Will Pacific Link Actually Get Built? // Stephen Mandel's "Sh*thole" Comment

0:00We are now in the most significant energy crisis in modern history. Our allies around the world are struggling. They are desperately looking for new reliable sources of energy. And as they look all around the world, they look for someone who doesn't sign their contracts in pencil. They look for someone who won't use energy for coercion. They look for someone who wants to develop their energy in a responsible way. And when they look all around the world, they say, wow, Canada. This is a relay project. Real talk starts right now. Here's Ryan Jasperson. Big show today, real talkers. Big, big show. Huge show today. As we prepare to check in with Canada's energy minister, Tim Hodgson,

1:01and then we'll take you into the back nine of this episode with former Edmonton mayor, former Alberta health minister, former Alberta party leader, longtime entrepreneur, grandfather. I mean, he's a lot of things. Stephen Mandel is going to be hanging out with us in studio, taking your questions as submitted in the live chat powered by park power. And of course, what comes to mind off the hop, Stephen Mandel raising a few eyebrows a couple of weeks ago in an event that I hosted. I was telling you about this, where he joined four other previous Edmonton mayors, the five that have led up to the incumbent today, Andrew Nacken. If you're checking in from Calgary or from New Brunswick or from Victoria, I assure you that the conversation will offer something to Canadians from coast to coast, because we'll talk about how cities are built in downtown. And we'll talk about provincial political dynamics. And we'll get into a whole bunch of stuff with with former mayor, Mandel. But this event that I was at, it was really interesting one,

2:01because you've got like decades of Edmonton mayors all sitting there, assessing the current state of the city, the performance of the current council. And some of them quite a bit more removed from the office than others, right? Amarjit Sohe was in the office like two years ago, year and a half ago. Steve Mandel was in the office like, you know, 15 years ago, Ish, Bill Smith was in the office, Jan Rimer longer ago than that. So they'll have different takes, different political persuasions. But Steve Mandel and it's on brand for him, pulled no punches on his assessment of the city. We joked about it a little bit here on the show. Nobody was more thrilled to see his comments than folks in Calgary. That's for sure, because he was hard on the city. But I'm pretty sure that it's coming from a place of love, tough love. And so we insisted on a follow up. And that's what you're going to get today. That's what you're going to get in this episode of the show. We're grateful to have you here. But of course, we'll lead off with the energy minister coming up in about two minutes on the story of the week.

3:01Is that fair to say in Canada? It's probably the story of I can't even say the month in Alberta, because October 19th, Alberta's referendum in our home province will be the story of the month. But a multi billion dollar pipeline is pretty big news, especially because this so-called Pacific link pipeline. No shovels in the ground yet. But the Pacific link pipeline that was confirmed by Prime Minister Mark Carney in Fort McMurray about 18 to 20 hours ago is the first major project. This is the first project that's been designated as a project in the national interest. Out of that office that was established in Calgary, in Alberta by the Prime Minister, a short time ago. So we'll find out what that means. We're going to find out a little bit more about who's paying for this and the business case for the pipeline. We've had different opinions on the Pacific link pipeline. Nobody was calling it that a week ago, at least nobody publicly. But you've heard on this show, for example,

4:01Markham Hisslep from Energy Media. He's been an energy journalist for years and years within the last couple of weeks, arguing that Asian oil demand is down, dropping every single year. If you missed that episode, check it out. It's an interesting one. He makes the argument. I mean, the whole argument for Pacific link is to reach Asian markets. Now, common sense would suggest that global oil demand is at about 100 million barrels a day. And this pipeline will add about a million barrels a day out of Alberta to international markets. So a slight drop in demand may not be the end of the world and may not be justification to kill a project like this. But what's the outlook? And what about the route? It's not the route. I mean, this is a win for Premier Daniel Smith, no matter which way you slice it, right? If you disagree, hop in our live chat, leave a comment on our YouTube episode. Send us an email to talkitrionjespersons.com. We welcome opinions from across the spectrum on this. I know that not everybody's thrilled about the pipeline.

5:04I mean, we've got the flame thrower coming up the end of this episode presented by the DQs of Northwest Seventh and In Sherwood Park. Not everybody trust me is thrilled about the pipeline. But remember, Daniel Smith wanted this to go in a different direction. Daniel Smith didn't want the pipeline to essentially twin beside and I'm exaggerating a little bit and don't hold me exactly to my word. But to essentially twin TMX, that wasn't the plan. She wanted it to go through the Northern coast of BC. So why not that? We'll ask Minister Hodgson in just a bit. We always want your participation. We welcome it whether you're checking out our live stream, presented by California Closets or checking this out later. Let us know what you think about what you're hearing. As we officially get the ball rolling, I'm happy to let you know this episode is happening with presenting sponsorship and support from our friends at Hansen Distillery. If you follow them on Instagram, which you owe it to yourself, to follow them on Instagram. Some great stuff there at Hansen Distillery. You know that it is pumpkin spice cream,

6:06look here, season. This is their cream based Johnny. It's PS season. I mean, you could make your PS cells. You could make a nice pumpkin spice latte with this. I don't see why you wouldn't. I know a lot of people are drinking it over ice. That's how they have it featured. Look at that. In that autumn scape they've set up. And then a lot of people are saying that this is best port over ice cream. A lot of people are saying just fill a bathtub with it right and get in. I mean, there's a lot of people that are saying they're going to go into Hansen today and pick up a case of this before it sells out again. This is Hansen on brand. Small batch, local ingredients created by craft distillers. I mean, that's just part of the beauty of their story. Hansen is born from Rebels made right right here. In Alberta's capital city, it's Edmonton's oldest distillery. You can always shop Hansen distillery online at Hansen distillery.com. They'll ship. They'll ship. We have real talkers in the Maritimes that are pretty happy.

7:07Happy customers of Hansen distillery. You can also ask for it wherever you buy your fine Alberta, La Cura's and of course, of course we encourage you to visit the distillery itself. It's a beautiful location. If you're in Edmonton, 174th Street, 111th Avenue, just north of Mercedes Ben's Edmonton West, Hansen distillery, doing it right, always online at Hansen distillery.com. I Canadian. Love that. On brand for Hansen, on brand for the show, let's roll right into this. He is the federal energy minister and obviously it was a good day. I would say, for the most part, let's ask him if it was, to be able to announce a new pipeline, valued at between $35 and $45 billion to be acknowledged, that that's a pretty big spread. But it proves, doesn't it? Minister Tim Hodgson, it proves that Alberta and Canada can get things done together and that Canada can work. Where's your head at after this announcement? It was a great day for Canada yesterday. On top of a lot of big days for Canada and Alberta,

8:11we are on track. We have said we will be a clean and conventional energy superpower, and we're on track to do that. Are we getting a little bit ahead of ourselves? Like is national interest being confused by some people with approved? So what a listing under the Build Canada acts as we move from if to how? So we have made the decision this project is in the national interest. We now need to focus on how we build it. We are committed to building projects in the right way, in an environmentally responsible way. We're committed to doing it in partnership with Indigenous peoples. So now the work shifts from if to how? And there's three big chunks of work. I'm happy to go through that for your listeners if it's helpful. But that work will be done between now and next September.

9:14Next September we will have a conditions document. And once that conditions document is laid out, the proponent will know what they need to do to operate. So they're free to build at that point. Yeah, maybe just so people understand it. I mean, let's not get too into the weeds, but what are the three stages generally speaking? Yeah, so there's three things that are going to go on. The first is the major projects office will continue the process of consultation with the affected First Nations. The great news is this pipeline is going to follow a very similar route to the last Trans Mountain expansion project. So we have a pretty good idea about what the issues and legitimate concerns of Indigenous people are. And we have a pretty good idea how to mitigate, accommodate, and avoid those types of issues. So that's sort of the first chunk. The second chunk is public hearings. It'll be conducted by the Canadian Energy Regulator.

10:16Those are public hearings where people get to focus on the technical, the environmental, the social, the cultural, the health, the safety, the security aspects of the project. Indigenous peoples are free to participate in those hearings if that's interesting to them as well. And then the third chunk is the major projects office will be coordinating with all the different departments of government so that what needs to happen to get the various permits, approvals, and other things they need. And we turn that into one conditions document. So the proponent has one clear document. If you do these things, you are free to operate. We've got some interesting comments online. Alberta Girl here says basically that this is code for ignoring landowners, ignoring environmental regulations. You talk about the public hearings that'll be a part of this, but you wouldn't blame anybody that watched that news conference in Fort McMurray

11:22less than a day ago with Prime Minister Mark Cardi and Daniel Smith for believing that this is a done deal. Can you imagine a world where somebody would offer up something so compelling in that public consultation process that this project would stop in its tracks? So what I would say to Canadians is we are committed to building the right way. When we build conventional energy, we do it in the most environmentally responsible way anywhere in the world. And we are showing that. The Prime Minister has committed to 30 by 30. So we are on track to preserve 30% of the landmass and 30% of the waters of Canada. As part of our overall plan, we are committed in the MOU to reducing methane emissions in Canada by 75%.

12:24We are committed to creating functioning carbon markets. Like today, the markets don't function. We are on track to raise the industrial carbon price by 650%. That means you will see significant new investment in clean technologies to help drive down emissions. So we are walking the talk. We can do both. We can build responsibly and we can protect the environment. And that is what we are doing. Energy Minister Tim Hodgson joining us in our feature interview presented by Mercedes-Benz Edmonton West. The Alberta NDP leader, the head and engine in particular, on the heels of this announcement. Saying the Alberta NDP has been advocating for a southern route pipeline forever. He was quick to point out that this wasn't the route that Alberta's premier initially wanted. How seriously did the federal government consider a northern route and ultimately what was the deal stopper there?

13:24So, I think there were significant conversations between the federal government, between the Alberta government, between affected First Nations and potential proponents. I know the Alberta government solicited feedback from multiple potential proponents. And the conclusion, the Alberta government came to after all those conversations was the right route, was the southern route. It's also the route that was supported by the province of British Columbia. So we have a win here. We have a win. We have a consensus around what is the route that is the most effective for Canada. And we're going to execute on that route. Minister, the question we asked in our most recent episode is does this pipeline announcement kill

14:27Alberta's separatist movement for good? If Alberta did not have a looming referendum, would this process have been as seamless if there was no referendum, would there still be plans for new pipeline? Absolutely. I hope your listeners appreciate is from day one Prime Minister Karni and this government has had a plan. That plan from day one was to make Canada a clean and conventional energy superpower. From day one, we said we're in a different world. We're in a hinge moment. We're in a more divided and dangerous world. What we've seen over the last year is it's become even more compelling. We are now in the most significant energy crisis in modern history. Our allies around the world are struggling to achieve energy security, which translates

15:31into economic security, which translates into national security. They are desperately looking for new reliable sources of energy. And as they look all around the world, they look for someone who doesn't sign their contracts in pencil. They look for someone who won't use energy for coercion. They look for someone who wants to develop their energy in a responsible way. And when they look all around the world, they say, wow, Canada is doing it right. We'd really like to source our energy from them. Minister, I don't think that this is going to happen. But hypothetically, on October 20th, they have to the Alberta referendum. Let's say we're looking at this and we go, golly, like 55% of Albertans voted to take the next step toward a binding referendum to potentially leave Canada. Let's say it goes sideways. How would that impact this process? How could that impact this pipeline if Alberta moves toward a binding referendum?

