On this episode of the 2nd Take, Cory and Dave are joined by Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi to talk about the upcoming municipal election, the Alberta Referendum on independence, and much, much more!
00:07:18.800So that'll be the thing to keep an eye on next week.
00:07:22.500You know, you mentioned independence, and obviously that was high up in the news all week.
00:07:27.560uh uh mark carney sort of dismissed dismissed it and said yeah not gonna worry about it but after
00:07:34.360a first minister's call uh this week uh doug ford surprisingly came out and said look it's
00:07:40.520it's time to show some some love to alberta and saskatchewan and he uh he said over the last decade
00:07:47.160of the the trudeau government we've been screwed and now it's time uh you know now it's time to
00:07:52.520sort of right in the balance and uh carney called a western uh premier's conference uh so early in
00:07:59.400june uh they're gonna all meet in uh beautiful downtown saskatoon uh for a chinwag so i mean
00:08:05.800it's an interesting choice too like they're being strategic yeah i gotta give them a little again
00:08:11.320credit there you know if you want to cool things down host it out here don't hold it out in st
00:08:15.640john and say we're going to address western alienation go to the heart of it and so he's
00:08:20.280you know little things little things you know and keep in mind that danielle smith said she
00:08:24.760was cautiously optimistic after her first talk with him so we'll soon find out right it's not
00:08:30.520going to take years it's going to take months if if that before we figure out whether carney's
00:08:37.160a man of his word or just another liberal well i'm certain he's just a lot better liberal to
00:08:41.960see how well he can cloak it for a while i mean it but if he can calm down the prairie fires you
00:08:46.600you know, I'm trying to light them as hard as I can. Premier Smith was interviewed by CTV
00:08:53.040yesterday, I believe it was. And she says, one of the best things about holding an independence
00:08:57.540referendum is it eliminates the need for an independence party in the province. So you
00:09:04.840don't need a party Quebecois, you know, coming up upon your doorstep. So I mean, do you see an
00:09:13.140independence party forming or is there's going to be too busy trying to get signatures i i guess i
00:09:18.680could see this quelling a bit of that because it can give the people who want to pursue independence
00:09:22.600something else to focus on rather than than meddling with i don't think there was ever a
00:09:26.720threat from an independence party though i mean the support's going up but i mean again look at
00:09:30.520we had five of them in the last election they couldn't break one percent the best they could
00:09:34.540do is maybe you know unify a bit and get two or three percent in an election that might be what
00:09:38.960three years from now. The interesting thing was that Angus Reid polling, though, that showed among
00:09:44.300UCP supporters, support for independence is as high as 65%. So she has to watch that flank.
00:09:53.320She's in a tough spot. Yeah. And it's going to get tougher budget-wise, Corey, with
00:09:57.500our Sean Polzer did a story this week that with the terrible oil prices right now,
00:10:04.260So that could cost Alberta up to $5 to $7 billion.
00:10:08.720And, you know, that's money that they're going to have to find somewhere, you know, or they could do the Trudeau thing and just print off money to cover it.
00:10:16.240But it's, you know, the finances are looking pretty grim for the next little while.
00:10:21.120Well, and part of that is that the UCP hasn't conducted themselves like fiscal conservatives.
00:10:37.760Yeah, agreed. I mean, you know, unemployment numbers out today, 6.9, I believe it is.
00:10:44.000You know, we're headed for a financial cliff here pretty soon, sooner than later.
00:10:47.840And the Bank of Canada, Governor Tiff Macklin kind of warned that yesterday in his own sort of banker words that, you know, better strap in.
00:13:55.640And if you haven't yet, come on, guys, get on it.
00:13:58.860Pull out that credit card, spend a few bucks, get past that paywall, support independent media so we can keep getting more reporters on the ground and make Dave even busier there trying to cover everything.
00:14:10.000You can see him back to the desk behind me there.
00:14:31.500And the parties, that's an interesting aspect.
00:14:35.320And it's funny because I'm a person who's supportive of parties and partisanship.
