Western Standard - EXCLUSIVE： Jay Hill breaks down the federal and provincial political game.

00:00:00.000 Welcome back to the studio. Good to see you.

00:00:01.700 Good to see you, Corey. Thanks for inviting me back.

00:00:04.320 Oh, it's always good. And we've got so much going on, you know, and I just, as I said,

00:00:08.760 I appreciate having your voice of experience to lend to things. I don't want to, you know,

00:00:13.040 make too many comments about age necessarily. Experience.

00:00:17.120 That's very kind of you. I caught the tail end of your rant and I thought you were right on the

00:00:21.660 money. I think that the average Canadian in Albertan, since we're mainly speaking to Albertans

00:00:27.300 here, is that just appalled at this latest example of government waste on the part of

00:00:33.880 the governor general. Yeah. And it just never stops. I mean, one of the commenters, Richard

00:00:38.440 Blackburn saying, you know, one governor general after governor general, yet we just keep doing it.

00:00:42.320 Like it's, we get mad every few years. We forget about it. We just put another one in and keep

00:00:46.140 repeating, you know, rinse, wash, repeat. Well, and I think that increasingly, certainly those people

00:00:51.820 in Western Canada that pay attention to what's going on in Ottawa have to question why there's

00:00:57.000 no criteria and, you know, that you can measure people against when the prime minister appoints

00:01:03.080 the governor general or senators. You know, clearly there should be something as a job description

00:01:08.640 and something that we can sort of judge them by. Well, I mean, as a senator, even that there's some

00:01:13.840 potential roles or things that they could, you know, be doing in power. But I mean, realistically,

00:01:18.520 a governor general now is a figurehead. I mean, it's an important one, technically a very powerful

00:01:23.360 person. But I said kind of in an earlier rant at the start of the show, I bet we could find

00:01:27.620 somebody for half of that salary who could do it very well, a good public speaker, a presenter

00:01:31.420 who could represent and, you know, give out the medals and cut the ribbons because that's

00:01:35.560 really what they do. Yeah. Yeah. I'm sure there's lots of highly qualified people. I think the worst

00:01:41.640 recent example, and you mentioned her on the, on your show is Payette. You know, obviously I don't

00:01:48.260 know what screening took place before the prime minister Trudeau appointed her, but obviously

00:01:54.680 it was inadequate. Oh yeah. And I was ranting earlier about that. I mean, because even in her

00:01:58.800 first year, she was complaining about her job. I mean, that's what really got me worked up. I was

00:02:02.720 researching for my rant and I found one of my old blog posts from a few years ago, me going after

00:02:06.800 her then, because wow, you're making 300,000 a year with all your expenses, everything else. And you're

00:02:11.660 saying, I quit making me come in to sign these bills. It's tiring. I don't want to have to do all this.

00:02:16.440 Oh, you poor darling. Oh, well, I'll get on to some other stuff. I've been ranting on that for a

00:02:22.680 while. We've got perhaps some opportunities for change. I kind of want to talk about it. We've

00:02:27.240 got two conservative parties in leadership races right now. I mean, they're, they're going to make

00:02:31.720 a, they're going to obviously be very important for the parties, hopefully very important for the

00:02:35.620 country and the province, depending on who wins it. The federal race is kind of dragging. It's

00:02:41.080 going to be a long one, you know, I mean, it's already been going for quite a while and it's going into

00:02:45.080 September. They're all positioning themselves. The memberships have closed now. How do you think

00:02:50.460 that's looking? Like, where is that going right now? Well, I think that there's general concern,

00:02:55.360 certainly in Western Canada, whether Pierre Polyev can actually win. He certainly got a strong,

00:03:01.760 you know, base of support here in the West. It's ironic, I guess, that at least at this point,

00:03:08.440 he hasn't accepted the invitation from Western Standard to the, to participate in the debate that,

00:03:14.520 that the paper has, has organized. And so we'll see where that goes. I mean, all the other,

00:03:20.900 what is it? Five? Yeah. Five of the candidates have all accepted the invitation to participate.

