Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:01 Good morning, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the max any morning show. I'm your host, Elliot Pierre. And we're going to start this show off the same way we start every show off with a moment of gratitude. I know you can be doing a million things with your time, and the fact that you spend with us truly does mean the world to me. So thank you on that note, Tanner hit him with the
Speaker 4 00:00:28 Yeah, everybody he sends in here from there, Alto data, uh, just a quick chat about, uh, the wonderful community we live in here. As you guys know, we support the El Behrens. We've joined the drive-in movie theater. We're involved in the marathon here in Fort McMurray and make sure we're taking care of the kids and all the local businesses, all the local charities and all the local foundations guys. That's what makes this community such an amazing place to live
Speaker 0 00:00:56 Toyota, the title sponsor to the show. You just saw their ad with Keith in it, Keith fad, Nima, all the boys and girls down there, big shout out for helping us keep doing what we're doing. Thank you. Narelle Toyota on that note, uh, we got a guest today. She's a returning guests, but as you know, I don't introduce my guests because they can do a better job at that than that. And then I can do that. So I'll let her just introduce yourself and tell her, tell us who she is and what she's all about. So how are you doing? Why are you what you're about?
Speaker 5 00:01:23 Hi everybody. Hello again, I guess I am Michelle . I am a local residence, um, been here since 2006, roughly just a community volunteer community member. Um, I'm an employee of one of the oil and gas companies up here and it's a, it's a little, it's great timing for me. Um, because I am also, uh, recently accepted and approved as the candidate for the Alberta party for the upcoming provincial by-election impacts, um, Fort McMurray, Lac LA Biche writings. Um, so yeah, I get to add that title to my, to my ever growing list of things I've tried.
Speaker 0 00:02:03 Nice. Okay. So you need to explain that to me cause, uh, we've had a lot of politicians on the show as of this year, and I know a little bit about politics that being said, I know less than I actually think. I know. So explain to me what this party is about, explain what this process is about, what position are you potentially running for? Yeah,
Speaker 5 00:02:26 Yeah. Um, so, so provincial, some people may recognize me from the last time I was on the show. I was running for, um, a municipal council seat. Obviously I was not successful in, in that space, but there was, you know, almost 2,500 people who voted for me and it was a really phenomenal experience. Um, so I guess I've, I'm, I'm, antying up a little bit in the space of, you know, potential for public failure, but, um, um, cause why not double down,
Speaker 0 00:02:56 That's a good way of looking at it, but you
Speaker 5 00:02:57 Know what, it's also a good opportunity to just kind of continue that space of, of responsible citizenship that I talked about so much in my municipal campaigns, right? Um, at the provincial level, currently the seat. So Fort McMurry, um, city center is represented by two different zones. Um, so the seated MLA for Fort McMurray wood Buffalo is Teddy Yow representing the UCP and the seat that represents Fort McMurray, Lac LA Biche, which is basically like thick wood south. And then south of the river all the way down to wandering river and into Lac LA Biche itself has been vacant since Laila Goodridge resigned her seat to run for the federal MP
Speaker 0 00:03:40 Position. That's correct. Your
Speaker 5 00:03:41 Degas yes. Gave up his seat. So the seat's been empty for almost six months. Um, they finally called the election, uh, like a week and a half ago. Um, like basically the very last minute that they could call this election. Um, and so here we are entering for this rioting, another election in a very short period of time. So I think there's a little bit of probably like voter exhaustion up here. Um, but you know, as much as the municipal election was hugely important, It's provincial space, particularly where we'd gone unrepresented for six months. Um, and you know, I w I would say, uh, relatively silenced in the legislature for the last couple of years, um, is it's going to be super critical and is in such an important time right now, as we're coming into the 20, 23 major elections, Uh, I accepted the nomination of the Alberta party.
Speaker 0 00:04:44 Okay. What's the Alberta party. Tell me about, I don't know what that is. I know that there's, I only know about, I know you like, cause they came on the show. I know that there's a PPC party or purple. I know that there is the conservative party, which I think is Brian Jean, he came on the show. Right. Was he going to conservative party?
