Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Uh, good morning, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the Mac city morning show. I am your host Elliot Pierre, and we're going to start the show off the same way we start every show off with a moment of gratitude. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. So 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 00:00:29 Hey everybody, Keith Simpson here from neuro Alto data, we support the El parents. We've joined the drive-in movie theater. We're involved in the marathon here in Fort McMurray, and that's what makes this community such an amazing place to live.
Speaker 0 00:00:43 All right. And we're back. So big shout out to neural Toyota, key fad and Emmer, all the boys and girls down at NARAL for being the title sponsors of the show. Definitely appreciate the support. So thank you very much on that note. As you know, I don't introduce my guests because they could do a better job at that than I, so sir, can you please tell everybody at home who you are and what you're about? Sure. So first of all, thanks for having me here, Elliot, you are welcome. It's going to be a lot of fun. So my name is Barry Morishita. I am the current leader of the Alberta party, which is a provincial party here in Alberta. I am the former mayor of the city of Brooks and, uh, I've been a counselor for 16 years prior. Okay. I, uh, ran the provincial organization, which was then known as the Alberta urban municipalities association for four years and the board.
Speaker 0 00:01:28 And so that's an association that represents, um, summer villages, villages, towns, and cities across the province of 267. Okay. That's kind of the professional career, um, a little personal stuff. I'm uh, half Japanese. So kind of a cool fact, but kind of thinking about things is my, my dad, my father was actually born in an internment camp, catch me BC outside of hope in 1945. Wow. Um, I have a wife and a couple of kids and a couple of grandkids and five siblings and four siblings. Sorry. And, uh, yeah, so lots going on. Yeah. So I'm just going to jump into the obvious question to me. You have a lot going on, we only chatted for maybe three minutes before filming. You seem like a very happy guy. Yeah. He seemed like a happy guy. Why in the world would you decide to throw your hat in the political arena, especially in this day and age where so much scrutiny is there, I'm assuming it's going to affect your happiness a little bit.
Speaker 0 00:02:30 So what about this new role or new journey that you want to embark on? What's the passion behind you making this move? So that is a very good question. You know, politicians always say that they say that's a very good question, just to give themselves a little bit of time to realize what the that's right. So, um, well, so I was very happy in my municipal life. Loved being the mayor. I love being the president of AMA, uh, it's, it's just a cool thing at the community level. So one of the things I did was I toured the whole province and went to nearly every single member across the province over four years. And yeah, you know, you see so much resource and so much ingenuity and so much passion there. So my passion to serve has always kind of been there from a very young age, like, um, interested in politics, really early 14 and very into it, um, in part of campaigns.
Speaker 0 00:03:24 And when I was kind of winding down my job at Uma decided I wasn't going to be president and it's time for someone else I'm looking around and I was actually encouraging some other people to do this job because of what you just talked about, the toxic environment, you know, politicians politics is the only thing you go in with a reputation here to start with. And when you leave it's down, you do it right. Do it. So, but, um, actually it was kind of a combination of things. I love doing this work. I love meeting people. I love solving problems, right? It's kind of one thing to push me over the edges. I have two grandchildren now, 5, 3, 1 starting kindergarten curriculum thing. I actually have the grade one curriculum completely listened to the music that my six year is going to listen to in September supposedly.
Speaker 0 00:04:12 And I don't know, I don't think I wouldn't want to go to after that. And then it was just lots of conversations with younger people that were not sure they wanted to stay in Alberta and trains born and raised. And I've never talked about that, but that's frightening things. So that is, I thought it was time to try to bring a different quality Alberta politics. Very cool. That is a scary thing. I'm I'm also born and raised in Alberta, Fort McMurray, Alberta, same with Tanner. We're both local to this community. And for my whole life, people came to Alberta. People came to Fort McMurray because there was opportunity. And this is the first time over the last few years, a little bit before COVID and definitely during where I don't want to use the word Exodus because it's not that much, but you it's borderline where you're having people saying like, yeah, you know what, maybe I'll go to a different province to try something out where you're like, wow, I don't ever remember hearing that before. That's kind of a messed up. Yeah. Well, you know, I think Alberta in the past has always, there's always opportunity, you know, it's, it's hard work. We do. We work hard. It's hard work being up here, man. I'm never going to complain about snow again. I'm I'm from Southern Alberta never complained.
