Western Standard - The Erika Barootes - Alberta Senate-Elect joins Nigel on this week's episode.

00:00:00.000 good evening western standard viewers we're delighted to have with us this evening erica

00:00:22.480 Barut. Now, Erica, you have been a conservative activist for a number of years in Alberta

00:00:31.960 politics. And I think at one time you were the founding president of the United Conservative

00:00:40.140 Party. You've also worked at the highest levels within the provincial government as a special

00:00:45.580 advisor to premier smith and uh you have um you're still alberta's senator elect is that right

00:00:55.500 i am still waiting for the appointment all right well you know for those for those who

00:01:01.740 were recent arrivals in in alberta we do try to choose our own senators and uh miss barutz is uh

00:01:08.860 Alberta is Alberta's choice to go to the Red Chamber when the time comes, and the time may come when the next government arrives, because you won't expect to get appointed by a liberal, not being a good conservative.

00:01:25.280 You're also an entrepreneur, and you've launched the first of its kind applied politics and public affairs diploma through McCammy College.

00:01:35.120 I want to ask you about that in a few moments.

00:01:37.200 But before we get to that, it seems that whenever Alberta Conservatives get together, you're there.

00:01:46.480 And can we just talk a little bit about Danielle Smith and what she's doing and how she's doing?

00:01:54.660 Let's start with this, just for fun.

00:01:56.800 We just had a $4 billion surplus.

00:01:58.900 Do you think that Premier Smith should have maybe given us a break on the gas taxes?

00:02:03.720 You know what?

00:02:04.520 I actually have a little bit of a different view in the gas tax because it did end kind of phased

00:02:10.560 out in this last budget. You know, I think that there's always opportunities to find affordable

00:02:17.560 measures into ways to put money back into Alberta's pockets. But when it comes to the gas tax, I

00:02:22.120 actually think the government should have phased it out earlier. And the reason I say that was

00:02:26.260 because this was a relief tax. This actually was supposed to be a short-term measure as opposed to

00:02:31.120 a forever tax. So this government, I mean, I wouldn't argue if the government wanted to always

00:02:35.760 have the 13 cents off taken away at the pumps, but that wasn't the intention of this policy.

00:02:43.400 So I do think the government could look at other ways to find affordability. When it comes to the

00:02:46.620 gas tax, I actually think that they left it too long, that us Albertans forgot that it was a

00:02:51.820 relief in a short-term crisis, and then kind of became accustomed to it. So when it came back on,

00:02:57.820 And it felt like an additional tax as opposed to the restoration of something that was actually never meant to stay longer.

00:03:05.160 I think they should have phased it out so that Albertans didn't have that, you know, expectation or that it just became the norm.

00:03:12.700 So I've actually been critical that the government should have phased it out before the budget because it actually didn't help the message when they didn't put in, you know, reduce the personal income tax.

00:03:22.640 well you know erica i think that's probably the right proper answer but having just driven back

00:03:29.040 from bc and filled up close to two dollars a liter i'm still not buying it but anyway let's

00:03:35.060 move on to i tried i tried to convince you you did um look disagree with me if you like but i

00:03:44.860 think provincial governments stand or fall on how people experience the provincial health system

00:03:51.360 I mean, there are other things, but basically that's where people's minds go.

00:03:56.960 So I know that the premier has launched a massive revamping of the Alberta health system.

00:04:06.640 But I don't know whether a lot of people really know what it is that's being attempted and why it is being attempted.

00:04:13.840 Well, I think the first thing is that, you know, Premier Danielle Smith came in at a time where every Canadian and in this case, Albertan, can agree that the health care system wasn't working.

00:04:25.100 So I do think that there is a need for significant reform or to look at it differently.

00:04:30.680 Now, to your point, as a politician, it is actually it will be, I think, her legacy, whether that's a good or a bad thing, because she's making a generational change.

00:04:40.040 And that's not common because as politicians always operate off of four years, and this is probably to fully reform it, going to take, you know, the eight to 10.

