00:03:33.080And a captain of your own life. Thank you.
00:03:40.600All right. Folks, here's the deal. Supporters of any candidate,
00:03:45.220the time that you cheer is going to be taken away from your candidate.
00:03:48.480Just so you know, that's the way the deal works here.
00:03:50.540when have we ever heard the prime minister say i believe in this project i think it should happen
00:03:57.580and yes please i'm delighted to name him but if you want me you you heard that and for you is
00:04:03.040what book are you reading now but when you have the opportunity to sit down and listen to some
00:04:08.480music what do you listen to well pick a local hero paul brant alberta brown all right you got
00:04:14.580let them applaud that, Tom. Come on. Thank you, candidates, very much. It was a challenging
00:04:21.500format, but I think that we did well. And that was just a handful of high points or low points
00:04:36.000or whatever you want to call them from last night's debate. I've really never seen anything
00:04:39.580quite like it. So I'll break it down. I mean, I'm a political weenie. There's no denying that.
00:04:44.580And over the years, I've watched countless leaders' debates from multiple parties.
00:04:48.940I've seen some with fireworks and yelling and hollering,
00:04:52.340and some that are dull enough to put me to sleep even if I drank half a gallon of espresso.
00:04:57.200I've never witnessed a bizarre debacle like I did last night, though,
00:05:00.360with the Conservative Party of Canada leadership debate in Edmonton.
00:05:03.680This is the first debate held, or the first debate that was held with the CPC leadership candidates was an unofficial one.
00:05:09.420It was held by the Canada Strong and Free Network at their annual conference in Ottawa.
00:05:13.820Now, that debate was heated and had a lot of vicious confrontational exchanges between the candidates, Pierre Polyev and Jean Charest.
00:05:21.660The other candidates had a hard time even gaining notice on the stage as the scraps continued between those two perceived frontrunners.
00:05:28.460Now, pundits and conservative politicians expressed concerns that such vitriolic displays could sour voters on the conservatives and divide the party.
00:05:35.940Preston Manning and even ironically, Jason Kenney spoke up on the division being fostered with debates and with candidates being so antagonistic with each other.
00:05:43.820The debate held in Edmonton was the first official one, so all six candidates for the leadership were in attendance.
00:05:50.520I was looking forward to hearing more, what I'd hoped to be more nuanced policy discussion from more than just two candidates, and I was to be disappointed, to say the least.
00:05:59.180Now, to begin with, the audio quality was reminiscent of high school assemblies I had to attend back in the 1980s.
00:06:06.060Feedback blasted the audience as the event began, and there was an audible humming sound that was assailing the ears of listeners going forward from that period on.
00:06:13.820As well, the candidates were set up in front of these large monitors, which perhaps looked good from afar,
00:06:18.580but it led to a blurred and almost nauseating effect whenever the cameras zoomed in closely to the individual candidates.
00:06:24.940Once the audio was settled enough to get the event underway, we were treated to an uninterrupted two-hour awkward moment.
00:06:31.820That's the best way I could put it. You know, the term cringe that's used almost too much.
00:06:36.140In this case, it applied very well to last night's debate.
00:06:39.500What I can imagine was a response to the somewhat haywire debate in Ottawa.
00:06:42.800while organizers created a format they felt would prevent candidates from going off the rails in Edmonton.
00:06:48.160Moderator Tom Clark laid down the law with strict rules.
00:06:51.420If any candidate mentioned another politician or candidate,
00:06:54.180they would be interrupted by that sad trombone sound effect that you heard earlier.
00:06:58.440I thought this was some sort of joke, but quickly within the first round,
00:07:02.080Jean Charest was interrupted with the trombone because he said Prime Minister.
00:07:06.240Charest was flustered and annoyed, and who can blame him? It was bizarre.
00:07:10.780Another rule Clark laid out was that candidates would be penalized with reduced speaking time if their supporters made any noises, such as clapping or cheering.
00:07:18.860Polyev ran afoul of this rule repeatedly as his microphone was shut down.
