Western Standard - August 16, 2022


Independent MLA for Cypress Medicine Hat, Drew Barnes on provincial politics

Topics
rural Alberta disadvantages utilities and taxes constituents and nominations
Mentioned
Corey Jason Kenney Drew Justin Trudeau Alberta Works Medicine Hat Ralph Klein Wildrose Madison Notley
Kenney poking his nose into the UCP leadership race The denialism has to end with the addiction epidemic

Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

185.18

Word count

2,753

Sentence count

178

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, Jason Kenney is joined by former cabinet minister and current federal MP for Medicine Hat-Medicine Hat-Fort Saskatchewan, Corey Taylor, to discuss the UCP leadership race. They discuss the challenges facing the party, the leadership race itself, and the current state of the party.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 I'm grateful to represent Cypress Medicine Hat for 10 years, the full extent of that masochism you were talking about.
00:00:07.240 And I bet you 30 or 40 percent of my constituents now stop me and thank me and ask me to strongly consider running as an independent again.
00:00:16.260 And I'm certainly weighing all the options and looking at that.
00:00:19.780 Yeah, I've had the great opportunity to speak up and highlight some important things.
00:00:25.520 Yeah, and I'm looking forward for the opportunity to continue to do that.
00:00:29.420 You know, Corey, as we look at the UCP leadership race right now, many of my constituents are telling me, you know, that they're disappointed that it's underachieved so far.
00:00:40.480 They're looking for more taxes or more talk about lower taxes, more talk about smaller government that spends less.
00:00:48.400 I mean, how often did Jason Kenney promise, you know, a referendum on putting property rights in the Constitution?
00:00:55.540 I mean, large parts of Alberta are rural.
00:00:57.600 And, you know, Corey, maybe the thing I've heard the most about the last little while is rural Alberta feels more disadvantaged than ever.
00:01:05.200 I'm hearing time and time again about Alberta Works not being there to provide adequate, timely support.
00:01:13.200 You know, as land titles, 11 weeks to get something transferred.
00:01:16.460 And, you know, the vast majority of these emergency room closures, temporary and more permanent, have been in rural Alberta.
00:01:24.780 It's a time for change.
00:01:28.140 Yeah. And then, you know, there's some of the tone and things like that.
00:01:32.940 And we're seeing some unprecedented stuff.
00:01:34.540 It's kind of what I was talking a bit with Jay about, too, with the federal race.
00:01:37.260 And then this provincial race, I mean, you can kind of speak from watching from the outside.
00:01:41.040 You know, you've been involved in politics for quite some time as well.
00:01:44.360 When have we ever seen a sitting leader, even though outgoing, whether it's an interim leader or a finishing up leader,
00:01:50.180 directly weighed into a leadership race that's active like we had with Jason Kenney just the other day?
00:01:56.020 Yeah, that's appalling.
00:01:57.920 That's that's so short sighted.
00:01:59.460 I mean, I stood on the steps the day after he lost his leadership review and decided to to resign, calling for his immediate resignation.
00:02:09.800 I was so surprised that the cabinet and caucus let him continue as the interim leader.
00:02:14.600 That was the opportunity for whoever the interim leader, you know, chosen could have been to start to rebuild unity,
00:02:22.400 to start to reach out to Albertans, to start to repair, you know, all these areas where Jason Kenney hasn't met expectations.
00:02:31.260 And then now for him to come out on the weekend and question, you know, one of the contenders ideas.
00:02:38.480 First of all, to me, it shows, you know, how timid he's been in offer in office.
00:02:42.520 What is he so scared of? You know, try try something.
00:02:46.100 You know, Albertans every day are telling me that it's time to fight hard for a fair deal with Ottawa.
00:02:53.100 Secondly, you know, if we it's not the Crown representative's job to overturn, you know,
00:03:00.120 or to decide on what is provincial jurisdiction and what is federal jurisdiction, that's up to the courts.
00:03:06.020 And, Corey, if a Supreme Court made a political decision again, like the carbon tax against Alberta,
00:03:11.460 it only grows independence and separation anxiety.
00:03:14.840 It only grows the strength of Albertans' willingness to fight for a fair deal.
