UCP MLA Drew Barnes calls for the creation of an Alberta constitution
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Summary
In this episode, I sit down with United Conservative Party (UCP) MLA Drew Barnes from Cypress, Alberta, to discuss the need for a province-wide constitution and why it would be a good idea.
Transcript
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So I'm talking today with UCP MLA Drew Barnes from Cypress Medicine Hat. Drew is one of the,
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well he is the last I believe loyalist from the Wildrose party who refused to cross the floor and
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stood on principle and he's still sitting in the legislature now on the government side and doing
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his best for his constituents out there. And Drew's very outspoken and doesn't hesitate to speak what
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he feels is best for his constituents at any given time and it's something I like as well as Drew
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clearly runs his own Twitter account which so few politicians do. I know I can get them now and then,
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but it's just nice to get candid and direct thoughts from public officials at times.
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So Drew something, thanks again for coming on by the way.
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Corey, thanks for having me. Nice to see you again.
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Yeah, thanks. And something that caught my eye was a tweet you put out with a link to a site talking
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about constitutions in times of crisis and speaking on how Alberta could use its own provincial
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constitution and Alberta constitution. It's been an idea that's been around for a while but not many
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people speak openly about it and some of the benefits of such a thing they have. Can you expand a bit on
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that? Yeah, I sure can, Corey. Thank you. First of all, it not only caught your eye, it caught the eye of
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hundreds of Albertans. Hundreds of Albertans are interested in more solidifying individual,
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family, community position in Alberta and Alberta's position with Canada. So I've had lots of good
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interest, lots of good response, lots of good ideas. To me, Corey, I think it's a necessity.
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You know, the belief is that we have an Alberta constitution now, although it's not written. And
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that's the history of all the laws and the jurisprudence and the decisions. And my goodness,
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how hard would it be to pull all that together? So I think the opportunity for 4.2 million Albertans who
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want to be engaged to get together and absolutely, you know, outline the values, the family beliefs,
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the community needs, the desire for risk taking and resource movement. There's so many good things
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that would come of this. And the fact that hundreds of Albertans have reached out to me, I believe I'm in
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the right. Well, I'm glad you got such a good response. Again, that's how social media is such a
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a valuable tool, especially since you can't really go out door knocking or having large town hall
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meetings to interact with constituents, being able to reach out that way and get some feedback. I mean,
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if you had hundreds of people telling you to get stuffed, well, you know, it was an idea balloon
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that perhaps is not right for the time. One of the things that stands out, for example,
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I'd like to see in an Alberta constitution is something we've dearly been lacking in Canada
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is entrenched property rights. You know, a good strong protection of our property rights and more of a core
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value being such. But of course, we know that would run afoul of the federal version of things,
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which really looks at it like tell us we have the enjoyment of property, not the right to possess
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it and so on or sell it necessarily. So how do you think that would work, though, with the inevitable
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clashes that will come with our central government if we start moving along with protecting our own
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rights provincially? Well, thanks for that. Well, absolutely. You know, nothing moves unless it's pushed
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and Alberta has to push its position in confederation with Ottawa. Alberta families,
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Alberta free enterprise people, Alberta wealth and job creators need protection and pushback as well.
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So I absolutely believe something like the entrenchment of property rights and the entrenchment
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of property rights could guarantee full and fair compensation when we have to expropriate for the
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public good. It could guarantee complete access to courts when the government may be overstepping
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its bounds. You know, we a system, our democratic system is built on checks and balances and checks
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and balances for the individual and families are crucial. Corey, a constitution could go much further
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to to limit the growth in the size of government and protect individuals, communities and families
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and free enterprise and the opportunity to create wealth. You know, we could talk about our our need
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and our ability to take take risk to move resources to to, you know, use free trade to to create wealth
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and create jobs. We could do things as an example, like limit the size of the growth of government.
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You know, a constitution could say government spending could only increase by the amount of population
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growth and inflation unless there's an emergency. You know, Corey, we're in a situation now where
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Alberta has 100 billion in debt. Our GDP is falling from some side of 350 billion to 300 billion. And,
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you know, a third, you know, 33 percent debt to GDP is is a ratio that I never thought I'd see in Alberta.
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Those are the kind of things that a constitution could protect. But I don't want to focus on the numbers
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because it can be so much more than that. We can talk about our ability to share our ability to help
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each other. You know, I I see it every day when medicine hatters, Albertans and Cyprus medicine
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hatters give their time, their money, their efforts. We could part of this constitution could could outline
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our desire to protect and promote that. It could also go go into defining and outlining the levels
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of responsibility for all the levels of government. My goodness, I mean, reading the other day,
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the government might be 44 or 45 percent of our economy. The report I was reading said economies
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grow the most when government's only 32 or 33 percent of the economy. So that's something that
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needs to be looked at. But every wealth creator, job creator, small business person I talk to,
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by the time they get through municipal, provincial, federal, sometimes school board and hospital board
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bylaws. My goodness, it's it's a it's an exercise in in waste and nightmare. And those are the kind
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of things that a constitution we could clearly outline the responsibilities of every level of
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government and keep them in their box and allow free enterprise and families and communities to be bigger.