00:07:22.720Polyev was also penalized when audience members booed Shirey over something he'd said.
00:07:26.780The moderator just assumed the offenders were Polyev's supporters. It was just weird.
00:07:31.840The debate was constantly interrupted as the moderator stopped to scold both candidates and audience members for their misbehavior.
00:07:39.960Clark was in full school marm mode, and he seemed to relish it.
00:07:44.140Even without interruptions, it was hard to get anything of substance from the candidates.
00:07:48.040For the first portion of the event, they were limited to 15-second response times.
00:07:51.900Even on items like abortion. Can you talk about abortion in 15 seconds?
00:07:55.260I despise formats where candidates can drone on for minutes with every question,
00:18:37.480By the way, and I'll point out to people, there's a go fund me, and I'm sorry her name escapes me, but if you look it up, there was a 40-year-old mother of five got killed because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time the night before last in Forest Lawn in Calgary.
00:18:51.040There were two vehicles chasing each other at a high speed, and they were engaged in a gunfight between each other, between the vehicles.
00:18:58.700And it led to a giant crash in the intersection of 17th Avenue and 36th Street in southeastern Calgary.
00:19:05.060So it's out in Forest Lawn, kind of the rougher end of town.
00:19:07.840And yeah, this woman got killed, left five children, orphaned.
00:19:11.180Apparently that the father had passed away not too long ago as well.
00:19:17.860you know well for one i want to start on the positive not positive but just productive look
00:19:23.120up the gofundme those five kids are now orphans this is horrible maybe lend them a hand you know
00:19:28.860this is what we do as citizens stand up for each other we gotta work with law enforcement a lot of
00:19:32.340things on the other end but help these guys out but this this weird world of denial they keep
00:19:37.600calling it a road rage incident they're saying it was a road rage that went bad look your average
00:19:41.880road rage if you're going to talk about that that's a lunatic who gets out of their car with
00:19:45.860the crowbar and smashes somebody's windows in, which is of concern and things like that. Or they
00:19:49.640chase people around or scream at each other, give each other their finger. Two vehicles exchanging
00:19:53.960gunfire is not a road rage incident. That's a gangland war incident. They don't want to talk
00:20:00.420about it, but that's the reality. This isn't common, guys. And it's happening over and over.
00:20:05.140We saw a gentleman got shot in the back of the head while he was stopped at a light a few months
00:20:09.060ago up on 16th Avenue. The shootings across the city, particularly in the Northeast and Southeast,
00:20:15.020have been out of control. It's a gang issue. We've had them happen before. They have their
00:20:19.920spikes, their ups and downs. It's a complicated issue. I mean, we got to look at social causes.
00:20:25.220We got to look at, you know, drug treatment, a lot of things to get to the bottom of it.
00:20:30.860But don't go chasing after people with their shotguns for duck hunting and their deer rifles.
00:20:35.880That's not where the problem is. Take those resources and dedicate them towards the real
00:20:40.080crimes where real innocent people are dying. And that tragedy was just terribly unacceptable
00:20:45.180in Southeast Calgary. And I just can't express how horrible I can't imagine for those five children
00:20:50.920to have lost their mother so pointlessly, so totally pointlessly. I do hope they get to the
00:20:57.700bottom of whoever is responsible for that and offer whatever we have available in the Canadian
00:21:03.700law for that sort of thing. Okay, let's get on to our guest. Talk to us a little more positive
00:21:07.260and looking forward. I've got Kaleah Carrington on. This will be the second time she's been on0.98
00:21:11.680the show and we're going to talk about blockchain. Hey, how's it going?
00:21:15.920Great. Thank you for having me on the show again.
00:21:18.120I appreciate it. So, I mean, maybe I'll kind of start. You took part in that large event downtown
00:21:24.780in Calgary at the old theater there and you were discussing a whole lot of digital currencies,
00:21:29.640blockchains, things like that. Can you give a rundown on how that went?