00:03:20.160 So for Premier Kenney to try to interfere on a taxpayer-funded radio show, no, no.
00:03:27.180 A proper interim leader should have been chosen.
00:03:30.080 A proper interim leader would stay out of that and focus on Alberta families and communities instead.
00:03:36.280 Yeah, and I'm glad you mentioned the, you know, the radio show that he was on because, I mean, okay, fine,
00:03:42.560 you're going to do a weekly show at Speak Till Burton, so it's not a bad initiative.
00:03:45.340 You know, Ralph Klein did that a while back and I think even Notley did a bit.
00:03:49.720 Opportunities for people to hear from the Premier, great.
00:03:52.140 But if you're going to suddenly turn it into something to start meddling within an inter-party leadership race,
00:03:58.240 you're abusing that seat, you know, with that show.
00:04:02.160 I mean, that was supposed to be, for the Premier speaking, not a partisan shot.
00:04:05.760 It's somebody running to replace you in the leadership race.
00:04:09.560 Yeah, yeah, I agree. 0.98
00:04:11.400 And I'd say at this point, you know, he's obviously a lame duck.
00:04:14.720 I mean, until October 6th, we're less than two months away from that.
00:04:18.600 Why are we doing this?
00:04:21.900 I mean, yeah, it's just time to focus on the future.
00:04:27.060 It's time to focus on Alberta families and Alberta communities.
00:04:30.140 And again, Corey, I think at this point in time, the race is underachieved.
00:04:34.880 It's been uninspiring.
00:04:36.820 It hasn't connected Albertans like it needs to in order for the UCP to hold government against the NDP,
00:04:43.820 you know, what, nine or ten months from now.
00:04:45.860 Albertans are telling me every day, hey, let's talk about the type of culture we want.
00:04:51.680 You know, instead of a Premier running around giving $2 million here, $5 million there, let's lower taxes.
00:04:57.740 Let's get back to our 10% flat tax.
00:05:00.240 Let's raise the personal exemption so Alberta people have an opportunity to have more choice and get further ahead.
00:05:07.140 I mean, what a no-brainer to re-index tax brackets versus inflation.
00:05:12.880 You know, what is the real inflation rate?
00:05:15.120 You know, reported at eight points, but it's much higher than that.
00:05:18.560 And our small business tax.
00:05:21.320 Our small businesses pay 2% tax on top of the 10% they already paid to Albertans.
00:05:26.160 I mean, in most parts of the province, small business is still really struggling.
00:05:30.720 Let's give these people some hope and opportunity to get back on their feet and provide all Albertans competition and choice and better pricing.
00:05:38.220 These things aren't being talked about.
00:05:40.320 I want to see more discussion about utility and insurance rates.
00:05:43.880 We need way more competition in the insurance industry to bring the rates down.
00:05:48.340 You know, that's clear with what's happened with condos and cars and that kind of thing in the last little, you know, couple of years.
00:05:55.140 Clearly with utility rates, you know, it's sad, Corey, that you and me in 2011, 2012, and many other Wild Rosers clearly put it out there to Albertans that the PC overbuild of the transmission lines was going to come home to haunt us.
00:06:12.220 And now we have seniors that can't afford their utility bills, mostly because of the cost of transmission and auxiliary charges.
00:06:20.240 You know, let's come up with a solution for those things.
00:06:23.400 Well, absolutely.
00:06:24.460 You're in Medicine Hat.
00:06:25.860 You know, speaking of an area that learned to make a benefit of their local resources in that it was the Medicine Hat gas company that was formed and supplied things out there.
00:06:34.940 It was kind of unique that way because of those natural gas deposits around.
00:06:37.960 And when we're talking about utilities and things that we're paying, I mean, we're an energy powerhouse.
00:06:43.020 But if you look at your utility bill, it's not the cost of the actual power generation or the source of the power.
00:06:48.400 It's a hundred other little things that they nickel and dime and tax you with that beat you into the ground.
00:06:53.220 And you can't hide from those things.
00:06:54.440 Utilities are a necessity if you don't want to freeze to death.
00:06:57.160 Oh, absolutely.
00:06:58.100 You know, we've got that so far wrong as so many, many people have put out there.
00:07:02.240 But let's look at the bigger picture for a second.
