Shaun Newman Podcast - #642 - Shane Getson

Episode Date: May 21, 2024

He is the current MLA for Lac St. Anne Parkland, currently serves as the Chief Government Whip, and Parliamentary Secretary for Economic Corridor Development. Let me know what you think. Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast E-transfer here: [e-mail] Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Text: [phone] – and be sure to let them know you’re an SNP listener.

This is Brett 14. This is Doug Casey. This is Tom Romago. This is Alex Kraner. This is Viva Fry. You're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast. Folks, has everybody doing today, yeah, Tuesday.

And if, for some reason, you're out of the loop, Tuesdays, you know, the mashup is now the mashup Friday mornings. Today's guest, Shane Getson, had asked him coming back on the mashup. He didn't realize it's not on Tuesday nights. So I'm like, oh, I better remind people. and maybe I should be doing this for the foreseeable future to remind you, the mashup now airs live Friday's 10 a.m. 10 a.m. And so when you're like, where's the Friday episode? Why hasn't you released yet?

Because I had a couple of those this past week. That's why we record live at 10 a.m. And the mashup gets released shortly after. Okay, that's my little service note here for all you lovely listeners. You know, governments, not exactly. You're going to hear Shane Getson's going to rip on the, the Trudeau government today. And, yeah, basically, you want to diversify some of your hard-earned money.

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of that for you. Okay, let's get on to that tale of the tape. He is a current MLA for LAC, St. and Parkland. Currently serves as a chief government whip and parliamentary secretary for economic corridor development. I'm talking about Shane Getson. So buckle up. Here we go. Welcome to Sean Newman podcast today.

I'm joined by Shane Getson. Shane, thanks for making the trip out this way. No, it's a pleasure to come down again. I'm looking at the skies and I wish I was flying. But, you know. You drove today. I drove today. The plane is just getting through its annual, and I'm just itching to get back up again.

So, yeah, pedestrian. Like the rest of us, you know? And he was asking folks, we were just talking briefly, that there's been some changes to the studio, and I've been talking briefly about it. I don't mind bringing it up in the middle of conversations. Because if people have been watching over the last, like, two months, I've had nothing but issues with technology. The mics have always been great in studio.

We figured that out. I feel like when somebody comes in, they sound great. everything's good there. But we bought, you know, I bought cameras. And then like, I don't know,

two months ago, just like something snapped on them. And they just started chewing through batteries. No kidding. Wouldn't last even an hour anymore. And so, you know, you do some,

okay, well, I'm like that. So that right there is, showed out to Kyle Kosa and his business, Ark.

They, they are helping out with one of the cameras in studio and, uh, we're test running it. to see if it works, right? Because there's no point

to spend a bunch of money if I have the same problems here in like two weeks or the first week. So it's, you know, it's got a bit of, it's the same feel, but we got everything off the ground. So when you walk in, I don't have you, you know, the dance

or when I used to like run around and like, don't step on that wire. I'd laugh at guests who come in here because they don't fully understand because I can't see everything, right? When you're talking, the camera switches to you. And so when you're talking

or whoever's talking. and I got to adjust something or I see something go down like a camera. I'm like, you know, being a little ninja in here. Hopefully those days are gone or soon to be gone. And I do appreciate the audience that watches. They're the ones that have been hurt by this the most. People who have listened probably haven't even noticed a single change. Probably have no clue.

Other than the odd comment on the camera not working. But the people who watch, they've been probably very frustrated. And I feel their frustration probably 10 times. Because you just want your show to come out, right? Like, think about it. You know, it's like all of a sudden, you know, pick your favorite, I don't know, I don't know what Shane gets and watches. Pick your favorite show. You know, maybe you're watching a little true detective back in the day when it was the first season when it was phenomenal.

And then all of a sudden it's supposed to air and it doesn't air. Well, it's probably not a good comparison because they spent millions of dollars on that. Well, I'm going to be the silver lining guy here. So, you know, I think this is, I don't know how many times I've been down here a few times. But all I've seen is a progression of not only your acumen in doing this, the guess you've had on, but also your kit. And it's not, what I really like about it, Sean, it isn't you're going to flash in the pan, buying everything that's the bestest and biggest and everything else right of the gate. You've bought things that work.

And now you're testing out something new. And I personally, I like it. Well, then the audience gets to come along for the ride. Because I'm like, if this camera sucks, it's going in a box, it's getting sold. I'm going to try the next thing. Because I can't, I've lost sleep over these stupid cameras. At one point, I'm like, you know, maybe I should just grab two iPhones, you know, $2,000, $2,000.

Heck, I bet you I can make seven phone calls and have eight, iPhones for free. And I just set them up. Screw it. Like, you just go to an iPhone studio where you just got like six iPhones attached different ways. And then you just send all the video off and people, it probably work. Like, I, wouldn't that work?

Well, it's like when GoPro's came out. I think George Lucas said I would love to have those making Star Wars back in the day. And back in the day. You know, so that's part of the things that we have now. So anyway, so if you're watching me talk right now, I'm going off an iPhone. I apologize because you're like, eventually are you going to get like standard camera angles again? I'm like, yes, yes.

And I've been really annoyed. I don't like to bring in McDonald's coffee cups. And today I'm just, I'm told, I told Shane, I'm like, I'm just having a, I'm either having a rough day to day folks or what, but I'm kind of ornery. And so I'm like, you know what? Fine. The McCaffee Cup is coming in the studio. I'm angry at that too. Sometimes it's a little thing's brothers.

So, yeah, no worries. It's all good. How are things in your world? Let's get it off, Sean, for a bit. I don't know. Like, brother, like politics is weird, right? Like those new gig and everything else you think you got kind of things on the, going the right direction.

There's always something invariably that's going sideways. So, um, with the chair that I have now with being the whip, it's, it's running around and behind the scenes taking care of all of that stuff. You honestly feel like the, you know, either the ringleader some days or the person just pushing the big broom behind the elephants after they go. And, uh, if we do our jobs well, then there's not a ton of things that everyone would notice elsewhere. So it's been really busy and behind the scenes to make sure that there aren't of any big issues out there.

What's the big issues right now? I don't know. I can't tell you the HR stuff in behind the scenes. Sure, sure, sure. But it's like anything else. Like think of a high performing team, right? You're going into the playoffs. You're in that run and you've got a high performing team.

Are we calling me? Are we calling politicians high performing? Sorry, this is the honoring you're getting on me. Yeah, no. Yeah. Interesting. Because you have to think about each one of the politicians out there has their own franchise. and then you're trying to bring them together.

It's not a traditional organization. I don't have a art chart where I can just say, hey, do with this or you're fired. So you've got... I think there'd be some people in Alberta that would enjoy having that recall legislation a little more close to where we could say that. Well, recall legislation is supposed to put it in the driver's seat of the electorate, absolutely. But I can't go out there and overrule an electorate's decision to have, that's your person. But I agree with that.

I would like a little more power in the hand of the electric. Because when you look at recall legislation, it's awesome. It's a great speaking point. We've got recall legislation. But then when you try and enact recall legislation, just look at the Gondack thing. You don't have to make it. You can say whatever you want on that. You don't have to say anything.

I just mean they got, what was it? I think they gave them 69,000 votes. Then they said basically it missed one line. And so they just wiped it all out anyways. Not that it made the threshold because the threshold is what? 500 or 600,000, right, 40% of the voting population. Come on. Like, we both know you cannot get, like, I'm in one of the highest voting spots in all

of Alberta. Yeah. Right? So in theory, if we all got mad at Garth, in theory, maybe, right? But 40% of all the voting population and the voting, we both know voting population. And then half the people don't show up for the actual vote. You had me at hello. Yeah.

Like, it's part of it, right? So there's a balance between the two. You have to have when you're going to do it, you've got to do it for real, and you have to look at the numbers that you need my personal feeling on it. The number should be calculated on the numbers that showed up and voted. But here's the fail safe. People usually vote when they're angry. They don't vote when things are going well. So let's say you have 1,000 people that show up but a vote and you only need 50% of your 1,000 that showed up,

but you can easily get 600 signatures of people who didn't vote and then overrule the whole thing in the first place. So there's got to be a balance. And that's going to be the art of getting the numbers right when we start modernizing a bunch of these acts. The other one, too, and hear what's out there. We've got a couple of them that are out there, you know, Bill 20, Bill 18, Bill 21. If you listen to the normal DJ shows, we're extending this tyrannical power and all this other. I would have been, I was one of them that said it. It's crazy.

