In this episode of the Western Standard's weekly politics show, host Ryan Henderson is joined by Erika Baroutes, Director of Applied and Public Affairs at Macamie, to discuss Alberta's premier, Danielle Smith. They discuss her recent speech in the Alberta House of Commons, her recent trip to the United States to meet with President Trump, and why she is now heading back down to Washington.
00:06:12.240And so I think that it was very critical of Canada being weak under Trudeau.
00:06:16.620I think the premier, because we know that Trump isn't answering car news,
00:06:20.580calls, and Pierre is campaigning across the country, that Premier Smith is going down there
00:06:27.700to hopefully change Ben Shapiro's mind and talk to those conservative voters. Now, I do think she
00:06:33.360needs to tread lightly when it comes to addressing the federal election, talking about how she's0.73
00:06:38.140championing Pierre Polyev. Of course she is. So I don't think she needs to go down there and say
00:06:43.040that and maybe just not speak about the federal election as she's been criticized for, but just
00:06:48.920solely go down to advocate for Alberta, which we all know indirectly advocates for the Canadian
00:06:54.980economy. Yeah. Now, you were relating to me an interesting anecdote about the whole matter of
00:07:03.540talking to right-wing pundits. I mean, Ben Shapiro is a very successful podcaster. There's no question
00:07:11.980which side of the intellectual spectrum he occupies, but the premier has also done an
00:07:18.900in-depth interview with Jordan Peterson. I do remember Tucker Carlson last year being in
00:07:26.720Alberta and doing a show in Calgary and one in Edmonton. I believe in the one in Edmonton that
00:07:31.080she did have a conversation with him. It was the Breitbart interview that you gave recently.
00:07:36.500what did you advise her the first time those kinds of opportunities came up yeah so this was right i
00:07:44.540was on her transition team and her principal secretary this was in the first month that
00:07:49.000premier smith was in office and there was an opportunity to do jordan peterson as a as a staff
00:07:54.780and a team you assess the risk reward given we were going into an election there was a few of us
00:08:00.000that thought that we maybe shouldn't do this conversation i think we underestimated daniel
00:08:05.200Smith's ability to have constructive conversations push back the narrative that she wanted or she
00:08:11.120would like those individuals that she's being interviewed by to look at. And so I had to eat
00:08:17.380my words when I said, don't do Jordan Peterson. We went ahead and did it. And I think it was quite
00:08:21.660a big success and got her profiled in Alberta on the international stage. So I think that when
00:08:28.400people criticize like Nenshi coming out and saying she shouldn't go down and talk to Ben Shapiro,
00:08:32.520um it's because he knows that she is probably one of the only individuals that can do this
00:08:38.380I wouldn't ever advise Doug Ford to go down and have these conversations so I do think that her
00:08:44.720going down um is is a is a fine step for Alberta as long as she pushes back on Ben and you know0.99
00:08:51.940corrects him and admit has him admit that he saw Canada is weak under a liberal and under Justin
00:08:58.840Trudeau specifically, and that, you know, he's having her on his show to talk about the relationship
00:09:04.740with Alberta. And I think that could be a positive impact for her. But, you know, I don't think
00:09:10.580everyone should do the Danielle Smith approach because I just don't think they have the tools
00:09:15.580to do so. Yes, she is. Having served on the Calgary Herald editorial board with her for a number of
00:09:22.140years, she has an ability to argue you to stand still. It's impressive. She once had me thinking
00:09:29.960that the city of Calgary should privatize the sidewalks. She was only kidding, but I didn't
00:09:34.420know what to say. Anyway, look, just a note on Ben Shapiro for people who maybe don't follow
00:09:41.760that particular part of the spectrum. He's a comedian. I know he's Jewish. He's about seven
00:09:51.180feet tall and he has a sense of humor that that splits your sides but i mean he's a serious player
00:09:57.480right he is definitely i think he has one of the second largest i think um political followings
00:10:03.280if you watched anything on the u.s election he was on numerous panels his show actually did like
00:10:10.020a live broadcast um throughout doing rapid response uh charlie kirk is close with him i
00:10:16.820think they were on a panel together. So he is one of those key players that definitely can influence
00:10:22.900probably the Trump administration to some degree, but also just the conservative base that you see
00:10:28.520across the US. So, you know, I get why she wanted to do this. I get why she's going.
