Western Standard - Derek Sloan：＂I am the only one who can win this＂

00:00:00.000 What's up everyone? I'm James Finkbeiner and welcome to another Western Standard election

00:00:11.880 special. Well, what a crazy week it's been. We've seen everything from a Calgary Liberal candidate

00:00:17.240 telling Alberta that they should fit in or fuck off, to the Tories surging ahead in the polls.

00:00:22.200 The Tories now sit at 37% to the Liberals 31% in the latest Main Street poll. And they aren't the

00:00:28.620 only one surging ahead in the polls. Mad Max's PPC now sits at 16% in Alberta. And to add more

00:00:35.400 drama to the contest, we have Derek Sloan, former Ontario CPC MP running in the riding of Airdrie

00:00:41.820 Banff. He sat down with me today to discuss his bid.

00:00:45.860 All right. Well, I am here with Derek Sloan. He is running for an independent MP for Airdrie

00:00:53.140 Banff. And welcome. Welcome to the studio.

00:00:56.140 Glad to be here, James. Thanks for having me. I actually think you are the first in-studio guest

00:01:00.920 we've had with the new studio since the lockdown, since Corona. And yeah, we appreciate it. We really

00:01:08.260 appreciate you coming in. Glad to christen your office.

00:01:10.860 Yeah, thank you. It's quite the studio we have here. It's a great view in here.

00:01:15.860 Yeah. The windows. Derek really hooked me up. I was surprised.

00:01:19.300 Yeah, the last one here. I've got this great view of downtown behind me. So I came out to your

00:01:28.460 announcement. We live streamed it. It was great. Lots of old reform MPs, people that are very well

00:01:36.380 respected in Alberta. Lots of great support. There was no shortage of people there. So is that why you

00:01:44.500 chose that riding is because there's so much support there already? Well, I actually have a lot of

00:01:49.600 support all over Alberta. And of course, I was touring Alberta before we made the announcement to

00:01:54.720 do that. And we were getting crowds like that in all areas that we went in Alberta. We had some, you

00:02:01.780 know, quick decisions to make when the when the writ was dropped. And many people have been asking me

00:02:06.340 to run in Alberta. And of course, I have a heart for Alberta. And I always enjoy when I come out here.

00:02:11.240 And so we made the decision to go into Banff Airdrie. Yes, we do have a lot of support there.

00:02:16.360 But primarily, it's because the whip of the Conservative Party is running there. He's the

00:02:21.400 guy that's been, you know, twisting arms behind the scenes, asking Conservative MPs to, you know,

00:02:26.100 to stand down and to vote in favor of some of this Liberal legislation. So I wanted to make sure that

00:02:30.740 we were targeting someone that deserved to be targeted, and not just choosing a riding based on,

00:02:35.720 you know, the most favorable for myself.

00:02:37.320 Okay, so it is mostly about the the party whip being there then.

00:02:43.940 We do have a lot of support in Banff Airdrie, but there's some ridings where we have even more

00:02:48.020 support. But I wanted to make sure that we were, you know, targeting someone who deserved it.

00:02:52.700 Yeah, that's actually a question that's been asked by a lot of our members is why not choose

00:02:57.160 something like Medicine Hat Cartston Warner? Yes.

00:02:59.820 They have very large Mormon population. They have very religious people in those areas.

00:03:04.880 There's parts of Manitoba as well. And I think around the Steinbeck area, some of the stuff that

00:03:11.760 the Manitoba government has done in those areas has just been appalling. And I mean, of course,

00:03:17.520 we've seen several pastors in Alberta being thrown in jail. And those ridings are also available.

00:03:24.680 So, you know, there's a lot of support there.

00:03:27.100 That's right. Yeah, you know, we looked very closely at a number of ridings. And it's true

00:03:32.200 that there's a lot of support in many different places. But this one seemed to be just right. And

00:03:38.680 many of the people that endorsed me are actually right from this area. And I've had a lot of good

00:03:43.980 experiences in this area and a lot of support here. And we just felt it was the right fit.