But how is that crazy? When I look at the talk of the boys. Well, let's go back to civics, kids. So let's, maybe let's start at the first because I had to do this in the house as well to explain that to folks. No twos didn't want me bringing you in here. He said, you were going to sweet talk me. And I was like, well, I want to hear firsthand because when I read, I don't know, but once again, I don't, I'm not a giant policy reader. Everybody knows that.

I should be better at this. But when I read it, my eyes glaze over every time because it's just like, what is this junk? Sorry, carry on. Bill 20. So Bill 20, you already started off on the theme. So you should be a big supporter of it. They're modernizing the Electorate Act at municipal levels. So there's going to be a real crazy thing.

You actually have to be a registered voter. You have to be a Canadian citizen to vote. So that's not a bad thing, right? If you have your politicians that are running, they should have a criminal record check. Are you against that? No, I'm not. So these are the things that's actually in the bill. That's literally where we're doing.

I know that's in the bill, but there's also in the bill, or at least the first form of the bill, that it gives the provincial government the power to walk in and we already have that. So that already exists in the existing municipal governance act. So, um, you know, it's kind of nice. We got the truck been behind me here and make a lot of sense to a lot of folks. Federally, the provinces and the feds are on the same level. So that's how our, our confederation works. We're actually equals in this.

So whether we're roommates or marriage or however you want to take that type of idea. The authorities between those two are delegated. So we can agree, I'll take out the trash, you shovel a sidewalk, I'll do the dishes, you make the bed. That's literally how all of this came about of what the provincial and the federal authorities are. The ones that make sense that are overarching would be like defense. Okay, well, that makes sense. Environment and agriculture, well, they're shared.

A lot of them are very definitive. One of them is very definitive is you get to take all the kids. What are the kids? They're the municipalities. So the provinces literally have all the municipalities under their control. Under their control. That's our responsibility. The municipal government,

The Prennan's Act was us delegating that authority to the municipalities. It is 100% apparent-child relationship. So anything with the MGA is well within the power of the province to amend, append, or do anything because it's our act. We're literally I'm saying, okay, here, kids, make your room, do this. If you don't do that, I'm going to punish you. Just saying as an example, okay, kids grow up, things change. Okay, well, maybe we don't need you to walk the dog five times a day. We'll only do it twice.

Old kids, and by the way, if you get honoring you're not following the rules of the house, we're going to yank you back. Like that already exists under the MGA and I'm oversimplifying it, but folks have to understand that that's what's taking place. When you have an election, you have multiple elections, obviously. The turnout is typically lower in the munis. It always has been and always probably will be. But you've got some really goofy things under that MGA that need to be modernized.

So as an example, if I was recalled or charged, with something criminal, I don't have to leave if I'm a town counselor. You literally have to take me to court that the chair isn't vacant. If I die, my chair isn't vacant. Like there's some really goofy clunky things around that thing. So those are all getting swept up and modernized. These are things that folks ask us provincially to clean up and to take care of it. The, the one with the overreach and that's why I want to speak to that. It's not overreach when it's already in your authority and the authority lies within the house. All of the change. changes we make to that act, if you're changing the law, still has to go through that electoral process. It still has to go through the legislative process, which goes through the House and is

debated at length. Does that make sense? Yeah, this is why Toos didn't want me bringing you in here because you know your stuff. And I go, that's why I brought you in here, right? To me, I'm like, well, I'm bringing you in because I'm annoyed. Yeah. When I look at it and I, you know, I brought in Jeff Colvin. in the mayor of Chastomere, right? I don't know how much you can get into it, but I listened to him. And I was like, huh, that's, that's, that's, that's interesting.

It is. And, and Munis can't run the same way provinces deal. Like there's, there's some goofy things. Like, um, so we can have caucus. We're elected representatives. Sure. We're part of government caucus. We're allowed to meet outside of, of the legislative assembly,

outside of the debate room, the chamber room, and have conversations that are very political or very policy oriented. The counselors don't have. have that latitude. You can't have three or four, let's say there's a five-person council, right? You can't have three of those council members meeting together outside of council chambers and making policy decisions or allocating budget or directing staff. That's not how the system works. So you have to follow the rules and guidelines within your delegation of authority and the act itself. So you still have to follow that. There's, you know, the other thing came up as parties.

Well, we're not asking to have a UCP party or a liberal party. Before we go on from Jeff Colvin, though, you're talking about when you say you can't go outside and meet with three and do different things and on and on and on and on and on. Like when you, like, I guess from where I sit, I find it interesting what the people say. So, you know, people texting in, what he says. I'm like, well, I don't know. You listen to it. You're like, everything it sounds like they were doing was. starting to clean some things up that sounds like it was getting out of control. And the thing that

it's interesting with the citizen residence of Chestermer, I should say, of the handful that text in, now it's only a handful, it's only small, maybe there'd be other people. And I would, I would implore them to text and say, like, Jeff Colvin's a whatever, liar for all I care. I didn't get one of those. I got everything else was like, actually, you know, actually after listening to him, that makes a lot of sense. There's a lot of things going on here that don't make a lot of sense. And you can do a lot of things, but I'm just laying out the rules. So you still have to When you go play hockey, you still get to play hockey within the rules. I agree with you.

I agree, but the thing is. But no, let me finish on that. So, and I didn't know this until I got into it as well, municipal politics, whatever. But you didn't realize when I had council members showing up to meetings, council members from different counties were cognizant of how many members they had in the room when they were having a meeting with me or having a discussion because if they had too many, they would have quorum. So those are the rules that the council members are typically very aware.

of one of the other things is the training for municipal right now it's optional so they don't necessarily need to know the rules of how they're supposed to play the game that's interesting you know going forward make it compulsory get them trained within a certain timeline so they can understand what governance is how their authorities work make sure they know the rules of the game so they don't get con on their wares and i do know full well by the time you get the minister's office Minister of Municipal Affairs involved to start changing things, they're going to do everything they can't or can not to get into that circumstance, like lengthy letters, exchanges and everything else. Because it takes a long time to do it, and quite frankly, you don't want to be messing around

without, we got other things to take care of other than dealing with petty squabbles and those type of things that are taking place. Really where the fiduciary duty comes down is when you have things that are unawares, can't find money, like some things that come in, the ombudsman will send something our way, or you get a bunch of constituents coming. our way. And nine times out of 10, you're saying, that's not our job. Go talk to your counselor. If there's an issue with the counselor, is it criminal or is it personal? And a lot of times the stuff at the municipal levels that I run into, it's magpie squawking. Somebody should get to get rid of the dog. Like garbage is not getting picked. Not my wheelhouse. I don't like that

counselor. Next election's coming up in two years. Go out and vote this time. Like that's how we typically deal with it. And we typically have a really good working relationship with our councils. whether it's the county or whether it's the small towns or anything else, you have to work with them. And oftentimes you've got very similar priorities that are in place. Like you're trying to do those things. The politics usually doesn't get in there too often. Sometimes it does.

But usually if you can step past that, it's that same level of authority. What are you doing to take care of grandma's streets? What are you doing to take care of this? How can we help you? What funding do you need for this? Do you have any big projects coming up for putting in sewer and water? Like, that's the interaction you have all the time. Yeah, for sure.

To me, well, the thing I think of my head is this is probably a tough situation for you to speak to anyways because it's not your file. It's not my area. Like the guy I should probably reach out to is Rick McIver, right? Yep. Because it's right under his purview. I don't know how much he can talk about it. But when you look at it from afar, this is just me looking at it from a far, 10,000-foot view. Obviously, I don't live there.

You know, and so I'm just speculating or just looking at it and talking about it. That's what we do here. And it's funny because, you know, when you listen to the story, it sounds like there's been an issue there for a long time. And nobody ever went in and helped out Chestermere if they were having, you know, 5,500 people. And I, once again, don't know the full story, right? So maybe they have. And I was saying as I walked in here, I had a lengthy conversation that, you know, I got to, I had an interview a couple ago. And there was a thing they were very perturbed by.

And I, you know, that's why I have the text line. I'm okay to take it on the chin if I have to own to some of the faults I have in an interview and I don't do something. I want to hear about it, right? Some of it is just to hear if, you know, the person listening, are you crazy? Because if you're crazy, I can just kind of water off a duck back and carry on. But if you've got good points to make, I'm all for it. I'm all for opening up the discussion and hearing the full story and trying not to just hear one side and go, that's the way it is. And, you know, because to just the lady who called, lady who texted.

I really didn't want to call her. I'm like, oh, my brain's like, you know, you really need to. Because she's made a couple of good points that you're really interested in. And if it's true, you need to follow up on that. Absolutely. And with this story, I tell you what, I'm going to put it in the airwaves again. Rick McIver, I'm going to hassle Shane to get me a way to contact him. Because I'd just like to hear what his thoughts are on it.