Speaker 0 00:05:33 So, you know, everybody kind of, you know, is drawn to it and they see a future. So they, that's why they stay. And I, I think people were, you know, cause we make good money, you know, we're well-served that way. But you know, people were just that wasn't enough. There was this, all this heaviness around all these issues, doctors and teachers and professionals and you know, uncertainty and, you know, certainly, you know, compounded, COVID no doubt, but there were lots of underlying problems that have been here for a long time. And I think people need to be connected to their politics to be connected to their government. And that's the only way I've ever done it. So yeah, I hope it translates. So you're wearing the shirt right now, Alberta party, um, for a lot of the viewers at home, myself included when, uh, we have politicians on, um, I like to be as kind of dumb as possible in regards to ask the questions that I think the average person who doesn't know a lot about politics would ask.
Speaker 0 00:06:26 So what is the difference between the Alberta party and some of the other people who are running in regards to like, what do you guys kind of hope to achieve as a party in yourself and what you guys kind of based in? Sure. So that's another good question. So our system is kind of built on parties, right? I'm not a really big, honestly, not a big fan of party politics because the traditional sense of it, there's kind of a rigidity to it. Um, kind of predisposed, um, perspectives and answers to questions. So rooted in an ideology. So, you know, we often hear on the news, the right wing, the left wing, and I hate those kinds of labels, but that's kind of where we've come. And that's where all the division happens in a lot of issues, right? The Brita party takes a principled approach.
Speaker 0 00:07:11 So we're not, I, we're not, we're not kind of left right ideology. Okay. Take more, take a set of principles. And then we solve problems. So it's the law, it's a lot like municipal politics where you have a group of people that might have, you know, one might be a fiscal conservative might really be interested in finances, wants to balance the books and other people might have different perspectives on social services or education at the end of the day, all of this serves people, right. You know, no one builds, you know, you shouldn't build a road just to have a road so that you can put your name on it or something like that. End of the day, we're trying to serve people. The only way you can serve them is to understand them, listen to them and then try to, you know, advance them whether it's education or jobs or whatever it is.
Speaker 0 00:07:57 Right. So we take a principle approach versus coming in and saying, here's what we're going to do. Right. Here's the, you know, we're going to cut taxes because that's the only way to create jobs. That's not how we come in at it. We look at the landscape, apply principles, bring in really smart people and solve problems. It's kind of a practical way to right. Okay. Very cool. Now listen, uh, Tanner just hit me with the signal that he's ready with his questions for the Mac CT minute. He's going to ask you some questions. I have no idea what he's going to ask you. I wish you nothing, but the best of luck tenor hit him with the Mac city minute. All right.
Speaker 5 00:08:29 Alrighty. Question number one. How do you think that owning magic auto parts shop helped you with your political career?
Speaker 0 00:08:39 Okay. So I was a local auto parts store. I was a, I owned it from a very young age. I just got me connected to the community. Um, I was big into racing, loved racing and muscle cars and engine building. It was just fun. Another group of people,
Speaker 5 00:08:53 Question number two, if not working in politics, then what career path would you want to work in?
Speaker 0 00:09:00 Oh, that's uh, you know what, I don't know, still something government related, probably a, you know, whether it was, um, maybe consulting or community building, something like that, you know? Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:09:14 Question number three. What is your favorite part of being such a big voice in the province you grew up in?
Speaker 0 00:09:22 Yeah. My favorite part is that, you know, I see it around me. So when I, when I, I feel like I'm speaking for a lot of people when they speak, that is pretty cool. Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:09:33 Question number four. What is your biggest personal drive for your political career?
Speaker 0 00:09:40 My biggest personal drive is really to have a have a future. I'm really lucky my kids right now, I live five minutes away from me and an hour and a half away from my grandkids live five minutes away. So I would like to keep them in Alberta. So I'd like to have a province where they don't leave and they get to keep me company when I'm old.
Speaker 5 00:10:00 And your final question, what is one thing about running a political party that the normal person might be surprised by?
Speaker 0 00:10:08 Uh, might be surprised by, you know, how intricate it is. Gotta remember again, people are very different, right? If the three of us were going to form a political party tomorrow, you know, we'd all have our ideas and we got to build it together and you have to be aware it's takes a lot. It's very complex. Um, it's not as simple as the 32nd takes you see on TV or kind of glib comments. You see the question period. Cause that's all BS anyway, but it's complex and, uh, yeah, it has to be centered around people. So I think people would realize it's not about me or always kind of centered around that. That's not how it is.