16:33We are committed to build Canada strong. We believe a strong Alberta can exist in a strong Canada. We're moving forward with this project because it's the right thing for Canada. You and I agree on that. But let's say that voters say no, we want a binding referendum and we're all caught on our heels and it looks like Alberta could be leaving. I can't imagine Ottawa would make the same commitment, would it? We're going to do what's right for Canada. What's right for Canada is making Canada a clean and conventional energy superpower. That's been the plan since day one where we'll continue to execute against that. It's up to the people of Alberta to decide what they want. But we are going to execute our plan because it's how we create the strongest, most prosperous, most sovereign country. This is a great country. I've had the privilege of living all over the world.

17:35I choose to live in this country because it's the greatest country in the world. We're going to keep making it better. This project is tied to that Pathways Carbon Capture Project. We're going to call it the oil sands alliance now. There is some cynicism around carbon capture and around the Pathways project. What happens if Pathways doesn't get built? Is this pipeline directly tied to it? Absolutely. It is very clear that Pathways goes hand in hand with this pipeline. This pipeline will only get built if Pathways get built. And vice versa, Pathways will only get built if this pipeline gets built. They are tied at the hip. They are one project. We are working with the Pathways Alliance. We're on track for our November 15th binding agreements there. This is one project. I want to assure everyone we will do both these projects. They are one project ultimately. Minister, we acknowledge that times have changed and that the last 12, 18 months have been

18:39absolutely wild both across Canada and internationally. Obviously, the influence of American economic aggression cannot be overstated. The comments from Ottawa and the Alberta government about no taxpayer funding for this pipeline, they didn't age very well. And Ottawa and Alberta, I know, and the phrase you'll probably use and you may be quite right, is that they are both investing in the project. Another Prime Minister said yesterday, Canadian taxpayers are going to make a lot of money off this pipeline. But I'd be curious to know specifically what changed because both levels of government were pretty clear within the last 12 months that they didn't see any public funds going to this pipeline. So I think your listeners and Alberta will understand the history of getting major oil pipelines built in this country over the last many decades has been a challenging one.

19:39We need to show private sector investors that like we're doing now in LNG, like we're doing now in nuclear, like we're doing now in renewables. We can build oil infrastructure on time and on budget. That was the one of the key reasons the first thing we did was pass the Building, Canada Act. That was one of the reasons we set up the major projects office. And I believe, and I know the Prime Minister believes, that as we continue to execute against our time commitments, against our construction gates, like we've done in LNG where we now have investors saying we like what we see we're ready to put money to work. We think as we progress this, we will see more private sector investment in oil pipelines. We already have Pemana who is in

20:39for 10 percent and has said they would like to go to 20 percent. We already know that Indigenous groups are very interested in a minimum of 10 percent of the equity in this pipeline. I believe, as we continue to execute against our timelines and our gates, we will see more interest from the private sector. They see what a great investment the Transmountain expansion has been. It's proving to be incredibly profitable for the people of Canada. And even more importantly, it's proving to be incredibly strategic in a time where the world is desperate for what we have to offer. We have what the world wants. That pipeline is incredibly strategic in diversifying our resources, allowing us to get a premium price for our resources as opposed to a discount when we sell to the US. And this next pipeline is going to do that. We need to meet the moment. We need to show the world

21:45that we can do this. This project is going to be profitable. It's going to be strategic. And it will show the world that they can invest again in the oil sector in Canada. Mr. Interesting, closing. I'm curious to know if your office has received any correspondence from your American counterparts. If to your knowledge, the prime minister has heard from the Americans on the message that this sends. What message do you think that the announcement of Pacific Link sends to the United States? The message it sends is we're focused on building Canada strong. We're going to be masters of our own house. We are going to be able to sell our energy not just to our allies to the south, but all of our allies. That's good for Canada. That makes Canada stronger. That makes Canada more sovereign and that ultimately makes us a better partner with our allies around the world. A strong country is a better ally. That's Canada's minister of energy, natural resources,

22:45Tim Hodgson. Thanks for making time for us today. We appreciate it. Thank you. You got it. 15 quick minutes with the energy minister. That's how it goes on a day like today, real talkers. I know a lot of you in our live chat right now are all fired up about this in a number of different directions. A lot of you are really excited about this. A lot of you think that it's a good move in the context of where Canada is at with the United States. And then I know that a lot of you aren't happy at all. I mentioned Alberta girl. I wanted to read the specific comment. She says national interest. Johnny, she says it's a rubber stamp to ignore landowners, environmental and other regulations. I wanted to ask the minister that question. You talk about public consultation. I don't know if anybody has participated in public consultations before. Maybe we can ask Steve Mandel about this when he joins us in a few minutes. Which have already been happening. What was like, yeah, for sure. But what was maybe the most contentious public consultation he ever heard. But can you imagine somebody bringing a perspective to the table that would prompt Ottawa and the Alberta government to go, oh my gosh,

23:46you know what? We didn't even think of that. You're right. We're going to shelf this project. I don't think so. I know. And the way everyone's talking about it, going to be happening so fast and how fast shovels are going to hit the ground. I saw another comment in there. I think it was from Alberta girl too. It does seem like maybe they'll be skipping some steps or avoiding some certain things that they shouldn't be right. Well, removing, removing things a bit too fast. But in Canadians, this is the first, right? The idea of the projects in the national interest, the idea of the major projects office and its mandate and its powers. This will be the first time that it's interesting to hear from the minister that, and I think the prime minister reiterated this actually. I'm maybe confusing that with with Karnie's comments. We'll go to Mark Karnie in just a second of what he had to say on this. I think he had clarified from Fort McMurray that the major projects office had received over a hundred submissions. These aren't all energy projects. They're not all oil and gas. They're not all pipelines. They could be major projects anywhere in the country. If you make a compelling

24:47enough case, basically Ottawa has said, we're building Canada strong and we'll find budget for it if it makes sense. That's kind of the general idea. But there have been factors standing in the way. Just ask anybody that's worked in oil and gas and Albert in the last 10 to 15 years, standing in the way of any dream or any thought of pipeline expansion and the idea here is that some of those could be removed. However, and we've talked about this, we mused about it in our most recent episode. Karnie's expanding political capital here. And the feds have to be careful about the message that they're sending not just to First Nations communities on the west coast. And also not all First Nations because there will be some communities that will be quite eager, as minister said, to have an ownership stake in this. But there will be others that will say, hell no, like dubious in our chat right now says once again, it'll be the First Nations who will end up leading the fight back against this dumb shit that from dubious. So not everybody's going to be thrilled about it. But but Ottawa's got to send a message that that while they look to streamline projects and government's feet, remove barriers, remove red tape that they're not at the same time

25:52going to send a message to British Columbians, to Canadians and to the international community that Canada's walking away from any sense of environmental commitment. And so that'll be a fine line to walk. Very well said. And that's exactly when when you hear these these phrases like removing barriers, you just don't want it to mean avoiding consultation, pushing things through right. But look, look at how happy the boys are here yesterday as good as Karni and our premier announced in this. You gas up the sleds. Get a second house. Let's go boys. It's it's all right. Tracey in our chat says, this indeed will be about providing proof of need and ensuring Canadians that this project will do more will not do more harm than good. That it'll do more good than harm, essentially, is what she's saying, right? Why don't we hear from Karni? I mean, he had a lot to say about this. He was talking about if you saw her short yesterday, thanks for everybody that follows us on socials at Real Talk RJ on all our social platforms. That's where you can watch us live streaming in the morning,

26:54courtesy of California closets. And then that's where we put all of our highlights out after the fact. So we recognize not everybody's got a chance to listen for 60 to 90 minutes every single day. I mean, if you don't, you should probably reevaluate your priorities, but I get it. You know, you've got work. You've got kids. So following us on socials at Real Talk RJ is a great way to make sure that you don't miss the absolute best. And Karni was talking yesterday about why we must do this. He talks about how the world needs energy stability. He talks about Canada as an energy superpower. There it is again, right? Steven Harper used to say that all the time. More is a, I won't say a wistful, but more in a sort of a vision sense of like, Canada can be an energy superpower, but these things are standing in the way. And now, Mark Karni is saying, well, because we believe that Canada must be an energy superpower. And oh, yeah, by the way, because our closest neighbor and typically strongest ally is now behaving like anything, but we're changing

27:55course. Here's a snippet of what the Prime Minister had to say from Fort McMurray. So for years, the oil sands were written off. Written off is too costly and too hard to develop at scale. But generations of researchers, of engineers, workers, entrepreneurs kept pushing forward, finding new ways to separate the oil, to extract it and unlock what lay beneath the sandstone. And for decades, the Alberta and the Canadian governments invested in research created tax incentives for private capital and even financed oil sands plants themselves. And so by the 60s, a new industry began emerging in this region and became home to the world's first large scale oil sands operations. Fort McMurray became a symbol of opportunity across Canada and across the world. That's what Canada can achieve. When our workers, our builders, our scientists, our governments work together to seize generational opportunities.

28:58And it's this legacy that we're calling on today. We have to do this because the world's facing an energy crisis on three dimensions. There's an immediate challenge of affordability and in some countries, the very availability of hydrocarbons. There's a structural challenge of energy security and the existential challenge of climate change. And these challenges are forcing countries to think differently about where their energy comes from and who they can rely on to supply it. Global oil demand is around 100 million barrels a day. Global oil supply is often now impacted by conflicts and it's becoming more volatile. And while the precise path ahead is always uncertain, oil demand will continue to be significant for decades to come. Even under any plausible net zero scenario, the IEA forecast the world will still need tens of millions of barrels a crew today. So the question is, who will emerge as the

30:02world's trusted suppliers? It should be us. It must be Canada. It must be Canada. That's the Prime Minister, by the way, Nia is wondering. She goes, who is that standing beside Daniel Smith? She goes, not Mark Carney in those photos that's Scott Burrow's, by the way, President CEO of Pemba, a pipeline corporation. So Pemba has got to stake in this. About a 10% stake right now. You've got operators here that are going to be involved. Obviously, you've got veteran operators. You know, people are familiar with all the big names. It'll get this thing built, but not yet with an ownership stake. And I know that for a lot of people, that's kind of weirding them out because Mark Carney and Daniel Smith both had said in different ways that they didn't foresee a pipeline that taxpayers would pick up the tab. I'm curious to know from real talkers where you land on that. I mean, the minister, you just heard from him talking to us, says basically Canadians are making a ton of dough on TMX. I mean, keep in mind, TMX, the cost

31:06from the initial cost that people first talked about to the final price tag. It almost quadrupled, and it's certainly doubled. So now when you're looking at this pipeline, they're saying like 35 to 44 billion dollars, which by the way, a swing of like nine billion is pretty big. At the end of the day, does it end up being 60? And if so, who's on the hook? And then can they fill it? How did guys stop me on the street? Literally just yesterday, wonderful friend of the show. He's down on days off from Fort McMurray. He was keen to talk about this. Came up, said, hi, snap to photo. He said, can we talk about the pipeline for a little bit? I said, I'd love to. He talked to me about his experience working up in Fort McMurray. I go, what do you do up there? And he goes, well, for the most part, he goes, I drive those 400 ton trucks. And I said, sorry, 400 ton trucks. The big boys, the big ones that you use the ladder to climb up. Oh, yeah. And I said, so what do you figure about this? And he goes, man, he goes, we've got so much up there. He goes, there's like to increase production by a million barrels a day in Alberta.

