Join us as we discuss the fallout from David Suzuki's comments at the United Conservative Party's convention, and Jason Kenney's angry tirade at the media. Plus, a look at how David Suzuki s comments are being taken out of context.
00:09:36.020I don't know. These other guys who I'm speaking to an Extinction Rebellion rally at, I mean, he was not saying this to, you know, he wasn't like showing up at like a conservative convention saying, conservatives, I really recommend you do this because there's some crazy guys over here and they're going to blow up pipelines if you don't do something.
00:09:57.000Yes. This was at an extinction rebellion rally that is specifically who he is speaking to. And, you know, I don't know, unfairly taken out of context, not even in the slightest. And, you know, it's a matter of who's saying it, where they're saying it, why they're saying it. I mean, there's a lot of nuance to this. And, you know, I've watched some social media discussion. People like pointing out, oh, well, Donald Trump incited on January 6th. You know what? He did.
00:11:47.760Don't forget guys, we have had pipeline bombings in the past and can of pipelines in, I think the mid to early 2000s, up by Beaver Lodge, like 97, again, in like the mid, late nineties, up in the early 2000s.
00:12:02.000Weebo Ludwig, you know, he was never charged with them, but he was certainly arrested and questioned about them before, before he died.
00:16:24.180the Corey delay. We need, this is, I don't know. Are we family friendly? We're mostly family
00:16:32.480friendly, as long as you don't listen to Corey. So parents watching at home, if you've got your
00:16:36.820kids nearby and it's not like on your earphones, just whenever Corey's talking, mute. When you see
00:16:43.360Dave and I are back, it's normally. Kind of like his wife does with him. Oh, oh, oh. Mute, mute.
00:16:49.380Well, speaking of ignoring, let's talk about the United Conservative Party's annual general meeting or convention this weekend.
00:16:59.140Western Standard had extensive coverage there.
00:17:02.920I think we had five between staff and freelancers.
00:17:07.100We had five on the scene there covering it all weekend.
00:17:12.960Dave, what were some of the highlights?
00:17:15.180Lots to digest from the weekend, Derek.
00:17:17.8801,600 UCP members at the Gray Eagle Casino on Sutton Island, just west of the city, from all over the province, started flooding in Friday night.
00:17:29.240Friday night, the big news was a resolution on the floor to increase the number of ridings needed to force a leadership review from 22 to 29.
00:17:39.700It was just announced on last Monday that that threshold had been met and 22 ridings had signed on.
00:17:47.880The motion to increase it passed, but it needed 75% to be enacted, and Kenney's forces were only able to rally 58%.
00:17:58.600Even though there were allegations of third-party PACs basically paying for delegate convention fees to stuff the ballots on Kenney's side.
00:18:11.980Well, not to stop the ballots, but stack the number of delegates, because it costs like
00:18:16.520350 bucks to register, plus your hotel, plus your travel.
00:18:19.960This is not like showing up on election day to vote, you know, your library around the
00:20:29.920Yeah, I'd say, you know, that was a, and I'd see that was as a proxy vote on his leadership. I think very much became proxy vote. I mean, some people are going to vote on principle one way or another. You know, do you think that threshold should be raised? Do you think it should not be raised? But I think most people were voting. If you support Jason Kenney, vote to change the threshold. If you oppose him, you vote to keep the threshold.
00:23:59.600So that's what he's going to be campaigning.
00:24:01.740Well, he made the case that, look, I might be unpopular.
00:24:04.460He didn't say he's unpopular, but he kind of gave a hint that not all is well in Tory land.
00:24:08.900So essentially said, look, I might be unpopular, but I shouldn't be unpopular, because here's the great things I'm doing. And the only reason I'm unpopular is because the NDP have a political party, the NDP have taken political advantage of this political situation. Shocker that the NDP would try to get popular and chip away at the government support.
00:24:28.580I mean, it's a very old Tory land view of politics that the opposition should just be the opposition.
00:24:36.340They should. Why are they trying to be the government?0.98
00:24:39.680Why are they trying to get popular and take power?
00:24:42.680We're the government, for God's sakes, and we'll always be the government.
00:24:45.320We've almost always been the government.
00:24:47.820And he also said, look, there's going to be a leadership vote at some point.
00:24:51.900But in the meantime, you should all STF.
00:26:59.100They're going to find a T that wasn't crossed, or they'll find a member of a constituency who said they didn't get a letter within the divine notice for their meeting.
00:27:05.620to put the motion forward. You can always nitpick and find excuses. And realistically,
00:27:11.540it's inside baseball. A bunch of people will get loud and upset when this SGM doesn't happen,
00:27:16.040but the public at large really won't notice. Kenny bought himself.
00:27:18.720You don't think that would be the end of any grassroots supports he might have?
00:27:22.380Oh, I don't think he has much left anyway. And it would certainly infuriate the members on the
00:27:26.840ground at these constituency associations, but he hasn't shown much indication of respect for them.
00:27:31.860I mean, it's a lost cause as far as he's concerned, if he can just maintain this leadership.
00:27:36.620So, I mean, I suspect the Wilder's Independence Party will suddenly gain a whole pile of constituency organizers
00:27:41.540because they'll throw their hands up in frustration.
