Western Standard - January 31, 2026


WATCH LIVEļ¼š Smith Addresses Conservatives at High-Stakes Calgary Convention


Episode Stats

Length

27 minutes

Words per Minute

76.032745

Word Count

2,124

Sentence Count

95


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Thank you.
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00:09:00.000 It is now our honor to welcome a proud Albertan, a principled conservative, and a respected
00:09:23.060 voice within the Conservative Party. Someone who works every day to stand up for rural
00:09:29.940 communities, families, and Canadian values. And he's my mama's favorite.
00:09:39.220 Please join us in welcoming. Join us in welcoming a real conservative man,
00:09:45.380 Damien Karach
00:09:59.380 Thank you all for that very warm welcome.
00:10:15.220 I cannot tell you how much I appreciate being in a huge room filled with dedicated conservatives from coast to coast.
00:10:27.280 And folks, what a weekend.
00:10:29.380 We know that led by Pierre Polyev, a united Conservative Party has come out of this weekend
00:10:35.500 telling Canadians that we are ready to govern and fix the problems that the Liberals have created over the last decade in this country.
00:10:47.160 My friends, truly, it is time for hope.
00:10:51.280 I haven't had a moment of doubt since my wife, Danielle, and I did what we did.
00:10:57.440 that Pierre Polyev is the right man to lead this country forward.
00:11:06.980 Seeing him connect with millions of Canadians across this country,
00:11:11.920 I know that we are with the right man.
00:11:16.180 He has inspired so much hope and optimism in Canadians
00:11:20.320 who are sick and tired of a liberal government
00:11:22.400 that exists simply to help themselves.
00:11:25.720 You know, from the general election to going from small town to small town in Battle River
00:11:32.320 Crowfoot, I got to see firsthand how desperate the people are to see a conservatives, to
00:11:39.040 see the conservatives in government under a Prime Minister, Pierre Paulyev.
00:11:44.240 And folks, a story to emphasize that.
00:11:53.980 We started one of the days during the by-election campaign in Oyen, Alberta, a small town of
00:11:59.740 about 700.
00:12:00.740 Like, man, we need to make a few stops along the way.
00:12:04.340 So we texted the mayor of Delia, Alberta, a town of about 150, just a little town, and
00:12:10.880 said, hey, we'll be by in about half an hour.
00:12:13.680 We'd love to meet and connect with some folks on Main Street.
00:12:16.960 So we pull into town, and I've been to Delia a whole bunch of times, and I've maybe seen
00:12:21.860 you know, one, two, maybe three or four vehicles on Main Street. Well, Main Street was packed.
00:12:27.700 I said, well, my goodness, what's going on? Well, between that half an hour from when we had texted
00:12:32.780 the mayor saying that Pierre was going to stop by, more than a hundred people, doubled the population
00:12:39.420 of Delia, I think, stopped by the local restaurant. And we heard for the next couple of hours, story
00:12:45.160 after story of how people were desperate for that hope, desperate for change. And folks, every step
00:12:51.280 of the way, whether in Delia, Alberta during the by-election, or every day since Pierre
00:12:56.060 Pauliev has been leader of this party, that is the hope that he brings to this nation
00:13:01.380 and as leader of this Conservative movement.
00:13:10.000 And it is great to see that the Conservative movement remains united and driven in its
00:13:15.420 mission to get canada back on track with hope and common sense look folks
00:13:26.220 speaking of common sense i have the honor to introduce someone who has long been dedicated
00:13:33.340 to this conservative movement who knows what it is to be a fighter particularly
00:13:40.620 here in Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith.
00:13:48.480 She fights for the values and freedoms that Canadians cherish
00:13:53.080 and never backs down, even in the most challenging of circumstances.
00:13:59.200 She is in the arena every single day,
00:14:02.040 pushing back on the Liberal government to deliver results
00:14:05.300 for both Alberta and Canada.
00:14:10.620 and friends that means fighting for freedom of expression that means fighting for sane policies
00:14:19.980 on crime so that we stop giving criminals an easy out that are the policies that are making our
00:14:26.540 communities less safe and it means fighting to build and getting alberta's energy out and to the
00:14:34.860 world she she is a tireless worker and man does she work hard she doesn't stop when her critics
00:14:46.860 speak up and folks she is a believer in this country and someone who will always answer when
00:14:54.460 public duty calls folks i am honored to call premier smith my premier my colleague but most
