Western Standard - Premier Smith stands alone

00:00:00.000 Good day.

00:00:29.560 welcome to the cory morgan show the first post-referendum broadcast uh well actually

00:00:34.840 we did some yesterday from out of here but the first one on my show anyways yes we didn't get

00:00:40.120 what we were hoping for alberta certainly still well entrenched in the federation for now burton

00:00:45.240 spoke it was a democratic uh exercise am i done of course not i've been at this 26 years uh i've

00:00:52.200 not given up at this point but i also accept that we didn't win the majority of albertans at this

00:00:57.080 point not even close so we have to think of how we can and that's going to take some time i just

00:01:02.120 worry a bit about some of the reactionary approaches some people are taking the burn

00:01:06.760 everything down approach to things and so on we've got to think long-term guys tactically wisely i

00:01:13.960 know that's not traits that we always have i can be pretty reactive at times but we can deal with

00:01:20.440 this looking at ourselves looking at how we campaigned looking at what happened with an

00:01:25.880 eye on how we can change that a few years down the road i know some people screaming to have

00:01:29.800 another referendum right away we got to push it through and and you know due to the petitioning

00:01:33.880 and so on guys i think it would be even lower if we did that that would really be ticking off a

00:01:38.200 whole lot of people who just went through five months of a lot of work it wasn't a loss we built

00:01:42.440 a foundation alberta has forever changed and we will build and work from that but don't uh don't

00:01:48.840 burn everything down that we already gained by just having a poor reaction to how things came

00:01:52.920 All right, well, let's look at some of the other stuff that came out of that, though.

00:01:55.460 There were those other nine questions.

00:01:57.820 Now, Premier Daniel Smith has a mandate from Albertans to make changes to policies for immigrants in Alberta

00:02:03.660 and to pursue some constitutional reforms federally.

00:02:06.860 The margins might have been narrow, but it was a win.

00:02:09.340 Now, for the yes side on eight of the first nine questions.

00:02:11.640 I think it might be seven, actually, at this point.

00:02:13.220 I think something shifted overnight.

00:02:14.840 The Premier appears to be poised to act quickly on the directives democratically given to her by citizens,

00:02:19.500 but other politicians appear to be a little more reticent in supporting the mandate including

00:02:23.340 Pierre Polyev and Nahed Nenshi. At a press conference held the day after the referendum

00:02:28.360 the Western Standard's Jackson Loy asked Polyev what he would be doing to help Alberta implement

00:02:33.740 the changes Albertans voted for and in response Polyev dodged the question. He began by saying

00:02:38.380 it does appear that Albertans have rejected Mark Carney's direction on this. That's as far as he

00:02:41.980 went. Then he went into the usual circular talking points criticizing the federal government's

00:02:45.960 of immigration.

00:02:46.960 Polyev's response was disappointing, but not unexpected.

00:02:49.960 It exposes the weakness Alberta has in federal representation.

00:02:53.960 Polyev is doing what any federal leader must do if they aspire to become Prime Minister

00:02:58.460 one day.

00:02:59.460 He's campaigning to the wishes of Eastern Canada while putting the interests of Alberta

00:03:02.760 on the shelf.

00:03:04.080 Even while standing in Calgary as a member of Parliament, ostensibly representing an

00:03:08.140 Alberta riding, he couldn't bring himself to say he would use his role to help the province

00:03:12.480 advance the changes it had just voted for.

00:03:15.680 shouldn't take it personally it's just math alberta typically is going to vote overwhelmingly

00:03:19.760 conservative no matter how weak the federal leader may be at the time even if conservatives

00:03:24.560 manage to lose seats in alberta it's well established by the liberals that even if nearly

00:03:28.320 every seat is lost out here they can still form a majority government whenever pauliev answers a

00:03:32.480 question posed to him you know there's a voice in the back of his head whispering but what will

00:03:36.560 montreal and toronto think as he considers his answer if alberta wanted referendum results that

00:03:42.160 the federal leader of the conservative party would support and endorse it would have to hold

00:03:45.760 its referendum in the laurentian region of canada poliev treats the prairies as most federal

00:03:50.560 conservative leaders do it's a great hub for fundraising and garnering volunteers along with

00:03:54.880 being an easy reason to region to get some seats from but it's not to be considered an area to take

00:03:58.800 policy direction from western rmps rarely speak to their local issues in the house of commons the

00:04:03.680 lens is focused on winning support in the east the independency issue has been put into a maybe

00:04:08.400 a bit of a slumber for now by the referendum vote and it's understandable why mps will stay out of

00:04:13.760 that aspect but the other issues for pursuing constitutional change and immigration reforms

00:04:18.240 were supported by albertans and while it was an initiative held by a provincial government the

00:04:22.000 federal representatives in the province should feel bound to support those they're supposed to

00:04:26.640 represent the local interests after all aren't they but they won't unless the powder party

00:04:30.960 leadership thinks it might help them in the east things can change though brian mulrooney took the

00:04:35.040 the west for granted and it led to the creation of the reform party and ultimately the obliteration

00:04:39.200 of the progressive conservatives on the federal front a new federal party is being organized in

00:04:43.280 alberta right now and polyev would be well served to watch his flank albertans may not have supported

00:04:47.840 the independence option this time but make no mistake they're volatile and grumpy right now

00:04:52.560 alberta ndp leader in a head and inch you know he's framed the nine questions as being either

00:04:58.640 unrealistic or intolerant and won't support the changes they proposed that puts him offside with

00:05:03.120 the majority of albertans which serves premier smith well she can and likely will frame herself

00:05:07.520 as the one who's bound by the will of the province and can make policy changes while

00:05:11.600 framing nenshi as being opposed to democracy the proposed constitutional changes we know they're

00:05:15.840 going nowhere but albertan representatives at every level of government should now feel compelled to

00:05:20.080 at least try to accomplish them if they respect the will of the electorate polyev has already

00:05:24.320 staked his turf though he's going to avoid the questions and continue on his quest to win the

