Western Standard - Western leadership and Canada’s future with Danielle Smith and Preston Manning

00:00:00.000 We'll see you next time.

00:00:30.000 .

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 I don't know.

00:02:30.000 Thank you.

00:03:00.000 Ladies and gentlemen, please take your seats

00:03:13.800 and join me in welcoming to the stage

00:03:16.640 Rebecca Schultz to introduce our next speaker.

00:03:19.560 Well, that is awesome. There's still such great energy in this room at 3.30, and I think

00:03:34.260 that is a testament to the team at Canada Strong and Free and the great day that they have put

00:03:39.140 together for us. Canada Strong and Free is such an important conference, of course, to connect

00:03:45.640 with other like-minded people pushing for limited government, free enterprise, individual

00:03:50.940 responsibility, and a strong civil society, but also to have interesting and thought-provoking

00:03:56.380 discussions about some of the biggest issues that our society has before them today.

00:04:01.660 Our next speaker is no stranger to this room or this stage.

00:04:05.140 She is someone who has a genuine curiosity for the big issues and has always welcomed

00:04:10.620 diverse perspectives and opinions.

00:04:12.660 She definitely doesn't shy away from tough conversations and has a record of tackling policy challenges head on.

00:04:20.040 At her core, she's also a problem solver.

00:04:22.920 When she sees something that just isn't working or just doesn't make sense, she is bold enough to try to fix it.

00:04:30.020 Whether it's working to transform our health care system, building up the Heritage Savings Trust Fund to ensure our economics for future generations,

00:04:39.080 or mobilizing a coalition across the country to change the narrative and policy landscape

00:04:44.420 around energy and our major economic industries, there are many things about her leadership

00:04:49.340 that future generations will be grateful for.

00:04:52.240 I am also personally grateful to have had the opportunity to be part of her team and

00:04:57.440 to call her a friend.

00:04:58.420 With that, I'd like to introduce the Premier of Alberta and leader of the United Conservative

00:05:02.800 Party, Danielle Smith.

00:05:09.080 Well, thank you. Thank you. I appreciate that. I appreciate the warm introduction. Thank you,

00:05:19.000 everybody. And it is so great to be here once again at the now 2026 Canada Strong and Free

00:05:26.160 Network Conference in beautiful Calgary, Alberta. I can't think of a better place for us to be

00:05:31.640 gathering right now than right here in Alberta's largest city. Calgary, you may know, is where I

00:05:38.080 was born and grew up. It is a gateway to the West, and it is the heart of Canada's conservative

00:05:43.560 movement, and so it is wonderful to have you all here. I have a few thank yous to give, of course.

00:05:48.900 I want to thank the entire Canada Strong and Free Network for making this conference possible,

00:05:53.400 particularly President Adam Bullock, Director of Operations, Beth Green, and the entire Board of

00:05:57.760 Directors. I also want to thank today's speakers for sharing their insights and expertise and

00:06:02.660 commitment to advancing our conservative movement in Canada. I hope I haven't missed

00:06:07.280 anyone I understand. Pierre Polyev was here earlier, Jason Kenney and John Barlow, Damian

00:06:12.340 Couric, Shiv Majumdar, of course, Rebecca Schultz. I think we still have in the room

00:06:17.380 Dane Lloyd, and who will be a future politician, Michelle Mather, who is our recently selected

00:06:23.440 candidate in Calgary. Yes, thank you. But the ideas that we've heard today speak directly

00:06:30.360 to this year's theme, which is Canadian Renewal, Energy, Enterprise, and Western Leadership.

00:06:35.300 And this is a theme that couldn't be more relevant right now, at a time when Alberta continues to show strong leadership on the national stage, and at a time when we're facing an important question about the future of our province within Confederation.

00:06:49.580 I will get to the referendum in just a minute, and I'm sure that Rick Bell will have a few questions for me when we get into the Q&A.

00:06:55.600 But I do first want to talk about economic leadership, because here in Alberta, you don't have to look too far to see what that looks like.

00:07:02.320 From the countless business expansions in and around Calgary, to our farmers working around the clock in the fall harvest to feed families around the world, to our energy workers in the oil sands who are breaking production records year after year, this is Western leadership in practice.

00:07:20.680 It is not an abstract idea or a line in a policy document.

00:07:25.240 It's people taking risks, putting capital to work, and rolling up their sleeves to build a better life for themselves and their families.

00:07:31.740 And as the result of a deliberate effort by the UCP government to rebuild the Alberta advantage and restore the very things that made this province so great to begin with.

00:07:42.540 And right now, at a time when other provinces are struggling with decline and uncertainty, Alberta remains a beacon of hope and opportunity in an increasingly uncertain world.

00:07:52.940 Just to give you a little bit of the record, we have delivered, you may have seen our year-end results from last year we're up today.

00:07:59.360 We've delivered five consecutive budget surpluses, and the latest fiscal update also puts us on track for a sixth surplus this year.

00:08:07.620 We accomplished this while paying down $15 billion worth of debt.

00:08:11.240 Oh, yeah.

00:08:15.340 As well as doubling the size of the Heritage Savings Trust Fund in the last five years.

00:08:20.840 Yeah.

00:08:22.940 That will ensure future generations of Albertans can benefit from the prosperity we're creating today.

00:08:27.640 But here are also some really telling numbers. Since I became premier in October of 2022, Alberta has added more than 305,000 jobs, and we are currently creating jobs at five times the national rate.

00:08:40.100 In fact, in the last year, 80% of all of the jobs created in the country were created right here in Alberta, and most of them are in the private sector as well.

00:08:48.960 Part of the advantage is the fact that Albertans continue to enjoy the lowest taxes in the entire country.

00:08:53.940 We have no provincial sales tax.

00:08:55.840 We have the lowest corporate income tax rate in the country at just 8%.

00:08:59.940 We have among the lowest small business tax rates in the country at just 2%.

00:09:04.320 No health care premiums, no provincial payroll tax, competitive personal income taxes.

00:09:08.800 In fact, we just instituted a new 8% low rate so that families can keep up to $1,500 a year for a two-income family.

00:09:17.960 We, on October 1st, removed, because oil prices were very high, when they're over $90, we

00:09:24.820 end up removing the fuel tax, and so we took the full 13 cents a litre in provincial fuel

00:09:29.200 tax from gasoline and diesel, that'll be in place through to the end of the year, and

00:09:33.480 there'll be additional reprieve in the first quarter of next year, because when we bring

00:09:36.420 it back, we bring it back in stages, depending on what prices look like, and since then,

00:09:41.100 every time that Alberta families and businesses have filled up, they pay less at the pump.

00:09:45.080 I always love to do the comparison. So if you go on to Gas Buddy, one of my favorite spots, you can find that gas in the Calgary area is selling for as low as $1.51 at some stations. But if you were trying to fill up in Vancouver, you'd be looking at more like $2.15. And if you were our poor friends in St. John's, Newfoundland, you would be filling up for about $2.19.

00:10:06.420 So if you drive an F-150, as I know a few of you in the room do, and that's 136 litres to fill, you'd be paying nearly $100 more on every single tank in either of those two places.

00:10:20.500 So it's just one more way in which we have an Alberta advantage right here.

00:10:24.960 And these advantages help Alberta lead the country in other ways.

00:10:28.840 For instance, we're leading the country in GDP growth, in average weekly earnings, in new housing starts, in workforce participation, and in private sector expansions, including new investments.

00:10:40.300 I can talk a little bit later about where we are going with oil and gas and traditional energy investments.

00:10:45.540 But we've seen a brand new aerospace and aviation industry develop, with WestJet being the anchor, and then de Havilland as well, building water bombers, but Lufthansa Technic refurbishing engines and CAE doing training.

00:10:59.840 We also in the Calgary area have a huge number of fulfillment centers, whether it's Walmart or Amazon or HelloFresh or a few others.

00:11:09.820 That is the Alberta that we're building.

00:11:11.700 There's so much more.

00:11:13.120 The province leads with confidence.

00:11:14.580 We stand firm on our principles, and we prove that economic strength and individual freedom go hand in hand.

00:11:21.480 And we're demonstrating Western leadership as much more than just leadership on the economy.

00:11:27.360 We protected parents' ability to choose the best education for their kids, whether it's public, Catholic, private, charter, or homeschooling.

00:11:34.460 We support all of those options.

00:11:36.460 We have strengthened Alberta's Bill of Rights so that Albertans have the right to make their own medical decisions.

00:11:41.280 We've protected private property rights and guaranteed compensation in the first time.

00:11:45.580 We also have a Bill of Rights that recognizes and protects gun owner rights.

00:11:49.480 We've protected fairness in women's sports so that women and girls can compete against other women and girls rather than born male athletes.

00:11:58.320 We've protected children from being given life-altering drugs or surgeries when they are minors to change their gender.

00:12:04.620 So we can allow kids to be kids again and make decisions like that when they're adults. 0.58

00:12:08.660 We have strengthened safeguards around MAID.

00:12:11.680 Glad to see the federal government is following suit.

00:12:13.560 But last year we just said, you know, if you've got depression or PTSD,

00:12:17.020 we are not going to offer you MAID.

00:12:19.000 We are going to offer you treatment. 0.94

00:12:20.560 It should be a measure of last resort.

00:12:23.840 We've also passed the Peterson Law, named after Jordan Peterson,

00:12:27.740 who ended up getting hauled before his professional body

00:12:30.520 because he had mean tweets about Justin Trudeau.

00:12:32.760 We're not going to let that happen anymore.

00:12:34.280 We can't have professional discrimination based on political beliefs.

00:12:37.200 We're also removing politics and ideology from the classroom.

00:12:41.280 We want to keep the schools focused on reading, writing, math, and critical thinking,

00:12:47.860 not critical theory, as it's become known as.

00:12:51.900 We've protected kids from sexually explicit content.

00:12:55.480 There are a number of very graphic school books that were on the shelves in our libraries in elementary school.

00:13:01.840 Those aren't allowed to be there anymore.

00:13:03.040 And we then did ideological DEI hiring requirements in the public service.

00:13:07.880 If you want to work for Alberta, merit is the first measure that we look at before identity.

00:13:13.200 And last but certainly not least, we've also protected law-abiding gun owners from Ottawa's ridiculous and short-sighted gun grab.

00:13:19.560 We've told police and prosecutors it is just simply not our policing priority.

00:13:23.440 We want our police and our prosecutors to go after real bad guys.

00:13:27.740 But these are victories that conservatives can be proud of.

00:13:30.720 These are victories that reflect Alberta values.

00:13:33.040 But our leadership isn't just about what we achieve here at home, it's also about setting an example for the rest of the country and ensuring Western Canadian priorities and industries and communities have a meaningful voice in shaping Canada's future.

00:13:46.180 And that brings me to the October 19th referendum question, which is taking place in a couple of days' time.

00:13:51.720 Now, I know in every room I go in, there are a group of people who just didn't want this vote to happen at all, but I just would remind you that Alberta has citizen initiative legislation.

00:14:01.780 And so if your fellow citizens gather 177,000 signatures on a petition asking to put a question to you, we are obliged as a government to follow the law and to put that to you.

00:14:12.400 So there are two options on the ballot.