00:15:02.460 of all my friend please join me in giving an enormous welcome to premier danielle smith
00:15:32.460 Well, welcome to Alberta.
00:15:39.520 And thank you so much for that very warm welcome to Damien.
00:15:44.080 And a personal thank you to Damien for stepping aside to make room for our leader in the Parliament.
00:15:49.420 That was incredible. Thank you for that.
00:15:54.160 It is a true pleasure to welcome Conservatives from across the country to Calgary,
00:15:59.020 into the heartland of Conservatism in Canada.
00:16:01.680 And also congratulations, of course, to our leader, Pierre Polyev, who won 87% of the vote in last night's leadership review.
00:16:14.760 Yeah. Oh, I want to thank all of the delegates here for giving our leaders such a strong mandate,
00:16:20.020 because we are going to need Pierre Strong to fight for our values and reverse the terrible policies of the last 10 years.
00:16:26.920 Thank you very much.
00:16:56.920 I just add a sentence every time I try.
00:17:12.260 I've got to give it a whirl, right?
00:17:13.620 From Peter Lahi to Ralph Klein to Preston Manning
00:17:16.920 and to the great Stephen Harper.
00:17:19.080 And now to Calgary's own Pierre Paglia.
00:17:20.760 This province has a legacy of being the bastion of free thinking
00:17:24.540 and economic strength since Alberta joined Confederation.
00:17:28.140 But what I want to talk about today is the last 10 years.
00:17:34.600 Because for 10 years, we saw a Prime Minister that did everything he could to devastate
00:17:38.680 the West and drive our investment and jobs out while implementing radical activist policies
00:17:45.860 that ramped up disorder and chaos.
00:17:48.560 And it got worse over time when we saw the formation of a federal left-wing activist
00:17:53.040 coalition government in ottawa led by then prime minister justin trudeau and his friend ndp leader
00:17:58.800 jagmeet singh that were doing all they possibly could to choke off and ultimately destroy
00:18:07.280 our province's energy and agriculture sectors they also led an attack on provincial jurisdiction
00:18:13.040 energy health education child care you name it they want they wanted control over it they placed
00:18:20.320 a production cap on our nation's most valuable strategic asset the alberta oil sands and along
00:18:27.280 with it an effective moratorium on the pipelines and oil tankers needed to take that oil to markets
00:18:33.680 around the world they put a greenpeace activist stephen gibault
00:18:41.760 thankfully no longer at the cabinet table in charge of this assault on canada's economy
00:18:50.320 and that is where the real damage to canada was done by justin trudeau and his allies they
00:18:55.520 intruded on areas where the provinces have prime jurisdiction they violated our constitution and
00:19:03.120 the very ties that bind canada together in the name of top-down bureaucratic onslaught
00:19:09.200 pierre polyev and our conservatives believe in our constitution in leaving the provinces
00:19:15.120 to be provinces focusing on what the federal government needs to do things like bail reform
00:19:20.720 and building projects and supporting jobs for canadians
00:19:31.360 like getting out of the way of investment and projects
00:19:34.960 and building a new pipeline to the west coast a true nation building project
00:19:39.360 Conservatives believe in enhancing economic opportunity for Indigenous communities by
00:19:49.040 providing ownership stakes and assets that will create billions of dollars in revenue
00:19:54.200 every single year, like pipelines and mines and countless other projects.
00:19:59.200 Under Pierre's leadership, these projects would be no-brainers.
00:20:02.220 The private sector would build them, and the provincial and federal governments would use
00:20:06.020 the billions in royalty and tax revenue to fund critical services that Canadians rely
00:20:10.740 on.
00:20:11.740 You see, Conservatives supported building new pipelines long before the elbows-up crowd,
00:20:16.940 and they will support them long after all the elbows come down.
00:20:21.240 As I've said many times before, we need to build pipelines to the west, to the east,
00:20:34.100 to the north, and to the south.
00:20:35.740 I would love, as the Prime Minister said, for pipelines to be boring again.
00:20:40.000 I would love to just get them built.
00:20:42.060 But it's not just about energy.
00:20:44.520 Conservatives believe in fixing immigration, something that the federal government broke.
00:20:48.860 Trudeau and his NDP friends ramped up immigration to an entirely unsustainable level, bringing
00:20:54.180 in millions of new people on visas and putting up housing costs and putting a strain on health
00:20:58.860 care and education and creating a national youth unemployment crisis.
