BREAKING： UCP changes Kenney’s leadership vote.
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the UCP's decision to switch to a mail-in ballot voting system for their SGM. What does this mean for the future of the SGM and what will happen to the $99 registration fee?
Transcript
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So it looks like they have switched. They have switched now. They're going to be moving to a
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mail-in ballot system. So SGM is actually going to change now. It's not going to be an in-person
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system or an in-person meeting anymore. It's going to be a virtual meeting at this point.
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And it looks like the UCP board president basically put out a letter saying that to all
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members and registrants for the special general meeting that the board has made the decision
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to make this switch because thousands were requesting to do so, to make it easier for
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grassroots members to sort of eliminate the need for paying that registration fee, eliminate the
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need for people to travel and have to be in-person in Red Deer because membership has grown. Actually,
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it's more than doubled heading up to this SGM. They have 15,000 registered to participate in the
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leadership review and vote. And so by the sounds of it, it was just going to be easier.
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And that's the basis behind the decision to switch to this mail-in ballot.
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So I saw something that, as you said, with the registration fees, I saw it's been breaking so
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fast. It was hard to confirm, but they were going to offer to refund the $99 that everybody else had
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paid already to date for a registration to get on to the, the, uh, the review.
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Uh, well, I would have to assume by seeing some of the statements that I'm seeing that that will be
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the case, uh, especially considering sort of the verbiage around this decision is to eliminate people
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having to pay that registration fee. So my guess is that anyone who has paid it is going to be refunded.
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Uh, I, I don't have that specific statement in front of me, but, um, but, uh, with the wording
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of the reasoning behind this, that would make sense that that is what the plan to do is, especially
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considering the meeting is now not going to be held, uh, in the form that it was going to be with
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people traveling and, and needing to, to, you know, reserve that space. Uh, and I was understanding
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that, uh, and that was the explanation for the registration fee was to handle some of the hard costs.
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So I think moving this to, uh, an online SGM, uh, and then of course, moving it to a mail-in ballot
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system that would likely do away with the majority of those hard costs.
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Yeah. Well, and as I was saying just before, uh, when the show started, I've dealt with a mail-in
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ballot sort of, uh, a system before for a leadership race, and there's going to be a massive amount of
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hard costs coming with that. Anyways, the logistics of it huge, especially with only now a couple of
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weeks to pull it off. Is there been any discussion of changing the timeline then? Uh, I haven't seen
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anything yet. Uh, wait a minute. It looks, yeah, it looks like they have updated the current membership
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deadline to, uh, no, let's see here. Sorry. No, I don't have information to answer that quite yet.
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Um, uh, one of the things I will mention though, is that, uh, quite a few members were insistent,
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uh, and in fact demanding that it remain this in-person, um, uh, gathering to, to do the vote
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and hold the vote. So, so it sounds like the UCP board has sort of ignored many of those requests
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and demands by, uh, by members to do this. So, um, um, they've decided to go to this, uh, voting system
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so that, uh, it says here so that all current members, uh, can participate. Uh, they don't have
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to do the travel. Um, and, you know, it also says here that they are going to hire, uh, a national
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auditing firm that's going to be brought in and retained to oversee the mail-in vote. So,
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uh, don't know anything about that firm or whether that's going to be an issue for many of these,
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uh, members, uh, you know, I, uh, like you said, it is still sort of this ongoing information coming in.
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All right. Well, thank you for the update as this breaks and unfolds because it's really,
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this is a big, big deal. And I don't think enough people quite realize what's going on.
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Debacle is the best word I can give it. And I just, wow, this is something else.
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Well, and I think too, uh, when I was reading some of the information on the website for the,
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uh, special general meeting, they were talking about how, uh, looked like, um, you know, um,
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constituency members were going to be overseeing the counting of ballots, uh, you know, members,
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uh, presidents of, of the, uh, members associations and whatnot. So, so now it being sort of handed off
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again to this, uh, this separate auditing firm, again, I think is going to raise concern, uh, for,
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uh, you know, the, the people that really wanted to, uh, oversee and, and have, uh, an invested
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interest in, in participating in that, uh, in that process of, of counting the votes. So,
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uh, we'll see what, uh, how they maybe look to, to, uh, line up that, uh, that auditing firm and allow
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for others to, to participate and oversee. Uh, so we'll have to, um, you know, obviously have some
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updates coming once we get more information. Great. Well, thanks for the updates, Melanie. And,
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uh, I know you'll, you'll keep on it and we'll post anything new on the, the Western Standard
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online, of course, as soon as it comes up. You bet. All right. I'll see you after the show.