Speaker 5 00:05:07 Yeah. So, um, so there's a couple of, so a couple of separations, so we have federal parties and in the federal party, you have some of those common names.
Speaker 0 00:05:16 This is right. And you're nothing, you're an independent when you're running for MLA in regards to you don't know,
Speaker 5 00:05:22 No, your party affiliation is still really, really important. It's just that your federal writing or your federal party can sometimes look really different ideologically than your provincial representation. So, um, right now there's a couple of parties that have announced that they're entering candidates. Um, I don't believe that all of the parties have confirmed their candidates yet. So there's like a two-part nomination process to become an MLA candidate. One is if you're running on behalf of a party, so not as an independent, but on behalf of a party, there is a party nomination or appointment, so it can be contested or it can, um, not uncontested. So
Speaker 0 00:05:59 Brian's
Speaker 5 00:06:00 Perspective or Brian's situation. For example, he ran for the UCP nomination in this writing. Um, I believe I'm not sure if Ariana who's representing the NDP party, um, if she was appointed or if she had to run for her nomination. Right. Um, and for myself, I didn't have to run for my nomination. I was selected as the candidate. Very
Speaker 0 00:06:22 Cool. But
Speaker 5 00:06:23 Yeah, it's, it's, it's very convoluted and it's not surprising that so many people struggle with understanding how, how this work, right. Politics or politicking of politics, I guess. Um, so then the second, the second phase of that nomination process before you can be, um, I guess, a real candidate or a confirmed candidate is that you have to get your nomination from the writing in what you're running. So there's like a minimum of 25 votes from voters who live in the region for myself. It was anybody. So stick with Boulevard out to, you know, Amazon beacon hill, um, as far out to separate Creek is kind of as far as I went
Speaker 0 00:07:06 For
Speaker 5 00:07:06 My nominations. Um, and then those nominations have to be accepted by the returning officer who is, um, operating on behalf of elections, Alberta. So once those voters have been confirmed as meeting the requirements of eligible voters and your nomination papers are accepted, you have both the party nomination or your independent state status and the, um, writing nomination to be confirmed. So as of the last, as with the last update that I saw in elections, Alberta, and it changes constantly. So they have until February 25th to get through this process at 2:00 PM. Um, so Brian,
Speaker 0 00:07:46 Your 25th, that's my birthday,
Speaker 5 00:07:48 Happy birthday, Excited. Um, I love birthdays by the way. Favorite thing. Um, so yeah, the last one that I saw, so Brian Jean, uh, won his nomination for the UCP in this re in this writing, um, and was confirmed with his twenty-five to however many signatures he got. So he is an official candidate for the provincial UCP.
Speaker 0 00:08:13 Right.
Speaker 5 00:08:14 Um, which is of course the provincial party that, that is a seated government right now. Right. Um, myself on behalf of the Alberta party, which we'll talk a little bit about that. Um, and then the other individual, I believe was Paul Hyndman running on behalf of the wild rose independent, I think, which is basically the individuals that are left over from the original wild rose, but it's a wild rose, progressive conservative merger that created this
Speaker 0 00:08:42 That's right. Okay, cool. Okay. So my next question for you, because when you came, uh, for the first time, you were very on point with what your beliefs and policies were. You had a very good, I don't know, thought process put together, which I think I really appreciated, not everybody had that. So I have to assume going into this, you have a thought process of what you would like to accomplish, what you believe in what you're running on your platform, basically. So can you explain a little bit about what your platform is for,
Speaker 5 00:09:14 I can to a point, so it's a, it's a fun, but also very convoluted conversation. Um, I would say the biggest piece of information or the biggest starting off point that, that I have is that my position as a provincial candidate is not fundamentally different than my position was as a municipal candidate. Great.
