Transcript
Zain
0:02
This is a strategist episode 1021. My name is Zain Velji. With me as always, Corey Hogan, Stephen Carter.
Zain
0:10
Guys, I have a sense of deja vu. It's just, it just hit me right now. I felt like I've done that before. Yeah. How about you, Carter? You feel like this has happened before? I'm not gonna lie to you guys. No, he actually doesn't feel like it happened before.
Carter
0:21
I'm not gonna lie to you. I'm not having the best night. And, you know, this is, this is after I had my daughter over for dinner, which was great. you
Carter
0:29
you know i got my eyes tested today got another massage today fantastic feeling great and
Corey
0:36
then and what happened what happened then
Carter
0:38
then i spent time with you two four and a half minutes four and a half minutes and my computer blew up again well
Corey
0:44
well i really appreciated at the three and a half minute mark when you called game yeah
Corey
0:48
yeah that was great you
Carter
0:49
you know what i did very very cocky i called that
Carter
0:53
that too early yeah
Zain
0:54
yeah no it was a nick young three-pointer designer so
Carter
0:57
so now we are on do
Zain
1:00
do you appreciate that cory okay good oh very much so okay that's
Zain
1:03
that's a classic i
Carter
1:04
i am uh i'm
Carter
1:06
i'm on microsoft edge now if it doesn't work it's um well
Zain
1:10
well if it doesn't work you're off the podcast i feel like that is that is a ruler i
Carter
1:14
apologize to all tens of thousands of listeners who contacted cory directly uh
Carter
1:19
uh to say that this was the worst recording in the the history of mankind last time. So I appreciate that. The tens of thousands of people who contacted Corey, thank you. Corey is the place to send all your complaints and concerns about the Strategist podcast.
Zain
1:35
Corey, tell me this. We have a big announcement to make, but before we make our big announcement, there was someone else that also made a big announcement today, if I'm not mistaken. Or I shouldn't say big announcement, I should say major announcement.
Corey
1:47
Yes, very much so.
SPEAKER_00
1:52
everyone. This is Donald Trump. Hopefully your favorite president of all time, better than Lincoln, better than Washington, with an important announcement to make. I'm doing my first official Donald J. Trump NFT collection right here and right now. They're called Trump Digital Trading Cards. These cards feature some of the really incredible artwork pertaining to my life and my career. It's been very exciting. you can collect your trump digital cards just like a baseball card or other collectibles here's one of the best parts each card comes with an automatic chance to win amazing prizes like dinner with me i don't know if that's an amazing prize but it's what we have or golf with you and a group of your friends at one of my beautiful golf courses and they are beautiful yeah
Zain
2:42
you know what well i like that he's engaging in NFTs at the high watermark. He's
Zain
2:48
this shit is irrelevant. I like it. Also, I like better
Zain
2:53
better than Lincoln, better than Washington. That to me seals the deal.
Carter
2:59
That's unbelievable. Everything that Trump does is, of course, Trumpian, but to say the best president, better than Lincoln, better than Washington, because Washington's new. Better better than Lincoln. He's done a couple of times, but better than Washington. Is there anybody that believes that he's better than Washington? Like what? And, and to say it yourself, uh, I mean, we have the best podcast and we are three
Carter
3:24
three shallow, shallow people. So when we say that people can see right through the sheen, right. And this is just weak, just terrible. Oh, which
Zain
3:34
which leads us to our announcement, Corey. I feel like you've got an announcement to make a a major announcement on
Corey
3:38
on our behalf so we too will be uh getting into the nft game but it's a small problem we actually don't know how to create an nft and uh i mean
Corey
3:46
mean stephen carter can't even make his browser work so we're not going to try we're not going to try five
Corey
3:55
what we're going to do
Corey
3:59
cursing i hate you carter uh
Corey
4:01
uh what we're going to do
Zain
4:04
be the curse of politics. We started thinking,
Corey
4:07
thinking, we don't know how to make an NFT, but when you think about an NFT,
Corey
4:11
what are you really buying?
Corey
4:16
You're buying- Buying an image.
Corey
4:17
You're buying an image.
Corey
4:18
You're buying a thought. You're buying a hope. You're buying an aspiration. We
Corey
4:21
We can sell those as long as we don't do the NFT thing associated with it. So if you go to the strategist.ca right now, $99,
Corey
4:29
$99, you can purchase a strategist conceptual nft gives
Corey
4:34
gives you the right to think about our podcast in in any way you see fit and
Corey
4:39
and we will uh email you a jpeg of authenticity uh
Corey
4:43
uh it's not personalized i just want to be really clear on that um it's fairly low resolution because we didn't want to you
Corey
4:49
pay for kind of the hosting space that we
Zain
4:52
we also want to make sure it works on all browsers yeah
Corey
4:54
yeah like a 60
Corey
5:00
it's available. It's available now. And that was supposed to be Carter's major announcement, but none of us trusted him to actually get through it with
Corey
5:08
with his current state of technology.
Corey
5:15
you, Carter, for your contributions. Thanks for extending this. Thank you,
Zain
5:16
you, Corey, for our special announcement. I will say, you know, this is going to be a top seller in the strategist store. And like every piece of merchandise, if you buy it, this is hard to believe for this particular one, Corey does lose money. The overhead on this $99 is actually quite significant for us. So Corey will lose money on this piece of merchandise as well. So please buy. Buy for your friends. Buy for your family. There's conceptual lunch as one of the prizes. I don't know if it's a good prize or not, but it's conceptually available. Okay? You can play golf. Yeah. With your friends, bring eight. It doesn't have to be a foursome. It could be an eightsome in your mind when you play golf. I mean, just do it, right? It's available. It's ready. And I'm excited. We hope your favorite podcast is better than Curse of Politics, better than anything CBC has ever produced. Right, Carter?
Carter
6:09
I teased my daughter with this today. I said, you know, we're going to do this as we're eating dinner. And she said,
Carter
6:15
how many do you think you're going to sell?
Carter
6:17
And I said to her, well, I think Trump's probably going to sell a couple million of his bullshit
Zain
6:23
he's not going to sell a couple million couple
Carter
6:24
couple million that's what she said oh my god you guys have no faith in the in the trump empire he will sell two million of these 99 things and here's what i think i think we will sell
Carter
6:36
one percent as many as him so
Carter
6:39
so i think we're going to sell 20
Carter
6:42
of these nfts here's
Corey
6:44
here's the thing actually it's you you i forgot to mention a very important thing here yeah
Corey
6:49
it is limited supply we're only selling 10 000 conceptual nfts we're only minting 10 000 conceptual nfts
Zain
6:55
that's not a lot when you think about how big the
Corey
6:57
the world is when you think about the fact that it sounds like 20 000 is kind of our natural sell point based on steven carter's sophisticated analysis you're going to want to act now get
Carter
7:07
for sure okay that's
Carter
7:09
like this is part of our 35 days of strategist right sure
Zain
7:14
sure carter we're going to move it it on to our first segment our first segment alberta fires back guys this is the headline this is the segment title for two distinct topics that we can delve into and i'm going to do something rare on this show i'm going to give you a choice because does alberta fire back steven carter is that going to be about danielle smith and tyler shandro firing back against the federal governments on long guns or cory hogan is alberta fires back going to be us dissecting a toronto life article and then proposing the best clap back on behalf of alberta to toronto life what is alberta fires back going to be carter which one i know which one i want it to be
Zain
7:57
which door a door a or door b what do you choose it we're doing both at some point which we do it first this
Carter
8:02
this is a political podcast we are going to be talking about daniel smith and tyler sandro
Zain
8:07
We're going to jump into Daniel Smith and Tyler Shandro. Corey, the Alberta government is taking steps to oppose federal firearms prohibition legislation and the potential seizure of thousands of assault-style weapons. Since May 2020, when the Trudeau government prohibited more than 1,500 different models of assault-style firearms from being used or sold in Canada, the Alberta Justice Minister has said that he is telling Albertans or suggesting that RCMP officers act as confiscation agents, and that they do not act upon those that have legally obtained these firearms. In fact, saying don't act on the federal guidance, don't act on the federal law in this particular case. Corey, I want to talk about the facts about the situation, and then I want to talk about the politics. There's a few key players here. There's Danielle Smith in the UCP. Of course, there's Tyler Shandro himself as Justice Minister, and there's, of course, the Trudeau government. But Corey, your initial take on this announcement being timed right now and its political upside for the UCP, Daniel Smith and Talish Andrew.