00:10:34.780I do think it's unfortunate that it's timing during a rip period, but I can kind of understand
00:10:40.780why she's not backing out because it wouldn't, it wouldn't look strong. And, you know, she's been
00:10:47.440said, I'm walking into the lion's den. I don't think she's the type of person to back down when0.98
00:10:51.840she's already walking towards it, which she is. So I do think, again, I hope that her team is
00:10:58.280briefing her on, you know, focus on the Alberta narrative, focus on the relationship and how much
00:11:04.300the U.S. actually does depend specifically on Alberta for forestry, for agriculture, for oil
00:11:11.680and gas. And then that will ultimately help the Canada narrative. But I think she should just try
00:11:17.880and really tone down any type of partisanship of the obvious, which is that she wants a conservative1.00
00:11:24.200federal government. Did you text her on that? I haven't yet. I'm sure I'll get some notes because
00:11:30.900my podcast is talked about that this week too okay look um let's just uh so so ben shapiro is
00:11:39.540influential i guess joe rogan is the uh is the big guy the big guy but uh ben shapiro has a
00:11:47.060has a tremendous following i noticed when he was in town here last year they couldn't get near the
00:11:52.980locale for parked cars. Everybody was there. So the strategy of talking to somebody like Ben
00:12:04.180Shapiro speaks to people who tune into Ben Shapiro, ordinary Americans who just want to
00:12:11.880see it from a different point of view. Does that have any utility talking to the administration?
00:12:19.600i think because of his size it would be the best chance i mean nothing is better than talking to
00:12:26.740the administration directly but these are a lot of trump supporters they're also a lot of republicans
00:12:32.720which sometimes can be a different thing and so i think that when we look at the businesses and
00:12:38.500the industries that maybe trump is going to be um consulting or his team will be consulting as they
00:12:45.620go through this and the direct impact it has on those businesses, I think that this is a third
00:12:51.120party validator for why not screw over Alberta and ultimately Canada. So we saw tariffs come in
00:12:58.860against Doug Ford. You know, Trump hasn't talked very kindly about Doug Ford, Justin Trudeau,
00:13:06.180even Pierre Polyev. And so I haven't really seen him come out and say anything really negative
00:13:11.300about Danielle Smith. So if she's the one that can get through to those support bases and
00:13:17.500industries, I think the industries are the ones that are going to have to champion that
00:13:21.600to the Trump administration. Yes, that would be the rationale, all right. And certainly she's
00:13:27.540worked very hard at that for the last three months. I don't know how many trips she has
00:13:32.680made to the United States. You may, but I know she went to the inauguration. A handful for sure.
00:13:37.680But there's also ministers. I want to point out too that obviously Premier Smith gets a lot of exposure. We do have offices all across that are doing, you know, international offices that are doing that work on the ground, as well as other ministers talking about those industries. So they don't get as much gravitas per se, but there are a lot of Alberta ministers also doing that work on the ground and advocating for Alberta.
00:14:03.600Do you have any sense at all as to, although they, I mean, we have a liberal government, and liberals fighting to get back into power, so anything that we do in Alberta is likely to be unpopular, because it was us in Alberta who did it.
00:14:20.500But do you have any sense that, although they wouldn't want to admit it, they might concede quietly in the corridor that what Premier Smith has done, the contact she's made and the confidence that she's generated among key cabinet ministers in the United States administration, has actually been helpful to Canada as a whole?
00:14:45.360I completely agree. I think the challenge is that President Trump is very much his own person and he will do what he wants to do. Do I think that April 2nd tariffs will disappear? No, especially because our election isn't until the 28th.
00:15:02.700But I do think she's paved a lot of groundwork for when we see and the Trump administration sees how drastic those impacts of these tariffs have on their industries.
00:15:14.700And I bet you that one of his first calls or where he's telling his administration to go work with Canada will be with Premier Smith because she's made so many inroads with different governors and senators, as well as the administration itself and with their national news outlets.
00:15:31.300So she's a voice that I think he's respecting and that we will be the first, one of the first calls when we realize how drastic some of his policies may be for both us as well as the American citizens.
00:15:45.900Now, I'd like to ask your opinion on something that we published last night.
00:15:51.440Our columnist Chris Nelson, a very entertaining read in the Western Standard, his basic thesis was that if the president is successful in repatriating, as he would think of it, the auto industry to the lower 48, it's going to leave the cupboard bare in Ontario.
00:16:15.440at which point all the opposition to Alberta pumping oil and natural gas will disappear
00:16:25.320because the central government, the federal government, whoever it is, is going to be
00:16:31.060desperate for the revenue that comes from it. What do you make of that argument?
