Western Standard - WS Fireside chat with Scott Aitchison, hosted by Derek Fildebrandt.

00:00:00.000 I think it's fair to say you know you might not be the most known of the candidates so I think

00:00:11.040 part of what this is is trying to help people get to know you Scott nice to meet you all say hi Scott

00:00:17.520 sounds like an AA meeting as this campaign began I think it's probably safe to say that

00:00:23.700 nobody knew me outside of Perry South Muskoka but that's changing so you might not be that well

00:00:30.980 known but you do have a long history in local politics and it's often said but seldom understood

00:00:36.240 that local politics is where things actually happen it actually affects people's lives the most

00:00:41.180 but you've been on council a long time you've been the mayor of Huntsville you've made the trek out

00:00:46.180 here to Calgary to make the case for getting the support of western conservatives what is it that

00:00:51.380 you are offering western voters that none of the other candidates are right now in in a short

00:00:58.100 sentence it's a years and years of experience of getting things done solving problems fixing things

00:01:03.620 actually focused on changing things for the better for people without any Ottawa baggage Ottawa is is a

00:01:13.140 broken place John made that point very well I think that the partisan political rancor that goes on there

00:01:19.460 uh is disgusting and that was probably one of the first things I noticed when I got there that I

00:01:24.580 I just simply could not believe the penchant for you know just the next great line that'll play well on

00:01:33.700 your twitter feed versus actually solving problems and focusing on getting things done to Canadians and so

00:01:40.180 I I think Canada's ready for some small town mayor who actually focuses on doing things things like the housing

00:01:47.060 crisis that exists in our country it's everywhere these liberals have promised billions and billions

00:01:52.020 and billions of dollars literally over the last seven years and have not solved the problem they

00:01:56.420 haven't moved the needle the CMHC has made that very clear they haven't moved the needle they've never

00:02:00.580 got anything done I appreciate that but my question is more uh geared to the west specifically I mean

00:02:06.580 it's it's a big country it's very diverse and uh we hardly agree on what the time of day is sometimes

00:02:12.660 um but it's the western standard debate we're trying to we're we're holding this because we

00:02:16.340 want to focus on on western issues obviously these things have national residents right national issues

00:02:21.140 are often western issues western issues are national issues but speaking more to western issues and you

00:02:26.740 can define that broadly but what is it you're offering to westerners kind of addressing some of the

00:02:33.220 concerns that are maybe more cute here to Albertans Saskatchewans I always have trouble calling them

00:02:40.100 and British Columbians right you want to address you know their more specific concerns what is it

00:02:45.540 you're offering that others yeah I I think that that's part of I guess what I offer is that I'm

00:02:49.940 is that I'm not an Ottawa centric guy I I'm actually just a small town mayor one of the first things I

00:02:55.540 did when I became a federal member of parliament the first trip I was able to do keeping in mind that

00:03:00.900 COVID had started as I came to Calgary I came to visit my colleague Tom Kamich came to visit Greg McLean and

00:03:07.700 I wanted to you know visit and learn more about what's going on here and I was surprised and

00:03:15.780 dismayed I guess at the number of people that said sorry you're from Ontario and what what are you doing

00:03:21.940 here you know they just didn't get it they said people in Ontario don't care about us and that's

00:03:26.260 fundamentally what I think we need to change I do care very much what goes on here in Alberta Alberta is

00:03:31.940 the economic engine of our country and I think Albertans are tired of feeling used and that's the

00:03:38.900 kind of that's the kind of leadership that I bring I'll be here and in making sure that I run an

00:03:44.740 inclusive engaged and and involved government that includes all parts of the country especially the

00:03:50.900 west so let's talk about that specifically equalization is a huge issue in Alberta and it's increasingly an

00:03:59.220 issue in British Columbia and Saskatchewan maybe less so in Manitoba maybe I've missed it but I haven't

00:04:07.460 heard you make any proposals around equalization forgive me if I have missed it Alberta held a

00:04:13.140 referendum last fall to abolish equalization from the constitution it was a pretty resounding majority