00:14:14.280 Option one is to remain in Canada.

00:14:17.260 That's the option I voted for, and I hope to be able to convince all of you, if you haven't voted yet, to vote the same.

00:14:22.420 Option two would begin the legal process before a binding referendum on separation.

00:14:27.960 Now, there is still a number of Albertans that I speak to

00:14:30.980 who I think want to use this opportunity to send Ottawa a message.

00:14:36.620 They're angry at how we were treated for the last 10 years,

00:14:39.160 and for good reason.

00:14:40.500 They perhaps are looking at it as a way of getting leverage

00:14:43.580 so that we can address some other issues.

00:14:45.440 But I would argue that there's a better way to do that,

00:14:48.000 send a message, and to give leverage,

00:14:49.480 and that's to give us a strong mandate on the other nine questions.

00:14:52.580 They ask for greater authority to prioritize economic migrants,

00:14:57.080 require temporary residents to pay a share of the cost of health care and education,

00:15:02.620 require proof of citizenship to vote.

00:15:05.000 There are also other reforms to work with willing provinces to secure judicial reforms,

00:15:10.760 abolish the Senate, and ensure that provincial jurisdiction is respected.

00:15:14.800 And for me, that's the path forward.

00:15:16.760 So I'm going to keep on working to convince Albertans that Canada can work

00:15:20.500 and hopefully win over a few more to that view.

00:15:23.480 Because what I would say, just looking at recent history, 0.96

00:15:27.080 When Alberta stood up and spoke out and refused to back down, the rest of the country started

00:15:32.840 listening. And that's why I believe our best days are still ahead. As a strong Alberta within a

00:15:38.320 united Canada, the net zero power regulations that were preventing us from building natural gas

00:15:43.580 power plants, those are gone. The oil and gas emissions cap, which we know was really a production

00:15:48.440 cap, it's gone. And just this month, Ottawa agreed that C-69, the No New Pipelines Act,

00:15:53.780 will no longer apply to oil and gas and electricity and pipelines projects,

00:15:57.660 and we also scored another victory in court with the Court of Appeal

00:16:00.860 agreeing that the reforms that they did did not go far enough

00:16:03.300 in restoring provincial jurisdiction.

00:16:05.420 Last week, you may have seen, the federal government has also announced

00:16:08.420 an $8 billion investment towards Alberta-based military infrastructure,

00:16:12.620 and we also had what I would have been surprised.

00:16:16.160 I never would have thought this would have happened,

00:16:17.780 but the federal government recently announced two appointments

00:16:20.940 to the higher courts.

00:16:22.720 and they did that with our consultation.

00:16:26.000 So imagine that, a liberal federal government

00:16:28.200 and a conservative provincial government agreeing on two candidates

00:16:32.000 and I think that that should give you some confidence

00:16:34.160 that we've chosen two very, very good candidates

00:16:36.280 if you can get that level of provincial cooperation

00:16:38.780 and I hope we see more of that.

00:16:40.280 That's part of the reason we put that motion forward as well.

00:16:43.400 But this didn't happen because Alberta walked away and turned inward.

00:16:46.980 It happened because we stood our ground,

00:16:49.280 made it clear that we will defend our rights,

00:16:51.140 protect our responsibilities, and stand up for our province's interests.

00:16:55.600 And the tide is turning.

00:16:57.000 Projects that once seemed impossible are now moving forward.

00:17:01.020 The current Prime Minister has worked constructively with us on an Alberta-Ottawa energy agreement.

00:17:06.640 Since then, Enbridge, Trans Mountain, South Boat, Pembina, ACCO, Wolf Midstream, I've probably missed a few,

00:17:12.920 but all of them have announced expansions or new projects.

00:17:15.520 This is the largest pipeline build-out we've seen in decades.

00:17:18.200 along with the Trans Mountain Corporation

00:17:20.340 and Pembina. We are taking steps

00:17:22.280 to work with the federal government to build

00:17:23.880 the Pacific Link Pipeline, another

00:17:26.120 million barrel per day pipeline to the BC

00:17:28.100 coast. Support is building

00:17:30.100 for the Northern Shield Energy Corridor to the

00:17:32.220 east that's being championed by Ontario

00:17:34.240 Premier Doug Ford. Meta

00:17:36.300 is investing $13 billion to

00:17:38.300 build its first Canadian data centre right here

00:17:40.120 in Alberta in Sturgeon County

00:17:41.700 with partners Pembina, Kineticor and

00:17:44.120 Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners also

00:17:46.160 committing $4.6 billion to build

00:17:48.180 the power that they're going to need out of clean Alberta natural gas. And all of these

00:17:54.180 things could not have happened if we hadn't come to terms with the federal government

00:17:58.080 and seen a major reversal in some of the bad laws that had been holding us back for

00:18:02.960 so long. Not long ago, probably less than two years ago, Alberta's energy was treated

00:18:09.380 as a national liability. And today, more and more Canadians are beginning to understand

00:18:14.000 something that Albertans have known all along,

00:18:16.500 that Alberta is a nation builder

00:18:18.000 and the solution to Canada's economic

00:18:20.220 challenges. We are not the problem.

00:18:22.260 There was a recent

00:18:23.060 Leger poll that came out in the last month

00:18:25.680 where people were asked

00:18:27.520 how important is

00:18:29.800 energy to the Canadian economy

00:18:31.820 and 87%

00:18:33.600 of Canadians said it was very important.

00:18:36.720 Only 2% said

00:18:38.160 it was not important at all.

00:18:40.240 And those 2% sadly were 0.86

00:18:41.980 governing the policy of our country for 0.74

00:18:43.940 about 10 years. But most of them are gone, including Stephen Guibo. You can thank Rebecca

00:18:48.060 Schultz for that one. But that is

00:18:52.000 a clear sign that we are changing the direction

00:18:54.940 in the nation. And now is not the time to give up hope in our country. Not when we have

00:18:59.780 fought for so long and come so far. Once again, Albertans are leading

00:19:03.860 the most important conversations happening in this country. They're not just listening

00:19:07.800 to them. And let's be frank, Canada has always been stronger

00:19:11.760 when Albertans have had the freedom to lead, to take risks, and to break new ground.

00:19:16.480 From the pioneers who turned our rugged landscape into rich farmland

00:19:20.380 to the visionaries who invented the technology to separate sand from oil,

00:19:25.220 driving one of the greatest economic booms our nation has ever seen,

00:19:29.040 Albertans have always found a way to accomplish the impossible.

00:19:32.440 And I believe Canada can work. I believe it's working better every day.

00:19:35.640 So I will keep fighting for a stronger Alberta within a united Canada,

00:19:38.620 and together with our fellow Canadians,

00:19:40.840 I believe we've built a country that is admired and respected around the world.

00:19:44.860 It doesn't mean that Canada has always gotten everything right.

00:19:48.420 Alberta has often had to fight to be heard,

00:19:51.220 to be respected, and to be treated fairly in confederation.

00:19:54.520 But for the first time in many years,

00:19:57.180 Alberta and Canada are moving together,

00:19:59.860 and we are moving in the right direction.

00:20:02.620 And I believe Alberta's best days are still ahead.

00:20:04.660 So let's keep working to make Alberta and Canada forever strong and free.

00:20:09.180 And with that, looking forward to the questions.

00:20:23.040 Late in the day. Make sure you're awake now.

00:20:27.640 Oh, there's water. Good.

00:20:28.860 rick's lost his phone so if anyone here's a phone ringing might be it might be at a seat in here

00:20:39.020 is this on it's on you can hear me most people can't hear me without a microphone

00:20:43.020 okay let's get right to it carney comes to alberta he is supposed to be coming to alberta

00:20:50.860 to get support for option one, question ten.

00:20:58.660 But he obviously didn't just come to Alberta for that

00:21:01.220 because he also talked about no to the nine.

00:21:06.820 Now, no to the nine isn't just a slip because nine are your questions.

00:21:10.100 If he's already saying no to the nine,

00:21:13.420 before we've even counted the votes of the nine,

00:21:16.860 so I'm not asking for your view on immigration and the actual questions,

00:21:20.860 But people haven't even cast their ballots yet, a lot of people.

00:21:25.500 So how do you feel about the fact he's come in and basically big-footed your own questions?

00:21:32.380 Well, I don't see it quite that way.

00:21:37.080 I think he was trying to encourage people to vote against the night.

00:21:41.140 I don't think he was saying no to the night, because I'm pretty persuasive, as you probably see.

00:21:45.140 And so I gave him the booklet earlier this afternoon, and I said,

00:21:48.640 Well, here's a little light reading on your way back to Ottawa, and you'll find out why so many Albertans are going to say yes to the nine.

00:21:56.680 And I did also tell him that this immigration conversation is coming.

00:22:00.360 The Council of the Federation, we're having a meeting in December, and every single premier wants to make sure that we're reprioritizing around economic migration.

00:22:10.280 Every single premier has felt the same pressure on our affordability, our social services, on youth employment, every single one.

00:22:17.980 So I think that I don't know all the reasons why he got enticed into rendering an opinion on that,

00:22:25.800 but I would say it's certainly not over, especially if we get a strong mandate from Mel Burns on Monday.

00:22:31.860 So the fact that he said twice, no to the nine, you're saying that's not discouraging you?

00:22:38.260 Is that what you're saying?

00:22:38.920 Like, what's going to happen when you're across from him and you're going to say,

00:22:41.560 I want action on these immigration questions when he's already, as he made it clear,

00:22:47.260 was that a misstep or was that he was asked several times today at the event we were at

00:22:51.900 together and he declined to answer so i i don't know why he was keen to answer yesterday and

00:22:57.740 not today but i would say that at the moment we don't know what albertans want i think albertans

00:23:03.720 want this when we did our alberta next panel the issues that we identified are the ones that we put

00:23:08.780 on the ballot um i've had a couple of people tell me that they're you know i know that it's

00:23:13.800 been contentious, and everybody has friends who look at this issue a different way. But I have a

00:23:18.880 number of people telling me that they feel really good about the process, that they've gone to the

00:23:23.400 polling station on a bright day, the polling stations have been managed pretty well, they feel

00:23:27.980 like they're participating in something important, and they're actually kind of surprised that the

00:23:32.640 government is asking them important questions on meaningful things. And I think you'll see that.

00:23:37.080 I don't know what the voter turnout is going to be, but I think we've already had over a million

00:23:41.460 people cast their ballot and we

00:23:43.540 still have more advanced

00:23:45.560 polls today and tomorrow

00:23:47.280 and then we have the general

00:23:49.520 ballot on Monday. So I would

00:23:51.540 say that that's a measure of

00:23:53.560 how people are thinking about this issue.

00:23:55.420 The fact that they're engaged and they're coming out

00:23:57.580 to vote at all and then

00:23:59.380 we'll see what the result is on Monday.

00:24:01.960 Another question involving

00:24:03.400 the Prime Minister and I beg the indulgence

00:24:05.620 of you folks. I may

00:24:07.600 be the only person in the room that is a little

00:24:09.560 skeptical of the Prime Minister but

00:24:11.280 I think there's a little skepticism in this room, generally speaking.

00:24:15.200 I'm just not taking him necessarily at face value, but, you know, that's me.