00:14:39.400And when my guest comes on in a few moments here, Roy Beyer, with the Better Calgary Party,
00:14:45.340I think bringing parties into the municipal system, I think in the long run, though they're in their infancy right now,
00:14:50.180I think it's a good development for democracy. It's a better way to get things done on the municipal front. Yet, at the same time, when we're talking about, as Dave was talking about, independence parties, you know, this is where we get problematic.
00:15:06.560and uh we just we we don't need them and they aren't working the best way to remind people
00:15:15.020if if you've ever actually campaigned before go knocking on doors running for an independence
00:15:19.900party i did it i did it over 20 years ago the over independence party and you immediately turn
00:15:25.160into a single issue party you see that's one of the headaches people don't understand well gee
00:15:30.680support for independence was 20 25 i mean now it's at 36 but but even in past elections it was up
00:15:36.240but these independence parties can't get past one percent that's because you're just you're wearing
00:15:41.760that on your sleeve and you're not getting any farther than that people in a provincial election
00:15:47.280still want to talk about health care they want to talk about education they want to talk about
00:15:51.440those broader issues and your focus ends up on nothing but independence when you're trying to
00:15:56.320campaign that way likewise a government in power just can't afford to get themselves pigeonholed
00:16:01.360with something like that and it's been an interesting tactic that premier smith's done
00:16:06.320she's put it in the hands of the members in the hands of the citizens then if a referendum is
00:16:12.400going to be held a referendum uh it's on them and she doesn't kind of have to take a side it's
00:16:16.720an interesting balancing act she's trying to accomplish but uh i think it's the better way
00:16:21.280to go all right but let's uh i see him in the lobby there bring roy byron from a better calgary
00:16:25.680party and and see what's going on the municipal front hey roy how you doing oh oh very good
00:16:30.000Good. Corey, I'm having a connection problem.
00:16:33.560Okay. Yeah, I understand that frustration at times.
00:16:37.940We had you for just audio only for a moment.
00:17:47.800So on the center conservative side, we have multiple candidates running against each other.
00:17:52.260The last election, we had, I think, 27 mayoral candidates.
00:17:55.760the other side is very organized very disciplined and it was calgary's future which is actually
00:18:02.160funded by public sector unions so their priorities are not the same as as what is typical for most
00:18:09.360calgarians they selected one person in every ward and one person for a mayoral candidate and not
00:18:15.520surprisingly they won and we lost again and so um the idea of a political party is that
00:18:22.480we on the right have a mechanism by which we can narrow the field instead of many people running
00:18:28.000against each other we could just have one and then really have an effective election where uh the
00:18:34.480issues are understood by people it's not a popularity contest who has most signs and it's
00:18:39.760also uh that clear as to you know what each side stands for and i think that would result in a better
00:18:46.560election result but uh the transition has not been easy uh because some people are uncomfortable with
00:18:52.080that and so we got started very early talking to some of the incumbents we knew that for them
00:18:56.960this was going to be challenging because uh if they've done a good job name recognition they
00:19:01.760don't really need a party but we as citizens of calgary we need a political party so we're first
00:19:07.680out the gate last june with our launch inviting all of the center right um players to join us and
00:19:15.360to work with us under the concept of a political party where we'd have nominations and narrow the
00:19:21.040field and get a single person selected for every ward. Great. I'm glad you brought up that the
00:19:27.400unions and others had been organizing and have been successfully doing this for years because
00:19:31.180some people are chafe at the thought of a party system coming into municipal politics. So what I
00:19:36.500always say is, well, the only thing worse than an official party system is an unofficial party
00:19:40.760system. And that's been going for quite some time. This is transparent and in the open and people get
00:19:45.340to know who the candidates are about. It's not a hidden agenda by any means. That's for sure.
00:19:50.900And, you know, the thing that's interesting, if you actually look at the analysis of money that was spent, those center-right candidates actually spent more money, but they were split amongst many, whereas the left, they were more efficient.
00:20:05.460Yes, they spent $1.4 million, but they put it behind one single candidate in every ward.