00:03:26.820 Well, four now. We're working on it. And there's part of the problems I think that happens in politics,

00:03:32.780 a bit of a strategic. We see that a lot as often with a front runner or a incumbent, you know,

00:03:39.100 we know that from town hall meetings or election forums when it comes, they often will decline on

00:03:44.640 those because they realize, well, we don't feel that there's a lot that could be gained, but if we

00:03:47.760 get in there and screw up, there's a lot we can lose. Exactly. And that's sort of the traditional

00:03:51.980 position of the front runner. And obviously Pierre and his supporters consider him to be the front

00:03:57.980 runner. So as you say, they have to weigh that balance about, you know, the risk, you know,

00:04:03.360 whether, whether you can gain sufficient to take that risk. It's really what it comes down to. And

00:04:08.800 as front runner, they often will decline these invitations because of that. So, I mean, we'll have

00:04:13.380 to see how this develops. It's, it's an interesting race, I guess, as a conservative, I mean,

00:04:19.740 lifelong reformer slash Canadian Alliance slash conservative member of parliament. Obviously I have an

00:04:26.580 interest in seeing how that develops. But I guess we could talk about what comes next. That's what

00:04:34.300 you and I were discussing previously on your program is to, is for most Albertans and Canadians,

00:04:41.240 I think you have to look beyond the existing race. Okay. So it's fine to win the race and become the

00:04:48.000 leader of that party, whether it's the, the conservative party of Canada, the CPC nationally,

00:04:53.080 or the United Conservative Party, the UCP provincially, it's fine to win the race, but what comes next? How

00:05:00.200 well positioned are they to take that next big, hopefully victory as a conservative, I mean, I'd say

00:05:06.320 hopefully victory and, and win either as premier or as prime minister? Yeah, I mean, it's a big task and

00:05:14.540 it's a different type of task. It's a different strategy. I mean, winning among ostensibly conservative

00:05:19.860 members, you can say a lot of the good conservative language to get in there. Next, if you're trying

00:05:25.400 for the general populace, well, if we're going to follow our ideals, you would stick to your

00:05:29.060 conservative message and you'll sell it well enough to enough Canadians that they will embrace it.

00:05:33.540 What often happens though, is they get in and then they say, well, the only way I can win now is to

00:05:37.480 expand the base by going more liberal. Yeah. And, but I mean, that's failed for two candidates in a row.

00:05:42.420 Yeah. Well, hopefully whoever wins doesn't go that route that as you say, they try to sell a

00:05:48.020 conservative message to Toronto, Montreal and points East, uh, as opposed to trying to change

00:05:54.080 the party. And of course that was the big problem that many Westerners in particular had with,

00:05:58.940 with Mr. O'Toole is he no sooner won the leadership of the conservative party as he started to say, well,

00:06:05.420 conservatives have to change. It's not that people down East had to change to a more conservative,

00:06:11.160 uh, philosophy, if you will. Uh, it was that the party and the membership was expected to change.

00:06:17.640 And that didn't sit very well with a lot of conservatives, particularly here in the West.

00:06:21.720 No. And, and, and it seemed to be the cycle of battle though. Right. And then, uh, the conservative

00:06:26.920 members, we, we are the most notorious for ripping out our own leaders. I mean, we're unforgiving when they

00:06:30.680 take us off. Yeah. And, uh, that that's happened to the last two leaders in a row. They were pulled

00:06:35.560 down from their own same with premier Kenny. And, uh, so, I mean, they, they have to manage to,

00:06:41.080 as you said, the big, what if after they win, okay, they got a couple of big tasks. Not only

00:06:45.000 do they have to turn with an election, they still got to keep those members happy too,

00:06:48.760 while they're at it, whether it's caucus or at a ground level. And it's quite a juggling act.

00:06:52.840 I have given this a considerable thought in the last while, as I suspect a lot of Canadians are when

00:06:58.040 we look at the national party, the CPC leadership race, because people are saying, well, you know,

00:07:03.800 at the moment, Pierre, uh, Polly have, uh, has a very strong conservative base. Uh, when I say

00:07:10.600 conservative, fiscal conservativism, even in many respects, social conservativism, I mean,

00:07:16.040 he seems to be appealing as Mr. O'Toole did to that hardcore base. And so then people have been saying

00:07:23.320 to me, um, you know, based upon my experience say, well, you know, how would he morph as you're

00:07:29.080 suggesting, Corey, how would he morph to be actually be in a position to win the prime ministership?