Corey
9:11
Okay. So I am an urbanite. I
Corey
9:14
I know that it's hard for people in Toronto to understand that there are urban parts of Alberta and perhaps they're all the same. And if you live in Windermere in
Corey
9:22
in Edmonton, your experience will be the same as downtown. Okay.
Corey
9:30
the notion, any, any kind of gun legislation,
Corey
9:33
legislation, you know, to protect my right to own guns leaves me so cold and so disinterested and probably actively hostile. I don't, I have no utility for guns in my life. I understand conceptually,
Corey
9:45
conceptually, if you live in a rural area, you may need a long gun to, you
Corey
9:49
you know, protect yourself against certain elements. This is a big wild country. There are dangerous creatures in some situations. You may be very far from an RCMP dispatch. You may feel like you need it for safety. I don't know if you do, but I guess I can wrap my head around that.
Corey
10:05
But I guess the reason I mentioned all of this, Zane, is that this is clearly
Corey
10:09
clearly not for me. This is clearly
Corey
10:11
not targeted towards people who live in the inner city.
Corey
10:15
It is also very unlikely that it's targeted towards people in the suburbs, frankly. Once again, Again, police response times in minutes.
Corey
10:22
minutes. You're just not having those same considerations. If you've seen wildlife, it's probably you've seen some mangy dog that you mistook for a coyote and you thought it was going to attack your cat at some point. That's likely your reality if you live in the city.
Corey
10:39
So I guess it's for people in rural Alberta. And perhaps this is a question where you're trying to galvanize. Perhaps you just believe strongly in it. Maybe I shouldn't be so cynical. but I don't see the political upside because I don't see how it expands the votes available to Daniel Smith. I think if this is your issue, you're already voting for her. And if it is not your issue, it may actually be moving you against her. And when you think about a city like Calgary, one and a half million people, I
Corey
11:06
I would guess that those swing voters are less keen to see ubiquitous firearms.
Zain
11:13
Yeah. Carter, do you agree with Corey's analysis, first of all? that this might be to simply harden, Corey, these are not your words, but hopefully this is your sentiment, right? To harden the rural support for you, to calcify it even more. And if so, is that telling about the state of the political base that Daniel Smith has to harden and has to solidify at this point?
Carter
11:38
Well, I think there's some truth to that saying. I don't think that you're wrong in saying that. What I do think though, is that this is one of those low hanging fruit pieces. The investment in this is virtually nil. The announcement on the website is super simple. We are doing this. We sent a letter to the federal government. Low cost, easy action, simple
Carter
11:57
simple to do, shows two things that the UCP are interested in.
Carter
12:02
One, we're committed to following up our promises. We're here to protect Alberta gun owners. And Corey's exactly right. The number of people who care about this within cities is negligible. The
Carter
12:12
The number of people who care about this issue in rural alberta is significantly higher they're all voting for the ucp anyways but maybe some of them move back from the wild rose independence party not
Carter
12:22
not necessarily on this announcement but this is just another opportunity for them to say boom we're
Carter
12:28
we're following through on our promises we're following through on our promises and this is a very low-hanging fruit announcement um i
Carter
12:35
i don't think you know to be honest i wanted to be kind of worked up about it today i just wasn't you
Carter
12:42
you know i didn't care that much i think it's going to be carried more in places uh you know outside lethbridge then it's going to be carried in places inside calgary that's fine i i think that this is a low impact announcement with low investment that enables uh danielle and chandro to say see we care about gun owners and
Carter
13:04
and that's all that mattered
Zain
13:06
cory at the end of the day they're saying that alberta will not agree to having rcmp officers act as confiscation agents and will protest any such move under provincial federal agreement, saying that this is our choice, is not something that can be dictated to us. But to your earlier point, if this is about the rural base,
Zain
13:23
is it telling that they're making moves so close to an election to solidify a rural base?
Corey
13:30
Well, let's be clear. It's not the only thing that Daniel Smith's doing that's unpopular in the cities and we very quickly jumped to politics but politicians often believe things too and it's quite possible this is just part of the small government ethos that daniel smith and the people around her have like on again like this is so far outside of an
Corey
13:50
an issue that interests me that i have trouble wrapping my head around it and i have to sort of confess my own limitations here yeah
Corey
13:56
but there is a worldview um where this is very important there's kind of this romanticism of of firearms on the frontiers. There's this idea that one
Corey
14:05
one of the greatest protections against government tyranny is if the, you know, if the individual themselves has the ability to stand up to tyranny. I'm not, maybe
Carter
14:12
that's a bit extreme
Carter
14:13
in the case of
Corey
14:14
of long guns here.
Corey
14:15
here. But, you know, so let's really, truly not discount this is just something they philosophically believe. It always baffles me, like Aaron O'Toole basically blew up his campaign to support guns, right? That was
Corey
14:28
first sort of major stumble, and then it was all downhill from there.
Corey
14:32
And you got to imagine at a certain point, if it's not politically advantageous and they're doing it anyways, it's
Corey
14:38
it's because they actually believe in it in some way, shape, or form.
Corey
14:41
Crazy though that notion may be.
Corey
14:45
The other thing though is if there is an angle here about shoring up support, I don't think it's about shoring up vote support. I
Corey
14:52
I don't. I think it's about shoring up support for
Corey
14:55
for a provincial police force. We do know that a lot of small town Alberta mayors, Reeves, you name it, are not very enthusiastic about the idea of replacing the RCMP because it will be expensive. It will not increase services.
Corey
15:11
And this is in some ways making the argument that we need a provincial police force. In some ways, this is the action that should have occurred before they floated the provincial police force. We talk often about you've got to create a problem before you solve a problem. And the challenge that the UCP always had
Corey
15:29
with the introduction of an Alberta provincial police force is it was a solution without a problem.
Corey
15:34
There was no one calling for this. There was nobody needing it. It seemed to be separating us from the RCMP for no real reason. And this
Corey
15:44
this is them defining a reason.
Zain
15:47
Carter, talk to me about that. Corey's point about conviction is an important one around the political conviction that Chandro and maybe more specifically Daniel Smith may have to this particular file. But talk to me about this notion of if this is seeding the problem, have they seeded it well enough in your mind to justify a provincial police force? And what steps would you kind of consider if that is indeed something you buy into, Carter? I'm not saying it is, so I want your commentary on that. If that is something you you buy into? What else would they need to kind of put into place to seed this in your mind to make it effective for a broader cohort to buy into the provincial police force, which Albertans haven't. Public polling indicates that they have not bought into this.
Carter
16:32
am so against the idea of a provincial police force. It is, again, really difficult for me to put myself into
Carter
16:38
into the shoes of trying to figure out how to sell it.
Carter
16:42
But if you're going to sell something, you have to you have to create a need for it.