00:20:09.920and you know it just makes sense to try to do the same thing but I don't think it's possible
00:20:15.360unless we accept the basic premise of a political party system because we don't have the same
00:20:20.620mechanism of discipline as a union does right so the mechanism of discipline is saying well let's
00:20:25.300have a political party let's have nomination process that all made sense to me and unfortunately
00:20:30.360not everyone agrees but that's something that we still really believe in. So as you said I mean
00:20:35.960especially it being new, you've got some incumbent candidates,
00:20:38.680ones that are a handful that are popular conservative individuals,
00:20:42.120and people have been worried that they'd be knocked off
00:20:45.440or a vote split might hit them and they don't want to oppose them.
00:20:48.200But as incumbents, they aren't too inclined to jump into a new party.
00:20:51.880So you guys have arranged something of a bypass vote.
00:20:54.500Can you kind of explain how that worked?
00:20:56.860Sure. And we just went through the bypass vote,
00:20:59.160but this was a really important piece for us.
00:21:05.960oh oh is he back yeah sorry about that cory no that's all right i've got the internet and
00:21:16.140everything no explaining what's going on here but uh yeah the bypass vote was an idea that we had
00:21:20.780because we're transitioning from a non-party system to a party system municipality wise and
00:21:27.660we knew that some of the incumbents did not really need a political party they can get re-elected
00:21:59.620In every ward, we asked them, yes or no,
00:22:01.700you want us to bypass are you happy with your incumbent or not and if they're happy with their
00:22:07.700incumbent if the majority vote yes i'm happy then we will choose instead of running an abc candidate
00:22:13.860against the incumbent incumbent with choose instead to endorse or not run a candidate against
00:22:20.500that person so we wanted that to be very transparent and very democratic we built it within our bylaws
00:22:26.500we just finished that vote and so there was five council members that got a bypass vote from abc
00:22:33.540party and we knew those three solid that was unsure about two others and we left it up to
00:22:39.940the members within the ward to tell us whether or not to give them a bypass great so that works you
00:22:46.260know to help things when you're looking at city council now the mayoral race is uh another challenge
00:22:52.900all together in a lot of ways uh there's already a number of declared candidates for mayor and
00:22:59.860a few could be conservative or not as you said the last uh re election it was just a you know
00:23:05.380dozens of mayoral candidates uh how is the alberta uh a better calgary party navigating the the
00:23:11.300mayoral aspect well there there it's more challenging because uh it was um the alberta
00:23:17.620government was very late in the game to finalize the rules that to be really clear about that they
00:23:22.420They should have got the final rules much sooner because to ask somebody to hold back and, you know, wait for a process by which we can have a nomination against like three or four good center-right conservative type mayoral candidates, we've already got people that jumped in.
00:23:43.240And I don't know if there's anything we can do to undo that, right?
00:23:46.740So the way I look at it right now is we win with eight council members.
00:23:52.420And the other side, of course, winning the mayor would be a fantastic bonus, but it's a bit different with politics in, you know, in municipal politics.
00:24:03.580You can actually win with eight council members. And right now there's two or three reasonably good mayoral candidates.
00:24:12.240We might even have one of them jump on with ABC Party. But I don't see the ego factor being overcome in this case.
00:24:21.680I think there's going to be some good center-right mayoral candidates running against each other.
00:24:26.960The only hope that we have is that there's maybe two or three on the left that are also running against each other.
00:24:33.500If we would have got the party system in place earlier, we could have had the system to narrow the field with the mayoral candidates in place.
00:24:42.760And it's just a little bit late in the game for us to narrow the field now.
00:24:46.620Yeah, so it looks like you've got about five months ahead of you, perhaps, until the municipal election hits.
00:24:53.620You know, it sounds like a long time to some people, but it's going to go pretty fast.
00:24:57.460You know, you really want to get on the ground, knocking doors, establishing people.
00:25:01.060So the bypass vote portion is behind you.
00:25:04.400I imagine nominations are going to be coming pretty soon for the rest.
00:25:09.400We had four awards associations on standby saying we've got a candidate we want to declare.
00:25:16.460I said, just wait until the bypass vote is done.
00:25:19.680So we do have four candidates that will become official candidates that have gone through the vetting and nomination process.
00:25:26.260And we'll be able to make those announcements here over the next week.