00:07:35.480 Uh, and, and I've been saying, well, there's a number of factors that might work in his favor.

00:07:40.760 Were he to win? Were he, you know, is he actually the front runner, first of all? And then secondly,

00:07:45.320 under this goofy system, they have the quality of all ridings, regardless of the size of the membership,

00:07:50.520 can he actually win? And, uh, you know, that remains to be seen on September 10th.

00:07:56.120 But, um, my point is, is that you and I, because we do have some gray hair, we know that in most

00:08:02.920 cases, governments are defeated. They're not elected. And by that, I mean that they all have

00:08:09.080 a life span, if you will. And at some point the electorate gets tired of them and that'll happen,

00:08:15.400 believe it or not, even with Justin Trudeau, I think is, and we're starting to see that a little

00:08:20.600 bit in some of the criticism coming out of the mainstream media in the last while.

00:08:25.080 They've been so silent as far as criticizing him. Uh, but in the last while, that's starting to

00:08:30.200 change. So is that a sign that central and Eastern Canada might be becoming a bit more critical of

00:08:38.680 Justin Trudeau and his government? We would hope so. Us in the West would hope so. Uh, so timing is

00:08:44.440 everything, uh, perhaps whether it's Pierre or Mr. Sherey or whoever becomes the next conservative leader,

00:08:51.320 timing might be right. And they might be able to sell a conservative message, not really because

00:08:57.480 people are embracing that message, but because they're tired of the Liberals and they felt feel

00:09:02.680 they've had their chance. They're ready for somebody else. The opportunity is there. Yeah. And we are

00:09:06.440 seeing that. I mean, I'll name a couple of you. Don Martin came up with just a scathing, uh, a tear

00:09:10.840 into, uh, Justin Trudeau. Yeah. And, uh, Selly was another one, I believe, uh, that, uh, again, very

00:09:17.480 critical and saying maybe as the veneer is coming off, the members are getting tired, the Liberal

00:09:21.560 members are getting tired. Uh, so, I mean, it provides opportunity. Well, we saw with, we saw with

00:09:27.320 the mandate issue, right? Uh, all of the opposition to these travel mandates, uh, that has been building and

00:09:34.520 building and building. And, and yet it appears to be that it took the, the insiders, I'll call them,

00:09:41.400 the Liberal members of parliament themselves, where they finally said, enough, enough, this is 0.95

00:09:46.440 ridiculous. We're the only country left on the planet, basically, that still has these travel 0.58

00:09:50.920 mandates in place. And it took that kind of pressure, internal pressure before, uh, Trudeau eventually

00:09:57.560 said, okay, I'll, I'll lift the mandates. Well, we'll be watching with interest. They've got a lot to

00:10:02.760 work with, but again, you know, as you said, there's two races they got to do, win the leadership

00:10:06.360 and win the election. Exactly. Even more immediately pressing a move into the provincial one.

00:10:10.600 Uh, so we got quite one developing. I believe now there's nine candidates announced, uh, for this one.

00:10:15.800 We'll see. I'll kind of start though on that bar they set. What's the party signaling when they're

00:10:21.160 saying you have to come up with $175,000 in two months just to run? Yeah. I, I, I, that bugs me. I,

00:10:28.840 I gotta admit, I mean, I understand the need for a bar, but setting it that purpose

00:10:32.680 ly high, I don't think it shows respect for the grassroots. No, not at all. I would agree a

00:10:37.720 hundred percent with you. Uh, the last time I was on your program, we discussed that because

00:10:41.400 we didn't know what the threshold would be at that point. And, uh, we also discussed,

00:10:46.440 as I recall, Corey, the challenge that whoever runs and whoever wins, uh, and becomes our next

00:10:53.080 premier by default is, uh, you know, they, at least for a few months, they'll be premier and hopefully

00:10:59.560 longer, uh, you know, the challenges that they have. And one of those challenges I believe

00:11:05.240 is to try to convince people that they're not elitist that are, they're not insiders and they

00:11:10.200 will not govern like Jason Kenny did, or he allegedly did, which is that, you know, it was his way or the

00:11:17.320 highway. He, um, he only consulted apparently with a very small number of people. It's sort of his core

00:11:23.960 group of two or three advisors. He didn't even listen to his own cabinet or his, or his caucus.

