West of Centre

Buckle up and keep your hands on the bar, Albertans! The province’s ride on the resource revenue roller coaster continues, and the latest $9.4 billion drop is enough to make a staunch fiscal conservative lose their lunch. The latest budget update projects three consecutive years of red ink and increased borrowing to fund critical public services, with no clear track back to balance.

This week on West of Centre, host Kathleen Petty has assembled three big brains to critique this latest dive loop in Alberta’s fiscal trajectory. Economist Trevor Tombe and political scientist Lisa Young from the University of Calgary join the CBC’s own writer and producer Jason Markusoff, a veteran of more than 20 provincial budgets.

Tombe breaks down why the province is now more reliant on resource revenue than it has been since Don Getty’s days. Young explains why this year’s fiscal roadmap feels more like an election budget. And Markusoff analyzes why Albertans may be more receptive to deficits than in years past…and he learns about plosives!

Host: Kathleen Petty
Guests: Lisa Young, Trevor Tombe, Jason Markusoff
Producer: Diane Yanko

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has some questions she wants Albertans to answer. Nine of them, to be exact.

That’s how many referendum questions Smith announced in a televised speech that she’s going to put to Albertans on Oct. 19.

They range from constitutional reform to abolish the Senate and change who picks judges, to several that would directly affect some immigrants and the services they receive.

To unpack the proposed immigration changes, host Jason Markusoff is first joined by Raj Sharma, an immigration lawyer based in Calgary. He argues many of the questions appear outside Alberta’s jurisdiction.

Then, the panel breaks down the rest of the premier’s address. Journalist Rob Breakenridge says the referendum could serve as a distraction in advance of a bad-news budget. Evan Menzies, a vice-president at Crestview Strategy and former head of communications for the United Conservative Party, says there are reasonable questions to be debated amongst the proposals. Finally, Shannon Greer, a senior consultant at New West Public Affairs, who worked in Rachel Notley’s NDP government, says the government is sending contradictory messages.

• Host: Jason Markusoff
• Guests: Raj Sharma, Rob Breakenridge, Evan Menzies and Shannon Greer
• Producer: Joel Dryden

What does a kid from Nanton, Alta., write in his private journals after spending his days influencing some of Pierre Elliott Trudeau's most controversial policies?

This week on West of Centre, host Kathleen Petty takes a peek into The Coutts Diaries: Power, Politics, and Pierre Trudeau 1973-1981, with the book's editor, Ron Graham. As the prime minister's principal secretary, Jim Coutts was said to have exercised more backroom power than anyone else in modern Canadian political history. He was everywhere that mattered during the Trudeau era 50 years ago, and then went home and wrote a lot of it down.

Just as you'd expect from a diary, Coutts' offers juicy insight into exactly what he thought of both Alberta premier Peter Lougheed and Progressive Conservative Party leader Joe Clark. His entries reveal how influential he was as the reviled National Energy Program was being devised in the spring of 1980. And his private anxieties about inflation, affordability, energy prices and Western alienation read like they could have been written today.

As Albertans' anger toward Ottawa reached a boiling point, Coutts understood the West's legitimate grievances. But his diaries show he was a strategist first, who prioritized his party's survival no matter the cost to his reputation back home.

Host: Kathleen Petty
Guest: Ron Graham
Producer: Diane Yanko

Grab your snacks and beverages and settle in for a West of Centre twofer, no coupon required.

First, host Kathleen Petty reconvenes our citizens’ panel — Chelsea, Darryl, and Sunil — to get their perspectives on the latest happenings in Alberta. Darryl, who identifies as "blue through and through" describes his recent trip to Ontario and how Alberta politics is perceived by some in the east (Hint: it isn’t flattering). Sunil, a disappointed Conservative supporter, feels that Alberta has legitimate issues within Confederation, but questions the premier’s current tactics. Meanwhile, Chelsea is struggling to connect the dots on how some of the moves the provincial government is making will benefit everyday Albertans.

And then, as the April 1 deadline approaches for the next step to getting approval on a new bitumen pipeline to B.C., two energy industry insiders offer new insight into who might step forward to build it. Ian Anderson, the former president and CEO of Trans Mountain, recounts his experience developing that project, and the specific challenges with both the Port of Prince Rupert and Roberts Bank. And Sonya Savage, the former Alberta energy minister, shares what she’s hearing from investors as they watch the ongoing drive to force a referendum on separation.

Host: Kathleen Petty
Guests: Chelsea Matisz, Darryl Stanier, and Sunil Shah; Ian Anderson and Sonya Savage
Producers: Diane Yanko and Josh Pagé

It’s a wrap for the Conservative Party Convention in Calgary. Leader Pierre Poilievre secured an 87.4 per cent vote of confidence. Now that he’s won over the delegates, the focus for him and the party becomes winning over Canadians.

West of Centre host Kathleen Petty is joined this week by two Conservative insiders who were also at this weekend’s convention. Amber Ruddy, Alberta's national councillor for the Conservative Party of Canada and a vice-president at Counsel Public Affairs; and Ian Brodie, a University of Calgary political scientist, senior advisor at New West Public Affairs, and former chief of staff to prime minister Stephen Harper.

They muse about when Canadians might next go to the polls and whether the Conservatives are ready (they are); how much more explicitly Poilievre and Alberta’s premier will have to speak about the spectre of separatism if momentum continues to pick up in Alberta and Quebec (much, much more); and where Poilievre might run in the next election (Carleton again?! One panelist thinks so).

Host: Kathleen Petty
Guests: Ian Brodie, Amber Ruddy
Producer: Diane Yanko