00:25:29.680And they are going to be opening up new nominations in about four to six additional awards.
00:25:35.080So there's, you know, we don't necessarily have to have all 14.
00:25:38.280Of course, ideally, we have 13 ward associations formed, but we do have very strong candidates, and I believe we'll get to that place of having 10, 12 very strong candidates by the time election rolls around.
00:25:52.140So what about policy and even branding for the party?
00:25:56.900I mean, you want that consistency, yet at the same time, you want to allow some flexibility among candidates to speak for their local constituents.
00:26:03.560It's a little different with municipal and interesting.
00:26:06.000So are there going to be, I guess, some broad policy statements they'll commit to or something of that sort?
00:26:12.480Yeah, I mean, the party itself, we established ourselves on the idea of being truly democratic memberships with voting powers.
00:26:19.740We're the only party that's truly a political party where our members have a vote.
00:26:24.440So we're distinguishing ourselves that way.
00:26:26.880But but but in addition, you know, we want to make sure that we that we have in place a system where it's our candidates, nominated candidates that get into the weeds of policy.
00:26:41.620Right. So once we have that first group of four candidates selected, they'll get together and they'll start announcing a policy platform that's reflective of the party.
00:26:51.400We have common principles, that we have 10 principles that we, I think, are beliefs of most centre-right citizens of Calgary that say, well, that's just common sense.
00:27:03.980But actual policies, we decide we let the candidates really formulate that.
00:27:09.400And the first group of candidates will be doing that over the next couple of weeks where we'll see some actual policy announcements.
00:27:15.180I think really exciting and interesting policy announcements being made by those candidates who are nominated, who are our official candidates for ABC Party.
00:27:24.700Great. And as a party, though, I mean, it's so there's going to be people kind of moving in the same direction and working together, but it won't be quite as rigid as, I guess, the party system on the federal and provincial levels.
00:27:35.720Like there's not going to be whipped votes and things like that in a council chamber.
00:27:39.680There's going to be more leeway for the individuals, I gather.
00:28:04.840I mean, I wish we had that in federal and provincial politics, the empowerment of a
00:28:09.180a person that represents a specific ward, I think makes a lot of sense. So we're going to capture
00:28:15.260some of the benefit of the uniqueness of municipal politics, where the council member will have a lot
00:28:21.340of say and not be forced to vote one way or another. There'll be coalitions formed and that
00:28:24.960kind of thing. But the advantage of a political party is that most people don't pay attention
00:28:31.020until election day. And then they go and vote and they vote based on name recognition. Most
00:28:36.260signs out there they don't really know what the um what the persons that are running an award
00:28:43.120what they represent and if we have a brand and a center conservative brand if somebody goes and
00:28:50.560votes they heard about the better calgary party they went to the website they heard about the
00:28:55.020platform and the policies and and they go now into the voting booth they may not know the name
00:29:01.880of the person they're voting for, but they'll know the brand. And that's typical, unfortunately,
00:29:06.820for most voters. They say, I'm voting UCP or I'm voting NDP. That is going to help people to know
00:29:13.540what the various parties stand for. And you can then align yourself with that party. And it's
00:29:20.020easier for people to know what they're voting for. Yeah, well, I'd certainly hope you guys can get
00:29:24.840folks in who better reflect Calgary. It's always been kind of a provincial embarrassment. You know,
00:29:28.620so consistently conservative on the provincial front and on the federal front and then we
00:29:32.380elect some of these these crazy hard left loons into our civic government at times if we could0.97
00:29:38.140just have the electorate pay a little better attention at voting time i suspect that trend
00:29:42.780could stop absolutely uh and and i think uh it just comes down to vote splitting and it's
00:29:48.620harder to organize conservatives because again the unions have leverage uh they use that leverage to
00:29:54.460narrow the field to one person in every ward one mayoral candidate that put the money massive amount
00:29:59.500of money behind that and because we've got multiple candidates uh all believing that they're the best
00:30:05.820and i understand that the only way to narrow the field is a nomination process have a race between
00:30:12.140good people and narrow it down to one behind which we all can rally so this is transition
00:30:18.300time this is what we're about is helping to educate the advantage of a political party system
00:30:23.580and the advantage of one where members actually have a vote and that's what abc party is all about
00:30:29.740excellent well i appreciate that so uh before i i let you go how could people find you guys to to
00:30:35.260take part or ask more questions or or you know support you absolutely go to our website at
00:30:41.500bettercalgaryparty.ca um and there you'll be able to read about the principles of the party sign up
00:30:48.700If you want to become a member, you can do that.
