Erin O’Toole is back to chat with the #UCPAGM2020 crowd. As soon as he stops talking about himself, I believe he’s going to do a Q&A.

He says if you’d have said “Wexit” five years ago, people would have looked at you funny. But says this is what 5yrs of Liberals gets you:

EOT “only in Canada would we want to put people on the CERB rather than putting people back to work.”
Says Canada shut down the pandemic early warning system and had to rely on “open data from China”.

EOT says Canada got everything wrong with pandemic response. Says Kenney has done far better than Ottawa.

Says AB “graciously” hosted the Stanley Cup and didn’t have any COVID cases.

EOT doesn’t follow what’s happing in the province outside of Kenney’s updates it seems

EOT says he spoke with a veteran who wants to leave Canada because of what Trudeau has done to his province....

EOT says the CPC can learn from its “cousins” the UCP. “The U stands for united”. Says the NDP set the province back decades and their activists try to hurt oil

And agriculture and they listen to people on twitter rather than families at their kitchen tables, O’Toole says.

EOT says we stand for true north “strong and free and united”.

Question now about NDP divisiveness and liberal identity politics. Not even kidding

EOT says he hears the problem all the time. Trudeau didn’t consult indigenous people when he cancelled Northern Gateway and hurt them. Says Trudeau only governs for small groups.

EOT wants more people to look at the CPC and fight back against cancel culture.

How will you fight for freedoms of speech that the liberals are attacking.

EOT says he fights for rights and doesn’t play one right against another.

Says we shouldn’t be afraid of hearing what Canadians think. Only CPC will bring free speech back to parliament

How will you win?

EOT says AB delivered - except that speck of orange- and Saskatchewan really delivered because they went all blue.

Says conservatives are worried about burdening their children with debt.

Hold me to account he says, to get the party back on track

How will you get pipelines to tidewater?

Is it 2013?

EOT says Trudeau cancelled three pipelines. Says oil money would help us protect seniors. Says Sonya Savage is the best energy minister ever.

“We care about the environment and water and other things.” Says buy Canadian oil

You said you want to comply with Paris accord; how can we when the oil industry is already decimated?

EOT: just baby steps. Over years. Our competitors are bad actors, there’s only two democracies that sell oil. If other countries care, they should buy our energy

EOT- if we’re committed to reconciliation we need to think of their economy. We have the best resources and everyone should buy from us.

How will you work to gain support from the BQ?

EOT: There’s a language difference but they get out of their truck and go to work just like AB

EOT says Kenney is helping and they’re working hard to get more seats.

Says UCP is showing how to engage “thousands of people online”. Says Canada is a great country and then Tanya Fir cuts him off and says thanks for stopping by. It’s break time.

We’re back with Rona Ambrose moderating some female ministers to ... talk about women in politics maybe. Says the pandemic has shown us how important our supports outside of the family are; schools and hockey rinks and so on.

LaGrange first: as a mother of seven, knows it’s important; we were the first province to move to online learning and the first to have a really strong plan.

Says very few cases in schools and it’s going really really well. Says we need to keep schools open so parents can work

Ambrose says when daycares shut down it was a real problem.
Schulz: economic recovery plan, been talking about importance of childcare, we just worked closely with daycares to open them for essential workers.

And she froze.

I guess this is just a recap of how we reopened

Tracy Allard is on. Says she feels fantastic and will be out of quarantine Tuesday.

Ambrose: our communities; swimming, hockey, parks. What will we do?

Allard: it will take collective responses from municipalities. She collected a pearl at every meeting and made a necklace

Allard says the communities will save us.

Q from the membership: how do you talk about women without being called a liberal or social issues without being called a liberal.

Allard: don’t read your own twitter. She talks to real people, her constituents, and they’re worried

Okay - it’s about negativity - lol - liberal was an insult - sorry I didn’t catch that hahahaha

Allard: about jobs and the economy. Don’t listen to haters.

So... don’t talk about women’s:social issues I guess.

Allard: just stick to policy. Don’t insult their intelligence.

LaGrange: find the positive there’s so much.

Whoops Allard is answering now - above was Schulz

Allard: deficit in confidence not competence, stand tall be principled, says she didn’t take this job to make friends.

Ambrose: what’s the next thing you will be working on

Schulz: why are parents not coming back to childcare? How do they support families who need additional supports?

LaGrange: Covid, keeping schools open, curriculum, passed choice in education, more platform promises

Allard: working with municipalities, get out of the way so private sector can get working.

Ambrose: need a good economy, daycares open, schools open so people can work.

Already then.

Next for me is Kaycee Madu or Sonya Savage.... pick one quick! #ableg #abpoli

No clear winner in the poll so we’re hanging out with Madu.