00:21:03.440 Now make no mistake, immigration is so important to Canada's success.
00:21:08.420 New Canadians from other countries have been essential for our economic prosperity and
00:21:12.080 rich culture for over 150 years.
00:21:14.800 And the rapid and unsustainable rate at which the federal government increased immigration
00:21:27.960 that has damaged public programs and our economy, and it needs to return to the world-renowned
00:21:33.240 system that it was under the leadership of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
00:21:43.620 On top of their mishandling of immigration and their tax on our economy, they've completely
00:21:47.680 overturned the social order of this nation with their woke ideological justice policies
00:21:52.900 such as the so-called safe supply of drugs, soft on crime bail and sentencing rules, and
00:21:57.880 institutionalized censorship of free speech.
00:22:01.440 I've welcomed the stalwart defense public order from Pierre and his caucus.
00:22:06.020 He has always stood for the right to safety and freedom.
00:22:09.760 Pierre has been advocating to fix the ridiculous bail laws that woke activists put in place,
00:22:14.740 laws that continue to let repeat violent criminals back on the street instead of keeping them behind bars where they belong.
00:22:22.080 These same criminals who are arrested half an hour after they get bail,
00:22:26.820 like we recently saw in Lethbridge, where an accused criminal was released
00:22:30.140 and immediately re-arrested the same day for breaching his conditions.
00:22:35.440 Conservatives believe in funding, not defunding, the police.
00:22:45.520 Conservatives believe in justice for victims, not excuses for the guilty
00:22:49.720 and letting them roam free to cause more havoc.
00:22:53.000 And conservatives believe in actually helping those with addiction through treatment, not
00:23:00.320 free drugs for them to use in playgrounds and parks.
00:23:09.320 And rather than taking guns and punishing law-abiding firearms, things we certainly
00:23:14.160 won't be doing in Alberta. Conservatives!
00:23:40.160 see there's a few gun owners out there but it's because conservatives believe in addressing the
00:23:47.120 actual problem the smuggling of illegal guns from outside Canada through the porous borders that
00:23:52.640 Justin Trudeau created Pierre also believes in protecting our women and girls and upholding
00:23:57.500 fairness and safety something that we've done here in Alberta because Pierre myself and the
00:24:01.640 majority of Canadians agree biological men do not belong in women's sports period
00:24:10.160 Canadians recognize that the left-wing activists have gone too far.
00:24:29.560 They want order, they want justice, and they want to take their kids to a playground without
00:24:33.520 worrying about discarded needles or attics shooting up.
00:24:36.880 Public safety is a cornerstone of society.
00:24:39.380 When we can't guarantee that Canadians are safe in their own communities, it is a failure.
00:24:43.820 One that any Conservative government would alleviate immediately.
00:24:47.740 Because the Conservative Party of Canada has strong leadership.
00:24:50.920 Leadership with moral clarity, with a plan to restore Canada's economic leadership,
00:24:55.400 to return Canada to an international economic engine, a stalwart defender of global freedom
00:25:00.960 and a place that holds true to the promise that if you work hard, you can get ahead.
00:25:07.000 And that is the leadership that Pierre Polyev brings.
00:25:16.720 That is the vision he has for Canada and is one that he learned right here in Alberta
00:25:22.620 when he was growing up.
00:25:24.520 I am proud to work with him to be a member of this party under his leadership and I know
00:25:28.500 that he'll lead the Conservatives back to victory in the next election.
00:25:58.500 Minister Smith and especially I want to thank you very much for your excellent
00:26:03.240 friends been very appreciate thank you Premier Smith and also thank you for
00:26:13.080 being such a strong voice for Alberta and for conservatives and now all you
00:26:20.700 folks that are not Albertans know why this premier is so popular here we love
00:26:27.420 her we love you danielle okay time for lunch you've all worked hard just like yesterday due
00:26:35.340 to space restrictions in our meal hall we are asking that you stick to your allotted lunchtime
00:26:40.620 based on your last name noon last name starts with a to f 12 30 p.m last name starts with g to m
00:26:49.660 1 p.m last name starts with n to z please be cognizant of the limited seating
00:26:56.140 and don't hold seats after you've eaten there's lots of room to socialize in the
00:27:01.500 exchange on the second floor see you all after lunch
00:27:26.140 Thank you.