Speaker 5 00:10:48 And those have been your five questions.
Speaker 0 00:10:50 Thanks Tanner. Now the thing about Tanner's questions and think about this show is we don't do any preparation before people show up. So every time Tanner has a question like that, first one you asked about the automotive background. Like how did you know that?
Speaker 5 00:11:04 I'm just good on a computer.
Speaker 0 00:11:06 Yeah. Googling. Yeah. I owned, I own the magic's auto parts. It started with some partners and I owned it for nearly 30 years. Cool. So do you have a love of cars then? Absolutely. Okay. Do you have like a, a car right now? That is like a, oh, my daughter actually has, we have a 1969 transaction in the garage. Very, very cool car. I'm always, always been a big Mopar fan. Um, and I've had a couple. Yeah, but I'm a big Mopar fan. So I'm like the sailboat kind of big sport Fury's and those kinds of things. And, but it's always taken up. I've kind of always started them. And then, you know, I get wrapped up in this and this is a full time thing. Yeah, no doubt. I wish I time and resources. Yeah. Now you said at the top of the show, you were the mayor of Brooks for awhile.
Speaker 0 00:11:59 I've been to Brooks once, um, as I was doing a recruitment drive forever Eddie at the time looking for truck drivers. This is like 15 plus years ago now. Okay. But beautiful community. Um, but I I'm glad that you're here. I've never actually had a chance to speak with somebody from Brooks after I left. So like Fort McMurray, main industry oil and gas, obviously. Um, I was shocked and the reason I went to Brooksville for recruitment was because there was a condensed amount of truck drivers that were there as well as Swampers and labor staff that we needed to hire. We felt that the meat packing plant could offer some of the same labor. How did that industry gain a foothold in Brook? Like the, the meat, the meat path? Well, actually that the plant itself was established like 55 years ago by the local people.
Speaker 0 00:12:53 So it's been always, um, so the industry's in Brooks farm and ranching, agriculture really big oil and gas has really big assets, especially. Yes. Um, but, uh, yeah, so some locals, uh, got together and thought that they should value add to what was happening. I don't know was a political reasons. Cause there was probably other things, but yes, that's what happened kind of plot kind of rumbled along for a long time. But in 1998 it got sold to an American interest. Interest came into it. It expanded big time thousand employees, couple shifts. And right now it's, uh, 3000 employees, wholly three shifts to two processing shifts or cleaning shift, um, about $3 billion of GDP to the Alberta economy, million cattle a year. It's amazing cow. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. Um, uh, and it's brought a really diversity to our community. Uh, we, we think we're the most diverse community in Canada got, uh, over a hundred languages spoken.
Speaker 0 00:13:57 Um, 38% of our population is visible minorities. Probably majority of them have immigrated there in the last 25. Yeah. It was really cool to see. Cause, um, at the time there was a lot of parallels happening with Brooks and Fort McMurray, just like visually that I personally could see in a big component is what you're saying is the multicultural component was, was becoming like, you just don't think about that so much in Alberta. Uh, Fort McMurray is very heavily east coast driven for our expansion in like the eighties and nineties early. And then all of a sudden you just saw global globally. People started to immigrate to Alberta. And when I went to Brooks, I was like, wow. There's like a lot of people from Africa here. Yeah. No that, and that's where it started was east Africa. But the huge Filipino community, as I know you do here, central America, Columbia and Chinese, there, there were actually, um, lots of Europeans starting to come over wherever it kind of comes in waves, but they're amazing people for the most part, like every other population, you always have some people write amazing stories.
Speaker 0 00:15:04 Uh, they're just, they're here to make their life better. Um, they provide a huge economic value to this province. Um, and let's, you know, they, they, they do jobs that other people won't that's right. Um, and, uh, yeah, it was one of those things when I was in, I was in human resources for years prior to this fun stuff, but yeah, the LMO process and getting people over in their families, they, they really wanted to come. And like you said, it was one of those things where I was shocked. The first conference, I went to two high era to learn a little bit more about the LMO process. You had companies like Wendy's and a Tim Horton's and pizza 73 there. And I'm thinking like I've worked for this big oil and gas company. I was spending so much money getting people from Europe and African, all these places.