00:03:47.760 So what about Max? Max is coming out to the riding. He's going to be there, I believe,

00:03:55.500 the 30th and 31st. He appears not to be going down in that riding without a fight. Nadine

00:04:01.400 Wellwood, she is a correspondent or was a correspondent for the Western Standard for a

00:04:06.120 short period as well. And she has basically come back firing when you said to the Maverick Party and

00:04:13.780 to the PPC to stand down in that riding. And now Max is coming out to the riding. So it doesn't

00:04:19.940 appear that they're going to back down in that riding. What would you have to say to Max? And

00:04:24.480 what about to Jay Hill and the Maverick Party about those ridings?

00:04:28.920 Yeah, well, listen, I understand that everybody wants to have their piece of the pie. And it's

00:04:33.400 clear that other candidates are going to be running. I think that's fine. I mean, to me, in this riding,

00:04:38.840 and I say this, you know, just based on the facts as they are, I have a great shot at taking out Blake

00:04:46.140 Richards. If I'm missing that by a few points, and it's because that vote went to the PPC or the

00:04:52.460 Maverick, that would be a hindrance to all of our different movements, okay, because we have a lot of

00:04:58.340 similarities. And, you know, for me to take out a conservative big gun would show that the

00:05:04.280 Conservative Party is vulnerable in Alberta, it would give encouragement to all alternative

00:05:12.060 parties, whether it be Maverick or PPC. So they're doing what they're doing, what they're doing. It's

00:05:17.200 a shame, frankly. I mean, listen, I said to Max, and, you know, I said this to him personally, I said,

00:05:21.160 listen, I could run right now 80 or 100 candidates, okay? I'm not because why would I do that,

00:05:29.000 right? The election has come on us. We picked two strategic ridings that, frankly, hold symbolic

00:05:36.260 significance for kind of the protest movement. And I said, listen, I'll endorse you. You know,

00:05:42.340 like, I wouldn't run somebody against Maxime Bernays, okay? I wouldn't, you know, at this

00:05:47.560 point, we have an election going, we have a good slate of liberty candidates across the country.

00:05:51.780 Now, I understand that Nadine, you know, was running already and all these kinds of things,

00:05:55.760 and I get that. So I understand that she's fighting and all this. But in the bigger picture,

00:06:00.920 this is about our freedom movement. And frankly, I wish that we would have been able to work together

00:06:05.460 better. And, you know, his response to that is, well, you know, Derek, I invited you to join the

00:06:09.680 party and you should have joined. But you know what? Politics sometimes takes some time. And I would

00:06:14.800 have been more than willing to, you know, kind of endorse them. And I have been when people say,

00:06:19.560 you know, who should I vote for? I say, well, you know, look at the PPC candidates, see if they're a

00:06:23.240 good candidate in your riding. So I would say I'm a bit disappointed on that. And I've had some

00:06:30.280 discussions with Max on that. They're, you know, obviously fighting to win. And that's fine.

00:06:37.240 But it is, it's hard to work together with somebody down the road when they're not willing to make,

00:06:42.660 you know, I mean, you know, he has 337 ridings to go full bore. And I don't think there's any reason

00:06:48.520 to do a couple events here. That being said, it's obviously his choice. But it is, I think,

00:06:53.840 disappointing because we've worked on things together. We did a parliamentary press conference

00:06:59.420 together that is a top 10 most viewed political video of all time. There's been pretenses of

00:07:05.260 working together. But working together basically means join me or see you later. And I think there's

00:07:12.140 more options to work together than just that. So I'm a bit disappointed, but I wish him the best.

00:07:17.820 And I wish that this election unseats Justin Trudeau and get some liberty candidates in there.

00:07:24.660 So is that what it was? Was that it was going to be Max's way or no way? Because you guys have very

00:07:31.160 similar policies. Like you guys both advocate for smaller government at the federal level,

00:07:36.400 more provincial control, more personal responsibility, more individual freedom.

00:07:41.320 a lot of the vast majority of your platforms cross over. So was there just an impasse that the two

00:07:48.320 of you just couldn't get passed to for you to join the PPC as a candidate for them? Or was it something

00:07:57.160 else? Just something that you felt that the PPC is missing that you couldn't buy into?