00:07:04.340 You know, we've got all the candidates for the UCP leadership, particularly the supposed leader, talking about net zero emissions.
00:07:11.980 You know, what blows my mind, Corey, is I wasn't elected to help Justin Trudeau end our oil and gas industry.
00:07:19.360 The reports I've seen on net zero emissions mean it could be a job loss of as high as $150,000 to $200,000 for Albertans.
00:07:26.340 You know, we all know that we're a carbon and an agriculture-based economy.
00:07:32.960 And thank God for the rest of Canada, we are.
00:07:35.120 We've been carrying the heavy water the last little while.
00:07:39.100 So let's, you know, let's just accept that how good of environmental producers we are now.
00:07:46.620 And, you know, let's, you know, carbon capture and storage is another thing that in the wild roads we used to fight against.
00:07:54.120 And the continuation of that will make electricity rates three times more expensive than they need to be.
00:07:59.980 Corey, I can't afford three times more in my electricity bills and Albertans can't.
00:08:04.820 And why would we?
00:08:05.840 Why wouldn't we try to make things as competitive and as affordable for Albertans as possible?
00:08:11.280 Yeah, and then, you know, we get on to other things as well.
00:08:15.180 As you're saying, it really comes to, you know, rural Canadians in general, I think, aren't properly respected by our government at all.
00:08:21.680 I mean, that's a lot of the split that's been going on.
00:08:23.660 And why aren't we hearing more from our provincial government? 0.97
00:08:26.120 I mean, it's not shocking to see Trudeau do something as idiotic as to go after agricultural producers with fertilizer bans, potentially. 0.79
00:08:34.160 But you would think our provincial government should be very, you know, vociferously standing up for our rural producers to say, hey, this is not an option. 0.92
00:08:44.940 It's not in the cards.
00:08:46.200 Back off right now and let's get some commitments from you guys not to be cracking down on our egg producers.
00:08:50.720 But we're not hearing anything about that.
00:08:52.480 We're not hearing anything about it.
00:08:54.660 And it's very, very surprising.
00:08:56.700 I guess the Sovereignty Act, you know, if it comes to pass, may give the opportunity to challenge that.
00:09:03.320 But, you know, clearly, you know, let's start to use a notwithstanding clause.
00:09:08.900 Let's start to build the Alberta agenda items so we can, you know, gain leverage with Ottawa.
00:09:17.860 You know, clearly collecting our own taxes, like Quebec does, would go a long, long way to show Ottawa and Alberta citizens that we are strong and independent.
00:09:27.600 We can stand on our own.
00:09:29.260 You know, it's one of the reasons, Corey, when I had my dissenting opinion 18 months ago on the Fair Deal panel, my solution was, hey, let's give Ottawa three years notice.
00:09:39.540 Three years from Ottawa, you've got three years to give Alberta a fair deal.
00:09:43.640 Three years from now, we're going to hold an independence referendum and we'll let Albertans evaluate how well you've done with this.
00:09:49.960 You know, it is past time for Ottawa to accept that, you know, that Alberta is a leader, that Alberta families need every opportunity for maximum individual opportunity and choice.
00:10:06.520 And I don't know, we're just not, I'm just not seeing it in the race right now.
00:10:09.660 Yeah, well, and I mean, so some of you, I'm sure you've heard from a number of people lately and then, you know, it's getting speculative.
00:10:15.840 But we asked about that during the debate we held in Calgary last week as well, was in the case of you and Todd as well.
00:10:23.240 I mean, would any of the leaders welcome you back in a caucus?
00:10:25.600 Most of them said, and I think that's fair enough, that if, you know, put it to a caucus vote and caucus wants to back them, by all means.
00:10:31.300 But then the other question is, would you want to come back into caucus necessarily?
00:10:36.240 And I can only guess right now, your answer might be along the lines of it depends or perhaps you've made up your mind on where you want to go with things.
00:10:44.240 How are things looking for you there, Drew?
00:10:46.520 Yeah, well, thank you, Corey.
00:10:48.120 I'm weighing all my options, talking to my constituents and my family.
00:10:51.680 I'm actually talking to my old UCP board here in the near future.
00:10:56.920 But I'm a little disappointed with that, too, with the candidates running for UCP leadership.