00:04:50.800 So when it goes to 2027, she's going to have to find ways to prove that these robust changes, such as, I mean, first firing the entire AHS board, putting it in a new leadership team,

00:05:03.320 um putting it to four pillars of government as opposed to ahs kind of being that one point of

00:05:10.740 contact because they saw it as a clog in the wheel so they they kind of are breaking it up

00:05:15.720 into different sectors so that your access to care goes into one of those four pillars and

00:05:22.680 they all operate in synergy but also complementary to each other so that's kind of her intention with

00:05:28.540 how she's structured the new body, is that AHS was always intended to be hospitals. And it kind

00:05:35.380 of got outside of that. And I think that that's one of the places where we saw, you know, slow

00:05:40.400 response times with EMS and not the highest support for frontline workers. Now, coming back

00:05:47.620 to the challenges, though, as I was saying, is that it is going to be difficult for this government

00:05:52.020 to have, you know, KPIs when they're going to the ballot in the next election. So I think that

00:05:58.160 they're going to have to really focus on some of those things they campaigned on, which is reducing

00:06:01.760 wait times and an access to, to the primary caregiver. And I want to say primary caregiver,

00:06:07.860 because I think we all default to like family doctor, but what the government is looking at

00:06:13.200 is actually, how do you get a point of care? So that could be a nurse practitioner, it could be

00:06:18.140 within a clinic and that, you know, getting, getting care and having that access point is

00:06:23.880 the most critical thing. So I do think that they're taking quite a robust approach to this.

00:06:30.400 And again, I think for them, they're going to have to find some low hanging fruit of return

00:06:33.940 on investment that they've done and all of these large changes. Because it is going to be a ballot

00:06:40.360 box question, as you mentioned, it always is. So they're going to have to figure out how to talk

00:06:44.340 about the long term gains of this reform and then the short term gains. Now, I could ask you how you

00:06:51.720 think is going and you would tell me but if i were to ask oh i'm not i'm yeah i was gonna say i'm

00:06:56.760 like i'm not a pundit anymore i get to our staffer i get to say what i want yeah no no but uh that's

00:07:02.040 why you're here uh yeah um no you absolutely but i'm trying to ask a person on the street

00:07:08.680 they'd probably you know you know it's still like going into souls and eatson's cancer board you

00:07:12.920 know it's grim it's it's awful i'd have to wait for hours and you know people people tend to view

00:07:19.800 the state of the health system by their own personal experience of it so what hope do you

00:07:25.960 have that this that the frontline experience is going to improve for people and above all

00:07:32.400 those people who need i'm talking about need uh kind of surgeries that you have to book

00:07:39.140 months even years in advance what's what's happening there i would give them you know

00:07:46.900 maybe an A minus B plus on how they're doing and managing all this. I do think that there's a really

00:07:52.740 negative narrative out there, like you said, about wait times. We've seen some government

00:07:59.160 announcements on that. We've seen government announcements of recruiting of nurse practitioners

00:08:03.500 or changing clinic models or reaching agreements and starting to have a better relationship with

00:08:08.360 the Alberta Medical Association. But you're right, they're also operating off of this perception of

00:08:14.940 what that experience. Now, I've been fortunate. I haven't had to go use an emergency room or take

00:08:19.100 one of my kids there in several months. So I can't talk about the specifics, but

00:08:23.940 I do think that they need to focus, you know, on what each region in our province needs. And so

00:08:31.640 is that focus, the recruitment of family doctors, especially in rural. And then again, I think that

00:08:36.860 the wait times and the, you know, the state of the emergency rooms are not amazing across the

00:08:45.620 entire province, but specifically in those large and urban centers. And I know that we'll probably

00:08:50.440 talk about, you know, the other challenges with recovery and addictions and how that also adds to

00:08:55.340 your emergency wait times. But I think that they're, I truly believe they're headed in the

00:08:59.200 right direction. They've had some hiccups. I don't think they've nailed it on the communications of

00:09:03.940 exactly what they're doing and how it's not just like the money that you're putting in it because

00:09:08.980 i can't fathom you know what two billion dollars does but i think that they need to start talking

00:09:15.120 about what it actually is doing for individuals and individuals in different regions across the

00:09:20.380 province because the situations are very different from you know north central and south yes well i

00:09:27.940 know i know people do tend to have a very high expectations like going in to get a you know to

00:09:34.220 make a purchase you sort of go in and you get seen you get fixed and you're on your way that's

00:09:37.940 that's what people want but i do want to say i think yeah i think a lot of people you know look

00:09:44.640 at this and it's like what's the challenge we need to put more money uh into the health care system

00:09:49.460 and i don't think that that's the right solution i think it is you know how are we investing where

00:09:55.080 are we investing? And so, you know, even when the government brags about the most, you know,

00:10:00.740 the highest level of investment in healthcare, I as an Albertan is more concerned, I'm more