00:08:02.040 Yeah. Well, listen, I mean, politics sometimes takes time. And of course, we have an election upon us here.

00:08:07.060 And we're, you know, making decisions and working as best we can. Yeah, the basic proposition from

00:08:13.660 the PPC was, you know, join us or if not, you know, best of luck kind of thing. And, you know,

00:08:19.000 for me, I felt that, you know, Canada needs something slightly different. And, you know,

00:08:24.900 something that encompasses sort of the three dimensional conservatism that I ran on. So

00:08:31.260 I believe that for conservatism to win, it has to be, of course, fiscally conservative,

00:08:36.040 but also have strong social conservative policies that promote faith and family in a way that's

00:08:43.120 intelligible in our 21st century. So I don't believe that you can, you know, we obviously have

00:08:48.480 to be fiscal conservatives, we have to be, you know, foreign policy conservatives, we have to be

00:08:52.520 social conservatives, and we have to do it in a way that fits in our culture. But you can't be one

00:08:56.880 and not the other. And I feel that nobody has really honed in that vision. I think we need,

00:09:03.840 you know, if we're going to build for the future, we need to have that vision. And I like a lot of

00:09:07.460 the things that Max is doing, but I felt that he didn't quite have that vision that was needed.

00:09:11.600 Doesn't mean that I don't wish him the best in this election. It doesn't mean that I wouldn't

00:09:15.040 have even endorsed, you know, some of their candidates in this election. But I just felt

00:09:18.380 that the conservative vision needs to be a three dimensional conservative vision that

00:09:22.160 encompasses, you know, all different parts of conservatism, whether it be, you know,

00:09:25.940 kind of your libertarian conservatism, or your fiscal conservatism, or social conservatism,

00:09:30.420 I believe all of those pieces can work together cohesively. And that was the type of platform I

00:09:36.020 ran on in the leadership race in 2020. So let's talk about the leadership race a little bit.

00:09:43.360 There's so many interesting intricacies of that leadership race. You seem to have taken just the

00:09:51.580 brunt of everything that happened. But when it comes to some of the policies that you were

00:09:56.380 advocating for, you and Leslyn Lewis were almost identically on the same page. And I'm from Medicine

00:10:03.240 Hat, I'm from the Prairie. And Leslyn Lewis's platform really resonates with people down there.

00:10:09.880 We can get into the nitty gritty details of it. But essentially, you said this during during your

00:10:16.140 announcement as well, about 80% of Canadians are against gender selective abortion and late term

00:10:21.740 abortion. But for some reason, in Canada, we cannot have any type of intelligent conversation about

00:10:29.080 abortion without it being 100% legal or 100% against the law. Nobody can find a middle ground

00:10:36.940 there. But I found that you and Leslyn were both saying the same thing about it. And you also said

00:10:42.900 conservatives need to confront these tough subjects head on. Why is it that the CPC is not only not

00:10:51.080 willing to have those discussions, but actively pushing out people who want to have those discussions?

00:10:57.980 But also, why are they courting Leslyn Lewis and not you?

00:11:04.300 Well, they know that they need social conservative votes and money to win. And so they don't want to

00:11:10.600 fully ostracize them. But at the same time, they're not willing to take on any causes that are of

00:11:16.060 value to social conservatives. So they believe they're happy to have social conservatives in the

00:11:20.220 party. They just don't want them to have a voice. And frankly, I think that one of the ways to victory

00:11:25.920 is to, I mean, if you take a look at Doug Ford in Ontario or even Stephen Harper before he won his

00:11:31.380 majority, policies like cutting off foreign aid funding for abortion went over well. Or it certainly 0.72

00:11:38.140 didn't hurt Harper in, you know, the 905, you know, the Toronto suburb areas. Doug Ford, remember,

00:11:43.840 campaigned against the liberal sex ed curriculum. And there was a lot of, you know, people that

00:11:48.640 wouldn't typically vote conservative that were excited about that. So I think there's ways to

00:11:52.660 broaden our tent by, you know, hitting on issues that are that are socially conservative. Absolutely.