00:11:29.800 Um, you know, and I think that was really what would eventually inflamed the rank and file membership

00:11:37.960 of the United Conservative Party against Mr. Kenny was this, whether it's right or not, the, the perception,

00:11:45.560 and in politics, perception is reality, the perception that he wasn't listening to anybody, but a few

00:11:51.960 insiders. And so the challenge will be for all of these candidates, uh, especially the cabinet

00:11:58.200 ministers, especially former leaders like Brian Jean and Danielle Smith, uh, to convince Albertans at

00:12:04.520 large, not just the UCP membership, convince Albertans at large that they can, um, broaden their base,

00:12:12.760 that they will listen to the people as opposed to a few key insiders. So, yeah. And I mean,

00:12:19.560 that's something we used to pride ourselves as reformers way back in the time, the fundraising

00:12:23.720 numbers were always great because it showed it was $10 here. It was $50 there. It was a, uh, KFC

00:12:29.480 bucket passed at a, at a town hall meeting or a cowboy hat. Yeah. And it was still, it added up to

00:12:34.840 a lot of money. People really reached deeply and funded that party and that movement as it went and

00:12:39.480 thousands and thousands of people did. But with this bar set and the timeline, it means no matter who

00:12:45.080 gets into this race, it means they had a few very heavy duty donors in order to pull it off. They

00:12:50.840 just don't have the time to build that network of grassroots support, but then you really, it's hard

00:12:55.880 to sell yourself then when clearly you're at least a little beholden to five or six heavy duty donors

00:13:01.000 or action groups or something of the sort in order to get in it. It's just an unfortunate way they went.

00:13:05.960 I couldn't agree more. And you know, there again, last time I was on your program, a couple of weeks

00:13:11.400 back, uh, we were talking about that. And we were talking about the advantage for the party

00:13:16.360 and certainly for the individual to have somebody that's widely viewed as an outsider, a bridge

00:13:20.840 builder. We used to call them in the reform party. Uh, somebody that could appeal to all like urban

00:13:26.840 and rural, uh, was as comfortable in a boardroom, uh, talking to businessmen in Calgary or Edmonton

00:13:33.560 as he or she would be, you know, standing with some crap on their boots in a farmyard, you know,

00:13:40.040 and someone that could appeal to all age groups, you know, which would by necessity probably mean, 0.93

00:13:46.520 uh, not myself, not a gray haired fella. Uh, we need somebody that can appeal to the next

00:13:52.280 generation because it's them that's facing a lot of the challenges today. Yeah. And I don't fault the

00:13:56.440 candidates. They weren't a part of the committee. So those who were entering, those who managed to

00:13:59.400 make it, they did what they have to do to get in. Uh, Richard Blackburn say, yeah, he agrees it's high,

00:14:03.720 but you know, you have to have something in place, you know, to ensure there aren't 40 candidates.

00:14:06.840 And I agree, but we've always said there should be a bar, but you know, I I've always said like

00:14:10.040 50 grand, that's a pretty good chunk, even, even at another 20 for a deposit on top of that. So

00:14:14.600 we're talking 70, that's pretty sizable. A person isn't casually just gonna, especially if they don't

00:14:19.000 think they're gonna win it, just throw that out there and, and jump in. That's still gonna keep

00:14:23.400 it down to a, a number, but it's too late now, I guess it's the way it is. That's the way it's set.

00:14:27.560 Yeah. Um, so a little on where they're going though. So they've been talking things that more of,

00:14:31.320 uh, UNI's language and a lot of regionalism is really coming up right now. Uh, Danielle was on

00:14:37.080 the show and she was talking about her sovereignty act. She's proposing. Brian Jean is talking about

00:14:42.600 Alberta autonomy right on front and center on his campaign. Michelle Rimpel is looking to dip her toe

00:14:46.920 in the water, perhaps. And, uh, she was again talking about standing up to Ottawa. So we're seeing a

00:14:53.160 much more regionalist flavor from the candidates so far. Uh, you think that's gonna set as a theme

00:14:58.680 throughout the campaign, or maybe they're getting that out early so they can get to policy later.