Carter
16:45
The need in rural Alberta is certainly much higher than the need in cities. And the cities are already served by municipal police forces, or at least most of the big, well, the two big cities and most of the smaller five are served by their own individual police forces. So what
Carter
17:04
what do you, you know, how do you create that need?
Carter
17:07
It's not just going to be be guns. It's going to be the property thefts, the ability to direct the police to do something. I mean, ultimately, that's why you want the Alberta Police Force, is the ability to direct outcomes,
Carter
17:20
And that's, I think, where the force really fails.
Carter
17:24
no police service should be directed by
Carter
17:26
by our elected representatives.
Carter
17:28
That's not how we run policing in Canada.
Carter
17:33
I don't know, Zane, I'm at a loss. I understand what Corey's saying when he says that maybe the step is to sell the police force. I'm seeing this as problem is made, problem is kept. It was easy. Check it off the list. Much more than Corey, because Corey's seeing it as a potentially bigger
Carter
17:51
bigger play. I'm not even sure that I'd say that he's that committed to it.
Zain
17:57
Well, yeah, actually, I'm curious about that. To Carter's point, I'll get your thoughts on this, Corey. Are you saying this is how you're justifying it in your mind, or do you think this This is what they're actually doing. I think that's important for maybe at least me to understand. Do you feel like they are ceding the ground for a provincial police force, or is this Carter's sort of like volley spike one, two? It
Corey
18:16
It can be both. And frankly, one of the reasons why the
Corey
18:20
the provincial government has always been interested since the UCP came into power in a provincial police force was exactly this. It had a lot to do with guns. I can tell you that. That's not a secret. That's not government backroom talk here.
Corey
18:34
It just was never particularly well articulated. And so this is one of these things where it's something that Daniel Smith has promised. It's something the UCP generally agrees with.
Corey
18:43
This is not a situation where you're putting up Tyler Shandro and he's saying something that's totally alien or that he was opposed to previously.
Corey
18:50
previously. This has been a UCP position for quite some time. And so it's an opportunity to, in some ways, unify the caucus as well.
Corey
18:58
You know, it's funny, and I wouldn't mind getting Carter's thoughts at some point. I mean, he says he's really opposed to this police force. I'm not. Listen, don't get me wrong. I think it's a wasteful idea, and I don't think there's any reason for it. Other
Corey
19:11
Other provinces do have provincial police forces. I just think it's a foolish policy, a needless policy, an expensive policy. But let's be clear, government
Corey
19:19
government has blown more money on less as well. So it's hard for me to feel the
Corey
19:24
the outrage Carter seems to be feeling on
Zain
19:27
Where's your outrage coming from?
Carter
19:29
Having just worked in Surrey.
Carter
19:31
Right. I mean, I'm literally just fresh off an election where the biggest issue, again, is this, you know, moving away from, ironically, moving away from the RCMP and going to municipal police force. And
Carter
19:44
And it seems like on paper it could work. It seems like it's a better idea.
Carter
19:50
At the end of the day, it's
Carter
19:52
it's all about control because it turns out police officers are police officers and the color of the uniform really doesn't matter. matter. What does matter is, are they standing up for our local community's objectives from our policing?
Carter
20:04
And the way that we've written most of our policing laws, we don't actually give ourselves that opportunity regardless of who's doing the service.
Carter
20:12
So because the Police Act is broken in Alberta, it literally doesn't matter what the police service is.
Carter
20:19
Now, Chandra would would say, well, it does matter because we don't
Carter
20:24
don't even get to offer direction to the RCMP. First, we have to go to Ottawa. Okay, renegotiate that part of the contract. But you don't have to reinvent the wheel in order to do this. And my strong reaction to this, I
Carter
20:41
I mean, we spent four four times as much money on TransCanada Pipe or on Keystone
Carter
20:49
then we will spend on the transition. Corey's right. We spent a lot more money on things that may or may not be more
Carter
20:56
meaningless. I'm just tired of spending
Carter
20:58
spending money on things that we're not actually solving the problem. That's just starting to bug me.
Carter
21:04
call me an old cranky man, but that's where I am right right now a
Zain
21:08
a very old very old cranky man cory jump in here and then i've got a question around how this can play in urban centers and i want to move on to a broader topic yeah i
Corey
21:16
i mean we somehow got on policing and that's my bag because i think i introduced it but i want to just say this we live yeah again i i live in the middle of a city we
Corey
21:25
we have our own police force we don't use the rcmp you could make an economy of scale argument there as well right
Corey
21:32
you know I just have a hard time getting worked up about this one. I know that this has become one of these culture war things.
Corey
21:39
I just think it's a waste of money. And like I said, governments waste money.
Zain
21:44
Corey, talk to me about the... I'm moving on from policing for a second. Talk to me about the guns. Let's go back to guns and I want to go to the feds. Okay.
Zain
21:52
to me about the guns, Corey, as it relates to the urban centers. If you're opposition parties in this case, this
Zain
21:58
this is about long guns, not handguns. We've seen handgun crime in the cities go up. Can you tie the two together? Is there a bridge politically to get your message out to say that this government doesn't care about safety or security or the problems that ail you? Are you off message by trying to make this an issue? Give me your take, your general sense on what there is here, or is it a line of attack about sovereignty or other sort of lines of attack as it relates to this particular issue? Yeah,
Corey
22:25
Yeah, I mean, I don't think you have to work very hard. I think for a lot of people, guns are guns. They're not differentiating between handguns and long guns in a day-to-day basis. Let me put it this way. If my neighbor had a revolver or a shotgun, I wouldn't fundamentally change my level of comfort with the idea. And so I think that you can pretty
Corey
22:45
pretty easily blur the lines there. there. Long guns are often, as I was saying at the start, you can make more of a case that they're a tool, but in the city, that's not a case you can make. Nobody needs a long gun in the city. So yeah, you can easily say this is just proliferating guns. Most of this violence that occurs, occurs with domestically somebody that you know who has a gun, et cetera, et cetera. It's not hard to find statistics that justify not allowing people to own things that can kill other people but um yeah
Corey
23:18
yeah like it's it just depends if you're the ndp what you're willing to put on the table what you're not because
Corey
23:22
because one of the interesting things about this is it may not be a bad defensive play for the ucp in some of these edge rural ridings where i think um there
Corey
23:31
there is there is a type of new democrat there's a type of liberal that i have met many many times who feel very strongly they should be allowed to have firearms and are even gun enthusiasts so it you And they do tend to be more in rural areas than urban, although they exist in urban areas
Zain
23:47
Carter, is there any sort of trap here for opposition parties, or should this be something that they lean into with Corey's sort of explanation here, that for many urbanites, a gun is a gun is a gun, and that this is something that is maybe not popular in the cities, and that's where the battlegrounds are going to ultimately be in the next election? election?
Carter
24:07
I just think that the trap is that it's just not going to be that, it's not going to be that explosive, if you will, of an issue.
Carter
24:15
We're not going to remember this. Why do you think that
Zain
24:17
that is? Why do you think that
Carter
24:17
that is? I think because A, it's what, 10 days before Christmas. Everybody's tired after a long year. We're barely paying attention. And this to me is a throwaway announcement. It goes to a very specific audience. It's not going to be remembered for a long period And I
Carter
24:33
I think that the NDP have been doing some of those throwaway announcements, too.
Carter
24:37
I thought it was weird today that Rachel Notley did her big economic speech.
Carter
24:42
I think that these
Carter
24:44
these are the dog days, man. No election in May is won or lost in December of the previous year.
Carter
24:54
I would probably not be writing a big, strong, I'd write a position paper so we know where we are as a party, but I would not be writing a big, strong, this is how we win on the gun issue, because I just don't think it's there. I don't think it's there. I don't think enough people care
Carter
25:13
to make it happen.
