Western Standard - Governments have lost the public trust

00:00:00.000 good day welcome to the cory morgan show got an interesting one lined up today there's all

00:00:11.520 sorts of stuff happening and breaking and then somebody's sick and everything else so the

00:00:14.680 western standard newsroom is down to a skeleton crew right now there's only a handful of us

00:00:18.580 around here so we're going to be a bit of a different lineup i'm afraid i won't have a check

00:00:21.980 in from somebody for the news updates but i'll be going on about many things as usual of course

00:00:27.020 i've got a guest coming in i've been looking forward to this and talking about this it's

00:00:31.580 cheryl munson she's of a better calgary party for people outside of alberta or calgary area 0.63

00:00:36.640 alberta's just started allowing political parties into municipal politics it's already been happening

00:00:42.460 in montreal and vancouver for some time but it's just started in calgary and this party is just

00:00:47.400 getting rolling and it's controversial to some people but of course lots of other people are

00:00:51.560 looking forward to it and thinking it could make some good positive municipal changes and i believe

00:00:56.180 it's going to make some good changes but uh ms munson's going to be in to explain a little bit

00:00:59.940 more what's going on with the party organization and what's happening with it it's also i guess i

00:01:05.360 should note you know for those watching live it is uh september 11th everybody kind of old enough

00:01:10.620 remembers that that uh yeah you know a world changing event happened it is one of those things

00:01:16.320 where truly everybody kind of remembers where they were when it happened one of the most horrific

00:01:21.240 horrific terrorist acts ever you know committed in in modern history and uh you know it's it's worth

00:01:27.760 noting and remembering and watching out we we've got some crazy extreme people in the world

00:01:33.300 unfortunately there always will be who just want to slaughter people and uh it happened then we can't

00:01:39.300 forget it and we can never underestimate the dangers that extremism can bring about uh particularly

00:01:47.700 you know when it's a fundamentalism like that and we we can't understate it so you know i guess

00:01:54.340 in memory and uh let's just hope with any luck we don't see anything quite like it again

00:01:59.160 all right well i'm going to get on though i get to uh you know he's just pointing out see mr stanley

00:02:03.860 matthew uh paradoxy all you guys checking in so if you're on live yeah send those questions send

00:02:08.220 those comments get in there let's have a discussion i don't necessarily read them all out but i do see all

00:02:13.160 the comments and questions and it helps me with my flow of things and everything

00:02:15.880 so i'm going to talk about what's got me going today i got a couple things i'm going to hit today

00:02:20.400 but this is on the government and public trusts you know so a degree of skepticism and mistrust of

00:02:25.440 governments it's a good thing actually it's healthy no elected officials or bureaucrats should get a

00:02:29.740 pass or be gifted with blind trust government actions they don't always have the well-being

00:02:34.820 of citizens at heart and the state should always be viewed with a skeptical eye now with all that

00:02:39.220 said though a degree of trust in the government is essential for democracy to function correctly

00:02:44.180 people must have a little bit of faith and be willing to cooperate with the government at times

00:02:48.560 so when that balance has been thrown off and healthy skepticism has of the government has morphed

00:02:54.340 into cynicism things can go bad and quickly so during the coveted years governments at all levels

00:03:00.040 shattered the relationship of trust with citizens elected officials and appointed bureaucrats

00:03:04.240 they eagerly imposed controls upon people with no regard for personal freedoms the ability to earn a living

00:03:10.160 travel meet with loved ones or even pursue an education was curtailed even the sanctity of course

00:03:15.240 of medical choice was violated as people were coerced into vaccinations they weren't comfortable with

00:03:19.740 the state fed mistrust between citizens and the government and encouraged them and they fed mistrust

00:03:25.940 between citizens and each other encouraging them to report on each other for pandemic violations

00:03:30.120 families were shattered livelihoods were destroyed with hindsight we can see how clearly overblown the risk

00:03:35.240 of covid was even when the pandemic was first unfolding it was evident that the virus was harmless

00:03:39.540 to healthy young people yet the state couldn't resist imposing controls upon us all with disturbing

00:03:45.340 zeal schools and playgrounds were closed and kids playing hockey outdoors were assaulted by police that

00:03:50.380 really happened citizens were fed misinformation by the state and the social fabric of nations was torn

00:03:56.480 as people were publicly shamed for questioning the motivation and action of their governments

00:04:00.820 and now now we're seeing the cost of this shattered trust a local example here in calgary the water supply

00:04:07.360 has been disrupted to months due to decades of incompetent civil governments neglecting to inspect

00:04:12.600 and maintain the main water lines restrictions on water have been dragging on and people are being

00:04:16.960 shamed for daring to shower more than three minutes or for flushing their toilets too many times or

00:04:21.480 washing their cars fines are being levied against people caught committing the high crime of watering

00:04:26.480 their gardens and of course the threats are abounding with further legal consequences should citizens be

00:04:32.160 using water beyond their rationed and allotted amount now despite all this pressure citizens aren't

00:04:37.120 reducing their water use significantly in calgary while city officials beg cajole and threaten citizens

00:04:42.640 their pleas are being ignored in order to repair the water lines people need to reduce their water use

00:04:46.880 en masse and it isn't happening apparently if the overuse of water continues calgarians may experience a total

00:04:53.040 shutdown of water or have boil water orders imposed on them for the whole winter that was such

00:04:58.240 potentially dire consequences for using too much water why are calgarians still refusing to cut back

00:05:03.760 it's because they don't trust the bloody government they remember the satisfied gleam in mayor gondek's eye

00:05:09.120 as she maintained pandemic restrictions and they know the contempt in her voice when she speaks to citizens 0.59

00:05:14.160 they either don't believe the threats to the water supply are real or they're continuing with their high

00:05:19.280 water use as an act of passive rebellion just a spider it's probably a combination of both if

00:05:24.080 people trusted the city government water use would drop it's annoying but not difficult to reduce daily

00:05:28.880 consumption to a degree trust has been compromised however and now in time of genuine crisis the

00:05:33.600 government can't get citizens to cooperate on solving the problem this isn't the fault of citizens

00:05:38.160 it's a consequence of the abuse of power by authorities the issue gets even more worrisome when it comes