00:05:28.320 east and that quest so far has been pretty fruitless albertans have spoken in the millions

00:05:32.400 on the questions put to them on october 9th now albertans will see who's really willing to speak

00:05:36.880 for them on the federal front or not and poly f so far has failed that first test premier smith

00:05:42.080 has a new mandate endorsed by albertans now unfortunately appears her party is going to be

00:05:46.760 pursuing it alone well we'll see what comes how's it going dave it's going okay how are you i'm all

00:05:52.880 right still tired i need a little more rest yet yeah you must feel a bit relieved that it's over

00:05:56.840 in a way well yeah i mean i said still disappointed we'd hope for a larger better uh outcome than that

00:06:02.200 but i mean it's been a grind um so you've now got to go collect 25 000 signs something about like

00:06:07.560 that yeah you're gonna have a big bonfire or what are you doing you know they're plastic i'm not

00:06:11.720 sure i i should i put it out there you know i i looked up some things on how to recycle coroplast

00:06:15.880 there's not a lot of options for those i do hate that wasteful aspect of campaign signs because you

00:06:20.040 know i'm i'm not a tree hugger but i hate waste and uh i'm open to tips guys for things you can

00:06:26.360 do with those signs because i hate seeing them go to a landfill exactly you can keep them in your

00:06:29.880 garage till the next time i don't have so much room but i mean some of them some people are doing

00:06:33.320 that with the large signs and everything they're thinking and i still think there's going to be

00:06:36.280 another referendum though i also admit it's going to be we're looking now a few years down the road

00:06:40.600 at the least for it so if somebody wants to store it they're committing for a bit i was thinking of

00:06:44.280 keeping my beard going until the next referendum oh well quite the grizzly adams look by uh it will

00:06:50.840 It will be. So, Premier Smith today lowered the boom on separatists in her party, of which there are many, basically said the UCP will be a Federalist party going forward.

00:07:04.160 And if you don't want to get on board with that, get out.

00:07:07.220 So it's going to be an interesting month because she's got the AGM next month.

00:07:12.800 And people like Jeffrey Raffi, who you may have hinted at in your monologue,

00:07:18.120 has vowed to take over the UCP and get rid of Smith.

00:07:21.780 So it's going to be, he's in for a good fight, that's for sure.

00:07:25.240 Well, it'll be interesting.

00:07:26.220 I mean, some people have seen some tweets online, too.

00:07:28.420 You know, she might not make it past the 27th and such.

00:07:30.480 They do have to understand there is no leadership vote on the,

00:07:33.260 I mean, they could turn the AGM into a gong show, perhaps,

00:07:37.000 but the process involves actually the constituency level if they're going to do that.

00:07:41.400 And they're working on it.

00:07:42.140 We'll see what happens.

00:07:43.000 I think we've got two so far, do we?

00:07:44.420 I think three now.

00:07:45.500 Two or three?

00:07:46.060 Yeah.

00:07:46.400 Okay. 0.67

00:07:46.960 And they need 23.

00:07:48.020 Yes.

00:07:48.500 So, ways to go.

00:07:50.300 So, we'll be following that story all day.

00:07:52.820 We've got an initial piece up by legislative reporter Will Vassar.

00:07:57.720 Got a study out today from our friends at 2nd Street Order on wait lists.

00:08:02.660 And there's 5 million Canadians on a wait list right now.

00:08:06.760 Not a good state of affairs for the health care.

00:08:10.080 uh somebody way in alberta won the 90 million last night yeah i was very excited when i heard

00:08:15.660 that and then very disappointed when uh it was announced that it wasn't in calgary or edmonton

00:08:22.080 no it wasn't in prittis either as you know you could tell i'd have a better suit jacket yeah

00:08:25.980 yeah so i haven't checked my ticket yet i'm hoping for a free play now

00:08:30.180 90 million to a free play get the next one that's a disappointment uh prime minister

00:08:37.080 carney has announced 7.8 million dollars in money for low-income housing in the dominican republic

00:08:43.960 oh well that that'll help us that will help us so i guess you're going to build some low-income

00:08:48.520 housing next to all the resorts down there i don't get it just don't get it it's day 30 of the bc

00:08:56.920 election uh poll is out today showing the ndp basically in free fall again uh conservatives

00:09:03.160 leading so bc reporter alex zoltan has got that covered in a notebook and a really interesting

00:09:09.400 story uh give credit to the cbc for breaking this one uh crimestoppers has been hacked across the

00:09:15.880 country and 1.5 million files have been made public so if you got done for a crime you can now go and

00:09:23.560 look and see if it was your neighbor who turned you in it's an incredible breach of security yeah

00:09:29.480 that really kind of makes one think twice about calling in on that anonymous tip line of all

00:09:33.320 things to get bloody hacked oh god and apparently the their computers weren't weren't even like set

00:09:38.840 up to to avoid hacks so they they lack security yeah it had occurred to them the criminals might

00:09:44.440 commit crimes against them you would think so so there's a lot of a lot of worried people out 0.97

00:09:48.840 there i would suggest imagine well hopefully most of the criminals are too stupid to find the lists 0.84

00:09:53.640 and uh that is true that is true all right that's all well a lot's going on we'll see what uh lines 0.97

00:10:01.160 up in the next uh few hours it'll be busy right on thanks dave see you on the pipeline you bet

00:10:07.480 that is our news editor dave naylor busy as always he's going to be the ever growing bearded dave

00:10:13.320 naylor by the sounds of things so there's something you can look forward to watching

00:10:16.840 the progress as uh going forward this would like to remind everybody we are uh you know dependent

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00:10:26.840 coming down soon it's or staying going back up soon i'm afraid it's just the reality of modern

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00:10:50.840 thanks if you haven't come on guys get on there 100 bucks for a year it's not bad good volume

00:10:55.480 discount so yeah i i've uh you know seen a lot of the frustration i i'm getting annoyed with some of

00:11:03.320 the the the federalist sides i gotta admit you know on social media rubbing our noses in it it

00:11:07.800 was a humiliating loss and it was finished it's over and this and that you know guys that's absurd

00:11:13.880 you know when we talk about the referendum 25 of the province we're talking a quarter of the

00:11:19.560 province one in four people be careful on insulting them i mean again i am fully admitting democracy

00:11:27.160 spoke for the moment this question is is off the table i mean it doesn't mean we stop pursuing it

00:11:33.240 as i said as independent supporters we just regroup we figure out how we do it better and we'll get

00:11:38.120 there but we're not going to shut up we're not going to give up and don't tell us to you know

00:11:44.280 So that arrogant attitude, don't forget the size of the segment of the population you're speaking to.