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So, yeah, this is still breaking, unfolding questions. You know, I mean, you can tell
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it's scrambled. Like this is a government, this is a party, I should say. It's not even so much
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the government. That's in complete disarray. They, they, they, they are in disarray. This release
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came out suddenly this morning. We've been waiting on results from this, this board meeting for two days
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already. Uh, it's not terribly detailed. There's a lot of questions in the air about it. And let's
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not beat around the bush. The bottom line is they're trying to save Kenny's ass. I, I, I, I mean,
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I've been trying to be, to be somewhat balanced with this thing. And I, I've been trying to get
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pro Kenny ML MPs to come on or MLAs, I should say. And I've had difficulty getting them to come on the
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show because I want to show some things, but there's no other reason for this manipulation and pissing
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around. You know, ironically, originally when the constituency associations who were demanding this
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review, the ones who signed on, I believe it was 23 or 24 of them, um, they wanted to have some sort
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of mail-in so everybody could participate. And it was through the wrangling of the party executive on
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behalf of the premier that they said, no, we're going to hold it at a special meeting in Red Deer where
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people have to pay a big fee and go in person because they figured the reason they did that was
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because they figured that we'll keep the numbers low enough that we can manage to make sure we can
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stack a good enough turnout and win this thing decisively. They didn't count on 15,000 people
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registering. No, absolutely not. But now to turn around and change it at this point to a mail-in system
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is a recipe for catastrophe. As I said earlier, Hey, they raised one and a half million bucks. Then
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that means they got one and a half million bucks in the bank from those registrations.
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You can book hotels all over the province to get people to come out and vote in person. Cause I can
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understand. Yeah. You can't get 15,000 people in and out of a Red Deer location in six hours,
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not an hotel like that, but you've got the money now and the resources and the time to set it up in a
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number of places. So those members who registered can come out and cast their ballot in those multiple
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locations. The problem they have is that they know they do internals. Governments pull, pull,
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pull parties, pull, pull, pull. They've checked and they know that if it's those 15,000, Kenny's
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going to lose. They've got to change the numbers. They've got to bring a new pool of available voters
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to be able to come in and vote in this race. And by doing that, by getting anybody who now just has a
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$10 membership, able to vote totally changes the entire dynamic on who is going to come out and vote in this
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race. Now the cutoff, I saw Don mentioning that earlier. I believe the cutoff is still going to be
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the same membership cutoff that it was. So like last weekend at the end of the week. So you won't be able
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to spend 10 bucks next week or even today and vote in this thing. You already have to have a membership,
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but who knows? They're changing the rules as they go at this point. So it wouldn't shock me if they
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change that there. But this is a real problem. As Melanie was saying, there's going to be an
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independent firm auditing it. When I was talking before, when we did this with the Wildrose Party,
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with the leadership race, we used Myers-Norris Penny, I believe. You get an outside firm,
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and they were very diligent. Some people say we'd have to audit them as well. With these large firms,
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they have a reputation to protect. They will make sure it's okay. As Melanie was talking about too,
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you know, the old system would have had scrutineers there in person to watch the vote counting. And
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you'll still have to. And I don't know how they're going to do this in two weeks. I don't. The
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logistics, when we did it with, as I said, I think it was 13,000 votes. And it was bins and bins and
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bins of sealed envelopes that were coming in that we had to keep in a secure location. They all had to
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have individual numbering on, of course, each ballot so we could track and make sure.
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And we still had issues. One of the campaigns had bought a bunch of memberships on behalf of other
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people and were trying to vote on their behalf and things like that. Because when you have mail-in,
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you can't assure the person on the other end of that envelope really is the person who's supposed
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to vote. It's difficult to say the least. And nobody trusts anybody. It's not like you can demand
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identification. Look what happened in the leadership race when they went through all that crap before too
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with the UCP. This is a mess. This is a real mess and it's only going to get worse. So now not only
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we're looking at 15,000 people were ready to commit $100 to vote into this thing. I don't know how many
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members the party has with that $10 a head rate now, but you've got a much larger number now.
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So what are we going to look at? 20,000 ballots getting mailed in and nobody's going to trust it.
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Let's face it. Nobody is going to trust it. So it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. If Kenny comes
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in with 90% support, people won't believe it. If he comes in with 51% support, he better bloody resign
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because the party is going to rip in half. And I think it's going to anyway now. If Kenny maintains
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the leadership of this party, UCP, after this mess, there's going to be a mass floor crossing.
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There's my big prediction right now. I'm not going to try and make predictions on what number it's
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going to be, whether it's going to be 55% or 51% or 80%. What I am going to say is a number of MLAs
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are going to leave that party. They're going to cross the floor. They are going to say,
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we cannot take part in this any longer. And you know what? You only need four members to be sitting
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in that legislature and you have a registered party. And we will now have, again, as we saw some years ago,
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two conservative parties with sizable caucuses sitting within the legislature. And guess
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what happened the last time that happened? We got four years of Notley, Premier Notley for our
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troubles. This political game playing at the expense of Albertans has to stop. It sounds like Melanie
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might have another update or just came in for a message there just to say, confirm the members are
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going to get a refund where they can opt to make their registration fee a donation. Okay. Thanks for
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that update, Melanie. And so yes, you got to think of the logistics of that. Cause I think
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especially the people who bought the, put the a hundred dollars in to be delegates in this thing
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don't want to donate to the party right now. They aren't bloody happy. So they're going to be asking
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for a refund. And that's a whole other nightmare for the party to deal with. Now, think of the
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accounting, you got to find the money in, you've got to get it back to people. Was it online transfers?