00:15:02.920 Well, I hope it is. And I said that right from the beginning, as soon as, uh, um, Mr. Kenney

00:15:08.840 announced that he was going to be stepping down and, you know, basically that was the start of the,

00:15:14.440 the replacement race, um, at that time. And I said right away, I said, I hope that every single

00:15:21.400 candidate that eventually runs not only commits to greater autonomy for Alberta, uh, and, and curbing

00:15:29.400 the Ottawa overreach and the infringement on, on the provinces, really the, the basis of our economy.

00:15:39.240 And when we look in particular, of course, the oil and gas industry and what's happened to that because

00:15:43.800 of the, I would almost call it, it seems like a personal vendetta on the part of the prime minister

00:15:50.040 to destroy our industry. And yet it's the cash cow, it's the golden goose, if you will, that's

00:15:56.280 funding, uh, the country. You know, it makes no sense, but then so much of what Justin Trudeau does

00:16:02.760 makes no sense. Yeah. Well, we're talking with a federal ideologically driven government. They

00:16:07.480 don't listen to common sense. I was, I was talking to, uh, Franco Tarazano from the Taxpayers

00:16:11.000 Federation earlier in the show. And again, we're, we're just stumped. I mean, Christia Freeland, okay,

00:16:16.200 we don't expect much of the liberal government, but still, I mean, just the most basic thing,

00:16:21.560 you know, is you can't keep spending or you're going to cause inflation. If we're going to stand

00:16:26.360 up and say, we're going to spend 9 billion more dollars to fight inflation. It makes no sense.

00:16:30.920 So this is not a government we can expect rational behavior from. So even though they're

00:16:34.760 as reliant on oil for their revenues as anybody else is, they're still trying to attack it. They're

00:16:39.800 still trying to knock it down. It's just like Joe Biden saying, oh, it's not my fault that the prices are

00:16:44.120 high throughout North America. And now hold my hat while I go civil for oil over in Saudi Arabia.

00:16:48.760 And I don't want any more Canadian stuff. It just defies sense. Exactly. Yeah. And I think

00:16:54.040 increasingly, hopefully I say this increasingly Canadians in particular, Western Canadians are

00:16:59.480 getting fed up with this hypocrisy on the part of leadership, whether it's in the States or here in

00:17:05.880 Canada and increasingly people are calling them out on it. And well, they should. I know the one thing

00:17:11.880 that prompted me a couple of years ago, you and I have talked about this to come out of

00:17:15.960 my retirement at the time and start that new political party, the Maverick Party was this sense

00:17:22.200 that I was just fed up with the hypocrisy where our political leadership say you and I as sort of

00:17:31.000 average Canadians should do such and such. But then they turn around and don't apply those same rules to

00:17:40.120 themselves. And I hope that the apathy that we've seen on the part of a lot of Canadians as they

00:17:46.760 struggle, as you said earlier in the program, to meet their mortgage payments, to put food on the table,

00:17:52.600 fuel in the car in order to go to work, as they struggle under those, that the apathy that we see

00:17:59.960 towards politics will end. And there'll be more people involved in things like the Freedom Convoy

00:18:08.120 that say enough, enough, we're fed up. 0.99

00:18:10.760 Well, the apathy tends to go away when you finally get kicked in the butt. 1.00

00:18:14.040 Yeah. 0.99

00:18:14.440 You know, talking about green things, climate emergencies, plans like that, that's all

00:18:17.880 beautiful. So you can't pay the rent.

00:18:19.560 Yeah.

00:18:19.960 You know, so you can't, you can't feed your kids well enough or choosing between, you know,

00:18:23.400 keeping them well dressed for school or, or buying a decent food. So I think people will be ready

00:18:28.920 for change if, again, if the right person approaches them. So I mean, I think part of

00:18:33.880 this regionalist approach too, is, I mean, we're seeing that too, from, from establishment candidates,

00:18:38.520 Tays and others, they're trying to carefully distance themselves from Kenny while not being

00:18:41.720 insulting at the same time. But they do, every candidate has to explain why am I different than

00:18:46.040 Kenny, because he was rejected by the members. And there was no getting around that. And a large part