Zain
25:16
Corey, this is a gun issue, but this is also not a gun issue. you. Despite the fact that Shandro's talked about this particular piece of legislation, even prior to the Sovereignty Act, we are in the Sovereignty Act era.
Zain
25:27
And everything that's going to be discussed regarding Alberta and Ottawa is going to be in that casing, if I can say. So the feds have said, and Justin Trudeau said, listen, I don't want to pick a fight on this. And today, David Lamedi on this particular file on guns says it would be extraordinary if they, Alberta, made a unilateral decision not to enforce the law. That would not only offend the Constitution, but also offend the rule of law.
Zain
25:50
That's all he said.
Zain
25:51
The federal sort of liberal strategy here seems to be to not pick a fight, to maybe drag the puck a bit, to maybe run out the clock.
Zain
25:59
Do you, A, agree that that is their strategy from what you've observed? And B, is it the right strategy in your mind if you are the feds?
Corey
26:08
Well, I do think it's their strategy. They've just used it too many times for it to be an accident. They're trying to lower temperatures on this.
Corey
26:15
They're trying not to rise to the the fight but make it look like it's like if it was a bar fight if somebody smashed a glass and started waving it around and the other person's like i you know this i'm not interested in this right you you make the other person look like a lunatic uh if if they get themselves to the most extreme version and you stay calm and it's uh you
Corey
26:35
you know it's a very typical human interaction tactic right uh so i i think it's very clearly their tactic they're using it in all sorts of situations with all sorts of actors is it the right tactic yeah i do think it's the right tactic it's clearly
Corey
26:51
clearly well let's look at it from two angles one is if
Corey
26:55
if you are justin trudeau and you are disinterested in helping daniel smith it's
Corey
27:01
it's the right tactic right even if
Corey
27:04
not necessarily interested in helping rachel notley but you have to know that this is like they're
Corey
27:10
they're trying to set you up to be a wrestling heel they're trying to get this fight they want you to enter the ring. They want to start throwing around words and getting the audience to boo you. And they want this election to be Danielle Smith versus Ottawa.
Corey
27:22
Ottawa doesn't show up, they don't have an election plan. And that makes an awful lot of sense.
Corey
27:28
your strategy as Justin Trudeau is to increase your popularity in Alberta, again,
Corey
27:36
again, I think it makes sense not to rise to the fight. It's just something that will
Corey
27:41
will keep you from talking about the things that that are actually popular with Albertans, it becomes a distraction. You don't get to talk about childcare
Corey
27:47
childcare access being expanded. You don't get to talk about the
Corey
27:51
the investments made in things like Trans Mountain, which
Corey
27:53
which will become online in a big way.
Corey
27:57
it's not helpful. It clutters the table when you think about the feds trying to talk about their priorities. And it would only help Danielle Smith if you think about it in terms of the provincial dynamics. dynamics.
Zain
28:11
Carter, is it their strategy? And it's the right strategy. Would you advise a strategy to the feds? You call it dog days. Let's call it the final days of the year. But also perhaps even in Q1 and Q2 of next year, can they do the lower the temperature? I don't want to pick a fight. This would be extraordinary, but I'm not taking the bait. Is that the right call here?
Carter
28:35
totally i agree with cory on that like i think that you know cory's analogy was a little extreme for me he was saying you know this is the the guy in the bar you know waving around the broken glass it's actually a lot less than that it's just a drunk at the bar do you mean the bar do you mean the cactus club
Zain
28:52
club sorry just just so i'm
Carter
28:53
i'm clear do you mean the local okay perfect you're
Carter
28:56
you're at the and you start to talk shit about
Carter
29:03
ottawa as people do and
Carter
29:05
and uh you don't want to respond back and start talking shit about alberta um you just don't want that because that's that's where all of a sudden you're making national news about how you don't like being in edmonton and you just why would you make that kind of news story it just doesn't add up and look how it could rebound on mind here if
Carter
29:25
you're from mississauga or something like that that would be fucking tragic to
Carter
29:28
to be attacking edmonton yeah it
Zain
29:31
it would it would be tragic no it would i mean long
Zain
29:34
the state community of windermere weird
Zain
29:37
weird road in between all
Zain
29:40
all your amenities on one side and all your big homes on the other what
Zain
29:44
what a great community windermere uh carter talk to me about this um okay that
Zain
29:49
that is a fed strategy i was on cbc today and rob brown asked a very interesting question which He said, game it out, ultimately. He said, game it out. If the feds took the bait, where would this be? And I'm curious to hear your answer on this, because I think it's a really interesting question. If the feds said, fuck it, we can get a few political points for slagging Alberta a bit. We'll look strong to the rest of the country. We'll look like we're telling them to go fuck themselves with their sovereignty act. What ends up happening? Game that out for me. Where do the pieces on the board land in your mind? I won't give you my answer, but i'm curious to hear yours well
Carter
30:22
well it's a real shame that i don't have your answer zane and kudos to you for going on cbc and coming up with your own answer without hearing what cory and i had to say first that is your
Zain
30:31
your answer will be
Zain
30:32
be pretty weak yeah
Carter
30:35
it's bold here's here's where i am daniel
Carter
30:38
daniel smith is already running ads saying that uh you know voting for rachel notley is a vote for justin trudeau and that is going to be her primary attack rachel notley equals Justin Trudeau, equals Jagmeet Singh. These two are the same. These two or three people are the exact same.
Carter
30:58
Why would you feed into that?
Carter
30:59
There's no upside to getting into a fight with this toddler that's throwing shit around the kitchen. Just leave the toddler, let the toddler throw her shit around the kitchen, and then come back in when there's grownups in charge and you can actually clean up the shit that the toddler's thrown around.
Carter
31:16
That's all Daniel Smith is right right now is a toddler throwing shit against the wall so
Corey
31:22
so when your kids were toddlers yeah
Corey
31:25
i'm gonna have to pick if they started throwing shit around you just walk out of the room that's what you would do yeah
Carter
31:30
yeah well okay heather went back in and cleaned things up but oh
Carter
31:36
i i i just left i'd go honey and she would fix it cory
Zain
31:41
cory talk to me about daniel smith's strategy grown up it in the in the new year should she keep trying to lob as many of these fed provincial fights these fed provincial cleavages as as much as she can or is there like a limitation to that that that just like the feds where they keep playing it and they're like because she's gonna keep it seems like she's gonna keep trying to pick on this should she and
Zain
32:06
and it doesn't have to be guns it could be like the next thing the next thing the next thing let
Corey
32:09
let me continue carter's metaphor because i think it's actually telling and it illustrates kind of a challenge that we all have societally right now which
Corey
32:17
which is if a toddler is throwing shit around the kitchen yes
Corey
32:21
yes you and they're doing it to get attention and you don't give them the attention there's
Corey
32:25
there's going to just be more and more shit around the kitchen and so the
Corey
32:28
the challenge that we have is it will
Zain
32:31
will compound one might say if
Corey
32:32
if this is a strategy that the ucp has picking a fight and they can't get the fight. They might just start picking the fight in more egregious ways, in more dramatic ways as things go on. And at a certain point, it becomes irresponsible to stay out of the kitchen while that is all happening, right? And so the feds have a challenge there.
Corey
32:53
And we all have a challenge because that's our kitchen at the end of the day. And we
Corey
32:58
we don't want it covered in shit.
Corey
33:01
So it will be an interesting spring in Alberta. And I certainly hope that everybody can act Act a little bit more maturely and not pick fights for the sake of fights, but actually take
Corey
33:11
take principle-based stances and have rational conversations.
