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Could Naheed Nenshi cause an NDP divorce?

Could Naheed Nenshi cause an NDP divorce?

Released Tuesday, 16th April 2024
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Could Naheed Nenshi cause an NDP divorce?

Could Naheed Nenshi cause an NDP divorce?

Could Naheed Nenshi cause an NDP divorce?

Could Naheed Nenshi cause an NDP divorce?

Tuesday, 16th April 2024
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0:00

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Your ad Free podcast You're

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listening to a frequency podcast

0:39

Network Production. Being.

0:42

The leader of the Ndp in

0:45

Alberta might be one of the

0:47

hardest jobs and politics. You have

0:49

to speak to progressives who live

0:52

in big cities, but you must

0:54

be able to compete with conservative

0:56

parties and sometimes there are more

0:58

than one for not just the

1:01

rural or the small town vote,

1:03

but for the votes of everyone

1:05

in the province who depends on

1:07

oil and gas for a living.

1:10

Which. Is how you get the

1:12

Ndp pushing for pipelines which in

1:15

turn doesn't sit well with the

1:17

Federal Ndp who you know wants

1:19

us to move away from fossil

1:21

fuels and that allows your opponents

1:24

to paint you with that brush

1:26

as well. Which means you need

1:28

to sound very different from say

1:31

jug meet Sing but also your

1:33

parties have the same names and

1:35

use the same colors and. Yeah.

1:39

So anyway, it's not a huge

1:42

surprise that Rachel not liquid. Nor.

1:45

Is it a huge surprise that whomever

1:47

takes the job next? We'll.

1:49

Have a tough job a winning

1:51

over voters while staying loyal to

1:54

the party and presenting a united

1:56

National front for the New Democratic

1:58

Party. Eggs. That's a

2:00

lot. What if the

2:03

new leader of the Alberta NDP was

2:05

a guy who hadn't previously

2:07

belonged to the party? Who

2:09

doesn't have any of those ties

2:12

to tradition, to a unified NDP,

2:14

or any alignment with the federal

2:16

party? What if the

2:19

new leader was just new?

2:28

I'm Jordan Heath-Raulings. This is The

2:31

Big Story. Graham Thompson

2:33

is a long-time analyst of Alberta

2:35

politics. He's appeared in the CBC,

2:37

the Star, the Ta'ih, and Alberta

2:40

Views magazine, among many others. Welcome,

2:42

Graham. Hello, Jordan. Why

2:45

don't you start maybe for our outside

2:47

of Alberta audience by giving us a

2:50

quick rundown of the last provincial

2:52

election in Alberta and what's happened

2:54

since then? I think most people

2:56

know the NDP lost, and then

2:59

what? Yeah, so what happened

3:01

is 2023, we thought might

3:03

have a relatively tight race for

3:05

Alberta politics. Like normally, we're

3:08

a one-party province. The Conservatives tend

3:10

to win the election. NDP

3:13

2015 won the election with a

3:15

two-party system. In

3:18

2019, the Conservatives, the UCP, had a Conservative

3:20

Party won again. But

3:22

it was really interesting. In 2023, we

3:24

thought the NDP might

3:26

come back under Rachel Nolley,

3:28

an NDP leader. She's a

3:30

very well-liked, seasoned politician, first-centered

3:32

politics in 2008. Her

3:35

father was the leader of the NDP back in the day.

3:38

This is like the loyalty when it

3:40

comes to NDP in Alberta. That's against

3:42

Danielle Smith, a really contentious, very controversial

3:44

leader who wasn't well-liked by a lot

3:46

of the public. And we thought, wow,

3:48

what's going to happen? Well, the UCP

3:50

won. But the thing is, they won,

3:53

but they lost a number of seats.