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Was it checks? Was it credit cards? What a frigging mess. And again, it's, you want transparency?
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You can see right through what they're doing. They're trying to save Kenny's hide. You know,
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I'm just tired of the political game playing. I mean, this is why I'm actually as grumpy as I am,
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and I'm triggered all the time and everything. I'm happy at the Western standard because I can write
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on these things. I can look into these things. I can discuss these things. I'm an opinion person.
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I can put my opinion out on it. I'm not inside the parties anymore. And I don't want to be,
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I can't stand. I mean, most of the people in political parties, I'll say with decades of
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experience and working within them are good principled people. They really are trying to
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make things better. They want to, that's their goal, but there's always a pack of weasels within them
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always. And there's always, they feel that every rule needs to be bent and they feel that it doesn't
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matter. Winning is everything. Principle doesn't matter. Public support doesn't matter. Just as
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long as you win, win, win at all costs. And we're seeing that kind of play going on right now.
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We're seeing it with a stacked party executive. We're seeing it with a review that was forced
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like pulling teeth. And they still managed to make their own rules to benefit their own butts with the
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review. And when it looked like the review was going to turn against them, they changed the bloody
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rules. It stinks. And it's an embarrassment. It really is. You know, I was so optimistic when
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Jason Kenney came in. I was supportive and I was happy to see the merger of the UCP, you know,
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or the creation of the UCP, because I was terrified of four more years in Notley. And I had enjoyed,
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I thought Kenney was a fantastic member of parliament. I thought his organization was incredible as he
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brought those parties together. And all the way up until they won the election. You know, it wasn't,
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I was pretty supportive and happy until about a year after they got in and realized that nothing's
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getting done. You know, realizing that the fair deal panel was a bait and switch plan. And realizing
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that regional MLAs really weren't taken seriously because you had a strong central core of leadership
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leadership that wasn't listening to them. And all we'd ended up with was a government less bad
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than the NDP, but it wasn't a good one. And my optimism was, it was fading. And now I'm watching
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these shenanigans going on, these death throes of a small group of people with a lot of control
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trying to maintain power in a party. And I'm sorry, I do not see how this party is going to stay
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together after this review, unless the leader is gone. I just don't see it. Maybe I, you know,
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I've been wrong before I can be proven wrong, but this is, is just a travesty. You can't change the
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rules on something like this, this close. I mean, we're not talking months in advance, guys. This is
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just a couple of weeks away. It's desperation. I don't know if this will save them. I mean, one of
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Premier Kennedy's stronger areas. And again, it was because of his good, hard work. As an immigration
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minister, he was very popular with new Canadian communities. He did great outreach. He was on the
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ground with them. He spoke to their concerns. And that means he's got very strong support in high
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immigration communities, such as Northeast Calgary and areas like that. And I know some of the talk
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was that they want to even set up a balloting center to allow people up there to vote. And you
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knew that was just, of course, them wanting to make sure to have it as convenient as possible for the
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more likely Kennedy supporters to get out and vote. Now, though, with mail-in ballots, boy, who are they
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going to be reaching out to? How are they going to be targeting it? How do we believe every person
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who's mailing in that ballot really is the right person on the other end of the ballot? I've talked
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about this before, too, when people talk about having like online voting and, you know, all these
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different ways. Mail-in, again, I'm very sour on just having endured it once with the Wildrose
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party leadership in the past. You can't. You can't beat on an important election, whether it's a
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general election, whether it's a leadership vote or a review like this. You can't beat making a person
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come in person, show a piece of identification, and cast a paper ballot, which would be a record
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of how they voted. Old-fashioned, but it's the way it works best. It's foolproof. You have
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scrutineers. You count those ballots. It takes a while. That's the way it goes. It could be a bit
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expensive, but that's the safest way. Online voting? Absolutely not. There's just no way to trust that
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crap anymore. There is not. We know bloody well there's not. And mail-in ballots, even if, you know,
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and again, I trust these auditors. I trust the count. I think the count will be fine. But boy,
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you better watch those boxes and make sure none disappear or anything like that. We'll see how they
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set all that up. But they can't tell who was on the other end of that letter. And again, how are you
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going to get those ballots in? This is two weeks away. Have you guys even got time to print these
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and get them out to the members who qualify to vote? So you've got to get all these ballots out
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to people, and they've got to get them all back in by April 9th? Right. Right. That isn't going to
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happen. And I think also, though, maybe they're hoping they'll catch people flat-footed who were
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organizing on the side to try and replace the premier. I'm just, I can't help but show that
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I'm very, very concerned and upset with this. I think that's pretty clear at this point.