32:09He goes, that's no problem. And I know that it's good news. If you work in oil and gas and it's good news, if you live in communities that are impacted by a healthy economy and for the most part, at least talking to you from our home province of Alberta, that's pretty much everybody. Now, don't put me down on the record as saying the pipeline is great news for everybody because there's a lot of people that won't feel that way. But it represents vision and confidence in Canada and Alberta's energy sector. I'm curious to follow up. There was some people chirping me. I never understand the people that say, like, just what doesn't have the balls to interview this person? Or he wouldn't dare bring this person on his show. Guys, I'll bring anybody on the show. Someone says to me, well, you're going to bring Max Fawcett back on. You're going to bring Mark and Hissle back on. Those guys have argued that demand is dropping in particular in Asia. And obviously, we'll bring them back. I'm curious to pick their brain on this. Mark, Mark, you're wrecking style. This mark, it was just on like the last couple of weeks. And presents quite a different vision of this. Like Mark, him says, the facts, the data, the evidence.

33:14I mean, go listen to the, you know, I'm not, I can't off the top of my head, you know, recreate his argument. But he basically points to these numbers and he says, according to this, this and this, demand in particular in China is dropping. And it doesn't make sense to invest $44 billion into a new pipeline to increase capacity like that. So, you know, time will tell, I guess, I'm assuming that the feds led by, you know, the former governor of two world banks has, has considered that there are factors that must be respected. And I'm sure that they've done their forecasting. You know, can they fill the pipeline? I'm sure they can. Will it be profitable? I sure hope. So, should taxpayers in the perfect world be holding the bag or at least taking all the risk on this one? Kyle and our chat says, you don't need a centralized office like a major projects office. Just scrap the bad regulations and open it up to everybody. He says otherwise, you're just picking winners and losers. Denise follows up and says, if public money is involved in picking winners

34:16and losers is important. Gabe C says the route of Pacific Link changes everything. If it's running parallel with the other pipeline, essentially, he says this can be built quickly. Horse Lake Ranch was wondering why it is that government has to fund projects that the private sector can pay for itself. Says, I mean, is it just a, is it just a coincidence that this started after Trudeau added numerous regulations? Nia says the feds need to fund healthcare and social supports at least 10% higher than they are right now. You know, would profit from owning a pipeline, support increasing those funding structures that from Nia, it's an important question. It's not just the feds, obviously, but health transfers would factor into this. I mean, I will say, and I hope that that all of those delicate flowers, sorry, I'll be nice. It's a Friday. We're heading into the weekend. I would just I'm just the separatists are getting very touchy right now.

35:17They're very touchy and they're very easily offended right now because I think they see their numbers slipping and they and they don't want to see the premier of Alberta laughing and smiling with the Lib Prime Minister. They don't want to see it. And so they're touchy and they're not happy. But here's the thing. For a lot of Albertans, this is going to represent more work and probably more income. And I hate to say that that will mean like Todd Babiech choked about here. What was it two Fridays ago? More income tax, more income tax. I mean, that's like equalization. And then we're and then how burdens are going to be paying more to Ottawa because Albertans are going to be making more. And so Nia, yeah, in a perfect world in theory, if this goes great, it's better for Alberta and it's better for Ottawa and it's better for Canada. And that is the argument for the pipeline.

36:18That's essentially the argument that the minister just made on the show, right? The impetus for this is building a stronger Canada. Wayne says they've been doing nothing but constant consultation for like more than 10 years right now. Albertic Girls really fired up in this. I want to recognize that I need to keep going back to the same commenter, but bringing a lot to the table says as a landowner with three pipelines owned by Pambina running through. I can tell you that they're not capable of building this line with any adherence to the law. That's quite a thing. Now, obviously, this project would be under great scrutiny. Tracy says public funded projects need to at a bare minimum to be accountable and like at a bare minimum. Wayne says this just means everything else is going to get more expensive. Penn Chaser says without a change in direction from a federal government, this is welcome news. Says, but I don't even want to know what this would look like under Trudeau.

37:21Says I'm glad that we moved on from that. Put it this way. If the liberals hadn't moved on from Trudeau, it would be Prime Minister Pierre Pullet. So that's the safest thing that I'll say all year. JJ says we're in for trade-offs with opportunities like this. You know, you got to stand by your values. JJ says my values are keeping whales and the oceans safe and clean, keeping animals in our land safe and clean, upholding indigenous rights. JJ says so damn straight. I'll be watching closely. Less says people are tired of paying for the richest corporations on the planet. All this is doing is feeding shareholders riches that from less, less does does the argument that Ottawa and Alberta and when I say that, I'm talking about you as a taxpayer. You as a stakeholder essentially standing to benefit from this in a way. Does that change your opinion at all? Honest question. Let us know. Talk at Ryan Jesterson dot com. Tracey says yes, everything is

38:22much more expensive. The economics of building should be taken into consideration. Along with a huge policy review, you know, how does the project impact other industries? Denise says there will be no pipeline if it's subject to being funded by private equity. T.C. says thank you to the liberal government for providing clear transparent updates and for measuring progress. Let us know you think talk at Ryan Jesterson dot com. Why don't we get to the prime minister? I mean, he had a time to say we're not going to play the whole thing obviously, but there are a couple of moments where I think it just signs some light into where the conviction comes from and ultimately probably what moved the needle. Was it George W that said, Decider in Chief? I don't want to steal that, but put it this way if a prime minister doesn't believe in a project, it's probably not going to happen. I'm not saying he's the only one that's making the call, but it goes a long way and Mark Carney explained a little bit just a short time ago. The fact is over time, the way we built

39:26became way down by well intentioned, but arduous and often duplicative regulatory processes. And to build at scale and speed again, we have to do things differently. Our government was elected to change things, to build Canada strong and we're doing just that. Speak clear, Canada will remain a country of high standards, but high standards do not require slow decisions. They require a focus government, a government that gets all the information that it needs from all stakeholders and shares it immediately with all those who need it, including all stakeholders. And then sets the right conditions to build effectively, sustainably and inclusively. Investors should know that when Canadians want something built, Canada will get it built. That's the prime minister obviously from Fort McMurray.

40:26Interesting here from Saskey James, what's up? It says it's so funny that the UCP keeps trying to pedal this avi Lewis meme. This is when they failed to get anything more than the notly NDP got done. Did you see this? I don't know if you saw this, John, you can share my screen. This is from Daniel Smith. She shared, I'm sure across social platforms. I saw it on Facebook. It says breaking, breaking news says the premier, the federal NDP, avi Lewis just released a statement of posing the new Pacific link pipeline demanding it be halted. It says they'll do everything in their power to kill it. They don't have any power, but I digress. It says understand what this means says the premier, this would kill 140,000 jobs. Interesting number says it would stop tens of billions in new wealth for Albertans to build things like hospitals and schools, which isn't wrong, but I just love the emotional appeal. Like avi Lewis, why do you hate hospitals? Why do you hate sick people and seniors? Avi Lewis says the premier lost jobs lower paychecks for Alberta families. She says

41:28today I'm calling on not had an entry to do what he should have done a long time ago. Cut ties with his boss, avi Lewis and the federal NDP officially formally in writing today a clean break right down to the name of their party. She says not doing so tells Albertans all they need to know about where the NDP stands on Alberta energy, which is leave it in the ground. Nenshy responded to it by the way. Nenshy says I mean paraphrasing Nenshy basically says we've been talking about a southern route pipeline the whole time says Rachel not you got a pipeline built and then he clapped back when you're going to get the separatists out of your party. Did you see the interviews that that premier Smith did with David common wasn't in bashing the policy yesterday, both of them kind of had her back again. I don't know if she would appreciate it that way back against the wall. I think she had her back. Well, they were basically like talking about Jason Steph, they're talking about MLA's like that that are separatist curious or full blown separatists and why she won't kick him out of the party. It's a dirty word. It's curious. Keep it clean. But you know, basically saying like if

42:29you're if you're not a separatist party, whether you're not kicking these MLA's out of your party, she's like, yeah, we're not going to agree on everything. But you know, um, for Nenshy to bring the focus back to the referendum is smart politics for him. And this is the whole other show and we don't have time and Stephen Mendel's in our green room and we're ready to rock. So I'm not going to spend too much time on this. But the Alberta NDP 100% should actually cut ties with the federal NDP and should it done so long time ago and I've asked Rachel not be about it five or six times over the years. And I've asked Nenshy about it two or three times for sure. And I'm not an NDP member. Um, and I'm not an NDP volunteer and I don't attend NDP events. And so I don't know the scuttle but but I suspect that there's maybe a little bit more to it in particular, maybe leaving the name and maybe some people might get sensitive and it may have implication on the party membership and on donor support. Maybe they've crunched the numbers and figured that changing the name will also just get the lipstick on a pig comparison. And folks will say, you know, including Daniel Smith and the UCP, they can change the name but they can't change

43:32their left wing extreme attitude toward keeping all the oil in the ground. And then what was the purpose of spending $5 million on a rebrand, you know, reprinting all the letterhead Johnny, it's more expensive than people think. Oh, geez. But I do agree with it's not just Daniel Smith's idea, far from Daniel Smith's idea. I bet you there's a bunch of NDP supporters, including some audience members of this show that believe that that party, the Alberta NDP should have cut ties with the federal party a long time ago. And maybe should change its name. Yeah, kind of do it. The Elk stood though. Keep it kind of similar so you can keep some of this stuff like the NOP, the opportunity part. So you can kind of keep most of the letterhead. No, you want the party to be called nope. That idea. Back to the drawing board. I want to ask Steve Mandel about this. I mean, he was the leader for a time. He took the Alberta party through the 2019 provincial election. The Alberta party has the best name of any political party in the province. There's no doubt about that. But they've language they've done their best.