00:05:43.280 to vaccine use i mean we've had safe well established and tested vaccines in use for generations

00:05:48.480 people don't need a gun to their heads to take their children in for those vaccinations they 1.00

00:05:52.560 trusted the medical establishment and the government back then the lives saved for polio vaccinations and

00:05:57.760 others have been immeasurable as well as the savings and health costs now though we're seeing a

00:06:01.920 resurgence of some of those diseases we thought were defeated measles is making a comeback so is

00:06:05.920 whooping cough we have vaccinations for that statistics are indicating this vaccine uptake has dropped

00:06:11.440 dramatically in the last few years and children are going to be paying the price for that i mean there's

00:06:15.120 always been some people making crazed claims about amr vaccines and autism it was a bunch of baloney

00:06:19.360 but they were in a minority and enough people participated in vaccinations to keep general

00:06:23.040 immunity high so we didn't see outbreaks of mumps smallpox polio the vaccines are safe and effective

00:06:29.040 due to the way the covet vaccines have been imposed on people though mistrust of all vaccines has been

00:06:33.440 growing people are lumping well-established effective vaccines into the hastily concocted juice of the

00:06:38.640 covet jabs elections are approaching and people must vote for change the old guard has to be flushed from

00:06:44.880 power and replaced with reformers we need to bring the trust back new faces won't solve every problem

00:06:49.840 but we can be assured the old faces won't solve any problem citizens are in an abusive relationship

00:06:54.560 with their governments right now and the trust has been obliterated only through new players can

00:06:58.320 trust start to be rebuilt and a balance between citizens and governments be regained well that's kind

00:07:03.600 of my first rant of the day guys it's a big one you know because again i i i know some people do

00:07:08.800 believe that the water leakages might be fake or it's exaggerated whether people should reduce it or not

00:07:13.840 i don't know i think they probably should be reducing it so these things can get repaired we should be

00:07:18.480 fighting about finding why everybody was so vulnerable we should be discussing you know how

00:07:23.840 this can be fixed but in the meantime they should cooperate but i understand why they won't i understand

00:07:29.280 why they don't trust gondec they don't trust the city administration because we've been abused and now

00:07:35.440 it's coming back to haunt us likewise again mumps rubella uh polio those vaccines were effective guys 1.00

00:07:43.920 the proof is pretty solid with that but people now are afraid of all of them thanks to the idiots with 0.98

00:07:48.240 the government shoving covet vaccines down people's throats all right now i'm going to talk about 0.98

00:07:52.560 something else that's been breaking on the news it's pretty important especially if you do live

00:07:55.840 south or southwest of calgary as i do and i want to explain a few things so it's been hitting the news

00:08:00.400 the western standard broke that last night uh a woman had a cougar and on an acreage southwest of

00:08:07.440 the city of calgary it came into her yard she she was uh her daughter was eating lunch a five-year-old

00:08:13.680 girl and looking out the window she started screaming that something has got their cat 0.97

00:08:17.680 oreo as you can see in this video the cougar was right outside their door it was pawing at the door at

00:08:23.600 some points it was snarling the dead cat unfortunately is behind the the cougar there

00:08:28.800 it had killed it and uh it would not be scared away it was there for over five minutes uh this is behind

00:08:35.760 my place now you see some video i'm i'm only a few miles from there this is three young cougars

00:08:40.240 walking a trail behind my house i have a game camera back there this wasn't me filming it of course

00:08:44.800 and it was in the night what i want to establish is i understand how to live with and around

00:08:51.760 wildlife that can be potentially dangerous i live among them now i have no interest in harming

00:08:57.200 animals never want to but i also understand when the line has been crossed and an animal has become

00:09:03.120 too dangerous to tolerate so this cougar that came to that woman's house she called fish and wildlife 1.00

00:09:09.040 once it ran away and a lot of bizarre behavior the cougar left the dead cat in the garden it didn't take

00:09:14.480 it with it so it wasn't quite or maybe it is starving it was skinny looking in the video but

00:09:18.800 food might not have been the motivation then the cougar came back as you can see in this picture

00:09:22.160 in the night it came back and was behind the door it looks like a young cougar a smaller cougar but

00:09:26.960 still when you think of the power of a five pound house cat and think about the kind of power in even

00:09:32.640 an 80 or 100 pound cougar a very very very dangerous animal it's extremely rare for a cougar to attack a

00:09:40.400 person very very rare it's something a lot of people don't even realize like as i showed with my game

00:09:45.120 camera cougars are actually quite common you just don't see them they're very shy they stay in the

00:09:50.880 woods they have no interest in interaction with people and it's as i said the amount of people

00:09:56.320 around if cougars were that dangerous we'd see a heck of a lot more adverse outcomes we'd see a heck

00:10:01.440 of a lot more attacks thankfully we don't but when it happens like this when that line has been crossed

00:10:07.680 when a cougar is behaving so unusually as this one as bizarrely as this one as dangerously as this one

00:10:14.800 it has to be destroyed and i've been watching the online discussions of this of course a lot

00:10:19.120 of the armchair quarterbacks that's why i'm giving some of my pedigree i'll point out like i said

00:10:22.640 i grew up in banff for those who know me i worked 20 years as a surveyor in isolated areas and now i

00:10:28.640 live on an acreage where yes every few weeks i have cougars go through my yard bears lots of other

00:10:33.520 critters i love that and we have gotten along fine i've never shot so much as a squirrel in my yard

00:10:38.240 and hopefully it stays that way but when we get a circumstance like this an outlier with a cougar

00:10:44.000 like this this is very frightening that area and again if anybody lives southwest of county watching

00:10:48.640 this watch out people put their kids out in the mornings to get the school bus at seven o'clock

00:10:53.360 this cougar is still running on the loose it's come to this house and tried to get in their door

00:10:58.000 twice other people saying well we'll just tranquilize it it's not that easy i'm afraid

00:11:03.520 cougars aren't like bears okay they can't be easily trapped in a large live trap and then

00:11:08.480 relocated somewhere else safely unfortunately uh tranquilizing isn't that easy either they're smart

00:11:14.000 they can hide out quite uh well and just trying to get there and get a dart into it again people

00:11:18.720 and what are you going to do with it you can't rehabilitate it i mean again it's behaving so