00:11:59.360 One of the other things was this donation. And I have to tell you, I had to Google who he was

00:12:07.740 look up his name and research and find out who he is. I, it is shocking to me that they went that far

00:12:17.440 down the rabbit hole to find something like that. Was there some warning coming up to that, that they

00:12:24.840 had, that they were just looking for absolutely anything grasping at straws just to try to toss you

00:12:30.680 from the party? So on, on Friday, before that Monday that the story came out, I got a call in the evening

00:12:38.720 from the executive director of the party, Janet Friday Dory. And she was telling me that my efforts

00:12:44.740 to recruit members for the convention were against CRTC rules. So she said that we did, we did a phone

00:12:52.220 blast out to my supporters just to remind them to sign up for this convention. So she calls me and she

00:12:57.080 says, you know, we think you're breaking CRTC rules. I said, why? She's like, well, you're not allowed

00:13:02.060 to sell things over the phone unless people consent to it. And I said, well, I mean, my supporters have

00:13:07.320 given me their number, but beyond that, I'm not selling anything. And she's like, well, you are,

00:13:11.620 you're selling tickets to the convention. And I said, well, I'm not selling anything. You guys are

00:13:16.680 collecting the money and I'm just reminding people to sign up. I'm not, you know. So she said, well,

00:13:22.180 in any event, we need to see your list of supporters. And at that point I said, well,

00:13:27.840 who's in trouble? Is it the conservative party or is it me thinking, well, do they need this to help

00:13:32.800 defend themselves? They're like, nope, we're not in trouble. It's you. And I said, well, if I'm in

00:13:36.980 trouble, I'll keep the list to myself. Thank you very much. And I believe what was happening is that

00:13:42.140 they were, they were concerned that I was bringing in basically, you know, real conservatives into the

00:13:49.320 convention because they wanted the convention to come quickly without anybody realizing it.

00:13:53.180 They weren't really advertising it until I started pounding the table on convention in December.

00:13:58.460 And so I think they wanted to know who it was that supported me so that they could do funny business

00:14:03.400 and prevent them from being delegates to the convention because they wanted it to come quickly

00:14:07.020 and quietly without any embarrassment. So on the Monday, so I refused to give them my list. And on the

00:14:13.700 Monday, this story broke. And by Wednesday, I was out of the party. So I believe that this is

00:14:18.380 connected. And I believe that they just didn't know kind of what to do. You know, they wanted an

00:14:23.100 excuse to get me out anyways. And they really, I think, just doubled down on that. So I believe

00:14:28.500 those are connected. And again, you know, I don't know how this newspaper figured this out, because

00:14:35.160 as you've noted, this particular fellow donated in a name that nobody knows him by. So some people

00:14:41.980 have heard of, you know, Paul Fromm. Nobody's heard of Frederick Fromm. I mean, I never heard of this guy.

00:14:46.720 So someone had to do some real digging and piecing things together to figure this out. And I don't

00:14:53.620 know who was doing what behind the scenes, but I absolutely, absolutely believe that my efforts

00:14:57.920 with convention led into me getting kicked out of the party. Yeah. Do you think that the current

00:15:05.800 iteration of the CPC, are they essentially waging a war against social conservatives? And only working

00:15:15.960 with ones that are okay with basically being seen and not necessarily heard. Any sort of social

00:15:24.940 conservative who raises a voice or pushes back, they seem to disappear rather quickly. But ones

00:15:31.480 that are willing to play ball and just say, well, we'll listen and essentially do nothing. They're

00:15:37.380 welcome in the party still. But it seems like from when Stephen Harper was the leader of the party to

00:15:42.940 where we are now, if you hold any sort of social conservative values, you're just pushed back

00:15:48.920 constantly. Yeah. I mean, O'Toole, I believe, is afraid of them. It's clear that their strategy is

00:15:54.260 sort of, you know, be as sort of unassuming as possible, be as safe as possible, be as uncontroversial

00:16:01.320 as possible. So they're not willing to stand up against some of these things. You know, I believe Stephen

00:16:09.000 Harper, at least early on, understood the value of having, you know, like a 360 degree conservatism

00:16:16.380 in the party. And I think he used that to his benefit. Aaron O'Toole doesn't understand that.