Carter
33:15
Oh, my God. What color is the sky in your world? Jesus Christ.
Zain
33:18
Carter, I have to say, you have successfully picked
Zain
33:22
picked fights, haven't you?
Zain
33:25
What would you do? For coverage.
Zain
33:29
talk to me about this and talk to me about whether this is the right strategy for Smith as the new year approaches, A, do you expect her to keep throwing darts and trying to finally land one in the sense of a response or a fight or an offhand comment that starts a fight into a war, so to speak? And B, do you feel like it's the right strategy here?
Carter
33:54
They obviously have polling. I think they have two things. I think they have a natural inclination to campaign against Justin Trudeau. But I also think that they probably have polling polling that shows that a large group of people, I mean, David Coletto was circulating a poll the other day, and I think he's releasing the full poll tomorrow with Abacus Data, that shows that there's a group of people called the reluctant UCP voters, right? They
Carter
34:17
voted for the UCP in 2019, but they are very reluctant to vote for the UCP right now. They
Carter
34:23
They may vote for the UCP, they
Carter
34:25
they may vote for the NDP, but
Carter
34:28
that's it. They're not doing anything more than that. So
Carter
34:30
So they they're very highly likely not
Carter
34:37
for Danielle Smith. And so
Carter
34:39
so but I would imagine they've got polling that says that
Carter
34:44
that something that could bring them back is their hatred of Justin Trudeau, their hatred of
Carter
34:48
of Justin Trudeau. this reluctant UCP voter may come back if
Carter
34:53
if they are convinced that their hatred for Justin can be morphed into some sort of hatred for something else.
Zain
35:02
Is this not your municipal election strategy with Mayor Gondek, where you ran against the premier versus running against who was on the ballot against you? Is this not the same thing that they're trying to engineer or manufacture?
Carter
35:15
To a degree. It's just that I think that we were much closer to jason and i will point out and to cory's point um
Carter
35:23
jason didn't engage us once right
Carter
35:26
or maybe he never yeah
Carter
35:27
yeah but he never really kind of engaged us um to our chagrin we were looking forward to that fight or
Carter
35:33
or at least i was i don't know what junk he was looking but um
Carter
35:37
but he never did and you
Carter
35:40
you know was that the right strategy i still was able to engage him to cory's point right i was still able to fling my shit around in the kitchen as the spoiled toddler as one expects but
Carter
35:50
but this is very
Zain
35:51
very easily eerily easily picture but yes go ahead yeah
Carter
35:55
yeah but i think i
Carter
35:57
i think that him not engaging us was still the right choice i think him staying out of it so yeah
Corey
36:02
yeah but you've actually
Carter
36:02
actually made me one they're powerful okay
Zain
36:05
don't know are you do you have the same question as me you might
Corey
36:07
might of course absolutely i do you go but like well how about this you won right yeah exactly he
Zain
36:12
he seemed to be successful he
Zain
36:14
didn't engage exactly he did not engage or engage engaged cursory once or twice and you still want what's the difference here like is there like in the sense do you need to accept the fight in order to win the fight does that does your opponent need to accept that they're in a fight in order to win the fight and in your case win an election yeah you've
Corey
36:32
you've got me thinking now carter i
Carter
36:35
don't think i think that the i think that you can still win the fight without your opponent engaging, but it's easier to win. My view is it would have been easier for us to win had Jason Kenney engaged us.
Carter
36:49
If Jason had engaged us, it makes it easier for us, not harder.
Zain
36:53
So you think this strategy of Daniel Smith trying to pick a fight with Justin Trudeau, even if he's a stonewall for the next five months, could
Zain
37:01
could still be successful, still merit in doing it? Could still be successful. I'm just trying to suggest, I'm trying to understand in your mind, is this, I know you think they've got polling and such, but let's just say that polling validates that you tussle with Trudeau versus Notley, you've got a better chance.
Zain
37:16
Do you feel like you'd still advise them to try to keep picking as many of these fights as you can? And then Corey, I want to get your thoughts on this. i'd
Carter
37:22
i'd still pick the fight you don't need you really don't need the other person to
Carter
37:28
engage in the fight for the fight to occur um
Carter
37:31
um so i'd still i'd still pick the fight and i'd still advise justin trudeau not to fight back i don't think there's anything in it for him to fight back uh but
Carter
37:41
but he's gonna be his name's gonna be thrown around in western canada uh for quite a while as it always Always is, by the way. You think this is new? Did you watch Peter Lougheed attack his father? You know, this isn't new by any stretch of the imagination. So this is just one more
Carter
37:57
more time that a provincial leader is going to attack a federal leader in the hopes of generating political upside for themselves.
Zain
38:06
Corey, did this challenge your thinking or clarify it or neither?
Corey
38:11
you've got me wondering if they they actually need Justin Trudeau to be an active participant. Let's go back a bit into
Corey
38:16
into the imaginary land of what this conversation was that led the UCP and Daniel Smith to the strategy, right?
Corey
38:24
I'm imagining a conversation that went somewhere along the lines of this. Danielle, you have some very significant negatives, very significant.
Corey
38:32
And when we, when we put you up against Rachel Notley, you
Corey
38:35
you lose the, the conversation. She has more positives than you. You have more negatives. it's a situation where you are trailing your party and she is leading her party and we do know that during elections those
Corey
38:46
two lines converge often
Corey
38:48
not always but often and so you're gonna have to find a way that it's not you versus rachel notley and
Corey
38:56
there's a very obvious one here we have a deeply unpopular in alberta prime minister named justin trudeau so
Corey
39:02
so if you can make it you versus justin trudeau you can win that fight he's got worse negatives than you
Corey
39:07
make it about that you
Corey
39:09
win that's our path to victory you don't even say the words rachel nodley if you do you're tying them to justin trudeau it is all about justin trudeau it's all about bringing in him and
Corey
39:19
and jagmeet singh and just making it a fight about defending alberta's interests which as carter said is tried tested and true right
Corey
39:32
it's here's the thing that i'm now thinking about and it's the same reason it worked for of steve carter justin
Corey
39:36
justin trudeau's negatives are already there he is such a formed individual in alberta's consciousness and
Corey
39:42
you don't you don't necessarily need him he can be a cardboard cutout that you sit there and you're like look at this guy and everyone's gonna boo
Corey
39:48
because it doesn't matter you don't need to engage because in a way it's
Corey
39:53
for so many albertans it's gonna feel like he's
Corey
39:55
he's the one who threw the first punch jiu
Zain
39:57
jiu-jitsu by having everyone at least to some degree run against justin trudeau so that your opposition doesn't necessarily look like that they're the ones supporting justin trudeau well
Carter
40:08
well i think that if you run against justin trudeau like like if you're rachel notley do you run against justin trudeau as well sure you do right he's
Carter
40:15
he's not doing enough for us
Carter
40:17
us you can still run against him on health care you can run against him on um you
Carter
40:21
you know i think you can support him on the child it becomes harder because uh if if if
Carter
40:26
if rachel notley's running a honest campaign she
Carter
40:30
she does have more closeness
Carter
40:32
closeness to trudeau's policies policies carbon tax child care dental uh
Carter
40:37
uh especially the federal ndp what they're trying to push forward with health care she
Carter
40:41
she has more in common with that group than
Carter
40:44
than she does with um
Carter
40:46
you know with the conservatives or even with the federal ndp
Carter
40:49
but i think that you
Carter
40:50
you know she doesn't have to accept
Carter
40:52
accept her place in the script and this is where jeremy you know jeremy's problem was right jeremy farkas could
Carter
41:00
could didn't fight against us because of where his money was coming from
Carter
41:04
The good news is Rachel Notley's money is not coming from Trudeau supporters.