00:24:20.900 You know what I have noticed about the Prime Minister?

00:24:23.960 Because it is, there have been times over the last 18 months that I did doubt,

00:24:29.720 because he does say different things in front of different audiences.

00:24:33.140 That is true.

00:24:34.620 But what I have noticed is that he, inch by inch by inch,

00:24:39.660 has moved those who support his party to a very different position

00:24:44.600 than they were in 18 months ago.

00:24:46.220 So does his method irritate us out West?

00:24:49.620 Sure it does, because as you know me, I will say the same thing

00:24:52.480 no matter what room I'm in and no matter where I am in the country.

00:24:55.820 Does it irritate me that sometimes I hear him say things

00:24:59.040 that make me wonder, is he committed to this?

00:25:00.980 But I think that the proof is the fact of how far we've gone on repealing these laws.

00:25:07.880 And the proof is the fact that the Pacific Link Pipeline is the first project named a project of national interest.

00:25:17.700 I don't know that that would have been the case 18 months ago, but that's where we find ourselves today.

00:25:22.240 But in any case, I just wanted to put it into context why I understand why some people question the commitment on some of these things.

00:25:29.600 I'm going to skip to a question that I definitely want to hear about

00:25:33.060 because I was in the room about a week ago

00:25:36.140 and you were speaking to a group about what happens on October 20th.

00:25:41.940 And you did talk about unity.

00:25:44.420 You called it a beautiful movement, the conservative movement.

00:25:47.880 Beautiful, boisterous family.

00:25:50.000 As long as you didn't say the big beautiful movement.

00:25:52.020 I think that sounds like somebody else.

00:25:53.720 But anyway, and you were talking about how people should accept the verdict rendered by the Court of Public Opinion on October 19th.

00:26:06.460 We should move on, conservatives should move on to other issues where there is agreement.

00:26:13.140 And you also warned them that a split in the conservative movement could very well lead to the election of Nahed Nenshi and the NDP.

00:26:21.620 but what do you do to the people who may not follow your advice and here's where i have one

00:26:32.140 thing in common with justin trudeau only one i also was a drama teacher

00:26:36.340 this is not finished this is just the first step a year and a half ago we were not even in the game

00:26:51.900 That's only one so-called voice of the independence movement.

00:26:56.020 Another voice yesterday said, this isn't a case of saying,

00:27:00.660 aw shucks, we're done, now I can learn how to play golf.

00:27:05.580 So what do you do with people who are not necessarily ready to buy that message,

00:27:13.900 that unity message?

00:27:16.720 What if they say, no, we want to continue?

00:27:18.800 Now, I'm going to throw in this little footnote, because we had him here earlier.

00:27:21.640 The former premier, of course, made his views known, which was basically show them the door,

00:27:27.880 which is the so-called purge option.

00:27:32.180 Where do you sit with that if you cannot convince people to stand down on this issue?

00:27:40.040 What does that look like for you?

00:27:41.280 Okay, well, since this organization got its genesis with a really great thought leader, Preston Manning, let's just revisit why we have Citizen Initiative in the first place.

00:27:54.520 And it's because he recognized some time ago that the conservative movement is a coalition, and it's kind of an act of will.

00:28:01.400 So his four different quadrants were fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, democratic reformers, and environmental conservationists.

00:28:12.020 That's sort of the last category that he added.

00:28:14.100 And the way we keep the peace with each other is that we have party principles and party policies around the things that we can agree on.

00:28:21.760 And where we disagree, you have a mechanism like a citizen initiative so that you can put issues directly to the people.

00:28:27.600 But the denouement of all of that is you have to accept the judgment of the people.

00:28:34.820 That is the ultimate policy contest.

00:28:37.100 That is the ultimate policy discussion.

00:28:39.420 And a political party that doesn't align with the majority of their citizens

00:28:43.960 doesn't get to stay the political party for very long.

00:28:47.060 And we just need to look at the liberals under Justin Trudeau to know that.

00:28:50.360 They had a near-death experience in December 2024,

00:28:52.980 and then they woke up and said,

00:28:53.960 oh, gee, we better steal all of Pierre Polyev's policies,

00:28:56.260 otherwise we're not going to get re-elected.

00:28:58.560 And so you have to look at the wisdom of the people.

00:29:02.740 That has to be your guiding principle

00:29:04.320 if you're going to be a democratic party

00:29:06.840 in a democratic government

00:29:07.980 and you're going to lead a political party as well.

00:29:10.020 So I would just ask everyone to reflect on that.

00:29:13.080 Let's see what the result is on Monday.

00:29:14.960 Let's not prejudge it.

00:29:16.320 But I found it very interesting.

00:29:18.460 Maybe it's AI, but I did see Thomas Lukasik saying,

00:29:22.380 we really need to reach out after Monday

00:29:24.600 and find out why those who voted for option two

00:29:27.340 are still so upset.

00:29:29.160 And let's find a way to figure that out.

00:29:30.680 So I don't know, maybe those two leaders...

00:29:32.560 Wow, a Thomas Lukasik quote.

00:29:34.280 As I say, it may have been AI,

00:29:36.360 but that is our task,

00:29:39.680 is that I think we've identified a lot of the issues

00:29:43.260 that made Albertan so angry.

00:29:45.300 I think that the existential threat

00:29:48.320 that Trudeau and the NDP and Gibo

00:29:51.840 posed to our province and our economy

00:29:53.960 was very real and that's why people were reacting to that when the liberals won again it was come

00:30:00.480 on are we gonna have another 10 years like the last 10 years so i understand that the other

00:30:05.020 issues though around equalization that i've heard about um obviously more on uh gun owner rights

00:30:11.660 and making sure that our law abiding gun owners are are not targeted by by police or prosecution

00:30:17.780 Those are issues that come up.

00:30:20.240 The issue of free speech,

00:30:22.160 so that we don't have our podcasters with a knock on their door,

00:30:25.900 and we don't have pastors being worried about quoting scripture on Sunday.

00:30:29.480 We will always have issues that we have to resolve,

00:30:33.120 but I think that those are resolvable.

00:30:35.140 I think that the existential threat that Trudeau and Guy Bowe and the NDP posed

00:30:42.360 has now gone.

00:30:45.000 And so now we have to talk about and understand there are still issues,

00:30:49.420 but I think we can resolve them a different way

00:30:51.060 within the political and legal structures that we have.

00:30:53.500 So say you have a member of the United Conservative Party.

00:30:58.540 Say that person says,

00:31:00.580 I am going to continue advocating for Alberta independence.

00:31:07.580 Maybe it won't be their only issue, but it will be a very important issue.

00:31:11.500 A lot of these people stood in the cold, as you know, to sign a petition.

00:31:16.620 And some people have made threats about what may happen in late next month

00:31:21.960 when there's the annual general meeting of the party.

00:31:25.380 So what do you do in that concrete situation where if, in fact, it's hypothetical,

00:31:30.640 but people have talked about it, if, in fact, there are people who say,

00:31:36.500 we want to continue to pursue it.

00:31:39.960 obviously not through a referendum, they've just lost,

00:31:42.480 but they still want that to be a focus.

00:31:45.900 Well, look, we'll see what happens.

00:31:48.220 We'll see what happens on Monday.

00:31:49.680 I guess the point that I would raise

00:31:52.000 is with this group of very active individuals,

00:31:55.640 what I have seen is that they are powerful organizers

00:32:00.320 around a number of different ideas.

00:32:02.560 The first powerful idea they got organized around was COVID

00:32:07.000 and how we had to repeal the terrible laws and the terrible practices

00:32:10.900 so that never happened again.

00:32:12.560 And then when we addressed that issue,

00:32:14.440 they were really worried about how kids were being transitioned

00:32:18.020 behind their parents' backs and how unfair it was to see women and girls

00:32:21.600 competing in sport, and they got mobilized behind that.

00:32:25.300 And it took us a little while, it took us about 18 months

00:32:27.380 to figure out the right pathway, but I think we did.

00:32:29.840 And then the next issue, I mean, there was also a parallel issue

00:32:33.840 about people concerned about the integrity of the voting system

00:32:37.520 and wanted us to get rid of tabulators, which we did.

00:32:40.280 I will point out the federal government does hand counts of their ballots.

00:32:45.040 Quebec just had a successful election where by 8.45,

00:32:50.420 45 minutes after the polls closed, with a hand count,

00:32:53.200 they knew exactly who had won,

00:32:54.380 so other provinces and jurisdictions can manage to do this.

00:32:57.340 That was another thing that that group of folks rallied around,

00:33:00.600 and so we've gone back to a hand count as well.

00:33:02.820 many of those who were in that movement, including one of the leaders, only became a

00:33:07.780 separatist when Mark Carney got elected. So it's not like it was a long-term, deep-seated

00:33:13.940 20 or 30-year aspiration. It was very recent, based on a fear that the next 10 years would

00:33:20.780 be like the last 10 years, based on a fear that we wouldn't be able to make some of those

00:33:24.580 policies. So I would say that for those who are sending a message, for those who are still

00:33:30.600 upset for those who are still skeptical. I just have to

00:33:34.620 work through those issues and work on it. But I think that what I have

00:33:38.520 observed in the past is that as we start addressing the real

00:33:42.560 issues that upset Albertans, that sentiment declines. It declined

00:33:46.580 after 1982 when the Mulroney

00:33:50.440 government came in and repealed the NEP. It declined again when Stephen Harper

00:33:54.560 got elected in 2006, I guess,

00:33:58.020 in 2004, and he restored farmers' rights by getting rid of the wheat board,

00:34:05.060 got rid of the bad gun policies at the time, and a few other things.

00:34:10.460 And so I think that Albertans are reasonable people.

00:34:14.360 If they can see we're making reasonable progress on the issues that really matter to them,

00:34:18.800 I think that we can get to that point again where we're just focused on making sure

00:34:23.560 that we can be the best that we can be.

00:34:24.740 Maybe I'm overly optimistic, but I've just watched that.

00:34:29.580 And hopefully that group that is so effective at organizing,

00:34:33.160 they'll help make sure that the New Democrats never form government in this province ever, ever, ever again.

00:34:43.180 Because, let's remember, I just need to say this, because I know he likes to say otherwise,

00:34:49.280 read the New Democrat Party Constitution.

00:34:51.720 They are a section of the federal NDP party.

00:34:56.480 Read their policy.

00:34:57.840 Their policy says that national policy is binding on their provincial sections.

00:35:03.860 Read what Abby Lewis says.

00:35:05.880 He wants to keep all fossil fuels in the ground.

00:35:09.320 He called our pipeline nation burning, not nation building.

00:35:12.600 And guess how he got elected?

00:35:14.680 Because members are automatically members when they buy into their provincial section.

00:35:18.940 He got elected because NDP members in Alberta wanted him to be their national leader.

00:35:23.820 That is the culture of the NDP party,

00:35:26.000 and they should never, ever control energy policy in this country ever again.

00:35:37.180 I'm going to slip in a question before this is the question I was going to ask,

00:35:41.320 so hopefully we'll have enough time.

00:35:42.420 But on that NDP theme, I remember very clearly covering that merger,

00:35:49.860 and it was a marriage of convenience.

00:35:51.660 It wasn't a marriage of love.