3:56

They went from 60 seats to 49. NDP

3:59

went from 2023. seats to 38 as

4:01

the largest opposition in Alberta history. So

4:03

even though the NDP lost 38 seats,

4:07

biggest opposition, UCP won,

4:09

but they lost a lot of

4:11

ground, especially in Calgary. So

4:13

that's what happened in the

4:15

election, but at that point,

4:17

the clock started ticking for Rachel

4:20

Notley as leader. She had won in 2015, but she lost in

4:22

2019, lost in 2023, and the clock

4:27

began ticking as a question of not

4:29

if she would step down, but when.

4:32

What did she say about herself and the

4:34

direction of the party when she did? You

4:37

know, you pointed out this was an NDP

4:39

that had made a relatively sizable comeback. It's

4:41

not like she had nothing to rely on,

4:43

but she walked away. Yeah, the

4:46

thing is, yeah, she stepped down in January

4:48

of this year. We knew it was coming

4:50

because look, she lost two elections in a

4:52

row. People like her, but the thing is,

4:54

the NDP knew itself. It did not defeat

4:57

Danielle Smith, such a kind of conscious, controversial

4:59

person and the NDP still couldn't

5:01

beat her. So everyone knew that writing was on the

5:03

wall and think there's no one who's trying to push

5:05

her out. People have so much respect for her in

5:08

the NDP. No one was trying to overtly

5:10

push out Notley, just giving her time. She

5:13

stepped down saying, look, we've done so much together and

5:15

the biggest opposition in Alberta history,

5:17

and it's time for her to step aside

5:20

and let a new generation, if they can

5:22

call it that, step up to the

5:24

plate. Who is that new generation? And

5:26

I mean, this is why we're talking to you today.

5:28

So far, who's running to replace her? And what does

5:30

the field look like just in general? Yeah, so right

5:32

now there's six people entering the race. I'll get to

5:34

the punch line in a second.

5:36

Six people. First up is Sarah Hoffman.

5:39

Sarah Hoffman is a powerhouse, a veteran

5:41

of Alberta politics based in Edmonton, and

5:43

Edmonton is NDP country. All 20 of

5:47

the provincial seats went to the NDP

5:49

last election. So that's where the power

5:51

is. Sarah Hoffman, former Minister of Health

5:54

under the Notley government, was seen as

5:56

a front runner. Kathleen Gannelly, another veteran,

5:58

former Minister of Health. Justice when

6:00

Nautilus Premier and Gammalie is from Calgary

6:03

and NDP's Rudy Keenan winning more seats than

6:05

Calgary. Last election they won 14 out of

6:07

26 seats. The

6:09

NDP got more seats than the United Conservative

6:12

Party in Calgary. We just see that some

6:14

more conservative city. Both two, by

6:16

the way, are both MLAs. Our third

6:18

MLA is Jodi Kalahou Stonehouse from Edmonton,

6:20

Rutherford. She's very new to politics and

6:22

elected last year. Then we

6:24

have Gil McGowan, Alberta

6:26

Federation of Labour president. Then

6:29

we had Raki Pancholy. I said we did

6:31

have a split in a second. So Raki

6:33

Pancholy, Rudy Dynamic lawyer

6:36

from Edmonton, MLA, and

6:38

she ran in the race and she seems a very

6:40

credible person. Then all of

6:42

a sudden in March things began to

6:45

change in this race that began February

6:47

the 5th. Within a

6:49

month someone entered the race who is

6:51

not a long time NDP member.

6:53

That's Nuhayad Nenshi. The head Nenshi

6:55

former mayor of Calgary enters the

6:58

race and turns everything upside down.

7:01

With days of him entering the race,

7:03

Pancholy, Raki Pancholy, a

7:06

young, dynamic, very credible

7:08

candidate says, I'm stepping

7:10

aside to throw my support

7:12

behind Nuhayad Nenshi. The

7:15

race turned completely upside down when

7:17

the former mayor, the head Nenshi

7:19

of Calgary, entered the race.

7:22

It's a matter of weeks ago actually. For

7:24

those who aren't that familiar with Nenshi,

7:26

and as I mentioned Alberta politics, this

7:29

is fascinating. Explain why because

7:31

of who he is this

7:34

race has been turned upside down. Yeah.