00:04:20.980 despite some problems with the government at the time how would how do you respond from the demand

00:04:25.700 of a large majority of Albertans to abolish equalization you're in the prime minister's chair

00:04:30.260 how are you responding yeah I think I think it's I think it'd be tough to abolish equalization

00:04:34.100 that's one of the founding principles of why we why the provinces got together and created this federal

00:04:38.500 government in the first place well actually I believe it was added to the constitution 1930s

00:04:42.100 I don't mean to be pedantic but it wasn't but in fact an equalization formula started almost

00:04:47.700 instantly one of the reasons the provinces came together to create this federal government was to help

00:04:51.780 frankly with with some of the issues related to debt the the federal government was born with 75

00:04:58.180 million of the 80 million dollars worth of debt that the colonies provinces had it was it was created

00:05:03.380 in part to help you know ease the burden and spread some of the wealth so it exists but the problem

00:05:09.220 is of course is you've got generation after generation of federal governments and politicians

00:05:13.780 that are constantly trying to buy votes in different parts of the country and they use

00:05:17.700 the equalization formula and they play around with it and it's been changed over and over again

00:05:22.100 to buy votes where they want to buy the votes and this is frankly the problem with our federalism

00:05:27.060 John spoke to it I think very well about the fact that the provinces actually run this country

00:05:31.540 they do and it was designed that way I think it's time for us to get back to how the founders actually

00:05:36.100 envisioned this country in the first place and so I I say yes we need to meet with all the premiers but

00:05:40.820 we need we need to we need to take a look at that equalization formula and bring it back into uh into you

00:05:45.620 know how it was envisioned initially no more special deals this is one area where I actually disagree

00:05:49.940 with my friends initially I it's time for the special deals is over no more special deals for

00:05:55.620 Quebec Albertans don't want a special deal they just want a fair deal that everybody gets the same deal

00:06:01.860 that's what I fight for all right I think I know I'm paraphrasing but Ernest Manning um who was the

00:06:08.820 premier of uh Alberta for many many years with the social credit uh hey we got a fresh water for you

00:06:14.900 um he uh you know he was around when they were putting the the the equalization formula together

00:06:20.100 and I recall he said something along the lines of uh the premiers were told just said here's how much

00:06:25.540 we want Ottawa just go find a formula to make it happen and it's and it's been a very Byzantine

00:06:30.980 formula the entire time yeah it doesn't make any sense probably less than uh even those of us who

00:06:35.300 think we understand it probably don't entirely it's it's quite complicated um your campaign is

00:06:40.580 really focused on trying to unite conservatives and have maybe a more civil discussion um but in

00:06:49.140 trying to be the nice guy your campaign maybe carries a risk of being the Switzerland candidate

00:06:53.780 caught between the big guys trying to bring everyone to peace um and that maybe carries the risk of

00:07:00.580 maybe being lost in in the noise uh between maybe the different kind of polar opposites within the

00:07:06.180 campaign how do you stand out from the other candidates on the big issues that have largely

00:07:10.980 defined this campaign i i think the fact that i've actually focused on the issues very specifically

00:07:16.980 i think some of the other campaigns have have uh you know focused on each other and i've focused on

00:07:22.260 issues very specifically and come up with specific ideas to solve those problems whether it's the housing

00:07:26.980 crisis i've come up with very specific policy proposals i actually understand it pretty well having done the

00:07:32.660 real estate business and been a municipal politician i know it well i've come up with some very specific

00:07:37.460 policy proposals on addressing some of the sacred cows that exist in our system like supply management

00:07:43.460 i think it's oh i got a question on that to move away from that system it's my favorite uh it's time for

00:07:48.020 us to move away from that system i think it's going to be chipped away at every new trade deal we do it's

00:07:52.100 time for us to actually be honest with ourselves and say we need to create new markets which again is

00:07:56.740 another one of the reasons we created this federal government to create new markets for our world-class dairy

00:08:01.380 products around the world and create some competition because we have to make food more affordable for

