'Calgary citizens should participate in their own democracy'
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Summary
In this episode, we talk to the founders of the Centre Right Conservative Party of Alberta, a new political party in Alberta's capital city of Edmonton, Alberta. We talk about how the party came about and what it means for the future of the city and the upcoming municipal election.
Transcript
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Thank you very much for joining us. So, I mean, to start with, you must have been doing some
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research and other things. There are other political parties in other cities in Canada.
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It's not common, but this isn't a first time ever. No, Vancouver and Montreal and Edmonton has just
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started one as well. Okay. Yeah, great. Yeah. Edmonton would be new. So this has just been
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brought in with Alberta with a framework and a resolution. I guess part of the problem is
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there's always been unofficial political parties. There've been alliances, but then you don't know
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where they stand because it's behind closed doors. That's right. So what motivated you to get active
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with this? We came together. We want to see change. We know that the left and the unions are always
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very, very organized and they put together a slate and they were very successful last time. And we
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decided that we needed to come together as center right conservatives and do the same and beat them
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at their own game. Yeah. And you've already been doing a lot of organizational work. I've been seeing
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the online updates anyways. There's been meetings around the city in different wards. I think there's
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14 wards. 14 wards. So have you started a nomination process? How does this work? So what we did, we had
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our launch in June and then in the summertime when a lot of people are away and stuff, we had meet and
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greets in all the wards and got out to meet the people, sold some memberships. And right now we're
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setting up ward associations in every single ward. We started on Saturday. We're going to end this
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Saturday, get all 14 set up. And then our bylaws are this close to being done with our legal team.
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And then we're going to start running candidates, nominations. Yes. Okay. Because you've got a whole
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lot to do in actually a relatively short timeline. For those outside of Alberta who are reviewing,
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our municipal elections are going to be about what, 14 months from now. And to the point, I mean,
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it's one thing if a party was already established and just trying to get your nominees and get
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campaigning, you're establishing a party as well as getting those nominees.
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So being in such a rush, how do you prevent making mistakes?
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We have a really good team behind us. We have legal help and we have a lot of really experienced
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people, people from all different walks of life that have worked on parties before. So we have a
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lot of great advice coming and we're learning as we go as well.
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Yeah. So now this would still be different than a regular party in the sense of, okay, we got 14
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council seats and one mayor seat. I imagine there's going to be one mayoral candidate nominated
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at some point or another too. We're leaving, yeah, we're going to do a mayoral nomination
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and we're leaving the choices of all those up to the members. So the members are going to get to vote
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on each candidate in each ward on who they want to represent them. And we really feel like that's,
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that's what differentiates us from, from the slates that have been put together prior is that
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we're taking it to the members. We're taking it to the communities. They get to decide who's going
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to represent them. Yeah. So as you're saying, the bylaws are just getting finished up and for
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people not in partisan politics, that's kind of the rule book for the party. This is where you're
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going to do things and how you manage them. This being unprecedented is difficult. The relationship
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between the mayor candidate and the other candidates, it wouldn't be quite the same as a
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political party leader with MLAs or members of parliament, but they would still be kind of the
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main representative at the same time. Well, we don't feel like our party is going to have
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that kind of a leader. It's, there's going to be boards and there's going to be accountability,
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but the leader isn't necessarily the mayor. Like the premier is the leader of the UCP.
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The mayor is not going to be the leader. It's going to be, it's going to be everybody working
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together. Yeah. So it's different a little bit is all I'm saying that relationship, because
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one of the questions people have, and it's a fair one, they fear they could lose local representation.
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If their councillor comes in conflict with the leader or the mayor or the party, you know,
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sometimes a one ward's interest might be different than another ward's interest that representative
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wants to be able to, or people want to make sure their representative can represent them.
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So what, so what we've decided is that the party itself isn't going to determine policy. We're
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going to leave that up to every councillor, every nominee, every candidate that's going to run is going
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to be out in the community, talking to the people, getting, having those conversations, and then can
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develop their own policy based on those conversations. And because what's good for ward
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seven is, ward seven is very close to downtown. We have different issues than ward 10 is going to
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have out in the Northeast. So we, we feel strongly that those councillors should be representing their
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wards. Yeah. So generalized principles, because you still have to have something in common to bind you.