00:11:23.840 unusually like that and so aggressively and so dangerously it has to be put down they aren't

00:11:29.920 endangered but a lot of people are in danger so people saying it was just a cat that's not the

00:11:34.800 point about the cat this thing killed it's the fact that it came out during broad daylight and did 0.98

00:11:40.000 it it did it in somebody's backyard and then tried to get in the door to her daughter so for fools saying 1.00

00:11:47.040 we should just leave it be its nature i look i you know some people are urban dwelling they don't

00:11:53.280 necessarily understand uh in these cases it has to happen out where i live it's ranch country there

00:11:59.600 are a lot of cougars there are a lot of bears there's a lot of interactions i know uh they don't

00:12:03.840 publicize it a lot but i guess what actually a number of cougars get shot every year out my way

00:12:07.440 it's usually because of adverse interaction with livestock producers but they are not endangered uh

00:12:13.600 it's a last resort those of us who choose to live out there do it because we love the wildlife

00:12:17.280 because we want to be around them i mean there's smart things you should be doing don't leave your

00:12:21.760 food or garbage out you know don't attract animals around some other people saying somebody was

00:12:25.840 clearly feeding that cougar no no i don't believe they were uh you know they're not like foxes or

00:12:32.080 bears where they can become habituated quite so much again they're so shy with people there wouldn't

00:12:36.320 be the opportunity for somebody to start feeding it though who knows you know you leave enough meat

00:12:39.600 outside and you can attract anything i don't think that was the case happening here cougars again

00:12:43.840 tend to stay away it would grab it in the night and take off uh this is just not typical behavior

00:12:51.440 so the news is going to come out on this story as it keeps unfolding i'll spare you the name of

00:12:56.400 the lady she is a neighbor mind just a few miles away but either that cougar is going to be found 1.00

00:13:00.400 and destroyed as i'm afraid it has to be or even worse that cougar is going to attack somebody something

00:13:07.120 is wrong with that particular animal you got to think about it like people again 99 of people won't

00:13:12.240 harm anybody they don't want to things happen sometimes something uh switch flips in somebody's head or

00:13:19.040 whatever else they go off they get violent they get dangerous and we have to do something about it

00:13:23.920 in the case of a cougar like this as you can see in that picture with the blood on its paws

00:13:27.440 aggressive and trying to get into the house there is no other option so again if you're watching in

00:13:32.720 the southwest if you know people with acreages down there though this is ongoing right now

00:13:37.600 uh tell them to watch out keep the pets closer than usual at home and by all means of course keep

00:13:42.240 your children nearby the few attacks that cougars have ever done which are very rare almost never

00:13:47.360 with men predominantly it's been with women and children they're opportunists they're hunters 0.96

00:13:53.520 they will go for what they feel is smaller and more vulnerable and as rare as those attacks may be of

00:13:58.640 course the outcome is as tragic tragic as you could possibly imagine we couldn't imagine a child being

00:14:02.960 killed and that's an area where there are a lot of families and children living so keep the eyes open

00:14:07.440 let's hope this gets resolved and uh you know we can have a rational discussion about living with

00:14:12.480 wildlife managing wildlife and getting along with them but understanding that sometimes there's just

00:14:18.640 no other choice public safety has to come first all right let's come a little closer your home into

00:14:23.920 the urban area and talk about municipal political parties ah this is something i've been wanting to

00:14:28.480 see for years and it's finally coming about and i'm hoping it's done right so we've got

00:14:32.560 cheryl munson of a better calgary here uh this is i guess the the first uh political party in calgary

00:14:38.160 the very first all right thank you very much for joining us thank you for having me here um so

00:14:44.160 i mean to start with you must have been doing some research and other things there are other

00:14:47.520 political parties in other cities in canada it's not common but this isn't a first time ever no

00:14:53.600 vancouver and montreal and edmonton has just started one as well okay yeah great yeah edmonton would

00:14:59.360 be new so this has just been brought in with alberta with a framework and a resolution uh i guess

00:15:04.160 part of the problem is there's always been unofficial political parties there have been

00:15:07.520 alliances but then you don't know where they stand because it's behind closed doors that's right so

00:15:13.280 what motivated you to get active with this ah we we came together we want to see change we know that

00:15:20.240 the we know that the left and the unions are always very very organized and they put together

00:15:26.960 a slate and they were very successful last time and we decided that we needed to come together as

00:15:35.360 center-right conservatives and and do the same and and beat them at their own game

00:15:41.920 yeah and you've got a you've already been doing a lot of organizational work there i've been seeing the

00:15:45.920 the online updates anyways there's been meetings around the city in different wards i think there's

00:15:49.600 14 words and 14 words uh so have you started a nomination process how does this work so what we

00:15:56.480 did we had our launch in june and then in the summer time when most a lot of people are away and

00:16:02.400 stuff we had meet and greets and in all the wards and got out to meet the people sold some memberships

00:16:08.080 and right now we're setting up uh ward associations in every single ward we started on saturday we're going

00:16:14.960 to end this saturday get all 14 set up and then our bylaws are this close to being done with our

00:16:22.080 legal team and then we're going to start running candidates nominations yes okay because you've got

00:16:27.360 a whole lot to do and actually a relatively short timeline uh for those outside of alberta who are

00:16:33.120 reviewing our municipal elections are going to be about what 14 months from now yeah and to the point

00:16:38.720 i mean it's one thing if a party was already established and just trying to get your nominees and

00:16:41.760 get campaigning you're establishing a party that's right as well as getting those nominees so being

00:16:46.320 in such a rush how do you prevent making mistakes we're we have a really good team behind us we have

00:16:52.400 legal help uh and we have we have a lot of really experienced people people from all different walks

00:16:58.480 of life that have worked on parties before so we have a lot of great advice coming and we're learning

00:17:03.760 as we go as well yeah so now this would still be different than a regular party in the sense of okay we

00:17:09.520 got 14 council seats and one mayor seat uh i imagine there's going to be one mayoral candidate

00:17:14.960 nominated at some point or another too we're we're leaving yeah we're going to do a mayoral nomination

00:17:19.680 and we're leaving uh the choices of all those up to the members so the members are going to get to vote

00:17:25.040 on each candidate in each ward on who they want to represent them and we really feel like that's