00:18:50.520 of that was the fair deal panel. That was one of the things that really soured me. Like I was optimistic,

00:18:54.520 Hey, you're going to strike this panel. You're going to go out. The panel comes back with 25

00:18:57.560 recommendations, all of which I liked. And you know what he did? Nothing, not a damn thing. So,

00:19:02.920 I mean, it looks like, well, in fairness, he held, he held a referendum. Yes. But, but then what happened

00:19:07.880 after that, after, you know, 60, some percent, 63%, I think it was of Albertans, you know, said,

00:19:13.800 yeah, there's something wrong here. We're voting against equalization as it's presently constituted in

00:19:19.560 Canada. And I think with good reason, you know, that Albertans, especially when you get down to the,

00:19:25.800 the family unit are struggling, they were struggling hard, then they're still struggling 0.99

00:19:30.680 under the weight of taxes and, and increasing costs, inflation, you mentioned earlier, the idiocy 0.95

00:19:38.200 of our federal government, where they spent hundreds of billions of dollars, you know, over, 0.56

00:19:43.560 over the life of this COVID epidemic, what we believed was a COVID epidemic. And, you know,

00:19:51.240 they couldn't make the connection that you spend that kind of money, you push that amount of money

00:19:56.760 into society, you're going to fuel inflation. Oh, yeah. I mean, I think that the average person,

00:20:02.920 whether they're, you know, a truck driver, a waitress, a farmer, whatever, just the average

00:20:08.520 Canadian out there would say, that makes no sense. I mean, you're going to spend that kind of 0.99

00:20:13.240 money, you are going to fuel inflation. It's just basic economics. I've been just,

00:20:18.040 you know, when I get bored, I searched through some of my old tweets from a year or two ago,

00:20:20.840 just to remind people and retweet myself. It's what I said a year and a half ago, guys,

00:20:24.760 we can't keep pretending we didn't see it coming. Everybody kept saying, keep spending like this,

00:20:29.160 we're going to get inflation. And lo and behold, here it is. I love it when I can say, I told you so.

00:20:33.080 It's a lot easier when I say, no, I blew it, which I get to say now and then as well.

00:20:37.560 Yeah. But as you point out, Corey, that even, you know, having the advantage of saying,

00:20:44.120 I told you so, it doesn't help us in our present situation that a lot of people, not just you and I,

00:20:50.040 but a lot of people can look back at what they wrote as a guest column in my case, or journalism

00:20:56.520 in yours or statements that you've made in the past. That doesn't help today.

00:21:02.120 Well, what it does is we still have time to stop. You didn't listen a year ago,

00:21:06.600 but we're still spending now so that the advice still applies. It can get worse.

00:21:11.080 Yeah. Anyway, back to the UCP leadership. I think the big challenge for some of these

00:21:17.880 candidates is going to do exactly what you just mentioned a minute ago, is to distance themselves

00:21:22.520 from the previous administration. And the cabinet ministers, and in particular, Travis Taves,

00:21:28.680 that is a huge hill for him to climb, to be able to say to, first of all, the UCP membership,

00:21:35.720 and then provided he was successful, and to Albertans, oh, that was Jason Kenney. That wasn't

00:21:41.480 me. I won't operate that way. Well, you know, as some people, I think it was Lohan said recently,

00:21:47.160 well, why didn't he speak out then? Well, it was obvious why he didn't speak out, because the minute

00:21:51.320 you do... Would have been joining Lohan on the other end of the caucus.

00:21:53.480 Exactly. He certainly wouldn't have been in cabinet, and it's only a short step after that to not even be in

00:21:57.960 caucus. So, you know, there are constraints there. Nobody knows it better than a former whip,

00:22:04.920 the control that the party and the leader has over his caucus.

00:22:10.040 So, I mean, this, like the other one, is going to be a two-phase race. It's going to be who wins.

00:22:14.600 I think that the regionalism is really planned strategically to reach out to those members

00:22:19.080 who were really alienated by the lack of action or feeling of lack of action on Kenny's part.

00:22:23.640 If it works, one of them is going to win. They get in. Now they've got six months, you know,

00:22:27.960 maybe what, a short session in the legislature. I think they're going to have to hit the ground

00:22:32.280 running with some action if they're going to... But careful action if they're going to win the

00:22:36.520 next election in spring. That's going to take some pretty good political acumen.