7:36

And the thing is, first of all, he's very well known.

7:38

He's not just known in Alberta. He's known across the country.

7:40

I had Nenshi. I mean, that's why

7:42

we're talking to you. He's a really interesting figure

7:45

for everybody across the country. Yes. And

7:47

he was mayor of Calgary from 2010 to 2021. He's

7:49

an academic by trading. And so

7:52

he enters the race and this is somebody

7:54

who we all know, we all talk about,

7:56

very controversial figure. He's very

7:58

dynamic, really good public. speaker. So he

8:00

is, he enters the race and

8:02

we knew it was coming. In fact, you know,

8:05

I was calling him beforehand. The number of us

8:07

in the media got interviews with him the day

8:09

he was announcing because he's doing, it wasn't a

8:11

big announcement like talking to all the media one

8:13

in one rooms. It was one in one interviews

8:16

to explain what he was doing. It's part

8:18

of a strategy. And this

8:20

caught fire. I was doing columns

8:22

and appearing on national programs, CPC,

8:24

CTV, doing various columns across the

8:26

country because people were thinking, wow,

8:28

this is actually interesting because look,

8:31

the other names in the race,

8:33

no one look in Alberta, people may have

8:35

heard of course, probably heard of Sarah Hoffman and

8:38

Captain Danny, but I sound of Alberta, no one's

8:40

really heard of these people. So in comes the

8:42

head and then she far mirror

8:44

Calgary jumps into the race

8:46

and boy, when a huge splash he

8:48

makes, because all of a sudden everyone

8:50

is talking about him, because

8:52

he is not an insider. He

8:55

is not an NDP member until

8:57

he joined the race basically, all

9:00

the others. There are five I've mentioned,

9:02

there are NDP members, some for decades.

9:05

In comes the head and then she who was not

9:07

an NDP member. In fact, in

9:09

the election last year in 2023, he grudgingly gave

9:14

his support to the NDP because

9:16

himself is non-partisan. In fact, when

9:18

he was mayor, he

9:20

led what was called a purple

9:22

revolution. That was red liberal, blue

9:24

conservative, meshed them together. So he

9:27

was saying, look, I'm not partisan,

9:29

a political party, I want to

9:31

take things from the conservatives, things

9:33

from the liberals, progressive conservatives. And

9:35

so he comes into the race as

9:37

an outsider, but he is somebody

9:39

who has been noted as

9:42

being able to bring people together

9:44

from various political parties. And the

9:46

thing is, what he said last

9:48

year, that he was supporting Rachel

9:50

Notley, but he was kind of doing

9:52

it, grudgingly Saying, look, the NDP

9:54

is not perfect, but he did

9:56

it more as a protest against

9:59

Danielle Smith. How. Did the Conservative

10:01

party who was seen as being too right

10:03

wing face. I basically. You. Know I'm

10:05

not cheating on the Ndp, but they're better than

10:07

Samuel Smith. Fan of a look warm endorsement? The

10:10

thing is, he's using that now as a way

10:12

to say the people lox. If

10:14

you're a more moderate, the don't belong to

10:16

a political party. While listen, I didn't either.

10:19

I. Supported the Ndp. is it? As

10:21

a away are protesting against Danielle

10:23

Smith so I'm still that same

10:25

person who wants to be more

10:27

moderate. bring people together. And

10:29

he's using that argument. As

10:32

a way to try and convince

10:34

other people like him. The. Progressive

10:36

to have little will home. To

10:38

to join his leadership race. make

10:40

some the leader the party. And then

10:43

he can make changes. You. Mention that

10:45

he's a Progressive and you just

10:47

mentioned you know he's appealing to

10:49

progressives who have no real home.