First thank you premier Kenney. Says Alberta remains the best place to live work and raise a family, like it was for him.

“My wife and I came here with nothing but our law degrees.” Direct quote.

Madu: we must never forget the potential of this province.

Says Albertans are hurting and some things are out of their control. Says liberals don’t respect their jobs. Oil industry united the nation. Generated revenue for governments across this nation.

Madu: Albertans remain proud of our contributions to all Canadians. NDP embraces socialism and takes its marching orders from union bosses like Gil McGowan.

They believe if it moves tax it, if it keeps moving regulate it and if it stops moving subsidize it.

Madu: voters rejected NDP in the byelections. We earned their trust and built a platform for all Albertans. We all agree on where we want to go even if we disagree about how to get there

The conservative movement is strong. We need to make sure disagreements don’t cause division

Madu: must continue to fend off NDP. Remember when Rachel Notley called Albertans sewer rats and embarrassing cousins.

Says he’s not a sewer rat or a xenophobe, and Alberta is proud of its contributions to Canada.

Says as the only MLA in Edmonton, UCP can still win

Guess they’re taking the pills seriously.

Madu: we will win if we stay true to our values we can win. Edmonton elected a Black man but he stands on shoulders of giants like MLK.

Says the UCP while still young, made history when they made him. The first Black Justice Minister

Madu says the party is non-judgemental and united to deliver a more perfect province.

“Let’s not lose sight of what brought us together in the first place; let’s be united”

I’m getting some strong foreshadowing today folks.

Q and A next

Can you speak to police reform and AB police force.

Bill 38 gave First Nations the opportunity to recruit and train their own police force.

APP will be looked at by the feasibility study. Everyone deserves to be safe.

How can we be sure businesses are supported by govt like labour relations dept that seems to support unions.

We will build and provide support that employers and employees need. Hopes all Albertans will walk with the UCP.

Yes keeping people safe but is it a justice issue or a societal issue?

Madu says both. Justice courts reducing backlog but education is important too.

Q enforcement authorities lie with justice but should be elsewhere?

Doesn’t think they did. Wants to reduce backlog

Q when will we see justice reform to control rural crime

Madu says this party made a promise and has done a lot and will keep working, passed scrap metal legislation and is doubling police on the ground in rural. It’s unacceptable that people wait up to two hours for response

Q: what steps being taken to make police more accountable

Madu: reforming police act. At the end of the day we want them to be accountable. Make sure people of AB feel respected and safe in their communities.

Thanks everyone for watching and supporting the party.

Someone asked about my whiskey fund - then I lost the tweet - it’s more of a hosting/food/internet fund but if there’s extra we can bring back lockdown happy hour https://www.patreon.com/posts/lockdown-happy-4-39075560

Now we’re getting a presentation on constituency associations - no one needs that... Going to the breakout with Laila Goodridge Devin Dreeshen and I don’t recall who else.

LG: her first few conventions she was worried about how she looked and all but it’s more important to show

... up.

Demetrios Nickolaides. It’s on youth engagement

DN: first foray into politics was when he was in university and what he liked was learning about organization and campaigns. Says it’s important to get young people involved, working, etc

DD: youth engagement is so important and we already have them and the biggest thing is to have something to do. Get the engaged and hands on so you can have job opportunities for them. Get the youth that are excited about conservative policy and get them engaged all year

DD: there’s so much we can do to bring them back and get them more engaged.

And we’re off to Q&A already.

Q: How can we get more youth involved on CAs?

LG: approach people in the community, try to get in front of classrooms, show them options of how they can help.

DN: reaching out to local conservative campus clubs or political science clubs, reaching out and letting them know hey can get involved. Use networks we have already.

DD: campus clubs, but also colleges and tech schools but setting up campus clubs can be difficult. Maybe if we could have a city or region-based approach we could be better able to reach out as a party.

Q what jobs could be assigned to keep youth engaged in CAs all year?

LG: think of what would interest anyone.

DN: approach everyone on an individual basis and find opportunities that align with their interests.

DD: AGMs, find out what they’re passionate about and roll out the red carpet.

Missed the Q

LG: schools, when they’re learning about government or even Q&A or town halls with them.

Q: how to engage youth outside of schools who maybe are not openly identifying as conservative - how to find them?

DN: peers of people you know.

DD: for non-UCP ridings, use a buddy system so they can be connected.
28-38 that’s our voting block, young families, but they don’t have as much time.

Q: is there more info available on existing campus clubs? What support do they need?
LG: donate to the campus clubs.

And now it’s volunteer awards so let’s all take a wee break and stretch a bit...

And now to the Premier, JK.

Video...

JK’s speech https://twitter.com/mitchell_ab/status/1320100132176547842