00:08:06.020 canadians getting tougher and tougher to feed our families inflation's out of control so i'm putting

00:08:10.980 together it's very specific policy proposal i'm not talking about the other candidates i'm talking about

00:08:15.300 ideas that actually are solutions to problems okay well i i had that as uh my last question if we had

00:08:22.020 time we're going to go straight to that one okay uh those who know me know that it's it's a real it might

00:08:27.140 not be the biggest the biggest most pressing political issue in canada but i think it's

00:08:32.100 it's difficult for conservatives to look someone in the eye and say i believe in free enterprise

00:08:36.500 except for this entire section of the economy that should be run along soviet lines

00:08:41.940 but it's obviously fraught with political risk it's obviously had impact on previous conservative

00:08:47.060 leadership campaigns um i think this issue unless i'm missing something from the other candidates i think

00:08:54.500 you're you perhaps stand alone uh maybe we missed something with roman before roman i think yeah

00:08:58.740 roman i think is actually mentioned on the cory morgan show as well why do you believe uh the

00:09:04.340 conservatives have to to get around this issue supply management in particular because it is an

00:09:09.540 it is probably the most powerful lobby in canada it is extremely able to it can exert its influence

00:09:16.740 on the pressure points in canadian politics and uh and you're obviously um you're playing with fire

00:09:24.260 doing it but i think it's it's clearly something that needs to be addressed why do you think

00:09:27.220 conservatives need to address it well i think individual canadians voices should matter more

00:09:30.500 than the lobbyists for starters and that needs to change but i think this this is one of those issues

00:09:35.220 that it's it's i think i called it a sacred cow um but it is because of the lobbyists and it is because

00:09:41.380 you know they've created this system that provides stability i understand that provides security and

00:09:46.020 they like that there's no question about that but i i haven't tried to demonize farmers either i think

00:09:51.220 our farmers have done an amazing job of of of creating a system where they produce literally

00:09:58.020 world-class products uh within a system that is flawed uh and i'm not suggesting for a second we

00:10:04.740 throw farmers to the to the wolves either i'm thinking we need to transition away we need to create

00:10:09.620 new markets and we need to we need to do it in a rational responsible way and it won't be cheap but

00:10:15.380 it's something that we have to do because i think that it's it's also important to introduce

00:10:20.100 competition into the market as well because frankly the i think the biggest issue that can

00:10:25.780 ease face across this country right now is an affordability crisis and we need to make food cheaper

00:10:33.700 uh as i was talking about with mr shere uh you know from 2020 to 2022 we've had a long series of

00:10:41.140 lockdowns from the provinces mandates federally and provincially it is hugely divided canadians but

00:10:46.020 it is especially divided conservatives it has been uh you know left-leaning parties have generally

00:10:51.620 not had the kind of party discipline issues and unity issues the parties on the center right and the

00:10:56.420 right have um you know because it's been framed uh by many and i have to admit me too as very much an

00:11:04.980 author a lot of authoritarianism coming and so it divides conservatives sometimes along traditional

00:11:10.500 conservative and libertarian lines um you know you've portrayed yourself as someone able to to

00:11:16.980 unite conservatives and find compromise that you know comes from experience in municipal politics

00:11:22.820 but this issue is probably a little less maybe prone to compromise one side uh sees the other as

00:11:28.740 you know maybe racist sexist anti-science and selfish and the other side sees the other as heartless

00:11:34.740 cold authoritarian and so there's there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for compromise on something

00:11:39.300 that has become so incredibly polarizing uh do you believe you'd be able to find a satisfactory

00:11:47.380 compromise on this kind of issue that would be able to keep conservatives together where

00:11:52.260 perhaps aaron o'toole and jason kenney could not yeah and i think and this is where this is where it has

00:11:58.100 to begin and this is part of the problem with our politics overall for several generations now but i think

00:12:03.940 one of the reasons why this became such a difficult issue is because justin trudeau turned it into an

00:12:10.100 issue that way he chose to demonize canadians who chose not to get vaccinated to try to win votes with