00:21:32.400No, it was fantastic. We ended up selling out the event. We had about 330 seats available
00:21:40.380and we had about 370 people register for it. The feedback was incredible. They loved the
00:21:48.820people in the room, the discussions that happened. We did a little impact report afterwards
00:21:54.660and about 72% of the people who attended said that they had an incredible time, lots of
00:22:02.220really good networking opportunities, and they learned an incredible amount about the technology.
00:22:07.000Great. So maybe we went through this in the last show, and I'll get you to start with it right now,
00:22:11.100though, you know, blockchain is a new term. It's a complicated one to a lot of us in a foreign one.
00:22:16.200Can you kind of break down what that means? There's a lot packed into that one word.
00:22:20.400So when it comes to blockchain technology, so when Satoshi Nakamoto or the group of developers
00:22:26.580released Bitcoin. Blockchain was the protocol and Bitcoin was the product. So blockchain is
00:22:32.660considered a digital ledger database. And for Bitcoin's blockchain, it basically just keeps a
00:22:38.360full transactional history of every send and receive that happened. So in the cryptocurrency
00:22:43.200space, when people refer to like their blockchain and then their token that comes on it, that's kind
00:22:47.400of one aspect in the financial services space. In the enterprise space, it is basically a database
00:22:53.080It allows multiple different companies to be able to view a particular set of data facts, to be able to share data in a more transparent way.
00:23:00.020It's really just a database in its essence.
00:23:03.000Okay, so your group, and that's the Canadian Blockchain Consortium, have partnered with Alberta Innovates, and you're working to grow the province's blockchain market.
00:23:13.140So, I mean, Alberta Innovates and yourselves, I guess, are seeing opportunities.
00:23:25.400So since I started and took like, so I founded this organization as a not for profit.
00:23:31.280And since we started blockchain in the province has definitely exponentially boomed.
00:23:36.880There is an incredible amount of companies that have started setting up here.
00:23:41.000Initially, there was a lot of kind of like fractured meetup groups across Canada.
00:23:44.420People thought Toronto was definitely more of the hub for what was happening.
00:23:47.660And we came in to kind of support helping and amplifying that voice.
00:23:50.720So we've seen an incredible amount of potential for this technology, especially in Alberta, from multiple different streams.
00:23:57.280One from mining. We feel that Alberta is positioned to be able to sell our energy on the Internet and being able to support data centers like Bitcoin mining coming into the province, utilizing our very clean natural gas and our resources from the enterprise side, supporting our agricultural resource, supporting our energy sector, creating better efficiencies.
00:24:15.720and then from the financial services side.
00:24:18.400And we're seeing Alberta Innovates is now starting to see
00:24:21.740this exponential opportunity for growth that could bring in
00:24:25.060not just billions but trillions of dollars worth of business value
00:28:59.800It's not taking away any additional resources than any other industry would.
00:29:03.780There's actually way more environmental damage to the traditional banking system just based on the emissions that come from there and the infrastructure that's required for it.
00:29:13.200Bitcoin mining takes up, I think, maybe 0.5% of global energy currently consumed.
00:29:19.000Great. And I mean, in some senses, if one looks past, you know, again, it being kind of an abstract sort of thing, it's mining, it's going to develop a resource, it's going to pull it in, it's going to bring in a product. Now, how is that for employing individuals? I mean, it's not just something where you're going to set up some units to plug and play, like, there's still going to be a lot of involvement in keeping people busy and maintaining that sort of structure, I imagine.
00:29:42.160Absolutely. You need to hire people to build out the facilities.
00:29:45.400You need to have people there to manage the mining facilities.
00:29:49.960Like if you're partnering, say, potentially with an oil and gas company, right, this gives an opportunity to be able to, you know, build out more generators.
00:29:57.580So from a supply chain perspective, you have people who like electricians, instrumentation techs, multiple different trades that get jobs from being able to build support and create the infrastructure.
00:30:11.340And then the product that gets sold supports the financial service space.
00:30:14.880And now you have job creation on exchanges and money service businesses, Bitcoin ATM companies.
00:30:19.780I think the one that you support, Bitcoin Well, who's a sponsor to your network, they've grown from, I think, one ATM to well over 120 all across Canada.