00:11:50.040 It's going to be interesting to see how Smith balances this.

00:11:56.900 I mean, I'm just saying people got to be pragmatic and look at some of the math.

00:12:01.540 We've got to look at things, and we've always had to, and I've talked about that before, as independent supporters, and I'm certainly still one of them.

00:12:06.820 look at every one of our moves and then just take a pause and think for a minute,

00:12:12.580 is it moving as closer to independence? Is it moving as closer to independence?

00:12:17.620 So for some of those yelling that they've got to rip Premier Smith out of power, okay, fine.

00:12:24.460 What then? What do you do next? Who do you replace her with? Some people saying,

00:12:30.780 should we replace her with a fully independent supporting, a separatist premier?

00:12:35.560 Okay, but look at the math now.

00:12:38.660 When only 24% of the province at this time, anyways, supports independence, what will that lead to?

00:12:44.600 Well, more than likely, that'll lead to Premier Nenshi,

00:12:47.100 which would mean we won't get an independence vote for at least five or six years.

00:12:51.840 So, think carefully.

00:12:53.460 I just want to look at Steve Jensen.

00:12:55.260 Hey, good to see you, Steve, and a $5 super, by the way.

00:12:57.600 I appreciate those.

00:12:58.300 This is a leaked EU document suggests Alberta's economy will collapse with energy taxes, et cetera, making our energy unsellable comments.

00:13:07.520 Yeah, I saw that. That was in the standard as well and going around some of the deal that he's putting on.

00:13:14.420 Unfortunately, you know, the threat of Alberta's independence is no longer, for the short term, going to hold Carney in check.

00:13:24.480 So we've got to look at other means to try and protect ourselves.

00:13:27.980 for now. Like, this is going to grow, guys, as we've seen. The federal government is not going

00:13:32.820 to get nicer to us now. Changes that Premier Smith is proposing, the constitutional ones and

00:13:38.680 things like that, they're not going to get through. We know that. But let's play the long game.

00:13:44.520 Some of the attitude out of the press conference, I was watching it just before I came in here with

00:13:49.280 Premier Smith, talking about, you know, there's no room for full out independence. Now, I don't

00:13:54.160 know if there's no room for independent supporters within the party, but it's just that's not on the

00:13:57.440 party's mandate at this time. It doesn't mean you can't be an independent supporter and still be in

00:14:01.880 the party. As I said, think of things on how we get closer to our goal. I think you should still

00:14:07.320 stay involved. Still make sure you're getting independence-friendly people in there. Still

00:14:11.340 push for all of these changes, isn't it? What are some of the ones we can get for now as we move

00:14:15.580 closer? I'm still livid. I say it over and over again. Why don't we have a provincial pension

00:14:20.020 plan yet? Why don't we collect our own taxes yet? Why don't we have a provincial police force?

00:14:25.840 we've got things to work on right now and we should work on them and if you want to pull

00:14:34.320 smith out fair enough fine but i just think again is that advancing independence and can it not wait

00:14:40.580 because we're looking at a long game look at the numbers now can it not wait a year then until

00:14:44.940 after a general election because we really have to look pragmatically and wisely here right now

00:14:50.940 that's all just think about it that's all all right let's bring in michael harris i've been

00:14:55.280 looking forward to that. I've run across him at a number of events, and you see him all over the

00:14:58.460 place. He's been very active. He's a deputy leader of the Libertarian Party. He's been involved in,

00:15:03.840 I believe, in the Wild Rose, and he certainly was an independent supporter, and he was

00:15:07.780 also helping out, scrutineering for long shifts during the campaign, watching the vote process

00:15:14.360 and such going on. So thanks for coming on the show, Michael. Good to talk to you.

00:15:19.180 Well, thank you for inviting me on, Corey. There's quite a lot that I have to talk about here with

00:15:23.420 you today. Well, we'll get through as much as we can in 15 minutes. I know initially what you

00:15:29.780 wanted to talk about, though, and I saw that in a tweet as well. You scrutineered, you put in some

00:15:34.380 long shifts, and, you know, you witnessed a lot of things throughout the course of the day. Some

00:15:41.420 of it was you're putting, I think the term you used was like Elections Alberta was criminally

00:15:44.960 understaffed. Yeah. And, you know, some of the issues with resources organization, well, I guess

00:15:52.200 where to begin now let us know what you got up to what you're thinking well the issue started as

00:15:57.640 soon as i walked in because they were not ready to receive people to actually go and vote uh they

00:16:03.780 started right at nine but unfortunately right as they opened up they had to tell people to

00:16:07.980 immediately go back and say we're not ready we need another 10 minutes well okay i went in because

00:16:13.820 i actually had to vote before i went to go scrutineer and when i went to go and vote the

00:16:18.360 first thing that i was handed was ripped ballots so before i even was able to cast my vote before

00:16:24.200 i was even able to go and scrutineer i was handed a handful of spoiled ballots and if i like i'm

00:16:31.400 smart you know i can i can go and see him that that's obviously going to be considered a spoiled

00:16:35.160 ballot if i wasn't paying attention would i would just be given ballots that were just completely

00:16:40.920 unable to actually go and vote with that that was my impression just just the very beginning

00:16:46.120 and unfortunately yes they were very criminally understaffed and i say that criminally because

00:16:51.640 actively there were issues that were caused throughout the day because they didn't have

00:16:55.640 enough staff to support their own operations they had one person operating per table the

00:17:01.080 entire registration desk was comprised of one person one suite only that was running the stand

00:17:06.920 and they had hundreds and thousands of people come in throughout the day you need more than just one

00:17:12.200 person especially one person that was working for eight hours straight with no break you need more

00:17:16.680 than that it didn't help that the site supervisor the guy who was in charge of elections alberta

00:17:21.800 at the location was kind of incompetent he was running around constantly trying to get his people

00:17:27.720 in order he was yelling at them berating them and at one point i actually witnessed him swatting

00:17:33.400 elections alberta staff now i don't know like i know you guys are part of the older generation

00:17:38.520 You know, you might be used to swatting people that aren't doing their job properly.

