As we enter the final stretch of the election campaign, we're starting to hear that tired old line: If Alberta wants to be at the table, it needs to elect some liberals. Let's hope that, as usual, Albertan voters are going to ignore that ridiculous advice.
00:02:16.380and we'll see what he's been finding out there.
00:02:20.100All right, so let's talk about some things.
00:02:22.380As we enter this final stretch of the election campaign,
00:02:24.860I heard it on the radio the other day. We're starting to hear that tired old line of,
00:02:28.780if Alberta wants to be at the table, it's going to have to elect some liberals.1.00
00:02:32.680Let's hope that, as usual, Albertan voters are going to ignore that ridiculous advice.
00:02:36.660I mean, Alberta does suffer from political predictability in most federal ridings.
00:02:40.940Conservatives can be prone to taking support for granted across the province,
00:02:44.600while liberals can feel there's little gain in addressing Albertan concerns.
00:02:48.340Rest assured, though, electing a few more liberals in Alberta won't change anything for the better in the province.
00:02:53.240I mean, to begin with, that entire premise is an implied threat and an insult to voters.
00:02:57.560Liberal supporters are basically telling people of Alberta,
00:02:59.720your voice is only going to be heard in government decisions if you bow down and support the liberals.
00:03:03.880The elected government is supposed to represent everybody, no matter how they voted.
00:03:07.300And that should include Albertans who refuse to support a party with a long history of abusing the province.
00:03:12.520Also, while Alberta traditionally isn't terribly supportive of liberals in elections,
00:03:16.960the province has elected many liberal MPs over the years, and it hasn't done the province a damn bit of good.
00:03:22.680Every government tries to have a cabinet minister from every province, when possible, to try and, you know, give a nod to regional balance.
00:03:30.440Alberta hasn't had a member in cabinet lately, though, despite having two liberal MPs.
00:03:34.540And that's because both of Alberta's liberal MPs have been immersed in scandals to the point where it's impossible to put those clowns in the cabinet.
00:03:42.860Electing those two certainly didn't do the province any favors.
00:03:45.840Serial political opportunist Amarjeet Soheed held an Edmonton seat and served in Trudeau's cabinet as infrastructure minister and then natural resources until his electoral defeat in 2019.
00:03:56.760During that time, Trudeau imposed tanker bans and the hated anti-pipeline bill C-69, which devastated Alberta's ability to get energy products to Tidewater.
00:04:06.440Did Sohe stand up for us? No, he never set up people about Alberta's interests while he was in cabinet. He did as he was told.
00:04:11.520In the 1990s, Anne McClellan was an Albertan Liberal MP who served in several senior cabinet roles, including Health Minister, Minister of Justice, and Deputy Prime Minister.
00:04:20.480During that time, she ushered in the long gun registry against the wishes of most Albertans, and she fought against Alberta Premier Ralph Klein's health care reforms.
00:04:27.980She was an Albertan in name only at best.
00:04:31.040Now, there was an exception, Liberal MP David Kilgore, the late David Kilgore, and he was outspoken on Alberta issues, actually, throughout the 90s.
00:04:37.780He even highlighted the roots of Western alienation in a book that he wrote.
00:04:41.520But due to his insistence on standing upon principles over party, he never got a senior cabinet role despite serving as a Liberal MP for over a decade.
00:04:48.220He eventually did quit the Liberal Party in disgust in 2005 and served the remainder of his term as an independent MP.
00:04:54.660There's never been a Liberal member of Parliament who's served Alberta's interests effectively, and there's never going to be one.
00:04:59.780The Liberal Party of Canada is an inherently Laurentian creature bound to serve Central Canada at all costs.
00:05:06.300If Alberta wants attention from Ottawa, it's got to be through expressing discontent0.92
00:05:09.560rather than trying to buy liberal love through electing their bloody MPs.0.72
00:05:13.100While conservative members in opposition may not have as much direct power as liberal MPs do in government,
00:05:18.000the conservative members at least are free to speak up on Albertan issues.