00:30:28.400They went from like eight employees two years ago and they're sitting at potentially 80.
00:30:32.520Right. So now you're seeing growth in jobs or they're taking up space in office space.
00:30:38.200So they're providing revenues. They're giving towards the GDP.
00:30:41.740So there's a lot of aspects along that supply chain where supporting Bitcoin supports Alberta, supports jobs.
00:30:49.380Great. And then there's some work, it looks like you guys have been working with
00:30:52.740Northern Alberta, well, NAIT and Deloitte, Edmonton Global, a few other partnerships,
00:30:58.420things like that. Are there any projects on the go, like things on the move right now,
00:31:02.820or is everything still sort of just organizational and speculative?
00:31:06.740So in terms of with NAIT, we're really excited. We're going to support them becoming the gold
00:31:11.540standard for blockchain training. And so in the mining space, the financial services space,
00:31:16.420the enterprise space, development space. Right now we're under contract to build out three
00:31:21.220certificate programs and ideally we'll be able to build out up to 20. And the exciting part about
00:31:26.180this is it's industry-led. So we have industry leaders who are looking at, we want to support
00:31:30.660jobs, we want to support growth, we need to be able to hire. What skill sets, what education
00:31:35.220training do we need people to have to be able to come into the organization? So through that
00:31:39.620partnership and that ability to have industry-led education, ideally it's going to create job growth.
00:31:44.900so we're training them in these amazing academic institutions and now we're retaining as opposed
00:31:49.540to losing our students to other areas where they because they don't know about the opportunities
00:31:53.620happening here so that's just one of the ones that we're doing the other one through uh the
00:31:58.180conferences the convergence plan um we create amazing opportunities for c-suite local executives
00:32:04.660and decision makers government officials to come together and create business opportunities i think
00:32:08.900the i think it was 68 of people who attended our event said they walked away with at least five to
00:32:15.940seven business connections that's going to help them grow their business in the future so creating
00:32:19.940those opportunities and having businesses start to collaborate revenue get generated jobs get created
00:32:25.220again yeah well that's good to know i mean because again if you're uh somebody entering the workforce
00:32:31.140or changing jobs in the workforce i mean you can't necessarily just jump right into one of
00:32:34.900of these initiatives, you still need some training. So Satan, Nate would be presumably
00:32:39.260able to offer some courses to help one get involved in that. And it would lead, I guess,
00:32:44.120to economic diversity, as you said, not as much dependence just on oil and gas revenue for our
00:32:49.840economy, but some of some other broader basis. Exactly. Like supporting the technology ecosystem
00:32:56.140as a whole, not just the blockchain side, but supporting the entire tech ecosystem. Like
00:33:00.780Technology is truly the foundational layer that supports every traditional resource industry, whether you're in agriculture, logistics, supply chain, the energy space, the financial service business.
00:33:23.560We have exponential growth in terms of startups getting funding here.
00:33:29.080We have I think we have five unicorns that have come out of Alberta alone, billion dollar companies because they're seeing so much opportunity in this tech ecosystem.
00:33:38.500So we, of course, are still an energy based province, but now we're able to support our energy sector on an even larger scale by diversifying it and showcasing that we have, you know, like we can be that Silicon Valley.
00:33:52.040We we can be that that technology hub.
00:33:54.720Great. So have you got any upcoming events or things, seminars, anything like that going on?
00:34:02.640Absolutely. We're definitely excited. We're supporting Inventures. So Alberta Innovates
00:34:06.640puts on an incredible, very large conference every single year. I know during COVID,
00:34:12.160they weren't able to quite do it, but we're doing an entire day of content during that event. And
00:34:18.560then we also have our Canadian Blockchain Summit happening in the fall. So we'll be attracting
00:34:22.880blockchain technology companies from all across the country being given an opportunity to highlight
00:34:28.580and profile what's happening in Alberta but really the goal is to put Canada on the map for what we're
00:34:33.060what we're able to develop. Great well before I let you go where can people go to find more
00:34:37.620information on what you guys are doing and what you're up to out there? Best way to do it is go
00:34:42.220to canadblockchain.ca sign up for our newsletter check out our website we have amazing resources on
00:34:48.480there read our latest white paper on how blockchain supports Alberta's economic recovery. You see a
00:34:54.080lot of amazing companies that have set up shop here that want to support the province and the
00:34:58.120people in it. So it's a good resource website to go to. Great. Well, thank you very much for
00:35:03.860joining us again today and giving an update on that conference. And again, I look forward to
00:35:08.640seeing new industries develop. I mean, it's better for all of us to see as much of a broad economic
00:35:13.280basis we can get. So, well, keep up the good work and I hope we get to talk again sometime soon.