00:10:06.560 concerned with, okay, but where is it going? And what is it going to address? Because we all know

00:10:11.800 the issues. But I, and I think the left is horrific at this where they just like, they think

00:10:18.680 just throw money at a problem. And that goes for education and healthcare. And like, you know,

00:10:22.820 doctors should have a competitive wage, but they shouldn't be where they were 10 years ago in this

00:10:28.380 province making 17% more than any other jurisdiction, right? Like I think there's conversations on par,

00:10:33.340 but also can there be people that are working on their teams that can help solve some of the

00:10:38.420 challenges of volume too? So, you know, I could talk about healthcare all day, but I think it's

00:10:43.340 important that a big differentiator of where Alberta is divided is a lot want to throw money

00:10:49.060 at the problem and hope that that will fix it. And I think on the right, we are always looking

00:10:55.080 for efficiencies, good use of tax dollars. And then again, that let's provide the best quality

00:11:01.300 care for those in need. Yep. Okay. Well, look, the second biggest expenditure in the provincial

00:11:08.580 budget is education. And I noticed that something like 10% of Alberta children are in some kind of

00:11:17.140 alternative education whether it's you know charter schools or homeschooling

00:11:24.900 that's a lot that's to me and by the way i i think we both know about uh kaylin ford's

00:11:32.020 school is has something like 2500 people waiting to enroll their kids there's a huge demand for

00:11:39.380 the classical education that she is offering now what's going wrong in the education system that

00:11:48.020 so many people want to take their kids out of it you know we have actually one of my stepdaughters

00:11:55.780 is in public education because she's in an immersion program and another is in a catholic

00:12:00.820 program both in edmonton and i cannot tell you the night and day experience that we even have

00:12:07.220 in the Catholic versus the public school system. Less PD days, obviously smaller classrooms in the

00:12:13.120 Catholic. It's interesting. I think what's happening is, again, we're a province and I

00:12:21.160 am personally a person that believes in choice in education. And if something's not delivering

00:12:25.220 to the standards in which you want to have set your child up for success, I love that we have

00:12:31.260 all these options independent schools charters public catholic you know um uh i think it's so

00:12:38.540 great that we offer all of these things but it's really unfortunate nigel to what you're saying is

00:12:43.660 that like we have a public system we're not the u.s like it's not the same um where you you have

00:12:49.340 to pay for your child to have a good education um we we do offer how our tax dollars are allocated

00:12:56.060 I think properly because we want to equal the playing field for every child, but at the same

00:13:02.220 time if you're a parent and you want to give a good opportunity or you're realizing and I think

00:13:06.380 in the most case that the public school system isn't teaching or offering or coaching and

00:13:13.500 developing students in the way that parents you know our generations had and so that's a shift

00:13:20.300 away from that to find the best alternative and I would love if we could hit reset and the public

00:13:24.860 school system was everything that everyone wanted but i don't think that's the case and i don't

00:13:28.780 think that there's a return to it well let me okay let me put this in a provocative way i say that

00:13:34.140 the education system is dominated by progressive left-wing unions both in the teaching profession

00:13:40.620 and in the administration and they're preparing the next generation of ndp voters even while we're

00:13:46.620 sitting here talking about it how say you well i would say there's a lot of things that teachers

00:13:52.620 are saying in classrooms and we hear it at the dinner table um that isn't in their scope it isn't

00:13:58.060 in their person like they're not there to teach their perspective they're there to teach curriculums

00:14:02.620 so you know i'd love to be able to argue with you on that point but unfortunately again i think

00:14:08.780 that's where whether it's curriculum where whether it's values and beliefs being shared in the

00:14:13.900 classroom i think that there is a big shift unfortunately um and again like i said we hear

00:14:19.500 very different messages of kids that are in relatively the same grades from a public and

00:14:26.540 a catholic school as well so i can't disagree with you there i want to come back to the education

00:14:33.420 part of it in a few moments and what you are doing with makami college but before we do that let's

00:14:40.380 just talk about mr nenshi i am rather surprised that he has not yet found a seat to run in and i

00:14:49.100 I was equally surprised by an opinion poll that came out last week

00:14:53.520 showing that he was actually trailing the Premier by 14 points.

00:14:59.360 Now, that doesn't surprise me because I know him and I know the Premier.

00:15:02.640 But on the other hand, I don't think that's what the NDP were expecting.