00:05:21.180They can lobby for Western causes and bring them national attention.
00:05:25.380Alberta is underrepresented in the Senate already due to Canada's lopsided political system,
00:05:30.180but thanks to a decade of Trudeau's appointments, most of the senators there are liberals,
00:05:33.260though the former prime minister claims they're independent.
00:05:36.300But have any of those independent senators spoken up for Albertans?
00:05:39.800Senator Paula Simons was critical of C-69 when it went through the Senate,
00:05:43.440but then she got in line like a good little liberal0.99
00:05:45.140and voted it into legislation when push came to shove.
00:05:47.900Albertans can't expect to gain regional influence through the Senate,
00:05:51.780but if you really feel we need some liberals out there, well, there, you got some.
00:05:55.160The Canadian system is stacked in favour of central Canada,
00:10:06.620And there's cardboard cutouts of him appearing at the rallies now.
00:10:11.940And some smart thinker has got himself the Brantford boomer Twitter handle, and he is posting just hilarious stuff about how wonderful the Liberals have been.
00:10:23.800You know, not. And yeah, Jared Yeager has put up a top five list of his tweets.
00:10:32.460Great. Well, I mean, the guy was made to be just, I mean, representative of what the Liberals are representing about right now, too.
00:10:38.460And the people, some of the people who are supporting them, a lot of them, when we look at the poll demographics, they're boomers or a case basically saying my house is paid off.0.67
00:10:45.780I'm enjoying the rising and skyrocketing real estate prices.
00:10:49.660And to all you young people complaining about the cost of living, I got mine.0.99
00:12:06.080you know, used to subscribe to a newspaper without thinking twice. Well, that's what this is about.
00:12:10.960So if you haven't subscribed yet, get on there, take one out, and nag others to get on and0.97
00:12:15.580subscribe. And if you've already subscribed, guys, thank you. I do appreciate it. It's what keeps us
00:12:19.860rolling. Let's see. Bad joke, Jordan. Oh, come on. My jokes aren't bad. Yeah, I know. But I throw
00:12:27.840all sorts out there. Use those comments. So yeah, what do we got going on? Some of the weird
00:12:34.300stories. Remember Jessica Yaniv? You know, she was that trans person who was, I was talking to
00:12:43.480Tristan Hopper about her last week, actually, as he wrote about her in his book. I mean, she was
00:12:48.920just a parody of trans people, you know, a nasty looking man dressed up as a woman who was going0.77
00:12:55.220into aesthetics places and demanding to have her nuts waxed. And of course, they refused because
00:13:02.740These are people who work in a place who do, I guess you could call it intimate waxing, but they specialize in women and don't deal with male body parts, which I imagine is a different sort of art to wax.0.54
00:13:16.540I can't even imagine getting mine waxed. I don't like thinking about that.
00:13:18.940But either way, then, of course, she would take them all when they refused to the Human Rights Commission and try to shake them down for money.
00:13:24.920Either way, a crazy scene for those who remember it.
00:13:50.640I mean, I think she's of Eastern European descent, but everything can be self-identified now, right?
00:13:55.500Like that's the ludicrous place we're in the world now.
00:13:59.020We're supposed to indulge somebody as soon as they say something and then it makes it true.
00:14:08.040There's got to be a little more than just saying that.
00:14:09.860There's got to be a little more than just throwing a skirt on and saying, hey, I'm a woman this hour and I'm a man tomorrow and I'm an it the week after.
00:14:14.860No, you know, for example, when we talk about prisons, when we're talking about somebody saying, I'm a trans woman, I demand to be housed with women in prison.1.00
00:14:25.500I can see where that would apply if it's a real trans person.
00:14:30.680I know, how do you define real or not?
00:14:32.120Well, I'll tell you how to define real.
00:16:43.380Maybe you saw a bunch of gems in there that I didn't.
00:16:46.080So let's start with the bad on the conservative side.