00:27:44.540But then, you know, we just go on to the political battles.
00:28:59.440You know, I would feel like if the position was open that I'd have to run, just because I believe in unity.
00:29:05.040And this is the real issue, is that let's throw some names on the table because there are some good cabinet ministers.
00:29:10.500I believe Jason Nixon has demonstrated that he's got leadership potential.
00:29:15.080Doug Schweitzer has demonstrated leadership potential.
00:29:17.960Leila Ahir is clearly interested. Rajan Zani is clearly interested.
00:29:22.300Casey Maddu, the justice minister, would be a good candidate.
00:29:25.780And then on the outside, those who were involved in World Coast politics, Rob Anderson, Bruce McAllister, maybe me, Brian Jean.
00:29:32.260They're talking about federal names, Michelle Rumpel-Garner, Ronna Ambrose.
00:29:35.720Here's the point. If you had 10 strong leadership candidates, each selling 20,000 members to win, now you have a party of 200,000 people going into the next election.
00:29:47.440That is a force that can turn things around.
00:29:49.680And that's the kind of rejuvenation that happens with the party leadership.
00:29:52.700But if we continue on this path, I think you're going to see struggle in motivation, not only the fundraising numbers, but the membership numbers, the willingness of people to come out or not.
00:30:05.860And that's what lends itself to the NDP winning.
00:30:12.600Well, that was Daniel Smith on the floor of the Alberta United Conservative Party's convention on the Western Centre Uncensored panel.
00:30:20.400uh as i said i didn't hear it live but as soon as someone tapped my shoulder i i went over tapped
00:30:25.280your shoulder and said dave we got a story to write we did and uh once our story was published
00:30:31.980you could see it almost going across the convention floor as the uh you know everybody's typing into
00:30:37.420they're looking at the story on their uh on their iphone iphones uh yeah significant development
00:30:43.640daniel smith saying uh if the job becomes open she feels like she has to run for it
00:30:48.480She, of course, has history as former leader of the Wild Rose and will go down in political history as crossing the floor over to the Tory side, which some people smarter than me think may have cost them the election and put the NDP in power.
00:31:07.320So there's a lot of people groaning about her announcement.
00:31:11.140There's a lot of people clapping about the announcement.
00:31:14.680But other than Brian Jean, she's the first one to publicly come out and say she'll go after the job.
00:31:20.920Corey, she didn't say she is running, but she said if the job was open, she'd have to run.
00:31:29.320I guess, do you think two wild rows enter, one conservative leave?
00:31:34.120I mean, it'd be quite a double belt title match for Brian Jean versus Daniel Smith head to head.
00:31:42.980Well, you know, I was playing around with some Twitter polling, which is notoriously unreliable.
00:31:46.980But I think in the case of measuring them, because most of my following tends to be conservative minded, it's not like throwing it out there in general.
00:32:38.820She knows what she's saying and how it's going to be reacted.
00:32:41.560I think that was throwing it out there to chum the water, to get a feel for it, to see what the response was going to be.
00:32:48.000And how she's interpreted that response at this point, I'm certain she got a heck of a lot of feedback from a number of people, both positive and negative, you know, will impact where she might do down the road.
00:32:57.740It was very interesting to see her come out and say that.
00:32:59.760Yeah, it certainly was chum in the water.
00:33:01.640I think that's a good analogy because, as Dave said, you know, about 30 seconds after this went out,
00:33:06.720you could just see some kind of commotion.
00:33:09.540And everyone started looking down at their phones.
00:33:13.960It definitely was something thrown into the water, Dave.
00:33:19.400What's the impression you got about how well that was received at the convention?
00:35:27.720One of which, and it's something I kind of wrote about at the time, one of the things that's kind of saving Kenny's butt.
00:35:31.980And I was talking to people on the floor saying, you know, well, what do you think?
00:35:34.440And they say, well, who's going to replace him?
00:35:36.080You know, there is a void and people don't want to get rid of one if they see a void.
00:35:39.600And not only did Danielle, as you said, mention herself, she listed off a whole bunch of other people.
00:35:43.960Like that void starts getting filled. People start thinking a little more, well, how would the future look if such and such, even if it's not Daniel or Gene was in that role? And that starts making them question whether they want to keep Kenny in there, you know, as that deadline essentially comes to replace a leader starts to come in. And the other hazard now, though, again, with Gene being there, he probably will win that by-election if he gets into it.
00:36:07.900If you can't get Kenny out through the membership,
00:36:10.900you might get him out through the caucus.
00:36:12.340And now you've got this thorn in caucus
00:36:14.800who's not even trying to hide his intention
00:41:32.880it's possible he actually could eke it out as an independent.
00:41:36.380What do you think the chances are of that?
00:41:37.400I think, again, when you're talking about those rare exceptions of an independent winning, I think of Nunziata, for example, in Toronto when he broke from the Liberals.
00:41:44.960If they've established already as an elected representative in the area and their circumstances were, you know, where they were odiously blocked or in a fight with the party, the electors can stand up and put them in.
00:41:53.800Gene could be one of those in that position.
00:41:55.300I mean, he was a member of parliament for a time.