Thread by @TheBreakdownAB

Live tweeting the first UCP leadership panel?

Sounds like a plan!

1/ um… probably a whooooooole bunch.

#abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

Just jazzy elevator music so far…

The comments are…

They aren’t great. So far, we need more guns, land acknowledgements are terrible, and the MAGA crowd is here in force.

In true UCP fashion tho, definitely not starting on time.

Aaaaaand here we go!

Rob Anderson opens the show up.

He says 7 of the UCP candidates are here, one wasn’t invited because they’ve never been an MLA, that’s Bill Rock.

Introductions are underway and the screens are so TINY!

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Rob says 10 questions, and they’re all isolated to provincial federal relationships.

So guess no provincial policy questions like curriculum or relationships with healthcare or anything.

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First question - Alberta is treated super unfair by Canada, what grade would you give the UCP and what’s you #1 priority?

Schulz up first!

“We did some good things. I did good things.”

No grade and no priority…

Sawhney - “We did some good things, we left federal money on the table for affordable housing and we didn’t fix the fair deal or equalization. It’s time to move forward”.

No grade, no priority.

Jean - “We did a super bad job. Kenney was insincere. The referendum was a fraud. We haven’t gotten a fair deal. We need to try for it. We can fix it tho. I want to open up constitutional negotiations”

Smith - “We need the Alberta Sovereignty Act! Collect our own taxes! Provincial police! We can totally do it, those lawyers and constitutional scholars are wrong!

No one has given a grade so far.

Toews - “Gives props to Schulz on childcare, emissions reductions, but we need to do more.”

Aheer - “We need to build relationships, we have to work collaboratively. We need to work with the feds to make sure provinces are treated fairly”

Loewen - He’s muted. Looks like he turned off his screen. Strong start.

Question 2!

Rob - We’re big fans of the Alberta Sovereignty Act, we made it. We believe we should be able to pick and choose what laws we follow. Do you support it? How will you use it?

Sawhney - “It’s unconstitutional. It’s virtue signalling and a distraction. We need to fight against the end of oil narrative. The energy transition wont be overnight. We need technical skills. These are the real issues”.

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Schulz - “We can’t not follow laws, this would just create chaos. We need to follow the rule of law. We can’t have a Trudeau Notley sequel. Sequels suck yo.”

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Jean - “Not in it’s present form. I like the principal of the strategy. We have to follow rule of law, without that we have tyranny. You can’t pick your laws, fix them from inside the system.”

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Smith (Robs smiling) - We need to make sure that we have sovereignty. That’s what our founders wanted (wot?). I fully support it. We should say no to laws we don’t like. We want to be like Quebec.

Toews - “Nope. Can’t get behind it. We’ve got economic recovery, we can’t undermine the economy. I talk to investors. They would BAIL.”

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Aheer - “I appreciate the passion here, but people are tired of fighting. People want collaboration and stability. This wouldn’t be my first bill, we have bigger things that need our attention and we have to help vulnerable Albertans.”

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Loewen - He find his mic!

So he’s gonna answer federal provincial relations first…

“Speak softly and carry a big stick, we need to do our own taxes and pension plan. We need to represent Albertans”

On the Sovereignty Act - “We need to fight back against the feds. It’s a great place to start. We wouldn’t have joined confederation with the deal we have now.”

Question 3 - Should we do a provincial police force? Do we end the RCMP contract?

First up…

Toews - “I’m in favour of it. The police need to be accountable to the govt. I’ll convince rural folks it’s a great idea.

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Loewen - “I fully support it”. And then Todds internet died.

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Sawhney - “Rural folks want it, but municipalities don’t. We need to articulate why we need it.”

Oh DAMN!

She’s going after Lethbridge police HARD!

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Schulz - “We need to talk to Albertans, the support just ain’t there. But Nova Scotia and the RCMP… that’s bad. We don’t want that here. Consultation hasn’t been effective, we need to convince people better”

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Smith - “High River Gun Grab! We didn’t have any control in High River. We do need Alberta Provincial Police! Gang Violence! Organized Crime! Handgun Bans!”

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Jean - “It’s a logistical nightmare that we need to do right. But we should ramp it up and provide it as an alternative to municipalities and do it gradually”

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Aheer - “We haven’t done the work of consultation. Where are the resources going to come from? Trudeau says that he doesn’t want to do policing too. Also safety first!”

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Question 4 - The feds totes overreached with COVID, and they may institute travel bans, thoughts?

Aheer - “We’re way too divided. Our government and the opposition failed on communication. We need to rebuild trust and take care of healthcare and capacity

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Toews - “I would fight any further travel bans against the unvaccinated. The Emergencies Act was totally unacceptable. We need to stand up to the feds.”