00:35:54.280 It was basically the NDP are in and we don't want them to stay in.

00:35:58.540 We want to defeat them.

00:35:59.740 We want to get them out.

00:36:01.580 Is it enough to keep a movement together to just say we're staying together

00:36:08.760 so these bad folks don't become the government?

00:36:13.640 Or does there at some point have to be in the conservative movement

00:36:16.520 more than just, we're not them?

00:36:21.400 Because in the beginning, they were rushing, people were rushing,

00:36:24.100 it was very rushed, 95% of both parties,

00:36:27.040 because they wanted to defeat the NDP.

00:36:30.260 That was so, even former Premier Kenney says,

00:36:33.280 he wasn't demanding a lot of things, just let's have this.

00:36:36.620 But remember, it was a marriage of convenience.

00:36:38.760 Do you think eventually we'll become a marriage of love, or do you think it will just be, at least we're not the NDP?

00:36:46.380 Well, I can tell you that I just found out, because we had the early bird AGM registrations cut off yesterday,

00:36:53.620 and we've got 6,900 people coming to our AGM.

00:36:59.360 And we're not done yet, because you can still register at the higher rate,

00:37:04.760 And so we think we might end up with 7,500 people at our AGM.

00:37:09.480 So what does that tell me?

00:37:11.280 That tells me that people are very interested in coming,

00:37:16.280 in voting on policy, debating policy,

00:37:19.340 in hanging out in the hospitality suites,

00:37:21.420 and in determining the direction of our party.

00:37:24.140 And they want to get together.

00:37:25.280 They want to talk to each other.

00:37:26.340 It's going to be here in Calgary,

00:37:27.560 and I'll be very interested to see what comes out of those conversations.

00:37:32.260 But as you know, like, I've had my time on both sides of our party.

00:37:38.760 I began as a progressive conservative campus club president in the 1992-93 era.

00:37:45.900 And then I became a reformer because the federal conservatives got wiped out.

00:37:50.580 But then I was always a progressive conservative up until about the, you know, 2008-2009 because of the royalty changes.

00:37:58.120 And, you know, I was to blame as well for splitting our beautiful family up.

00:38:02.860 I felt that in Alberta at the time you could have two conservative parties

00:38:06.720 and one would be government and one would be opposition.

00:38:09.260 Everything would be fine and I was wrong.

00:38:11.320 It turned out not to be the case.

00:38:13.460 So I, you know, I had my own soul-searching I had to do

00:38:17.340 about what kind of things that I'm prepared to compromise on

00:38:21.920 to keep our big, beautiful, boisterous family together.

00:38:24.840 And I think everyone is going to have to have that same conversation

00:38:28.840 because I love my wild rose, a grassroots culture.

00:38:33.480 I love the friendships that I developed over the years

00:38:35.840 with the progressive conservatives.

00:38:37.320 It's a marriage of love for me.

00:38:39.040 I love both of my children equally.

00:38:45.700 Again, a question before I get to this final question is,

00:38:48.880 I was at the convention of Red Deer when there was a leadership

00:38:52.560 and you got over 91% support.

00:38:54.840 And there were people that were detractors that said you would get less than that,

00:38:58.220 but you got 91%.

00:38:59.780 There is not such a vote this time next month.

00:39:02.640 There isn't a mechanism for that.

00:39:04.020 That's not what the rules are.

00:39:08.240 After all of this stuff and the fact that at least pollsters say half the supporters

00:39:14.240 may in fact be option two people and half might be option one,

00:39:19.980 what kind of support do you think you have now from the party?

00:39:23.420 Party members.

00:39:24.840 Well, you certainly, I mean, the way I look at a 91.5% favorability vote is it meant that 8.5%, even back then, did not support me.

00:39:38.920 So if you've got 7,500 people, then you're going to find 750 people there.

00:39:44.560 Right, right.

00:39:44.920 And I'm sure you and the other members of the media will find every one of them so that they can make sure they have their say.

00:39:53.460 But I would say that really, it is the case that you always have to focus on the things that you agree with.

00:40:02.580 That's what I always tell candidates when you're going to the door-to-door.

00:40:06.400 Don't focus on the things that you don't feel passionately about.

00:40:09.240 Find the things that you really feel passionately about, about why you're supporting this party and this movement.

00:40:14.620 And talk about those.

00:40:16.100 Because it's different for different people.

00:40:17.820 So I will gauge what happens after Monday.

00:40:20.960 I will gauge what happens over the course of the next six weeks,

00:40:23.820 and we'll certainly have a chance to get everybody together at the end of November.

00:40:27.640 And you'll find out just at the same time I am.

00:40:31.860 Are you at all worried that if option, because some people are,

00:40:37.740 I don't know what number that would be,

00:40:39.600 but that if option one wins and could be even decisively,

00:40:44.240 there is a fear among some people, including supporters of option one,

00:40:47.940 who think, is there the possibility?

00:40:52.900 We know the federal liberals, they can change

00:40:55.040 into whatever you want them to be or not be.

00:41:01.540 Depending on, you know, talk about marriage of convenience

00:41:04.060 and marriage of love.

00:41:05.480 I don't know what their marriage is called.

00:41:08.240 But what do you say to the people who have that fear

00:41:12.780 that, yes, we're for Canada, yes, we're option one,

00:41:16.740 and yes, we're part of the great Canadian identity,

00:41:22.060 is there a fear that they're going to,

00:41:24.280 well, to use a quote from Mr. Carney,

00:41:27.160 my close and personal friend,

00:41:29.160 what we need is a decisive result to settle this question.

00:41:34.020 Now, I know I think I know what he means,

00:41:36.100 but people get nervous when they hear that,

00:41:38.820 because settle this question could be the question of independence,

00:41:41.500 or settle this question could be the question of grievances.

00:41:45.060 Because, again, what have we heard?

00:41:46.740 no to the nine, equalization isn't changing until at least 2029. And, you know, Lord knows what else

00:41:57.620 is going to happen. Some people say immigration is going to increase it again, whatever it happens

00:42:02.140 to be. So what do you say to those people who are justifiably suspicious of, believe it or not,

00:42:07.640 liberals? Well, I don't know that those of us voting for option one thinks that everything is

00:42:15.220 fine. I think those of us voting

00:42:17.160 for option one have an

00:42:19.160 expectation that

00:42:21.400 the face of

00:42:23.320 the Liberal Party and the actions of the Liberal

00:42:25.200 Party we've seen over the last 18

00:42:27.320 months, that that attitude

00:42:28.940 of cooperative

00:42:31.040 federalism, of working together, is going to continue.

00:42:33.640 I think that those of us

00:42:35.140 who are trusting

00:42:37.000 are going to be even

00:42:39.440 more vigilant in making

00:42:41.380 sure that this attitude

00:42:43.280 continues. That's how I look at it.

00:42:45.200 Like trust but verify?

00:42:46.600 It is like trust but verify.

00:42:48.380 Yeah, I mean, I know trust is very hard because we have trusted before

00:42:53.860 and we've gotten treated badly and people are reacting emotionally to that

00:42:58.020 and it's perfectly understandable.

00:43:00.040 But I have been trying to persuade since I saw that spike.

00:43:06.680 That's what I look at.

00:43:07.780 So look at the spike went up to 45% in a poll right after Cardi got elected,

00:43:13.800 It's about people saying they were open to separation.

00:43:16.980 If the polls are true now, and it's down to about 25% or 30%,

00:43:23.140 then that chunk of people are the ones who are the trust but verify.

00:43:27.000 It's fine.

00:43:27.860 Okay, I'm watching.

00:43:28.780 I'm seeing some good things.

00:43:29.980 I'm not happy with everything.

00:43:31.340 But let's continue this on.

00:43:32.760 That's the approach that I'm going to take.

00:43:34.320 So when this is over, when those votes are counted,

00:43:37.320 and you have your first actual conversation with Prime Minister Mark Carney,

00:43:40.980 and he's going to be saying,

00:43:42.660 well, this is great if option one wins.

00:43:44.420 This is great.

00:43:45.260 This is wonderful.

00:43:47.020 What are you going to tell him?

00:43:49.420 Because you said when he got in,

00:43:51.400 you told him he could stamp down

00:43:54.800 or tap down separatism, et cetera.

00:43:56.740 I believe you said that.

00:43:58.360 So what are you going to tell him?

00:44:00.060 Because what are you going to warn him about, I guess?

00:44:03.680 I warned him today

00:44:04.680 because I heard his comments yesterday.

00:44:07.340 As I said, I gave him the booklet

00:44:08.780 And I said, I know you think that maybe we're the only ones who care about immigration, but I got bad news for you.

00:44:15.640 Every single premier cares about this issue of economic migration.

00:44:21.180 And we're just hearing some things that I think people are getting troubled by.

00:44:25.800 The Indian High Commissioner saying that Canada has to be open to 15 million new people in the next 10 or 20 years.

00:44:33.380 You have talking about European associate membership.

00:44:38.780 As I say, there's some European countries that don't even want to be part of Europe.

00:44:43.100 And part of the tension in Europe is that you enter into one door and then you can go anywhere.

00:44:49.720 And the local jurisdiction is not able to manage that flow.

00:44:56.600 And then you also have the Prime Minister saying,

00:44:59.680 okay, well, we've dialed things down enough, we're going to increase them again.

00:45:03.400 So we're at the right moment in time for us to be saying,

00:45:08.040 Let's take a pause here. 0.88

00:45:09.560 Let's see if we can go back to the kind of immigration program

00:45:11.920 that served us well for 40 years, focusing on economic migration. 0.96

00:45:15.820 Let's make sure that when temporary residents come here, 1.00

00:45:18.660 they either go home at the end of their work permit 0.99

00:45:21.620 or have a pathway to permanent status and then ultimately citizenship,

00:45:26.600 at which point then, when they've committed to being a permanent taxpayer,

00:45:30.260 then they get access to all the social programs and can bring their families.

00:45:33.940 This is a conversation that's been going on in Quebec.

00:45:37.100 Yeah, no one was called racist in Quebec for having this conversation,

00:45:40.040 even though every single political party had a view on this.

00:45:42.880 No one called Mark Carney racist when he dialed back

00:45:45.520 both of those programs that were so out of control

00:45:48.280 because it needed to be done.

00:45:49.880 But now that we've at least got a little bit of moment to breathe,

00:45:53.600 now we have to figure out how do we manage this in the future.

00:45:57.320 And so I put him on notice.

00:45:59.060 I said that it's not just me.

00:46:00.180 It's going to be all of the other premiers saying

00:46:01.680 we're going to have this conversation on immigration.

00:46:04.060 So that'll be the next one.