Well, and so part of it, folks, I have to understand to. And I kind of spoke into the house. and I spoke about trust because literally that's what it comes down to you gotta look at the person across the table, shake your hand,

all that stuff. And, you know, I'm very fortunate in my area. I get to be me like I do. Well, that's why you get to come back in here all the time. Because since the middle of COVID shame,

we've had this type of discussion since day one. Yeah. Have we not? And, you know, if you go back and listen to our first conversations in COVID,

you're going, ah, you know, and a couple things. And you go back and listen to it, folks. And we don't agree on everything, but we come out of there, and that's before the convoy. And, you know, everybody thought it was a great conversation. That was a great conversation. And then, you know, since then, you've opened up about being vaccine injured and a bunch of different things. And, you know, you go back and listen to that conversation. Like, I'm like, oh, man, like,

that was pretty raw. People loved and hated it all at the same time. But that's the way we've always been. To me, I'm not trying to pigeonhole you in anything. I just want to know the thoughts. And That's why I keep bringing you in because I can, well, I think I can trust every, you know, like when it comes from you, it comes to that. And my constituents are the same way. So I've been very fortunate not to be a politician yet. Like I got into politics because I didn't like them. Didn't like what was happening with the policy. I almost spit my coffee out there.

So in, in my area, they, they respect that. You know, and I said that in the house. They may not like what I have to say, but they will respect it because they know I've been consistent. We don't have to agree. You know, it's funny. Me and twos talked about Bill 20 on a mashup. And then a bunch of your constituents, I assume, sent me you talking about Bill 20, and I reached out. That's why I'm like, wow, I might as just have them on.

I mean, if he's going to talk to it after I rambled on, then we should have you in to talk about it. Because I do want to clear things up. I want to make sure that I'm not providing, you know, I'm not misinformation. God, I hate that word. But, you know, like, mine is just an opinion. I read it. I see it. I see how, like, I'm just like, I don't know.

I don't know if I like this. And that's why I bring people in to try and inform not only me, but the audience. so we can better understand what's happening in the province I live in. Well, and the other one, too, is folks might not realize the stages that a bill takes to go through the house. So our forefathers, a really smart Westminster system 400 years ago. It's been tweaked up a few times here and there, but it works pretty good. Like when you've got decent people in the room and the electorate really gets the right people on both sides of the parties working to get that type of discussion where you can have it, it works.

So in our side, you've got the idea. So the idea might come from a department. Then that department has to get the idea to the minister. The minister then has to put it into a policy committee. The policy committee on our side, and I can't speak for other parties, I'm just walking through our process. The policy committee consists of equal parts, ministers, and MLAs. So you'll literally bring an idea through, that'll get hatched.

Now I do sit at the cabinet table. I don't have a vote at the cabinet table, but I'm at the cabinet table. After it gets through those policy committees, and I also sit on policy committee myself. after it gets through one of those four different policy committees, it then goes to Cabinet. Cabinet beats the heck out of it. If it makes it through Cabinet, everyone has a vote at that table.

Premier only has one, by the way. So it's very much Knights of the Round Table of how we're running this behind the doors. If it gets through Cabinet, then it goes to caucus. Caucus includes all of the private members and all of the ministers. It has to go through all those steps, even before the idea is hatched to go back to the lawyers

to say, okay, we like it in concept, like what you're doing, like the ideas, like the points, go draft it. Now it's embargoed at that point. We don't know what this thing looks like until it's introduced to the floor because you have to have both sides of the parliament. All legislators have to see the laws, the bills, proposed bills, at the same time. So then it gets introduced into the house. The first one is just simply, hi, I've got an idea.

I'm going to introduce a bill in the house, all of those opposed, all those in favor. Typically everyone, I've only seen it happen once where they didn't even want an idea to come to the floor. Typically it gets voted in. Second reading is when you crack the thing open and you start looking at it. And then that's when the work starts. Is every bill going to be perfect coming out of the gate even though we do those things? Frig, no. There's always some hair on that dog, right? You know, the first time I ever, so Lloyd Minster will have to forgive me on this because I don't know if this is true or not, but when it was all the talk of 15 minutes cities in Lloyd, that meeting in the chamber or at council,

there was so many people there. They actually, there's just people standing. Oh, and I remember having a conversation afterwards with, oh, forgive me, I forget your name. That's terrible. It doesn't matter.

And he was upset because of how people acted in the, you know, in the chamber and the chamber. And I remember saying, you know, one of the things with society is, it's going to be messy when people first get involved because they don't, like you just said, you don't understand the protocols. Some of them make zero bloody sense. You know, you point out Bill 20, things are clunky in there, and there's some things in the municipalities and on and on that need to be changed. Well, there's some things when you show up as a regular citizen, you're watching

this, you're like, this is, why are we doing this? Like, why are we doing this system? Why is this? And so it's a learning thing. And we don't know, I don't know, maybe I'm wrong, does a school system teach a class. Great six. Great six civics. Everyone gets the pass. You walk through and you kind of go through it and we brush over it. Honestly, I think with, you know, what's happened in our country in the last number of years, everyone's starting to get brushed up again and understanding it. Well, and they're getting energized. So I appreciate you walking through how it built, because I actually just had a call. I was at Jamie Sinclair's, he was in the military for 34 years. And so he had had his retirement dinner a couple weekends ago. And I got talking with a senator, right,

senator from Saskatchewan. And I thought I had it pegged. Every time I think I have it pegged, I'm like, I don't know, Jack. And, but I appreciate everybody being willing to like try and like lay it out for you. Yep. Here's my, I'm curious, because you're a guy, right, the way you always position yourself or, and I think I'm saying it right, is like you weren't a politician. You hopped in because you were angry.

How many years did it take for you to start to understand how, how this thing works? Was it six months or was it like two years? It was definitely within the first year. Yeah, like honestly, quick study or anything else. Once you get elected and into it, you're drinking from a fire hose. And I would say on the front end, I was more, I was studying a hell of a lot more in the chambers and going through every single piece of legislation and literally doing the highlighters and everything else through them. Understanding how the process works. I mean, that's part of it.

There also has to be a check and balance. Like even though you might say something in those caucus chambers and you may have things in those policy committees. By the time it gets to the lawyers, I don't know if anyone's ever had a contract, you make a deal with somebody, you get the lawyers, and all of a sudden it's different in sometimes in context. I've caught a couple things in the chambers as a private member that were in those bills that didn't make sense, brought it to the minister's attention, brought it to own team, friendly amendment comes out and gets it tweaked the way we needed it. So that's the process supposed to take place. But did I know all of the intricacies of how the legislature runs? Nope. But we get an orientation.

Every MLA gets orientated and goes through the process. When I brought in my batch of new MLAs, I literally did a boot camp for three days with everybody walking through all the processes, even though the legislative assembly offices does the compulsory training. I wanted to walk them through there and let them know how this works once you're in the chambers.

And then we did a refresh back in February after we'd sat for that first stretch to then hone them out and get them going. We didn't do that as a team when I got elected like you just learned. the fly. What do you think of Trudeau's budget and maybe not so much the budget? What budget? You get me running things with Trucker here.

Well, I'm watching this. Just today or maybe it was this week, I can't remember anymore. I was watching him talk about the capital gains tax and how it's going to be a, what did he call it, Fairness Society, a Society of Fairness or Fairness? It's a way of squeezing out people who have earned and worked hard their whole lives. Their entire lives. And you're just cutting them off at the knees. Yeah, that's fair.

And the way you kind of put it, which was just asinine, this money isn't working for anybody except the people that have already earned it. What about all the hardworking people that are trying to earn it now? Yeah, pal, that's how it friggin works. You start out from either nothing or a little bit of something, and you work up and you build that. What he's done is literally taking it away. the incentive of anybody given a dam for working hard and having any reward at the end of it for

all the risk. Absolutely assonine. Moreover, oh, you frigging hit that big button. Moreover, his budget is absolutely atrocious and that's the best he can show us. Like when we took over from the NDP, we knew the, we knew we were broke. We didn't know how broke we were until we actually cracked the books open and saw their calculations now they came out. And then we knew we were frigging broke.

This is the best human Freeland can pull off, is this budget? They're basically so friggin' broke. They're going after every single thing and squeezing the last bit of the toothpaste before you've even had a chance to finish, start brushing your teeth. Like this is how broke we are right now. It's pretty gross. So what do I think about his budget? What budget? Then I go, what is Alberta going to do to separate itself more federal government?