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Smith - “This is why we need the Alberta Sovereignty Act. Someone tried to make Theo Fleury isolate after travel. Sovereignty Act! This was never a crisis of the unvaccinated. Everyone can get COVID”.

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Jean - “Those are largely provincial issues. Also the feds did a lot of stuff based on politics not science. This was the failure of COVID response federally and provincially. Lockdowns killed people”.

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Loewen - “The Emergencies Act should never have been invoked. If we had our own bank here, the feds couldn’t have frozen accounts. I went to Ottawa and hung out with theo. Also, mainstream media!”

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Sawhney - “I would push back. I believe in data and evidence and transparency. That’s why I want a public inquiry. People should know what happened.”

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Schulz - “The trucker ban was a bad idea. We need to make common sense decisions. We have to push back. Westjet stood up. We need to partner with them to help push back too!”

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Question #5 - Should we establish a revenue agency to collect provincial and federal taxes?

Toews - “Well, we collect corporate taxes. But yeah, we should be collecting provincial tax and federal tax. We should do both. Plus gives us leverage. We’ll work with Quebec!”

Aheer - “Tough question. It costs Quebec $100’s of millions and they aren’t growing economically. Their economy isn’t any better for it. Plus we need to earn peoples trust before we start to collect all that money.”

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Loewen - “If we collect the money, we can control where that money goes. Especially the federal tax. That’ll show the feds!”

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Sawhney - “A lot of work needs to be done. My 2 decades in oil and gas has taught me we need to stay low tax and have certainty. Investors want stability and certainty.”

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Schulz - “Government has been looking at this for 25 years. It’s more red tape, it’s more expensive, it means bigger government. We need to address cost of living, not this.”

Rob is looking more and more sad.

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Jean - “We have the oil, we can make the rules. I mean, I could go either way. Quebec did it to prepare for separation. Quebec doesn’t collect their federal taxes. Unless we’re gonna separate, it’s a waste of money.”

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Smith - “We need to do this! We need to completely rewrite tax code! The feds should have no influence on our taxes. We need to choose how much we send to the feds.”

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Question 6 - The feds fight to law lock Alberta’s oil. What should we do to get more pipelines?

Um…

Other than TMX?

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Smith - “Ottawa won’t build corridors. We need to establish corridors across the country to force other provinces to agree to our terms. If we get all the other provinces and First Nations on our side, the feds won’t stand a chance!”

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Toews - “We need to take our challenge to Bill c-69 to the Supreme Court. Plus Port of Churchill! We’ve made progress! TMX! Coastal Gaslink!”

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Aheer - “Churchill is good. Not perfect, but it’s possible, maybe. Canada are the best stewards of resources in the world. We could be supplying the world. We should be doing that. The feds need to accept that responsibility.”

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Loewen - “Oil talking points. Our oil is good for the environment. We need to be able to take control of our resources. We need our energy around the world. The feds cancelled Tek! (No they didn’t).

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Sawhney - “I’ve been in O&G for twenty years. Other countries can work together to build a pipeline, why can’t we? The NDP are also the worst by the way. That’s why I got into politics. I know energy.”

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Schulz - “Let’s keep fighting C-69. We need to go right around our feds and talk to the American feds. We need to ship CO2. (We do? Someone please let us know about that). We have to stop Notley. That’s #1”

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Jean - “We need more pipelines. We need to get to a deep water port. The US takes advantage of us. We need to get constitutional change to make it so other provinces can’t say no. Constitutional reform!”

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Question 7 - Guns! Guns are personal property. The feds are gonna confiscate guns! How are you going to stop them!

Jean - “I believe in personal property laws, the feds are targeting the wrong people. We have to fight Trudeau.”

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Smith - “Sovereignty Act! We need to be able to choose our laws! They’re gonna take your guns! We need to stop cross border guns! We need to have our own police that answer only to us!”

Um.

Yikes?

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Toews - “We need to defend Albertans rights. We need to fight gun smuggling. We need to go after the bad guys with guns.”

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Aheer - “We need to balance law abiding gun owners. We need to be mindful of the tone of the conversation, too many people are being too inflammatory. I just took my ownership classes actually”.

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Loewen - “I’m a proud gun owner. Nobody respects guns more than gun owners. We need to focus our energy on criminals. Trudeau is just virtue signalling. The high river gun grab was totes bad”.

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Sawhney - “I’m the MLA from #YYC NE. We’ve got problems in my constituency. But most of those crimes are being committed with illegal guns.”

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Schulz - “We have to have regional considerations. Wait times are too long. We need to support lawful gun owners. We need to stop smuggling.”

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Next question - Pension Plan!

Will you create a pension plan?

Schulz - “Short term there’s some big gains, but we need to look at long term. We need to take it to Albertans tho.”

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Jean - “It’s a no brainer, we should leave the CPP, and we should convince other provinces to do it too.”