00:16:22.720 A lot of people don't understand it. And I don't think we're really going to be able to form

00:16:27.800 government in an enduring way until we do. I mean, you know, the conservatives are doing better in the

00:16:34.640 polls now. And that's a good thing. But really, it's based off of the implosion of the liberals.

00:16:39.920 And if we have to only count on winning when the liberals implode, I mean, that's not a good

00:16:44.100 strategy. We need to have a strategy that can move forward and maintain government regardless of

00:16:48.980 whether the liberals are imploding or not. I mean, they were imploding last time and we lost.

00:16:52.600 They're imploding this time and maybe we'll might eke out something. But we have to have an enduring

00:16:57.500 strategy. And that strategy is a comprehensive 360 degree conservatism that's willing to address

00:17:04.620 all facets of Canadian life. So eventually you see possibly your party, the PPC and the CPC

00:17:12.340 becoming that Big Ten conservative party again. Do you think it's just a matter of having the right

00:17:18.020 leader that's willing to listen to the social cons, the libertarian conservatives and the fiscal

00:17:25.480 conservatives and put them back together? Do you think that it's more of a failure of leadership at

00:17:30.560 the top? Or do you think conservatism is just changing and that there's just no room left

00:17:35.860 in a moderate conservative party to have social conservative views?

00:17:41.020 No, I don't think that at all. I think, in fact, I mean, when you look at the numbers,

00:17:45.920 particularly those who voted, you know, Lesvin and myself first ballot, we make up a large portion

00:17:52.940 of the party. And, you know, I think if you, I think if we really drill down social conservatives

00:17:58.480 or at least people who are somewhat or who are more socially conservative than Aaron O'Toole make

00:18:05.500 up the bulk of the party. I mean, people may not label themselves that way, but most conservatives I

00:18:10.740 know would be against sex selective abortion, for example. I mean, there's many things that nearly all

00:18:16.760 of us can agree on. As for the different parties, I mean, parties are just, you know, paperwork and,

00:18:23.260 you know, branding, but movements are people. And I believe that with the right leader and with,

00:18:30.920 you know, with the right timing, all Canadian conservatives can come together. And I don't

00:18:37.360 know what banner that will be under, but I hope that that will happen soon and that we can have a

00:18:43.480 movement that can have an enduring impact on Canadian society. And then focusing back here

00:18:50.540 to the leaders themselves, Jason Kenney ran a very specific way. When he was uniting the right,

00:18:59.520 the way he campaigned, when he put the parties back together, the way he campaigned for leadership

00:19:05.460 there, and then the way he campaigned for premier has been extremely different from the way he's

00:19:12.060 governed. And I think you could ask any conservative, they would say, who is this?

00:19:18.480 What's happening? Aaron O'Toole has appeared to do the exact same thing. When he was running for the

00:19:23.920 leadership of the party, he campaigned one way. And within weeks, you were gone, we're carbon tax,

00:19:32.700 now we're not defunding the CBC, the flip-flops. I mean, there's more flip-flops right now coming out

00:19:38.240 of Aaron O'Toole than there is at a swimming pool. It's unbelievable. Why is it? Do you think that is

00:19:46.280 what these leaders think they need to do to win? Because what we're actually seeing is we're seeing

00:19:52.140 the parties fracture. The CBC now has split into three different parties, well, four, I mean,

00:19:57.920 if you count the Maverick. And the UCP, the Wild Rose Independence Party, is growing massively,

00:20:04.920 and they're splitting again. And these were the people who were supposed to bring the party back

00:20:09.900 together. Why is that? Why is that happening? Why did they do that?