00:15:08.500 Clearly, he has a wonderful ability to organize and mobilize.

00:15:12.080 He's a great persuader.

00:15:13.660 But I wonder if people are looking back at his time as mayor of Calgary and thinking maybe he's not the CEO we want.

00:15:22.420 Or maybe they just don't know about him at all.

00:15:24.460 I mean, if you were in Edmonton, you probably wouldn't have been on your mind much.

00:15:29.280 How do you think that's going for the NDP?

00:15:31.900 Well, I think that the NDP, the new membership, will say, because they had a significant,

00:15:37.080 and I'll commend them on how much their party grew during this leadership race.

00:15:41.540 They haven't had one in quite some time. And it's not atypical to have a significant surge.

00:15:48.520 However, I think that where the party is going to have a lot of wedges is on the point that, one, you and I know Nenshi,

00:15:56.920 and I'm more than happy to watch him for three and a half years show the rest of Alberta, his personality and his characteristics

00:16:02.720 and how he loves increasing taxes and all of those things that will really come to light when he's in the spotlight.

00:16:11.540 as the leader. But I do think that the NDP, you know, voted not based on their values and beliefs,

00:16:17.780 but more so on the desire to win. And they looked at Nenshi or someone that maybe didn't have a

00:16:24.020 political home in Alberta, bought a membership, voted for Nahed Nenshi because they saw him as

00:16:30.540 the best competitor against Daniel Smith. And that's not uncommon within politics, but I think

00:16:36.220 what's going to happen is it's going to come to, he doesn't have the values of an NDP or he is,

00:16:41.040 you know, liberal light. Um, and he's going to have, you know, his color's purple. You don't

00:16:46.880 get purple from orange, red, uh, you get it from blue and red. And so I think he's going to have

00:16:54.740 a lot of challenges within his membership. And again, I think a lot of people expected big

00:16:59.240 things out of him right away. And from my understanding, you know, he hasn't come out

00:17:03.680 doing really anything. I know he's been meeting with industry behind closed doors, but he's not

00:17:08.280 coming out and didn't during his election on policies. So I think people were excited about

00:17:13.240 him. I think that they compromised maybe what they believe the NDP to be. And now they're going to

00:17:18.900 have to deal with the consequences. So I would love to fast forward a year from now. And when

00:17:22.740 all those memberships expire, see how many actually stick around, as well as what happens

00:17:30.000 when this party has to decide if they're going to leave their federal partner, because that's a lot

00:17:35.120 resources that's a lot of um supports that i don't i think nenshi will take for granted and

00:17:40.400 i'm more than happy to watch him do it you know if i were if i were a frivolous person with a

00:17:47.360 better sense of humor i would imagine the conversation between naheed nenshi and tommy

00:17:51.840 douglas because i don't think they're both ndp but they're not the same kind of people so are they

00:17:57.440 um look makami college you have just been i think you've been in the job now for three months

00:18:06.160 and well i've been on the job for for a year but i haven't been able to talk about this program

00:18:12.300 because it's under legislation you can't promote it until it's been approved okay well i'm i'm glad

00:18:18.640 the constitution applies in alberta at least so look this is a program on public affairs and

00:18:26.340 and doing policy right what what exactly are you um are you training the next generation of

00:18:32.660 conservatives all about well hopefully we have some conservatives in the program

00:18:39.780 but um no so we this was not my brainchild but i i'm very happy that i got to be the creator of

00:18:46.820 this program so go back we won't say how many years but i took poli sci and the only reason

00:18:53.060 I could get a job was because I was, you know, the kid that on Thursday nights before going to

00:18:58.460 the den, I went to UFC. I was at a boardroom table, um, in Calgary varsity. Um, my connections,

00:19:04.360 I did summer internships I did with Ron Steven. So like the reason I got my job or got into

00:19:10.660 politics and actually found my home, uh, early on was because of my involvement. And so this is the

00:19:16.960 applied politics. So you learn some of the foundations you would learn at poli sci, but

00:19:20.860 I graduated learning how to write a 10-page paper. Never have I ever had to do that. I had to learn

00:19:25.540 how to write a briefing note, how to do stakeholder relations, events planning, how to how to brief a

00:19:30.800 minister, manage their calendars, conflict resolutions, policy analysis, campaigns and

00:19:37.100 elections. As you know, I've been in many a war rooms. So this program is actually going to teach

00:19:41.900 individuals that really want to get into the game of politics or policy or political affairs,