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Smith - “We absolutely should. We’re paying more than we get. We need to do income tax first and then CPP.”

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Toews - “There’s great opportunity in an Alberta Pension Plan. We should get there, but it’s super complex and we need to be strategically so that we don’t lose it for future generations. I would bring Albertans along”.

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Aheer - “We need to make sure that we have a charter to ensure that government is hands off and that the money is handled properly and can’t be used for anything else first.”

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Loewen - “We totally need to do this. We can do this. We pay more than we receive. Now is the time to act.”

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Sawhney - “We need to create a better future. We haven’t made the case for an Alberta pension plan tho. We need to make that case so that it doesn’t backfire on us.”

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Question 9 - Equalization

Rob - Almost all the money we spend in taxes goes to the feds buying votes. What are you going to do to address equalization and fix federal taxes?

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Sawhney - “It’s super unfair. The feds spend more on military than in Alberta, they make EI harder to get for Albertans and this is unjust. Alberta is the richest province in Canada though, we should be proud of that.”

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Schulz - “Quebec Hydro! The feds pick winners and losers. We need to stand up to the feds and stand up to Trudeau. This is an area where we can do better if we get other provinces to share our view”

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Jean - “I started the equalization being unfair with the Wildrose. We have a mandate to act. We haven’t acted on the mandate of the referendum. I was a lawyer, I know the law.”

And then he reads a ruling from Quebec.

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Smith - “Equalization is just another example of how unfairly we’re treated. The feds keep trying to give national programs and we need to stop them from taking money from Alberta for use in Canada.”

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Toews - “Quebec Hydro! There’s no consideration for cost of living. We need to demand a renegotiation immediately. We can’t squander when we get a friendly conservative government again”.

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Aheer - “We’ve never had a friendly government. Why haven’t we done all the things we talked about? We need to get 70% of the premiers on board. There’s too much talk and not enough walk from governments.”

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Loewen - “We need a new deal. We wouldn’t have joined Canada if we had known how bad the deal would be. Nothing has been done since the referendum. We’ve never benefitted from equalization. We cower. We need to get tough.”

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Last question!

Internet censorship!

Rob - Liberals get to decide what is said on the internet. What will you do to fight back against censorship?

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Loewen - “We have to protect freedom of speech. The feds shut down “simple protests”. We need an Alberta constitution. We need to fight back. What is leverage if you never use it?”

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Sawhney - “We all love free speech. I’m practical. This is the job of our MP’s. If we want a conservative movement, we have to ensure that conservative MP’s get elected.

(Somewhere George Chahal just threw something at his monitor)

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Schulz - “It’s totally unacceptable. We can’t just leave it to MP’s tho. We need to stand up right now.”

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Jean - “They’re doing it at universities too. This is mostly provincial and we need to help fund charter challenges. We need a conservative PM to stack the supreme courts too.”

Someone said the quiet part out loud…

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Smith - “The CRTC is super mean. That’s why there’s no free speech in mainstream media. True North and Rebel are awesome. That’s who they’re targeting. Sovereignty Act!”

Next forum there’s gonna have to be a Sovereignty Act drinking game…

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Toews - “We need to launch a charter challenge! On this and the Emergencies Act!”

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Aheer - “Where is the oversight? Who is accountable? We haven’t seen accountability from the feds in the last few years. The bill should be trashed. Is Trudeau the oversight? Nefarious!”

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Closing remarks!

It’s almost over…

Aheer - “I’m so privileged to be here. This province is awesome. Alberta contributes globally and we can do so much. Also Energy! We can be the heartbeat of Canada!”

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Loewen - “I can see a future where the east treats us like the goose that led the golden egg, and we have to protect against that. We need to stop ourselves from being punched in the face. We need to initiate a firewall”.

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Sawhney - “I’m a mainstream conservative. I want a better future where al parts of our party work together. We need to improve quality of life. We need to build pipelines. Attract workforce. Real issues. We need quiet government.”

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Schulz - “We need to defend rights. Inflation is bad. We need to not start fights we can’t win, we need to have stability and common sense. The NDP are super bad. We need to fight Notley in 2023!”

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Jean - “We need autonomy for Albertans. We need constitutional negotiations. We can solve inflation with a fair deal. We need a conservative PM who stacks the Supreme Court! We need Autonomy! Most free and most prosperous! The UCP is not separatist!”

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Smith - “Why does Quebec hate us? Maybe they don’t hate us, maybe they’re just self absorbed. We need to address disunity. A constitutional reckoning is coming. The Supreme Court doesn’t care about Alberta. Ottawa is the party that’s breaking the law. Alberta First!”

Toews - “I care about the future and freedom. We need prosperity, opportunity and freedom. We need to win and how we do it matters. We need to be strategic. We can’t over promise and under deliver. We fixed the economy btw. You’re welcome. Unity!”

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