00:20:16.140 Yeah, you know, what I suspect is happening is when they win, they're kind of in, you know,

00:20:21.060 the limelight of sort of the media and, you know, these high-level sort of consultants. And they forget

00:20:26.560 what it's like at the grassroots. They forget what it's like at the ground level. And they forget who

00:20:30.500 their supporters are. So, you know, I don't believe that. I mean, I've obviously, if I wanted to play

00:20:37.020 the game, I would still be a conservative, right? I mean, I believe that we have to be consistent,

00:20:41.680 that we have to be honest. And, you know, the liberals rarely lose their base, right? I mean,

00:20:47.060 you know, if you've lost your base, you're really up the creek without a paddle. So I think that you

00:20:53.660 always have to remember who your friends are. You have to treat your friends well. And that's why I've

00:20:57.900 been disappointed to see how the conservatives have treated Alberta. Because they, you know,

00:21:02.980 Albertans, almost to a person, voted conservative last election. And now they're actively saying,

00:21:08.080 well, you know, we can afford to lose votes in Alberta. You have to make sure that you're

00:21:11.900 treating your friends well, that you're treating your base well. And it doesn't mean that you don't

00:21:18.200 try and expand your influence. But you can't compromise on principles that you've always

00:21:23.140 said that you support. Okay, so maybe focusing more on the riding now specifically. You're from

00:21:33.340 Ontario. I know that you've spent quite a bit of time this year in Alberta. But what can the voters

00:21:41.060 in Airdrie Banff expect for you from you as their MP? If you win this bid, what did they get? Because

00:21:48.320 we've got, you know, we've got the different conservative parties and the different aspects

00:21:54.620 of what's going on and the splits within the party. What did they get for themselves for voting

00:22:00.160 for you? That's right. Well, the first thing I would say is that, you know, when you look at the

00:22:04.340 polls, I'm, you know, basically the only one that has a shot of winning this, okay, unless something

00:22:09.500 drastically changes. And I think a lot of people want something new. If people look at my track record,

00:22:15.660 I'm a member of parliament, I have a track record of doing things. I've been able to do a lot as an

00:22:20.880 independent when it comes to fighting against, you know, the lockdowns, the vaccine passports,

00:22:26.420 you know, the Paris Agreement, carbon taxes. I have been very vocal on these things. I mentioned

00:22:32.260 a press conference I did with Maxime Bernier. I did another one with whistleblowing doctors on

00:22:38.000 medical censorship that became the most watched political video of all time in two days. You know,

00:22:44.180 these are things that I've been able to do just myself and my team. And an independent who is,

00:22:50.020 you know, unhinged from the establishment can accomplish great things. I have a following across

00:22:55.000 the country. I'm a known quantity. And people can expect more of the same. They can expect me to

00:23:00.600 fight hard for them and to, you know, really be a beacon for liberty here in Alberta that's

00:23:07.340 desperately needed. I'm born and raised in Alberta. And one thing that usually happens in Alberta is

00:23:14.380 when we see the liberal blood in the water like it is right now, we're mad. And we like our third

00:23:21.300 parties. The reform party came from here. That populist movement, it really resonates in Alberta.

00:23:27.140 So it's not surprising to me that the PPC is sitting at 16% in the polls. And there's quite a

00:23:34.020 real possibility of independents and third party candidates such as yourself winning in some of

00:23:39.460 these ridings. But once Albertans smell liberal blood in the water, we have this default to just

00:23:45.420 go back to the CPC, vote for them, get them as many votes as they can, make sure they're there,

00:23:50.880 make sure they win. What would you say to those people? And how would you convince them that in this

00:23:56.180 riding specifically, and maybe some of the other ridings across Alberta, that another conservative

00:24:01.980 voice can still be just as effective as voting for the CPC? Yeah. So in the riding that I'm running

00:24:08.200 in, it is impossible for the liberals or NDP to win. There is no way that they can win based on the

00:24:13.400 numbers. It's basically either Blake Richards or myself. Okay. And so in that scenario, I would say

00:24:19.800 no matter what happens, you're not helping Justin Trudeau. And if it comes down to it, that I'm the last

00:24:24.680 person that's the linchpin between a conservative government or not. Do you want a guy like me