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Well, yeah, well, I understand how, you know, a constitution can entrench some things
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so that they aren't changed at the whim of the government. One of the things that comes to mind,
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say fixed election dates. Yeah, that's great. But until a majority government finds it's
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inconvenient for them and then they just set it aside and move on. If it was actually constitutionally
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entrenched, it doesn't mean it's immutable and impossible to change something, but they'd sure
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have to work a heck of a lot harder before breaking their own laws in that sort of sense,
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and perhaps go to Albertans before they change something so radical as that. Or balanced budget act,
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again, same thing. As long as you got a majority, you can just vote and throw it out. So it doesn't really
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matter. Constitution gives another level of protection. You've spoken a bit about discussions
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and constitution would happen around the province and talk to a lot of citizens and so on and design
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something that would work best for them. What kind of process would you envision?
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Well, I'd envision a constitutional convention. There's 87 provincial constituencies for the
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Alberta legislature. So what if we had elections in all 87 constituencies to elect one representative to
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be the constitutional representative for that constituency? What if we gave that group of people
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a year, two years to engage, consult, research? We need a lot of time to meet and discuss this with
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experts. And that's one of the other things, Corey, that's happened is a lot of experts have come
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forward since I've put out my tweet and my social media offering help. And let's give these people
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a year or two to pull it all together. And then let's have a constitutional convention. Let's have
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a discussion. Let's start to write this out. And let's start to make Alberta the freest,
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most prosperous place in North America as we should be.
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Well, in consultation and a process are essential. I mean, if you're doing something as big and as
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entrenched as that, you want to make sure you get it right, of course. But at the same time,
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you don't want something to die a death by consultation. I'll just move on to something.
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You were on the fair deal panel and you guys put in a lot of work, made a lot of whistle stops and
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talked to a lot of people and came to some conclusions, which were finally released.
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Yet now we've seen, okay, great. On the provincial police force, for example,
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it seems pretty clear Albertans want to move in that direction. We don't need to rush in that
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direction. We want to do it right. But it's been kicked down the road to another expert group to,
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it sounds like, discuss further whether or not we even want one, much less. I mean,
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I think at this point we should be at the designing and figure out how we're going to do it,
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not whether or not we're going to do it. But sometimes the consultation turns into the end of
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things. You've said we should move on to the police force sooner rather than later.
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Yeah, absolutely, Corey. So sooner rather than later. First of all, it's important to keep in
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mind three or four things. A provincial police force in no way means that Medicine Hat, Calgary,
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Edmonton, Lethbridge wouldn't have their own city police forces. Secondly, with the support that the
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federal government currently gives the RCMP, let's talk about that for a second. In most cases,
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the municipality owns the office, sometimes the cars, owns the infrastructure now anyway, the RCMP
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doesn't. With the money that is provided from the federal government, there's strong signals that
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that is going to be reduced or discontinued because of rising costs in the RCMP and because of some
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troubles they're having attracting man and woman power to fill those positions. So that's important to
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know. But the provincial police force would give us better service. It would allow rural Alberta where
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crime has skyrocketed because of the economy and the times that we're in right now. It would allow
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police that are accountable to the provincial legislature or the provincial premier to give
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Albertans better service. And then secondly, Ontario has their own police force, Quebec has their own
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police force. The one area that the Fair Deal panel in all of its 70 some pages had trouble getting out
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was the leverage, the signals that Albertans can gain from Ottawa by showing that we are self-reliant,
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by showing that we are free and strong. And a police force is part of that. And, you know,
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we continually bang heads with Ottawa. The most visible parts of course are over the lack of resource
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movement, the lack of free trade and the $670 billion of transfer and, you know, payments that
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have gone to Ottawa. And I just think that the leverage that could be gained and the better service
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to me, it's a no brainer. Let's do it. Yeah, well, it could certainly be an opportunity. There's been a lot
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of discussion this year about issues with police cultures, perhaps, and mandates and training and
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things like that. What an opportunity then to take a force and start it from scratch.
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Let's look at what's gone wrong with the older force that served us well, but perhaps has some
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internal issues that are obsolete and aren't serving the public as they should. At this point,
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you know, I just say, let's get our foot off the brake and get on with it. I'm glad to hear that some
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MLAs are willing to come out and say that as well. So thank you very much for coming on today,
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Drew, to expand on all of that. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing more out of you as you keep
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examining ways to make Alberta a better place down the road. Where can people get in touch with you
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or find out more information on what you're up to? Yeah, thank you, Corey. The best way is through my
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email at drew.barnes at assembly.ab.ca or please call my constituency office anytime 403-528-2191.
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I appreciate the opportunity, Corey, first of all, to be on your show. And thanks for all the work
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you've done. When I showed up 10 years ago interested in politics, you were already there
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and concerned about Alberta's future. So thank you. And I really appreciate the chance to talk
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to all Albertans anytime. Great. Thanks, Drew. I'm sure we'll be talking again.