00:17:30.800 that's what differentiates us from from the slates that have been put together prior is that we're taking

00:17:36.880 it to the members we're taking it to the communities they get to decide who's going to

00:17:40.640 represent them yeah so as you're saying the bylaws are just getting finished up and for people not in

00:17:45.920 partisan politics that's kind of the rule book for the party this is where you're going to do things

00:17:49.440 and how you manage them this being unprecedented is difficult the relationship between the mayor

00:17:54.400 candidate and the other candidates it wouldn't be quite the same as a political party leader

00:17:58.320 with mlas or members of parliament but they would still be kind of the main representative at the same

00:18:02.560 time well we we don't feel like our party is going to have that kind of a leader it's there's going

00:18:07.840 to be boards and there's going to be accountability but the leader isn't necessarily the mayor like

00:18:12.880 the premier is the leader of the ucp uh the mayor is not going to be the leader it's going to be

00:18:18.480 it's going to be everybody working together yeah so you know it's different a little bit is

00:18:22.720 all i'm saying that relationship because one of the questions people have and it's a fair one

00:18:26.640 they fear they could lose local representation if their councillor comes in conflict with the leader

00:18:32.960 or the mayor or the party you know sometimes a one word's interest might be different than another

00:18:37.760 word's interest that representative wants to be able to or people want to make sure their

00:18:41.920 representative can represent them so what so what we've decided is that the party itself isn't going

00:18:47.440 to determine policy we're going to leave that up to every councillor every nominee every candidate

00:18:53.680 that's going to run is going to be out in the community talking to the people getting um having

00:19:00.000 those conversations and then can develop their own policy based on those conversations and because

00:19:06.000 what's good for ward 7 is ward 7 is very close to downtown we have different issues than ward 10 is

00:19:12.560 going to have out in the northeast so we we feel strongly that those councillors should be representing

00:19:18.160 their wards yeah so generalized principles because you still have to have something in common

00:19:23.680 to bind you but i mean i i like the idea i can see how it wouldn't work where you have to draft

00:19:28.480 legislation somewhere like federally or provincially but i mean that's where parties split apart when

00:19:33.040 they fight over well this little policy over here this little policy over there if you can just stick

00:19:37.120 to the general principles that's right you can hopefully have some unity in all the meetings that

00:19:41.200 we had as a group coming together figuring out what this was going to look like i think the conversation

00:19:48.000 we had about values and principles was the most intense because we wanted to make sure that

00:19:52.720 that that's that was our guiding that's a that's our that's our guidance on vetting candidates um

00:19:59.840 and how how we believe the party should be run so we're looking for people who agree and are in

00:20:06.080 line with our principles and values yeah so i mean you know some of the things i guess you speak of

00:20:09.760 is like smaller government or uh focusing on interest in focusing on the things that city hall is

00:20:16.080 supposed to be doing like providing water i've heard has been a big one water i showered today

00:20:20.080 yeah so i appreciate it thank you yeah uh water potholes we hear a lot about potholes in the city

00:20:27.840 i drive a four by four and i'm really glad because some of the roads in the city are tragic oh it is

00:20:33.600 terrible and and we got a lot of pet projects and other things happening on the side another big issue

00:20:38.320 is crime uh disorder uh things on transit yeah uh a lot for you your candidates to bite off that's right

00:20:46.960 but if they focus it in their ward then they're going to come up with the there's going to be

00:20:52.000 maybe 10 issues they're going to come up with the top three and they're going to be able to develop

00:20:56.000 their their candidacy around that so in the case of incumbent candidates that might get a little

00:21:02.640 stickier for you there's a few that perhaps some of the new party members would like to stay on and see

00:21:08.000 would you make them go through a nominee nomination process so what we're going to do is we're going to

00:21:11.840 allow the members of each ward to vote and we're calling it a bypass nomination so the members get

00:21:18.480 together in the ward association and they get to decide if they want their current candidate or their

00:21:24.800 current counselor to be the candidate so they get to decide we're doing it in all 14 to keep it fair to

00:21:31.280 everybody and after after that person has been acclaimed or not then we approach the counselor

00:21:39.680 let's use dan for example we approach dan and say the members of your ward have would like you to run

00:21:46.320 under the party banner he has 48 hours to agree or not to agree and and then we go from there we run

00:21:53.680 to clarify i'm assuming you're speaking of dan mcclain of ward 13 yeah okay just as an example yes yes

00:21:59.200 well in looking broadly i mean he hasn't said anything for or against as far as i've seen

00:22:03.680 uh he would be a one of the few in council that sort of look like they might fit in with

00:22:07.840 the principles of this for me absolutely absolutely um i i don't imagine there's going to be a lot of

00:22:12.240 people rushing out to get mr walcott or anybody on board nor would he be interested but uh so funding

00:22:21.440 now with the provincial have they laid out the framework on how this is going to be uh organized

00:22:26.320 within a party yet they haven't they haven't fully released the regulations yet so we're hoping to

00:22:31.120 do that soon we're going to have um we're going to have a founding convention in october where the

00:22:35.920 members will ratify the board and ratify the bylaws and then we're fully expecting to have another

00:22:42.400 meeting a special general meeting uh in the spring to to change anything that needs to change once once

00:22:48.880 the regulations come down yeah so you're gonna have to hit the ground running hard and one of the

00:22:53.360 frustrations in municipal politics i've seen is there can be some fantastic candidates brilliant

00:22:59.280 organizers excellent ideas but they've never been involved in an election their whole life they don't

00:23:04.000 know how to campaign they don't know what gotv is or database volunteer management that's right so i

00:23:10.000 would imagine the party's going to provide some centralized training uh and and tools like that for

00:23:14.880 the candidate absolutely we think that's one of the one of the huge benefits of having a party is for

00:23:19.680 people who want to step up want to serve their community but don't have a clue on on what to do

00:23:25.520 where to begin i was a school board trustee candidate in 2021 and i had no idea what to do if i'd had a

00:23:33.200 party to go to and say hey i'd like to be a candidate and get through a nomination there and then be able

00:23:40.480 to to run in the election that would have been so helpful to have guidance so that's exactly what we

00:23:45.920 want to do we want to support people who want to serve their city and just i guess again to explain

