want to vote for me, but at the end of the day, I want

02:46:31.260 to hear the issues of every single person in this riding so I can best represent you. Now, if you

02:46:36.720 believe that the government and the uni party has taken advantage of you, has taken every cent out

02:46:43.440 of your pocket, and that you feel that you can't get by day to day, and if you want to see lower

02:46:48.860 taxes, lower regulation, an end to supply management, an end to equalization, and the right to

02:46:54.640 self-determination here in Alberta, then I ask that you support me, Michael Harris,

02:46:59.340 Libertarian, for liberty, family, and independence. Thank you.

02:47:06.780 Thank you, Michael. Bonnie.

02:47:12.680 Ladies and gentlemen, my name is Bonnie Critchley. I just want to thank the Chamber of Commerce,

02:47:18.100 our moderator, all the candidates for coming out and stepping up, and all of you folks for at least

02:47:22.780 coming out and making some noise. What I would like to say is that this is our home, this is

02:47:31.360 our riding, and while we're sitting in the back, I believe it was Jonathan and Darcy and I were

02:47:38.420 discussing a certain old folks home that we all know, because we live here. Out of curiosity,

02:47:46.080 Who here can vote?

02:47:53.340 Yeah, that's kind of my point.

02:47:56.100 We live here.

02:47:57.360 This is our home.

02:47:59.540 And we sure as heck don't want to be doing this again in January now, do we?

02:48:10.300 So, I have no personal aspirations.

02:48:13.960 I'll say it again.

02:48:14.660 I've said it before. I'll say it again. I don't want to do this. I was enjoying my retirement

02:48:18.640 from the military, but it is important to me that we have a voice in Parliament. I firmly

02:48:27.280 believe that Monsieur Poiliev is too busy with his own personal ambitions to give a

02:48:31.680 rat's backside about us. And with him facing leadership review in January, are we doing

02:48:41.580 this again in February? So my name is Bonnie Critchley. I am not here for any personal

02:48:49.500 aspirations. I am here for you. I am here for my neighbors. I am here for all of our

02:48:54.540 communities. Together, we can make our mark on the map and we can stand up for ourselves.

02:49:06.180 Thank you, Bonnie. Jonathan.

02:49:11.580 Thank you to the Chamber of Commerce for hosting this event, thank you to Camrose for coming

02:49:17.920 out to see it and the rest of Battle River Crow for tuning in.

02:49:23.660 With the People's Party, we do not have a party whip either, so your voice would be

02:49:29.180 heard by myself and taken to Ottawa and I would vote according to what my conscience

02:49:34.560 and according to what my constituents ask me to do.

02:49:44.600 So many things go through my head.

02:49:48.480 Sorry.

02:49:49.580 As you might tell, I'm not someone who has prepared a bunch of speeches in my life.

02:49:55.180 I've been working as a mechanic all of my life since I got out of high school.

02:49:59.120 But I do believe that I can resonate very well with most of the people in this area, if not all of you.

02:50:08.360 I can find common ground.

02:50:10.980 I would absolutely love to take your voice to Ottawa and represent you with accountability and openness.

02:50:24.120 So, sorry, I can't think of anything else to say at the moment, so I'll just end with this.

02:50:32.400 I think it's time to put a commenter in the House of Commons.

02:50:38.140 Thank you, Jonathan.

02:50:39.500 Grant.

02:50:41.240 Yes, my name is Grant Abraham.

02:50:43.160 I'm a leader of the United Party of Canada.

02:50:45.200 We ran candidates across this country, and I'll tell you this, there's Canadians all across this country like you

02:50:50.100 who know that this country is broken

02:50:52.760 and that we're not being told the truth

02:50:54.740 about what's actually going on in our nation.

02:50:57.700 We don't understand what our national debt is.

02:50:59.720 We just had a throne speech

02:51:01.640 that has approved our country operating without a budget.

02:51:05.260 The Conservatives contributed that by not opposing it.

02:51:09.080 I'm fed up with this discussion in our nation

02:51:12.200 where we don't actually know where we are.

02:51:14.500 And here's the thing that we really need to look at.

02:51:18.580 Justin Trudeau told us that we would be a post-nation state.

02:51:22.100 That means a state controlled by something other than what other than we elect.

02:51:27.340 He told us that COVID would provide us with a reset.