00:17:42.380 But it was a shock to me to see someone actively, physically assaulting staff members in the midst of their job.

00:17:48.340 I don't care if they were slow in their job or not.

00:17:51.080 That was crazy.

00:17:52.480 That's crazy.

00:17:53.060 As a site supervisor and as a representative of Elections Alberta, you are actively swatting and hitting members of your own organization.

00:18:02.800 And because of that incompetence led to a couple of issues throughout the day. 0.88

00:18:07.100 the biggest issue of which was that they almost let three pr uh members into the voting area to

00:18:12.860 go and vote so because the registration desk was so understaffed all they did was look at the

00:18:18.860 person's driver's license and say fill out this form and go on in to vote that's all they did

00:18:24.460 that would be the only protection that they had to actually verify whether or not they were able to

00:18:28.620 vote so usually most people registered to vote prior to the election you get your slip in the

00:18:34.140 mail you come in and you go and vote if you don't have that you have to go to registration desk

00:18:38.620 and unfortunately because of their lax policies and because they were absolutely rushing people

00:18:43.020 through they weren't actually checking whether or not their documents were correct and thought three

00:18:47.420 people got through the registration desk without actually verifying that their documents were

00:18:51.660 correct and i noticed it i was i was also being uh rushed because of i had to like just look at so

00:18:58.860 many different people at the same time but what i did notice and this was how i was able to catch

00:19:03.660 them was because in the new driver's licenses that have been issued in the last I believe year

00:19:09.080 and a half here if you're a Canadian citizen it has a black maple leaf in the top right of the

00:19:16.280 driver's license and these three individuals didn't have that and I called them out to their

00:19:20.460 face saying are you a Canadian citizen and they said no and I had to escort them from the building

00:19:26.240 and I had to get staff to help me with escorting them from the building had I not intervened I have

00:19:32.280 reason to believe Elections Alberta would have let these guys go in and vote because they were

00:19:36.180 at the voting desk. They were about to be handed their ballots and they would have been handed

00:19:40.760 their ballots had I not intervened and questioned them on their Canadian citizenship. That is the

00:19:46.040 reality, unfortunately, of our voting area. I don't know if it was similar issues in other

00:19:52.120 polling stations, but for the Bishop O'Brien polling station, it was a complete shit show. 0.99

00:19:59.300 excuse my language, but it really was. Well, there's a lot to unpack there. I mean, 0.99

00:20:03.620 one of it, I mean, I'm a Gen Xer, so somewhat considerably older than you, but it's still

00:20:08.360 been frowned upon through most of my working career for anybody to ever lay hands on another

00:20:11.860 person in a work environment. That's just not kosher. Did you put any kind of report in since

00:20:17.560 then, at least? I mean, this is, you know, pretty serious for people trying to work for a living or

00:20:21.060 do their thing. It should be corrected. I'm certain that Elections Alberta wouldn't condone

00:20:25.700 that sort of thing. So have you put some sort of a formal complaint in or have the person's

00:20:30.340 pressured by this person had that sort of complaint put in? So as a scrutineer, your job is also to

00:20:36.300 report. Technically, my main job is to be there to stand, look and report. And I think I submitted

00:20:42.080 at least 47 different reports throughout the day of all the different interviews, which goes both

00:20:45.780 to the UCP and to Gord, who's the chief returning officer for the election. So I'm hoping something

00:20:52.500 will be get we'll get done from it i filled out a full report i did my due diligence it's in their

00:20:57.020 hands now whether the ucp pursues uh reform or the elections alberta themselves but uh outside of

00:21:05.060 that the best i can do is letting you folks know what i witnessed and what i saw yeah well and i

00:21:10.800 was concerned about that quite early especially when we saw some of the numbers coming from

00:21:14.040 elections alberta they were telling everybody okay we haven't set a goal of having this many

00:21:17.700 employees for this vote and we've hired this many and they barely I think got about two-thirds of

00:21:23.880 what their intended amount of staff were if you've got a one-day exercise with that many hours and

00:21:29.000 you're only at two-thirds of the capacity you wanted to be it's hard to imagine it not being

00:21:33.900 really problematic in a lot of places now that doesn't necessarily favor one side or another

00:21:38.340 in the vote but it certainly makes it harder to feel confident in the outcomes of those vote

00:21:43.840 doesn't it absolutely like i said it was just incompetence from the the beginning to end i

00:21:49.920 there were there was other issues that i saw just a lot of people like they were just overwhelmed

00:21:54.720 they were they were they weren't given breaks especially the staff like i was okay not given

00:21:59.520 a break because i was there volunteering but these guys were they were paid staff and the lady that

00:22:03.680 was working at the registration desk was not only by herself doing dealing with all the people that

00:22:09.040 were coming in but she worked eight hours straight without a break she wasn't allowed to go on break

00:22:13.680 because there was no one else to cover for her if she left to go on break the registration desk 0.99

00:22:17.280 would have to be closed for 30 minutes and they they let that happen until the next person came

00:22:21.600 in to take her ship so unfortunately from beginning to end it was just it was poorly organized so

00:22:29.200 one well there's a couple of things we need to do one of which was and it is hard because you're

00:22:33.760 talking about the new driver's licenses showing you know potential citizenship and such but that's

00:22:37.120 still a tiny minority of those at this point one of the questions on the ballot actually was possibly

00:22:41.440 making it so that we have a better form of identification so hopefully we we move on with