00:23:50.080 because we've got a lot of non-party playing people who watch you know they're politically involved or

00:23:53.520 they wouldn't be watching me ranting and raving but they still might not necessarily played within

00:23:56.720 a party a nomination is when the local members are going to have a theoretically a competition between

00:24:01.040 a few candidates that's right and choose who's ahead i mean it's a it's a first level of vetting

00:24:05.520 because something has been missing in municipal politics a lot of people can present themselves as one

00:24:09.200 thing and then they get in and it turns out they were nothing like that they just wanted to get elected

00:24:13.120 i've made a head and it's y'all say it outright is a perfect example of it uh having a nomination

00:24:19.440 allows i guess the locals to see these candidates before its election time and they're fully committed

00:24:24.800 and it engages calgarians doing these word association meetings that's one of the things

00:24:29.600 we're hearing a lot of is people want to have a say in who's representing them and they want to be

00:24:34.720 involved and this is a great way to get everybody really excited and to back a really strong candidate

00:24:41.040 and and then reciprocally when that candidate wins is to have some accountability back to the

00:24:47.600 community as well because now you have established relationships with these with these candidates

00:24:52.480 so that when they're counselors there's still a back and forth conversation that can be had

00:24:57.280 yeah so it might be premature to ask but in the bylaws or something would there be some sort of

00:25:00.880 mechanism then where there's going to be a review three years in on the candidates say if they got elected

00:25:06.080 or something that might trigger another nomination vote if they weren't satisfied how do you hold them

00:25:11.440 accountable after the election all right you know what that is a really good question i'm not i'm not

00:25:16.240 quite sure if that's in our bylaws okay oh i really wish john was here john's the the detail bylaw guy

00:25:22.800 and imagine something like that's in there or that's the thing with being new you can talk about

00:25:25.920 those things at your general meeting or so on it's a great idea that we can bring up and and let the

00:25:30.320 members decide because that's you know you don't be locked in and then that's right have that

00:25:34.160 incumbent advantage i mean that's been part of the problem in municipal politics in general too

00:25:37.440 there's not a lot of name recognition so again people are coming out of nowhere and it's hard to

00:25:41.280 compete against the known counselor even if if they uh you know to be frank weren't necessarily that

00:25:47.520 good that's right uh yeah that's exactly it and especially when you have 27 people running

00:25:53.760 for mayor how are you supposed to be and how are you supposed to be educated on every single

00:25:58.640 one of those people yeah it's impossible to it's impossible to keep up like that even if you are

00:26:04.480 politically involved in everything so we really want to simplify it and bring it back to the people

00:26:11.360 and i i think that's a huge advantage over the slate i don't i don't like to be told who to vote

00:26:17.040 for i want to have a say in the process of how that happens well and keeping them rolling as i said

00:26:22.880 between elections like one of the best strategies for counselor once they got in used to be nobody moves

00:26:26.480 nobody gets hurt there were two who stand out you know i'll say their names you're being nice you're

00:26:30.720 starting a party but dale hodges you know rest in peace but he was in for something like 30 years

00:26:36.080 and he would never take a stand on anything in fact he was notorious for whenever a controversial

00:26:40.080 vote came up he'd suddenly get a stomach illness and go to the bathroom wouldn't come back to the

00:26:43.440 vote was back in council and ray jones was in for 20 some years and nobody had ever heard him

00:26:48.800 same thing he wouldn't do anything but when election time came they were the incumbents people still

00:26:53.280 knew the name and they would just keep getting in yeah and you got to make them work it while they're

00:26:58.160 in there not just get in and turn into a mushroom i would really i mean i'll speak personally i'd love

00:27:03.840 to see counselors instead of being in an office in city hall i'd love to see them have offices in their 0.59

00:27:09.760 wards yeah be a little more yeah be a little more accessible to the people yeah i mean a member of

00:27:14.960 parliament has a you know riding associate or riding and then there's a constituency one for provincial

00:27:21.840 that would make sense it'd be another expense but i guess if you could save money elsewhere

00:27:27.760 we could probably save a lot of money elsewhere yeah so uh i i guess what what are your next steps

00:27:32.720 then what's coming up so we're gonna finish building uh the ward associations this week and then we're

00:27:38.880 getting into um well hopefully the bylaws will be done like we're so close and then we can get into

00:27:46.320 candidates we've already got uh a welcome we've got so many people stepping up who have put their

00:27:52.560 name forward for maybe i'll run i'm thinking about it to absolutely i want to run and so many great

00:27:58.640 people in every ward so we're getting our packages prepared for those for those folks and uh and yeah and

00:28:06.480 then we rolled into our founding convention okay so uh yeah we're running out of time it went fast but

00:28:12.800 uh before i let you go then how do people get involved where do they reach out i mean if they

00:28:16.800 want to get in on it a bettercalgaryparty.ca is the best place that's where we have all the events that

00:28:21.920 are coming up that's where we have all the principles and values you can find out all the

00:28:26.080 information now excellent a better party a better calgaryparty.ca and i know people have been referring to

00:28:31.360 it as abc yeah and that's okay but the website is a better calendar yeah you want to find the

00:28:35.680 website to know you can get to the events we're also on facebook we're on instagram uh twitter x

00:28:42.080 so we're we're a little bit everywhere okay excellent uh anything else you'd like to add

00:28:47.280 before i let you go then nothing off the top of my head i think i got it all in okay well i appreciate

00:28:53.040 it and i really do you know hope for the best it's a big task you have ahead uh you know i'll just

00:28:58.480 throw my little bit two bits of advice in i was you know part of the founding of the wild rose

00:29:02.000 party and things like that and i know you guys are probably already sweating it make sure the

00:29:06.000 bylaws pull you together rather than rip yourselves apart over it no hills worth dying on that's right

00:29:11.040 compromise you know that's right if you don't get your way on this one this time give it a year or

00:29:16.240 two you can change it later don't stomp out the door i will say that i will say we've come together

00:29:21.680 as sort of a center-right coalition and our i think if we we we sort of have worked on the basis

00:29:28.880 if if we agree on the fundamentals everything else can be flexible but the fundamentals are where you

00:29:35.840 know and that's where you get 80 percent of what you want as opposed to zero percent of what yeah