Like the last time I had you on, forgive me, I think it was the last time we talked to Alberta pension. plan. Yeah. And I remember saying, Shane, how long? How long? And I don't, where, where is it? Yeah. And is there other, not that we're leaving Canada by any stretch, but at the same time,

I look at what's going on with the federal government and everybody goes, Pierre's going to get in in a year and change and it'll all change and it'll all be great. And I'm like, uh-huh. I'm looking at what's going on. I'm like, even if he gets in, it isn't snap the fingers and everything just goes back to normal. Like there is a lot of problems that we're inheriting immediately. Wow.

And I mean, we still got a year and change before we even get there. And it just keep, he just keeps driving. Like, they talk about a vehicle being in the ditch. We're in the ditch and we're smashing into every tree that's possible. And they're doing it with a smile on their face and condemning anyone who calls them out for anything else. Yeah, it's, it's radicalized. I don't know. World leaders are bypassing that organization now.

They're coming directly to speak to us. Like, that's how this works. So the president of Poland came to Canada to see Alberta. He didn't come here to see Trudeau. He came directly to us during the energy conference. Like, this is the world stage. India kicked him out of their country. I'm going over there in October for with the Speaker of the House and putting a bit of a trade mission together.

Alberta and Saskatchewan are absolutely 100% invited. Our offices are open over in India. Canada itself, don't even come over here, but don't bother him. But in the words of the conference. consulate general, the Indian consulate general, I really like my prairie boys. I like talking and I'm working with you guys. Like this is how it is. So that's how fractured and goofed up our country is right now with that individual at the helm. And to your point, yeah, if people, haven't sugar-coded too many things, yes, it will be better when we have blue down there

in Pierre and we get some competency back in the chair. But if everyone thinks that that man can snap, snap his fingers and make it all better, you're not being realistic. And you're not being realistic. you're going to be sorely disappointed. It's going to be tough slugging just to turn this around because the howler monkeys have been running wild right now. And all the things that happen in a monkey cage is thinking of what he has to go in and clean up. They've absolutely made a mess of every file they've touched.

So when we come back to standing up for Alberta, what have we been doing? That's why we're putting out a bunch of these bills. Like literally, it's to cut it off at the pass to make sure we come back to that constitutional agreement. You stay over there and do your stuff. We'll do ours. Oh, by the way, we're going to work really well behind the scenes with all the other provinces, and we're going to compel you to start coming to the table.

This group is bonkers. We're doing what we can to work with the good ones that we can, but at the same time, we cannot turn a blind eye to this anymore. We've got to dig in where we can to make sure that we follow the Constitution, and we make sure that these overreaches stop. That's what Bill 18 was about. So I'm sitting at the University of Alberta. Really great facility, by the way, if no one's been there.

We made some subtle changes in behind the scenes. There was lots of kickback in the media. And what do you know? The actual profs and the deans that run the place like it because they have more control and authority over what they're doing and they're in behind the scenes. Programming's up. They're running the books a lot better. They're more efficient. Da, da, da, da, da.

Now, typically there's not a lot of team blue around to the table when you come to post secondary. And I'm cool with that. Park the politics. So I'm sitting with those two different deans, associate deans, and then a couple of props at the table. and we're sitting in there and they're talking about that. And I said, well, let's just park to politics, talk about policy. Where are you going on that? So we're talking on other items.

It came up to a point where one of the individuals that was obviously not of the same voting persuasion I am came up and was lamenting, well, this isn't fair. Well, I'm going, well, it's not fair. Well, we keep applying for all these grants. We're doing better than those universities down east. We've got better programming. But the federal dollars all keep going down there. When I looked at her, I said, do you not realize you're from Alberta? So whether you realize it or not, we're a blue province.

You're being punished. I said, that's how this works. So if you want to work with us, this is what we're into. We're actually fighting for Alberta, regardless of your political persuasions, but whether you associate with being a conservative or not, you're painted with a blue brush because that's what this province is. And it was like I'd hit her with a bucket of cold water. I was like, this matters.

What we're doing right now having this conversation matters. So when you've got the feds that are always trying to, to do an end around. It's not one policy. It's all of them at the same time and they've been doing this for years. We're literally clipping it off and saying enough. If you're going to be sitting down at the table with us, you're going to be going to our post-secondaries and dealing with our towns and municipalities and doling out the cash, which by the way, every dollar of the feds gives us costing Albert and a buck 30 because it's our money. They're given back to us. Every time you're going to do that, it has to be in alignment with what we're doing for the

province. You can't keep turning all against each other. And you can't keep turning us all against each other. playing favorites. You pop in here, you give us a hundred and some odd million dollars, don't even give us the courtesy to call or to say you're coming to the province in the first place, pop across the border and you give a billion dollars to BC. Why? Like enough. And the playbook we got from that was Quebec because we asked, how do you guys do it? Oh, here's what we do go do that. Okay, let's do that. So when we're talking Bill 18, we're literally taking a playbook from Quebec and saying what's Bill 18. Bill 18 basically, well, let's find it. I actually brought some notes today.

It's called the Provincial Priorities Act. The Provincial Priorities Act basically says if the feds are coming in and giving giving out and doling out grant money, the province has to be at the table too. That's it. So instead of them going and talking to a municipality or Calgary directly or whoever else they want to do and then put strings because they'll put strings on the dollars. I keep imploring them to come talk to the Tuesday or the mashup or the Sean Newman podcast. I would take 100 million.

I probably wouldn't sing their tune, but I would take the $100 million. That's why you'd never get it. So that's what we're trying to take out of it, and that's what Quebec does. They say, okay, when the feds, you're coming to the table and you're meeting with our post-secondaries or meeting with our towns and everything else or our cities, let's sit down the table and let's go through what the priorities are. Let's allocate the funds there. And that's how they get all the cash.

So this was us, again, working with our provincial partners, and we get along with Quebec, like peanut butter and jelly, they're great folks. They're like Albertans except they speak French. And the country for over the years has been pulled apart by the federal level, not the provincial level. What did you think of, was it, Blanchette? Did you see his comments on Quebec? No. Mm.

Uh-oh. This is great. This is the first time Sean's hit me with something else. So now we're going to do that. But my experience with the Quebec legislators, legislatures, they're excellent. Like, they have a lot of the same priorities that we do. they align very well. And the fact that they are willing to give us

some of their playbook items and say, here's how we do it, I'm very stoked about that. Do you want me to keep going? Okay. What else? So, Oh, here, here, here.

Okay. Okay. I actually brought in some speaking notes today to make sure if you had any point in questions, I could direct it. Oh, this is how I'm going to do this, Sean. Okay. I'm going to Yale.

It says, Quebec has all it needs to become a green economy leader as long as it disassociates itself in the Canadian oil state block Quebec leader Yves Francois Blanchet told a business audience in Montreal Tuesday Quebec's renewable energy critical minerals research centers and green technologies are all the assets to launch an economy of the future that could serve as a model for other nations Blanchett said Quebec is maybe the best placed state in the world to suggest a different model of reconciling the environment and the economy. He said before adding that this destiny isn't possible in the oil economy of Canada and its

pipe trees. Is that federal or provincial levels? I'd have to go find the article for you. Yeah. So if he's talking block Quebec, well, that's federal levels. So again, Quebec, their assets that they have, hydro power, tons of mineral assets. They've got all of that. Oh, they also have some gas down there, too, that they've never developed.

So in their position, if he's saying it's all. their economy can be green based on hydro? Sure. But they also don't recognize in a long time of how many acres you actually have to flood and what the outputs are, etc. from doing that. Well, you know,

one day when I get Jamie in here, you know, I got angry, you just do this over the chat. Yeah, but all I do know is, Sean, the folks that I've met with, that I've dealt with, yeah, we're very much in alignment. Even when it comes down to pipelines, the P word, it depends what the commodity is at the time.

So folks have to understand and recognize how much propane Quebec gets from us, how much natural gas they get from us. I mean, it's an integrated system. But if I look at it the same thing out west, if I went from Manitoba westwards and then took the territories, both Yukon and Northwest territories, that economic region is pretty significant too. Because again, you have access to all the oceans.

You have the access to the still the largest trading partner to the south of us. It said the block leader used the speech to take aim at the government of Quebec, Premier Francois, Lago for the way it has handled the North Bolt battery factory and for its position on nuclear energy. So you look at that and go, that's that's that's that's politics being politics. That's politics. Yeah. So if Quebec is wants to do nukes, perfect. So do we. Sorry, I choked on my coffee again, folks.