44:35Now, of course, the progressive Tory party of Alberta is an interesting experiment. Maybe we'll talk about rebrands with the former Edmonton mayor in just a second. I wanted to know a couple of things and I saved these till the end. They were in our live chat powered by park power. By the way, exclusive discounts, internet, electricity, natural gas, get better service and save money at parkpower.ca slash real talk. Peter jumps in and says, I understand all the enthusiasm. No offense to Hanson distillery says Peter. But he's actually not a fan of pumpkin pie. Or rather not drinking the pumpkin spice lattes. Peter, I almost blew it. He says, I'm not a fan of the pumpkin spice lattes. He goes, I wonder though if you could use Hanson's pumpkin spice cream liquor to make pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread. I mean, Peter, I'm not a baker, but I would say fill your boots. Go for it. Let us know how it turns out. And I also wanted to note that jackassica is in our chat. Johnny, a tattoo artist and good friend of the show. Oh, she was not catching live yesterday when we were musing about what we would do. When Jillian shares with us, real talkers stick with me for two seconds. Steven Mendel coming

45:41right up. I promise mayor. He's in the green room right now being like, what the hell, Jasper's in. Jillian writes in for our Alberta wins feature. It's every Thursday presented by play Alberta, right? And Jillian says, this is a huge Alberta win. And it was and it was her Avalon school, a junior high school that raised the most money in Canada of any school for the Terry Fox foundation through the Terry Fox run. This junior high school raised $111,000. And Jillian said that it was all due to the teachers. Well, no, that's not true. That's not what she said. That's my interpretation of is all due to the kids. Obviously, but the teachers were saying like, if you raise this much, we'll shave our heads. If you raise this much, we'll dye our facial hair pink or rainbow. If you if you raise this much, we'll get tattoos. And that was the six figure mark. And the kids did it. And so now there's a bunch of teachers that are going to be getting Avalon school tattoos. So jackassica is in our live chat. And she's volunteering to tap the teachers, which is amazing. Okay. I know it doesn't end there, John. Because then you and I'm used

46:46about what we would do for a million subscribers on YouTube. And she is also kindly and gracious to sleep volunteered to do our real talk tattoos. Oh God. I'm not getting drill baby drill on my stomach. You know what? Nobody's going to know. We're not going to get a million subscribers if we agree to tattoo our own logo. Because everyone will just say, well, that's just self indulgent. Yeah. We're going to have to do like, I'll get a tattoo of like Marvin the Martian on my neck or something like that. You know, I would do it for a million. Our logo, our logo is so sharp too. Somebody edges to it. Somebody edges. It's good thing she's so talented. So big shout out to jack Asca gift for a follow an Instagram. If you don't already mayor mandels coming up at just a quick second before we get to mayor, let's take a look at I mean, these are some of the talented hands. I imagine that are going to be involved in this process in one way, shape, or form pretty darn soon. And that is I you. We local 955 members. The international union of operating engineers, local 955 proudly represents about 12,000 hardworking Albertans in diverse sectors of the economy

47:47from oil and gas construction and maintenance to crane operation, heavy equipment operation, renewables, healthcare, education, municipalities, you name it. I mean, they kind of do it all. I you we local 955 always puts labor and workers interests first. And they're making it easy for you to join their team with a job board updated by the minute every single day online at join us today.ca. If you're looking for a change of pace, you want to be represented by a real union that knows how to treat their members. Check it out today. That's join us today dot c a you know, Canadians have noticed obviously trade disputes tariffs political friction a growing sense that Canadian interests aren't always being treated with the respect they deserve. This isn't just a political question, though. It's a financial one. Like what is it changing Canada, US relationship mean for your investments, your retirement, your family's future. North Road Investment Council is an independent Canadian firm based out of Alberta providing objective advice

48:47focused on your interests. If you're thinking about changing advisors or you just want a second opinion, check out North Road's website northroad ic.com. Let them know real talk sense. If you're looking for Canadian advice and independent thinking, you can learn more at northroad ic.com. Quick heads up October is cyber security month. So the next time we check in with our friends at North Road, we're going to give you the tips and tricks to keep your data, keep your family protected. Again, they're online all the time at northroad ic.com. Hey, what's your plan for Thanksgiving? If you're going to be hosting, but you'd rather spend more time with your loved ones, then work in a way in the kitchen while everybody else has a blast. Let Freeze and Brothers handle Thanksgiving dinner. Check out cateringbyfreezin.com. They've got the classic Thanksgiving dinner box. You can feed four people for under 100 bucks. We've got the vegan Thanksgiving dinner box. Feeds two for 55. This is Red Seal Chefs by the way that are creating these meals. I personally recommend their signature Thanksgiving meal, 239 to feed six people. If you're feeding

49:54six people, you're doing all the grocery shopping yourself. You account for the value of your time. You're not going to feed six people for 239 bucks. Let Freeze and Brothers do it order today at cateringbyfreezin.com. Those of you that'll be flying into or out of Edmonton for that Thanksgiving weekend, coming up before we know it. Make sure you're loaded up ahead of time, ready to benefit from membership with Y-EG Plus. This is Canada's first and as of right now, only airport loyalty rewards program. You can sign up today. It takes like 30 seconds at Y-EG plus.com slash real talk. Every dollar you spend, parking, shopping, dining at Edmonton International Airport earns you a point. The more points you earn, the more benefits you unlock. Plus you have access to exclusive contests and giveaways. Check out the program today. Sign up at Y-EG plus.com slash real talk. What a treat it is to welcome this fine fella. He's already

50:55chocolate. That is always a good sign at the beginning of an interview when the guest looks entertained, inspired, and ready to rock joining us in the historic Mercer warehouse. Thanks, Mayor. Wonderful. On downtown Edmonton, former Edmonton mayor, Steven Mandel. How the hell are you? I'm better than some not as good as others and not as handsome as you. Oh, look at this. Trying to butter up the host to avoid the tough questions. I've seen it. The trick is the oldest in the book. For a little continuity, we're talking about rebrands and that sort of a thing. I'm curious to pick your brain on that. The Alberta NDP, Daniel Smith saying, it's about time that I had Nenshi cut ties. We'll acknowledge Nenshi's not taken his vice from Daniel Smith, but you've got experience leading a provincial political party. How important is the name and how much of a liability? Do you think Avie Lewis and the federal NDP is to the provincial counterparts? Well, I think it's tremendous liability to the provincial counterparts. Alberta is still a boat energy. It is about the future building pipelines and offering job opportunities and Avie,

51:57whatever his name is Avie Lewis, whatever he is, is very anti-antai pipelines. That's his thing. It's been his thing forever. The fact of matter is that as a province, our very important to us have a strong energy industry. He's anti-Alberta as much as his anti-energy. What do you make of the pipeline announcement? It's a former mayor of Edmonton. How big is an announcement like this to communities? I think it's great. I mean, pipelines are... I really get confused sometimes. Everybody is so environmentally against that the pipelines going to ground. They're much more efficient and effective way to move oil than through rail lines. It's proven to be reasonably safe. I'm not an expert in this, but I think it's a more effective way to move oil and people need oil. Then we have oil. Let's make sure we get our oil to the market. Better use Alberta oil than use somebody else's oil.

53:01We're going to be taking a look at it and we'll have some municipal budget coverage coming up later this month and we'll do our best to cover as many Alberta communities as we can. You've obviously been through the budget process. What do you remember about the impact of an industry in a rise or an industry in a fall and that boom or bust cycle, the impact that that has on cities? Well, industry is a lifeline. I mean, better than probably taxes. They're raised in a city, probably 52-53 percent of taxes that are raised in the city are come from some sort of industry and maybe 47-48 percent come from residential. We're generating now about 60 percent of the revenue we're generating is from taxes. That's an important part of it. You start losing business, which we are in Edmonton. People are moving out to the Hintra land because taxes are half the price. It has a big impact on how we can deliver service to our citizens. Nothing's free. Nobody goes out there and works for nothing. We knew that we had to get you on the show for a

54:01follow-up to that. You do this company at least. I didn't lead with it. But a remarkable event, a couple of weeks ago hosted by our friends at Boama, you and four other former mayors saying exactly what you thought or I would say pulling no punches. You're shrugging like you think maybe there's more to say I encourage you to say it here on this show if you're going to. But, Johnny, I think we have a clip. Is it courtesy of global? Is that right? I mean, I was sitting right next to you when you said it, but I wasn't recording it. So we'll go to what global did. Here's a tiny little bit of what Stephen Mendel offered up to the sold out crowd. First and terrible counsel. I don't think they understand business. I think they're running the city horribly. They're putting us into bankruptcy. I mean, downtown is a is a crap hole. I could use the word s*** hole, but I wouldn't use it. And it's a shame that nothing's being done to fix it. Were you planning on coming out guns blazing like that ahead of the event? No, I just as I drove downtown its frustration. I mean, you see the disaster of what's happened to our downtown. And it just doesn't seem to be there's any,

55:01you know, it's like, let's just leave it as it is. And it'll fix itself. Things don't do that. And it's sad that downtown has become such a difficult place to visit and to participate in. Hmm. What sort of a response? Like, personally, did you get following those comments? Did first of all, did you underestimate the impact that those comments would have? Are you, you're not on like Instagram? Are you? You're not on TikTok. I don't believe that stuff. You're not on Twitter. Are you aware of the impact that the comments had? No, I don't. No, I'm only multitude of people stop me in the streets and grow what she's towards and say, you know, you're absolutely right. Those are the comments. Well, you know, okay. Did anybody take issue with it to your face? No, people don't usually do that. I mean, I guess if they think I'm a jerk, they probably walk around me and give me a dirty look rather than say it right to my face. Nobody did, but that doesn't mean that there were there were people that didn't think I was a dork. Well, like, I mean, like, the comments were trending across the country. And I saw,

56:04in particular, Gleeful posts from people in Calgary who love to hear a former Edmonton mayor describe. I think where you describe when you said shit hole, were you talking about the downtown? You have the downtown. No, well, multitude of things in the city, but the downtown is really, is really very sad, very, very sad and to come down to even today and see the tents that are out there. And anyway, it's just it's sad to see that what's happened our city and what could have been an amazing downtown after the arena district is built. And we had such momentum. Now it's boopcas. It's nothing. It's crap hole. What's your assessment of why that is the case? Well, I really think that it's all about government solving problems now. When I was mayor, we created a homeless commission and that commission acted as a liaison to government and and the public and they managed to move the dial so people got more involved, more engaged.