00:30:51.460But right now, just sign up and you'll be on the receiving end of communications.
00:30:55.820And over the next two weeks, we're going to have some really exciting good news in terms of our candidates and introduce them to our members and new nominations that are opening up across the city.
00:31:06.440So we want people to hear about it and get involved.
00:31:08.960We can, again, we're the only party where membership, have a voice and have a vote.
00:31:14.060So that's, I think, an important distinguishing factor.
00:31:43.900Yeah, no, it's – we overlook the municipal far too often.
00:31:47.500it's time that changed. So I appreciate you guys bringing it to the fore and then we'll talk again
00:31:50.860soon. Absolutely. Have a great day. Right on. Thanks. You too. So that was Roy Beyer of A Better
00:31:56.780Calgary Party. And as he said, you know, this is something, this is something we're sinners guys,
00:32:00.640as conservatives, as Albertans, and it happens across the country. The closest level of government
00:32:05.800to you is the municipal government. They're the ones who have the most direct impact on most of
00:32:12.420your aspects in life. Yet often a lot of people can't even name their local councillor. And then
00:32:17.760they wonder why they get such insane policies coming down the pipe. You wonder why you weren't
00:32:22.380consulted on things like zoning changes. You wonder why the city council is dominated by
00:32:27.340wokesters who are doing virtue signaling rather than dealing with issues like crime on the streets
00:32:32.380or potholes for that matter. So I'm pretty pumped. I'm looking forward to this because this is a
00:32:39.580different approach. Let's get people participating, paying attention, looking at these issues,
00:32:46.140set the apathy aside. We've had some municipal elections, I think, historically that have
00:32:51.420gotten turnouts as low as, I believe, 20% in Calgary and things like that. Like, guys,
00:32:56.140you're paying a lot of tax for services, policing, roads, garbage, parks, and you're not getting a
00:33:04.820good return on it. And these guys get away with it because they slide under the radar.
00:33:10.680You know, there's a couple of councillors I'll name. I mean, they weren't necessarily bad people,
00:33:15.420but they made careers out of being on city council in Calgary. One was Dale Hodges. He was there for
00:33:22.740something like 30 years. He was there from the 80s until just a few years ago. And Ray Jones was
00:33:29.140another one. He just left a few years ago. He was there for decades on Calgary city council. You
00:33:33.320know what most people never heard of either of them because those guys learned they follow the
00:33:40.620strategy of nobody moves nobody gets hurt they would fly under the radar they wouldn't take
00:33:44.820controversial stances they just kind of put in their day's work and stay in the background they
00:33:51.680weren't active on social media they were just there for decades and because their incumbents
00:33:58.180they're almost impossible to dislodge because nobody was paying attention and they just were
00:34:03.260like mushrooms sitting in there. Dale Hodges used to be notorious for what he would do during council
00:34:08.320meetings. If something controversial came up, they'd have to vote on and everything. He would
00:34:12.680suddenly get a stomach issue and excuse himself from the council chambers until the vote had
00:34:19.140passed and then he would find his way back. So that way he wouldn't have to vote on either side
00:34:22.440of it and he wouldn't end up in the papers and he could keep remaining as an invisible council
00:34:27.420member and sitting in there. That's not doing anybody any favors. And again, they weren't
00:34:34.240necessarily bad people, but they were mediocre and they would never take on anything of significance.
00:34:39.320And it's got to stop. Let's see here. Just looking at some of the comments from Ruckin.