00:19:47.280 public relations, all of those types of things, breaking this down in a two-year diploma program,

00:19:53.040 starting with, and this might be a good thing for some university students coming out of

00:19:57.140 our elementary public school program, how democracy works, how the constitution and

00:20:04.840 the roles of government work, what federalism truly is supposed to be. And so it'll go through

00:20:11.280 all of that and teach students so that they can get jobs in political offices, government,

00:20:17.440 constituency offices, public affairs firms. You could even go into the not-for-profit. We're

00:20:23.140 going to teach some fundraising, stakeholder relations, as I mentioned. So it's going to build

00:20:27.580 what I wish my skill and toolbox had when I graduated after four years, but in a two-year

00:20:35.140 program with three practicums. So you're also getting some real-life experience to see too,

00:20:40.220 Like, are you fit to work at the ledge or are you more one degree of separation?

00:20:46.760 But it should have equipped everyone with the things I wish I knew and paid the money for.

00:20:52.760 Is this a little bit like what the Manning Institute was trying to do for its particular part of the market?

00:21:00.120 Well, I did engage with them and I will give Preston Manning credit in conversations I've had, not directly with him,

00:21:05.940 but an important one was actually professional and political ethics.

00:21:10.220 And so that's a course that we'll have because of the need to be able to navigate that both from your values, beliefs, your political parties, et cetera.

00:21:17.840 So it does have something like that.

00:21:20.400 It does take from what I think Carleton is trying to do in their master's program of political management.

00:21:26.740 But again, you don't need a poli sci degree and you don't need to do this in a master's to learn what I think everything that I've learned from working for politicians to working, you know, in the party or or on the outside.

00:21:40.380 So, yes, the goal is, I mean, obviously,

00:21:42.820 Macamie College is a public institute.

00:21:45.460 So, you know, we welcome individuals of all stripes,

00:21:50.640 but I would be honest, I would love to see some strong

00:21:54.620 conservative campaigners and strong conservative staffers

00:21:57.980 coming out of the program.

00:21:59.980 Well, that is something to aspire to.

00:22:02.560 And quite frankly, even if they're not conservatives,

00:22:05.940 if they at least understand that there is a constitution,

00:22:09.660 And that the Constitution would be respected and that there's a way of doing things.

00:22:15.140 That would be a huge improvement on what we're seeing.

00:22:19.260 Erica, I really want to wish you all good luck with that and good fortune.

00:22:23.000 Is there anything else you want to tell us about Alberta politics?

00:22:26.360 Because we're rapidly running out of time and I want to thank you properly.

00:22:29.820 But your last point.

00:22:33.200 Yeah, so two quick things because I never met a microphone I don't like.

00:22:36.380 if people are interested, come over to makamicollege.com to learn more about the

00:22:43.740 program. We'll be doing our first pilot in September. So I'm doing curriculum development

00:22:48.440 day and night right now. But the other thing is just like to watch the characters. I think

00:22:54.560 this is going to be, you know, a monumental period in our history of like two very strong

00:23:00.220 communicators, but who can do the inside work with their party? Who is going to be able to be true

00:23:07.420 to the values and beliefs of what their base is, as opposed to sometimes what they believe? And I

00:23:11.880 think this is going to be one that I'll be using case studies for years to come in the applied

00:23:15.360 politics program, because they're very different. People like to paint the head and then she and

00:23:19.820 Danielle Smith is very similar. I mean, they were in a classroom together once upon a time,

00:23:23.520 But they're so different in how they communicate, how they interact, and how they are the captain of a team.

00:23:31.820 So I think that's going to be very telling of how 2027 is going to go.

00:23:38.100 Thank you so much for this, Erica.

00:23:40.140 I want to wish you all good fortune.

00:23:43.220 And I don't think it's going to be good luck.

00:23:46.140 You're going to make your luck as you go along.

00:23:47.820 but what you are doing at Makami College seems absolute best use

00:23:52.020 of the skills you've accumulated so far,

00:23:54.700 and it could be of profound significance for the future.

00:23:57.660 Thank you for coming on the show.

00:23:59.800 It's been great to see you.

00:24:01.500 Ladies and gentlemen, for the Western Standard, I'm Nigel Hannaford.

00:24:17.820 Thank you.

Western Standard - July 23, 2024

The Erika Barootes - Alberta Senate-Elect joins Nigel on this week's episode.

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