00:46:04.980 The other one will be equalization, because I haven't spoken with the new Premier of Quebec,

00:46:12.840 but I have looked at what he has said about equalization, and he has said it has been

00:46:18.380 devastating for his province, that he does not think equalization has been a net positive to

00:46:23.760 Quebec. And that says to me that he wants to wean his province off of equalization, and darn it, 0.98

00:46:29.520 so do we. So we're going to have a conversation about that one too. Let's find a way. Let's find 0.91

00:46:36.200 a way to get every single province standing on its own two feet. If British Columbia and Alberta

00:46:41.840 can be net contributors, why can't Quebec, which is a bigger province? If Saskatchewan can be a

00:46:47.840 net contributor, why can't Manitoba, which is a bigger province? If Newfoundland and Labrador can

00:46:53.180 be a net contributor, why can't New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, their neighbours, which are bigger

00:46:57.560 provinces. There is no reason why the small

00:46:59.520 provinces, scrappy, small,

00:47:01.820 pull yourself up by the bootstrap,

00:47:03.600 develop your resources provinces, should

00:47:05.460 be transferring extra money to Ottawa

00:47:07.400 to be able to subsidize those who don't want to do

00:47:09.480 that. So now if we're going to be on this pathway,

00:47:12.040 building the country, building big

00:47:13.480 projects, getting resources developed,

00:47:15.500 this is the time for us to chart a

00:47:17.480 pathway to get everyone off of equalization

00:47:19.880 and supporting themselves.

00:47:21.100 And I...

00:47:21.660 I know it says

00:47:26.000 Zero, zero, zero here, but the Premier will know that every time we say,

00:47:29.720 this is the year-end interview, it's only going to be, I always say,

00:47:32.180 can I sneak in one more? Come on.

00:47:33.780 What he says is, well, we got started two minutes late, so I'm owed two more minutes.

00:47:38.240 Your speech went three minutes longer than we thought, you know.

00:47:42.780 But what will you do if the pessimist in me, or some people might say realist,

00:47:48.440 some people might say pessimist, or even cynic,

00:47:50.400 But what are you prepared to do if maybe this, you know, your optimism, you could be right.

00:47:59.000 We could be here a year from now and it could be fantastic.

00:48:02.520 But what happens if it doesn't?

00:48:03.940 What's your position if, yes, maybe the pipeline does proceed, maybe you get a couple of other things,

00:48:11.160 but on the vast list of grievances, which you've dealt with some of them and you mentioned in your speech,

00:48:16.880 but that it sort of stalls

00:48:20.860 and you don't get some of the things

00:48:24.760 that you really want

00:48:25.980 what happens then

00:48:28.560 because again if we get the vote

00:48:31.360 which is fine, option one

00:48:33.080 that won't be an option anymore

00:48:35.260 and you said we don't need that to have leverage

00:48:38.500 but what happens if the leverage doesn't work

00:48:40.740 again I think there's enough people in the room here

00:48:43.620 who maybe don't trust Carney with everything

00:48:46.700 Well, let me answer it this way, that I was always a supporter.

00:48:54.240 It's going to sound meandering, but I'll get there.

00:48:56.360 I was always a supporter of an equal effected elected Senate

00:49:01.680 until I watched us bang our heads against the wall,

00:49:04.520 decade after decade after decade, and make no progress on that.

00:49:09.200 And if you look at the pamphlet, the one that I gave to the Prime Minister

00:49:12.000 that was delivered door to door, it talks about how unfair it is.

00:49:15.540 So us, with 5.1 million people, we've got six seats.

00:49:19.160 Atlantic Canada, with 2.7 million people, half, they've got 30 seats.

00:49:24.420 It is a dysfunctional institution, and it's not going to change.

00:49:27.940 So let's abolish it.

00:49:28.780 And what was the Senate there to be?

00:49:30.860 It was there to be a check on the power of the House of Commons.

00:49:33.580 So who's the check on the power of the House of Commons if we get rid of the Senate?

00:49:36.820 The premiers, the Council of the Federation.

00:49:39.340 And I can tell you, when I look at the voting record

00:49:42.280 and the things that the six senators from Alberta talk about,

00:49:44.780 I don't know that any of them ever stand up for the things that Albertans really care about.

00:49:50.760 So I don't feel like we lose anything by getting rid of the Senate.

00:49:55.180 Surprise, surprise.

00:49:55.940 But I do feel, so here's where, as Conservatives, we can have some encouragement.

00:50:02.260 I don't know what will happen in BC, but it is pretty encouraging to see that we have a Conservative party

00:50:09.120 that is consistently pulling three to four percentage points ahead.

00:50:12.500 So imagine the world where you've got a conservative government in British Columbia, and a conservative government in Alberta, and a conservative government in Saskatchewan.

00:50:22.020 Let's take a leap over Manitoba for a minute.

00:50:24.440 Conservative government in Ontario.

00:50:26.680 The new version of the Parti Quebecois with our friend Eric Dahem, a conservative holding the balance of power, is a conservative-leaning government.

00:50:38.400 Up in the Yukon, Currie-Dixon, conservative government.

00:50:42.500 Nova Scotia, conservative government.

00:50:46.380 PEI, conservative government.

00:50:49.100 Newfoundland and Labrador, conservative government.

00:50:52.400 So what is that telling you?

00:50:54.400 It's telling me the only reason why the Liberals have pivoted to where they are,

00:51:00.620 stealing Pierre Polyev's policy,

00:51:04.360 is because he has to, because the conservative premiers in this country

00:51:09.580 are making him do that.

00:51:11.640 He has to work with the conservatives and the premiers in this country in order to deliver on an agenda that matters to both those premiers as well as his government.

00:51:22.460 So what is the ultimate check on power? It's us.

00:51:24.620 It's making sure that we continue to have strong, principled conservative governments elected at the provincial level.

00:51:31.380 And I think we're on the cusp of something pretty cool if we end up seeing one more of those governments switch over, even if it doesn't.

00:51:39.200 Like even if B.C. remains NDP, Manitoba remains NDP, there's a couple of consensus governments up in the territories, and then you've got the one liberal in New Brunswick.

00:51:51.900 That should tell us something, shouldn't it?

00:51:53.940 I don't know that I fully process what that means.

00:51:57.220 It just seems remarkable to me that consistently voters are voting for conservative governments at the provincial level on all the things we care the most about.

00:52:04.740 on health care, on education, on social services,

00:52:07.680 on taking care of our seniors, on public safety,

00:52:09.800 on our approach to mental health and addiction.

00:52:11.700 Our message is getting through, and our policies are working,

00:52:15.360 and we just have to keep on doing that,

00:52:17.040 and I think we'll be able to change the country and lock it in.

00:52:19.660 And, of course, if the wind blows the other way,

00:52:22.100 we'll have another discussion,

00:52:23.780 because, as you said, the Liberals tend to be, let's say,

00:52:29.600 accommodating to whatever the flavour of the month,

00:52:33.700 and if the flavor changes...

00:52:35.500 It's true, but again, this is why

00:52:37.640 organizations like Strong and Free are so

00:52:39.760 important, is because

00:52:41.860 we know that the guys on

00:52:43.780 the other side, we've seen it, is that they

00:52:45.720 will just blow with the wind. It's, oh, well,

00:52:47.960 gee, you know, I've always

00:52:49.840 supported energy development. Why would you think

00:52:51.820 that I wouldn't have supported energy

00:52:53.860 development? But we as

00:52:55.900 conservatives, we don't always

00:52:57.920 get credit for it. We take hard positions.

00:53:00.460 My boss, when I was in media, used

00:53:01.920 to call it being the pointy end of the spear. We are the pointy end of the spear. When we say

00:53:06.340 things, the first reaction is where people say, you can't say that, you can't do that. And then

00:53:10.600 as they start thinking about it, say, well, maybe there's something to that. And then ultimately,

00:53:14.400 we win them over. And we have to continue to have the courage to do that. We have to have

00:53:19.160 these kinds of get-togethers, these kinds of conversations, because that's what changes

00:53:24.600 things. When you have a meaningful public square where you can exchange ideas, you can say

00:53:30.680 challenging things, you respect each other's

00:53:33.020 viewpoints, you allow free speech,

00:53:35.200 that's when conservatives win.

00:53:36.640 Because we've got better ideas. And the proof

00:53:38.840 is just in how many governments

00:53:40.920 we've elected at the provincial level

00:53:42.680 and the fact that we've foundationally

00:53:44.720 changed the conversation of this country in the last

00:53:46.780 18 months.

00:53:48.140 Zero, zero, zero. It's done.

00:53:50.120 I hope you find your phone.

00:53:52.020 Not yet. Not yet. I'm praying.

00:54:00.680 Well, a big thanks to the Premier and to Rick

00:54:14.640 for an excellent session.

00:54:16.720 Thanks to all of you for sticking it out

00:54:19.540 through a very full program today.

00:54:22.800 My name is John Weissenberger.

00:54:25.700 I'm a board member at Canada Strong and Free Network.

00:54:29.180 And I have the pleasure of introducing our final fantastic session.

00:54:35.900 So this will be a discussion between Damian Couric, former MP, is a native of Consort Alberta,

00:54:46.560 longtime conservative activist, worked for former MP Kevin Sorensen.

00:54:52.680 He was elected in 2019 in Battle River Crowfoot.

00:54:55.980 and, as many of you will know, stepped aside to have Pierre Polyev run for a seat last year.

00:55:04.900 He continues to be a farmer and is also a public affairs strategist.

00:55:10.500 Now, for our special guest, people often say that someone needs no introduction,

00:55:16.420 but then they go ahead and introduce the person anyway.

00:55:20.340 And, of course, I'm tempted to do the same thing.

00:55:25.980 Preston Manning is in the long line of great leaders from Alberta

00:55:32.240 and from the West, starting with Frederick Haltain

00:55:37.340 through Premier Zeberhard Manning and down to the present day.

00:55:42.680 We had a few of them in the room with us, fortunately, today.

00:55:47.960 There's also, for some of us, let's say people of a certain age

00:55:52.600 we'll remember that Robert Stanfield, the former progressive conservative leader, was called

00:55:58.920 the greatest prime minister that Canada never had. Now, with all due respect to him and to Nova Scotia,

00:56:07.160 some of us have a bit of a different view that, in fact, it's our special guest who was the

00:56:13.360 best prime minister that Canada never had. So it's a real pleasure to welcome him here,

00:56:18.800 founder of the Reform Party of Canada, former leader of the official opposition, and of course

00:56:25.240 founder of our predecessor organization, the Manning Centre. So with that, I'll turn it over

00:56:33.080 to Damien and Preston. Thank you. Thank you very much. Appreciate this. And Preston, it's an honour

00:56:44.400 to be on the stage. And I know your lovely wife, Sandra, is here as well. And it truly is an honor

00:56:49.940 to be able to be in a room filled with so many incredible people. And it's an honor for me to

00:56:54.600 be able to sit on the stage with somebody as not infamous, but famous, especially in conservative

00:57:03.860 circles, as Preston Manning, one of the fathers of certainly the modern conservative movement,

00:57:09.560 and one of the most influential thinkers and people involved in modern Canadian politics.

00:57:16.420 So, Preston, it's a real pleasure to be here.

00:57:17.900 Before you get going, let me tell you a little story about our chairman, John Weisengrus.

00:57:22.360 Many, many, many years ago when reform was starting, we had no money,

00:57:26.320 so we wanted to hire a policy chief.

00:57:29.280 So where could we get a policy chief?

00:57:30.840 I'll bet you graduate students, they're always starving, and we could maybe get one of that.

00:57:35.040 And I called up the economist Bob Mansell at the university here

00:57:39.580 and asked, who's your brightest graduate student in economics

00:57:44.060 who might be interested in a political campaign, being a policy chief?