00:34:46.860Corey, do you think that common sense changes need to come from our independent government,
00:34:49.580a clear set of rules that fit none of this extra fluff bylaws, keep it simple? That's an issue
00:34:56.440particularly with municipal governments is and every government getting outside of their mandate
00:35:03.280I mean they you know it's the busy body nature of authoritarians of politicians in general they
00:35:10.140want to get in on everything I mean people don't go into politics to not control things right
00:35:14.540so municipally is bad yes fluff bylaws I mean I remember dominance for weeks uh the conversation
00:35:23.960and Calgary Council being dominated over banning shark fin soup in Chinatown. Like, really? That's
00:35:32.340a city of one and a half million people and that's the biggest thing you clowns are going to talk
00:35:36.560about for a couple of weeks? I mean, I understand there's some terrible fishing practices and
00:35:41.080wasteful and cruel with shark finning and things like that, but at what point is that the role of
00:35:45.780city government to micromanage the menu of a restaurant. That's how bad it is. Other things,
00:35:54.920I mean, they harm businesses on so many levels. If you want free enterprise, you want things going on
00:35:59.820in your area. It's not just Calgary. Any municipality, as Alberta Nan saying,
00:36:04.700the bylaws in Fort McMurray are ridiculous. Yes, they are. And they choke businesses terribly. Me
00:36:10.020with the MD of Foothills, when I, and that's a rural one, when I own my pub and coffee shop,
00:36:15.060Oh, some of the hoops we had to jump through and the garbage for a simple pub and coffee shop.
00:36:20.480And they cost us as business owners thousands of dollars a year in a small business to be compliant.
00:36:27.740It costs, you know, millions when you get into the big business.
00:36:29.960And usually it's just a matter of satisfying bureaucrats not actually having any bylaws that have any impact on protecting or not protecting people in general.
00:36:40.640They're self-beating, loathsome, pointy-headed monsters, bureaucrats are on every level of1.00
00:36:47.540government. I mean, I'm not a fan of President Trump. One of the things I have said, though,
00:36:54.180that I've kind of liked, even though he's kind of done it with a chainsaw in that sense,
00:36:57.340the doge idea with Elon Musk getting in and cutting into the bureaucracy, because that's
00:37:03.000the problem with governments all over the place on every level. You've got all these people who
00:37:09.320just, they're parasitic. They exist for the sake of making regulations to keep themselves working,0.77
00:37:15.620to draw a large salary. I mean, again, getting to Calgary, for example, somebody gave me that
00:37:21.160job ad that came up for it. It showed in Calgary, almost $200,000 a year for a person to be
00:37:28.640essentially a diversity, equity, and inclusion manager. So somebody to bring in race-based
00:37:35.180hiring and enforce that within the city. Almost $200,000 a year. And it showed on the job ad
00:37:40.840saying you will have the standard 35 hours per week. Well, wait a minute. In the real world,
00:37:48.380standard is 40 hours a week. And then it also said you'll get every, I believe it was every
00:37:53.200third Friday off altogether. Plus you get a few weeks of vacation. This is just a complete waste
00:38:01.380of time, complete waste of money. You don't need that position whatsoever. And you look at Calgary
00:38:08.800City Hall, the giant, as Rick Bell likes to say in his columns, the big blue playpen. It's a giant
00:38:14.760blue building full of offices and bureaucrats that all they bloody well do is hinder development,0.99
00:38:22.280hinder businesses, get in your face while at the same time you walk in the alleys of downtown0.97
00:38:27.780calgary and all you can smell is urine from the homeless people you can't ride the train because1.00
00:38:32.500of the disorder on there body shops and and uh tire shops are doing great trade because people
00:38:41.220are knocking their tires off their rims on the potholes but city council is naval gazing and
00:38:47.460doing things like they did in calgary on banning paper bags yes not even plastic wasn't good enough
00:38:52.820they banned paper bags they actually had to back off on that one of those fools
00:38:57.780but whose fault is it? See, there's where part of the problem with a lot of citizens don't like to
00:39:04.180talk about that, but that's the truth of it. Guys, in a democracy, and I know ours is imperfect,
00:39:08.740but it is a democracy. We have the means, we have the ability. It's on us. We have to participate.