10:51

I think people who maybe aren't

10:53

familiar with the Alberta Ndp would

10:55

wonder if that question, how is

10:58

the Alberta Ndp a difference of

11:00

from what someone in Toronto might

11:02

imagine the Ndp to be and

11:04

what the Ndp is Federally. Yes,

11:07

Yes, and the big issues about the relationship between

11:09

your bird and keeping the Federal Ndp. It's an

11:11

atmospheric and. Right now

11:13

the. Ndp in

11:16

Alberta. Is not like

11:18

the Federal Ndp at all. In

11:20

fact, when Rachel Notley was the

11:22

premier, citizens are some public's arguments.

11:24

Sometimes. Heated arguments with them

11:26

and subleasing leader the the

11:29

Federal New Democrats. And lives

11:31

over things like energy and pipelines.

11:33

So in Alberta, he got the

11:35

Ndp to have an awkward position

11:37

where they're very much about protecting

11:39

the environment, doing things to an

11:41

combat climate change. The Ndp brought

11:43

in a provincial carbon tax which

11:45

was not popular. But. They did

11:47

that. As they were

11:49

promoting pipelines. So when the

11:51

Ndp was reporting the expansion

11:53

of the Sands Mountain Pipeline,

11:56

Not. have talked about spending two billion

11:58

dollars roberta and repairs money to kickstart

12:01

that project that was stalled. This is the

12:03

expansion of the trans mountain pipeline. It's an

12:05

existing pipeline going from Alberta to the West

12:07

Coast. There was plans to actually get that

12:10

twinned and it was getting

12:12

really dicey, would it move ahead or

12:14

not? Notly strong armed the federal government

12:16

into putting money into that pipeline buying

12:18

it and of course it's going to

12:20

be opening pretty soon. It's actually going

12:22

to cost the federal government over $30

12:24

billion. My

12:27

point being that when she was pushing

12:29

things like that, she got

12:31

pushbacks from the federal NDP saying that we

12:33

shouldn't be promoting more oil and gas and

12:35

then she pushed back against them. So you

12:37

have the NDP in Alberta being much

12:40

more like a liberal party in many ways than

12:43

NDP parties in other parts

12:45

of the country. What

12:52

kind of questions does that

12:54

create for this leadership

12:56

race and specifically for Nenshi's

12:59

candidacy? Yeah, so one of

13:02

the big issues coming out of it because I

13:04

think a lot of the issues like this race

13:06

has become a submarine race. Now surprisingly it's all

13:08

under underground underwater base that you really can't see

13:10

much. One of the big issues

13:12

though that is splitting them is the

13:15

idea of cutting formal ties

13:17

with the federal NDP because

13:19

right now the constitution for

13:21

the NDP has written that if you

13:23

join the Alberta NDP you automatically become

13:26

a member of the federal NDP. And

13:29

that's been a problem for the NDP Alberta because

13:31

you've got people thinking, yeah, I like what the

13:33

NDP is doing here. They're trying to balance between

13:35

protecting the climate, fighting climate change

13:37

as well as promoting oil and gas.

13:40

But the minute you become a member of

13:43

the Alberta NDP, you become a member of

13:45

the federal NDP that's very much fighting against

13:47

building more pipelines. So what's happening

13:49

now? You've got Nenshi saying really

13:51

it's time for us to look

13:53

at cutting ties with the federal

13:55

NDP. Now this is something

13:57

as an outsider. He's talking about this. Right?

14:00

Long time traditional Ndp sport as and wait

14:02

a minute, you can cut ties to the

14:04

Federal Ndp. It's that's part of who we

14:06

are. were a big team across the country.

14:09

But it's not just Nancy send

14:11

this brassy pencil the she to

14:13

support behind Nancy. As them, M

14:15

L A C is also very much

14:17

in favor of cutting ties with the

14:19

Federal Ndp, and even Kathleen Ganley. Kathleen.

14:22

Ganley is someone who's looking at

14:24

not necessarily saying cut ties is

14:26

saying i look closer. Debate on

14:29

that. See. Do of people inside

14:31

the party thing is time for us to

14:33

cut ties with the Federal Ndp. And.