Carter
41:09
Rachel Notley's money is coming from Rachel Notley supporters. So she can still go after Trudeau. And that's probably how I would counter it. Attack Trudeau on a couple of key fronts.
Carter
41:20
And, you know, I mean, the carbon tax, the made in Alberta carbon tax was better for Albertans is
Carter
41:27
is probably a great way to go after it. Even
Carter
41:29
Even Jason Kenney said, boom,
Carter
41:33
a made-in-Alberta carbon tax would be better for Albertans.
Zain
41:37
Corey, I guess the question has evolved into neutralizing the running against Trudeau strategy by Smith. But do you have any comments on either that or any extensions to the strategy and how you're processing it now?
Corey
41:48
Yeah, well, now I'm wondering –
Corey
41:53
let me throw this one at you. Albertans, too
Corey
41:55
too many of them, actually think Justin Trudeau wants to shut down oil and gas. The
Zain
41:59
The guy bought a pipeline,
Corey
42:00
pipeline, spent over $20 billion of federal money. They think that he's actively trying to shut down the oil industry. It's kind of madness, but it's the view of a lot of these voters that I believe would probably be those hesitant or reluctant UCP voters that Stephen Carter is talking about. But if
Corey
42:15
if everybody thinks Trudeau already threw the first punch, if everybody already thinks Trudeau is fucking the Alberta government, doesn't
Corey
42:22
doesn't that change your thinking? Doesn't that sort of change the base position everyone's at? And then why doesn't he throw a punch? Why doesn't he fuck the Alberta government?
Corey
42:32
If the view is already of Trudeau already being so negative there, let me throw this at you. I'm going to throw a crazy idea at you, right?
Corey
42:41
People think Justin Trudeau is
Corey
42:44
a tyrant from Ottawa.
Corey
42:45
Danielle Smith is standing up and saying, I'm going to protect Alberta's interests.
Corey
42:50
What if Justin Trudeau and just ignore all of like the longer term for
Corey
42:54
for a moment, like interprovincial consequences, how this would change a lot of calculus around here.
Corey
42:59
What if he said, you
Corey
43:03
I'm going to disallow this bill until there's a referendum in Alberta that shows the majority of Albertans want this and I'll pay for the referendum and we can do it next month.
Corey
43:11
And if the majority vote for the Sovereignty Act, that's fine. And then it can go to the courts.
Corey
43:15
And if the majority is against it, I'm going to listen to the will of Albertans and I'm going to disallow this bill.
Carter
43:21
I think you're right. I think he should do that.
Carter
43:24
But I think he won't do that because at the end of the day, he doesn't want to win these votes as much as he wants to win other votes.
Carter
43:29
Right. So he's got a budget to read. We talked about. But can't
Zain
43:33
he have his cake and eat it too?
Carter
43:34
I think he can, but I don't think that he's ready for that. I think that he's too defensive in his posturing. We've talked a lot before about where Trudeau is in terms of his government structure and style. He's had the same team of people. I mean, obviously there's a bunch of people who've changed around him, but
Carter
43:50
but this is an exceptionally, this
Carter
43:51
this is an exceptionally
Carter
43:58
from a leader that we do not know to be particularly aggressive.
Carter
44:03
So I think that, you
Carter
44:05
you know, I'm not sure that I would, I would suggest that he did that.
Zain
44:10
yeah but cory yeah it's it's interesting good cory's point ultimately is that at some point this shit compounds in his metaphor quite literally the shit would compound right and so he can either choose to react and look reactionary or he can choose to be assertive and say here's my pinpoint here is my red line of when i get in and converges with when it has the most strategic benefit to me you see what i'm saying he can he can try to draw the time I mean, you take a bat and say, I pick lane one, which is I'm going to try to run out the clock here. But what that ultimately means, the risk there, Carter, seems to be that he may not run out the clock, right? That there might be some time left on the clock, and then he has to make a reactionary move versus saying, I've got a red line, I will interject, but it's going to be on my terms. That seems to be the two, maybe not entirely distinct, but those seem to be the two lanes or the two doors that Trudeau has to pick at some point on this particular battle with Alberta and this premier is it not so
Zain
45:08
here's the thing yeah
Zain
45:09
yeah cory i don't want
Corey
45:10
want to get like the tactic is not the point the tactic is not
Corey
45:14
but if you were if you wanted to do something like this you say the province can fuck around and say we're responsible for policing the
Corey
45:23
the federal government has similar abilities to do that and you could say i've got elections canada i don't have it you don't own elections canada but you can tell elections canada you want to have a referendum, January 15th. You
Corey
45:35
You have up to six months to disallow a bill. So you change the conversation entirely by saying, we
Corey
45:42
we need to hear from Albertans on this. Here's the very specific conditions. Why? Premier elected without a mandate, last six months of her term, significantly upends the constitutional order. We respect the wishes of Albertans. Listen, ultimately, it's all subject to the courts, but we need to make sure this is actually the wishes of Albertans. And all of a of a sudden the entire conversation then is
Corey
46:03
is very very different right all of it now there's like a vote and
Corey
46:06
and things are going to get weird now does that play into daniel smith's hands i don't know that's
Zain
46:11
that's what i was going to say if
Corey
46:12
talking if you're justin trudeau and you're talking about seizing the initiative well
Corey
46:16
well that's one way to kind of get everybody talking on your terms instead
Corey
46:20
instead of just sitting there being a punching bag what
Corey
46:22
what are you trying
Zain
46:22
trying to do in
Zain
46:23
in this we're getting into the hypothetical but i like it so i'm going to actually end this off with you telling me if that were to to be the case? If Trudeau were to listen to Corey's advice, how would the different sort of stakeholders in this process react in your mind? What would be the optimal reaction? If you're Danielle Smith, how are you reacting to Justin Trudeau imposing, I mean, maybe giving you some of my answer, how I'd answered, imposing a referendum on your province? And how would you react if you're the opposition parties?
Carter
46:51
Really tricky, actually. If you're Danielle Smith, you're getting a little bit of, to use your phrase, jujitsu used on you, because all of a sudden now you're supposed to support the democratic principles right so
Carter
47:04
so a referendum the ability to offer this up to the uh
Carter
47:09
know cory i'm not even sure can a federal government impose a referendum on a provincial government i'm
Corey
47:15
i'm not even sure it couldn't be phrased that way that's for sure uh but
Corey
47:19
but you know it would be a real challenge because all of a sudden you'd have a situation like if you're trudeau that
Corey
47:24
that does become you versus smith right like that is you versus smith
Zain
47:28
you are are taking the bait at that point you are 100 yeah arguably
Carter
47:33
arguably i actually quite i like it i think it's a good call i don't know that trudeau does it be
Carter
47:38
be and here's the reason why because on first principles
Zain
47:40
principles doesn't it yeah go ahead carter it
Carter
47:42
it makes it too much for it makes it it's
Carter
47:45
it's too high stakes a gamble for
Carter
47:48
for you to for for you to cost the
Carter
47:51
the alberta election from someone else right for you to take the the election away from notley and making it about you i think that he's still much, much better off, uh,
Carter
48:00
uh, to avoid and ignore.
Corey
48:03
I think ultimately I come down there, Stephen, but I want to make the counter argument for
Corey
48:09
You're going to sit there. You're going to be a punching bag. They're going to look like they're just hitting you with haymakers left, right, and center, and you're not doing anything. And doesn't that in a way reinforce the standup to Ottawa? And if you are going to, if you were going to declare war with Danielle Smith, don't you want to declare war on the shakiest ground that she's on? And is that not the sovereignty act?