00:39:14.980We have to get off our butts. We have to pay attention to who's running, what they're standing
00:39:19.560for. And then we've actually got to get out there and vote or run or support. A commenter, Jay
00:39:30.860Smoke, focus on my title. The countdown has begun for an Alberta referendum. Yeah. Well, the nature
00:39:35.280of my show, that's where I start the show off and talk on things. And I'll talk on these things
00:39:38.400as we go throughout. But my show covers a number of issues. I'm going to talk to Nadine Ness pretty
00:39:43.860soon. And that'll be kind of back on that subject, but from a Saskatchewan perspective. But all of
00:39:48.600these things tie together actually. They really do. I'm talking about participation in municipal
00:39:53.380politics because it's important and it will empower you and it will strengthen you. And that
00:39:57.860translates as well to provincial and federal and a referendum. That means people have to get off
00:40:08.120their asses. This is going to be interesting. The parties won't be a part of that. This will be a
00:40:12.540democratic exercise of individuals. Different groups are going to campaign in this, but
00:40:20.120theoretically in 2026, there's going to be a yes or no vote. I'm sure there's going to be a bit of
00:40:26.060squabbling over what the phrasing of that vote will be, but it'll be whether or not to stay
00:40:31.760within the federation. And again, as I said, this is history making. No Western province has ever
00:40:37.840done this. No province aside from Quebec has ever done this. The polling right now is interesting
00:40:44.960to say the least. Exciting. 36% in Alberta and you're getting over 30% it looks like in
00:40:51.760Saskatchewan looking at that. But remember guys, that's still getting into the 15 to 20% too short
00:40:58.140to win a referendum. So if it's going to happen, there's still a heck of a lot more groundwork to
00:41:03.420be done to reach the winning conditions of it. And, uh, with it being a year away, it's looking
00:41:11.440most likely. Well, again, that's a lot of time and it's very little time at the, you know,
00:41:16.720both at the same time, right? Cause it's going to pass fast, but, uh, you also got to keep
00:41:22.780things going while the, you know, as they say, strike while the iron's hot. I like that it's
00:41:26.300been cooled down a bit. Uh, commenter saying, I reckon saying, I organized Jeffrey Rath and
00:41:31.380Keith Wilson to come on. I had Keith Wilson on my show. If you want to look back on the past shows,
00:41:35.800he was on on Wednesday and we had a very good discussion. People talking about getting groups
00:41:42.000together to pursue independence and head towards a referendum. We don't need to get them together.
00:41:48.700You can join a bunch of them if you want. You see, there's where you get out of the party thing,
00:41:53.020though. See, parties by nature are competitive with each other. Even if they're both, and in
00:41:59.740Alberta, we've got five independence parties. Well, they're all competing with each other
00:42:03.420when really the only goal is the independence, is the referendum. So don't worry about the parties.
00:42:12.100They don't matter. We've got to focus on the referendum and that's just one person, one vote,
00:42:17.900one way or left or right, yes or no. And if you start sidetracking down these little fiefdoms
00:42:22.900people are trying to create with their own little personal political parties, you're just wasting
00:42:25.980your time, your effort, your shoe leather. I mean, there's good people involved in them, sure. And
00:42:31.120very well-meaning people involved in them. But you remember, you've only got so much capital to
00:42:36.620invest as a citizen in this upcoming referendum. And I mean, mental capital, I mean, physical with
00:42:42.420your money, I, you know, just in general. So if you're splitting it by messing around with a bunch
00:42:47.720of your time, playing with these political parties that can't combine to make 1% of the vote,
00:42:51.640you could have been dedicating that time to building the base for a winning condition in
00:42:56.520a referendum so prioritize your energy i mean don't join this alberta republican party really
00:43:03.440i mean it was already a name that's divisive among people who want independence why why
00:43:10.860you know uh jay smoke saying uh disagree they're confusing people and it will fail well i don't
00:43:15.680know if we just ignore them or sidetrack them or point them out like the republicans are a
00:43:21.640people won't waste their time on them. And there's a few good people involved with the
00:43:25.300Republican Party too, I'm sure. But we just got to dismiss them. There are groups and it's going
00:43:32.480to have to be by groups, not parties. And that's where Premier Smith has been kind of smart about
00:43:36.260it. She said, it's in the hands of the people. It's up to them in a referendum. I'm kind of out
00:43:42.680of it. I'm dealing with our governing Alberta and dealing with Ottawa with what I can. And that's
00:43:48.880up to the people if they want to have a referendum on that and they will vote which way they please.