Speaker 0 00:15:52 What are these fast food chains doing here? They're like, listen for these entry-level positions, we can get people locally to do them. Yeah. We have to go abroad to get them. And it's really cool. I'm glad you were listening when you were talking about fountain, because I think that's one of the really big differences that has evolved in our community over time is that they've, they've gone through recruit families and they're, they're establishing themselves, you know, their parents are with them and their kids are with them and yeah, it's, it's really cool to see how much they've contributed. Um, and uh, and really in how much our community has accepted, it takes a little, it takes a long time to get through that. You know, we were for a hundred years were pretty European. That's kind of it. Right. He didn't see a lot of different colors around here and there, but yeah.
Speaker 0 00:16:45 So to see it now, it's, it's, it's fascinating. Yeah. Now with your self, as you talked at the beginning of the show, you are multicultural as well. Yeah. You come have a Japanese background. Yeah. Have you ever been back to, to visit? Was that a part of no, I'll have to go. It's on my bucket list. I've traveled quite a bit, but I've never made it to Japan. So one of these days I got to go. My first job though, is I really want to go out to the west coast. There's a Niki NICU and I've been there, but I've never been to the Nikkei museum. There's a lot of, um, historical stuff around, but he's found these that came, uh, that moved from the west coast, removed from BC into Alberta, kind of a lot of, a lot of stuff. That's cool. So that'll be where I start my journey.
Speaker 0 00:17:30 One of these days, I hope to end up in Japan and see some relatives. It's a bucket list, a location for myself as well. My siblings have gone. I found lots of friends that have gone. I just got that Japanese whiskeys, a gift a few days ago. So, uh, yeah, Japan looks like a very cool and unique place. And I actually had the cheapest ticket booked ever to go to Japan. And then, well, it was because I didn't think COVID was going to last this long. Yeah. Is that it came down to, so in the first, yeah. So in the first few months of it, um, air Canada had this deal to fly from Edmonton, Edmonton, Vancouver, Vancouver, direct to, and the same way back return for 532 wholly. And it was for the following. So I booked it. I don't know. It was like for nine months later, I was like, cool, this is going to be done in nine months.
Speaker 0 00:18:28 And sure. Wasn't so I haven't made it to Japan. Well, that's cool. So what drove your siblings there? Like why would your siblings go? Uh, we come from a family of travelers. We'd like, like my parents I'm from a very young age. They immigrated from Guyana, south America to Canada. And it was one of those things that every summer, my mom thought it was very important to take us somewhere. So maybe if it was only traveling through Alberta, going to Drumheller or going to Brooks or like going to Miami or back to Guyana, traveling was see different cultures, get a different perspective on the world. You're very blessed that you live in Canada, especially for me, or if, especially Alberta, that's not the world. So go out and see other things. And so, yeah. So through travel, my, my, both of my siblings have made it to Japan and same with my parents, my parents, they want a country safe, hidden.
Speaker 0 00:19:19 It's not even, it's so cool. Yeah. I got to go when I was 17 to Europe for 21 days changes your life. Right. It does. It really makes you appreciate what you have, but also gives you an empathy for what happens around the rest of the planet. That's right. That's right. Lucky. Here we are. We are. So listen to my man, that's it. That's the end of our 20 minutes. That being said before I cut you loose, everybody gets a shameless shout out or plugs. So you have the mix, the camera and lights, uh, fun. Alright, well, Elliot, thanks very much. That was cool. I really enjoyed it. Um, yeah, people out there, you know, the Alberta party gives us another option in politics and politics can be a dirty word. It should be something that we embrace. It should be noble. It should be a good calling.
Speaker 0 00:20:01 Uh, not something we despise. So look us up, check us out, contact me directly and uh, come and see what, uh, Alberta could look like. We've got the right people in place. Thanks a lot. Very cool. Well, listen, I know you're not from Fort McMurray, but you come here from time to time. Please feel free to come back again and again, anytime you want, that seat is open for you. Okay. Thank you very much. Awesome man. Well Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. That's been another episode of the Mac city morning show. Thank you so much for tuning in. It does mean the world to me, big shout out to our title sponsor Norelle Toyota for the sponsoring, the show. We appreciate that everybody else have a great day and I'll see you tomorrow. Peace
Speaker 6 00:20:43 Y a daily Wade and another morning show later by us.
Speaker 7 00:20:52 You
Speaker 8 00:21:01 Talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