I'm like trying to, you know, one day when you walk in here, you're going to walk in here, oh, man, you got the cameras up. Looks great. Who's this guy? I'm going to like, well, that's, that's, I don't know, that's Tew's. Tews is going to be sitting here and he's going to look up all this stuff when we go. So I don't have to bounce back and do six different jobs, you know, but as I told somebody, and you could probably attest to this. At some point, these are the stories that I'll remember fondly because I feel like, you know, you know, Rogan's got to at some point just look back to where they started and be like,

we used to do it out of a broom closet. And, you know, we have a guy come in and it was Bob doing the thing. And, you know, you go back to listen to the early ones. And I guess I'm just like, I'm chuckling at myself because once upon a time I was telling you, you used to watch me dance around the studio. And when things were shutting off and I was like, now I'm doing both jobs. Well, the first time I came down, you were actually calling up somebody else to get parts because there was something that granated in one of your switches or something like that.

you were literally calling around. It was, remember, it was, it was, it was, it was the program that was recording it,

it wouldn't record. Yeah, right. And then it was as simple as uninstalling it and reinstalling it, and all of a sudden, it started working. I'm like, you gotta be getting me.

Like, uh, being an entrepreneur. Yeah. Like, you know, some days you're just like, what the heck am I doing?

Like, I love this job. But some days I'm like, I got to split my brain 12 different ways and trying to make sure that, you know, you, you got,

everything because you don't have the money for it. Every time I watch the federal government, sorry, I'm coming back to the federal government. Spending your money. Spending my money, I'm like, if I had the tax money I'm giving them. You just could have said it was the Uriivkan thing and you would have got a buck a load of cash. You don't have to produce anything. Don't have to produce anything. That's why, you know, it's like, well, you've got to be diversity, equity, inclusion.

Well, I've had trans people on here before. I've had gay people on here before. I've had white, black, native. And I'm like, I'm actually pretty diverse. It's just don't, they just... There used to be a day when we didn't track all of that. We just had people in. I know.

Wouldn't it be nice to get back to that? Yes, it would. Just people. But no, the feds are really good at changing the narrative, taking your cash and making you feel guilty about it. It's interesting that you bring up Quebec, though, because one of the things about the Freedom Convoy that surprised even me. How many Quebec truckers did you have there?

Got you a bucket load. The first night, the coolest night. The coolest night I was there was the first night. So the first night, which was a Sunday, we rolled in. And by the time we get checked in the hotel and everything, you know, I can't remember what time it was. But I remember at about 9 o'clock at night, maybe even later than that, it might have been closer to midnight. There was a group of three of us. So let's just go for a walk.

I just want to see what it looks like, you know, from the street. It was like minus 30, whatever. It was cold. And we walked down there and we were on Parliament Hill, just standing. and they're kind of looking. It was cool, but there was like one half of the street was empty. The other half had truckers parked. Okay, oh, yeah, that's cool.

Because I have no idea what's going on and just watch it. And all of a sudden, you can hear this rumble coming. You know, like, what the heck is that? And in walks Quebec. And let me tell you they were loud. And let me tell you they were a spectacle. And I still can't forget it. I don't know how, like, my dad grew up trucking, right?

We grew up riding in a semi with them. An air horn can only go so long before it runs that air. Yep. And this guy was. playing a tune on it and it never ran out of air and it was just it's a memory i'll never forget and quebec and i was like holy crap quebec has showed up and they got out and all the truckers are hugging and you got you know and i'm going where you from nobody said your name you said your province alberta and they go back and you know you're hiding and yep and um you realized

all the division is fermented by media politicians on and on and on. And it doesn't mean that, you know, when you look at transfer payment or equalization payments and everything else, that there isn't something to be said there. But like the people, I was, I mean, they showed up and fought just as hard as the rest of those people

and stood there right to the very end and on and on and on. And I was never more proud to see the Florida Leaf flying high beside the British flag, the Alberta flag and the British Columbia flag. and, you know, Saskatchewan and on and on. There was a bunch of First Nations flags. Then now I see, and I'm like, oh, the first time I ever saw that was in, I walked up to people. And there was flags I'd never seen there before.

Yeah. I just walk up. You know, it's funny, they always point out the Nazi flag, right? If they would have just turned their camera and saw some of the first nation flags, they would have had a real story because I walked up and talked to those people, like, what flag are you carrying? Oh, and then they'd tell you this lovely story. And it's funny, now that I come back west, I see that flag every once.

So I'm like, oh, it's a First Nation flag. That's one of the first flags of Canadian history right there. I actually, like, I don't know why I never knew that. I'm getting, I'm digressing here. Quebec, yes. As much as two's regs on Quebec, there's a lot to be learned there. I think that's where you were going before I jumped off. No, and it's all good.

But that's part of it. So if Quebec has done something within the Confederation that works for them, good on them. Like I used to be frustrated too and go, ah, you know, blah, blah, blah, those guys down there. And then you meet them and you talk to them and you see how they've approached things. Now, would I have done a stampy dance and said separation and everything else? I mean, they've played that card for years, but they're also playing on behalf of their own people with them saying they have some distinct qualities. Okay, maybe that's the playbook. We did that within the sovereignty with the United or United Canada Act. The same thing. Alberta has a unique

culture. You go to anybody in this country and say, okay, can you pick out the Albertan in the crowd? They probably will. Is there a distinct culture? Those are the cowboys.

Those are those oil guys. Best looking. Right? You know? So we do have a distinct culture and everything else. So, but we've also got a lot of really good common characteristics with every

province that we interface with. Listen, in hockey, especially when you play the higher tiers, I only play junior and I got a lot of time for junior A hockey, but the thing is, is you get different cultures.

You get people from all over the country coming to plan a team, right? Heck, maybe even from the States. So even different countries. And you can pick it out immediately. Kids can pick it out. Where are you from? I played with a Frenchman,

and now he's a, I think now he's an M&A fighter, Nicholas Duran. And he just, he was awesome, but he was so French. Like, he just, just a friend and he would look at us like you you country hillbilly whatever right and the thing is is my roommate was from Vancouver yeah right and it's just this this this uh this melting pot of

all these different and all of us come with our our cultures I think it's really easy to pick out and the truth of matter it's one of the beauties of our country we just get focused on on all the division all the time in fairness it's because we got a jackass of a leader who keeps just screwing us over and over again and on and on and on it goes and I can't figure it out. Like I'm just, I mean, on of how stupid it is. United, we stand? And what's the other part? Divided we? Fall. Yeah. So how is it easy to do all that other stuff? You get them all fighting amongst each other. And he's done a wonderful job at having all these divisions and color codes and whatever he's coming up with and he's done it well. My wife just

drives her bonkers when she sees that 150 year Canadian flag. She says that's exactly it. He's fractured the country. He's been doing this. Like that's to her. You talk about symbolism of of what Canada is and then what his vision was for it. Messing with the national anthem, a ton of things. You think about the erosion of a number of things that are, which should be stalwart, which should be entrenched. People can't. I mean, pick something to this guy. I mean, who would have thought. Take a guy who has an economics degree and take a part-time drama teacher. What could have possibly gone wrong? I mean, just anyway, I'm frustrated, but that's part of it.

And it wouldn't have been so bad if he had a similar vision. He didn't have to tweak much, but everything he's touched is the opposite of Midas. Let's put it that way. I don't like to focus on the negative, but for some reason the negative seems to come up a lot. What's something, you know, you're sitting. You've been, now this is your sixth year? No, fifth year. Fifth year.

Fifth year now, yeah. Fifth year, fifth year. What's something you're positive on? Like what's something Shane? You're like, listen, this is a positive thing for Alberta. Oh, shoot, everything we've done in the last five years for the most part. This last year has been phenomenal. No, let me, let me say that.

So when we got in, things were all bass backwards and up, down and sideways. We had 183,000 people in the energy sector that were gone. We had in a major recession. We couldn't get credit. We lost, I think it was six credit downgrades. There was a point where folks weren't going to cover our, bonds. We had a Heritage Trust Fund that kept being depleted in the background. People didn't know how to work with Alberta. They didn't know what our vision was. All of a sudden, we've

changed that. And it wasn't all of a sudden. Within that first year, Taves was on the road down in New York and people were actually looking at us again. They were, it was making sense of what we were doing. So we balanced our budget three times in a row. If you think that's a easy feat to do, good luck. We've had to carve back on areas, but we didn't really cut out a ton of services. We've managed to get that growth through all of the COVID stuff. We were seen as the free province in the country. We've had an uptick now, so we lost 183,000. We got back to 4.5. We had over 200,000 Canadians moving here. We're not talking about international folks popping in. We've done that. Turn the economy around. This is the deep place to invest. Job growth itself. We're

the only profits in the country where job growth is actually private sector. This is what we're doing. I will give you, I will give you the reason I go, yeah, yeah, yeah, because I'm like, I'm giving a politician an open chance to be like, hey, this is a positive, positive things we're doing. But those are some things. No, 100% agree. And they are.