57:05And right now, it's all about government solving problems and the government doesn't really want to solve it. From what I see, I don't see the city getting along that well with the province. So the kind of investment that's needed to change the dynamics that existing right now, they're homelessness and Edmonton. It's just going to continue. It is because there's not the kind of relationship that can build solutions together. It's just all about finding ways to fight. And I would hope that at some point in time, the two can get together to find solutions to the to the horrific homelessness problem we have in downtown Edmonton. You know if the Edmonton's mayor and your NAC was sitting here, he would say to you, Steven, you don't really think that we don't want to solve this. Do you? He would say, what's your solution? So what is it? What would you do differently? Well, I do a lot of things differently. I mean, I'd bring back the homeless commission, which was a group of business people as well as agency people who came together as a religious groups came together with huge help from the Catholic Church. And they were an unbelievable source of support.

58:05Archbishop Smith at the time was just amazing individual. There's lots of individuals that come out and help and support. And I think that's one thing too is to find ways to bring, to take a look at the problem not in holistic terms, but in segments. You have groups of people that can be housed. And so find ways to work with which we did with private enterprise to create opportunities to house people and apartment buildings and then find ways to ensure that if there is a problem, the city will support them. Then there's other ways in which we need to work with a problem is to build support systems for those that are a little harder to serve. And then we need to be very realistic of those people that are really down and out there drug addicts. We need to find ways to to look at solutions for them rather than looking at is one big problem. It's a bunch of smaller problems. How do we attack each of them? And I think if we work together with government and private sector and then in private citizens, we can make a big change. But it seems to be right now,

59:06it's just it's nothing's happening. Bill G says Mr. Mandel is 100% correct. Mean time Tony D says well, you sort of contributed to the demise of the downtown. Mr. Mandel goes on to say maybe if the UCP didn't cut off services for addictions and mental health, we'd have a place for the homeless and vulnerable community. So yeah, let's blame council. Tony says man, this is annoying. Do you own some of this? I mean, it's easy for a former politician to absolve themselves of resource. And incumbent politicians obviously blame the politicians that have come before them and voters and community members are left there thinking nobody wants to take responsibility here. I mean, were you part of the problem? Was Bill Smith part of the problem? He was equally as critical as you were. You know, I think that the reality is is that we put in place a homelessness plan, a 10-year plan. And then we left it. I don't know what happened to it.

1:00:10And since then, I don't see any plan being placed in front of the public. It just seems to be we're just going, help your shelter. If I'm responsible for I apologize, I don't think I am. We tried to do the best we could. We tried to make changes to the system that really brought together government and private sector. And you know, the reality is is that it is a big problem. And we needed to maybe do more. But I thought we did a fair amount. Do you the relationship between counsel and the province or the city and the province, let's say, you know, I can't remember exact words. You said something like it comes across like they're just looking to pick fights. You know, this provincial government, led by Daniel Smith, has established itself as, you know, I mean, it's a heavy word to use, but you would hear from municipalities almost hostile. And almost sort of like a parent child relationship in other ways where they're taking over. I mean, I think, you know, we just did an episode on ripping up all the bike lanes and the province giving itself the power to essentially change infrastructure plans and taking over the green line

1:01:14down in Calgary. Like, how different is that from when you were mayor? What was the relationship like with the province when you were mayor? It wasn't all sunshine and rainbows. We had in my opinion the best premium we've had in centuries, Ed Stelmacht. Ed was an amazing person at an incredible soul and care for people. He was an amazing, and he is an amazing individual not was a wonderful premier who cared deeply about the problems that we faced in across the province. And he helped, and he was a big part of allowing us to, I think, pursue some of our goals in the homelessness problem. He helped to fund things. He was approachable. He's a remarkable individual, one that I don't know was a very special person. So that was different than it is today. And I think one of the challenges I see today with the provincial government and the missile government is the province can't stop budding into municipal affairs either. I mean, you know, bike lanes are a decision made by the city. If you want to run the cities then fire all the city counselors around the cities yourself. You know, every time you turn around,

1:02:17they're changing some rules. You want to political parties. You want to have, you want to have a, no more bike lanes. We can't have, we're not going to have any speed traps. We're not going to do this. We're going to put people on the, on the police commission. We're going to dictate to everything we want. And then we're not going to help you with other things. So I think that the relationship with the province needs to be a little more effective and one that can be much more progressive than it is today. JG needs an app says downtown Edmonton is rough. Says, but it doesn't mean that hardworking people aren't doing their best to make it better. Says, I believe that there are a lot of organizations that are doing their best, including the downtown Edmonton Business Association, downtown is association at the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce. Everyday folks says government really needs to step up. We could obviously also mention Boil Street and Bissle and Hope and all of the other organizations. But, but what you said, organization organizations group group group group, where's the coordination? What's bringing it all together? Why aren't we working as a team to solve the problem? I think if you have right now, if everybody working in a different direction,

1:03:21try to bring everybody together to solve the problem and then bringing government into be a supporter of it would make a difference. But right now I think there's too much everybody's independent. You know, everybody wants to make their own dinners and and and you can come if you want. Ms. Katie in the chat says it's not about solving problems, finding solutions. We are where we are because governments have not prevented the issues in the first place. She goes on to say that 10-year plan to end homelessness was a joke. I remember when you launched it. I think I interviewed you the day you launched it and and I remember asking you, do you think that homelessness can actually be ended or solved so to speak? And I know that people will have different opinions on that. Even if you believe it can't be solved completely, I don't think that it absolves you of responsibility to address it. But did you see anything through your involvement in that 10-year plan or your time involved with it that led you to believe that progress was being made that led you to believe that homelessness could be ended in Edmonton in a decade? No, I don't believe that homelessness could ever be ended because there's certain people that

1:04:25are going to want to stay living in this street and that's it. But we took homelessness from our numbers are correct from 3000 down to 1750 in the period of time that we just we started the program. Almost in half? Almost in half. And that was that was working with a variety of agencies and the government to produce a much more progressive way to do things. So whoever this Katie is, I don't care what she had to say, we made some strides. Now, is it, did we solve the problem? No, because then COVID came and other problems came and whatever happened after I left, whatever happened with the homeless commission and a homeless strategy kind of disappeared. And so you don't have the bringing together of agencies to solve the problem. And I think that's the big difference. We've got a real talker here asking if you think that the LRT out to the West. I didn't even get through my question. Was it a mistake in retrospect as the real talker? Why do you think? Well, I think, you know, I think if people want to blame me for something,

1:05:25they can blame me for the West and RRT. I think that first of all, I really wanted to go on 107th Avenue, but I couldn't get enough votes to move it up there. There was a passion to have it built down a certain way. And administration said that if you want to change the direction of the line, you have to go back and look at and review it all. As a result of that, we couldn't, I couldn't get enough votes to move up to 107th Avenue because it's a joke on 104th Avenue. I mean, I just can't believe what a message made of the West end. But, you know, I would, we approved it. So, you know, I'll take the blame for that. I won't maybe take as much blame for the homeless as problem, but I will take some blame for the LRT. I think it could have been a much more beneficial product for the city. But now it's, I think people, at least in the West end, are so pissed off because they can't move anywhere. It's taken forever to build a still propaganda, five or six years before it's finished. I mean, my God, I'll come and take so long. I mean, downtown, it's 102nd Avenue's torn up. Everything, like, why can't they finish?

1:06:26At least six feet of it. I mean, it's a joke. I, you know, I find myself kind of torn on this stuff because I, you know, I always want to be honest with this audience and come to every debate honestly. And I'll just say like, I'm, I'm not a regular user of public transit. I mean, if I'm being honest, I'm not even an occasional user of public transit. In other cities, I have been, I mean, one example, which is kind of an obvious and easy one, but flew into Vancouver to host an event a number of months ago, took that Canada line to two blocks from my hotel downtown. Vancouver, I think it was nine bucks. It was a totally seamless process. Fantastic. Okay. So in a situation like that, where it's well oiled perfect, you're in Toronto, going to use transit, right? The, the world's big cities, the world's great cities have robust, efficient public transit. And people use it. I understand that sometimes there's short-term pain for longer term gain. I bitch more than anybody when I'm stuck in traffic. I'm not saying I'm innocent here, but, but isn't that part of, of growing up as a city, like, don't you need full some transit that serves the citizens that

1:07:27provides options that takes the pressure off the, the, the handy and the white mud and all the, and all the other roads that sort of flies in the face of that so-called car culture. Like, how do you land on your conviction on this one? Well, I think that there's, there's just need for, for good transit. Now, if you look at our numbers, we, we spend about $450, $450 million a year in transit, we generate about $150 million in income. So, we're, we're $300 million dollars every year and that doesn't count building garages and LRT construction stuff like that. There is something wrong with what we're doing in our transit because people aren't taking it. I don't, not a transit person. I don't run like you. I don't take the transit. I did for a period of time and I found it very effective, but there must be something wrong because we are not attracting enough people to make a worthwhile. Now, will the LRT to the west end and the south side and south east make a difference? I don't know. Can we ever get a proper report as to what's going on with it and, and how's the cost per person? What's going on with it? I don't see it. So, we'll have to

1:08:31wait and see. I'm concerned that we need to be more creative in what we're doing and all we're doing is we're building a fixed point, fixed line along a fixed direction. And if the population changes, what are we going to do? Blow that line up? I mean, you know, what happens if right now, more people live out in the southeast and the south, the southwest. And so, there's no real transit out to there. So, I mean, how are we going to make it worthwhile? You said if people can blame you for one thing, they said blame you for the west end LRT. You know, there's your critics blame you for the arena deal. They don't feel like the arena deal was fair. You've seen all the comments, I'm sure they think that, you know, all your friends benefited from it that a billionaire got a billionaire got a sweetheart deal from the city, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. J.H. Silly pants, McGee and others in our live chat right now are saying, you know, Mendel, why are we not raising the taxes on Rogers place? Coming up on the 10 year anniversary of that rink opening up, which is hard to believe time has flown still no Stanley Cup for 97. I digress. How is the

1:09:32arena deal aged in your mind as the guy who orchestrated it? Well, I think it's been the only positive thing that's happened downtown. Aside from the Real Talk studio opening. Oh, you, I mean, you're like, this is this is really where's the respect? Sorry about that. I can blew that one. Uh-oh. But other than Real Talk. Other than Real Talk. You know, I think that, you know, the arena has been a great benefit to downtown. I'm not sure if it wasn't here. What would be here? No, nobody would come downtown. And I would argue with people that the deal was good or bad. I would argue it was a deal the time we made where I thought was relatively decent. Um, you know, as this case done well with it, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know his bank statements. I don't know whether he's making any money. He's thinking of the Emmett's Noilers are the third most profitable professional sports franchise in the world. Yeah. You know, we'll see when when when 97 is in here and the other people aren't here and we're not winning games. How quick the stadium's going to fill?