00:29:40.720 you're certainly not getting it where it stands well thank you very much for coming in to talk to us

00:29:44.880 about it i'm really going to be watching this with interest i i hope to speak to you guys again

00:29:48.320 perhaps after the agm and that and see where it's all going thank you all right thanks so that was

00:29:54.400 harold munson of a better calgary party getting formed i i'm really looking forward to this like

00:30:00.960 i said i've been a proponent of this for quite some years and some people get soured when they

00:30:05.840 hear the word party they they worry it's going to turn it into a uh an unreasonable show of competing

00:30:12.160 egos well the thing i got to point out to people is you've already got it it's just unofficial

00:30:17.920 this puts it in the open this gives you a means to participate and have something to do it if a

00:30:23.760 union's doing it it's going to be the union heads who you know are tied in with the ndp the party was

00:30:29.040 there and now it's going to be open i mean the union's put in i what one and a half million i

00:30:33.920 believe into the last election through other advertising and things like that which definitely

00:30:38.320 had an impact on the election uh as i mentioned earlier in the head niche you know people wonder 0.95

00:30:43.040 part of why i have such a beef with him you know well part of it's because he's a bloody socialist

00:30:47.520 but the other part is i can respect an honest socialist they do exist absolutely until you

00:30:52.640 know rachel notley i mean i always opposed her i would never vote for her but i had respect for

00:30:57.200 her because she's always at least been up front about what she's about what her ideal ideology is 0.73

00:31:03.280 the head and inch he campaigned on being pro-business he campaigned on being small c conservative 0.99

00:31:08.720 the only reason he did that is because he's not stupid that's for sure he's not a stupid man 0.99

00:31:13.840 and he knew that if he ran as the leftist he is he never would have won not a chance so he 0.99

00:31:21.120 painted himself as a conservative a center conservative perhaps and once he got in he was

00:31:27.360 brutal he did the tax increase after tax increase on businesses and uh you know individuals in their

00:31:33.840 household city hall exploded under him the incompetence i mean the green line that's falling

00:31:38.640 apart i i didn't even go into specific policies like that with ms munson because i don't think

00:31:42.080 they're quite developed to speak on those i suspect they got a lot to say about the green line i mean

00:31:46.400 this is an lrt project when you know when we break it down this was the nichey's pride and joy his legacy 0.80

00:31:54.080 that was going to be costing something like two hundred thousand dollars a meter of track laid

00:31:59.280 initially you know this was nine years ago i believe and now when they finally pulled the plug on this

00:32:05.040 behemoth not an inch of track has been laid yet but the city's managed to blow one and a half billion

00:32:10.000 dollars on it but haven't built anything yet and the cost projection is up over six hundred and twenty

00:32:16.320 five thousand dollars a meter for this little train track that's going to go into an area that barely

00:32:21.120 anybody lives in that's the legacy of nenshi and if people knew what nenshi was about

00:32:27.360 those many years ago he never would have become the mayor how would they find out what he's all about

00:32:31.920 well if he had run through some sort of nomination some sort of vetting a competing candidate would

00:32:37.840 have said you know would have brought it up it would have been brought before the members and

00:32:41.680 they probably would have rejected him before he even got on the ballot for the party so rather than

00:32:46.320 fighting against political parties let's bring them in the open because the only thing worse than an

00:32:50.240 official political party is an unofficial political party i mean people have talked about that i i i

00:32:55.520 you know i've been on those hypothetical discussions they say there should be no parties anywhere there should

00:32:58.640 be no parties in the legislature for example let's say we did that let's say we legalized and disbanded

00:33:04.400 every political party in the legislature like that overnight okay it's fine what do you think is

00:33:10.400 going to happen well our system forces us to have something to choose a premier so they would have to i

00:33:17.440 guess get together all the mlas these non-partisan mlas and i don't know rally around a few people and vote

00:33:25.360 amongst each other and eventually choose a leader well while they do that obviously they got different

00:33:30.560 ideologies 15 mlas are going to go over here with this leader candidate and 40 you're going to go

00:33:35.440 over here with this candidate and 22 are going to go over here with this candidate and then they're

00:33:39.680 going to bond and then they're going to share party ideas and then they're going to sit together

00:33:43.760 in certain parts of the legislature and then they're going to vote on the same sorts of policies

00:33:47.680 together guess what you're back to a party system it never went away you just hit it you made it more

00:33:52.960 complicated you made it more difficult you can't get rid of it so call it then a necessary evil

00:33:58.800 and yes it's not a cure-all we've seen that i've seen a lot of the commenters talking about that yeah

00:34:03.600 you know that it's uh you know a lot of cynicism and i don't blame that's part of my initial monologue

00:34:08.640 talking about the mistrust with government that no matter what you do nothing seems to change i i don't

00:34:14.480 fully believe that and i'm a pretty cynical guy not enough changes not enough stuff's reactive but the

00:34:19.760 one thing is you can be guaranteed to lose if you don't participate so you want as many tools as

00:34:25.120 you can possibly get this party getting founded i'm going to watch with interest as i said i've taken

00:34:30.320 part in in founding parties before and it's a complicated tenuous affair that can split up fast

00:34:36.000 as i said the tips i would give to others out there is just and that's the hard one for me a prideful

00:34:39.760 guy an opinion opinionated guy like me when you're on the board or something like that if you don't get

00:34:44.880 your way just get upset that's fine but let it go it's not worth stomping out of the room so many 0.95

00:34:51.760 people get into politics with that's my hill to die on and darn it i'm just not going to participate

00:34:56.000 if i don't get my way well that's a destructive way to look at it and that's how you lose so uh

00:35:02.000 it's uh going to be interesting to watch they got a lot of work and there's going to be competed

00:35:06.800 interest there's going to be different groups one of their other risks is when there's nominations

00:35:11.440 well you get a winner of a nomination but it also means you're going to have a loser or losers

00:35:15.760 and not all of them are going to go off into the sunset peacefully not all of them are necessarily

00:35:20.080 going to say well i didn't win the nomination but i'm going to still support the candidate in fact some

00:35:24.000 might run against the candidate they lost the nomination to that happens but if the party's going

00:35:29.760 right if the party has branded itself right if their candidates are standing out it's going to be