00:57:48.760 And he gave me one name, Stephen Harper.

00:57:51.660 But Stephen was living with his brother and John Weisenberger,

00:57:55.800 and we could get their services by buying them pizza for a weekend.

00:58:00.940 So that's the beginning story.

00:58:03.340 Okay, go ahead.

00:58:04.540 So the legacy of our party and the movement we are started with some pizza.

00:58:10.220 Almost, almost, yeah.

00:58:11.840 Because Conservatives were hungry.

00:58:13.200 Would you look at that, eh?

00:58:15.360 Look, this has been an incredible day of discussions that have touched on, I think,

00:58:19.880 some of the most impactful questions that have been asked in our country in a very long time.

00:58:26.800 And I know Preston and I have had some of these conversations through our engagement here in the past.

00:58:33.040 I know we did a panel together with Brett Wilson here a number of months ago, kind of a similar format.

00:58:38.840 And I know it's on the minds of not just Albertans, but so much on the hearts and minds of Canadians to say, look, what is the future of our federation?

00:58:47.500 So before we get into some of the prepared questions, Preston, a hot take, I guess,

00:58:52.180 having the chance to have heard some of our nation's most influential conservative voices

00:58:59.840 speak on this stage at Canada Strong and Free here in Calgary.

00:59:03.580 What are some of the hot takes or takeaways that you would pass on with your experience,

00:59:09.520 the filter of your experience, to everybody in this room?

00:59:13.720 Well, I'm optimistic about the future if Alberta and the West can provide leadership to the country.

00:59:20.820 I think the leadership from the rest of the country is bankrupt in many respects at the federal level.

00:59:27.580 So I'm optimistic if the leadership from Western Canada, and Alberta in particular, is accepted.

00:59:36.220 The options have been talked about.

00:59:39.580 I think you want to discuss those, but I guess the main thing is being optimistic if Alberta is listened to and the West is listened to.

00:59:47.960 At one of the other sessions, I recall that my father was premier for a long time,

00:59:56.380 but in 1938, the budget of the government of Alberta was $17 million.

01:00:04.040 $9 million was debt service.

01:00:06.360 So you ran the province of Alberta in the middle of the Depression on $8 million.

01:00:12.300 The $80 billion budget of the Alberta government today,

01:00:16.880 This is just within the generation, my generation.

01:00:21.720 The graph is going up, and I'm optimistic,

01:00:27.680 but on this condition that the leadership that's being offered

01:00:31.600 and being developed from Western Canada, particularly Alberta,

01:00:34.580 is received in other parts of the country.

01:00:38.480 And I think it's that leadership that really digs into

01:00:42.520 some of the existential questions that the foundation of our nation...

01:00:46.460 And I think that it's a misnomer to suggest that the separation conversation only is happening

01:00:51.360 or is only controversial in Alberta.

01:00:54.940 Because I think that, you know, you look at Quebec, obviously, is known,

01:00:57.860 but Newfoundland and Labrador, and it's been complicated.

01:01:01.760 You know, you look back in British Columbia, even back in the early days there,

01:01:04.620 maybe not recently, but the stitching together of our nation has not been a straight line.

01:01:10.500 There's complexities involved in that.

01:01:12.240 Well, I'm a little amazed by the double standard that Ottawa exhibits

01:01:18.340 with respect to Quebec threatens secession.

01:01:23.040 And when it's in Alberta, we're just talking about a referendum

01:01:26.600 as to whether even to have a referendum on that subject.

01:01:30.340 You'll notice in the last Quebec election, as far as I know,

01:01:33.420 was there any big panel of all the former Quebec premiers,

01:01:39.760 you know, Charest, Legault, whoever else they could dredge up,

01:01:44.380 was there ever a grand meeting of all the former prime ministers

01:01:48.820 pleading with the province of Quebec not to go in that direction?

01:01:53.660 There wasn't a hint of that.

01:01:56.820 But when there's a suggestion of not a referendum on secession,

01:02:00.920 a referendum with nine other questions

01:02:04.420 and one dealing with whether you should have even pursued that route,

01:02:08.500 that you have everybody and his dog pleading with the promise.

01:02:13.340 The double standard is something

01:02:15.700 that I've objected to for a long, long time.

01:02:18.960 So very true.

01:02:24.260 Could we get a couple glasses of water,

01:02:26.000 just somebody, if that would be possible?

01:02:29.120 Look, I think you're absolutely right,

01:02:33.700 and that is a good segue, I think,

01:02:35.680 into the first question.

01:02:38.500 and that's Alberta, or more generally, I think, the West,

01:02:43.220 and just the conversations that are being had

01:02:46.260 and where the dial has moved in terms of the impact

01:02:50.400 of what are conservative principles in national discourse.

01:02:56.560 You know, I think back to two years ago,

01:03:00.280 our country was, it was still controversial, according to some,

01:03:04.920 to be opposed to the carbon tax two years ago.

01:03:07.040 and look where we are today. Immigration, you were told if you talked about immigration,

01:03:13.080 you would be, like our premier said earlier, you would be called a racist, yet that's changed

01:03:18.340 dramatically. So the discussions that you're having with Albertans, the leaders that you

01:03:24.720 come into contact with, what and how can we take these big conversations in light of the vote

01:03:33.480 that's coming in three days, and to have that practical conversation to say,

01:03:37.860 look, to have a strong Alberta in a united Canada,

01:03:41.680 how do we make sure that it's not just talk today, but it equals action for the future?

01:03:47.700 Well, I think that's a very good question, and I'm a legislator.

01:03:54.560 I come from a family of legislators where you make laws.

01:04:00.020 If you're an elected person, anybody and his dog can write letters to the Prime Minister.

01:04:06.680 Anybody can get up and make policy statements, whoever.

01:04:09.980 If you're an elected person, one of the things you can do that other people can't is you can make laws.

01:04:16.440 And I worry about some of these general assurances that have been made.

01:04:20.100 There's been discussions here today that the cap on oil and gas production has been removed.

01:04:26.840 The statute that authorizes the caps has not been moved.

01:04:33.120 Those caps are authorized by a federal statute, the Impact Assessment Act.

01:04:38.320 That act has not been repealed.

01:04:40.760 And in fact, the sections of that act that authorize caps on oil and gas production have not been repealed.

01:04:48.080 So I would like to see a little more concrete action on the part of the federal government.

01:04:53.540 And there's been musings that they're not going to pursue the oil moratorium on the West Coast.

01:04:59.540 You better figure that out before you get a pipeline delivering bitumen to the West Coast.

01:05:05.380 But you'll notice they have not repealed the Oil Moratorium Act.

01:05:09.720 That's one statute that's set.

01:05:11.680 You could go after it.

01:05:13.320 It's a separate statute.

01:05:14.960 There's been no repeal of that.

01:05:17.500 And so I would be a little less skeptical about some of these assurances that are made today

01:05:22.880 but could be reversed tomorrow unless you repeal or amend the statutes,

01:05:28.800 the federal statutes that authorize federal intrusion

01:05:32.140 in areas of provincial responsibility.

01:05:39.920 So, Preston, building on that,

01:05:42.440 I know you and former Premier Gordon Campbell hosted a discussion.

01:05:46.420 I know the Premier was part of that and a number of very, very influential voices.

01:05:50.540 And I know that the what's next was a big part of that, the questions that were asked as a part of that conversation over those two days.

01:06:03.920 So what do you think, as we face down that vote on Monday, what is the message to now going outside of Alberta and those who have the ballot in front of them on Monday,

01:06:15.780 What is the message that you would share with the rest of the country

01:06:19.500 to be able to say, look, this is serious.

01:06:23.000 This doesn't end when the votes are cast, but this is a bigger issue.

01:06:28.060 Well, I might back up.

01:06:29.720 We had this video conference on September 19 and 20.

01:06:34.920 Gordon Campbell and I co-chaired it,

01:06:37.420 in which we invited presentations of the major options facing Alberta,

01:06:43.040 but we'd argue Alberta and the West.

01:06:45.780 And the Premier came and presented her option of remain

01:06:49.600 and build a strong and sovereign province within the Federation.

01:06:55.880 And there was quite a bit of elaboration on what does a sovereign province mean.

01:07:01.040 We then had two reasonable presentations on the secession option,

01:07:06.700 one by Professor Party, who was here today.

01:07:11.580 And there was questions and answers on all of these.

01:07:14.500 We also had a summary. There's a bunch of groups who say remain, stay, don't go, those kind of options.

01:07:24.240 But the question is remain and do what? Stay and do what?

01:07:30.300 The answers to that question were the fuzziest, but the clearest ones were sovereign province within the federation or the secession option.

01:07:39.260 One of the questions that came up in the discussion is, is there a third way?

01:07:47.940 Is there some position, one step beyond the Premier's position about a sovereign province?

01:07:55.100 And he had one step back from actually pursuing the secession option.

01:08:00.480 So that was part of the discussion.

01:08:03.420 Of course, this is very typically Canadian.

01:08:05.200 Why did the Canadian cross the road to get to the middle?

01:08:07.420 And this was an attempt to find the middle.

01:08:10.700 But those were the main options.

01:08:13.180 And I think it's important that the rest of the country understand

01:08:15.380 that these are the options that Alberta and the West are looking at.

01:08:19.860 So I know you're incredibly thoughtful.

01:08:22.580 You talked about being a legislator and the enforcement of laws and statutes.

01:08:27.960 And I think that often it's forgotten the compromise of federation, of the federation.

01:08:34.920 And, you know, in 1867, it was English and French, Catholic and Protestant.

01:08:40.540 Those were big divisions, plus the Atlantic, the two colonies there initially, PEI shortly after that.

01:08:48.000 So it's not outside of our history to see that there can be compromises struck where there's long-lasting benefits.

01:08:57.400 So do you think that's a message that would resonate with a nation that is listening to almost 24-hour news coverage right now about a question that's being asked?

01:09:07.760 Well, I think the rest of the country and the federal government has to understand that if there is not progress on some of these structural problems that the West is concerned about,

01:09:16.780 the lack of effective representation in the parliament, the inability to influence the Supreme Court, the inequities of the equalization formula,

01:09:25.560 There may be progress on some of these policy areas, even the agreements to get a pipeline,

01:09:32.720 and we could get into that discussion.

01:09:34.740 But unless there's progress on these structural things,

01:09:39.340 and that's where I think the West has got to present a stronger position than we have.

01:09:44.940 One alternative, maybe it's this position between the sovereign province and secession,

01:09:51.520 is the West should put together the set of constitutional changes

01:09:58.220 that it wants to feel at home in the federation,

01:10:01.800 and to make the federation a 21st century federation instead of a 19th century.

01:10:06.180 If we put that package together, Ted Morton's written on this.

01:10:11.740 We're trying to figure out what's the best name for it.

01:10:13.800 I've called it a Western Re-Confederation Accord.

01:10:17.900 Maybe it's not the best name.

01:10:19.740 But these are the constitutional changes that the West has to have

01:10:23.600 and feel the country has to have to get into the 21st century

01:10:26.600 and to present that to the rest of the country.

01:10:29.460 We want these constitutional changes adopted.