Speaker 0 00:09:38 Very
Speaker 5 00:09:38 Much. Well, thank you. Um, it's very much that this region deserves strong representation, that we're an important part of the Alberta economy, that we are an important part of the political scene, um, that the people who live and work here are important and deserve the best that can be offered to bring their voices to the people who make decisions. And so whether that was as a municipal councilor or now in this provincial space, I maintain that message. Right. Um, the other thing that's really interesting about this space is that party politics. So at a municipal level, ideological voting doesn't make a lot of sense, right? So it doesn't actually matter if you are somebody who tells yourself as a conservative or Somewhere in the middle or, um, you know, to the extremes At a municipal level, that's not super important,
Speaker 0 00:10:32 Right?
Speaker 5 00:10:33 At the provincial level, The message gets lost because of how important people thinks that think, think that is
Speaker 0 00:10:40 Right.
Speaker 5 00:10:41 So right now we're in this really unique and beautiful space, um, as a region of voters where we have, you know, probably a year and a little bit before the next major election, and there's some things happening in the provincial space as far as like a leadership review coming up in April, and that could change things. Um, but the writing currently indicates that it, but it won't. And therefore, you know, we're a year and a half out where the decisions that we make for this MLA candidate to fill this role is basically like, like an audition. Like it's basically, um, uh, a risk-free opportunity to try something different and to say, you know what, I'm tired of being told that the ideological divisiveness that has been created in this space of politics over the last call, it 12 years, probably that tells me I have to either care about fiscal responsibility or people isn't real.
Speaker 5 00:11:47 That's not real. And I reject it. Um, and this by-election gives us a chance to say, know what I don't actually care, which one of you has the message that promises me what you're going to offer when you make it to office. I care about the voice that best represents me and this region, right. Outside of party politics. Right? So, um, I'm running for a party. So the Alberta party isn't new on the political, um, we, we had seats in the legislature previously, we lost the three that we had. Um, and so we're, we're working to kind of grow the brand and grow the party a little bit in the individual constituencies. Right. Um, we have this newly, um, I guess newly elected or, or newly approved leader in Barry Morris Shito who is a long standing member of the Alberta POL political scene. He was a mayor in, um, Brooks for years, the city counselor sat on the, um, the AUM, I believe it's called.
Speaker 5 00:12:54 Okay. Um, so we have this like really incredible voice for the party, which is really exciting. Um, and, and it's a new version of politics. So it's basically the party and the board are made up of people who come from every background of political parties. So we have members who sat as PC, um, representatives. We have members who were involved with the provincial NDP. We have members who saw where the direction of the Wildrose was going and came over. Um, you know, we've been talks about for probably the last decade as the real choice for the moderate voter. Um, but we really just had a hard time mobilizing and, and growing that, growing that opportunity. And I think a lot of that is just rooted in this like Alberta voter fear of, of real change, you know, talk about wanting change all the time. And, and we're really great at being like, you know, you're really let us down, like you look at Alberta right now.
Speaker 5 00:14:01 You know, we are generally feeling incredibly disenfranchised by the support we've had and by the leadership in, in the UCP. Right. Um, but I don't necessarily think that that means we're all flocking to the NDP either. And people just want a different choice. Just want the opportunity to say like, neither of you is doing very well and I expect better and I deserve better. Right. Um, and that's part of the reason that I was so excited when the Alberta party came to me is because not only do I agree with their position on people driven policy, um, but I believe that we need to elect a representative to this MLA role who comes with no strings attached and doesn't have to worry about the infighting and the sludge slinging that is happening at the provincial level between the two main parties that have always had some version of power. Like we have a real opportunity right now to say, you know what, over the next year and a half, we're going to see if somebody else can do the job that you've been promising and failing to deliver on.
Speaker 0 00:15:14 Um,
Speaker 5 00:15:14 And I, and I, I mean, I love the idea that I could be that person.
Speaker 0 00:15:19 Very cool. Very cool. Well, listen, we have a segment here. You know what it is? It's called the Mac CD minute 10, or has some questions. I don't know what he's going to ask you, but, uh, get ready for the Mac CD minute, but it's also brought to you by a sponsor. So that's a new change. Yeah. Mick Murray denture center is a sponsor. And so there may or may not be a video later on in the show highlighting these people, but big shout out to cram and all the staff for sponsoring this segment. So Tanner hit her with, to max 30 minute.