00:35:35.120 very difficult for somebody not with that party to come at the similar platform and garner any interest

00:35:40.800 and win so i mean calgary's city hall is terrible it is terrible there's really really only maybe

00:35:49.920 two or three people in that whole city hall that are worthy of keeping that's how bad it is so uh who

00:35:56.160 knows this party might not succeed it might become corrupted it might do poorly but uh it's a better way

00:36:05.680 to go at it i i see shane wenzel commenting and there's somebody very very familiar with municipal

00:36:09.840 politics and he's been quite active said there's no one to blame other than the people who don't

00:36:13.200 take the time to vet the candidates and he's absolutely right i mean the old statement you

00:36:18.720 know as they say in a democracy you get the uh government you deserve the problem is unfortunately

00:36:24.240 municipal apathy you know it's apathy on every level of government but municipal is the worst it's

00:36:29.120 got the worst turnout the worst voter knowledge and unfortunately people won't take the time to vet the

00:36:34.480 candidates unless they're pulled out kicking and screaming to do it and to do that takes organizing

00:36:41.520 it takes solid messaging it takes repeatedly hitting the doors and engaging them it takes phone calls it

00:36:50.320 takes a campaign to make sure when you've identified these voters you get them to the poll to vote

00:36:56.320 and you need an organization to do that effectively and you see the reason the left has been winning is

00:37:01.440 because they have unions behind them and the unions have been filling that role they've been doing

00:37:05.120 that they've been organizing they've been pulling identifying their supporters and getting them to

00:37:09.040 the poll parties have to do the same on the other side they have to or uh unfortunately yeah people

00:37:18.240 won't take the time to vet the candidates and you could still end up with bad candidates with a party

00:37:23.280 brand that's part of why i asked as well what do you do if it turns out your candidate isn't very good

00:37:28.960 even after the election well then you know you've got to give the members a mechanism to change that

00:37:33.600 or they will lose interest the other hard part that this party is going to have to learn leading up to

00:37:38.160 elections when people are excited and active and getting involved it's the time between elections

00:37:42.480 that's tough guys especially if you didn't win your award or constituency or whatever you're at

00:37:48.720 this is advice for anybody playing in politics as well the hard part is the first year after an

00:37:53.040 election especially if you haven't won it's so important to keep campaigning the campaign begins the

00:37:57.520 day after the last one ended but you've got to keep people active you got to keep them interested

00:38:01.840 you got to keep them excited you got to keep them enjoying it uh brenda raven saying edmonton has

00:38:06.800 pace as well people must get involved um i i imagine that's the political party that ms munson was 0.57

00:38:13.440 referring to that started up in edmonton yeah one's getting rolling there this legislation's only applying

00:38:18.800 right now to allow these parties or at least give the framework work for these parties in the two major

00:38:23.040 cities i can guess if it's effective if it works uh it'll spread at least to larger jurisdictions i

00:38:29.120 can see it not being feasible in the really small towns where you're talking votes of a few hundred

00:38:32.720 people but red deer lethbridge grand prairie fort mcmurray we've got some centers that can certainly

00:38:37.840 sustain a party system but it's up to them it's up to them and all the government has done is provide

00:38:43.120 the framework if you don't like it there's there's nothing to stop people from not voting for the

00:38:48.000 parties or the candidates with them that's where i i and i see some of the the sickness that comes

00:38:55.280 from a lot of these municipal groups and the ones that come out and uh when i see the municipality

00:39:02.800 organizations always complaining about oh this is not what citizens want citizens don't want political

00:39:07.200 parties they don't well then why are you worried about it they won't vote for it no the reality is

00:39:11.920 those ones who are part of those municipal organizations know that the citizens don't want them

00:39:16.800 and they know if the citizens organize they're going to be in some serious trouble the status quo

00:39:20.160 is going to be in trouble so they would rather the provincial government did not provide the

00:39:23.360 framework the rules and the ability to have a party mechanism to compete in these elections that

00:39:28.080 tells me right away if we want to challenge the establishment the best route is through a party

00:39:33.920 guaranteed route no no there's no guaranteed route there's no guarantees in politics it never

00:39:39.200 ends as i've said to other people it's not like you know a video game you don't get to the

00:39:42.640 end and rescue the princess and raise the flag and it's all over the game just keeps going

00:39:46.720 going and going and going sometimes you win sometimes you lose as i i always say it's you

00:39:52.000 got to participate though or or you're guaranteed to lose um speaking of party politics that are

00:39:59.680 dysfunctional and i know some people will blast at me for this and that's fine i don't like trump 0.55

00:40:04.080 never liked him i'm conservative if i was american i would vote for trump because he's better than the

00:40:12.240 option but i would hold my nose to vote for him and it's only because his option is so bad i wish

00:40:18.400 the republicans could have chosen somebody better but he's who's there now and yes i would rather

00:40:25.520 see him as the next president than kamala harris but i watched that debate last night and you know

00:40:32.400 lots of people say we're speaking of cynicism speaking of party systems failing you know people

00:40:37.440 say this a lot and they've got a valid point the americans really got 300 million people more

00:40:41.920 and those were the best two you could find that's the apex that's what your party system so that's

00:40:48.880 for somebody who's opposed to party system somebody who's critical of my saying that it's a better

00:40:52.560 system they've got a valid point and pointing that out well look what you got out of it there

00:40:57.680 and they're right you know something is terribly wrong with their primaries uh that the if that's what

00:41:03.920 with all the filtering with all the hundreds of thousands of people who take part in politics at

00:41:08.480 all sorts of levels and everything else that was the cream that rose to the top on the top two parties

00:41:14.000 good lord in what is the most powerful country in the world i'm just really hoping whichever one of

00:41:20.160 those two wins the election that there's just some some sanity and and rational behavior on the part of

00:41:26.160 the the congress and and the senate to make sure that they neither of them whoever it might be

00:41:32.400 does anything too radical or nutty but i mean watching those two on the debate last night it was

00:41:39.440 painful painful neither of them really went specific into policies or committing themselves

00:41:44.800 to anything it was an insult fest it was a bs fest i mean and yeah there's bias absolutely uh the the

00:41:52.800 the moderators jumping in on on trump over and over were irritating as hell and uh some people saying