00:43:53.120And that's the way it's got to be. Likewise, and it segues well into bringing Nadine on to talk
00:43:58.780about what's going on in Saskatchewan because it's very similar. We're seeing the football being
00:44:02.660played politically. And it's funny with the opponents of independence, the first thing they
00:44:08.380want to do is take away our ability to even have a vote on it. And that's kind of what your
00:44:11.980discussion is over there, isn't it, Nadine? It is. It is. And it was interesting listening to you
00:44:18.860because I just want to make a point to the point you were making
00:44:23.040about the political parties and the groups and stuff.
00:44:26.600One of the things I think that will make our organization more successful,
00:44:37.200And in fact, last night, I may have just triggered the NDP
00:44:40.720because Carla Beck was basically saying the reason Scott Mo
00:44:44.840and danielle smith are entertaining this referendum thing or saying they have a voice
00:44:50.300is because they're afraid of losing their seats and i gave a warning to carla beck i said we can
00:44:54.340come after your job too i said you had what 200 people at your convention last uh leadership
00:45:00.380review we could easily bring 400 people there so it's just it's just kind of funny like i'm willing
00:45:08.000to work like imagine if every single party had a leader that was willing to defend our provinces
00:45:14.880whether it's alberta or saskatchewan that was willing to go toe-to-toe with ottawa and defend
00:45:20.280our province and but that's the thing we we're seeing we don't have that with the ndp because
00:45:25.300they want the same agenda the liberals are pushing they i mean ndp it's both federal
00:45:31.360provincial it's the same thing so so but yeah yeah we've we've triggered the ndp they're trying
00:45:37.640to pass a bill or get a bill passed to stop us from being able to do a referendum and and
00:45:45.320they're trying to stop the government from being able to call one and but I'm not someone that
00:45:52.600believes in can't so if I have to to bring 400 people to the NDP convention let's let's do it
00:46:00.980so well yeah and i mean the bottom line is they're opposing the mechanism not even the concept
00:46:08.460they're saying we don't trust the citizens of saskatchewan vote in a referendum we don't want
00:46:15.920to give them the vote because we don't trust that they will vote the way we want them to it's as
00:46:20.280anti-democratic as you can imagine it's it's i'm actually shocked at the level that they're going
00:46:28.940But I think it has something to do with the NDP has been so much in their echo chamber.
00:46:35.220They don't think that people in the real world think outside of them.
00:46:39.040They think that they're the only ones and they're the only right ones.
00:46:42.700And I don't think they realize that what they're doing right now is actually a big misstep.
00:46:47.260I think it's going to have a really negative effect in the NDP party.
00:46:51.660I'm even seeing people commenting, just let them have a voice, let them have a vote.
00:46:56.280And, and those are, these are people who are supportive of NDP. I mean, you won't have like the far, far left, but you will have these, these reasonable NDP voters. And I do think there's such a thing. I do think a lot of people kind of in the middle that ended up going that way, maybe because of healthcare or education or one of those things.
00:47:19.320But I think for the most part, when they're seeing this and this of taking the voice away, I think it's going to backfire.
00:47:27.900And when people get told that, when the government tells people they can't do something like that, I think it activates something in them to want to get more involved.
00:47:38.820As soon as they started talking about that, what happened, our petition signatures started going way up.
00:47:46.400Yeah, well, something that's been interesting in the polling that came out from Angus Reid recently that I was referencing where we're looking at getting into the 30 some percent support for independence was a question they asked, and I'm glad they did, whether people support a referendum even being held on independence.
00:48:02.900And that came in at 50 percent. So there are more people supporting having the referendum than people committing themselves already to a yes vote.
00:48:10.560But that tells me that some of the people opposing independence still want to have it.
00:48:14.660They're saying, let's get it on the table.
00:48:16.720Let's have our vote then and get it done.
00:48:19.100There's people who can oppose independence, but still respect democracy.