00:24:30.900 who's willing to hold their toes to the fire? Or do you want a guy like Blake Richards who's just

00:24:34.660 going to do whatever they want to do? So this is actually the best alternative for someone who

00:24:39.300 wants, I mean, I'm known as one of the most principled conservative members of parliament in

00:24:43.120 the entire country. And if it does come down that I'm the last person that determines whether the

00:24:48.520 conservatives form government or not, you want a guy like me being the linchpin because as an

00:24:53.020 independent, I can make them honest. I'm sure it's certainly not going to be supporting Justin

00:24:56.240 Trudeau. I can tell you that. But I can make sure that my support comes at the cost of, you know,

00:25:03.460 standing up for Alberta. So it really is a great alternative. In our riding, the liberals can't

00:25:08.360 win at all. In many Alberta ridings, liberals and NDP have no shot of winning. So it's actually

00:25:14.020 worthwhile to hope maybe that another candidate can win and keep the conservatives honest.

00:25:20.120 Yeah, I feel like that message is starting to hit. I've noticed just in the comments on our videos

00:25:27.340 and comments on our articles that people are starting to realize that with the amount of votes,

00:25:34.280 even if you split 50-50 on a conservative vote, there's not enough of the population left to put

00:25:40.880 any of the other candidates past that. And I think some people are starting to realize that we can still

00:25:47.620 have a conservative option, but we can pick that conservative option and it doesn't necessarily

00:25:52.340 have to be the CPC party anymore. And we still get a conservative and on common issues, there's the

00:25:59.760 ability to work together. And I'll just give you an example. In my riding, the vote was 70%

00:26:06.700 conservative last election. The NDP and liberals got about, you know, 10 or 11%. If the conservative vote

00:26:12.860 is cut in half, then I win. If it's not, then he wins. But there's no possible alternative where the

00:26:20.880 liberals or NDP win. So it's a great choice for people to be able to, you know, to vote for an

00:26:26.140 actual conservative without worrying about helping Justin Trudeau. And one of the other things is,

00:26:32.820 is obviously we have the Maverick party. The West is angry. They, we've done the, I remember,

00:26:39.560 the West wants in. I remember all of those bumper stickers years ago. Now it's, it's changed. It's

00:26:45.380 now the West wants out. So you're from Ontario. You're here. What's your vision for either keeping

00:26:52.220 the West in or if it comes down to it, taking the West out? Well, listen, that's a, that's a good 1.00

00:26:58.020 question. And there's no doubt that the frustration levels here and the anger levels are higher than

00:27:03.920 they've ever been. I personally believe that there's a, there's a, there's a vision of Canada

00:27:09.740 that is good for everybody. And I don't like, frankly, if Alberta is doing really well economically

00:27:15.820 and socially and in other ways, that's not bad for other provinces. In fact, that's good for the

00:27:21.640 entire country. So what has been happening is that leadership has been pitting different regions of

00:27:27.300 the country against each other, has been pitting different races of people against each other, 0.91

00:27:31.760 you know, European versus indigenous, white versus black, West versus East, you know, that's exactly 0.87

00:27:37.840 what the liberals like to do. They'd like to divide and conquer. So there's no question that the anger

00:27:43.180 is deserved. When it comes to, you know, actual success on separatist, on the separatist level,

00:27:49.300 all of that's done at a provincial level. I mean, you know, the Maverick is not going to undertake a

00:27:53.960 referendum at a provincial level. They're not going to, you know, change your police force. They're not

00:27:58.080 going to change your pension system and these other things. So there are viable options at the

00:28:03.120 provincial level that have the willpower and the muscle to do these things. So I have many people

00:28:08.340 that come to my rallies that support Wildrose Independence provincially and equally support me

00:28:13.080 federally. They say, listen, this is my best federal option. I'd love to support him. You know,

00:28:17.720 this is my best provincial option. I'd love to support them. So I don't think it's inconsistent.