00:22:46.240 that uh you think that would solve it though i mean we should just have some sort of generalized

00:22:51.280 identification to show a person's citizenship status i mean that just so it can be clearly and

00:22:55.120 quickly checked so you don't have to do a a big paper chase in the front especially when you only

00:22:58.960 have one person at a desk absolutely so otherwise what other reforms would you see i mean it is

00:23:08.000 difficult because you're organizing such a massive thing in such a relatively short period of time

00:23:12.500 these are temporary jobs it's hard to find people just you know hey do you want to work a crazed

00:23:16.220 shift for anywhere from five to one day it might be for you know a decent amount of money but not

00:23:21.580 huge and people working full-time they can't commit to do a temporary job like that how could

00:23:26.040 elections alberta reduce that workload or better prepare for that well i think allocating their

00:23:33.960 funds more properly i know a lot of people said that that smith purposely defunded elections

00:23:39.280 alberta but in fact they gave them 100 like what was 130 something million dollars for this

00:23:43.900 yeah they they misallocated those resources towards advertisements or towards you know

00:23:50.820 going going and harassing people on twitter instead of actually focusing on hiring staff

00:23:55.560 and another thing that i would argue as well too is ensuring that there can actually be a valid

00:24:01.340 election because they they stopped the tpas from sending in scrutineers because we were told that

00:24:06.620 there was too many there was too many scrutineers more scrutineers and staff through the entire day

00:24:11.420 that i was working on elections day i was the only scrutineer from any party that was at that

00:24:16.220 location not a single other party sent another scrutineer there and i was overwhelmed myself

00:24:21.500 so them saying that they were overflown with with requests for scrutineers was just a straight

00:24:27.820 of fabrication. I don't think any of the times where I was actually scrutineering, there was

00:24:31.340 another person other than me working on those sites. So another thing, let more people come in

00:24:37.740 to open up transparency, let the TPAs bring in their own scrutineers or else it was just

00:24:43.240 completely unfair to all sides. Yeah, well, scrutineering is very important. And for some

00:24:48.140 of the viewers who are not familiar with it, I mean, it's actually an integral process that

00:24:51.920 really, that's one of the reasons I do kind of trust Votes Not to be rigged because I've

00:24:55.240 scrutineered before, most of the processes and protections are pretty good. And as long as you

00:24:59.480 got eyes on them watching them, it's very difficult to rig an election in Canada or Alberta. Again,

00:25:05.440 it's because there's people watching all the time. So it's a preventative measure. And that's your

00:25:10.320 role is to observe. And if you see things, not to intervene, but to make sure that this was

00:25:14.900 witnessed and reported on and perhaps corrected at the time if possible. And to have them try to

00:25:22.160 reduce the number of scrutineers i mean it just reduces trust and it's not that hard i can

00:25:27.000 understand they say we'd be overwhelmed with scrutineers well you just set a role rules say

00:25:31.520 okay four per polling area and we'll put it to a draw between the tpas to put people in but allow

00:25:38.060 some degree of action it can be done anybody could have organized that especially with a hundred and

00:25:42.020 some million dollars uh i was surprised then that there were no other scrutineers there though for

00:25:46.960 your shift i mean a lot of people applied i know that yeah i i don't know what else to say they

00:25:53.220 should they should have allowed them in like you're saying have a have four have it be better

00:25:58.280 organized allow other people allow independence allow tpas to come in and scrutiny because that's

00:26:03.680 how you have a good election that's how you have a fair election that's open and transparent that's

00:26:07.780 why you like you were saying you know canada can have such a good democracy but i don't think it

00:26:12.340 was very organized this time i think if there's any doubt on any election this one i can cast quite

00:26:17.600 a lot of doubt on it just because of the fact that they didn't uh they weren't transparent

00:26:22.120 they weren't transparent with their money or they weren't transparent with staff and there were some

00:26:26.400 staff that there were there that weren't even trained till the day of and the fact that they

00:26:31.480 just let these scrutineers be denied while there was actively locations that either had none or

00:26:37.040 just like me where there was only one person on staff the entire day it shows like i said it shows

00:26:42.780 a level of incompetence that i like they they need to get their act together before the election next

00:26:47.200 year or else that i i don't want to see these issues resurface again well it's something to be

00:26:52.380 said for the election next year at least i would hope it is a little more simple to manage in the

00:26:56.740 sense of you've already got a party system uh with the how they're going to allow scrutineers

00:27:02.040 for particular candidates and so on and it's just going to be a single ballot with candidates

00:27:07.140 presumably unless there are some some referenda uh questions added for some reason or another by

00:27:12.760 next year it's not impossible i guess so that makes it a bit more manageable i imagine like

00:27:17.900 you're not having the choke point of people deciding between eight questions i i was uh

00:27:23.200 10 i was kind of surprised seeing some of the difference a lot of people didn't just vote all

00:27:27.020 the way down one side and all the way down the other but that means it took some time

00:27:29.940 yeah i mean hey that's democracy you know there were i didn't vote yes on all the questions i

00:27:35.600 didn't vote no down on all the questions that's why we were trying to talk to students about

00:27:39.320 throughout this entire campaign don't listen to the people to say just go vote one way just because

00:27:44.520 people are telling you to actually read the questions to what you want to see in reforms

00:27:48.940 or autonomy in this province and go vote for with with your heart and guess what you know majority

00:27:53.640 of them voted yes on a majority of these questions even though the separation question didn't go

00:27:58.080 through, I am satisfied that a lot of these autonomous questions like fighting for immigration

00:28:03.760 reform went through. That passed with a resounding majority. And I'm hoping that we can hopefully

00:28:09.740 Smith and the UCP can make some good reforms with that. They have the mandate for it now. Hopefully

00:28:13.940 if they win the next election next year, they actually implement it instead of, you know,

00:28:18.540 sitting on a chair. I hope we can certainly make the processes better. So before I let you go,

00:28:22.980 I want to talk a little more though about your own activity. You're a young person. You've been