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But I mean, I like the idea. I can see how it wouldn't work where you have to draft legislation
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somewhere like federally or provincially. But I mean, that's where parties split apart when they
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fight over, well, this little policy over here, this little policy over there, if you can just
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stick to the general principles, that's right, you can hopefully have some unity in all the meetings
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that we had as a group coming together, figuring out what this was going to look like. I think the
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conversation we had about values and principles was the most intense, because we wanted to make sure
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that that's, that was our guiding, that's, that's our, that's our guidance on vetting candidates,
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and how, how we believe the party should be run. So we're looking for people who agree and are in
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line with our principles and values. Yeah. So I mean, you know, some of the things I guess you speak
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of is like smaller government or focusing on interest in focusing on the things that City Hall is
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supposed to be doing. Like providing water, I've heard has been a big one. Water, I shower today.
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I appreciate it. Thank you. Yeah. Water, potholes, we hear a lot about potholes in the city. I drive
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a four by four, and I'm really glad because some of the roads in the city are tragic. It is terrible.
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And we got a lot of pet projects and other things happening on the side. Another big issue is crime
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disorder, things on transit. Yeah. A lot for you, your candidates to bite off. That's right. But if
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they focus it in their ward, then they're going to come up with the, there's going to be maybe 10
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issues, they're going to come up with the top three, and they're going to be able to develop
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their, their candidacy around that. So in the case of incumbent candidates,
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it might get a little stickier for you. There's a few that perhaps some of the new party members
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would like to stay on and see, would you make them go through a nominate nomination process?
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So what we're going to do is we're going to allow the members of each ward to vote, and we're, we're
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calling it a bypass nomination. So the members get together in the ward association, and they get to
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decide if they want their current candidate or their current councillor to be the candidate. So they
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get to decide, we're doing it in all 14 to keep it fair to everybody. And after, after that person has
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been acclaimed or not, then we approach the councillor. Let's use Dan, for example, we
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approach Dan and say, the members of your ward have, would like you to run under the party banner,
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he has 48 hours to agree or not to agree. And, and then we go from there, we run it.
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Just to clarify, I'm assuming you're speaking of Dan McLean of ward 13.
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Yes, yes. Well, in looking broadly, I mean, he hasn't said anything for or against, as far as I've seen,
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he would be one of the few in council that sort of look like they might fit in with the principles
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of this forming party at this point. Absolutely.
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I don't imagine there's going to be a lot of people rushing out to get Mr. Walcott or anybody on board,
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nor would he be interested. But so funding now, the provincial, have they laid out the framework on
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how this is going to be organized within a party yet?
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They haven't, they haven't fully released the regulations yet. So we're hoping to do that soon.
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We're going to have a, we're going to have a founding convention in October where the members
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will ratify the board and ratify the bylaws. And then we're fully expecting to have another
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meeting, a special general meeting in the spring to, to change anything that needs to change once,
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Yeah. So you're going to have to hit the ground running hard. And one of the frustrations in
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municipal politics I've seen is there can be some fantastic candidates, brilliant organizers,
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excellent ideas, but they've never been involved in an election their whole life. They don't know
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how to campaign. They don't know what GOTV is or database or volunteer management.
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So I would imagine the party's going to provide some centralized training
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Absolutely. We think that's one of the, one of the huge benefits of having a party is for people who
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want to step up, want to serve their community, but don't have a clue on, on what to do, where to
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begin. I was a school board trustee candidate in 2021 and I had no idea what to do. If I'd had a
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party to go to and say, Hey, I'd like to be a candidate and get through a nomination there and then be
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able to, to run in the election. And that would have been so helpful to have guidance. So that's exactly
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what we want to do. We want to support people who want to serve their city.
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And just, I guess, again, to explain, cause we've got a lot of non-party playing people who watch,
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you know, they're politically involved or they wouldn't be watching me ranting and raving,
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but they still might not necessarily played within a party. A nomination is when the local members
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are going to have a, theoretically, a competition between a few candidates and choose who's ahead.
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I mean, it's a, it's a first level of vetting because something that's been missing in municipal
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politics. A lot of people can present themselves as one thing and then they get in and it turns out
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they were nothing like that. They just wanted to get elected. I mean,
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mayor in the head and it's y'all say it outright is a perfect example of it.
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Having a nomination allows, I guess the locals to see these candidates before it's election time
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and they're fully committed. And it engages Calgarians doing these word association meetings.
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That's one of the things we're hearing a lot of is people want to have a say in who's representing
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them and they want to be involved. And this is a great way to get everybody really excited and to
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back a really strong candidate. And, and then reciprocally when that candidate wins is to have
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some accountability back to the community as well, because now you have established relationships
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with these, with these candidates so that when they're counselors, there's still a back and forth
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Yeah. So it might be premature to ask, but in the bylaws or something,
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would there be some sort of mechanism then where there's going to be a review three years in on the
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candidates? Say if they got elected or something that might trigger another nomination vote, if
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they weren't satisfied, how do you hold them accountable after the election?