00:28:21.840 I think that, you know, for an angry Albertan, you need to support someone provincially who's willing

00:28:27.480 to fight for you. And as far as federally is speaking, you need to vote for somebody that's

00:28:32.100 willing to, you know, unite the country and get Alberta working again. And I think, you know,

00:28:37.440 when you look at separatism kind of pre-Harper, really died down during Harper. And that was

00:28:43.260 because people understood, even if, you know, Stephen Harper wasn't perfect, that, you know,

00:28:48.100 he was not trying to divide the country. He was trying to bring them together. So listen,

00:28:51.860 I think that we, personally, I think we'd be better off. And I know that there's,

00:28:55.580 you know, I know there's tons of debt and other things, but overall, I think we would be better

00:29:01.580 off if we were humming on all eight cylinders as a country, you know, coast to coast pipeline

00:29:07.040 infrastructure, energy independence, you know, shipping massive amounts of natural gas and other

00:29:12.600 products to Asia. I mean, this is something that's possible. It's something that should be done.

00:29:18.220 And frankly, that's what I'm aiming for at a federal level. But it doesn't stop you from fighting

00:29:23.040 for what you deserve at the provincial level as well. So I think those things go hand in hand.

00:29:28.040 Do you think as an MP being from Ontario, if elected from Alberta, do you think that maybe

00:29:34.020 your message or Alberta's message would resonate more in your home riding in Ontario

00:29:41.100 if you were elected here? Could you go back and convince them like, hey, this is what's happening

00:29:46.340 out there. This is what's happening to these people. They've done what you guys have done with

00:29:50.100 two years of COVID. They've been going through five years of economic turmoil. They've been doing

00:29:54.280 five years of long-term unemployment. They've seen their resource revenue drive up. The jobs have left

00:29:59.600 the country. They've largely gone to the United States. Do you see that being a bonus and not a

00:30:05.640 detriment from being from Ontario that you could then take the Alberta message back and speak

00:30:09.660 to the Ontarians and convince them that, hey, what's happening out there is serious. It's important.

00:30:15.960 Absolutely. I have a large following in Ontario and I've done, you know, I've had very large rallies

00:30:21.120 in Ontario in as much as I've done them here. Absolutely. I believe that the Alberta message is a very

00:30:27.600 simple one and it just needs to be shared. And we're not having leaders that are doing it properly.

00:30:33.840 And I believe, I mean, I've been against the Paris Agreement and the carbon tax from day one. That was one

00:30:38.060 difference between Lesley and Lewis and I. And I think that these things, you know, getting us out

00:30:43.040 of these agreements, you know, stopping this suicidal attack on our best industries. I think

00:30:50.420 that this is a message that can be sold in other parts of the country. And I'm viewed very credibly

00:30:55.440 by many people in Ontario. And we have other people that are working with us in Quebec as well. So

00:31:02.620 I think that there is, there's a vision for Canada that is best for the country, that's best

00:31:07.920 for everybody. And we should have been, we should have been doing this decades ago, but it's never

00:31:12.720 too late. It's never too late.

00:31:15.380 So for people that are interested, what's coming up for you? What campaign events, where

00:31:20.920 can they find you? How do they catch up with you on the campaign trail?

00:31:24.740 The best thing to do is to go to my website, DerekSloan.ca. You can sign up for my emails

00:31:29.180 there. You can also find me on Facebook. We post all the things that we're doing there. So

00:31:33.400 we will have some events coming up soon. We're doing a lot of door knocking. So if you're in

00:31:37.780 the Banferdry area, you might see me at the door. And if you're not from that area and you have

00:31:43.060 friends and family there, tell them to keep their eyes open. But we're excited to be fighting in

00:31:48.020 this campaign. And I wish everyone all the best. And God bless Canada and God bless Alberta.

00:31:52.660 I'm excited to keep up with your campaign. Thank you very much for coming in today. I really

00:31:57.160 appreciate it. Glad to be here. Thanks a lot. Thank you.

00:32:03.400 Thank you.

Western Standard - August 28, 2021

Derek Sloan：＂I am the only one who can win this＂

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Western Standard - August 28, 2021

Derek Sloan： ＂I am the only one who can win this＂

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Derek Sloan：＂I am the only one who can win this＂