Western Standard - November 07, 2024


Smith’s leadership review & the attempts to undermine her

Topics
UCP convention success
Mentioned
Danielle Smith Alberta Conservatives
US Election Live Coverage Will Donald Trump be good for your RIFF？

Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

212.25

Word count

1,147

Sentence count

71

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Learn English with Jason Kenney. Alberta's premier, Rachel Notley, was in Red Deer, Alberta this past weekend, attending the United Conservative Party's AGM, where she was greeted by the largest political convention in Canadian history.

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 the largest political convention in Canadian history was held.
00:00:04.300 So I was at the 2024 UCP AGM.
00:00:07.500 I saw Alberta Conservatives at both their best and at their worst.
00:00:11.740 Going back in 2009, I was VP policy of a party, the Wild Rose Party.
00:00:16.560 And I organized the AGM that year at a recreation center in northwest Calgary.
00:00:20.120 So with about 300 people in attendance, we deliberated policy and elected a board
00:00:24.480 with the sound of basketballs pounding behind a thin wall divider separating us from a gymnasium.
00:00:29.740 And we felt the election and the event went excellently.
00:00:32.540 We were certain we were on the path to dislodge the progressive Conservatives
00:00:35.860 from their 38-year reign in Alberta.
00:00:37.960 We were particularly buoyed by a young lady named Daniel Smith,
00:00:40.780 who announced that day she was going to pursue the leadership of our little party. 1.00
00:00:44.440 The events held in that hall did indeed lead to the end of the PC dynasty,
00:00:47.660 and Daniel Smith did eventually become Alberta's premier.
00:00:51.020 The path was wilder and more convoluted than any of us could ever have imagined at that time.
00:00:55.920 We also never imagined we'd seen AGM with over 6,000 members,
00:00:59.300 participating as happened with the UCP and Red Deer last weekend.
00:01:02.680 It was amazing to observe, actually, the organizational talent applied to hosting thousands of delegates,
00:01:08.500 and it went so smoothly.
00:01:09.580 Just feeding the few hundred people at the 2009 event took weeks of preparation
00:01:14.220 and was a workout for our volunteers.
00:01:16.600 In Red Deer, everything from the registrations to the meals went incredibly smoothly at the UCP gathering.
00:01:21.260 And more impressive than that logistical feat, though, was that massive turnout.
00:01:24.700 I've attended dozens of conventions, special meetings, leadership events over the years.
00:01:29.320 There's a core of party stalwarts who parentally attend to these events, and they're important,
00:01:33.560 and you become accustomed to seeing their faces at these.
00:01:36.200 They're the folks who hold things together during the tougher times in politics.
00:01:39.280 But what was most striking to me last weekend was the number of new faces.
00:01:44.000 Thousands of people who have never attended a political event in their lives chose to spend hundreds of dollars
00:01:48.360 of their hard-earned money and dedicate a weekend to taking part in the AGM.
00:01:52.380 And despite the wishful thinking of opponents of the party and the massive turnout of new people to the convention,
00:01:57.620 it wasn't inspired by negativity or an intent to oppose the leader.
00:02:01.380 Those folks came out to be supportive of the leader and take part in molding the party.
00:02:06.320 By the way, lots of people came to greet us at the Western Standard Broadcast booth on the convention floor.
00:02:10.880 It was great to see them.
00:02:11.900 One who stood out to me was a gentleman who was perhaps in his early 60s.
00:02:14.620 He came to chat with me for a bit.
00:02:16.200 He was visibly excited, almost giddy, as he explained how he never realized before
00:02:19.660 how he could take part in things like this, and he was ecstatic about being able to contribute.
00:02:24.280 This guy's now going to be surely a political junkie for life,
00:02:27.740 and I suspect I'll see him attending future events.
00:02:30.120 And the hospitality events, you know, suites at these events, they're nothing new,
00:02:33.540 but they usually used to be comprised of a pair of adjoining hotel rooms with bathtubs packed with ice and beer.
00:02:38.900 The suites on Friday night were incredible.
00:02:40.780 Delegates traveled from room to room and enjoyed free eats and drinks from numerous organizations,
00:02:45.660 including, of course, the Western Standard.
00:02:47.160 It was quite a room.
00:02:48.380 Delegates, they mingled, networked, and bonded.
00:02:50.540 And in these suites' first-time convention, attendees discovered that actually politics can be fun at times, too.
00:02:55.880 So a lot of them are going to be back, and it's great development.
00:02:58.460 Now, unfortunately, last weekend, delegates got to see the uglier side of partisan politics, too.
00:03:03.460 Factions predominantly driven by chronically malcontent fringe operators worked their hardest to sow dissent among the membership.
00:03:09.520 They distributed fake brochures, implying Daniel Smith was taking part in some Islamic-inspired conspiracy,
00:03:16.300 and they managed to get the phone numbers of delegates and harassed them in the night with phone calls claiming to be part of, you know,
00:03:22.580 Smith's Islamic conspiracy.
00:03:24.320 Brochures were put on windshields every hotel in town, claiming Smith was actually being supported by the NDP. 0.64
00:03:31.100 And ridiculous report cards were handed out, giving Smith a failing grade as a leader.
00:03:34.680 All the attempts to undermine Smith still failed dismally, as she garnered 91.5% support from the memberships in that leadership review.
00:03:43.040 Members saw through the sleazy tactics and chose to support the leader.
00:03:47.180 Legacy media pundits hoping for internal party division, well, they left disappointed.
00:03:51.960 And Alberta's NDP are disappointed as well.
00:03:53.840 Smith has a very solid mandate from her members.
00:03:56.100 You see opponents are dismissing the turnout of the AGM as being a tiny minority of Albertans.
00:04:00.860 Well, has any other party managed such a feat?
00:04:03.560 A precedent's been set, and the UCP offered a demonstration of strength unlike any other party has.
00:04:08.860 They not only have a massive membership base, but they have an active one.
00:04:11.880 The members are willing to participate rather than just talk.
00:04:14.480 So think about it.
00:04:15.080 These are the donors, the door knockers, and the voters who are going to ensure the UCP wins the next election.
00:04:20.540 We don't want to presume yet, but it's a pretty darn good start, and it's pretty foolhardy to dismiss them.
00:04:25.300 So, I mean, while some of the first-time delegates had a bad taste left in their mouths from the campaign of weasels trying to unseat the leader,
00:04:31.720 most still left the convention feeling optimistic and will remain involved.
00:04:36.420 The UCP isn't just in power right now.
00:04:38.500 It's growing.
00:04:39.520 And no matter what party stripe one has, they should be impressed and encouraged when grassroots members get up and take part in the process.
00:04:45.880 So rather than ignoring the momentum of the UCP and its members, other parties should be studying and learning to emulate them.
00:04:51.800 Last weekend's event was a victory for democracy in Alberta.
00:04:54.740 And I know I'm really banging the UCP drum.
00:04:57.400 It's fine.
00:04:57.820 I'm not a member.
00:04:58.440 I certainly see them as the best party for Alberta, as it says.
00:05:00.520 That could change in the course of a few years.
00:05:02.480 But what I'm excited about was seeing thousands of people getting together, taking part.
00:05:06.900 That's how it's done.
00:05:08.020 That's how things get better, no matter what stripe you're at.
00:05:10.700 So last weekend, hey, it was a success, and hats off to the UCP organizers and the leader, and, of course, the people who got up and went and took part in it.
00:05:18.100 Look forward to seeing them in Edmonton next year as we observe that one.
00:05:20.980 And, well, we'll see what is coming up in the party front from then.