14:35

That's the com a bone of contention

14:37

with then the party is not. Look,

14:40

this is not a kind of vicious.

14:42

Campaign like that: The U C

14:44

P Lisa campaign Two years ago,

14:46

when you're Dead: Danielle Smith making

14:49

an outrageous and controversial comments really

14:51

heated dad nasty at times Campaign:

14:53

This is nothing like that, is

14:55

a lot more civilized and therefore.

14:58

Isn't getting as much coverage? But.

15:00

Yet it seems like if I'm hearing

15:02

you correctly, kind of the future of

15:04

the provincial federal relationship of this party

15:06

is at stake, which theoretically at least

15:08

a is a big deal and could

15:10

set a precedent for other provinces. Yeah,

15:12

yeah, no wonder and you know will

15:14

happen at maybe the of the Arrow

15:16

more. I have one problems in a

15:18

sense and cut ties with the federal

15:20

Np Ndp was going to happen nether

15:22

provinces. But. Another way, the

15:24

Ndp in Alberta is unique because

15:27

of the situation here. Behalf separatists

15:29

gas one a guess. But come.

15:32

Aboard as so dependent on fossil

15:34

fuels for revenue. That puts

15:36

the Ndp ones in Dublin to wield mean.

15:39

Both. Is something people are talking

15:41

about and is something that nancy again when

15:43

he said. He old. Last.

15:45

Year when I supported the Ndp

15:48

added that reluctantly is trying to

15:50

change the Ndp and bring more

15:52

moderate sin. And yes, Ratchet Bench

15:54

Holy bright dynamic new M A

15:56

the through her support behind him.

15:59

And nasty. him a lot of credibility inside

16:02

the NDP, I would say, well, because Raki

16:04

Pancholy is really well respected. She's

16:06

only been around since

16:08

2019, so relatively new, but she's very

16:11

dynamic, very well respected. And so for

16:13

her to say, we've got to

16:15

go with Mahatma Nenshi and we've got to

16:17

do things like ties with the federal NDP,

16:20

that does show there's a movement

16:22

inside the party to do

16:24

just that. You mentioned that

16:27

this is kind of a submarine race, which

16:29

I guess by that you mean you kind

16:32

of can't get a sense of it because it's

16:34

all happening below the surface. But what do we

16:36

know about the state of the race so far?

16:38

And why did you say that it's not that

16:40

surprising that we couldn't see much of it? Because

16:43

first of all, it's the opposition, right? When you

16:45

have a leadership race for a government and the

16:47

person who wins will become the premier. So

16:50

whatever they say during leadership race could

16:52

become government policy. We saw that,

16:54

of course, in spades when

16:56

it came to Danielle

16:59

Smith, when she talked

17:01

about a sovereignty act, fighting

17:03

Ottawa tooth and nail, taking

17:05

vengeance basically against the health

17:08

authorities who brought in pandemic

17:10

restrictions. So that we're focused

17:12

on that because that person would become the

17:14

premier of the province. Opposition, even

17:17

though it is the biggest opposition in the history,

17:19

they're still not government. But as

17:21

for the actual race itself, people

17:23

were pointing to Sarah Hoffman

17:25

being the leader. And Sarah

17:28

Hoffman, powerhouse in NDP

17:30

circles in Edmonton. Edmonton is the

17:32

power base of the NDP. But

17:35

Nenshi turned that on his head. And

17:37

when Nenshi came into the

17:39

race, because a lot of activity, not

17:43

only that, membership sales began to

17:45

spike. And

17:47

Raki Pancholy, I talked to

17:49

her a few days before she announced she was stepping down. She

17:51

had no plans to step down at all. She's

17:54

going to run in that race. I mean, coffee

17:56

for an hour and a half in a Friday morning. One of

17:58

the questions I asked her though is that have you... seen

18:00

any updated membership list. In

18:02

other words, you're all selling memberships.