00:16:49.140To your point, at the Taxpayers Federation, we definitely would have wanted them to balance the budget.
00:16:56.020So I don't quite understand why on year four, you don't need to come right out of the gate and say I'm going to balance the budget first year as much as we would like to see that.
00:17:04.320year four, I think they have room there to gently and calmly balance the budget. Now, to be fair,
00:17:12.560we're in the middle of an election campaign. He's trying to get those 905 votes. He doesn't want to
00:17:16.960seem mean and scary. I think that if he implements his plans as he's speaking, he's going to,
00:17:22.360meaning open up the pipelines, get people working, cut taxes, reduce bureaucracy. I think they will
00:17:30.660be able to balance the budget by year four. And so that's why I'm surprised that they didn't say
00:17:34.860so. So that was frustrating. So they are going to be adding more money onto the debt. The
00:17:40.520conservatives are going to. Now it is much less than Carney's going to, and it's much less than
00:17:46.480Trudeau was going to, but it's still adding money onto the debt. And the debt right now is more than
00:17:51.940$1.2 trillion. We are spending about the same or the more on interest payments on the debt than
00:17:59.020the Fed send to the provinces for health care. That's how much money we're spending just on
00:18:02.980interest payments. So that was frustrating. As far as the good part of the Conservatives go,
00:18:08.080we were really happy to see, I think it's more than $70 billion worth of tax relief.
00:18:13.040That was a big headline in the Globe and Mail. That was outstanding to see that. We saw them
00:18:17.880saying things like they want to unleash Canadian energy. That is outstanding. We definitely like
00:18:23.060hearing that here in the province of Alberta. And the element that I found wonderful, and I wasn't
00:18:28.340even expecting them to do it, is that Pierre Polyev wants an Alberta-type Taxpayer Protection
00:18:34.720Act federally. And correct me if I'm wrong, I think the Canadian Alliance mentioned it back in
00:18:41.580the day. But as far as it actually being a proposal, I think this goes back to the Reform
00:18:46.780Party days of hearing a Taxpayer Protection Act at the federal level, meaning if you want to jack
00:18:52.020up taxes or invent new ones, you got to win a referendum. I last heard serious talk of a
00:18:59.580referendum on policy issues like taxes back during Preston Manning's time. So we were really thrilled
00:19:05.920to hear that from the Conservatives. So that was a good thing. Well, and I like seeing that. I also
00:19:11.400remember the Balanced Budget Act that Ralph Klein put in in the 90s, which of course, all they have
00:19:16.740to do though is come in and repeal the act and then they just blow the budget. At least a referenda
00:19:21.420commitment i mean again they can always repeal that but it makes it a little tougher you know
00:19:25.340you got to make a little more noise and say we've changed our mind we're not going to give you a
00:19:28.380choice uh you know just make it more difficult for the next government to change their mind and raise
00:19:33.820the taxes you can only applaud it i mean it shouldn't be an easy thing to do and what i
00:19:37.980loved about it is um it's usually my litmus test of oh what is the press gallery saying do they
00:19:44.460hate it well then it's probably a good thing so they they apparently i was just speaking with
00:19:49.660Sheila Gunn-Reed, they were apparently just clutching their pearls and freaking out saying,
00:19:54.100well, how on earth is the government going to be able to raise taxes if all these unwashed1.00
00:19:58.440peasants get a say? It's like, that's the point. Welcome to direct democracy. That's why we don't
00:20:04.460have a sales tax in Alberta. It works great for us. So I was not expecting that. That was an
00:20:08.800unexpected, lovely surprise. So happy to see that in the platform from the Conservatives.
00:20:13.060We would like them, though, to pay down the debt faster and to balance the budget faster.
00:20:18.400I think on year four, they were still projecting a $14 billion deficit.
00:20:24.120Now, compared to the $60 billion plus monster we have right now, that's a drastic improvement.
00:20:29.920But we would like to see them balance it.