02:51:30.900 We understand that we're overrun by foreign interference. 0.95

02:51:34.360 And in the last three leadership races and three federal elections,

02:51:39.560 when have you heard a Conservative MP say,

02:51:42.780 excuse me, Mr. Trudeau, or excuse me, Mr. Carney,

02:51:46.660 can you tell us what you mean by post-nationalism or what you mean by a reset?

02:51:52.640 We are losing our country.

02:51:55.160 Canadians across this country ask me, what has happened to our country?

02:51:58.760 Where has our country gone?

02:52:00.800 And my commitment to you is to answer that question to tell you the truth.

02:52:04.540 Because what you're getting here is a bunch of narrative about symptoms

02:52:08.780 without looking at the real problems in our nation, the real root issues.

02:52:16.660 and it troubles me actually that we we have to actually break this down in a debate like this

02:52:21.700 because people aren't thinking and so i'll tell you what um for this country to actually move

02:52:28.020 forward we have to look at what's happening the liberal government is betraying this nation and

02:52:33.140 the conservative party has continued to enable it by omission i'm going to tell you the truth

02:52:39.380 and we're going to start with fixing Alberta and setting it up.

02:52:49.780 Thank you, Grant. Thank you, Grant. So first, I would really like to thank all of the candidates

02:52:57.700 for participating in this forum. It takes a lot of personal commitment to put your name forward

02:53:03.460 to represent your constituency so you should all be congratulated and thanks for participating.

02:53:18.820 I'd also like to thank you the audience as well for taking the time to come out and be informed

02:53:24.500 and hear what our candidates platforms are speaking to in terms of your voting and so

02:53:30.580 Respectful dialogue and forums like these are critical to a healthy democracy,

02:53:35.300 and I'd also like to thank the Cameras and District Chamber, their volunteers and staff

02:53:40.580 for coordinating this forum for the community. You have an incredible chamber and that speaks

02:53:45.860 to the strength of the local business community here, so congratulations for that.

02:53:49.780 so for members of the business community here this evening i encourage you to engage with your

02:54:01.620 chamber of commerce they are strong voice at the local provincial and federal levels and of course

02:54:08.500 please remember to vote on election day on august 18th i would like to now invite back up to the

02:54:14.660 stage Jennifer Fawson, President of the Cameros and District Chamber of Commerce to say a few final

02:54:20.420 words. Jennifer. Thank you everyone. On behalf of the Cameros and District Chamber of Commerce,

02:54:32.980 I want to extend our sincere thanks to each and every one of you for joining us tonight

02:54:37.540 for this important by election candidate forum. To the candidates, thank you for stepping forward

02:54:44.260 to serve and for sharing your vision with honesty and conviction it takes commitment courage and a

02:54:51.540 deep care for community to put your name on a ballot we recognize the work that goes into being

02:54:56.660 here this evening to our moderator shauna thank you for your thoughtful leadership in guiding

02:55:03.700 tonight's discussions i also wanted to take this opportunity to thank the cameras and district

02:55:09.140 Chamber of Commerce staff who were able to pull this event together. Aaron and Shauna, thank you.

02:55:14.920 Your hard work was definitely noted tonight. I also wanted to take the opportunity to thank

02:55:20.100 the Jeannie and Peter Lougheed Performing Arts Centre's staff and everybody else who came together

02:55:25.920 to make this event so successful this evening. So I'd just like to take this moment for a round

02:55:30.860 of applause for everybody involved.

02:55:39.140 tonight we reinforce what chamber stands for a nonpartisan space for civic dialogue a platform

02:55:49.620 for the voice of business and community a commitment to helping you make informed and

02:55:54.020 confident choices as we conclude this evening's forum we do invite you to make your way out of the

02:56:00.180 theater the lobby will remain open until 10 pm for anyone wishing to pick up additional information

02:56:06.340 about any of the candidates but we do need you to leave the theater and socialize and get

02:56:11.700 information out in the lobby thank you again for being here and for contributing to the strength

02:56:17.540 of our democracy our region and our future good night and safe travels home to each and every one

02:56:23.380 of you

02:56:36.340 Thank you.

02:57:06.340 Thank you.

02:57:36.340 You

Western Standard - July 30, 2025

Battle River–Crowfoot by-election candidate forum

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