18:05

How is that going? She said, I don't know how

18:07

it's going. We don't have any numbers yet. But then

18:09

a few days later, the following week, they got the

18:12

numbers. That's when Pancholy

18:14

quit. So, look, you know, in

18:16

the first week or so in the race, that

18:18

had meant she managed to sell like bubble

18:21

the amount of memberships in the

18:23

party. And the party held 16,

18:25

that's one 16,000

18:27

members in December of last year. And

18:30

then all of a sudden they had 30,000 roughly. And

18:33

Pancholy said that's mainly because of Nihan Menshi.

18:35

And since then, that Menshi said that the

18:38

party's grown to about 80, like 80,000. Now,

18:42

we haven't got a breakdown as to who's selling the most

18:44

memberships. But we do know as well.

18:47

And you have people like Raki Pancholy

18:49

saying, the reason we've got all these

18:52

members joining is because of Nihan Menshi.

18:54

Now, mind you, Sarah Hoffman and Kathleen

18:56

Ganley are saying, no, no, we're selling

18:58

a lot of memberships too. But

19:01

it does seem to indicate that

19:03

not only are a lot of people joining the

19:05

party, but Nihan Menshi is the

19:08

one who is selling the most memberships.

19:10

And that's going to be key. Because

19:12

the next important date is coming up,

19:14

April 22nd is the deadline for selling

19:17

memberships. After that, you

19:19

got two months until the vote in June.

19:22

So the push is on the next week

19:24

to get more memberships sold. And

19:26

the head Menshi seems to be well

19:28

ahead of the others. I just have

19:30

a couple quick questions for you before we

19:33

wrap up here. I guess my first one

19:35

is logistics. How does the vote actually work?

19:37

I know in other provinces, there's been a

19:39

lot of fighting over this

19:41

and how it's done. Is it a ranked ballot?

19:43

How do they do it? Yeah, it is a

19:45

ranked ballot. So we have first, second, third, fourth,

19:48

fifth choices, right? So this

19:50

means that if nobody wins a majority

19:52

on the first ballot, then the last

19:54

person drops off and their second choice

19:56

goes to spread among the candidates. And

19:58

they keep doing that until somebody gets the vote. the

20:00

majority. In the case of the UCP leadership

20:02

race, it took six ballots for

20:05

Smith to win, but just 43,000.

20:07

She won just over 50%. There wasn't

20:10

like a blowout. It was the small

20:12

fifties over the Travis Taves, the second

20:14

place person. So it's a relatively close

20:16

race that came down to the

20:19

final sixth ballot. So the feeling right

20:21

now for Nenshi is that because

20:23

he's an outsider, there's a good

20:25

chance that people who are voting for

20:27

Sarah Hoffman, Kathleen Gamley, Jody Cowley, The

20:29

Stone House, and Gil McGowan, their

20:32

second choice likely is not going to be Nenshi,

20:34

it's going to be one of the other people.

20:37

So Nenshi needs to win or do exceptionally

20:39

well in the very first ballot. And

20:42

that goes back to selling member fits.

20:44

If you can in a sense, swamp

20:47

the party with new members who are

20:49

supporting you like Nenshi, then

20:51

you could potentially win outright on the first ballot

20:53

or get so close that you're going to win

20:55

on the second or third ballot. But that's what

20:57

it's going to come down to. And

21:00

as I say, it was really close for

21:02

Danielle Smith in 2022 that came to the

21:04

final ballot. We'll see what Nenshi

21:06

is doing. But again, we have to get

21:09

the official numbers. They won't release them to

21:11

us. And even the parties themselves, like the

21:13

candidates, don't really know who's selling the most.

21:15

It's going to be a case, well, no,

21:17

June 22, that the race is

21:20

on right now to sell those

21:22

memberships because that's key, is super

21:24

key right now for someone to

21:26

win, especially Nenshi. He needs to

21:29

flood this race, the

21:31

vote with new members. Last

21:34

question. And I want to be clear that

21:36

I'm not assuming anything or looking beyond the

21:38

actual votes being counted. But

21:41

while I have you here, what

21:43

would you be watching for if

21:45

Nenshi were to lead the NDP

21:47

and go up against Danielle Smith?