00:41:57.920 well they had the fact chant trump was lying all the time yeah i know he lies all the time that's

00:42:01.440 nothing new for him but the role of checking trump on his lies should be up to his opponent kamala harris

00:42:08.400 not to the moderator of the debate kamala should counter him if he's bsing and she spouted a bit 0.98

00:42:14.480 of bs on her part as well and abc seemed to have forgotten to correct her on that uh bias you know we

00:42:20.960 got big issues bias in the media uh things like that uh paradox he's saying i hope we can get xl pipeline

00:42:26.160 back on and then made a pun with maybe that's a pipe dream because yeah that did come up uh trump

00:42:30.880 mentioned uh the xl pipeline a couple times yeah but you see part of the issue with that is is is is

00:42:36.320 the trust still there between the private market and uh the rest i mean it's really just a little

00:42:40.480 bit across the border but does anybody want to put the money forth to finish that thing now or is it

00:42:45.360 totally dead i don't know it's quite a gamble when you don't know every four years if the next government's

00:42:50.880 going to shut your business down uh again as i said there's a better chance for for rational

00:42:56.560 energy policies and things like that if trump gets in than if harris gets in but still uh there's going

00:43:03.760 to be a lot of irrational stuff out of uh mr trump as well as things go but either way it does provide

00:43:09.600 a lot of interesting uh political fodder i'll finish off coming a little more domestic yeah pier poliev

00:43:14.720 you know uh jagmeet singh went through the political theater says i'm not supporting justin trudeau anymore

00:43:19.360 and probably saying well let's have a confidence vote oh i don't know about that yeah because 0.96

00:43:23.840 jagmeet singh's a coward he's a wimp he he's ndp come on he's a socialist what do you expect he's 0.93

00:43:29.920 posturing he does realize or at least his advisors have realized that his constant capitulation to 0.99

00:43:35.520 trudeau i mean he's he's milked a lot out of the trudeau government the government the trudeau

00:43:39.280 government has swung pretty hard left under uh singh's uh partnership with justin but the bottom line is

00:43:46.080 they're looking at a year between the before the next election they've got to try and decouple

00:43:50.400 themselves and make themselves look a little bit independent rather than just being in bed with

00:43:54.960 trudeau because they're not going to win any seats under that they don't want to go down with the

00:43:59.200 trudeau ship i think it's too late but uh he's also not going to want to go down with the trudeau ship in

00:44:05.360 a month or two months or six months from now so poliev is going to uh call a confidence vote he's going

00:44:10.640 to put it to the house so let's put it on the table vote to stay or vote to go i will bet my hat

00:44:16.560 i never wear hats so it's a safe bet for me that uh they're not going to vote to go to an election we

00:44:22.560 could use one we really could the trudeau government is completely incompetent and they're irreparable

00:44:28.080 liberals have got to be realizing it a lot i mean trudeau had his annual caucus retreat that's when

00:44:32.160 you're getting ready for the political year it's the end of summer they got together in animo

00:44:35.760 it sounds like almost half of his members of parliament didn't even show up for it another

00:44:40.000 one called out and said it's time to get rid of uh justin trudeau they realized they're not going

00:44:44.080 to win the next election with this guy they've got to do something radical if they're going to have any

00:44:48.080 hope and they're not willing to do it i thought for sure it was one of those times i was wrong yes

00:44:52.240 i know lots of people say it happens all the time i don't know happens now and then i got to admit it

00:44:55.760 i was confident there was going to be a major cabinet shuffle after the cabinet retreat because this party

00:45:00.160 has to rebrand itself they got to try at least if we're not getting rid of trudeau we got to say

00:45:04.400 we're different please trust us again we'll do something different this year we're going to

00:45:09.120 put on a fresh coat of paint and change all the cabinet ministers and that's going to be a new

00:45:13.200 approach to everything going into this year and he didn't change a single cabinet position where

00:45:18.640 is your trajectory poll wise for over a year now has been going straight down straight down they're

00:45:24.720 leading up to a possible record loss of seats and they still think that staying the course

00:45:30.400 is going to help them they think that's the best means of speaking of party politics something's

00:45:35.840 failing there trudeau has cloistered himself he's obviously not listening to advisors because 0.97

00:45:41.920 i don't care for liberals but they aren't all stupid there's some smart advisors and strategists 0.98

00:45:46.080 among them and he's not listening to them they're not getting to him and this party is going to be in 0.99

00:45:51.200 the toilet unfortunately it's going to hurt canada a lot okay i've run out the clock just one more

00:45:55.040 reminder to folks i usually remind earlier things have been thrown off i didn't have my regular news check in

00:45:59.600 we rely on subscribers guys that's how we pay the bills this is how we stay independent this is how

00:46:04.640 i can be critical of government i don't have to worry about them pulling our funding it's through

00:46:07.840 subscribers it's 10 bucks a month it's 100 bucks a year like a newspaper subscription you can get past

00:46:12.720 the paywall into the newsroom stuff's breaking stuff's going on all the time get on there western

00:46:16.880 standard dot news slash subscription take one out thank you all for joining me today guys it was a

00:46:22.240 big band a big audience out there today it's great i appreciate it and uh tune in for the pipeline

00:46:27.360 later on we got a new panel coming up and coming back next week at this time we'll do it all again

00:46:32.000 with a whole new set of issues thanks guys and see you then if the name ted byfield brings back fond

00:46:37.200 memories well we got a party coming up for you guys on september 25th toasting ted is what it's

00:46:42.400 called it's going to honor a great conservative who published alberta report news magazine it's gonna be

00:46:47.360 bagpipes singing live auction stakes speeches by premier smith preston manning steven harper quite a lineup

00:46:53.440 the western standard is the the final incarnation or the latest incarnation of alberta report that

00:46:58.400 ted byfield uh founded and i mean he was a great albertan he really made his mark on this province

00:47:03.920 and this this evening of celebration for him is really going to be outstanding you get there

00:47:07.440 toasting ted.ca that's the website you can get your tickets this one's going to sell out i mean again

00:47:12.480 if you want to see smith manning harper all in one spot one night be sure to get

00:47:42.480 wasn't it

00:47:43.280 uh

Western Standard - September 12, 2024

Governments have lost the public trust

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