1:10:33But I mean, it's a risk that yeah, but mere like the Dallas Cowboys number one, this is according to Forbes operating income, 10 most profitable teams in the world. The NFL's Dallas Cowboys at 629 million, the Golden State Warriors in the NBA at 409 million. And then the Edmonton Brothers are third at 244 million more than Mercedes Formula One, more than the New England Patriots, more than the Toronto Maple Leafs. Is that bad? I mean, is it bad? No, I'm just saying when you say, I don't know how Gates is doing on it. I'm not sure. I think he's doing all right. Yeah, but I'm saying is that's that's today. Who knows down the road? And we're not, we built the arena, we built for Edmonton and to keep the hockey team here. And that was the goal. Hard swerve. Did you pay much attention to the Calgary Shaw by election? Short time ago. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah. Kind of an interesting one. A pretty popular cabinet minister, Rebecca Schultz, who actually think is super sharp. At one point, I said that I think that Rebecca Schultz could be a future premier of Alberta. There's two people on my list

1:11:37right now who I think could be future premieres of Alberta on the short list. She was one of them. Racky Panchol is the other different parties. Former minister Schultz is elected to take her talent elsewhere in a pretty safe conservative writing. So everybody thought the NDP rolls in and wins that by election. Now, I know the the premier looks at this and probably, you know, I mean, her public persona was we're going to work with a new MLA and work to serve the residents in Calgary Shaw behind the scene. She's got to be going, well, shit. The optics of it are tough, obviously. I want to ask you about the the third part. I don't want to say third party. I got to be careful in politics. I'm talking about another candidate in that writing that the premier pointed to as a vote splitter. But what do you make of that by election result? The NDP winning what was perceived to be a safe writing in Calgary? Well, I think there's a I'm guessing. I'm not I'm not as an expert as you are, but there's a backlash against these this referendum. I think

1:12:37backlash against the province getting too actively involved in everything municipal. I think that there's a disconnect between residents and the provincial government on a variety of issues. So, I think that had big part of it. You know, I think it's when you ever have a by election and the government is having challenges than the opposition has a much better chance of winning than the not. The reality is they didn't win by a lot. So we'll have to see what happens when there's a provincial election whether or not that's a trend that's going to continue. Yeah, people can check out I mean elections that AB.ca you can find all the results so that Calgary shot by election was September 14th, by the way. The the the UCP the candidate there's just under 6900 votes. The NDP candidate who won it that new MLA just over 7400 votes. And then you've got the progressive Tory party with just under a thousand 977 votes. So I mean, you know, the pessimist looks at that and

1:13:41says, you know, you know, like 7% of what the other conservative candidate got. But the optimist looked at that and says almost a thousand people out of the like 16,000 that voted elected to go with that candidate, even though they knew no offense, even though they knew that candidate probably wouldn't win. So you've been the leader of a political party that was not the so-called mainstream party of the Alberta party. I would say that the Alberta party had quite a bit more momentum, quite a bit more political experience, quite a bit more public awareness, like miles ahead of the progressivatories at this point. That's not to say they shouldn't keep working hard and it's not to say I'm taking a dump on what they're doing. But your thoughts on on that third contender and whether or not there's room and whether or not the next provincial election you think that if they're still led by Pete got three whether got three in his candidates could orchestrate something that could cause some ripples and have an impact at the Alberta legislature. Well, I talked to a lot of people and there's a great deal of frustration between, you know,

1:14:44between the current government and the NDP. There's people want to find a home somewhere in the middle and and they're they're concerned that they don't want to split the vote and cause the NDP to win at the UCP to win. So there's that that that concern there. But there's an awful lot of people that that would like to see a new party emerge with a more balanced view, a more clear view of how do you find good social policy but also good effective economic policy. And I and I think there is opportunities for Pete and I hope they do very well. I support them and and but it's going to be a tough road. You know, like any government or politics is all in lawful of how you can raise some money and how you can get your ideas across the public. And I think that they're trying very hard and I know Pete's working very hard and I hope that they do accept you well in the upcoming election. So you support you're saying you support them are like is this the first of you publicly stated that before? Why don't I have or not nobody's asked me. Are you just saying it's another story

1:15:45broken by real talk? Yeah, it's not what I think it's yet another yet another biggie by real talk. Why would you it's an uphill climb for that party? Which is obvious. You've never been afraid of an uphill climb. You're in an interesting position, right? Like you you serve for a brief period of time as Jim Prentice's health minister. It was an interesting situation wasn't it? Like not an MLA but you are the health minister, former mayor of Emmitson at the time, but you you've understood what it's like to be in government and then certainly in 2019 through that election, you understood what it was like to to be trying to provide a compelling option for folks that may have been outside how they would typically vote. So why the Tory party? Why do they have your energy, your enthusiasm? I'm assuming your donation. Well, I'm because I think they have a better balance. I think that they're a group of people that have a strong sense of the importance of proper business acumen within government, but also social policy. I'm a big believer that we need to make sure that those in need are taken care of. Our healthcare system needs to be improved. A variety of things need

1:16:47to be restructured and I don't think either one of the current parties will be able to do that. And I think that Tory party with a vision that Pete has, I've heard him speak, will hopefully implement that. It's going to be a tough road. I mean, people, you know, a lot of my friends say the same thing. We don't want to split the vote. We don't want to see, you know, in my group of people who don't want the NDP to come in. But the fact of Madras is that they're working very hard. Now hope they're successful. I got to check something in real time. I got a fact check something here to ensure that what I'm seeing is what I'm seeing. But yeah, we do check this out. Johnny, you can, you can show my screen. The party itself has a Facebook account. And they're watching this interview right now. Oh, and they're watching our livestream presented by California closets. Look at that. The progressive Tory party of Alberta says, hi, Stephen. Thanks for the shout out. I wonder who that is. I wonder if that's Pete or if it's one of his team members, but shout out to them for watching the show and for commenting. Yeah. Ryan. We've also got a bunch of other

1:17:48cut. Well, while I'm here in the heaping burning dumpster fire of Facebook comments, let me also note this from Cindy who says when you have a government that encourages you to do drugs and bands, your Bible, you get a dystopian country. Liberals are destroying this country. I miss the Mark Carney Bible ban that flew under my radar. I didn't catch that piece of legislation. Susan says she who would be queen is trying to control everything. The referendum. What a thing. Yeah, I think it's stupid. How come? I already know. But how come? I mean, everybody, how do you have to answer that question? I mean, I think I had a group of people I brought together last weekend and talked about it. And they're mostly new Albertans. And they're frustrated because they really see that as something that goes against them because I think what five of the nine questions are about having people that are new to Albert of being charged for a variety of things. But everybody who pays taxes, if you're in this province,

1:18:50you're working, you pay taxes. You're in this province, you're not working. You don't pay taxes. There's lots of other people that might not be paying taxes for a variety of reasons. So I think that this province become greater by the influx of the tremendous number of people. And the government, why did everybody to come here? There was all come down, Berda come down, Berda, lots of opportunity. Now they're here. We don't want you. That's ridiculous. Yeah. And they did. Well, I mean, the position that politicians are in is you can't really say, yeah, we did invite you all to come here. But we didn't mean like you. Yeah. And you, you, we met him and her, but, but not you. And that's the situation that they're in right now. And that's why I think it's kind of interesting. I've had some criticism. I don't know. And maybe some people have as well. I just tweeted no to the nine the other day to be talked to. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of Doug Stollery, the Stollery family. I think I think I have you ever heard of them. Yeah. Yeah. I had somebody accuse me of bringing on left wing communist Doug Stollery up to the show. That was just absolutely incredible. But yeah. So anyway,

1:19:51one of Canada's most revered lawyers was on the show the other day, Doug Stollery, former chancellor of the University of Alberta. And just like talked about Alberta values. It was like one of the most powerful couple of minutes we've had. I mean, wonderful. Wonderful. Wonderful. Smart as hell. This guy. And what do you can say? Anyway, I digress. So he talks about Alberta values and, and why he's pushing back on certain. So he was here with like Peggy Garrity and all bunch of other community leaders. And so I tweeted and I just said no to the nine. And it was really interesting. A lot of people were, were saying, you know, you're, you're sort of encouraging people by way of slogan to just blindly dismiss all nine questions without proper and due consideration. And I just thought that's because the whole exercise is ridiculous. And the premise of the entire exercise is ridiculous. And so the reason, and I'm happy to explain it to anybody is like the reason why I'm just going to say no to the nine, including no to the five on immigration is because the premise of the exercise is that immigrants in particular refugees. And we all are that. I'm an immigrant. Right. Family is immigrant. So George, my, my,

1:20:53my family's original history. I'm not going to get too into it because we've not exactly been victims. But was, was fleeing a German aggression. World war one and, and, and even prior to that, like if you look at the family's history, dairy farmers in Denmark, the German border was growing like this. They left and went through South Dakota. Came up like it's Alberta was an end of opportunity for my family. And, and like 130 years later, whatever it is, it's, it's opportunity for others. And, and I don't know, a lot of people quickly forget that. But I don't even need to hang my hat on that. I don't need to share my family story. I think generally speaking, when you start saying like our healthcare system is strained, our schools are bursting at the seams. Nurses, teachers, doctors don't feel as supported as they need this at the other. And then you start asking questions like, do you think that immigrants or new Canadians should have right then? What are you implying? You're implying that it's their fault. And it's not their fault. No, it's bad man. So that's why I'm saying no to the nine. Yeah. No, absolutely. I had this group of people. We had the no to the nine people come and speak. And it just doesn't make any sense.