00:28:26.840 excellently active on university campuses and having discussions uh unfortunately it's a rarity

00:28:31.480 to see an outspoken young libertarian out there uh what have you been getting up to on the ground

00:28:37.220 in alberta with your political stuff and how you've been helping with uh you know youth outreach

00:28:41.480 because it's always harder to get young people involved in things yep well my my entire platform

00:28:46.780 has been trying to get the youth out for this movement ever since my by-election last year in

00:28:52.340 down over Crowfoot. My main objective has been building towards this referendum and getting the

00:28:57.600 young people at U of C, SAIT, MRU, and U of A involved in it. Whether they want to be against

00:29:03.460 it or whether they want to be for it, get involved with it because there was a lot of apathy at the

00:29:07.640 very beginning. How I started with the campaign was actually volunteering with both the Forever

00:29:13.840 Canada petition and State Free Alberta petition to get them to have tables and volunteers set up

00:29:19.440 on campuses to speak with students about this referendum and their positions specifically

00:29:24.640 say free alberta we set up seven different tables at the university of calgary campus

00:29:30.480 to be able to talk with students and get their signatures towards that petition that's how it

00:29:34.640 started that's how the talk on campus started about this referendum and about independence

00:29:39.520 but it's it evolved into a small student rally that we had uh in september of this year uh where

00:29:47.200 where we got people to be acknowledging

00:29:49.840 that this referendum exists.

00:29:51.140 There was a lot of people like the RCP,

00:29:53.120 the Revolutionary Communist Party,

00:29:54.380 that would say that this referendum question

00:29:56.260 was just fascist. 0.83

00:29:57.120 Anybody that voted yes was a fascist.

00:29:59.000 And we tried to basically change that view.

00:30:01.680 The view was that it's democracy.

00:30:03.900 We're voting for our future.

00:30:05.380 It isn't fascist to want change.

00:30:07.360 It isn't fascist to want to vote on something.

00:30:10.520 And it ended off with us working

00:30:13.220 with the Political Review Club.

00:30:14.940 It's an excellent organization on campus

00:30:17.120 allows for organizations to come in and speak with issues with students and i worked with them and

00:30:22.640 let's talk alberta to end off the the campaign speaking individually with students about each

00:30:28.720 question like i said previously um don't vote yes or no depending on uh what people are telling you

00:30:35.360 to let's let's analyze each question what are your true values let's see if you actually support what

00:30:40.800 what's being asked and go and vote yes or no depending on what those values are and surprisingly

00:30:45.040 a lot of students came forward to support these efforts, whether it be volunteers or people that

00:30:49.800 were just generally curious about what the referendum was about and how they could vote.

00:30:54.420 And throughout the last day, the last day that we set up our table, which was three days before

00:30:59.800 the advanced polling opened up, we had hundreds of students come up and said that they were going

00:31:05.420 to be voting option two because they were dissatisfied with how this government was

00:31:10.340 running our generation into the ground, that they're making it harder for young people to

00:31:14.960 be able to afford a home to be able to make a business to be able to live and they were willing

00:31:19.240 to put their foot down and send a message to ottawa to get that done and i we're not even

00:31:24.700 anywhere near close to being done you know i'm i'm going to be going in into the grad program here

00:31:29.020 soon to finish up my master's degree and um hopefully get a phd in poli sci so the fight

00:31:35.180 on campus will continue as and over the next couple of years here well right on i i appreciate

00:31:41.260 you taking all that time to be active while working on your academic career as well so and

00:31:46.060 for taking some time to come in to talk to us today so i really appreciate it you know last

00:31:49.740 thing before i let you go where can people find you and information on what you're up to uh well

00:31:54.460 you can find me on all my socials uh x instagram michael harris for mp same with my email michael

00:32:00.680 harris or mp at gmail.com you can reach out to me a night or day and i'll give you an answer

00:32:05.440 on whether you just want to know what i'm up to if you want to get involved in activism on campus

00:32:09.780 if you are running an organization, you want to get involved more with the youth or you want more

00:32:14.060 youth volunteers working with you, I would love to partner with you. Right on. Okay, thanks. Well,

00:32:19.640 I'm certain we'll get to talk again sometime soon. I'll let you get back on with your day there,

00:32:23.380 Michael. Thank you, Gord. All right, thanks. So over time, guys, yeah, it's Michael Harris,

00:32:27.840 and you see him all over on the socials and does something that is rare, not just among youth,

00:32:32.880 but among grown people, gets out of the house and gets on the ground and does things. We need to do

00:32:37.340 that. I certainly couldn't miss him with that Gadsden flag you saw in the background of the

00:32:41.740 interview. And when I did the rally last weekend on the legislature steps and the sea of blue flags

00:32:47.080 out there waving at us and one yellow one in the middle of the mix. I got a coffee mug just like

00:32:51.340 that. I got down in Bucky's in Texas, actually. But, you know, I love that Gadsden flag because

00:32:55.980 it says so much. People read the wrong thing into it. I mean, it's a very simple symbol.

00:33:01.660 It says, don't tread on me. It shows that rattlesnake sitting there. And it's rattlesnakes

00:33:06.840 are the good symbol for that because you know they're very very dangerous if you're gonna bug

00:33:11.480 them but if you leave them alone they're harmless and they give you lots of warning they rattle at

00:33:17.240 you they give you a symbol when i used to work in the you know surveying and we did desert jobs in

00:33:21.800 the south rattlers will let you know we're up in those timber rattlers up in pennsylvania just don't

00:33:27.960 bug them and that applies to a lot of people so many people i mean that's where i tend to libertarian

00:33:32.760 and lean. I'm pretty harmless as long as you leave me alone, but you take me off and then we're going

00:33:37.500 to have a problem. So yeah, the yellow stood out amongst the blue, but I didn't see it as a bad

00:33:42.280 distraction. It's good to see young guys getting active, taking part. It really is. And yeah,

00:33:49.900 Carol's saying that as well. Good to see young people active. It's important. I think even for

00:33:54.240 some of the ones you see in the left when they're on campus, when they grow up and get into the

00:33:58.200 working world, they start paying taxes, they start paying bills, a lot of that socialism tends to

00:34:03.380 wash out. You know, the old saying, I think it's attributed to Churchill, but I think it's been

00:34:07.300 attributed to a few, I don't know. If you're 20, and you're not a socialist, you have no heart.