00:12:16.660 those who are vaccinated that's disgusting it should never have happened but that's how our politics works

00:12:23.300 in this country we seek to capitalize as politicians on the differences of opinion that exist whether it's

00:12:30.100 east versus west urban versus rural vaccinated versus unvaccinated and and demonize people so

00:12:37.300 to me that's that's something that should never have happened it's something that i would never to

00:12:40.820 operate as a prime minister i believe that it's time to start calling this country together all the

00:12:45.220 things that do unite us the other issue here too though is that when it when it came to this issue i

00:12:50.180 think mr sherech spoke about this very well also nobody had a playbook we didn't really know what we

00:12:54.180 were facing and i think it's important for us to remember that freedom is absolutely fundamental to

00:13:01.460 our society but with freedom comes responsibility and so in my mind thank you i what i said about about

00:13:09.780 covet all along has been this i trust my doctor i trusted him when he told me i needed to have surgery

00:13:15.620 i trusted him when he said you need to get this vaccination okay but i also respect the rights of other

00:13:21.220 canadians to choose their medical choices that is a fundamental right as well and so i also believe

00:13:29.460 and trust me i hated wearing a mask and i am just as frustrated as mr shere getting on a plane

00:13:34.100 not playing i complain about justin trudeau quite vigorously on the plane when i do it

00:13:38.180 but if i have to wear a mask a little bit longer to respect your choice not to get a vaccination

00:13:43.940 then i'm prepared to do that and i think we should all be prepared to do that to respect your choice

00:13:48.660 and make sure that we get through something like a pandemic that we don't entirely understand

00:13:53.300 and make sure that we get through it mr shere also made the very good point about our health care

00:13:57.780 system and this is another one of those areas of federal responsibility where we created a system

00:14:02.980 in the 60s predicated on a promise for the federal government pay 50 of the cost and we promptly

00:14:07.860 never lived up to that promise we have a broken health care system and we wear it as this badge of

00:14:13.140 honor like we have the best system in the world and it simply is not and the federal government

00:14:17.380 needs to stop meddling in provincial affairs promising to pay 50 of the costs and get back to

00:14:22.740 the job that it was created for in the first place like creating new markets for our dairy products

00:14:27.140 like focusing on spending two percent i'm going to follow your first yeah i want to follow your

00:14:31.780 sidewinder here um and on to health care here uh would you be uh you know would you be willing to

00:14:39.060 amend the canada health care act to allow private delivery of services uh with or without uh the

00:14:45.220 single-payer system absolutely one thousand percent that needs to happen we in fact we need to we need

00:14:50.980 to drive more private delivery of services into the single-payer system to create those efficiencies

00:14:56.980 ontario did a reasonably good job of creating some some efficiencies within their system through their

00:15:02.980 funding formula that drives basically the funding formula is is driven by volume and so that's

00:15:09.300 driven some efficiencies into the system but we need more of that and we need more private care

00:15:13.940 and and frankly the federal government needs to pony up its share of what it promised to share in the

00:15:17.940 first place which is never done and so if we did that then the provinces wouldn't wouldn't be facing

00:15:23.860 fiscal unsustainability either so it needs to be reopened and the federal government needs to come to

00:15:29.300 the table with its with its with its promised share uh to make sure that we have a system that doesn't

00:15:34.260 have to be locked down to save it uh like we did through this covet 19 business so uh right now the

00:15:40.900 boundaries of the seats in the house of commons are being redrawn and redistributed based on population

00:15:46.260 changes the bloc québécois put forward a motion that would override the uh legislated formula uh that

00:15:52.820 would give quebec an extra seat uh that its shrinking population does not warrant this comes at the direct

00:15:58.260 expense of provinces that are growing in population like british columbia alberta saskatchewan all of

00:16:04.420 the parties uh except for the conservatives voted pretty much all for this the conservatives however

00:16:09.540 were divided uh i did a little research on this i think you voted against it i was one of the few that

00:16:15.540 voted against it absolutely i want you to maybe explain why why you did that because the conservatives were

00:16:22.820 divided pretty sharply along those lines um why did you vote against that obviously it's gonna be a

00:16:29.220 popular vote to vote against that here in alberto but it's also about it's another example of special

00:16:33.780 deals for different different regions of the country either we believe in rep population representation

00:16:39.380 by population or we don't i believe in representation by population i used to have this argument when i was

00:16:46.980 the mayor of huntsville in muskoka it's a region of lakes and really you know very outrageously expensive

00:16:53.380 cottages that exist on waterfront properties and the the townships always felt like they paid the

00:16:58.500 biggest freight so they should have more votes and i said well that's representation by wealth i don't agree with

00:17:03.460 that either representation by population full stop all right um after that softball i'm gonna give you a little

00:17:10.980 little tougher here okay uh canada's not run a balanced budget since 2008 under both liberal

00:17:17.140 and conservatives uh governments we've run a long stream of deficits they're now just much larger

00:17:22.900 wildly out of control the last election however uh the conservative party under aaron o'toole did not

00:17:28.420 run on a balanced budget they paid some kind of lip service to it but there was nothing even vaguely

00:17:33.940 representing a credible plan to return to balance budget in any kind of realistic time frame as prime

00:17:40.020 minister would you balance the budget within your first term and if so what are the the key key uh

00:17:46.100 action items you would take to get there the the answers are guarded yes i think it's absolutely

00:17:51.460 possible i think it's possible it would be possible to balance it now the economy is firing on all

00:17:56.260 cylinders and yet this liberal government borrowed another you know 50 billion because they think they

00:18:01.300 need to stimulate the economy uh in fact it probably could be it could be balanced within that first

00:18:06.260 mandate based on what's going on in this country um there's there's no question that that this this

00:18:12.740 government this this current liberal government has borrowed way too much money and but it's also

00:18:18.420 important to acknowledge that there's good there's good debt and bad debt if we're if we're boring to

00:18:22.180 invest to grow the economy that's that's one thing uh but this government just spends recklessly

00:18:27.460 and continues to grow the federal public service with reckless abandon and and and honestly we need some

00:18:33.940 smart fiscal managers to rein in the spending and focus on the response core responsibilities the

00:18:39.940 federal government was created for now the economy is firing pretty hot right now but the deficits are

00:18:46.500 so massive that it's unlikely that economic growth alone is going to get us there i i think it's fair to

00:18:52.580 say uh there's going to need to be perhaps even beyond spending restraint some spending cuts because

00:18:58.260 spending we're spending more now we're borrowing more now than we have it even at the highest point of

00:19:02.500 the second world war or the first world war it's it's at record levels uh are you prepared to cut

00:19:08.580 spending if necessary to get there and and if so what are some of the significant items uh that you

00:19:14.980 would put on the block well i i think in a in what is now an over 400 billion dollar budget there's lots

00:19:21.460 of room to trim not cut uh to to rain spending in and i this is calgary we want cut yeah well i get that

00:19:28.660 um i and i but i couldn't tell you what i would i would cut other than i would say we need to trim

00:19:33.460 in a lot of areas the the liberal government has grown the federal civil service outrageously so

00:19:39.540 and we need to rein that in there's no need to have uh the bureaucracies we have and again i come

00:19:43.860 back to this issue of if we were to live up to the original promise on our healthcare spending

00:19:48.820 we could we could get out of an awful lot of other businesses that we meddle in the provincial

00:19:52.420 responsibilities now and we wouldn't need bureaucracies to to you know to try to manage

00:19:58.820 what we're trying to do in provincial jurisdiction think about how many think about how many bureaucrats

00:20:03.380 there are between the provinces and the federal government to determine how much money the federal

00:20:08.180 government is giving the province whether the province got enough money and when this was done

00:20:12.740 right so they have to go back to the bureaucrat bureaucracy here for this and back and forth back and

00:20:16.580 forth the fact is bureaucracies giving money back and forth to each other costs us billions

00:20:22.020 let's just stop that i want to make sure i understand something you said are you proposing

00:20:25.620 that the federal the original canada health act and the agreement the provinces was 50 50. we're

00:20:31.140 obviously nowhere near that but for ottawa to meet that obligation which was supposed to from the 60s

00:20:37.620 pearson uh that would be a massive increase in federal spending if i understand you correctly were

00:20:42.500 you saying that the federal government should be paying 50 50. and i think that would be part of

00:20:45.460 the discussion absolutely i i and i think that if we did that then the provinces could afford to

00:20:50.100 deliver all the other services that we meddle in now we could get out of all those other businesses

00:20:55.060 right now there's no reason for the federal government to be involved you know you know

00:20:58.580 funding over here for this social program funding for that funding for education we fund all these

00:21:02.900 different little areas uh and it's a constant fight about how much we give if we if we focused on

00:21:08.420 the original promise and renegotiated the canada health act and we we could eliminate huge swaths

00:21:15.220 of a federal bureaucracy meddling in provincial affairs so i want to talk kind of bring it back

00:21:21.140 to more specifically western issues right now um alberta last fall in addition to the equalization

00:21:28.820 referendum we had municipal elections and a senate election every once in a while the rest of canada

00:21:34.100 kind of cocks its head sideways and says what the heck is that uh we had a senate election and to the

00:21:39.860 the surprise of everyone three conservatives one um no it's been the long-standing policy of

00:21:48.820 conservative prime ministers going back to at least the later part of brian mulroney when we were in

00:21:52.740 the kind of the middle of meech lake and charlottetown that they would appoint provincially elected uh

00:21:58.420 senators or senators and waiting if you call them what you will um my question is two part one is would

00:22:03.700 you honor that if your prime minister would you elect would you appoint elected alberta conservatives to the

00:22:08.580 senate uh and and second and i know this is a bit of a pandora's box here would you entertain the idea

00:22:16.420 of more fundamental senate reform right now alberta with the population of greater than all four atlantic

00:22:21.860 provinces combined has less seats than just new brunswick or just nova scotia it's it's quite the

00:22:27.540 opposite of representation by population it's like the inverse of how much money you pay is the seats you

00:22:32.660 get it's a it doesn't really make much sense it's almost medieval but i understand that's a

00:22:36.740 constitutional pandora's box so two two two parts of that question it is i i'd be inclined to honor

00:22:43.220 the uh you know the the elections um i haven't given it a lot of thought because it is a quagmire

00:22:49.860 and i think you know stephen harper tried his level best to reform it and really didn't get very far

00:22:54.900 with it um and so you know constitutional discussions in this country are difficult and

00:23:01.780 mr sherry's cut the scars on his back to prove it i think um and so i it is a difficult thing i i think

00:23:09.940 that i would i would focus more on uh you know fixing the things that you can fix as opposed to

00:23:16.900 tackling you know issues like that that you know take you down a rabbit hole and you don't ever get

00:23:21.380 sold so major center reform would be more or less off the table which is i think a fairly standard

00:23:26.180 position because it is quagmire but appointing elected senators uh to the senate that that is

00:23:31.300 something i'd be inclined to support that yeah um is there anything else you want to leave us with

00:23:37.220 before uh forward you you're actually so good at answering questions i uh i didn't have to bring it

00:23:42.180 back to my campaign team tells me stop answering questions focus on your own issue i i yeah well no

00:23:46.980 i don't really have anything else to say either but i've listen i've really enjoyed this very much i

00:23:51.300 appreciate the opportunity i've enjoyed getting to know my fellow candidates better i've been

00:23:55.540 enjoy getting to know canadians and conservatives across the country better and uh i'm proud of

00:24:00.020 what we're doing and uh and i'm looking forward to continuing right through till september the 10th

00:24:04.340 well thank you very much for joining us today and uh good luck on the campaign trail thanks

Western Standard - July 19, 2022

WS Fireside chat with Scott Aitchison, hosted by Derek Fildebrandt.

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