Speaker 6 00:15:49 All right. Question. Number one. If Canada used animals to represent political parties like the Americans, what animal do you think would represent your political party?
Speaker 0 00:16:01 That's
Speaker 5 00:16:02 Hilarious.
Speaker 0 00:16:05 That's a tender question.
Speaker 5 00:16:07 Cool. Um, okay. What animal? So I think would represent, can we circle back to that one?
Speaker 0 00:16:14 Sure. So I
Speaker 5 00:16:16 Saw this, I saw a segment, so, um, Jen Ferguson would come on the show forever ago and she nailed the Mac city minute cause she answered an actually a minute and I wanted so badly for me to accomplish that in this session.
Speaker 6 00:16:29 If it makes you feel any better. My whole goal is to make sure people don't finish under a minute. I get questions that are hard. So it drags on. So Mission
Speaker 0 00:16:40 Accomplished. Yeah, no
Speaker 6 00:16:41 Kidding question. Number two. What is your biggest drive behind being a public servant?
Speaker 5 00:16:47 Honestly, for me, everything that I've ever done in my life is about finding an opportunity to influence change for the people that I love and for the people that I care about. And so this space of civil servant too, is new to me. It's not something I ever considered. Um, but the more I heard during the municipal campaign, the more I realized that we're, we're hungry for somebody who's willing to have the hard conversations and, and fight the fights. And I've never been scared of that. So
Speaker 6 00:17:17 Question number two. Why do you think Fort McMurray is a good home base for your campaign
Speaker 5 00:17:25 For McMurry is the heartbeat to the Alberta economy. And I mean, you look at them, right? Like we just had a speech from the throne talking about how for the first time in years, we have this real opportunity to see money coming back into our economy. And the single biggest reason for that, the price of oil, the price of oil drives almost every major decision we can make as a province and the people who live here, keep that going. It's the most incredible place to become a civil servant and to become a representative
Speaker 6 00:18:03 Question number three, what is one skill you've learned from being in Fort McMurray that you can transfer to politics,
Speaker 5 00:18:11 Collaboration straight up? There is nothing that can get done here. If you hide behind ego or you're influenced by, um, self-serving agendas. So I have learned living and working here that it requires you to have just a deep respect for everybody around you, regardless of whether you're aligned ideologically or not.
Speaker 6 00:18:36 Question number four. What is the biggest difference for you between your last run for public office? And this run
Speaker 5 00:18:44 The power of a party. Um, in the municipal election, I was completely by myself. I made every decision. I fumbled every ball. Um, on my own accounts, I was successful by my own account. You know, it was 100% me and I made a lot of mistakes. And at the provincial level, um, I have this incredible support of a party who just want nothing more than to see this region. This voice lifted up and have rallied behind me in such an amazing way.
Speaker 6 00:19:18 And your final first question, if Canadians used animals to represent political parties like the Americans, what do you think would represent your political party?
Speaker 7 00:19:33 Such a good question.
Speaker 5 00:19:34 It's such a great question, but now I'm like, I can just picture everybody in, in my parties sitting back right now and just being like, please
Speaker 8 00:19:42 Don't
Speaker 6 00:19:44 They all have their own votes. This is where the party has, uh, divided.
Speaker 5 00:19:49 Okay. So, so I'll tell you where my brain has gone and it's one of two directions and I'm going to, I'm going to explain it. Um, so definitely won't be a minute, but my brain immediately goes to a mule deer. And the reason for that is because it's the thing I think about when I think about growing up in, in Southern Alberta, um, cause they were everywhere. They're mule deer. Um, but the second reason for that is because they seem like such a peaceful kind, graceful animal until you get too close and they've got teeth. So, you know, I think there's just this like great opportunity to say, like we're not chameleons. We're not like everything that we say from a party perspective is out in front of you. Um, but we can also fight and we want to fight on behalf of the Alberta voters. Um, and the other one that I was thinking about was like a hippo, but I really had a hard time like wanting, align myself with a hippo cause they're
Speaker 0 00:20:49 Actually really
Speaker 5 00:20:49 Ugly. Like I, I lived in Africa for a little
Speaker 0 00:20:52 Bit, so they're powerful and they're
Speaker 6 00:20:53 Incredibly powerful
Speaker 5 00:20:55 And that, and that was the other reason that I kind of like backed off of it is because I think that, you know, I, I would rather be described as assertive than I would rather my party be described as assertive than, than aggressive. Cause we see way too much aggression at the political level or at the provincial level these
Speaker 6 00:21:10 Days when you're five questions.