And they're real. Me and you will argue for the rest of time about COVID because you can't just whitewash, well, we're the freest place. COVID. Oh, it sucked. I'm not saying it didn't suck because it sucked out loud really hard, but we were the freest place in our country. Would I have like to be South Dakota or Florida? I friggin guess. Yeah. Well, we have to position ourselves more and more in different, because the next

one I just had on Tammy Neemith talking about ESG and how it's seeping into all the corporations and how they're going to be. Oh, it's entrenched. And where I keep trying to say is you can't have ESG without an extra E in there. You have to have economic, environmental social governments. Sure, sure. Because to make this work, The other one too is you're seeing a big change in the narrative is everyone was getting green washed in a big way. Well, now you've seen the impacts of that. So not taxing somebody down in Eastern Canada for diesel fuel is okay because we're going to save the environment by taxing the crap out of us out here for burning natural gas. Like nine-year-olds shaking a snow globe can see the difference between that one now.

It doesn't make any sense. So people are starting to see through it. What's really hurting people is all of the drivers from there. Like I was just down in South Dakota again recently. Coming back across the border, it's 80 cents a liter difference for diesel fuel as soon as I crossed the line from the Dakotas into Canada. Even Montana was nominally it was about five cents difference between that, so maybe 75 cents. Gasoline was 77 cents a liter difference. Everything runs on gasoline and diesel.

Everything you pick up, you smell, you taste, you touch. Everything is tied to it because that's the base energy. Did I mention that my father was a trucker and used to drive? across Canada. And he said in the middle of COVID, do you want to shut down a country? Piss off the truckers. And he didn't know that was going to happen, right?

But I remember, wow, prophetic words, because he lived it. Yeah, you know? And so when they do their carbon tax, when they get gas to where it is and on and on and on and on and on it goes, it's like, well, what's going to happen to the price everything? It ain't going down.

No. So my wife is down there. She took a gig down there for the next couple of years. and down in South Dakota. Really? Yeah. I don't mean to bring too much family stuff in this because I'd like to keep that personal. But what's she doing in South Dakota?

Dantistry. Interesting. So she's doing the same thing. So it's not my chance. And so she, you know, not to share too much personal stuff, but this is the first time in my career where in our marriage, we've married for 22 years where I'm not the one going off to the next job site to go make some cash. She is. How are you not to get too personal with you but forgive me for asking how hard is that on you to have your you know tough she's my best friend we've been together for years she was always you know the center

and stable at home and all that um but i'm stuck in this position so to speak as as as um and not not stuck in a bad way no no no i know what i know what you mean you're talking about your you're talking about your wife she's in a different country so she's in a different country and she took our youngest two daughters with her oh man so there are They're down there now and my two oldest are still up here with me and you know, I'm going to be traveling and jumping in the plane and whipping down there and seeing them when I can. So these are the real. What do you think? What do you think of South Dakota?

Love it. Absolutely love it. Can I say this about South Dakota? I don't know if I've said this on the air, but we drove through it for the first. My wife's from Minnesota. You've met my wife. And we drove through South Dakota last summer. And I've been through North Dakota so many times.

This is no knock on North Dakota, but it just reminds me of Saskatchewan. I'm just like there's nothing. I just want to get it through it as fast as they humanly possibly can't. I'm sure North Dakotans are lovely people. But I'm like overall, it's nothing. Anyways, we're driving through South Dakota. And in my mind, I'm thinking it's North Dakota, right? North, South Dakota, whatever.

It is probably, and I'm trying, like, I love Oregon. Don't love everything policy-wise about Oregon, but like picturesque-wise, just everything about it. I really, really like Oregon. South Dakota, though, is probably the biggest surprise state I've ever been to. The longer I drove through it, the moment I'm like, oh, my God, this place is beautiful. Like, I can, why does nobody, why does nobody talk about South Dakota? It's gorgeous. And where, we're at down there is in Bellefouch, which is just north of spearfish.

So, you know, with rapid over on that side, right in the Black Hills. So just north of Black Hills, absolutely picturesque, beautiful. Lots of, you know, old West history, everything else is there. And freedom comes with a big, big, big, It does. Like it's awesome. So I really enjoyed it being down there. You know, just getting Laura and the girls kind of settled in.

It's the cliches that we've come to lose up here for a long time. Next, our neighbor is waving at you saying hi. They've never met you before. People driving down the street saying hi. The local sheriff goes by. Hi. Go to the ice cream shop. We've only been in town for four days.

They know where you're living. That's perfect. Most people don't lock their doors. The, you know, the gentleman lady next door, you know, grandpa, grandma age, kind of thing, you know, business owners and all that.

They come across and they bring us home baked cookies. Welcome to the neighborhood. Why don't you come over for coffee? Like totally cool. This is like within two weeks

of being there. Everything is so relaxed, so free, just a relief. So yeah, we picked the state because of some of the policies that was down there.

Laura and my youngest daughter, she was homeschooled, went for a quick trip to go look at the Wild West and all that kind of stuff. And they got back and they just absolutely loved it. So then the conversation started from there

and you look at the policies, you look at the area, the location. It's kind of how we were wired number of years ago. Man, I don't know where to go with this because I didn't realize that's where... Yeah, no, I just kind of came out, I guess. I don't... Like, do you see yourself?

Like, obviously, you're working here. But, like, when you're retired from politics, do you see yourself as a South Dakota? Well, I see myself as a North American to start off with. So I had my, my, my, my father side came out from Eastern Canada, way back when, but on my mother's side, they were from the States, like they were, were from Dakota, is where my grandpa was from there.

And the other one, great grandpa was from Montana. So there's the Alberta story, right? So for me, the borders were always north and south. There never should have been one. So when I'm looking at policy and I'm doing this stuff, Sean, I've told you about the corridors and that pitch, Texas to Alaska through Alberta, you know, when I'm talking about that chunk of property, that's how we worked. Well, you know, one of the things I've been thinking lots about, and it was Wes Wall,

common friend, that I don't think he realized he put this thought in my brain. It was just something he said when we got talking about Crockett, Texas. And I was, you know, he was just talking about, I can't remember, Wes, forgive me, because it wasn't the thought, but the thought I had was, oh my God, there's just places that almost have like a bubble over them. Like, that's what the city or the state does. Yeah. It just protects their values.

Yeah. And this was a series of conversations I'd had, and West just culminated. I give a lot of props to Jamie Sinclair, and I've been doing that lots lately. For putting this thought, and I'm like, oh, you could just find a place that has your value set. Alberta, for the most part, has my value set, but it's being attacked by the state at large to do something that I can't, like, Emmington might want, maybe parts of Calgary want, but the rest of us really don't want. We just want to be left alone. We want to be able to go work. We want to be able to make money

and then put that money relatively back into our own communities and be left alone and just go about business and do things in an environmentally friendly way that's sustainable and blah, blah, blah, and on and on. Instead, we're being force-fed that we're the worst human beings under the sun

and we're going to tax the oblivion out of it because if you make over this and if you work your life away, the capital gains now is at 66.6%. I want to blow my brains out when I do that. I love how they call it two-thirds, though. I like to use the 666, because I know exactly what that means. And on and on, this goes.

And I'm just like, when I hear about South Dakota, forgive me, I just like, I get it. I'm like, oh, man. When I walked through that place and I interacted with the people and I saw the landscape, I'm like, this is something. Like, this is, you know, this is what I think of when I think of Alberta. It's just we need the things in place to, I don't know, create that little bubble over us so that we can just leave us along. This is stop it with some of your nonsense. Well, and we are. Like for the most part, there's a balance within Canada.

But the, I mean, you get it in the U.S. It's a different, different feel for it down there. And they have their own challenges in those big, big urban as well and big centers. They're also seen in influx the same type of migration across the states we're seeing in Canada. They've had an open border for. Well, not the immigration, but the migration with people moving from areas that that's not what they grew up in. New York City? And they're moving out.

So they're moving to those areas and regions. So we're seeing California to Texas. I've seen lots of Idaho things on there with no more Californians and same as Montana. We're going through with it. Montana. So in a, in a, no, sorry folks. You're showing up to have me grilled. Well, I don't know what they're showing up for.

We started out talking about provincial politics, but that's okay. This summer, Mel and I are taking the kids and we're supposed to do roughly 21 days on the road. So the podcast is going to, well, I don't know. we're going to see, but we're going through Idaho. Love Idaho. I've never been. And the more we read on it, the more, you know, like I'm like, I look at it on the map. I'm like, look at this place.