00:22:40.280 Yeah. And I would say, you know, that hopefully whoever it is, is going to learn a bit from history.

00:22:46.120 One is that you have to have a united team. So the first thing is to try to, you know, heal the wounds

00:22:52.680 that are going to develop during the leadership race. We've seen that time and time again, no more

00:22:57.800 so than currently happening with the CPC race, you know, where they're just sniping at each other

00:23:02.920 constantly and dragging each other down. Hopefully we don't see that level in the provincial race.

00:23:09.880 So the first task obviously will be to heal the internal divisions within the UCP. The worst case

00:23:17.320 scenario is that, you know, if somebody wins that, like a Travis Tavis that's viewed as sort of a

00:23:22.840 conservative, the Wild Rose folks say, well, to hell with that. That wasn't my guy that won, so I'm leaving.

00:23:29.240 And that was part of the problem, I think, all along where you saw people like Brian Jean that were

00:23:35.240 highly divisive right from the get go after Jason Kenney won the leadership. And so you've got that

00:23:41.320 constant pressure and criticism, no matter what you do.

00:23:45.640 We got a lot of, all the candidates, well, aside from a couple that you don't hear of, but the ones

00:23:49.720 that we know of have some baggage that they're carrying in that sort of way. I mean, Danielle

00:23:54.600 Smith, of course, made a catastrophic decision when she was leading the Wild Rose party. That's 1.00

00:23:58.520 definitely her biggest hurdle to try and overcome as she's coming in. I mean, she's said it a hundred

00:24:03.800 times and I think she's convinced some people, but some are still hesitant that she's learned and

00:24:08.120 realizes it was an error and it's made her better for it. But a lot won't necessarily believe that.

00:24:13.160 Brian Jean has been very divisive as well. I mean, he kind of stomped out the door once the leadership

00:24:19.160 was over and would he be more cooperative getting in? Michelle Rempel is now talking. Likewise with

00:24:25.400 this federal race, with some of her poking on behalf of the Brown team, it's been pretty nasty from

00:24:30.360 within. So they've really got their work cut out for them. I mean, sometimes the candidates you

00:24:34.680 haven't heard of might have an advantage for some sour. The challenge though, as you've already

00:24:39.560 pointed out, Corey, and I can't agree more with you is that, that for an outsider to raise that kind of

00:24:46.440 money and meet those hurdles that they've put in place, you know, it's just a couple months away,

00:24:53.160 a month and a half, six weeks away where they got to write those big checks to the party is going to be a

00:24:59.400 real challenge. I mean, I don't think that many of these people that are well known names for good or bad,

00:25:05.080 as you point out, they have their baggage, but they also have the advantage of being a household name,

00:25:11.800 have a better chance of raising that kind of money in a short period of time. So we'll have to see where

00:25:16.680 that goes. But there's no question that these people are going to have to distance themselves from their own

00:25:22.120 past. What we need to look for with all leadership races and all potential leaders is two key things,

00:25:29.560 and you and I touched on it before. A leader has to have courage to withstand the pressure that

00:25:35.080 undoubtedly will come, and they have to have judgment. Well, you just mentioned Danielle Smith. I

00:25:40.360 think the big question still in a lot of Albertans' minds is, does she have the judgment to be our next

00:25:48.360 premier? And that'll be the hurdle for her, I think. Yeah, it's gonna be a tough one. I mean,

00:25:52.440 she's gathering some steam. She was well received on the show. But again, a lot of critique, a lot of

00:25:56.600 questioning. When you've, you know, everybody makes mistakes. Yes, but some mistakes are bigger than

00:26:01.000 others. And it's so directly applied. Yes. So I mean, and again, one of the things Danielle always

00:26:08.040 talked about, I mean, another aspect you mentioned, though, is managing caucus, keeping them together,

00:26:12.760 then in United, whether it's Taves. I mean, he's definitely a contender for this. He's well

00:26:16.520 established. He's got no, he's got the baggage of being within the government. But he's personally

00:26:20.040 never done anything untoward. If he comes in, though, he's gonna have to reach out then to the

00:26:24.600 alienated ones, he's gonna have to reach out to Drew Barnes, Todd Lowen, even, you know, Leela here,

00:26:30.040 I mean, there's the list is fairly long of some outspoken caucus members that you can't afford to

00:26:35.400 just say, Oh, well, you're out now. And we're done with you. No, you got to pull these people in

00:26:39.560 convincingly, or you are going to go into the next election with Hornets Nest fighting within your caucus.