Corey
48:30
mean, look, I agree. It's high stakes. I don't even think it's necessarily a good idea.
Carter
48:35
I just don't know that you want it. I mean, what's your best case pick up in Alberta?
Zain
48:44
Well, the question is, it's not even for Alberta at that point.
Zain
48:47
The Alberta audience would be not who celebrates
Zain
48:53
celebrates your victory, so to speak, in Alberta. it's the radius beyond it's the blast zone of the swing ridings and all those other places where you
Zain
49:06
standing up to alberta perhaps is maybe beneficial that's how i don't know that's how i see it i
Corey
49:11
i mean i think it's anyways
Corey
49:12
got it i think it's a very interesting
Zain
49:13
interesting episode we'll get we'll get the pmo a patreon subscription and uh we'll just send him this uh this episode i like that let's move it on to our final segment steven carter are over under in our lightning round
Zain
49:24
round you You promised us that
Corey
49:26
we would talk about Cactus
Corey
49:29
Cactus Club specifically. Stephen
Zain
49:32
Stephen Carter, Earls or Cactus Club? What are you choosing?
Carter
49:37
Is it even any question? I mean, you've got to go to Earls.
Carter
49:40
Earls has got the best vegetarian fare. I mean, granted, the Cactus Club bowls are spectacular, but
Carter
49:47
but you can't eat bowls all the time, right? You've got to be able to do a hamburger with a beyond meat option. Tell me I'm wrong, Corey. Corey, you know, the beyond meat option is, is much better at, uh, at Earl's and it is a cactus club, but cactus club does have some really nice, uh,
Carter
50:03
uh, other good stuff.
Zain
50:05
Okay. Well, thank you for that noncommittal answer. You sound like someone from Mississauga. Jesus fucking Christ. Corey, cactus club or Earl's. What are you choosing?
Corey
50:15
You know, I think we've got to look at it through eight different lenses. Uh, you've got to look at decor. You've got to look at food quality. Beautiful. you gotta look at locations yeah
Corey
50:25
that's no listen steven it's 2022 you do not look at it through the lens of servers listen
Carter
50:30
i used to be a keg server okay
Carter
50:33
and the keg servers kicked earl's servers ass every day of the week i will accept the service down with you service
Zain
50:39
service is good service i will accept service servers i have
Carter
50:43
have never been more upset as a service as a former keg server i'm
Carter
50:49
i'm i'm as someone who provided service
Zain
50:52
that's how we say it now yeah
Corey
50:54
yeah so angry i
Zain
50:55
i could tell you some stories please continue with your eight prong list yeah okay yeah
Corey
50:58
yeah so uh we've already talked about food quality we've talked about location you
Zain
51:03
we've listed them we haven't talked but it's not just
Corey
51:05
just quality you've also got to think about the options you have available there the cleanliness of the restrooms you've also got to unpack really understand that happy
Corey
51:14
happy hour specials uh specials in general but not happy hour it's also the
Carter
51:19
the summer specials summer specials that would
Corey
51:21
would be in the specials not happy hour yeah
Corey
51:23
that's really important to look at there sorry this list is painful you
Zain
51:26
you do realize that go ahead and finish your list and i'll give you the northeast calgary list in a second it's one thing we
Corey
51:31
we haven't even talked about price but
Corey
51:32
is that the is that the no
Zain
51:38
can this one entree feed beat a family of eight can
Zain
51:41
can it yeah that's that's
Carter
51:43
that's the only question how do i get in trouble for servers and
Carter
51:46
and you're fine with that like how well
Corey
51:48
well because i am a son of the northeast yeah we both live in the northeast we can make yes
Carter
51:52
yes he lives in the northwest now that's true we've talked about this yeah
Carter
51:57
you can't doxing me
Zain
52:00
keep going cory i'm
Carter
52:00
i'm gonna get kicked off the platform
Zain
52:03
uh keep going uh yes so who have you chosen i need an answer because there's more to this question jesus christ okay
Corey
52:09
okay well when i weigh them all when i look at the preponderance of evidence here i do have to go with
Corey
52:16
it's it you know it cactus club is expensive and the options aren't as good but
Corey
52:21
but here we are also
Zain
52:23
also the servers yeah i'm joking carter it's a joke this is what you call comedic timing comedic timing servers and
Carter
52:29
and you should learn it you should learn the keg
Carter
52:33
Carter, here's what it
Zain
52:35
it is. Earl cares about you
Carter
52:35
you from the bottom
Zain
52:36
bottom of their heart.
Zain
52:38
You read the Toronto Life article. You have now to come up with... Do we want to tee this up?
Corey
52:42
Do we just assume everybody knows what the Toronto Life article is?
Zain
52:45
If you haven't read the Toronto Life article, everyone knows what the Toronto Life article is. I mean, how could you listen to the pod without knowing what it
Zain
52:49
is? Toronto Life is just... Okay, let me tee this up. So there's an article about a woman, okay, in Ontario who's complained about moving to Alberta. She eventually moved back home, right? She moved back home to Toronto I was only realizing later that she actually lived in Mississauga.
Carter
53:06
Toronto. She said that
Zain
53:06
that her life in Toronto, Mississauga, was the shit because she'd go to the Cactus Club multiple times a week, right? Just meet up with folks. And she said that shit in Edmonton wasn't working for her because while she got cheap real estate, she purchased in Windermere, you know, that aforementioned community with that big road in between the amenities. It's outside of the ring road,
Zain
53:28
It is outside of the ring road. road. It's very far. She said it didn't live up to her expectations. She knew she was going from what she called a 10 in nightlife in Mississauga. She called it a 10. She thought she was going to a 5 or a 6 and she said she went to a 1 or a 2 with the... I'm just going to check my notes here with Windermere, which if you don't know, just look it up. Look up Windermere in Edmonton. You'll see a dot outside of the word Edmonton on Google Maps. The dot for Windermere doesn't even take up any of the edmonton letters when you look it up okay okay
Zain
54:00
so that's where she lived she ended a bunch of outrage online uh that's where the cactus club uh reference comes from cory i don't want to tee it up but you made me do it so alberta now has to issue an official clapback cory alberta has to issue an official statement um you are responsible for constructing cory hogan the
Zain
54:23
the bones of that statement, the skeleton outline of that statement.
Zain
54:27
What would your clapback be to Toronto Life, to this 33-year-old who's the Mississauga to Edmonton, now back to Mississauga resident, who purchased her home in Windermere, who could not find the 10 out of 10 or even 6 out of 10 nightlife she was looking for in Windermere community, barely in Edmonton. What would the official Alberta clapback be, Corey Hogan? How would you construct this? Go.
Corey
54:54
well obviously we would first and foremost look at our legislative tools i'm thinking the turn off the taps legislation could apply
Zain
55:00
apply like that yeah
Corey
55:01
yeah gotta do that very
Corey
55:04
uh beyond that i think what we need is a a flare airlines promo special from mississauga where there is an airport you may be familiar with it i
Zain
55:14
i was not familiar with it toronto international neither was flare airlines oh
Carter
55:17
oh no it's too expensive for flare oh yeah
Zain
55:19
yeah come on they have have they they're definitely not familiar with pearson airport they
Zain
55:25
have landed there maybe once and that was by accident they missed the runway in barry and they said listen they
Corey
55:33
were trying to land on the 401 and they missed okay
Zain
55:37
that's pretty good thank you that's good proud of that one
Corey
55:41
and there is an airport south of edmonton which is where this woman lived So I think this is the perfect Flare Airlines promotion.
Corey
55:49
Go from nowhere to nowhere on Flare Airlines.