Speaker 0 00:21:12 Good question Tanner, killing it, killing it with those questions, bro. Yeah.
Speaker 6 00:21:17 I don't know where they come from.
Speaker 5 00:21:18 I also don't know where they come from.
Speaker 6 00:21:21 We're all on the same page. questions come from nowhere. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:21:27 So when is the election date?
Speaker 5 00:21:29 March 15th,
Speaker 0 00:21:30 March 15th. So that's when people need to go out and vote. How can you vote for this in regards to, is it yeah. How can you vote?
Speaker 5 00:21:37 Yeah. Um, so just like any other major election, there are advanced polls, there are special ballots. Um, so all of the information on how to be, how to practice your responsible citizenship and your democratic right to votes. Um, it's on the elections, Alberta websites. Um, you can also reach out to me. I'm perfectly happy to provide you, um, to provide you any information that you need about how to get out and votes. Um, I do want to make it like very clear that the writing that I'm running in that is going through a by-election right now is Fort McMurray, Lac LA Biche. So it's not the entire Fort McMurray city center or north of Fort McMurry, Tava seated representative currently. Um, if you're unsure about what writing you're in elections, Alberta is really simple tool where you just punch in your postal code and it tells you whether you're going to the pools or not. So,
Speaker 0 00:22:28 Right. Very cool. Well, listen, let's see in the show, I know we blew past the 20 minute mark, but that's okay. But at the end of the show, everybody gets a shameless shout out plug. So you got the lights camera and Mike a fun
Speaker 5 00:22:41 It's my favorite parts. Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:22:44 This time it is going to be a bit of a self-aggrandizing Berry, um, shameless shout out to myself and to my party, Alberta right now is in this incredibly, um, it's incredibly special space where we have seen rivalry and mudslinging and nastiness and failure in both the major parties who have sought to represent us and to fight for us and to supposedly make things bigger. And I would hazard to say that, um, or at McMurry Lac, LA Biche, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, but Fort McMurray, Lac LA Biche, which is going to the pools here right away has been so incredibly impacted by a lack of representation. I have the tools, I most assuredly have the voice. I have the party support and I have the best interests of this at heart, um, with no strings attached to any politicking. So I just really want to ask people who are seeing this people who are voters to at least spend some time looking into the platform, engage with me, ask questions. This is who I am the way I've shown up in this interview. A hundred percent of the time and very easy to talk to I'm available at any given points. Um, and I really just want to connect with you and, and explain to you why I think I'm the best representative for this election, for this MLA spot.
Speaker 0 00:24:22 There we go. Cool. Well thank you for coming. Feel free to come back again and again and again, and we wish you nothing but the best of luck. Thank you.
Speaker 5 00:24:30 Cool.
Speaker 0 00:24:32 No worries. So Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, the rest of the world, that's been another episode of the Mac Sunday morning show. Thank you so much for tuning in. It means the world to me and big shout out to our sponsors, neuronal Toyota and McMurry denture center, NARAL being the title sponsor and McMurry denture center covering the Mac CD minute. Thank you so much. We really do appreciate your help and your support. I hope everybody's having a great day. We'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 9 00:24:58 Hey guys, cram here with Rick Barry denture center. A lot of people are surprised to hear this, but I'm born and raised here. So is this company we're local? Just like you come on in, we'll help you out
Speaker 11 00:25:12 In the morning show.
Speaker 13 00:25:27 Talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