21:49

Because that seems

21:52

like a pretty dynamic clash.

21:55

Absolutely. And that's one reason why he's

21:57

seen as a very interesting

21:59

candidate. it to say the least. Because

22:01

his campaign is really about,

22:04

I'm the one that can defeat Danielle

22:06

Smith. The rest of them,

22:08

you know, have tried. They're part of the team

22:10

that did not beat Danielle Smith. The

22:13

UCP won under Kenny in 2019, won under Smith

22:15

in 2023. So

22:19

he is saying, look, I'm the one that beat the

22:21

UCP. I'm the one that

22:23

can bring down Danielle Smith. And

22:26

that's what we'll be looking for is that

22:28

he wins. How does he do that?

22:30

And also he won't have a seat in the

22:32

legislature, the rest of them, other than Kim McGowan,

22:34

have seats in the legislature. So how's that going

22:36

to work? The

22:38

big question for Alberta is,

22:41

can the NDP maintain this two-party

22:43

system that we have right now?

22:46

It's a big opposition. Because Alberta's had, you

22:48

know, a century, basically, of having one

22:51

party in government and a

22:53

very, very small opposition. The

22:56

NDP at one point only had two seats

22:58

in opposition to the conservatives in the past.

23:01

Now they have 38 seats. And the

23:03

thing is, has Alberta progressed

23:05

to a two-party system? That's

23:09

the big question that won't be answered until

23:11

the next election in another three years. So

23:14

there's two questions right now if then she wins.

23:16

How does he take on Smith? How does

23:19

that, the optics of that work, the logistics

23:21

of that work? And finally, next

23:23

election, can he bring

23:25

down the UCP and make

23:27

Alberta a really two-party system?

23:30

I've got to say, okay, Jordan, there's kind

23:32

of a curse in Alberta politics. And this

23:34

is not quite scientific. But basically, every

23:37

political party that has formed

23:39

government and then lost government, that

23:42

party never returns to power. Wow.

23:44

I didn't know that. The

23:47

liberals in power 100 years ago,

23:49

United Farmers of Alberta, the

23:51

so-called social credit, the progressive

23:53

conservatives. So this is something

23:56

in the background, of course, it's not scientific.

23:58

It's just the fact of Alberta. culture, that

24:00

the NDP, if they were to win again, that

24:02

would be the first time we saw a political

24:05

party make a comeback and come back to power.

24:07

Graham, that's fascinating. This should be

24:09

a fascinating leadership race and it'd

24:11

be interesting to see the future

24:13

of the provincial federal NDP relations.

24:16

Thanks so much. It's been my pleasure. That

24:21

was Graham Thompson and that was The

24:23

Big Story. For more, you

24:25

can head to thebigstorypodcast.ca. And

24:28

if you want to leave us feedback, you

24:30

can do it by emailing us hello at

24:32

thebigstorypodcast.ca or by just

24:34

giving us a call, 416-935-5935. You

24:39

can tell all of us here in Ontario

24:41

how little we know about Alberta. Seriously,

24:44

though, we appreciate all feedback, criticism

24:46

or praise or even just suggestions

24:48

for what we should cover next.

24:52

The Big Story is available in every single

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your smart speaker just ask it to

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play The Big Story podcast. Thanks

25:02

for listening. I'm Jordan Heath Rawlings. We'll talk

25:04

tomorrow. I'm

25:09

Laura Palmer, host of Island Crime.

25:12

Season 6, Sweethearts, is the story

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of three teenage girls who were

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all murdered in Victoria, Canada within

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about 12 months. So

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she was scared, something out there scared her.

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You just created the playground where

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predators can really thrive. She

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was a 16-year-old girl. She

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was a sweetheart. Listen to

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