Carter
55:52
Oh, that's pretty good. Oh, that's good.
Zain
55:55
Now, what is the coupon code, Stephen Carter? That's where your contribution comes in. When someone goes to flyflare.com and they enter the coupon code, what is the coupon code that one would need to enter so they can get the going nowhere to nowhere promotional discount which is a flight that takes you from nowhere to nowhere uh for nothing what would the promotional code be steven carter you get one chance at this late on me danielle's
Carter
56:21
danielle's heart to justin's brain the
Zain
56:26
answer was 100 cactus how
Carter
56:29
how did i miss that i was so focused on the nowhere oh
Zain
56:34
oh jesus christ carter the answer is cactus the answer is is absolutely cactus. Nicely done. Stephen Carter, next one to you. When and if Justin Trudeau picks a fight, what
Zain
56:46
what do you think it will be with
Zain
56:48
with Daniel Smith? What issue do you think he will go after? There's many things. There's healthcare, which the premiers, plural, are fighting the feds on. There's obviously guns. There's going to be other quote-unquote implementations. Childcare has been floated out. If and when Justin Trudeau interjects, gets his voice louder on on anything related to to ottawa versus alberta what
Zain
57:08
what would it be on in your mind
Carter
57:10
mind we've talked about how painful it is for me when you set me up for a question where i have to agree with cory we've
Carter
57:15
we've talked about this i've
Carter
57:16
i've said i don't like it i've asked you not to do it but here i am having to agree with cory that the only place that he can actually really dig in on this is the sovereignty act it
Carter
57:26
it is a it's
Carter
57:27
it's a very unpopular piece of legislation in In Alberta. So just the whole thing, not
Zain
57:31
not a particular issue or file, but the act itself.
Carter
57:34
itself. No, the whole act. And Corey's suggestion of the referendum
Carter
57:39
referendum on the act, if you really want this thing, if you want us to not oppose this, then you've got to run a referendum in
Carter
57:46
in your next election.
Carter
57:51
Thanks, Corey. You carried me through the podcast, brother. You
Carter
57:53
You made this a better podcast today. Very
Carter
57:55
Very unusual, but I appreciate it nonetheless.
Zain
57:59
Corey, if and when Justin Trudeau picks a fight or agrees to the fight, the challenge that is being picked of him by
Zain
58:05
by Daniel Smith in the UCP, what issue does he pick it on? What issue does he respond to? Is it the Sovereignty Act as a whole, as Carter said, or is it one of the many issues that Daniel Smith might try to throw darts on in the upcoming weeks and months? It
Corey
58:18
It is either the Sovereignty Act or it's something where you need to take advantage of Danielle Smith's deeply
Corey
58:25
deeply ideological and partisan approach that may be offside of things that Albertans want or like. And my suggestion is maybe it's healthcare with some very sensible strings attached. like we will
Corey
58:39
will give you we'll
Corey
58:40
we'll give you it would look it would be so insanely expensive so it would only be something you could do if the feds are already planning to increase the amount of money for the
Corey
58:47
provinces but if you said okay there's a hundred million additional dollars for um
Corey
58:53
for the province of alberta and all they need to do is agree to these four conditions
Corey
58:58
all children need to you know be able to get access to the you know this money has to go first and foremost to your children's hospitals not not even immunization your children's hospitals because they're being overrun just put a bunch of strings on it that will make them light their hair on fire but
Corey
59:12
but that people are going to be like well yeah of course we're hearing about there's
Corey
59:15
there's not enough room in uh
Corey
59:17
you know respite care and there's not enough room in the alberta children's hospital of course the money should go there
Carter
59:23
care thing really pisses me off i
Carter
59:24
i mean there's like that'd be a great one cory's
Carter
59:26
cory's on fire today on
Corey
59:28
on fire i know no
Carter
59:30
no one expected that no
Carter
59:31
no one expected that so
Zain
59:36
speaking of corey's future speaking
Zain
59:38
speaking of corey's doppelganger pierre polliev uh corey are you in or out on pierre polliev not choosing to campaign in mississauga lakeshore so if you heard about this the liberals won that riding we were discussing it they had that 40 activist candidates against rado but pierre polliev made a strategic choice choice not to back his candidate there, not to necessarily show his face, to canvas, to do all the things you'd expect a leader to perhaps do in the first by-election when they are trying to penetrate a swing riding? Are you in or out on the pure political calculation of Pierre Polyev choosing not to expose himself and perhaps thereby trying to make this outcome a nothing burger because there was an imbalance of one leader not necessarily leaning into it. What do you think of that political strategy, in or out?
Corey
1:00:25
Well, let's go back to that imaginary table, right?
Corey
1:00:28
right? And let's just assume that they made the calculation early on. We're not winning this one.
Zain
1:00:35
quality seems high, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Don't want to be near this L,
Corey
1:00:40
I can understand how they made the decision.
Corey
1:00:43
I think it was the wrong decision because now his absence has become part of the story And now his entire judgment is being called into question in a way that if he had just sort of halfheartedly went there, if they had softened the ground a bit beforehand saying, you
Corey
1:00:58
you know, well, you know, quietly, well, they're still optimistic that, you know, Mr. Soggins will see through Justin Trudeau's blatant vote buying and that
Corey
1:01:07
that this candidate is no different from other liberal candidates who have gone there. They realize that this is an area that the liberals have decided is almost a hill to die on, a last stand, and they're going to invest what it takes to win there. And he's not going to get distracted. He's not going to get tied down. I don't know. But I'll tell you this. I'm ultimately out because people
Corey
1:01:27
people like us are having this conversation. People everywhere are having
Corey
1:01:31
conversation about Pierre Poliev and the judgment that he's applying here, the fact that he lost by 14 points, the fact that he didn't go and engage with the mainstream media seemed to only do kind of alternative media.
Corey
1:01:45
the next election, he's going to have a lot of pressure on him to do things differently.
Corey
1:01:49
And maybe that's good for the Conservative Party. Maybe that's bad for the Conservative Party. But if you're the leader,
Corey
1:01:56
your range of motion just reduced, and you now have to do something that you're less inclined to do.
Zain
1:02:02
Carter, what do you think of Pierre Polyev on the pure politics of not leaning in to the mississauga lakeshore by-election i
Carter
1:02:10
think that that would have been fine in isolation i think that cory brings up another good
Carter
1:02:15
good point fuck you cory i had a lot of time to think
Corey
1:02:18
think about it while your computer was rebooting there oh
Carter
1:02:22
it's worked the whole time did you see that yeah
Carter
1:02:24
yeah are you proud of me fixing
Carter
1:02:27
um but here's the thing Here's
Carter
1:02:29
Here's the thing. I don't
Carter
1:02:31
don't think it's actually about whether or not he competed,
Carter
1:02:35
competed, you know, participated in the last in
Carter
1:02:37
that particular by-election. I think it's about his complete lack of presence during
Carter
1:02:43
during the last few months. I mean, he's just nowhere to be seen. And as a result, people get to pick on him and then they lost the by-election. fiction.
Carter
1:02:53
It's not like he was showing up in other places. I've seen a hell of a lot more from Justin Trudeau than I've seen from Pierre Polyev. And I think that that's in and of itself the problem.
Carter
1:03:05
If he'd been doing other things, if he'd been in other places, then
Carter
1:03:09
then I think he's fine. But he wasn't. And he's given away quite a bit for no return.
Zain
1:03:17
We're going to leave it there. That's a wrap on episode 1021 of The Strategist. My name is Zayn Veldry with me as always all
Zain
1:03:25
the way through all
Carter
1:03:26
all the way through and
Zain
1:03:29
we'll see you next time