01:10:33.560 And by the current formula, if you have to have it,

01:10:35.700 seven promises with 50% of the population and the consent of the federal parliament.

01:10:40.900 I can just see the Senate agreeing to its abolition, but that's another question.

01:10:45.240 And I think that position should be presented to the rest of the country.

01:10:50.240 And Anne said with the threat, or maybe there's a better word for the threat,

01:10:54.600 if you will not amend the Constitution to address these long-standing problems,

01:11:01.600 you will be faced with a full-blown referendum on secession in Alberta.

01:11:08.280 And I would time it to coincide with such a referendum in Quebec

01:11:11.760 to force the federal government

01:11:14.380 to enforce the rest of the parliament.

01:11:15.900 We have been talking about this.

01:11:19.720 That wouldn't happen to do

01:11:22.680 with the number of seats in the Senate, would it?

01:11:25.200 Yes, that's right.

01:11:26.640 Yes, well, again, getting into storytelling.

01:11:29.580 When I got to parliament,

01:11:30.900 there was an unspoken rule

01:11:33.800 between the Senate and the House of Commons

01:11:36.300 that neither would criticize the other.

01:11:40.360 So because we were elected in part on the Senate reform package,

01:11:44.260 so every time I got up in the House and even mentioned the word Senate,

01:11:47.400 the Speaker would get up and rule me out of order.

01:11:49.940 Now, the one exception was when you're leading the opposition,

01:11:53.020 you have unlimited speaking time on bills.

01:11:56.300 So we waited and we waited and waited until a bill came along

01:11:59.900 with the word Senate in it.

01:12:01.460 And lo and behold, when they created Nunavut as a territory,

01:12:05.900 there was a little clause in this great big Nunavut bill

01:12:08.560 that none of it would get one senator.

01:12:11.860 And so I got up and gave the longest speech

01:12:13.960 I ever gave on Senate reform.

01:12:16.360 But the impossibility of getting that done

01:12:20.100 was just driven home to us.

01:12:22.500 So I think if you had this, call it whatever you want,

01:12:26.220 Western Re-Confederation Accord

01:12:28.460 that had about five or six of things,

01:12:30.240 equalization, fairer representation of Parliament,

01:12:33.700 and so forth, and put it to the rest of the country,

01:12:35.460 either you change the Constitution in such a way

01:12:37.980 that we feel at home in this federation,

01:12:40.520 or you're going to face two full-blown secessionist movements,

01:12:44.620 one in the West and one in the East.

01:12:46.760 You came into politics with a four-word slogan,

01:12:50.560 the West wants in.

01:12:51.680 That resonated.

01:12:53.320 I might have been a little bit young during your earlier campaigns,

01:12:56.380 but that certainly resonated.

01:12:59.140 And I know the concept and idea of collaboration

01:13:01.660 between Western provinces, between like-minded individuals.

01:13:06.060 And I know even for me in Parliament, understanding that rural Quebecers,

01:13:10.220 although quite often we wouldn't speak the same language,

01:13:12.720 there were some similar concerns that a rural Albertan and a rural Quebecer would face.

01:13:16.320 They were mining, we were oil and gas.

01:13:17.960 They had agriculture, we had agriculture.

01:13:20.100 They owned guns and drive pickups, we owned guns and drive pickups.

01:13:23.400 And I think there's that opportunity to build bridges to make that case.

01:13:27.580 Well, I even tried to make a speech in French in the House of Commons,

01:13:31.180 and the media said his accent wasn't too bad,

01:13:34.700 but did he mean to declare war on Chile? 0.94

01:13:37.740 But at least I tried.

01:13:44.260 But even like reform, West wants in.

01:13:47.360 In those days, of course, nothing new under the sun.

01:13:50.520 The government was running these deficits and running into debt.

01:13:53.020 So the other big plank in our platform was balance the federal budget.

01:13:56.380 We actually had a draft, a plan to balance the federal budget in three years.

01:14:01.620 We got a million votes in Ontario in the 1993 election.

01:14:07.040 Now, you're not going to win votes in Ontario when the West wants in,

01:14:10.460 but we won them on another plank where a lot of Ontario people felt exactly the same as the West.

01:14:16.340 You had to balance the budget.

01:14:17.780 So there is this common ground.

01:14:21.180 I think one area, and the Premier in a way alluded to it,

01:14:24.680 is the biggest source of federal-provincial conflict today,

01:14:29.840 and not just with Alberta, with virtually all the other provinces,

01:14:33.120 is the federal intrusion in areas of provincial responsibility.

01:14:38.340 And this intrusion is not just some happenstance thing.

01:14:42.420 It's authorized by federal statutes.

01:14:45.820 And the federal government intrudes in natural resource development

01:14:48.660 through the Impact Assessment Act.

01:14:50.480 It intrudes in health, which is supposed to be a provincial responsibility,

01:14:54.340 through the Canada Health Act.

01:14:55.480 It intrudes on municipal governance through the National Housing Act and the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which the government uses to go around the provinces to invest in municipal governments.

01:15:07.900 And it goes around the, it invades the area of property and civil rights.

01:15:12.720 Our constitution says property and civil rights is a provincial responsibility in the federal government, intruded on that through the Federal Emergencies Act.

01:15:22.100 And the one single thing that Ottawa could do, and I wish maybe our federal conservative friends in Ottawa could push this, is to enact a statute called An Act Respecting Provincial Jurisdiction.

01:15:38.140 And in fact, the bloc would amend it to say an act respecting provincial sovereignty.

01:15:43.440 Okay, use the word sovereignty.

01:15:45.360 Whereby the federal government amends or repeals the statutes

01:15:48.840 that authorize this intrusion in provincial jurisdiction.

01:15:52.880 I think that one single thing would do more to heal these deteriorating federal-provincial relations.

01:16:01.060 And I'll bet you'd get virtually every province that would support that as well.

01:16:08.140 So pivoting a little bit, but still very much on what you experienced with reform

01:16:21.500 and how we keep the right in Alberta, but I would suggest this is bigger than just Alberta too,

01:16:28.480 but to keep the right united and to keep our principles as conservatives,

01:16:32.600 to be able to balance those things, to fight for strong provinces, respect in the federation.

01:16:41.000 It was in the area that I used to represent.

01:16:43.040 There was actually a separatist, Gordon Kessler, that was elected.

01:16:46.280 I think it was 1994, I think, sorry, 1984, for a by-election.

01:16:52.020 I think the second shortest term in, it was a by-election.

01:16:56.020 So it was a by-election shortly before a general election.

01:16:59.660 But a separatist was elected to the Alberta legislature in part of the area that I used to represent.

01:17:05.880 So it's not out of the realm of possibility for a vote split, which we've seen the consequences of that.

01:17:13.040 So as somebody who has lived through that, navigated these national political conversations,

01:17:19.220 and continued to be a voice of wisdom in the conservative movement,

01:17:24.880 And how do we make sure we strike the right balance and all those things so we can stay united to be successful when the time comes to cut ballots in the next election?

01:17:34.500 Well, I think one thing we have to do, and in a way this conference illustrates in a positive way,

01:17:41.060 I think we have to get back to believing in genuine democratic discourse,

01:17:48.540 that it's possible to get a bunch of people together

01:17:52.360 and allow different positions to be presented

01:17:55.800 and to be debated and discussed.

01:17:59.060 And if you have to make a decision,

01:18:00.880 have a straw vote or a real vote at the end

01:18:03.400 and respect it, even if it goes against your will.

01:18:06.640 This type of phenomenon does not occur anymore

01:18:09.660 on the floor of the Alberta legislature

01:18:11.960 or any provincial legislature.

01:18:14.240 It does not occur on the floor of the House of Commons.

01:18:17.300 automatically there's this polarization on a partisan basis

01:18:22.100 or on a government versus opposition.

01:18:24.720 And so I think this art of genuine democratic discourse

01:18:29.380 has to be demonstrated and provided somewhere else.

01:18:34.340 And conferences like this,

01:18:36.580 we've tried to do that with this video conference.

01:18:39.780 With the technology today, it's possible to have,

01:18:42.740 in our case, we had an electronic audience

01:18:46.660 out there. We had an honest discussion. We came to some questions

01:18:50.820 and decisions. I think this recovering the art

01:18:54.920 of democratic discourse is essential to keep

01:18:58.500 unity in the conservative movement, but actually

01:19:02.720 important for the country as a whole. I don't want to just

01:19:06.760 pick out one word from your preamble, but you mentioned the word

01:19:10.160 pivot, which reminds me of something.

01:19:14.480 The current Prime Minister says we are going to pivot and be an anti-American associate member of the European Union.

01:19:30.840 Do any of you remember the movie called, what was it, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles?

01:19:37.960 Anybody remember that movie?

01:19:39.700 There's a scene in it in which John Candy and Steve Martin

01:19:43.520 are driving in on a car on a freeway at night,

01:19:47.920 and they're going the wrong way.

01:19:50.780 And the cars that are coming by them are opening their windows

01:19:54.160 and yelling at them, you're going the wrong way.

01:19:57.440 And Carney says, how did they know which way we were going?

01:19:59.460 And there's two great big transport trucks coming down

01:20:03.780 that's going the right way.

01:20:04.900 When Carney says we're going to pivot to some association with the European community, the European Union used to have about 20% to 25% of the production of the global GDP.

01:20:23.220 It's down to 16% now.

01:20:25.880 It's going the wrong way.

01:20:28.660 It's the Asia-Pacific region looking west, not east,

01:20:33.740 looking ahead, not back, that has grown from under 20% to 35% of global GDP.

01:20:42.560 Like we're going the wrong way with that kind of a pivot.

01:20:46.860 And when you mention the word pivot, this is something, again,

01:20:51.100 it's in Western Canada's interest to pivot back to a stronger relationship

01:20:56.520 with the United States no matter what.

01:20:58.800 Carney's not going to be there, or Trump's not going to be there forever.

01:21:02.720 And pivot to the West.

01:21:04.800 We look West.

01:21:05.640 We look to the Asia-Pacific.

01:21:07.400 So that's another area where I think there's got to be some transition

01:21:10.740 by the federal government if it wants to respond

01:21:13.260 to the West's aspirations for the future.

01:21:17.380 It's interesting that you say that because a comment that was made this morning

01:21:23.400 and the Premier alluded to it as well, that a province, a country is about more than just one leader at one moment in time.

01:21:31.640 And I think that that's true of our country, and I know some of the, you know, we're in a room full of Conservatives,

01:21:35.960 so obviously there's no illusions about who we want to be Prime Minister of Canada or Premier of Alberta.

01:21:42.580 And I know there's significant frustrations we face with the Americans,

01:21:45.800 but the alluding to a country is bigger than the individual who leads its government.

01:21:51.620 Well, yeah, and this may be too long-range a picture, but when reform started, it was a long-term project.

01:21:59.400 The object of reform was not just to create a Western populist party.

01:22:03.160 The aim was to get a governing party that had a Western populist base.

01:22:08.020 It took 20 years to get there.

01:22:10.320 It took 10 years to go from a meeting in a boardroom a few blocks from here of five people in 1987

01:22:17.720 until 1997, when it finally got to be official opposition.