1:21:53First of all, governments elected to make decisions. And if you're worrying about what people's opinions are, have a poll. Have a couple of polls. You'll find out what the thoughts are of different people. I mean, and maybe that's directly what you're going to do in your legislation. But to spend, I don't know how much you're spending on this stupid thing. But I had a friend of mine tell me that they're, they're going to be working in one of the polling stations and they haven't gotten near the number of people. People in incredibly frustrated. They're going to go to go vote and it's going to be a nightmare. Everything about this is, is, it just spells disaster. And then in the whole premise of it, as you say, is that it's about the new Canadians. And I think new Canadians have made this city great. And then look forward to them building a better Alberta, a more prosperous Alberta and a better future for themselves. J H says slogans are often wrong, oversimplified and fundamentally intellectually vapid. That was poetic. I had to read it. I like very good. And I kind of agree, but they work. Yeah. Well, they can be wrong, but they work. But slogan

1:22:54just slogans. People can't take a 700 page problem and start reading it. No one's going to listen. You need to condense it. And that's a slogan. What was yours again when you, when you, when you rocketed into the mayor's office, I saw an old campaign button. You're as I can't remember what it said. Do you remember? Less less something more cheer less something. Other words, here would be let's become a capital city again was a big one. Make Edmonton a capital again. You can't talk like that anymore. People would flip out red hats, white text. You mentioned polling. Did you, did you use polling as mayor at all? No. No. Do they do it at the municipal level? Like your, is there no, we don't have any money. Mission polls. Yeah, I know, right. They're expensive. They're expensive. No, we didn't do it. No. Money is a, it's very expensive to polling. And you know, they seem to people give a lot of money to the province of the feds because they have, they get tax deductions. You can't get the duct the money you get to cities. So no, we never need to pull. Do you think that should be a tax deductible donation? Absolutely. It's kind of weird that it's not right. What do we, we're just crap, you know, I just

1:23:56say how, how government street municipalities? We don't get into that today. Why not? Well, I don't know which time you got. I got all the time in the world. The premier was just talking to Albertan municipalities. There's like 1500 of them in the room. And, and we talked to mayor's Farcus and NAC the day after the address. People can check that out. It was our last Thursday episodes of three, four episodes ago, five episodes ago. On the heels of that address. And she had said a few things. And if you weren't there and don't have the context, don't worry about specific comment. But she basically said that she thinks that city councils should run more like provincial cabinet where they can meet in secret and everything else is open and transparent. The mayor has argued against it. Watch the episode to find out why. But she also mused about kind of allowing the municipalities to make kind of more of their own decisions. Why are they budding in all the time? Exactly. And I can imagine like eyes rolling across the room. I mean Jesus Murphy. It's one thing to say things that have some meaning to them. But to say that, that's ludicrous. I mean, they've budded more in the municipalities that I think any provincial government has since 1867. It's ridiculous. I have great sympathy

1:25:03for municipal governments trying to manage what they need to do with the provincial government. Always objecting to the things they might like to do. When I was mayor, we set up portfolios, which was like a cabinet position. People gain responsibilities and they were more effective by doing that. But the fact is that let cities run themselves and quit budding in. You think Daniel Smith could lose her job over this referendum either short or long term? It's interesting. The reason why let me set up the question a bit better. Number one, I know that there's a lot of people that feel like, I mean, you just expressed in your support for the progressive Tories, that a big part of that has to do with the referendum and how you feel about it. And I know that there's a lot of people that feel like they're conservative values are not paramount with this conservative party. In other words, they want small lean government, business, friendly policy, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But they are not devoid of compassion and empathy and open-mindedness and the like. As a matter of fact, they feel like maybe government should stay the hell out of people's lives as opposed to some of the moves this government has made. And then

1:26:07on the other flank, just ask Jason Kenney about this. You've got the separatists and the rabid right wingers, like the fringe right wingers that are basically threatening to come for her head, including the leaders of the separatist Jeff Rath is on a warpath against her. David Parker reportedly is conspiring against her. If he ever comes back to Alberta to face the music for releasing that electoral list, David, if you're watching from Texas. So she's facing opposition on all fronts. However, she's not the least popular Premier in Canada. She's not the motion. She's not the least. Can you see her making it through this unscathed or do you think ultimately the chickens may come home to roost? I hope not. I mean, I think that she's she's shown some courage and it's coming up recently talking about how she supports Canada. So well, well, I know. It's like throwing water on the fire you started. I know, but still, I mean, but and this, but I hope not. I mean, I think that's what's that's what destroy the conservative party of keep in fighting and in fighting, even though I don't support the party. You know, she was elected

1:27:11by Albertans and she has the support of her party. She had a somehow that a voting. She got 91% approval rating. I mean, like, why would they be going back and hashing this over? She has the right to lead the party and to lead the province of Alberta until the next election. And if and hopefully, you know, our the Tory party that I support would gain some seats and then help move out, Albert, into a more positive direction. But I know I hope I hope she doesn't get challenged even though she probably will. What's one thing I didn't ask you about that you were sort of expecting me to or hoping I would? No, nothing. No, I might my boy life. My life is great. I've got the best wife in the world and you do have the best way. I mean, aside from my wife, I get it. Oh, yeah. I don't want to be care. I don't want to be care. I want to create problems at home. Yeah, no, no, but Lynn is a legend. Yeah, she's my wife is tremendous. She's just a lucky sky in the world and your grandson's like six foot five now. No, he's almost six feet in the love of my life, my grandson. I go watch his basketball games. Your coach basketball. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and he's just piece of good player. It's a very good player. Is it true? Somebody told me once

1:28:15that you used to be able to dunk. I could dunk. Yeah. Yeah. What you're like, what are you five 11? Well, I was five 11. I'm shrunk. You know, dunking at five 11s a big deal. I could jump. Yeah, I could jump. Yeah, I could dunk. Yeah. I was so that went out. That was I was 24, 25. I was going to ask how old were you the last time you dumped? Probably 30. That's pretty good. It's good to see you, man. I appreciate your time. Always enjoy when you're here with us. You get people all fired up. You know, you still got it. I know, but I love, you know, I love your passion for all your sponsors and I use some of your sponsors into who are your favorites? I'm not going to park powers. I use park power. Yeah, they're really nice. Really nice deal with. Yeah, I agree. They actually answer the phone. Mm-hmm. And I find that I've got oh my god, a person answered the phone. They were real person and they helped you out. No, they're I really, I've been dealing with them because I have a I have a solar power in my building. I'm one of the larger solar power plants and Edmonton. Oh, yeah. Was it installed by Kubi Energy? I was sold by and by oh, don't say

1:29:16who was installed by that. I never know. Yeah. And you made a mistake there respectfully. Sorry, sorry. And I want to say the one that's told, but where do you buy your groceries? Where do you buy your car? For reasons, Mercedes. Avton West. Advancing West. Bommad. I go to I have a Mercedes. Yeah, I know. I know. And I get it serviced out there. They're great to deal with. Lovely people. You know, we're clipping this and sending this to all the sponsors. I don't care why all means do it. Do you need a custom suit from the helm? I don't wear a suit. I look like you need us to put I look like a bum anyway. Maybe this is the book you would lean in for a weekend in Jasper. Jasper.tra. Anyway, I'm pushing it out. I know. This is getting pathetic. Yeah. No, you know, we do love our sponsors. We love friends of the show. You've been a friend of the show since day one and long before that. Thanks for doing this. It's wonderful. I wish you all the best. And thank God, you do what you do. We need people like yourself to give a good, independent view and voice and opinion. Thank you. Thanks, Mayor. That means a lot. That's, can I still say his worship? I'm going to say it. His worship, a former Emanton Mayor, Stephen Mandel, in a feature interview

1:30:18presented by the dealership where he gets his car serviced. That's Mercedes Benz, Emanton West. This conversation happens with support from our friends at the Edmonton Chamber of Commerce. You can find them online at EdmontonChamber.com. They've been building Edmonton's business community since before Alberta was a province. Can you wrap your mind around that? The Edmonton Chamber was established in 1889. And on their website, you can find updates news and advocacy. Stay up to date on the work that the chamber is doing to represent business interests across the Metro Edmonton region. That includes a piece they've just posted on that West Coast oil pipeline, the Pacific link pipeline that designation is a major step. They say for market access, investment and economic growth. You can dig into it on the website. And also while you're there, browse their chamber events. They've got a big one coming up on the 13th of this month. That's a Tuesday. The cost of the Alberta referendum, a conversation with two former Alberta Premiers. That's Rachel Nottley and

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1:32:23Browse the programs and courses. Check out financial supports online at AthabascaU.ca. Our friends at UCanU services know that conversations like we've just had about public safety often focus on what happens after something goes wrong. But UCanU services is also interested in what happens before. By building relationships, by creating employment opportunities, by providing intensive supports, UCan is helping young people find different directions. You can learn more about their programs online at UCan.ca. They've moved into a new home within the last year. Super exciting right and downtown Edmonton just out the Grand McEwan University for Edmonton residents. A bit of a reference for you there, but that means that they've got to raise some dough so they can create a space where young people feel a sense of belonging where they can dream without limits where they can build their brighter future. If you'd like to consider a donation or maybe you're a business owner that can envision a partnership with UCan Grads, you can learn more about what they're doing online at

1:33:24UCan.ca. Before we get back into our live chat and of course to the Flamethrower, I want to remind you, I mean we talked about Gillian's submission just the other day, her Alberta win. We do that every single Thursday presented by our friends at PlayAlbert. Send us your Alberta win to talk at Ryan Jasperson.com. Check it out. PlayAlbert.ca slash real talk is where you can learn more about Albertans winning every day here with PlayAlbert because all the revenue, all the revenue goes back into programs and services that Albertans rely on every day. That's the only app in the province where that's the case. So whether you're playing betting or buying with casino sports or lottery, know that your fun is also supporting a good cause. You can learn more again at PlayAlbert.ca slash real talk. Don't forget you got to be 18 or over to play. And if you gamble, use your game sense. All right, thanks to Steve Amendelle for joining us, shooting from the hip saying what he thinks that's refreshing anytime in a talk show interview. And I saw from some of you like I saw

1:34:25Federer in our chat. It's great to see you in there says, yeah, he says I like Mandel, like I'm more than the current mayor, gotta be honest. Others of you are going, you gotta keep having Steve Mandel away from any new party. So polarized opinions, but that's the case with political leaders. That's the case with community leaders. And it's often or always the case with people that are responsible for big decisions. Not everybody's going to agree. Like I personally believe that that Edmonton arena deal has aged pretty well. I hate to think of what Edmonton's downtown would look like without the investment that has spun off from that new arena. I mean, Johnny, if you're being honest, the real talk studio here in the historic Mercer, where I was in downtown Edmonton is here and not just the only reason, but it's here in part because of the arena. We wouldn't be here on the edge of downtown. What was the edge of downtown? Had there not been a billion plus dollars plugged into just across the street from here, infusing energy, infusing investment into the area. So I mean, it just were one example. This small little startup

1:35:29were one example of I think the impact of attracting big investments to downtown. I understand why some people look at Darryl Kates as net worth. They look at the profitability of the oilers and they say Darryl Kates didn't need taxpayers to help him get this thing built. But at the end of the day, you probably have to look at it and say, if it wasn't built, if the oilers left Edmonton, I mean, can you imagine the impact that would have on the city? Sure. I don't think there was ever a serious conversation about them leaving. I think I know the same song and dance, everyone hates a billionaire, but you couldn't have been more right when you said it. Imagine all the businesses around here that I know exist simply because of the arena and all the businesses. And I know we've been talking about closures of several businesses. How many more do you think would have closed in this time period? Or would it be even open if we still had an aging decrepit, you know, older building north of the city, right? So downtown is still a puzzle. I love downtown. I'm downtown all the time.