00:16:36.860I mean, I understand the thesis that was displayed. Again, I think that Trump is shooting
00:16:45.040from the hip and that assumptions of tariffs on the auto industry, we've already seen them on
00:16:50.520steel, aluminum, et cetera. We're seeing the impacts that steel and aluminum have had on the
00:16:55.700U.S. and that that industry is calling for, we can't do this. We can't build homes at the price
00:17:01.300in which Americans can afford because we're having to pay such a high amount for that product.0.97
00:17:08.280So I think it's all going to come back to the fact that the money and the cost and the impact it has on Americans is going to have the president come back to the table.
00:17:19.760He can't completely diversify their economy, even forestry.
00:17:23.620They can maintain 60 to 70 percent, but we supply 30 to 40.
00:17:28.000So they are going to feel an impact when it comes to that.
00:17:31.140in the auto industry, it might take longer just because of the back and forth that we saw
00:17:36.500from Detroit to Southern Ontario or Windsor. But I don't know if I agree with Chris that
00:17:45.140it's going to either hurt or help our oil and gas sector or shipping it out. I think what we've
00:17:51.200learned from this entire experience is we need to create very strong interprovincial trade in Canada
00:20:42.980specifically the minister of health who released theirs uh earlier early last week or or you know
00:20:50.360about a week ago and about a couple days after that ahs who was also named um in the statement
00:20:56.060of claim has also released their defense and i caution people when you're reading this if you're
00:21:00.680nerdy like me and actually read the statements of defense um we have to remember and i think where
00:21:05.900the narrative is getting away and where opposition is dirt like grossly taking it is that athena made
00:21:12.340a lot of allegations in her statement of claim she's trying to protect herself and say that she0.95
00:21:17.600was fired for wrongful dismissal etc to get this 1.7 million dollars out of the taxpayers now
00:21:25.000this is not about procurement this is not about all those other things in if we're looking at
00:21:30.340the statement of claim in the statement of defense that is about if this woman was doing her job if0.72
00:21:37.060she was fired they obviously make it without cause because that's the only way you can package
00:21:41.400someone and give them a severance, which she received. And so it is more of an HR if you read
00:21:47.400the AHS statement of defense, because it's going over how she did not meet those expectations.
00:21:54.220I think we've got a whole nother piece when you talk about this scandal, or I like to call them
00:21:58.780the allegations because I never want to get sued by anyone. And not to say you would, but we've
00:22:05.300tried to frame it out that way. That'll be, I think, a whole different narrative. So what's
00:22:11.200of Anna doing her job. One question, was she rightfully dismissed? We'll decide through that
00:22:17.460process. But then there's also all of these independent studies. So we have an independent
00:22:22.060review by the government led by one of the deputy ministers who's removed from the process.
00:22:29.480Then we also have the auditor general involved. The RCMP is also now investigating. So I think
00:22:36.220For Albertans, the truth will be told one way or another, but there is two separate pieces when
00:22:42.540we're looking at this issue that the government is facing right now. Okay, thank you, Erica. So
00:22:48.460I think I'm correct in saying that the Ben Shapiro interview takes place at six o'clock our time. I
00:22:55.600don't think it's going to be a podcast live. I may be wrong on that. Things change. But I do believe
00:23:04.180that it will be recorded and released later so that we can all see how the Premier has dealt
00:23:12.580with Ben Shapiro. I'm sure it'll be an exciting interview. And meanwhile, teaching young people
00:23:19.700to do good work for the popular vote and the people of Alberta at Macamie College. You're
00:23:28.760doing God's work there, Erica. Well, I would like to say, because I know your viewership spans
00:23:34.080beyond alberta as well our um may program and thereafter uh is going to be in the evenings
00:23:40.240online because we want to make it accessible to people not just in edmonton and calgary but
00:23:44.600all of alberta specific and then outside um so that we can offer this canada why because it's
00:23:51.340the only one of its kind in our great nation so macmecollege.com uh will give you all the
00:23:57.240information about the applied politics program that's exciting news that is going is going
00:24:01.760going further Lord knows we need people to get good politics we need people who
00:24:07.420know how to do good politics and have the what can I call it the character to
00:24:12.200go with it Erica Baruti's thank you very much for joining us this evening for the
00:24:18.360Western Standard I'm Nigel Hannaford what does success mean to you peace of
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