Like, how do you even get there? You know, like you drive so much. And it's like, you've got to really make an effort to get to Idaho. Yeah. And I'm like, I bet you I'm going to love Idaho. You know, I've only been there once. It was last year for the Pacific Northwest Economic Region. That's where it was.

It was in Idaho. It was in Boise. And it's Boise. So what I noticed there, what jumped right off. the page was that same feel. There was no homelessness. There was no people sitting in the streets. There, well, there was one guy, but I think he must have peoed his wife and got locked

out of the house the night before because he went on a bit of a bender. Like that was kind of the, you know, looking at the guy going, yeah, okay, truck her out in the front lawn. She probably was a rough spatch. That was it. Everything else was really normal, clean, nice. You felt safe. There was none of that other stuff. Denver, uh, going back there and seeing the differences from my prior life when I was there.

That was different. There was drug issues, all those type of things in Colorado. In Colorado. So these things matter. Most recently, we had senators up from the council state governments, and this one gentleman was from Oregon. And we asked him, you know, actually it was Minister Horner brought up at the table, what are you doing with your mental health and addictions file?

What's going on there? He says, you know, we're a damn state. He says, we got it all wrong. We 100% got it wrong. We weren't handing out our drug courts. We got rid of those. We weren't charging people with anything. We weren't doing interventions.

We just hand them out citations. and what we saw was people from all over the country coming here because it was way easy to do hard drugs. He says, so we were 180% reversing course, we're putting all those things back in place. Similar to what Vancouver was doing. You know, Alberta's holding the line on that too. So it's interesting to see these different pockets and regions with whatever philosophy or whatever political stream you're in and how it has those similar detrimental effects. So people got to get past the fairy tales and pixie dust and what they think it will do versus what harm it's actually done.

reverse course, get back to it, retweak. We all want to be compassionate. We all want to do those things, but there is no way that we want to perpetuate hollowing out of our communities and our areas and making it unsafe and having people stuck in an addiction cycle either. So have those conversations, folks, and don't be afraid. Hold your head high as now burden, because we are on the right track, even though we get beaten up lots of the media. We're doing it right and other people are paying attention and taking notice to it. One of the events coming up, June 17th, an injection of truth.

town hall. Yep. Getting some flack in the media right now. Oh, big time. I read a, was it a Calgary Herald article? I can't remember. And basically they tried pulling apart

every doctor that's coming there to try and, you know, get the MRNA vaccine removed from anywhere in Alberta to do with children. I understand it's not on the childhood vaccines. I understand it's, it's a choice. And, you know, and I, listen, I agree with Dan. Daniel Smith on a lot of things. I like the libertarian view of like, you know, you get to choose.

This MRI, MRNA thing is one of those things where the track record of it ain't great. I don't need to tell you that. And, well, I feel like, you know, curious your thoughts on this fallout from it coming out. And, you know, there's some big names coming there from not only the doctor's side of thing, but now MLA is showing up, yourself showing up. I don't know. What are your thoughts on? Do you think it's going to, I'm not, do I think you're getting,

you can speculate on that. But I don't know. What do you think of the event? Well, everything in due course and in time. Like that's part of the challenges that we're going to have right now. And here's what the politics is going to come out a bit. And I apologize for that in advance. So everybody knows my story that knows my story.

Others that don't. I'm that radical guy out there that's anti-science. Like I've heard it just in this house this week. and same as the MLA that was down from that area for Eric. And then all of a sudden the premier's eating this. And they get the, the left is awesome at hijacking them. And we're absolutely vilified and we're pushed into corners.

We're made to be something. We're not. Or we're agitators. Trying to cause a ruckus for no reason because no one wants to talk about this. So it's, it's very discouraging. And we had a conversation here before, not so long ago,

but even folks that were supportive of what we did and all of a sudden start tearing us down because we're not doing enough or anything else, or I'm faking injuries or whatever they came up with. It gets pretty discouraging. When you hold your head up, you're trying to do the right thing for the right reasons, and you get torn down not only by your own people, but by others. One of the MLAs most recently spoke from the opposition,

she's a doctor and started going on this anti-science theme. I can't jump up and respond in the house. That's not how it works. They're asking questions, and they're throwing me under the bus and getting it on file. I've taken pretty much every other, friggin vaccine that's out there. Like I'm almost considering tabling my own personal medical information in the house so you can say, here, I've taken everything in my measles, mumps, rebella, whatever I can

get across the borders, traveled internationally. You're the guinea pig. You're getting that stuff for good reason. And they worked. And I've never had a reaction before. The data that's coming out now that's allowed to come out and other jurisdictions are seeing it isn't what it was three years ago. Now you're seeing a lot of empirical truths. To get it to a point where, people are ostracized or pushed in a corner for speaking openly or or that that's frustrating. So we also have to be careful that we don't lead too forward with our chin because then the other side is going to hijack the narrative and say we're all those other nasty things again. So I think this event in concept is really good to get some airing of it.

The timing on it, hindsight is always going to be 2020 on it. No, pardon the pun. It's always going to be that rearview mirror of seeing if it was good or not or what ripples it causes. I'm encouraged to see people maybe starting to talk about it openly. And I understand how people feel. Honestly, I do. You have to realistically look at your expectations from having this conversation. If you're looking for us to change and move policy in mountains within a short timeline as just one region and jurisdiction, it's going to be very difficult.

Are we going to be working on things that we can? you might not see it on camera or out in the media or anything else, but we're going to keep our promises that we made to get us here for all the right reasons. So I think this has a really good chance of having an open dialogue. My concern is it's going to get hijacked and blow up in our face. So there's a balance between those two. And as a politician, when we've got a constituency board working down there and you've got a party president coming out and speaking on it,

folks are really well and with all the good intentions. and sometimes even myself can be naive and thinking that we're past the worst of the storm for getting all of that conjecture. We're not there yet. Obviously this last week in the House proved that. So we've got to be careful of political associations and what flag we're carrying to have these conversations.

Glad it's happening. We've got to be careful of the message and we've got to make sure that folks there keep their sticks on the ice when they have the conversations, that it's about what are your realistic expectations and outcomes at the end of this. The other thing that we're going to have to start talking about is finding a space where people can get all the issues and challenges that came out with them. And I'm going to make this one personal.

So that's not by chance we chose South Dakota. You know, all the not aside, notwithstanding the beautiful landscapes and everything else. A friend of mine went down there just prior to COVID and everything taken place and took over a mining call. He's the dean down there. And he kept sending me notes back and forth and he flies as well. well. So showing me the differences of what was happening down there versus here. My daughters, so my two youngest ones, and I was, as a dad, I was pretty concerned. Like, your role, whether folks think this is old school or otherwise, you're in my thing

is to provide and protect for your family. That's paramount. I don't think that's old school. That's... Okay. So it depends on which room I'm talking and all of a sudden I'm, but that's my role as a father is to protect and provide for my family. And to allow strangers that are now taking that role somewhere else to protect them and make sure that they're safe. That was, uh, that was hard. Like there's only been a few times in my life that I've actually wept, but getting to that realization sending it home and then, you know, my wife and kids are on the road and I did everything I could and feeling like an absolute failure. I wept. Just that, that burden, I guess,

of knowing that I can't with all that federal stuff that's taking place in the position I'm in, that I couldn't make sure that this would never happen to them again. When I'm down there and getting the girls all settled in and talking to them going, well, talking about Canada and Alberta and everything else, they don't have that memory of it. Like they literally, their formative years took place in the last four or five years. They don't have the same memory that you and I did of what our province was or what our country was. It was wild because I was worried they're going to be homesick in areas. everything else. And my second oldest daughter, um, so the girls were on a, on a trip out in

Jasper. They had all the right documentation again, who and where they could go and what they could do during the old COVID craziness. They had all the documentation. They're in a restaurant. The restaurant owner would not recognize the documentation. And he basically yelled at them to get out of the restaurant in front of a crowd. Um, that literally, um, for a young girl of 10 or 12 years old, not knowing what they did wrong, being shamed and kicked out of a place. And, you know, there might be folks that they're going, well, I guess that happens to us all the time. It shouldn't. That is not acceptable. But to those girls, that is absolutely foundational. They get into a sweat. They don't want to go back to a place like that again. So when I'm asking them, what about

Alberta and everything else that was dead, it's not my country anymore. They're so willing to get to a place to forget, put all that behind them. They physically need a separation from in a place where they can feel safe and just be kids again and not worry about the next announcement coming out on Twitter of what Trudeau might be doing or what policies might be coming out. They just want to be safe. No, they just want to be kids.

Just want to be kids. But to understand that difference. So my wife gave me a choice. I'll share this with you and your listeners because there's a sense of trust there too. My wife put it to me. She says, you know, here's where we're at financially. Here's where we're at with the business.