00:34:11.580 And if you're 30, and you're still a socialist, you have no brain. And it does apply a lot of

00:34:16.240 them grow out of that. But if they get those principles early, that your role is still to be

00:34:22.900 politically active it's to be politically aware is to participate in the democracy in the votes

00:34:30.420 the elections one way or another it's only for the better for all of us it really is so i really like

00:34:34.960 what he's he's been doing out there it's something else so another one is coming up this weekend

00:34:39.380 speaking of political opportunism the british columbia election is already here holy cow this

00:34:45.000 saturday you know that's one of the things i think bc does right um is is actually i think

00:34:54.280 saturday elections aren't a bad idea you know i i've seen that in some other jurisdictions and

00:34:58.700 places before we were stuck on this monday tradition for having voting days but uh why

00:35:04.940 not do it on weekends i mean that opens it up more well for one as as michael was talking about

00:35:09.900 the understaffing, it's difficult to get people to work the electoral polls because it's a temporary

00:35:16.900 job. You only have a few months to get them together, hire them, train them, get them into

00:35:20.660 a spot. And if they're working other full-time jobs, they can't dedicate weekdays to do something

00:35:26.020 like that. But maybe if it's a Saturday, if it's just the one day that you're committing, but

00:35:30.000 that's the busiest day is voting day. It always is. You increase your pool of people say, yeah,

00:35:35.480 you know what i might want to make some extra christmas shopping money put in a long day on a

00:35:40.000 saturday and work for an elections authority uh for doing that as well there's a better chance

00:35:44.980 that just people most often or fewer people are working on saturdays so um um it could increase

00:35:53.780 that because what we saw with elections alberta wasn't i i still have not seen any signs of

00:36:00.300 corruption i've seen bias you know it was coming it was bizarre that he was giving thomas lukasic

00:36:04.480 past the electoral officer and stuff like that but nobody has is directly been rigging things

00:36:09.280 but we've seen a lot of them being overwhelmed incompetent i think there's a lot of things we

00:36:14.320 need to examine going forward from this and how we you know do these things because we need

00:36:20.880 trust in the system for democracy to work you have to trust the process

00:36:26.640 because the results were so large when it comes to the independent side

00:36:29.600 i i'm not worried as much about the process had it been 48 to 52 or something then you get worried

00:36:38.840 because that's when you're seeing that this needle could have been moved by some some relatively

00:36:43.280 minor things and we should really question the process we should question the process anyways

00:36:47.940 no matter what but at least it removes that question there's nothing they could have done

00:36:51.380 that was going to move things by 26 percent and with some of the people talking again about why to

00:36:56.840 Tara Smith out why people are ticked off at her and I understand why I don't think it was if you're

00:37:03.920 going to support direct democracy you're saying we want to put this question directly to citizens

00:37:08.900 and we'll honor their choice I think the government should just kind of stay out of it at that point

00:37:14.780 then the point is to hear from citizens and make your decision based on it if that's the principle

00:37:19.120 you're following but if you start the process and then put your thumb on the scale and spend

00:37:24.100 $4 million tax dollars campaigning for one side, that's not respecting the process as it's supposed

00:37:28.280 to be. But again, I don't think any difference in campaigning she would have done one way or 0.99

00:37:34.680 another would have moved at 26%. We were not ready to win this. We have to accept that right now.

00:37:41.540 It's not to say we give up. It's self-examination and finding out why we couldn't. Because if we

00:37:47.520 try to claim it was rigged it was fixed it was wrong it was bad that's defeatism and that won't

00:37:54.860 help us build that base of support we need to do to win this legitimately we need introspection we

00:38:01.460 need to admit we did some things that weren't good enough yet so how do we change that um

00:38:08.140 so uh you know somebody said something along the lines of the comment went away already but

00:38:14.160 with Smith saying she's going to kick

00:38:16.420 independent supporters out of the party. I didn't gather that

00:38:18.400 from the conference or what I saw, but the bottom

00:38:20.480 line was saying, yeah, she doesn't expect candidates 1.00

00:38:22.620 to put that on the table when they run. That's not 1.00

00:38:24.440 on the mandate of the party members.

00:38:27.500 Again, let's look

00:38:28.460 at political realism, guys. Please.

00:38:31.380 If we've got a bunch

00:38:32.480 of candidates

00:38:33.260 running in a year from now, if they all came

00:38:36.400 in and they wore it on their sleeve,

00:38:38.340 saying, I'm campaigning on full Alberta

00:38:40.360 independence, the best

00:38:42.460 they could hope for province-wide if things don't change extremely dramatically would be 24 percent

00:38:48.160 the other way to spell that is premier ninchi we need to build the base then work the party

00:38:58.320 we're trying to do it the other way around you don't want a party being led by somebody in a

00:39:03.880 small minority position on something it's just not a recipe to win so we've gotta think harder

00:39:13.400 we gotta ask people who voted for option one we know it would take some time we don't need to do

00:39:20.340 this right away we've got time now at this point i think i've got more patience in me than some

00:39:25.220 other people with it because i've been at it for 26 years i had to learn to be patient i started

00:39:29.080 the albert independence party when i was 29 and you know what if we'd held a referendum at that

00:39:33.860 time and albertans were worked up then chretien had us furious another liberal wind had come in

00:39:38.740 they've been treating alberta poorly i think even if we'd run an incredibly great campaign

00:39:43.940 we would have been lucky to break 15 it's grown up now to the point of a quarter of albertans

00:39:52.020 it's growing but it's slow it's slow and but a slow growth a slow movement is a solid one

00:40:02.340 that quarter of albertans is also one that isn't going away that's not one that's going to dissolve

00:40:06.820 it's not reactionary it's not a group of people who were just upset this month or this week by

00:40:11.140 some issue that just happened that was what people decided after months of campaigning

00:40:15.620 and months of thinking about it and putting their mark on it i think it's something to be celebrated

00:40:20.820 but it's also more than 25 short of where we'd want to go to win you know i see somebody screaming

00:40:27.300 Smith betrayed, and this and that, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's excuses,

00:40:33.780 guys. Do you really think where she came from changed it by 26%?