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Right. You know what? That is a really good question. I'm not, I'm not quite sure if that's
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in our bylaws or not. Oh, I really wish John was here. John's the detail bylaw guy.
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And imagine something like that's in there or that's the thing with being new. You can talk
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about those things at your general meeting or so on.
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It's a great idea that we can bring up and let the members decide.
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Because that's, you know, you don't be locked in and then have that incumbent advantage. I mean,
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that's been part of the problem in municipal politics in general, too. There's not a lot
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of name recognition. So again, people are coming out of nowhere and it's hard to compete against
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the known counselor, even if they, you know, to be frank, weren't necessarily that good.
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That's right. Yeah, that's exactly it. And especially when you have 27 people running for mayor,
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how are you supposed to be educated on every single one of those people?
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It's impossible to, it's impossible to keep up like that, even if you are politically involved
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in everything. So we really want to simplify it and bring it back to the people. And I think that's
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a huge advantage over the slate. I don't, I don't like to be told who to vote for. I want to have a
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say in the process of how that happens. Well, and keeping them rolling, as I said, between elections,
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one of the best strategies for counselor once they got in used to be nobody moves, nobody gets hurt.
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There were two who stand out, you know, I'll say their names, you're being nice,
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you're starting a party, but Dale Hodges, you know, may he rest in peace, but he was in for something
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like 30 years and he would never take a stand on anything. In fact, he was notorious for whenever
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a controversial vote came up, he'd suddenly get a stomach illness and go to the bathroom,
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wouldn't come back to the vote was back in council. And Ray Jones was in for 20 some years and
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nobody had ever heard of him. Same thing. He wouldn't do anything. But when election time came,
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they were the incumbents, people still knew the name and they would just keep getting in. Yeah.
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And you got to make them work it while they're in there, not just get in and turn into a mushroom.
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I would really, I mean, I'll speak personally. I'd love to see
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counselors instead of being in an office in city hall, I'd love to see them have offices in their wards.
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Yeah. Be a little more, yeah, be a little more accessible to the people. Yeah. I mean,
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a member of parliament has a writing associate or writing and then there's a constituency one for
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provincial. That would make sense. It'd be another expense, but I guess if you could save money
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elsewhere. We could probably save a lot of money elsewhere. Yeah. So I guess, what are your next
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steps then? What's coming up? So we're going to finish building the word associations this week,
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and then we're getting into the, well, hopefully the bylaws will be done. Like we're so close.
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And then we can get into candidates. We've already got a welcome. We've got so many people stepping up
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who have put their name forward for maybe I'll run. I'm thinking about it too. Absolutely. I want to
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run and so many great people in every ward. So we're getting our packages prepared for those,
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for those folks and yeah. And then we rolled into our founding convention.
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Okay. So yeah, we're running out of time. It went fast, but before I let you go, then how do people
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get involved? Where do they reach out? I mean, if they want to get in on it?
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A bettercalgaryparty.ca is the best place. That's where we have all the events that are coming up.
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That's where we have all the principles and values. You can find out all the information now.
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Excellent. A better party, a bettercalgaryparty.ca. I know people have been referring to it as ABC.
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Yeah. And that's okay. But the website is a bettercalgaryparty.ca.
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Yeah. You want to find the website to know you can get to the events.
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Yeah. We're also on Facebook. We're on Instagram, Twitter, X. So we're a little bit everywhere.
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Okay. Excellent. Anything else you'd like to add before I let you go then?
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Oh, nothing off the top of my head. I think I got it all in.
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Okay. Well, I appreciate it. And I really do hope for the best. It's a big task you have ahead.
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You know, I'll just throw my little bit, two bits of advice in. I was,
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you know, part of the founding of the Wildrose Party and things like that. And I know you guys
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are probably already sweating it. Make sure the bylaws pull you together rather than rip
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yourselves apart over it. No hills worth dying on. That's right. Compromise. That's right.
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If you don't get your way on this one, this time, give it a year or two. You can change it later.
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Don't stomp out the door. I will say that. I will say we've come together as sort of a center-right
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coalition. And our, I think if we, we, we sort of have worked on the basis of, if we agree on the
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fundamentals, everything else can be flexible, but the fundamentals are where, you know, and that's
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where you get 80% of what you want as opposed to 0% of what.
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Yeah. You're certainly not getting it where it stands.
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Well, thank you very much for coming in to talk to us about it. I'm really going to be watching
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this with interest. I hope to speak to you guys again, perhaps after the AGM and that and see