01:22:22.600 We then had to create an intermediate vehicle

01:22:24.700 that reformers could go to

01:22:25.960 and former progressive conservatives go to

01:22:27.860 without losing faith.

01:22:28.960 So we created that Canadian alliance.

01:22:30.920 It took four years to do that.

01:22:32.900 Then Harper and McKay managed to put that together

01:22:35.180 with what was left of the old progressive Conservative Party

01:22:37.620 to form the Conservative Party of Canada,

01:22:39.560 which served in opposition for five years.

01:22:41.480 And it was until 2006.

01:22:44.480 This is now 19 years after we started that you finally got a governing party that was conservative in a Western populist base and a prime minister who originally ran as a reform candidate.

01:22:59.300 And maybe at this kind of conference, looking too far ahead is inappropriate.

01:23:06.140 But I would suggest this, particularly to you younger people.

01:23:08.660 They're going to live for a long, long time.

01:23:12.180 To look five years to ten years down the road, Trump will be gone.

01:23:19.080 And this business of mobilizing anti-Americanism to win the election, 0.63

01:23:23.640 which is, in my view, the most foolish thing that could be done, 0.54

01:23:26.440 but it's been done by the federal liberals. 0.77

01:23:28.520 But Trump's going to be gone.

01:23:30.120 Carney's going to be gone at least in 10 years, maybe sooner.

01:23:34.360 No, the governments aren't lasting more than 10 years now.

01:23:38.100 You know, Chrétien, Harper, Mulroney, Trudeau, it's a 10-year life.

01:23:43.580 And so the big challenge then will be how to rebuild,

01:23:49.220 how to repair the damage that has been done domestically by the Trudeau-type policies

01:23:55.040 and the damage that will have been done internationally by the Kearney government.

01:24:00.920 And the big long-term task for conservatives is going to be,

01:24:06.760 I call it the Great Canadian Rebuild and preparing for that.

01:24:12.200 And it doesn't mean you don't deal with the immediate things and the immediate situation,

01:24:16.140 but you want a long-term project, the Big Canadian Rebuild,

01:24:21.540 and it's going to have to be conservatives, in my view, that do it.

01:24:25.040 So just to maybe throw a little bit of history into this,

01:24:30.240 when Stephen Harper won in 2006,

01:24:34.740 one of the major issues during that campaign

01:24:38.440 was the fiscal imbalance.

01:24:41.780 And that was really a challenge

01:24:45.860 between perceived inequity

01:24:48.940 between different regions of the country.

01:24:51.660 So it's not like the conversation that we're having today

01:24:54.580 is a new one. We saw it 20 years ago, and I know you identified that in the foundation of reform

01:25:05.100 and the actions that were taken to build that movement. So if we saw the fiscal imbalance,

01:25:10.720 we saw the start of reform to have that Western populist base. These are not new issues. So as

01:25:18.760 we look forward you talk about the need for for that bigger conversation to have have something

01:25:25.680 that that charts that what for the young people in the room maybe that are looking 10 20 will be

01:25:33.220 those who are running for office and maybe just a few terms i know there's some young staffers in

01:25:37.880 the room that will be exceptional parliamentarians one day exceptional mlas what's your lesson and

01:25:43.720 message to them to say here's how to chart that forward to learn from our past to chart a path

01:25:48.360 forward? Well, that's a huge question. I'm just not sure which part of it to pick on. I guess

01:25:57.520 maybe one to the younger people here. I've been involved in trying to get, I've been involved in

01:26:03.200 candidate recruitment since 19, I'm trying to think when it would be, 68, which was a long time

01:26:13.220 and trying to get competent, able people to run for public office,

01:26:20.760 provincially and federally.

01:26:23.280 And there's been programs set up to try to encourage people to do that.

01:26:27.440 The Riddell Graduate Program in Political Management at Carleton

01:26:32.000 was funded by Clay Riddell from Calgary, Oil Patch Money.

01:26:38.040 One of the things we found with that program is young people enrolled in it

01:26:42.680 with the idea of maybe I want to be an elected official.

01:26:46.080 Hardly any of them in that program have ever become an elected official,

01:26:50.500 or even tried.

01:26:52.200 And you know why?

01:26:53.580 Because in that program, they got exposed to the pollsters,

01:26:58.700 to the consultants, to the campaign managers,

01:27:02.900 and they figured out, guess who makes some money?

01:27:06.660 Not the elected official, but the people that play in those roles.

01:27:12.420 And I understand that, and I understand the desire to make money and everything else,

01:27:16.780 but at least some of the next generation have better addressed themselves

01:27:20.880 to actually getting into elected office and preparing for it,

01:27:25.540 because if they don't, they're going to be replaced by people that they won't be very happy with.

01:27:30.220 So I would encourage people to pursue elected office and not just look at the dollars.

01:27:37.760 Well, so it's interesting just even that my father was born in 1969, so it's interesting

01:27:47.000 to see the generational difference, but the consistency of values and vision that people

01:27:55.460 across the room, whether on the younger side of the spectrum or those who have a little

01:28:00.740 bit of snow on the roof with a lot of wisdom to be able to share, encourage, and hopefully

01:28:07.120 inspire young people and people of all ages to get involved?

01:28:11.540 I don't know what it would take for more competent, serious people to contemplate running for

01:28:19.740 office, but my father dealt with four administrations, Mackenzie King's wartime administration,

01:28:29.980 Sainara who replaced him, Pearson and Diefenbaker,

01:28:35.680 and Pierre Trudeau, not as prime minister,

01:28:38.720 but as justice minister as he was for the first year.

01:28:41.900 My father's view was that the strongest administration during that time,

01:28:45.940 with the strongest set of MPs, even though he didn't agree with them,

01:28:50.200 was Mackenzie King's war cabinet.

01:28:52.800 And it took a war before some very competent people that normally wouldn't touch politics.

01:29:02.240 C.D. Howe was the guy, of course, who organized the defense production capacity of Canada,

01:29:08.300 a huge contribution to the Second World War.

01:29:11.320 Howe would call up the heads of corporations.

01:29:15.100 He created 30 crown corporations to manage defense production.

01:29:18.340 He would call up competent people and say,

01:29:21.160 you're going to come and work for this company.

01:29:22.920 When they asked him, what are you going to pay me?

01:29:24.760 We're going to pay you a dollar a year.

01:29:26.360 They're called the dollar a year, man.

01:29:28.280 And it's a shame if it takes something like a war

01:29:31.560 to revitalize the political class.

01:29:34.780 There's talk about this Pacific link to the Pacific.

01:29:39.280 What was the first pipeline, oil pipeline,

01:29:42.340 that was built to the West Coast?

01:29:44.460 It was the original Trans Mountain,

01:29:46.520 by the McMahon brothers,

01:29:48.220 McMahon Stadium's named after them.

01:29:50.100 Why did it get the urgency that it did?

01:29:52.300 They worked night and day to build that

01:29:54.480 because the Korean War was on

01:29:56.740 and there was an interest in getting oil

01:29:58.880 to the West Coast, mainly for the Americans.

01:30:01.980 But I just...

01:30:03.960 Does it take a war to encourage the best

01:30:07.640 and the brightest to run for public office?

01:30:09.980 I hope not.

01:30:11.340 I hope the prospects of the future

01:30:14.240 that the country has ought to be enough

01:30:16.000 to provide that incentive.

01:30:18.660 So, the final question.

01:30:20.880 Okay.

01:30:21.940 Quite often, discussions, disagreements,

01:30:25.860 the tough questions that are being asked at this conference

01:30:28.240 in the province of Alberta,

01:30:30.340 the challenges that sometimes are faced in policymaking

01:30:34.580 with whether it's the Indigenous partnerships,

01:30:38.820 whether it be social issues, moral issues,

01:30:41.500 whether it be trading relationship,

01:30:44.740 you can just basically fill in the blanks, they're often seen as liabilities.

01:30:49.480 But I think thoughtful, strong leaders look at every challenge, every liability,

01:30:54.080 and are able to turn that around into a strength.

01:30:57.480 So as we face the big questions, literally as a ballot on Monday,

01:31:02.700 but beyond that, how can, as conservatives,

01:31:06.620 and the young conservative minds in this room,

01:31:11.180 the brightest of the country, how can we turn those perceived challenges

01:31:16.480 into the strengths for the future of our movement?

01:31:20.660 Well, I could tie that directly to the referendum.

01:31:24.320 I think this debate on this issue has been very good.

01:31:29.940 It's a democratic exercise of looking at the...

01:31:34.160 I have done some interviews with some of our central Canadian,

01:31:38.420 in Toronto-based media, who raised the question,

01:31:41.660 why are you having this even referendum?

01:31:43.820 What is all that about?

01:31:44.800 But I say, there's this concept, you know, called democracy.

01:31:48.920 I think the Greeks invented it.

01:31:51.540 And I think it's legitimate because two professors

01:31:54.600 at the University of Toronto actually wrote books

01:31:57.420 with the word democracy in it.

01:31:59.880 And in a democracy, it is not an unpardonable political sin

01:32:04.040 from time to time to ask the people themselves

01:32:07.860 what they think about something and I think this exercise demonstrating that

01:32:14.160 you can have democratic discourse on controversial issues and come to some

01:32:19.020 kind of conclusions ought to be a encouragement and an example to the rest

01:32:23.040 of the country there'll be follow-up to this referendum interpretation of the

01:32:28.800 results what result would give the premier the greatest mandate what would

01:32:32.880 give her the most leverage in federal

01:32:36.880 negotiations. She was asked that question on her video conference and she said

01:32:40.820 well an 80% support for particularly option A.

01:32:45.080 Other people said no but what if there was

01:32:48.580 more support on the separatist thing so you could also say

01:32:52.820 look if you don't go along with what I'm offering there's this potential.

01:32:57.000 And so somebody said well maybe what if it was 50-50 you know.

01:33:00.240 And then the typical Canadian solution, what if it was 60-40?

01:33:07.040 A clear majority in favour of remain in the Federation, build a sovereign thing.

01:33:13.340 But out behind it, a pretty good, solid bunch saying that if that doesn't work, we're going to go the other way.

01:33:21.280 So interpreting the results of this referendum is going to be as important as the discussion leading up to it.

01:33:30.240 so the discussion continues when the polls close on monday evening ladies and gentlemen

01:33:35.600 this has been a real honor preston thank you thank you everybody let's give preston a huge hand

01:34:00.240 Damien Preston thank you guys that was an excellent way to close this out the

01:34:05.480 perspective that Preston offers and all the work he did in building this

01:34:08.940 movement and the promise of Damien working on the future but I think was a

01:34:12.720 nice way to end this so folks that's it for this conference it's been a long day

01:34:16.440 thank you all for coming thanks again to our sponsors and thanks to the team

01:34:20.340 Beth, Ariella, Ben, Vida, Dan all the volunteers thank you guys so much thank

01:34:26.480 you again everybody for buying a ticket and coming there's a reception right

01:34:30.060 across where we had lunch

01:34:32.040 today, so we'll see you all there for a drink

01:34:34.060 baby before we close it out. Thank you.

01:35:00.060 Thank you.

Western Standard - October 16, 2026

Western leadership and Canada’s future with Danielle Smith and Preston Manning

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