00:40:44.580 As I said, some of the people say, well, we got the petition out. It should be honored. We should

00:40:51.060 hold another referendum based on the pure clarity act compliant question that people were petitioning

00:40:57.760 for and i think that's what should have happened in the first place i fully agree but you know what

00:41:01.820 when i see how we were organized for the campaign and everything if that had been held if that had

00:41:06.280 gone as it should have because the court's gotten in the way we would have been gotten about 20

00:41:11.500 maybe less we aren't ready accept that and then figure out how we can make ourselves ready

00:41:19.400 how can we move the needle in some ways getting the mushy question was a bit of a blessing

00:41:26.320 i mean the referendum campaign was called the reason i started a third-party advertising group

00:41:33.180 i didn't want to that wasn't what i aspired to do i wanted to be an independent member

00:41:37.460 media member reporting on these things i wanted to be somebody supporting the independent side

00:41:43.620 and certainly moving along that route.

00:41:46.660 But instead, I sat for two weeks after a referendum was called

00:41:50.060 only to see the Alberta Prosperity Project vanish.

00:41:55.640 They went on chill.

00:41:56.680 They didn't update their website in a month and a half.

00:41:59.900 Stay Free Alberta vanished.

00:42:01.640 Weeks were passing by, and we didn't even have a campaign starting.

00:42:06.940 So what the heck's going on?

00:42:08.340 How are we going to win if the largest group in the bunch

00:42:11.860 didn't even have a campaign plan?

00:42:14.580 So, yeah, I started a third-party advertising group to say,

00:42:17.200 well, let's get some signs in the ground.

00:42:18.620 Let's get some blue out there.

00:42:20.160 Let's get something started.

00:42:21.360 So Jane and I registered a third-party advertising group.

00:42:24.940 And I thought, again, I was just going to get the ball rolling

00:42:27.540 and get a few hundred signs, raise a few thousand dollars.

00:42:30.340 We ended up raising $200,000 and putting up tens of thousands of signs.

00:42:34.840 I had no regrets with that.

00:42:36.040 It just wasn't until where I expected to go.

00:42:38.260 But the only reason that flooded in after that

00:42:40.080 is because there was a whole pile of Albertans eager

00:42:41.700 who just wanted to get rolling on a campaign.

00:42:43.620 and our biggest organizations weren't ready to go.

00:42:46.440 They didn't do anything.

00:42:47.340 They didn't organize them.

00:42:48.240 They didn't offer anything.

00:42:50.160 It's not to say they're all bad.

00:42:51.460 There's some fantastic people in those organizations.

00:42:54.320 So let's examine things.

00:42:55.740 Why weren't they ready to campaign?

00:42:58.900 Why did they stall at the most critical time?

00:43:04.380 Because if we do that again, we'll lose again.

00:43:08.620 I want to have another referendum, but I want to win it.

00:43:13.620 And the only way we can win it is through two things.

00:43:17.780 The political atmosphere has to be different.

00:43:19.640 Not enough people are ready at this time.

00:43:22.780 And we have to be more ready.

00:43:25.600 We have to be better at it so that we can move that needle across.

00:43:30.160 Two of those things.

00:43:30.800 And they can be done, and we've got to think of things that way.

00:43:32.840 But right now, just going out in rage, trying to burn down the world, isn't going to do it.

00:43:37.340 I see another super coming in.

00:43:38.480 I appreciate that.

00:43:39.420 But yeah, you know, just as we close things off for $7 from Milo Nexus saying,

00:43:43.940 I think Carney saying no to the nine was a bit too far, in my opinion.

00:43:46.740 It's a step beyond federal boundary.

00:43:48.060 I get the lobby against separation, but everything?

00:43:50.600 Yeah, I know.

00:43:51.440 That was one of the things I went off at when I was at the rally last weekend.

00:43:57.980 Because he doesn't get it.

00:43:59.940 You know, you come out here right in the cusp of a vote.

00:44:03.180 What you should have been doing is to come out here to listen to us, not tell us what to do.

00:44:07.140 That's the time to say, why are you this upset? 1.00

00:44:08.860 why are you wanting to change things but laurentians can't do that they're too arrogant to their core 1.00

00:44:13.820 and for him to tell us which way to vote on those nine yeah it was way beyond the pale and they will 1.00

00:44:18.860 do a lot of the things to change the atmosphere on our behalf they will the system itself will make

00:44:24.540 independent support grow but it's up to us to properly harness that growth and turn it into

00:44:30.220 a movement that can win a referendum and that's why we got to take this period right now to think

00:44:35.020 about those things on how we can do it rather than just being upset i think we did a whole pile of

00:44:40.620 things right i think thousands of people did an incredible job over this last five months

00:44:45.020 i know dozens who just i couldn't believe the amount of work they put in mr mrs alberton and

00:44:49.660 you name it i don't start listing them because i'll neglect way too many people

00:44:53.100 and we can maintain that movement we maintain those fantastic supporters and put it together

00:44:58.460 to build something more so we do win it down the road but don't rip everything down immediately on

00:45:03.820 a tantrum think longer and think better all right guys i'll leave it off at that we're going to be

00:45:09.260 doing the the pipeline a few of us will break down more of that on a panel tonight at seven

00:45:13.500 o'clock and uh be sure to subscribe to all our socials and all that good stuff and share it so

00:45:18.940 we can keep having these discussions thanks for the feedback guys and thanks for tuning in we

00:45:22.860 We will see you all next week at this time.

00:45:52.860 Thank you.

Western Standard - October 21, 2026

Premier Smith stands alone

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