00:26:45.160 I think that most of us recognize that, you know, as I said, previously, sort of the non socialists, 0.96

00:26:52.600 which I hope are still the majority of Albertans that don't believe in, in socialism of the type

00:26:58.440 that's being peddled by the NDP, both provincially and federally, the non socialist Albertans,

00:27:05.720 I've got to feel that this is, regardless of who wins, that this is a team, they can get behind,

00:27:12.520 that this is a team that's united, that as you say, there's room for everybody inside the tent,

00:27:18.120 keep everybody pulling in the traces together. And we'll see where that goes. But if they don't do

00:27:24.360 that, if they can't, you know, there's an age old thing that I'm often reminded about, when it comes

00:27:29.480 to political parties, and that is if they're divisive, and they're, they're seen as that that

00:27:35.000 they can't, it's like, if they if you can't govern yourself, what would lead you to believe that you

00:27:42.040 should ask in this case, Albertans to give you the chance to govern them? Yeah. And that's the

00:27:48.280 challenge for all of them.

00:27:49.640 And their timeline is tight. Well, I'm going to be before I let you go, I will be interviewing

00:27:54.360 all of them, I'm sure over the course of this, I got three more of the leadership candidates kind

00:27:57.480 of just next week alone, and I had Danielle yesterday. So what would you think I should

00:28:01.160 ask them as a prime question? Well, I think, for me, at least, and obviously, as the founder of the

00:28:09.160 Maverick Party, the big issue, and you got back to it with the your mention of the fair deal panel

00:28:14.600 recommendations. Is that why is it that nobody has taken a look at the five constitutional amendments

00:28:24.360 that I put forward as as part of the Maverick platform, and actually to draw attention, it's not

00:28:30.360 like we'll ever accomplish them, but draw attention to the inequities and the unfairness that's that

00:28:36.280 Ottawa heaps on Western Canada. Nobody has mentioned that type of thing and said, Okay, well, it's unlikely

00:28:42.920 that that's ever going to be accomplished. But that's what needs to be accomplished if Albertans

00:28:47.720 are ever going to be treated fairly. So and the fair deal panel, another one, it's not enough that

00:28:53.000 these people and I question Danielle Smith in the sense of calling it a sovereignty act, because my

00:28:58.280 belief is that as soon as you talk about sovereignty or separatism, you're going to lose people, right?

00:29:04.360 If you talk about autonomy, or some form of independence, and that's what I was trying to do

00:29:09.240 with Maverick was talk about the need for greater independence and where we stop along the spectrum

00:29:17.160 is up to Albertans and up to Westerners, you know, so you can have independence at various levels and

00:29:24.280 enacting various things along the way from the fair deal panel as an example. But if I was asking them

00:29:31.960 questions, I'd be saying, Okay, what's your timeline? How have you prioritized what you're going to do,

00:29:38.120 like whether it's a pension plan, whether it's control of taxation, whether it's, you know,

00:29:42.600 that you're going as she has mentioned, there's certain federal laws, she's going to say,

00:29:47.400 you know, they shouldn't apply to Alberta, that's fine. How are you going to do that?

00:29:51.480 And what is your timeline? Because one of the lessons with Mr. Kenny, as you say,

00:29:56.760 was the disappointment that he didn't walk the talk.

00:30:00.760 Well, you do have to follow through. Well, there'll be lots to talk about and lots to watch. So

00:30:05.960 thanks for coming in to talk with us today. I'm sure we'll talk again further soon as things develop.

00:30:10.360 Well, I hope so. Yeah, I always enjoy our conversations. Thanks so much, Corey.

00:30:13.880 Good to see you, Jay. I'll talk to you later.

00:30:19.240 Bye-bye.

Western Standard - June 19, 2022

EXCLUSIVE： Jay Hill breaks down the federal and provincial political game.

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript