Danielle Smith’s UCP leads Alberta’s May 29 election with a stability-focused campaign—avoiding COVID-19 debates while pushing economic policies like the Agri-Food Processing Tax Credit, contrasting Rachel Notley’s NDP’s selective media access and "Orwellian" censorship tactics. Smith reaffirms opposition to the federal carbon tax, calling it a $400 rebate gimmick that fails to offset rising electricity costs while ignoring urban pollution hypocrisy. Over 70 church arsons nationwide saw minimal penalties, unlike pastors jailed for hosting services, raising concerns about anti-Christian bias. Justice Minister Tyler Chandrow warns of potential NDP reversals on firearms and economy, while Rebel News’ Adam Sos and Alex Dollywall praise Smith’s inclusivity but note rural voter discontent. The election hinges on Calgary’s swing vote, with Alberta’s future tied to economic resilience and legal consistency over progressive policy experiments. [Automatically generated summary]
Where we go through the news of the day and talk about stories that matter.
I'm Sidney Fazard with Rebel News, and today is Friday, May 5th.
At the end of this month, the provincial election will be held here in Alberta.
This election will decide Alberta's new premier and set the stage for the province's future as we attempt to exit the COVID narrative era.
My co-host for today's show is probably one of the best people in the province to talk to about these matters, Born and Raised Albertan, and Calgary reporter for Rebel News, Adam Sos, joins me now.
Great to be here.
Thanks so much for having me.
Really looking forward over the next couple of weeks to having critical conversations about this election.
Clearly, there's news happening right across this province.
But for this week, in the next three weeks, we're going to take these Fridays as kind of a throwback to the Alberta roundups and talk about critical issues.
Not necessarily exclusively election focused, but certainly issues that revolve around elections.
Our very own Shield of Gun Reid will also be joining me for the next few weeks as well as we have these Alberta-focused editions.
But Sid, I really do think, I don't know if you share the sentiment, but you strike me as a bona fide Albertan now.
Would you agree with that sentiment?
I'd say certainly.
Although I can't neglect my Ontario roots, I'm Ontario born and raised.
I love that province, even though it has certainly a lot of issues to say the least.
Now, Alberta, it's a beautiful province, amazing people.
And the politics, even though they're a little scary at times, are certainly a lot better.
But before we jump into some of that and actually some of the questions you posed to the Premier, I just want to say quickly for the viewers and your convenience, we do stream on several different platforms, YouTube, Odyssey, Getter, and most importantly, Rumble, where we can directly interact with you.
We'll answer our comment live on air throughout the hour, thanks to their paid grant services.
For those of you watching on YouTube, there are still a lot of censorship issues on that platform.
If you want to see the full conversation, please consider going to Rumble or one of these alternatives.
So now that that's out of the way, Adam Sos, you've actually been getting a lot of questions into the Premier lately as we're in the election season here.
You want to tell me a little bit about that?
And we have a short clip we'll bring in in a second.
Yeah, it's been incredible.
Despite the sort of narratives about not being able to access Danielle Smith and her not answering questions, which we'll talk about in a bit from Rachel Notley, myself, Alex Dolly, well, a number of other journalists are able to get questions in.
And effectively every event I've been to, I've been able to ask questions.
So I guess we can just start rolling and start sort of commenting on some of these questions that we've gotten.
I think we've got a video ready to roll on that, so we can hop to that right away.
Good morning, Adam Sos from Rebel News.
A lot has been made about the sort of Danielle Smith versus Justin Trudeau narrative or the Danielle Smith versus Rachel Notley narrative.
I wanted to touch on perhaps a different angle.
What about conservatives in Alberta who are apprehensive to support the UCP or I've often heard the terms are supporting the UCP only as a lesser of two evils?
What do you say to them?
Well, look, you've got two choices in this election.
I think we've got a choice with a UCP government that will move Alberta forward or an NDP government that will move the province backward.
And we've seen the difference between our two records.
The NDP has demonstrated what they will do when they're in government.
They increased taxes.
They brought in a corporate tax increase.
They brought in a carbon tax that we can't get rid of.
They brought in changes to how farms are operated.
And they've threatened now to do that once again.
We know exactly what we'll get under the NDP.
We'll get an environment where people are thinking twice about staying here.
We saw 13 quarters where people left our province.
We saw a decline in investment, decline in revenue, and decline in ability to pay for the things that people care about.
That's what they're voting.
That's what the choice is.
They can vote for us and they'll have the same stability that they have had over the last four years, knowing that we are going to keep taxes low.
We're going to be relentlessly focused on jobs and economy and investment and bringing people here and creating an environment where we're going to continue to grow.
So, that to me is the two big choices in this election.
And I want people to vote for another United Conservative majority government.
Yeah, so I found it interesting.
I honestly, when I asked that question, the notion, I heard the lesser of two evils.
Two people actually, before the event got started, use that language with me that they're supporting Danielle Smith.
Some of them were flat out opposed to the UCP, but now they just really do not want the NDP in.
So, that term is a term that I've heard very frequently, the lesser of two evils.
I was kind of hoping Danielle Smith would be like, no, we're not evil.
We're actually an opportunity for her to take a stronger position.
But I think, in line with the UCP strategy, and I imagine this is the UCP strategy, so many media outlets in Rachel Notley are out there just launching personal attacks, trying to stir up scandals.
I think their strategy is to remain incredibly simple, not potentially lob any softies out there that someone might take and run with and create a new headline that all these outlets will run with.
I think they're just trying to be safe and stay on message and stay on policy.
Virtually everything they go back to is economy, taxes, jobs, economy, taxes, jobs.
They always defer to those sort of talking points.
So, again, it was an answer.
It was a direct answer, but I feel like it wasn't maybe tackling the issue as head on.
It's not the American style politics of sort of bringing their personality into it.
They're like, no, no, no, let's just focus on the topics on the policies.
What did you think?
Well, and to add to that, especially over the last two years, there's been division and division and division.
Every corner of our lives have been like that through the COVID era, as it were.
So, I can understand, you know, trying to be as peaceful, as much of a firefighter as possible, putting out the flames wherever they may arise.
So, I can understand that sentiment to a large degree.
And especially because of that division, I mean, during January and February, we'll end up talking about this soon, with the Freedom Convoy, the Coots Blockade, all of these demonstrations, that really shifted politics.
And now everyone kind of just wants to take a break and relax and forget about the pandemic and move on.
And part of that moving on process is going to be, you know, being a normal, nice person that isn't trying to be too divisive in a sense, but also holding a firm line in the values that actually matter.
Because if you don't do that, then you don't really represent anything.
And, you know, the lesser of two evils, I understand that to a degree.
A lot of people feel that way about politicians these days because nobody can provide you exactly what you're looking for because we are all so unique.
We all have such different perspectives.
And to really capture everyone in one movement, that is a difficult task.
Yeah.
And I think, I think you hit the nail on the head there.
I think there's this notion of: is it the lesser of two evils or is it compromised to build this?
And we hear this term all the time.
I know it's the most like overstated thing, but build this big tent where everyone can feel included.
And I think by focusing on jobs, by focusing on economy, by getting more money in people's pockets, and then getting away from some of these other sort of contentious issues.
Not that you or I might necessarily agree with that, but when you're trying to win an election, there may be some strategic merit to that.
Now, particularly, and as we said before, it's magnified by the constant personal attacks that Daniel Smith has been enduring.
So, the intention to simply sidestep that and move forward.
We'll talk about this a little bit as well, but even on the whole notion, Rachel Notley again tweeted out, oh, Daniel Smith is not taking questions.
There's just a dishonesty.
Another thing, and we're going to talk about this, it's one of the next questions I plan on asking the premier.
The NDP is also announcing announcements that are projects the UCP has already been working on, and the media doesn't call them out.
So it's almost like they're playing pool or they're having a race, but the UCP with the environment that's been created is running uphill.
Now, there is a little bit of that when you are the current government, you're the one guarding the top of the hill.
So everyone's sort of coming for you.
But it is interesting.
I know for lots of people out there who are extremely impassioned or are focused on a sole issue, the fact that Daniel Smith is maybe moving away from those issues, whether it be amnesty, whether it be some of the response or the purported and attempted responses to the COVID-19 restrictions.
The attempt to move away from that, while for many people, might be disheartening or might prompt people to use this lesser of two evils terminology.
For others, it might be, well, I guess I can vote for them because I just want to focus on moving forward.
Rick Bell actually asked an interesting question on what the sort of threshold of that compromise is between abandoning sort of the people who may have rallied and supported you, with Daniel Smith being one of the prominent sort of freedom-oriented leaders who then won the leadership race and became premier, and generally winning the election.
The reality is, and Daniel Smith touched on this, the notion of lesser of two evils, ultimately what we have is there are other parties.
There may be parties that are more principled out there, certainly, but it is likely, based on all polling, all numbers, and all statistical evidence, that one of these two parties will form government.
So I understand their efforts to sort of pave the broadest road that the most people feel comfortable voting for them.
Something else you touched on, and I think we'll transition into this next video clip here, if you don't mind if you don't have anything else.
But you touched on the notion of sort of division contention.
And one thing that I've been focusing on, I had the opportunity to ask Premier Daniel Smith about, was the United Conservative Party has, in a sense, been divided significantly, particularly under the leadership of Jason Kenney.
Not to necessarily say it was his fault exclusively, but we did see MLA Drew Barnes, MLA Todd Lowen ejected from the party for criticizing the COVID-19 response.
So I asked Danielle Smith about what her leadership would look like and if MLAs would be free to sort of express their opinions and work on behalf of their constituents, even if that broke from party lines.
So I think we can jump to that clip now.
Adam Silas Rebel News, one of the potential causes of divide in the UCP over the past few years has been the inability of MLAs, nominally Drew Barnes, Todd Lowen to name a few, to speak out when they disagree with the leadership or when they have personal concerns.
Under Danielle Smith UCP, will MLAs be able to speak out and represent their constituents?
Well, you know, I prefer to have a leadership style where if anyone has a concern, they can raise it with me directly.
And I'm very open to talking about how we can accommodate different concerns.
We have an open and robust caucus discussion.
And we also have the ability to vote freely in our caucus and our cabinet.
I don't think we've encountered any circumstances under my leadership where we haven't been able to resolve our issues around certain circumstances or certain pieces of legislation.
It seems to me like that process is working and I'm going to continue working because I think if you treat people with respect, they will treat you back with respect.
So that's just my leadership style.
I'd need a specific example if there's anything in particular that you think that hasn't lived up to that.
I think our MLAs are really excited that we're part of a United Conservative movement.
They have a lot of input in the decisions that we're bringing forward.
I can tell you some of the issues that we brought forward today.
The Agri Agri-Food Processing Tax Credit came out on the campaign trail when Rebecca Schultz said we need to do this, and we did it.
We have a number of our MLAs who are concerned that we're not recognizing international credentials.
It's the reason why we're going to develop a fast track to affirming those.
Everybody has raised concern about how do we keep our kids here, our graduates here.
And those are the issues that come out through the caucus and cabinet process.
And so we're announcing a tax credit today that will keep more of our graduates here and attract more people here.
So all of these things are really generated from the great ideas of my caucus.
I think we've got a fabulous relationship and I'm going to keep that going.
Rick Bell, Calgary's son.
So what did you think of that, that is a response, Sid?
Well, I think a diversity of opinions is much more important than a diversity of genders.
And I think in this sense, Danielle Smith is doing the right thing.
You know, I can't necessarily speak to all of her actions and all those private conversations and the dealings that are going on with her and all of these MLAs and other members.
However, I do think it is a fair thing to say the right approach is to take into consideration the needs of all of your MLAs, of all of your members of the party, including just the people who vote on the representatives, not just those who are political figures.
So the more appreciative she is of all of those underneath her and what they have to bring to the table, I think the better off it'll be.
Yeah, and I think it was interesting.
Often what I'll do is I'll look to the folks behind the person answering the question.
I know the other day for the first question, basically every Calgary MLA was there.
Here we had quite a few MLAs, Grant Hunter among them, who I actually had an opportunity to speak with as well on some of these issues.
But when you're asking that question, you can kind of gauge if there's a sentiment.
And when I asked it, you could tell all the sort of other MLAs were like, I'm glad this is being asked because this obviously was a concern.
Drew Barnes won't be seeking re-election.
Todd Lowen, I think, is back in the fold with the UCP as well, and he pursued the leadership as well.
So clearly some people who were sort of chased away or were excluded from the conversation have been brought back to the table.
And I think that really does matter.
I think Jason Kenney would have been better served by having some of those other perspectives at the table.
And maybe there would have been a more measured response to COVID-19 and to some other things.
Very often, and I know when I talked to Danielle Smith about this during the sort of leadership campaign, we did that long walk through High River.
And we talked about the lack of feedback and sometimes leadership, they get encircled by a small group of people who very often are either just echoing what the leader has to say or all share the same mentality.
And you eventually end up being excluded from your broader, from a broader influence, a broader range of ideas.
And I get there's a balance.
A camel is a horse designed by committee.
If everybody gets to weigh in, you'll have chaos.
But I do think that having those counter perspectives, having, as we've seen in this election, the other side of the story as rebel media, Rebel News provides to the mainstream media, rather.
I think that matters.
Even if you don't agree with us, even if you're 100% on board with one thing or another, hearing those alternative perspectives, I think really does matter.
Well, on what day did Jason Kenney go to Cootes for the blockades that were taking place or Milk River?
Scott Moe's Vision for Alberta00:06:55
He never showed up, right?
There were alleged conversations and negotiations between MLAs and local politicians and the demonstrators, but never Jason Kenney himself.
And I think that was a large reason for his stepping down and then his resignation from politics thereafter is because he was taking such a hard line with the very voters who put him there.
He was refusing to listen to them.
Instead, he was enforcing a lockstep mentality, which I think just didn't work for many people.
I mean, these were, you know, there were thousands of people at these demonstrations who had lost everything.
And Jason Kenney wouldn't even show his face to them.
So, you know, you need a strong leader.
At the end of the day, you need a strong leader.
And that's somebody who takes into consideration everybody who they're working for.
Well, and, you know, it was like Jason Kitty himself to me, I'm the one who asked him the question.
I think that clip factored into the fact that he's no longer the premier.
He said to me, like, oh, well, no, we passed laws.
There's no such thing as a vaccine passport.
He's like, this is nuts.
You couldn't possibly conceive of us doing this.
And then like weeks later, he's like, oh, we have this alternatively named vaccine passport that isn't a vaccine passport.
It looks like one.
It walks like one.
It quacks like one, but it isn't a vaccine passport.
And that was weeks later.
And then after that, I had the opportunity to question him.
And he went on a bit of a tirade about, oh, we don't need horse D word.
Like it was, I'm like, you're just, it's almost a little bit of what we see with Justin Trudeau, where a year later, he's like, oh, no, people have been injured and stuff.
And I'm quoting Justin Trudeau here, YouTube.
So, but it's, it's, they're like, no, no, that's not what I said.
That's not what happened.
They've completely flipped the script on something from months ago.
And then they're acting as though it never happened.
Yeah, there's the clip right there at the Calgary Stampede.
So the sentiment of, oh, no, no, this could never, this absolutely could never happen.
There's not going to be these vaccine passports.
And then the script is flipped.
And MLAs who were concerned about that are like, no, no, no, you just told us that we were never going to do this and that this was illegal in this province.
They were rightfully speaking out against that.
And I think if nothing else from this question, from this answer from Daniel Smith, it did sound like, and commitments from premiers are what they're worth.
We saw Jason Kenney go back on one, but she did seem to suggest that MLAs would be free to vote and advocate for their constituents.
I think that is really solid and probably something that people, particularly in the rural areas, like to hear.
This election, we talk so much about how it's going to be decided in Calgary.
Calgary voters, obviously, and Edmonton voters, you look at the progressive mayors, not perhaps as freedom-oriented, not perhaps as oriented towards conservatism.
So there is a concern that in the effort to pursue votes in Calgary or Edmonton, rural issues, concerns, and priorities might be disregarded.
So if those MLAs in those rural areas are guaranteed by Daniel Smith this capacity to express their opinions freely, I think that that is promising moving forward and may prevent another leadership review in the near future.
Well, to express their constituents' opinions freely.
Exactly.
That's the most important thing.
Yeah.
And, you know, on that note, I think we have another video coming up about Coots and that situation, as we just described, and Daniel Smith and some of the conversations she was supposedly having during that time.
I'm not sure if we can pull to that clip now.
Coots and Trudeau.
You know, I would love Rob to talk a bit about this because he's the lawyer and I'm not.
But this whole phrase of peace, order, and good government, I think it's become a shorthand to the federal government can do whatever the heck it wants and we just have to be peaceful and orderly about it.
And that's not, in my view, what it should be.
The federal government has said they want every federally regulated industry to have vaccine mandates.
So that's broadcast media, radio and television broadcast media.
It's all the telecom companies.
It's all of the grain elevators.
It's the ports.
It's the banks.
And so are we going to get to a point where to be able to get a bank account, you're going to have to be vaccinated because you won't be able to walk in the door?
I have no idea.
But the fact that this is just that this is the line in the sand that's been drawn because the federal government has so much more planned.
They have so much more coming.
And I think this is the reason why we want to see this win.
We want to see it win so that they don't end up rolling out the full plan.
And we want to see it win at Coups so that Jason Kenney, Scott Moe together become the first premiers to turn it around at the provincial level so that other premiers will follow.
So the first thing I want to do here is tackle, this is obviously one of the countless clips of Danielle Smith often on shows or from her past radio career discussing a subject.
But I think there's been a lot of sort of misinterpretation of what is being said here.
She quite clearly says that she wants a win for Jason Kenney and Scott Moe.
She's not, the sentiment is that she's saying she wants like a categorical win for the Coups truckers, which I wouldn't have a problem with her saying that.
But I think what she's saying here is she wants the politicians, despite the federals, the federal government overstepping, she wants these politicians to go listen to these people's concerns, not just trample them, not implement these vaccine mandates.
And she wants some good to come of this.
She wants the provincial governments, which at the time, Jason Kenny, Scott Moe, to have that win to prove that they listen to the people and to prove that they can push back against this overreach from the federal government.
I also find it interesting that that video clip should in no way, shape, or form be contentious.
Press progress very often seems to be seeking scandal where none should exist.
The sentiment being echoed here that no one should be forced to be vaccinated, Justin Trudeau said that within the last week.
Oh, we never forced anybody.
We would never do that whatsoever.
Jason Kenney said that would absolutely never happen.
And to almost everyone in this country, the notion of forced vaccinations or coerced vaccinations was entirely appalling and has been throughout this entire time until all of a sudden progressives switched and said, oh, no, big pharma is good and we absolutely have to be on board with this.
The sentiments she's relaying here are absolutely mainstream and absolutely sentiments that any politician should be able to carry freely in a free and sensible society, particularly one like Canada that has so long advocated for individuals' freedoms.
Well, and on that note, we do have some breaking news about the Coutz blockade that comes to us from the Democracy Fund.
And, you know, a lot of people have heard, you know, there is the charges, there's, you know, alleged violence at the Coutz blockade and whatnot.
But today we have a story showcasing that multiple fines have now been dropped for numerous truckers who are at the Couttes blockade.
So this is coming to us, you know, just recently.
And I think this is a really great step.
Fines and Long Sentences00:03:48
You know, there was talk of amnesty from Danielle Smith, but regardless of that, it seems like this and the Democracy Fund and their fight for these guys is paying off.
So I don't know, Adam, what do you think about this striking story?
Yeah, it's you look right across the board.
I know, and I'm the one that Danielle Smith initially made that promise to twice, in fact, that she would look into and pursue amnesty for everyone involved with these vaccine mandates with COVID-19 restrictions.
Now, in her defense, she did pursue them and she was basically informed it was not a possibility.
So as far as her commitment to pursue these, I do feel she's under that.
Now, do I feel like she's gone all the way and the extent that she promised she'd combat these things and that these were evils during the leadership campaign?
Has she quite lived up to that?
No, absolutely not.
And I think we could all agree to that.
But sometimes it takes an appeal process.
Sometimes it takes years of legal happenings.
And unfortunately, sometimes people spend a lot of time behind bars as a consequence of these.
But on many of these cases, perhaps the most recent one, and again, there'll be an appeal process with Pastor Arthur Pavlovsky and the Critical Infrastructure Defense Act.
Most of these charges, whether it be for Pastor James Coates, Pastor Tim Stevens, many of the people who were down at the border, the courts are not entirely, but largely getting these rights often on the appeal process.
But lots of these charges that have been laid, lots of the fines are going away.
So there are wins taking place.
And for those who are completely discouraged and did see some of the extremely questionable decisions coming out of courts, when it gets to the higher levels, it does seem, I mean, maybe I'm being optimistic, but it does seem like the courts of law are starting to get some of these things right.
I think originally with the big push, whether it be from the federal government, whether it be from media, people in courts, they are human beings, and they can be subject to those pressures and whims and the spirit of the age from society.
So I think for a time there was sort of a sentiment within the courts that, oh, these people are extremists.
Once they paused, took a breath, and started to look at the charter violations and extreme serious concerns that were taking place, they started to realize that this was problematic.
Again, should any of these people have spent extensive time behind bars?
Absolutely not.
But it is good to see that the courts are starting to get some of this right.
Again, for those people who've lost years of their life, being involved in litigation is stressful.
There's costs involved.
Often we're able to help, whether it be through Fight the Fines or Save Art or any of these other efforts through the Democracy Fund that we've been able to help these individuals.
But it is nonetheless a stressful experience.
It should never have happened.
But it is good to see these good news stories coming out and some wins for these people who are simply standing up for their freedoms.
And oftentimes, the punishment is the process.
And we're seeing that a lot over the last two years, right?
It may be that somebody comes home at the end of the day, you know, proven innocent, but you've still gone through the punishment of having to go through the court cases, having to pay through the lawyers.
It's a very unfortunate thing to have to deal with for anybody.
And then, you know, we talk about those who've actually spent time behind bars.
I mean, there's still people who are serving time in pre-bail custody who have not been found guilty of crimes yet.
They remain locked up.
It's a very unfortunate thing to say in the state of Canada.
And later on, I just wanted to say later on, I do want to talk at length about some charges and some other things that have sort of evolved and the sort of layering double standards and the degree of penalties that are being placed against people based on the nature of their crimes.
But I'm getting ahead of us here, certainly.
Do you think it's time probably for us to jump to a little bit of an ad break and then we'll come back with some more questions?
That's exactly what I was about to say.
Interesting Folks' Chance00:02:43
Perfect.
The media said that Canadian truckers were Russian agents controlled by Vladimir Putin.
Justin Trudeau called them extremists.
The small fringe minority.
We are here out of love for our families, our communities.
And the government put the country under martial law to stop them.
But what's the real story?
If you can't see the future in clear outline right now, you're not paying attention.
But the truckers in Canada can.
And I want you to know that I'm not afraid.
For the first time, the woman at the heart of the trucker convoy speaks out.
Tamara Leach, passionate organizer, loving mother and grandmother, proud May Chi and proud Alberton, and defiant political prisoner jailed for daring to criticize the government.
Tamara Leach, her new book, Hold the Line, My story from the heart of the Freedom Convoy is the inside scoop of what really happened.
You've heard from the media and the convoy's critics.
Now hear the truth from the woman who inspired the world and made Justin Trudeau blink.
Visit theconvoybook.com to order your copy now.
That book was like number one bestseller on Amazon.
It's incredible.
And it's really interesting for folks who haven't had a chance to meet Tamara.
She's so just like nice and calm and very tranquil person to be around.
So and one of the many people who sort of got not set out to become involved with this thing, but I was at a recent event of hers and she said, you know, for me, it was like when they told me I couldn't go to my parents' house, that was sort of the line that she's like, no, no, I have to do something.
But so anyhow, reluctant heroes often emerge.
So yeah, if you haven't had a chance to pick up that book, I'd do so right away.
Yeah, no, it was certainly an incredible read.
And the, I mean, what happened was truly an international phenomenon.
We started convoys literally around the world.
Us Canadians, I say, because you'll talk to Tamara as well, is she started a small, or she was part of the starting of a small movement that was going to be driving across Canada.
And what happened as it was driving across the country?
Well, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people paid attention to that.
And they joined, they participated.
They actively invested in this movement.
It was truly an incredible thing to come out of the unfortunate circumstances that were the pandemic.
Consolidating Wealth vs. Environmental Tech00:07:40
Yeah.
Well, as we get into this next series of questions, our rebel reporter, Alex Dollywall, he got some good ones in as well.
It's really nice.
And this is the interesting thing, despite this sentiment, realistically, when you're at one of these pressers, there's like 15, 20 people in line.
And some people, if you've been one follow-up, the last several follow-ups, the premier is on a tight schedule.
Very often, she's scheduled to be three hours away in three hours as an event wraps up.
So I don't necessarily think that it's a spin when she says, I'm going to take one question to try and get to more outlets because there's usually a lineup.
But that being said, I'm at these events.
We have other reporters at these events.
They make sure that everyone can get a question.
And so on that note, I suppose we can just jump to the first question here about the federal carbon tax.
Alex Dollywall, Rebel News.
My first question is, in a CBC interview in October, Premier Daniel Smith opened the possibility of the province re-litigating the constitutionality of the federal carbon tax with the Supreme Court of Canada.
Now, have there been any further conversations as to whether that'll be pursued in the near future?
Well, listen, this government, the UCP, is always going to stand up for Albertans.
And the carbon tax is something that puts a tax on everything and makes life more expensive for Albertans.
And especially for Albertans when you take into consideration how everybody else is dealing with the carbon tax, and especially when you take into consideration this particular issue of electricity and the electricity grid.
This is going to hurt Albertans harder than it's going to hurt anybody else in Canada except for maybe Saskatchewan.
We need to make sure that Albertans realize this before Election Day, how significant this promise is by Rachel Notley.
Down with the carbon tax.
Yeah, that's about it.
That's the extent of it.
You know, it's, and this is, I mean, I'm not even speaking to this particular issue, but just broadly speaking, like it's just Daniel Smith just needs to say enough is enough, put an end to this.
You don't get to throw money at a, this, I mean, you don't get to throw money in a problem like the environment and have it be fixed.
It's also incredibly rich because we have people from cities, progressive cities that are literally just pouring sewer waste directly into the ocean, pollution on levels That's a city like Calgary couldn't imagine.
And realistically, while we may be producing these resources, they're the ones burning them.
So it's incredibly rich for them to be like, oh, yeah, we need to take some more of your money to help the environment.
This is part of it's two-pronged.
One is to consolidate more wealth among them and their friends.
It's a power grab.
You can't throw money.
I mean, you can throw money at new technologies, but that's not what most of this is about.
This is they're buying votes by giving you a credit back.
You get your 400 bucks and you're like, wow, this is great.
Not realizing you've spent a small fortune on these carbon tax costs.
It's part of the perpetual inflation being driven by this government.
And the amount of inside contracts and deals that are being dealt in these sorts of industries that are not practical.
Most people can't afford an electric car right now.
Most people can't afford more than more than when Justin Trudeau got in, in fact.
Most people can't afford solar panels.
These technologies that are starting to emerge, they're not accessible to people because life is becoming unaffordable.
I think, and this is strictly theoretical, though, but if Justin Trudeau would have never been in office and there wouldn't have been a concerted push, some of this technology is getting to the point where solar panels can offset your electricity bill.
And if you're only a short-distance commuter, electric cars can be okay.
They do certain things pretty well.
Tesla's certainly some nice features to them.
I feel if this wouldn't have been politicized, and if these green technologies would have been just left to compete on the open market rather than pushed by carbon tax, there's such a negative connotation around them.
I think we probably would have had more green technology as a society at this point under a conservative government than we have now under Justin Trudeau.
Yeah, I think to say the least, I mean, we're actually investing in innovation in the energy industry around the world.
We are one of the key players, and we have so much resource available that it's almost unprecedented.
And we're not actually like, when was the last time you heard about slave labor in Canada?
You know, a lot of the rare earth minerals and a lot of the resources that go into these, you know, fancy environmentalist tools, such as solar panels and whatnot, or large batteries, I should say, how much of this is using slave labor, right?
You know, and personally, I'm a little more worried about slave labor than I am about environmentalism.
You know, yes, sure, you want to take care of your environment as anyone would.
You know, we are the custodians of Canada.
We don't want to burn all of our forests and be left with nothing.
We want to take care of our environment.
That's a normal thing to do.
But this environmentalism, you know, the mantra of the world is going to turn into a ball of fire unless we do everything we can to stop everyone from doing anything.
It's not going to work.
Yeah.
And there is also these people are making deals and buying electricity from China with these massive coal plants.
And they're China, India, those places are polluting on a level that we don't, we don't, we're insignificant.
We could all disappear as Canada and it would not make a meaningful difference whatsoever.
Probably some of these people would love to see all of Canada disappear, but it's so just glaringly hypocritical.
And there's an absurd double standard there.
People who are flying private jets around that consume more energy than I will in a year, in a day.
And yet we're supposed to feel terrible and give a bunch of money to this.
It's not, it's one of the current sort of lies that societies has accepted.
These lies are on numerous fronts, but it's the general sort of progressivism/slash socialism perspective or mindset that has become so prevalent within parts of Europe and within North America.
That if you look at these issues, whether it be on gender, whether it be on the environment, whether it be on the economy, if you look at them through any sort of critical lens, if you look at them through any context of history whatsoever, you'd realize they're false.
If you looked at them through the lens of science, you'd realize that these things are not tangible, but they've simply been accepted because one, the mainstream media pushes them and they're bought and paid for, state-funded media certainly.
And then, two, the government is just legislating this and they're really gaslighting people into thinking if you disagree with this, you're crazy.
It's similar to what we saw with these vaccine mandates that one month they were completely unthinkable, and then a month later they were the law of the land.
So I think this is part of a general cultural shift that needs to take place to get away from this.
It is an affirmation of facts, an affirmation of reality, and a rejection of all this stuff that has been pushed.
Because when you look at this, like you said, there's slave labor.
You see these cities that are just pouring sewage into oceans.
You see mass pollution.
There are these issues that can be tackled directly, but on lots of those issues, there's not a lot of money to be made.
So they aren't tackling them.
They only seem to bring these issues to light when there's some way for them to increase a tax.
Kicking Journalists Out00:06:42
You know what?
Let's cap Montreal and Vancouver's sewer drainage into the ocean.
Let's do that.
I'm 100% for that.
Focus on replanting initiatives so that areas aren't being clear-cut.
100%.
Let's do that.
Giving money to the government so that they can have these green initiatives and give people carbon tax refunds.
No, absolutely not.
Not interested.
Carbon tax refunds.
Isn't that just rich?
It's like, yeah, okay, we're going to take your money.
And we're, but we're not going to tell you that part.
We're just going to say that you're getting the refund.
You're getting a little bit of money back.
Oh, where'd the money come from?
Oh, it came out of your own pocket.
Next.
Oh, man.
Gas is really expensive these days.
At least I got that 382 bucks from Justin Trudeau.
Yeah, yeah.
At least I got a tiny bit of the money I gave to the government back.
Yeah, exactly.
And just to think how much of the money is squandered in like beer, it's not just they took thousands of dollars from me, they gave $400 back.
They lost probably.
Yeah, they paid people to lose it.
Bureaucracy, typical.
Should we get into this sort of next?
And I think part of this segues and ties in nicely the capacity for media to ask questions, to challenge, and I think the requirement for politicians to be held accountable and to answer questions is critical because for the longest time, Justin Trudeau, Rachel Notley, some of these other people have been excluding divergent opinions, have been excluding tough questions.
They're only letting their friends in to the party.
And we're seeing that it's a serious topic of discussion within this province.
So let's get into this next video where Alex asked about the kicking out of certain journalists from media events by Rachel Notley.
So in recent weeks, we've seen the official opposition pick winners and losers in terms of which members of the press they will take questions from.
Recently, we saw Rachel Notley kick out Keen Bexti and myself from a press briefing in downtown Calgary.
Now, can we get a commitment from the UCP that they will allow all members of the press, regardless of where they land on the spectrum, that their questions will be answered and they will have that opportunity to ask those questions?
Our team and our leader have been committed to taking questions from all media outlets.
We saw that earlier this week at our very exciting campaign announcement to reduce personal income taxes for Albertans.
Premier continues to take questions from media on a daily basis, as do we.
And as you see here today, we're happy to take questions from all media outlets.
Thank you.
Next question in person.
Yep.
Well, and on that note, I wonder if we can actually pull up the clip of him being kicked out of the NDP session that they had, which she referenced, because it is truly amazing.
And I watched that and I just laughed because not only did she kick out the counter signal, she kicked out Rebel News, she also refused questions of the, if I have it correct, the Western Standard and Calgary Sun, right?
Probably four of the main outlets that would be on the other side of the aisle, let's say, from the NDP.
And she refuses all of them.
And then she goes on to say we take questions from the media, all journalists or whatnot.
Yeah, here it is.
Let's just take a look at that if we can.
The mayor of Calgary.
I mean, whatever what they do is their value is nothing to do with us, right?
So you gotta understand that.
What they choose to do is put in their purview.
Oh, I'm just the, you know, I'm just the message of all you.
I appreciate that.
It's convinced.
You know, I think that it's totally reasonable that I'm here.
It made very important.
Do you work for the party?
We're not Congress, but sole contractors, sole contractors to stop media from asking the experience.
I'm not stopping anybody from asking anything.
I'm just coming to show.
I mean, we can get into a debate here.
I don't want to get into a debate.
I don't want to get into a debate here.
All I'm saying, Yakina, to avoid any hassle is that they're not going to entertain your questions.
They're not going to entertain my questions.
So it's as plain as that.
That's the NDP position.
That's right.
Okay.
I'm just taking it.
Well, don't be saying.
Okay.
Yeah.
It's the thing that makes this the most like absurd and the most upsetting, and it is the Justin Trudeau thing where he's like tweeting about like, we support all journalists and journalists are integral to Rachel Notley has been condemning Danielle Smith left, right, and center for not taking media questions while doing this.
It's insane.
And the fact that her followers, which is what I'm going to call them, not supporters' followers, believe her is absolutely wild.
Even David Staples, I believe, from the Edmonton Journal, and the Edmonton Journal is notoriously left-leaning.
Most people, I think, would agree.
He was excluded from their mailing lists and they weren't taking some of his questions.
I think that's been sorted out.
And the other day, Rachel Notley did say she would actually take questions from anybody except the Western Standard until they apologize over something.
So we'll see if that remains true.
I believe Alex is heading to an event in the next day or two here.
So we'll see if they actually honor that and take questions.
But it's just like double speak.
It's Orwellian what we're seeing.
Rachel Notley, the media, even the amount of times we've heard questions from the media about why they're only taking one question, she's taking questions from everybody.
She's taking multiple questions from outlets.
Even though the other day they were running tight on time and I was in line and they were like, make sure they get their questions, the UCP, because they don't want to be associated with that exclusion.
People who believe this out there, I'm really sorry if you've actually adopted and embraced this narrative that Rachel Notley is the one being held accountable to media and Danielle Smith is not.
I can testify personally, every event I've gone to, I've had the opportunity to ask Danielle Smith questions.
Furthermore, when I approach the UCP asking to speak to an MLA, often they've been ministers on certain issues.
They'll go and ensure that we have the opportunity to ask those people questions as well.
If one party is hiding from the media in this election, it is Rachel Notley.
I suspect, though, that people are getting wise to this, despite the media efforts to sort of be complicit in it, despite Rachel Notley's incessant tweeting, even I think today or yesterday, stating, oh, well, we take all questions, Danielle doesn't.
I think Rachel is starting to realize this might be backfiring.
And maybe that's what part of that statement about, oh, yeah, we're going to take questions moving forward.
Yeah, there you go.
This is, and there was another one today.
There's several tweets just like this while she's literally the audacity to literally kick journalists out and then tweet this.
Underlying Guilt and Hypocrisy00:07:44
It's, I mean, it's Trudeauian is the only term I can come up with.
Yeah, no, right now it seems like Danielle Smith is putting out other people's fires and Rachel Notley's putting out her own fires.
So, you know, let her keep doing that.
You know, I saw the language that the Alberta NDP used during the Freedom Convoy movement and those kinds of demonstrations.
The language that they were using, the rhetoric that they would use towards people who literally lost everything because of government policies.
And then they would speak against those government policies or advocate for a different stance or a different method.
And they would be getting called, they would be called terrorists.
They would be called violent extremists for what?
For losing everything and trying to get something back, trying to have something in their lives, right?
Trying to be able to go to a restaurant, trying to have a restaurant where you can serve people regardless of your vaccine status.
I mean, people were losing everything.
And the kind of double speak that we're seeing now, you know, in a sense, I'm not surprised, right?
They'll say one thing and they believe something entirely different.
And, you know, back in the day, though, they showed their true colors.
And I don't think there's any going back from that.
People just have to be reminded.
Well, and I think, again, you hit the nail on the head there because there's this underlying, it's like they can't escape their underlying guilt and they can't escape revealing what they know they're doing wrong.
Their activists, the people associated with them, whether it be climate activists, whether it be the unions who condemn the freedom convoys, and then they were striking and engaging in far worse activity, kicking cars, all that sort of stuff that we saw.
But their political activists are paid political activists who often use intimidation to gain a political end, which there's a definition for that, but I won't call those people that.
On the other side, on the side of the freedom convoy, you had people who they called terrorists who were working class people with no history or virtually no history of political activism, Tamara Leach among them, who were pushed and pushed and pushed, told they couldn't see their families.
As you said, their businesses went under and they said, enough is enough.
Like we're trying to survive here.
People are losing their lives.
We saw depression.
We saw all of these issues.
And so these people sort of reluctantly took a stand because things had just gone too far and they vilified those people.
But I think there was the underlying knowledge that they're the ones who have the political activists who are maybe pushing a little bit too far.
They're the ones not taking questions from the media.
They're the ones overstepping and violating rights.
I think that there is an underlying guilt with lots of these people and it surfaces in these hypocritical statements and tweets like the one we just saw from Rachel Notley.
Well, and you know, before we get to some of the next stuff we have, Adam, as somebody who I just recently came to Alberta, of course, during the era of the COVID whatnot, what was it like before?
I mean, she was in power before.
How was it?
What was the feel of the room in a sense?
Yeah, so I think once they got in, they sort of backed off and quieted down.
Don't get me wrong.
We saw like back in 2018, we saw the ban abortion bubble zone stuff.
There was some sort of progressive inclination and a push towards that.
But I think they may have once in power adopted a similar strategy to the UCP while they're like, well, we have the spot now.
So let's not overtly generate scandals.
Now, economically, they were bad.
As Daniel Smith mentioned in one of those video clips, for quarters, we saw people leaving the province instead of coming in, which was anomalous for Alberta.
And it was economically not a good time.
It was as far as progressivism achieving problematic ends.
Some of that was happening.
But I think, and don't get me wrong, I never advocate for an NDP government.
I think that they scaled back once they were in power a little bit.
So it certainly wasn't good.
But I think people were far more afraid it would be far more cataclysmic than it was.
Now, far more cataclysmic than aggressive progressive agendas being pushed and the economy struggling is pretty bad.
And I remember before that election, the sentiment of this orange crush winning was like, well, that can't actually happen.
I think when they won, they were shocked.
I think lots of their candidates who won weren't ready for the office.
I don't think they were a particularly silly government or particularly ready government.
So it was kind of silly.
It was like a mishmash of people with political ideologies, but they didn't have perhaps the capacity to do as much as they did.
Now, that's the concerning part.
Their war chests are full.
They're organized now.
They've had time to prepare.
They've had a taste of power and then lost it.
I have a serious concern that this time around, they will be prepared.
They will be armed and they will be ready.
And they will likely do more.
As we saw with the net zero grid purported to cost something like $87 billion, I think their ambitions, because last time I don't think they, until the very end, thought that they really had a chance of winning.
Now that they're like, oh, we're really in this.
We've done this before.
We can swing Calgary.
I'm concerned that they might be ready to take steps that would be far more permanently damaging to the province.
Well, and what was the reasoning for their victory last time?
I've heard some say that it was kind of like a surprise or it was a vote against the UCP rather than a vote for the NDP.
100%.
Yeah.
It was basically protest votes.
The sort of Redford, there was a bunch of scandals, which by comparison to Justin Trudeau or Rachel Notley today would be fairly minimal.
But there was certainly a sense of entitlement.
The UCP had been in power for so long.
There's a whole Sky Palace incident.
There were so many sort of just like factors that reeked of entitlement and old boys sort of not old, not that it was a boy, but that old boy mentality of we're politicians, we can get away with everything.
People were just sick of that.
Eventually, there is a sentiment that there needs to be change.
Progressives play on this.
They're always saying, oh, we need to change the change.
Things can be going perfectly.
And they'll be advocating for the change.
But yeah, it was a protest vote, but it wasn't entirely unmerited.
The criticisms and concerns were valid.
And I think that that carried over a little bit into what we saw with the UCP under Jason Kenney.
Many of those sort of old voices, many of that, many of the sort of strategies and expectations from politicians, I think they carried over into the United Conservative Party.
I think they've been quelled.
A number of the candidates who were around back in those days, or at least towards the end of those days, they're not seeking re-election now.
Lots of new young sort of blood being brought into the United Conservative Party.
So I think that there is still a bit of purging to do from that rebellion or protest vote.
Again, though, really, we've talked about this.
You have to swing Calgary.
And if you look at our mayor, extremely progressive.
Edmonton is going to vote with the NDP.
Rural regions will vote with the UCP, generally speaking.
It comes down to Calgary to decide.
And we saw with our municipal elections at Calgary can be won over by progressive ideas, unfortunately.
Now, beyond that, there is arguments about whether there's vote splitting or whatever occurred there for GOT Gondeck to gain power.
But last time, ultimately, they won through Calgary.
And if they're able to do it again, if they're able to gain power again, the NDP, it'll again be through Calgary.
Church Fires and Vandalism00:10:45
And this is a bit of a silly question, but what about the Liberal Party here in Alberta?
Not particularly.
You mean Alberta Liberals or the federal liberals?
Not particularly popular, which makes it surprising that we do see the sort of strong contingency.
But I think it is all of Alberta is profoundly conservative and probably more than half of Calgary.
And then, because there was quite a bit of vote splitting and then the Edmonton with so many government officials working there, that would be one of the places that is far more liberally inclined.
I know we're running tight on time.
Should we do one quick ad break and then get through a couple of these stories towards the end?
Yep, absolutely.
Let's go for an ad break.
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One other note on the conversation we were having before, if you don't mind, I know we're rushing to get through.
There's a couple important stories that we do want to get to.
But the other sort of thing to consider when we're looking back to that NDP victory would be the divide that took place between the Wild Rose and the United and the Conservative Party, Progressive Conservatives, which led to the now United Conservative Party.
So many of the people that we featured in these videos today, whether it be Brian Gene, Daniel Smith, were players in that.
Obviously, the Danielle Smith floor crossing contributed to that significantly.
But I think despite sort of all that and despite some vote splitting taking place, the sentiment, the sentiment for sort of a pushback was certainly there.
So again, that's another thing to consider when we're looking back at that election.
Certainly.
And right before we get on to our next story, I just want to say we are excited to announce that we are live on locals.com.
Whether you're watching on Rumble or YouTube, we do invite you to join our Rebel News community by clicking in the link that should be provided in the description, hopefully, or we can get that adjusted.
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I just wanted to add that in there quickly.
But more importantly, there's charges laid in a string of deliberately set fires in Alberta.
And of course, over the last two years, there was a lot of, I guess you could call it arson against churches that happened across the country.
Adam, I know you've been really close to this story.
Do you want to give us the details?
Yeah.
So, and I know some of the vandalism, our next story, we're going to touch on that as well, though.
Lots of this being sort of investigated.
It's interesting last night on social media, and this is not necessarily confirmed yet, but I did see a number of people stating that like a series of fires was being set even along highways.
So there is clearly, obviously it wasn't this individual because they've now been detained.
But some of these fires taking place, I know we saw it at Siksika Nation, there was an attempted fire.
Fortunately, the church was saved, but there was damage.
Fires being set at random spots, but also we saw the church, I believe it was in Bonneville burnt down.
Significant, massive issues are taking place when you have churches being burned down.
I know in Ontario a while back, there's a bit of vandalism on a mosque and Justin Trudeau went there straight away.
He's yet to visit some of these locations where churches have been burnt down.
It's particularly heart-wrenching because in many of these communities, the church most recently that burnt down was the Latter-day Saints church.
But I know, for example, one of the churches in Calgary that fell victim to arson was a Vietnamese community church.
So they escaped persecution in communist Vietnam, come to Canada, seeking this new like seeking religious freedom, and then no association whatsoever with the residential schools.
They weren't here.
Their church wasn't established here, but they fall victim to this arson.
I believe on this case, they don't, there hasn't been a direct affirmation that this was a hate-motivated incident, unless there's been new developments on this.
But regardless, someone setting fires near or around churches and those churches going up in flames.
Well, that should be international or at the very least national news.
This is an absolutely massive story, but it doesn't particularly feed into any sort of narrative.
So I think, unfortunately, while there is news coverage of this, it's not to the degree that I think would be appropriate.
Well, to say the least, and maybe the silver lining here is that we're at least not as a country arresting pastors anymore for hosting church services.
It may still be certainly unfortunate that there are arsonist vandals who are acting very inappropriately towards these facilities, but at least it's not the government doing it this time.
Yeah, sorry.
Well, and you just touched on something perfect there.
The next story that definitely ties into this pretty strongly, and it's another one that we covered very closely, was the string of vandalism that we saw at churches across Calgary.
Not arson in these cases, but paint being splattered all over these churches.
So the individual who they identified some time ago has finally had their sort of court matters settled.
And they've confirmed that they were involved in four churches, whether they were in coordination with other people.
I think it was something like 11 churches were targeted in total.
But here we have the four churches that were vandalized, painted.
Some of the churches left the paint up.
Some of them have already been cleaned up.
But they get three months to be served at home for committing numerous hate crimes across the city.
Meanwhile, we saw numerous pastors in jail for months for opening their churches and refusing to eject people.
In some of these cases, they weren't forcing people to be masked.
They had safety measures in place.
I just want to point out the absurd and glaring double standard there.
You can go around committing and being charged on hate-motivated crimes, vandalizing numerous churches, and you get to stay at home for a couple months.
Obviously, I'm sure there's more restrictions in place and nobody wants that, but that is a serious crime.
I guarantee you, if that had happened to a mosque, that person would be in jail, period.
And I also find it absolutely absurd that these court systems can see fit to keep pastors with virtually no criminal history whatsoever or no criminal history whatsoever behind bars for months as dangerous people.
And then actual criminals like these who aren't who aren't violating sort of impromptu flyby night COVID-19 restrictions, but are committing hate crimes, they get a slap on the wrist and they get to stay at home.
Yeah, welcome to Canada, right?
That seems to be the new motto, at least under our current prime minister, Justin Trudeau.
And of course, as much as it is the pastors across the country as well, I remember my time in Quebec in Montreal.
There's a community there in Utremont and their synagogues were being targeted by the SPVM, the local police.
They were being harassed in all sorts of ways.
It's very unfortunate, but it is certainly a good thing that the government has decided to take a step back from that angle at least.
And unfortunately, these individuals have still committed these crimes against.
And it is good that there is some justice that is being brought, even if it isn't necessarily what has been sought by everyone.
Yeah.
Yeah, it is.
It is again.
It's one of these cases of eventually the courts hopefully getting it right.
Hopefully that is what we're seeing here.
But what they did with these pastors is send a message.
That's what they were doing.
They were very clearly making an example.
And once all was said and done, most of these charges sort of dissipated.
They wanted to make an example.
What example does it set when Christian, largely Christian churches are being targeted across the country?
I think we're into the, I think we're nearly 70 now or more.
Churches, places of worship have been targeted either by vandalism or arson.
There's clearly an emerging trend of anti-Christian sentiment in this country and here in this province.
What message does it send when in the face of that you get a slap on the wrist?
That is a serious concern for me.
And it's reflective of the general anti-Christian sentiment within society.
This seems like a perfect opportunity to throw to save the Christians, but I think we're wrapped on time and we do want to get to people's chats here.
So should we get into that right away?
Absolutely.
You want me to do the speed read?
Sure, go for it.
All right.
Concerns About NDP and Firearms00:06:38
$5.
Good to see you back, Adam.
Smith 2023.
That's from Mike Freedom Honey on Rumble.
Let's see here.
I think there was one before that.
Yep.
I'm doing that one right now from the Odyssey chat.
Great to see Seuss regularly again.
Not sure where he went in recent months.
I'm planning to move my entire family from Ontario to Alberta.
Go Danielle Smith.
She better change Alberta law to protect our fundamental natural rights from restituter orbis from our Odyssey chat.
Adam, do you want to chime in on that?
I was with my kids, a little baby, was hanging out.
So yeah, it was really good.
Wonderful to work for a company like Rebel News that is so family first.
They very much practice what they preach.
So I was working a ton during the lockdowns, restrictions, all that stuff.
And you only get this opportunity to spend time with the kids once.
So they were very gracious to let me spend some time with the kids before getting back at it.
But I am back and in full force and very much looking forward to it.
We'll be seeing you, as I mentioned, every week on Friday for these special Showdown Alberta editions of this live stream.
And yeah, I look forward to my reports.
Albertadecides.com is the spot to cover and to catch all of our coverage of the Alberta election.
Next up from JCMN84, $10.
Thank you very much.
And thank everybody for their donations.
He sends us a link here.
Here's how long COVID-19 vaccine immunity really lasts.
Study quantifies how much vaccine protection drops over time and makes case for boosters.
And pardon me, makes a case for boosters.
And he tells us this is a meta-analysis that's been posted recently of 50 studies that show vaccine effectiveness.
All right.
And again from JCMN84, $10 again, thank you.
Omicron drops 20% six months post-primary series and only 30% post-booster at nine months.
BC PHO Dr. Bonnie Henry mandated on healthcare workers implemented fail 2021 only for primary series.
All right, $10 from JCMN84.
Thank you again.
Where is the justification for ongoing BC mandates based on current science?
Today, the World Health Organization declares an end to the COVID-19 global health emergency.
Adam, do you want to touch base on that?
I don't think there is a justification that this is the government that you can go buy crack on the street and has vaccine mandates.
So their justification is in their internal logic, which I would say is deeply flawed.
Actually, maybe that's the last thing we should show is that quick little image from BC so we can feel good about how things are in Alberta.
There is a drugstore.
I think they actually got shut down today by police.
Maybe I need to be corrected on that.
But they had started to sell math, heroin, cocaine, and crack.
And it was all pure drugs and it was fentanyl free, as it said underneath.
And I think we have that tweet coming up here.
Yeah.
So not in Alberta, but in BC.
Adam, are you thinking this is something Rachel Notley is going to bring here?
Oh, I'm going to open up my own shop once Rachel Notley wins and brings it in.
We're going to do great.
I'm going to be moving volumes.
So I guess the guy was arrested here, but nevertheless, this does speak to the mentality.
And what's wild is while this may have in fact been illegal and the guy doing this was arrested, you can read the responses, find that tweet, go check out Erin Gunn's tweet.
A bunch of other people have commented on it.
And the responses are actually from lots of progressive BC residents.
If you follow their profiles, you'll no doubt see who they support.
And they're actually in favor of this.
The only sane response to this is that it's wild.
But you'll see people citing studies from Portugal about how decriminalization and legalization of these drugs work.
And you'll see just comments about how this is good and it's better than prescription drugs and stuff.
It's something, say what you will about that, but the fact that the comments to this were anything other than shock, even the government, this government has now realized that this is wrong.
He's been arrested.
But the fact that people were on board with this and were tweeting in support of this and were condemning people, criticizing this as old-fashioned is pretty laughable and paints a pretty accurate picture of these people's mindsets.
Well, I hope our viewers come up with a really great name for your new store that you're going to open once Notley wins.
I look forward to seeing some of those.
And otherwise, I think it's probably time for us to tune out.
Is there anything we're missing?
I think we're all set.
Thanks for everyone for tuning in.
Really appreciate it.
And looking forward to touching base with you on a weekly schedule moving forward.
All right.
Take care, everyone.
I am now joined by MLA for Calgary, Acadia, and Minister of Justice, Tyler Chandrow.
You've garnered, I imagine, quite a bit of support for particularly in the firearms community, the sort of stand you've taken standing up for Albertans' rights against Justin Trudeau.
Now, what are the plans to continue those efforts and to take a stand if the UCP is elected to continue leadership?
Well, there's a lot of opportunities in the Alberta Firearms Act for future governments to be able to look at and be flexible, see what the Trudeau government is planning to do and how they unveil the confiscation program and to be able to act quickly through regulation.
So it's a matter of looking at what their next steps are.
We heard that they may be, again, trying to unveil further details in particular in the next month or two.
So we had our second regulation that we have passed under the Alberta Firearms Act for the requirement for a seizure agent to get licensed.
So that's a second step, but we'll just be nimble, continue to look at what they do and then react to it.
Now, is there sort of a very real concern that if the NDP is elected, they could come in, do away with all this, and we could see firearms being confiscated by the RCMP in fairly short order?
Absolutely.
And I think that's always been a worry that the firearms community has had.
They've always had to know that they're always one election away from being targeted by any future provincial or federal government.
And I think that's why they're so concerned with this election.
Now, finally, in order for the UCP to win, there are a number of sort of contingious constituencies, but yours particularly and right across Calgary, they are very much the battlegrounds that will determine who wins this election.
What do you think the key issues are that the UCP needs to win on?
Jobs and the economy.
And that's the number one thing people ask me about when I'm at the doors.
People are still asking, you know, thanking us for the last four years, focusing on jobs and the economy, bringing back jobs, bringing back investment, working with job creators.