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.
00:00:00.000I'm grateful to represent Cypress Medicine Hat for 10 years, the full extent of that masochism you were talking about.
00:00:07.240And 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.
00:00:16.260And I'm certainly weighing all the options and looking at that.
00:00:19.780Yeah, I've had the great opportunity to speak up and highlight some important things.
00:00:25.520Yeah, and I'm looking forward for the opportunity to continue to do that.
00:00:29.420You 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.
00:00:40.480They're looking for more taxes or more talk about lower taxes, more talk about smaller government that spends less.
00:00:48.400I mean, how often did Jason Kenney promise, you know, a referendum on putting property rights in the Constitution?
00:00:55.540I mean, large parts of Alberta are rural.
00:00:57.600And, you know, Corey, maybe the thing I've heard the most about the last little while is rural Alberta feels more disadvantaged than ever.
00:01:05.200I'm hearing time and time again about Alberta Works not being there to provide adequate, timely support.
00:01:13.200You know, as land titles, 11 weeks to get something transferred.
00:01:16.460And, you know, the vast majority of these emergency room closures, temporary and more permanent, have been in rural Alberta.
00:05:21.320Our small businesses pay 2% tax on top of the 10% they already paid to Albertans.
00:05:26.160I mean, in most parts of the province, small business is still really struggling.
00:05:30.720Let's give these people some hope and opportunity to get back on their feet and provide all Albertans competition and choice and better pricing.
00:05:38.220These things aren't being talked about.
00:05:40.320I want to see more discussion about utility and insurance rates.
00:05:43.880We need way more competition in the insurance industry to bring the rates down.
00:05:48.340You 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.
00:05:55.140Clearly 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.
00:06:12.220And now we have seniors that can't afford their utility bills, mostly because of the cost of transmission and auxiliary charges.
00:06:20.240You know, let's come up with a solution for those things.
00:06:25.860You 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.
00:06:34.940It was kind of unique that way because of those natural gas deposits around.
00:06:37.960And when we're talking about utilities and things that we're paying, I mean, we're an energy powerhouse.
00:06:43.020But if you look at your utility bill, it's not the cost of the actual power generation or the source of the power.
00:06:48.400It's a hundred other little things that they nickel and dime and tax you with that beat you into the ground.
00:08:05.840Why wouldn't we try to make things as competitive and as affordable for Albertans as possible?
00:08:11.280Yeah, and then, you know, we get on to other things as well.
00:08:15.180As you're saying, it really comes to, you know, rural Canadians in general, I think, aren't properly respected by our government at all.
00:08:21.680I mean, that's a lot of the split that's been going on.
00:08:23.660And why aren't we hearing more from our provincial government?
00:08:26.120I mean, it's not shocking to see Trudeau do something as idiotic as to go after agricultural producers with fertilizer bans, potentially.
00:08:34.160But 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.
00:08:56.700I guess the Sovereignty Act, you know, if it comes to pass, may give the opportunity to challenge that.
00:09:03.320But, you know, clearly, you know, let's start to use a notwithstanding clause.
00:09:08.900Let's start to build the Alberta agenda items so we can, you know, gain leverage with Ottawa.
00:09:17.860You 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.
00:09:29.260You 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.
00:09:39.540Three years from Ottawa, you've got three years to give Alberta a fair deal.
00:09:43.640Three years from now, we're going to hold an independence referendum and we'll let Albertans evaluate how well you've done with this.
00:09:49.960You 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.
00:10:06.520And I don't know, we're just not, I'm just not seeing it in the race right now.
00:10:09.660Yeah, 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.
00:10:15.840But 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.
00:10:23.240I mean, would any of the leaders welcome you back in a caucus?
00:10:25.600Most 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.
00:10:31.300But then the other question is, would you want to come back into caucus necessarily?
00:10:36.240And 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.
00:10:44.240How are things looking for you there, Drew?
00:10:48.120I'm weighing all my options, talking to my constituents and my family.
00:10:51.680I'm actually talking to my old UCP board here in the near future.
00:10:56.920But I'm a little disappointed with that, too, with the candidates running for UCP leadership.
00:11:04.900I 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.
00:11:10.820I think what they need to do is clearly call for me and Todd to be back in the UCP caucus.
00:11:16.260I mean, it was the constituents of Cypress Medicine Hat that voted me in as a UCP.
00:11:21.280It's clear now that that I was ejected for, you know, just speaking up on their behalf, for speaking my mind.
00:11:29.080Others spoke up louder than me after and weren't kicked out.
00:11:32.860So 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.
00:11:42.240You know, again, the constituents are the ones that every four years have have that right.
00:11:45.960Let'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.
00:12:08.100I mean, you know, that is this just going to drive voter turnout lower.
00:12:12.300It 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.
00:12:19.960So 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.
00:12:30.660That's a fair point. I mean, that's going back to our principles in the past of Wildrose Party.
00:12:35.200I 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.
00:12:43.200But the principles there, leave it to the constituents to determine that.
00:12:46.640And then that person can speak as an individual on their behalf in the legislature.
00:12:49.900I think we can return to that. You know, I shouldn't say we. I'm not a party amber anymore.
00:12:53.580But that's part of, I think, what's going on with the UCP.
00:12:56.500I mean, when you get a merger, you know, UCP was it was the Wildrose.
00:13:00.800It was the PCs. There's still some ideological clashes going on behind closed doors.
00:13:04.860Even if unofficially. And it's making it difficult for that party to function respectfully and, you know, effectively.
00:13:11.520Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We need we need more and more Albertans to be involved.
00:13:17.340You 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.
00:13:24.500You 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.
00:13:37.980So all 87 constituents, constituencies have to have strong memberships and stay involved and be ready to go.
00:13:44.700It allows less, you know, interference from from the party.
00:13:49.720But, 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,
00:13:56.900hey, 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,
00:14:08.460but believes first and foremost in standing up for our constituencies and our and our local needs.
00:14:13.900And, you know, there's a real appetite for for that right now from Albertans.
00:14:19.020So I'm looking forward to the next month or two to to discuss this and see what happens.
00:14:24.740Well, right on. We're certainly at a turning point in Alberta in this next few months.
00:14:28.840And well, this year, I mean, we've got another general election coming.
00:14:31.540So I appreciate you being a voice for the old common sense and principle out there.
00:14:37.460And yeah, Cyprus to Madison hat. I look forward to seeing, well, where you go with things as they go.
00:14:41.920So thanks again for coming on to talk to us today, Drew.
00:14:45.240It's always always a good conversation.
00:14:47.000I'm sure we'll be talking again soon. Just won't be on this show.
00:14:49.800Thank you, Corey. All the best wishes to you. Take care.