00:35:18.480absolutely thank you so much for having me on the show thank you so yeah and again i know there's a
00:35:24.440lot of doubt or questions that people are saying or scott saying you know you're assuming most of
00:35:27.600us understand what the heck you're talking about i yeah it's it's a new and complex field this
00:35:31.700entire thing and it's not for everybody i see some people don't trust it or concerned about it
00:35:36.240that's fine but the more we can find out the more we can learn and educate that the better off we
00:35:40.300are for it and i'll kind of pivot into as uh ms carrington mentioned uh bitcoin well that's one
00:35:46.320of our sponsors. So not going as deep into things like Bitcoin mining and the whole blockchain. But
00:35:50.940if you're an individual, you want to get out of regular currencies, you want to hedge your bets,
00:35:54.840put your money into something a little different. Bitcoin is, of course, the prime digital currency
00:35:59.460out there. It's the big option. But how do you get involved? How do you facilitate that? Well,
00:36:04.120Bitcoin Well is an Alberta company. And they're based, again, that they're safe. They're publicly
00:36:09.640traded. They are right here. They give face-to-face service, one-on-one, leading you into
00:36:15.420how you might want to invest in Bitcoin, what you could do, how to set up your wallet, ways that you
00:36:20.620can pay utility bills, even set up payroll savings plans, things such as that with Bitcoin.
00:36:26.020They offer it all. And it's a real educational sort of site. That's their whole basis because
00:36:29.920it might not be for you. Again, you want to find out how it works, what's going on with it. Well,
00:36:34.940that's what these guys do. They show you that their site is very deep. And if you're interested
00:36:38.960in going further, the consultations are free to talk one-on-one with a real person and see if it's
00:36:43.820for you. Check them out, bitcoinwell.com. And that's how you can, one way you can take control
00:36:48.820of your money. All right, let's get into a little more news. I see Mel has been popping in and out
00:36:54.240of the broadcast here and there, and that's all right. We're doing something different today. As
00:36:58.080I said, she's out on the street and she's going to be interviewing some folks and such, and we'll
00:37:02.040pull her in when she's ready at some point and get some live stuff from downtown Calgary here.
00:37:07.360In the meantime, man, this cough is bothering me today. I promise I don't have COVID.
00:37:11.480We got stuff going on. There's a push in Ottawa. Yes, they want more French directors in CN, you know, and there's stuff hitting the fan there. This is where we get our languages minister, like we should even have one, but saying she's very disappointed because English directors have been appointed to companies such as Canadian National Railway, and we need more French people in there.
00:37:35.560you know this is one of the things that screws this nation from end to end it's one of the things
00:54:41.880We did speak to a few people that didn't want to go on the record that have had incidents and experienced things that left them feeling vulnerable and feeling unsafe.
00:54:55.500a couple of them were federal employees so they did not want to to go on record but yeah i think
00:55:02.780i think ultimately it is something that we're seeing increasing in downtown and i think there's
00:55:10.140you know something needs to be done i i don't know what your thoughts are on the turnstiles at the
00:55:14.780city train and whether that would would help with the scenario but i know that is something that's
00:55:20.780on the table within city council right now.
00:55:24.160Yeah, well, I would think like the turnstiles
00:55:25.740more of that issue is the on-train problems we've had
00:55:28.720as the pictures that were put out by a councillor
00:55:31.740of a guy who had an episode, an incident