1:36:33I'm a big purveyor of downtown. I still will say this as even though, you know, we've got a former mayor calling it a shittle. I believe it's safer than it's perceived to be. I believe it's funner. I believe the nightlife is better than people. Yeah, Calgaryen saying it's not as okay, sorry. We don't have a mountain backdrop here. Okay, Calgaryens. We don't have skiing like 30 minutes away. But like Edmonton is great. It's great downtown. It could definitely be better and it has problems that have been kind of this puzzle. And the arena is part of that puzzle piece definitely. But I see great things on the horizon as long as we keep investing in it and keep not just in businesses and not just about money and economy, but the community of downtown, the feeling of it. And obviously, you know, the problems we have with addiction and how houselessness. Awesome to see Scott frolic watching our livestream presented by California closets on Facebook. Scott, if it's the same Scott frolic, I'm sure it is a long time

1:37:38storyteller journalist. I think Scott weren't you in his Simon editor. He's worked in newsrooms for his whole career, but also his band, The frolics. I'll never forget hosting breakfast television. The frolics came in for sound check. This used to be insane, man. We would put a band on the air live at like eight in the morning, which meant that they had to be into setup at like five, 36 o'clock. They would sound check during commercial breaks. It was nuts. And I remember Scott telling me they were rolling into play a show in the breakfast television studio. I think that they had been like, they were like four hours removed from a gig that they had played the night before. And that night, Scott frolic in my mind, Scott, you became a legend that next morning. Scott says, steve mendell could dunk. He says, no wonder he was the best mayor we've had over the past 20 years. That from Scott. I was surprised when I heard it too. Do you know anybody five, 11 that can dunk or that could dunk? Could you ever dunk? I don't think I could ever dunk. I was a threes guy. I remember in grade eight, I'm still mad about this. I'm only going to talk

1:38:40for 30 seconds, but they had a three point competition. I wasn't even on the basketball team. But like, if you made a couple rounds, you could go to this final comp and it was like six dudes. And I lost by like one basket. And you know when they do the announcements the next day, like, oh, the winners of the three, I'm like, oh, yes, I'm going to get at least like I was so close to Chris Paldiac. I still remember you, buddy, captain of the basketball. Do we like Chris or no? Are we going to use this opportunity? He was a good guy. But like the fact that like he beat me by one three point basket, you know when you go over, you got the five at each point. Yeah, yeah, like NBA, yeah, try and get him in a certain amount of time. Anyways, I was like, at least I'm going to get mentioned after this guy, right? It's second place. And they're like, and the winners of the blah blah. Chris Paldiac in first place. And in other news, I was like, God damn it. No respect. No respect. But no, couldn't couldn't couldn't get couldn't get down on the rim, son. Okay. I don't want to tell my three point story now because it's going to look like I'm big dog in

1:39:41you. I think I've told it on the show before I got to tell it. I'm sorry. I got to tell it. Calgary High School basketball all-star game 1994. John, every high school got to send one shooter. This the Henry Wisewood Warriors sent me. And I won the whole damn thing. It was the city of Calgary High School basketball all-star game three point shooting champion. And do you know what I won in 1994? If you can imagine this, what? A six month term. Keep in mind guys, 1994, a six month term with a motorola cell phone. But it was like the big brick ones. Like it was cream colored with the red LED numbers. And it made noise like when you dialed the number. It was like, there's like the ones that the guys have on their belt when they're up on the telephone poles. You had to screw in the antenna. But nobody had cell phones at that point. And they were prohibitively expensive. Like I remember I would get my bills. So I had it for six months paid for. It's actually an amazing prize for a high school student. The bills were like $1,000 a month in

1:40:441994. But then they would just be wiped out right because it was free. But tell us what semi the bills and I would see it. I'd be on like a spare everyone. It was a novelty. 1994 out at the smoke doors. You know this goes in high school. But then I'd have to go to class. I'd have to go to class. My friends would be like, can we borrow the phone for the hour? I'd be like, oh yeah, do whatever you want. Use the phone for now is unbelievable. It's like when the that's six months of my life. The first car phones. Remember the bricks? Oh yeah. If you like, let me use the brick for later. And then you'd be like, your head out the car because you're like trying to the reception was like two, 50 a minute. Loved it. It's like, keep the calls short. Look like Zach Morris. Speaking of old shows, we sound like we sound like Al Bundy right now from Marriedwen Jump Speaking of Polk High School 1966. Glorious ship game four touchdowns one game. It's okay. We'll cut all this out of the podcast. J best says I won an intramural basketball championship metal in grade 10. Just me says nobody was more shocked than me. Says I barely even remember participating in that final game. Did you see Mr. Belding died by the way principal belting?

1:41:45I was well that's I was I was kind of all over the place. I was trying to transition to it. Then I went away from it and then you said all right. So yeah, he's yeah, Mr. Belding, if everyone didn't know that yeah, the the actor who played him passed away. Yeah, I believe like 40. And saved by the bell. Not very old either. I mean, I think it was in his he was seven. Oh my. Something but gosh yeah. Wow. 75. Yeah, I didn't realize that which today people are like oh, well, he looks a fool. I don't know man. Nowadays. No, if you're not living the late 80s. Yeah, I don't even I don't even want to say what number I think is a good number because someone's going to be listening to this. I'm just going to be older than that number. And they're going to take that as me saying that yeah. So let's just say we wish you all a journey to ripe old age or to whichever age you envision sticking around for how's that stick around till you're ready to go.

1:42:45JJ says, Jessbo, like the rings on a tree dating himself with the BAM BAM BAM. I mean, it's true. But I feel dated every single day in a number of different directions that tragically hip. I mean, we just celebrated. That was one of the most fun episodes we did all summer. Wasn't it on the 10 year anniversary of the hips final showing Kingston. I love that episode. We did this summer. But I follow like every hip account you can imagine on Instagram and all of the formative albums that were like the soundtrack to my youth. They're all releasing the album covers now saying like 34 years ago today. The hip released this album like 34 years ago. What is going on? Geez. All right, real talkers. Here's how this goes as if I needed to tell you as we wrap up every week here on the show. We hand the conch over to you for your absolute hottest takes. Your fireiest emails and YouTube comments proudly presented by our friends at the DQ's of

1:43:46Northwest Edmonton and Sherwood Park. It's the flames roar. We lead things off with Squatch 545 who says the Pacific link pipeline is not a project of national interest. It is a project of corporate and UCP interest next week. Disaster Danny will be wanting yet another pipeline. The whole world is electrifying by the time this latest pipeline boon dog will get built to man for Alberta. Heavy sour crude will have dropped even further that from Squatch. What about this one from Fox Faced Alberta says nobody in Alberta wants a government funded pipeline. Literally nothing has changed. We want the government to repeal its stupid laws and get out of the way so the private sector can fund it. Alberta is sick and tired of equalization and taxation without representation. None of that has changed. This is grandstanding by two corrupt politicians. This pipeline is never getting built. It will get cancelled the day after the referendum. I guarantee it won't. How about

1:44:49this from Alberta first? Who says the Liberal Party of Canada is not nationalizing Alberta's energy again. We've been through that before under PR Trudo Trudo and it collapsed our economy. More than 30% of Alberta families were bankrupted. I mean that's not true but it was bad. And lost their homes and businesses. It took us 40 years to recover from PR Trudo's NEP. Laurentian elites in Canada are sitting on trillions of dollars where the boiling gas they need to get to work and harvest it. More than 25 million people live out east and they can pay their own bills. The forced equalization payments from Alberta are ending in all caps. That from Alberta first. Then how about this one from Kevin V who says, guys, honestly until I see a shovel in the ground, I won't believe it. The last time that Daniel Smith and Mark Carney got together, the only thing that Albertans got out of it was a huge carbon tax. I don't believe for one second this is actually a pipeline that will get built. I think this is BS at a time where steel and auto companies are packing up and leaving. BC's election is underway and Alberta's independence is unfolding. This is

1:45:55a plan to stall that from Kevin. How about this from good mama who didn't necessarily love our conversation about Pierre and Anna Pulle of AI Dance video. This was on Tuesday of this week four episodes ago. So, Priya DeVetti, Moa Mir and myself, good mama says obviously Ryan, you've never sat down and had an unbiased non-partisan conversation with Pierre Pulle of. Number one, how are you going to have a non-partisan conversation with a politician, good mama? And number two, you're right, I've never sat down and had a good conversation with him because he said no to 2020 interview requests. Back your email. He's about as normal and down to Earth, Canadian as you can get. Hard disagree. His job is protecting Canadians and making sure our hard earned tax dollars are not being wasted and to call the government out when he sees waste and bad decisions that are benefiting insiders. We agree there. He's funny, he's down to Earth, and he's looking out for Canadians in our economic growth and future. Don't you want an opposition that holds government

1:46:58accountable to you looking up for everyday Canadians here at home? Yes, good mama, I do. And if you know Pierre, tell them to get back to us. Doors always open. How about this one from Carmen who writes in on the heels of Daniel Smith's emotional video address while talking about the dark years of Trudot 2.0? Do you remember that? Does Canada even want us anymore? Well Carmen says I took the liberty of swapping out every oil and gas reference in Premier Smith's recent emotional video with the reality that Alberta teachers have faced since the UCP took office. She says Ryan, please read this in a shaky voice that resembles crying. I'm not going to do that because it might come across as making fun of somebody for wearing their heart on their sleeve, but I'll read your words Carmen, because they're good. She says our future depends on education. See, she's swapping it out for oil and gas. Our future depends on education. And for years it felt like Daniel Smith didn't care about education in Alberta. We watched teachers burn out. We ignored growing class sizes. Then,

1:47:59Alberta's teachers decided a strike was the only way to get Daniel Smith's attention. We watched as Daniel Smith used the knot with standing claws. She aimed this legislation at our group. Alberta teachers mean time teachers put up with terrible working conditions and endured roughly twice as much disrespect from the Alberta provincial government. Year after year teachers pleaded for help and nothing came back and far too often teachers were told that they were the problem. So when proud teachers feel their contributions are being taken for granted and their livelihood is unfairly treated as something to be ignored, some begin to ask a painful question. Does this premier actually want us? Well said, Carmen, wouldn't expect anything less from an educator. You can be like Carmen and everybody else. Fire up your flame thrower to talk at RyanJesperson.com or leave a comment on our YouTube episodes. We keep an eye on them and we pick the best for this feature final episode of every week, proudly presented by the Deacuse and Palisades Nomeo Newcastle Westmov and baseline

1:49:02road. When you pop in for a flame thrower signature stack burger and a double chocolate cherry blizzard, you let them know that real talk sentia. We're back at it Monday. Have a great weekend. Keep it real and one love. Real Talk is hosted by Ryan Jesperson, executive producer Josh Dunford, technical producer John Hicks, general manager Katie Cook-Tivers, a camp coordinator Lawrence Durlego, human resources Lena Shepherd, website design Mike Johnston, voiceover by me, Kerry Skeleton, member emerita Julie Roar. Real Talk is recorded in Edmonton, Alberta on Treaty 6 territory, the traditional and ancestral territory of the Cree, Denne, Blackfoot, Soto, and Dakota Sioux, home to the Métis settlements and the Métis Nation of Alberta. Real Talk is a relay project. For more, check out RyanJesperson.com.