00:11:04.900 I would like to see that, you know, instead of saying, Drew, you know, if you support me, I'll work for you to get you back in.
00:11:10.820 I think what they need to do is clearly call for me and Todd to be back in the UCP caucus.
00:11:16.260 I mean, it was the constituents of Cypress Medicine Hat that voted me in as a UCP.
00:11:21.280 It's clear now that that I was ejected for, you know, just speaking up on their behalf, for speaking my mind.
00:11:29.080 Others spoke up louder than me after and weren't kicked out.
00:11:32.860 So so what I would like to see the leadership contestants do is call now for Drew and Todd to be put back in the UCP caucus.
00:11:42.240 You know, again, the constituents are the ones that every four years have have that right.
00:11:45.960 Let's open the nominations. All 87. Again, we've seen, you know, as Jason Kenney had his thumbs on the scale of everything, you know, when when the local constituents had the opportunity to hold their MLAs accountable and then they weren't allowed to with with different people being, you know, not allowed to run and different contests being canceled.
00:12:08.100 I mean, you know, that is this just going to drive voter turnout lower.
00:12:12.300 It just it just shows, you know, it puts more it puts lack of trust in the system because because local people can't hold their MLAs accountable.
00:12:19.960 So so let's start fresh. Here's where we are. Let's let's call for me to be back in the UCP caucus and let's open the nominations and let's see who comes forward.
00:12:30.660 That's a fair point. I mean, that's going back to our principles in the past of Wildrose Party.
00:12:35.200 I mean, the constituency level was sacrosanct and we still had meddling coming from the leadership that just can't seem to resist themselves when it comes to that.
00:12:43.200 But the principles there, leave it to the constituents to determine that.
00:12:46.640 And then that person can speak as an individual on their behalf in the legislature.
00:12:49.900 I think we can return to that. You know, I shouldn't say we. I'm not a party amber anymore.
00:12:53.580 But that's part of, I think, what's going on with the UCP.
00:12:56.500 I mean, when you get a merger, you know, UCP was it was the Wildrose.
00:13:00.800 It was the PCs. There's still some ideological clashes going on behind closed doors.
00:13:04.860 Even if unofficially. And it's making it difficult for that party to function respectfully and, you know, effectively.
00:13:11.520 Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We need we need more and more Albertans to be involved. 0.87
00:13:17.340 You know, I've been asking them to give us 15 minutes a month, five minutes for your country, five minutes for your province and five minutes for your for your municipality.
00:13:24.500 You know, I I've advocated that, you know, the UCP and any provincial party should just draw as many nominations as they can handle at one time out of the hat, make it as random as possible.
00:13:37.980 So all 87 constituents, constituencies have to have strong memberships and stay involved and be ready to go.
00:13:44.700 It allows less, you know, interference from from the party.
00:13:49.720 But, you know, Corey, what's what's also interesting is from around the province, I've had at least 15 constituencies approach me and say,
00:13:56.900 hey, why don't we look at running, you know, 10, 15, 20 independents around the province and try to be a loose group of independents that believes in, you know, conservative values,
00:14:08.460 but believes first and foremost in standing up for our constituencies and our and our local needs.
00:14:13.900 And, you know, there's a real appetite for for that right now from Albertans.
00:14:19.020 So I'm looking forward to the next month or two to to discuss this and see what happens.
00:14:24.740 Well, right on. We're certainly at a turning point in Alberta in this next few months.
00:14:28.840 And well, this year, I mean, we've got another general election coming.
00:14:31.540 So I appreciate you being a voice for the old common sense and principle out there.
00:14:37.460 And yeah, Cyprus to Madison hat. I look forward to seeing, well, where you go with things as they go.
00:14:41.920 So thanks again for coming on to talk to us today, Drew.
00:14:45.240 It's always always a good conversation.
00:14:47.000 I'm sure we'll be talking again soon. Just won't be on this show.
00:14:49.800 Thank you, Corey. All the best wishes to you. Take care.