Here's the policies that's effective. her. Here's the outcomes now you've got these, you know, taxation policies and everything else that are coming out. Here's the diminutive returns. I haven't been earning like I used to. So I've dropped a couple million dollars that I haven't earned and, you know, last number of years of doing this political gig. Here's where we're out. Here's the ending. Here's how we retire. We can't meet our goals that we set out. And to be clear, all of our stuff is bought and paid for. Like, I worked really hard to make sure we cashed up and paid off everything. So we're sitting here looking at the capital gains and everything else. It's like, they blew our plan.

another water. Absolutely blew it out of the water. And it's not easy for us to do this. This is the first time my wife has had to go on the road and do something. For me, it's old hat. That's what I did. But she's going, I can stay if you go back to work. Like if you go back and do your stuff and I'm going, I got three years. Like I made a commitment. She goes, I know, but here's where we're at. And the problem right now in Canada is, it's not that you can't make the money. It's that you can't keep the money. Like that's, that's the biggest thing. So we're doing what we can in the province. And we have to keep working. together on it. But coming back to this whole discussion, there's a lot of people that may or may or may not have been

vaccine injured or may or not have it, the other things that they live through this lived experience. And we're going to need people to have time and space to get it out and have that conversation. There's going to be a lot of anguish. There's going to be a lot of pain. There's going to be a lot of tears. There's going to be a lot of trying to make reconciliation on it or however you want to phrase that. But we also have to know that there's realistic expectations of what we can and can't do. Can't turn the time back. All we can do is look going forward. What can I change from there?

And to make sure that folks can have an open conversation. And that's the challenge right now in our current environment. So with this discussion, I would love to have it just as an open forum and fill the stadium and have people have a conversation. I don't think we're there. I don't think we're there until you take care of some of the fundamental changes that have taken place in how we can communicate in our own country. I get more news when I go across the border about my country than I do here sitting as an elected in my own province. it's 100 cent being filtered. And that, that is so friggin' arreliolian, it's crazy.

So I'm guardedly optimistic, Sean. You said something there that I'm, you know, it's not that we can't make the money, it's that we can't keep it. Like that, that in itself is, you're an elected politician for, like, you know, I just, yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. And is Alberta the absolute best place? And have we done a lot of good things? Absolutely. And are we working together with those other provinces? Absolutely. And you've got to change out fancy socks, the Green Gremlin, and the chicken lady to get rid of this.

Absolutely. That's going to be the first pass. And is it going to be fixed overnight? Not the amount of damage that they've done. People have to realize that even when you get good people in there, it's going to take them time to turn the stuff back. Like, you don't accumulate every other administration of 150 years of history and spend more than they have.

have together and not think that this is going to be tough slogging. And by the way, people aren't really here for our intellect. They're here for our energy. So pump that stuff out as much as you can. The world needs it. We've got Polish presidents coming here. We've got German delegations coming here. You've had the Greeks just look for it. They want our energy. India wants our stuff. Get it to port. Get it to get it to them. You get to meet with, before I lay you out here, because I assume here at some point I have to let you out. Yeah, go by three so I can get to my next gig in Edmond. You get to meet with somebody for Tibet.

Yes? Oh, it was Nepal tonight. Yeah, so. I don't know if this has any relevance on anything, but you sent me that text. I'm like, what? Well, it's really cool. So with the economic corridor file, I'm tied to the Minister of Intergovernmental Relations. So I'm Premier's parliamentary secretary.

With the economic corridor model that we have, initially it was kind of in the province and interprovincial. So with this new gig, I'm allowed to take it further than that. We're literally trying to tie in other trade jurisdictions. So in that vein, I get to meet with the consulate generals. I've met with some high commissioners. It's kind of cool, actually. And for whatever reason, and it's still just, as a farm kid, it still blows my mind.

I don't change really when I'm meeting with them either. I'm formal and everything else, but I'm still me. Authenticity sells. So I've had, you know, the gents from Germany came here and said, never been to Alberta before. I've never been made to feel so welcome. And I've never felt like anything's possible. High Commissioner from the United Kingdom. I'm down at Spruce Meadows.

I've never been to Spruce Meadows. You know, I remember as a kid, seen it because Granny was really British. Her dad was British Expeditionary Force and so very, very much tied to the Queen and Crown and all that. And I remember as a little kid, they're sitting eating biscuits and having some tea watching the horse, the equestrian jumping with Granny and the farmhouse. Like, it was kind of neat. So to roll the clock forward, I get this invitation to go there from the, uh, the consulate from the United Kingdom. Don't make a ball.

This is kind of cool. So I'm there mixing and mingling talking to folks, know a few folks in the room and there's other ones that see me and they're like, well, what are you doing here? I don't know.

I got an invite. It was the same as getting invited to the, uh, to the Japanese emperor's birthday party. Like it was the same thing. I've gone to these things and, and for whatever reason,

it seems to resonate and just meet with folks. So the, the consulate general says, well, the high commissioner wants to meet you. Like, okay. So I'm literally thinking this is a pomp and circumstance thing.

very nice to meet you, blah, blah, two minute, three minute conversation. I literally was taking crumpets back to the table or something stupid, ridiculous like that in a cup of tea or something to go sit down and watch the horses jump. And this lady, she, she wanted to talk, like genuinely wanted to talk. So I'm putting my stuff down and I'm sitting there and I'm looking at all these other ambassadors lining up wanting to talk to the high commissioner. She spent probably 25 minutes to a half an hour talking with me about stuff. everything from, you know, the trade relations, how we tie things together. And what she came back with, she goes, you know, she says, I love coming to Alberta. There's something special about this place.

You guys make things happen. If we can just do that with the rest of, you know, the country kind of thing. If we can do that, she says, I want to help you. I want to connect our countries yet. I want commerce. I feel like we can do things. And we're talking about the hydrogen file and all those, you know, other items that we're up to. She was, I had no idea, but, and she's excited.

That's what happens when we meet with folks. So again, meeting individuals and different groups like that, huge because we as Albertans get a chance to carry our message, our flag, and not what's been portrayed out there. So again, I'm going to be heading over to India in the fall. The speaker of Punjab province invited our speaker. I'm writing on his coattails. I put together a task force basically to look at that. We want to tie in with India. They want our stuff.

And we want their investment dollars. Like it's going to be a really good deal. I'm heading over to Reichievik. I got invited to go there. It's for an Arctic conference. Premier couldn't make it. And she just said, Sengen,

awesome. So I'm going to take that show on the road there. Central America, I really like El Salvador, their consulate generals, really in line with what we're doing, those type of things. So I want to see Central America

is a sounding up point. And then the whole European file. I mean, we've got a number of big nations wanting our stuff. The only way we do that is by going out, cowboying up, being who we are,

having the conversations and figuring out the problems. And it resonates. So that's where I'm really blessed to do that. If we set these relations and these agreements up, you know, you're looking at next 50, 60 years of trade and commerce and investment and looking at that. And it's more than just the energy. We're wanting to exchange technology. We're wanting to tire universities together.

You want investment back and forth and other side. So that's what I'm really excited about the next phase. And that's why I didn't want to hang up the spurs yet. just go back to building projects because if we do this right, Texas to Alaska through Alberta, all of our stuff heading off the West Coast, trading molecules to get at east, starting to build out the infrastructure, getting some deep seaport access, getting that common investment, sharing our bright minds and our universities, allowing free movement of trades and goods and services and doing all that, literally tying in with our NATO partners for the next 50 to 60 years,

looking at the entire north differently. There's some big stuff on the horizon for us. and it only happens if you get people that you trust, put them in place to let them get these things put together and not keep fighting over the little things. And hopefully we don't get distracted over the little things. Appreciate you coming in and doing this. Thanks, Sean. You know, I always look forward to when you're going to sit in here.

And we'll probably get yelled at for one way or another on this. That always happens. But I don't know. I feel like I don't know if I'm right on this or not. The audience will always let me know. but I always feel like I can just be myself, as I always am with every guest. But, you know, when it comes to politicians,

there's not many that I like to sit and converse with, and yet we seem to throw, I don't know if we're throwing jabs, but we seem to be able to go back and forth and I enjoy it. I hope the audience does too. I appreciate you being so candid and opening up about some of the things, you know, that I normally wouldn't ask about. Normally I wouldn't ask about personal life. But you surprised me there.

I didn't realize that was coming down the pipe. So appreciate you coming and doing this and look forward to, you know, whatever it is in the future when you hop back on. Perfect. And if you guys need a mashup and want to give me hell on one of the bills, all ears. You hear that part of the process? Okay, cool. There you go.

Thanks, Kay. Nice, folks. Take care.