Following the appalling comments by then UCP candidate Jennifer Johnson regarding trans kids, Jonathan and the Leduc Pride began trying to reach out to Johnson to try and not only educate her, but also to heal the community. Johnson hasn't committed to a time yet, but Jonathan isn't giving up and he took some time to share with us a bit of the progress he and Leduc Pride are making in their community! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Threads!

On this live episode of The Breakdown, we take a look as the anti-LGBTQs+ protests that are claiming to be protecting kids, but more and more it looks like they're weaponing them! From there we take a look at the BC Ports strike, the Preston Manning Report, the toxic supply crisis, the catastrophic drop in FIrst Nations life expectancy, before we get into Danielle Smith's recent interview with the Rebel and the retconning of her being found to break the law. All this and we end up our round up with some of the wildest ABPoli tweets of the last week! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Threads!

We're excited to present a conversation with Executive Director for the Queer Alberta Safety Net William Conner! The QASN started out as a grassroots facebook community providing mutual aid support for members of the LGBTQ2S+ community and with the rise of hate targeting their community have made the decision to rise to the challenge! We chatted with Will to learn the history of the QASN and where they intend to go from here! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On this episode of The Breakdown... This week, Leduc made the news for all of the wrong reasons, and we try and put some proper context and apply some facts to the hate filled rants that came out of the Leduc CIty Council chamber. Take Back Alberta also made the news with not a small amount of internal and external drama, the Hinshaw hiring and Un-hiring spent a lot of time in the news and in what likely comes as no surprise Alberta premier Danielle Smith made headlines with her outright rejection of harm reduction, so we take a look at what she said and what the evidence, and fact actually are! All this and a whole lot more! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On this episode of The Breakdown... What's all the fuss about Supreme Court judges? What are the scandals with Danielle Smith and why is the NDP calling for an RCMP investigation? It turns out the Hinshaw memo was REAL! What was behind that survey that made so many people so upset? And we have a chat with Disability Advocate Don Slater who raised concerns about whether or not the province will ensure that C-22 is used to support people on AISH/Disability and that the province doesn't claw back any of the federal funding targeted to lift disabled Canadians out of poverty! You can send an email a to the Minister of Community and Social Services at SCSS.minister@gov.ab.ca with the simple message to ensure there are no clawbacks when C-22 comes into effect in Alberta! All this and a whole lot more! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Collin May is a highly educated lawyer who made the news in 2022 when he was appointed to be the chair of the Alberta Human Rights Commission, but that was only the start of his media coverage… Later that year, an academic book review he provided was portrayed as being Islamophobic by some and racist by others. Collin was eventually fired from his position by the government and has since initiated multiple legal actions. We sat down with Collin to hear his story and what he shares is not only shocking, but a potential glimpse as to how political parties will go to extreme lengths to cover up their own mistakes. As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

If you thought Alberta Politics were going to be less dramatic after the election... That's definitely not the case. So on this episode, we try to make a little sense of all the drama of the last week, from the real stats about the wildfires being investigated for arson to Danielle Smith using her platform as premier to plug her restaurant and then claiming to be cancelled from Facebook when she wasn't! All of this and our usual Speakers Corner! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

He's been a hard core conservative activist, a firebrand city councilor and for the last two years he has been on something of a journey of self discovery that has led him across a continent, up more than a few mountains and sees him recently teaming up with former Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi to call out the UCP and their candidates. We sat down with Jeromy to hear his story in his own words for a fascinating conversation that covers a tremendous amount of ground! And yeah, we get into the arena deal. As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

TIme for another roundup! We start of by taking a look at Danielle Smith's revisionist history attempts (from just this week) before we cover off the air quality complaints in schools here in Calgary followed by a look at Smiths new cabinet! And then, we do a deep dive on the recent audio from an Edmonton School where a teacher has become the centre of controversy from alleged Islamophobic comments, and we ask the question, but were the comments actually the way they're being portrayed in what is likely one of our most controversial episodes to date! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

With Adriana Lagrange being the newly appointed minister of health, we decided to do our very first episode mashup! Back in December of 2021, we started telling a story of a potential abuse of power by Lagrange to ensure wealthy donors got paid as part of the mask procurement for kids in school, and that story ended up spanning almost an entire year! So in recognition of Lagrange's new appointment, we've put the entire saga into one bonus episode! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

With the election dust settling,we sat down again for another chat with former MLA, Minister and Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk for his thoughts on what went right and what went wrong in election 2023 as well as what the future holds for Alberta and how Albertans can make that future as positive as possible! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On another weekly run down of the week in Alberta politics, we take a look at how so far, 2 new MLA's who were faced scandal over comments they made about the Trans community during the election have both failed to acknowledge Pride Month despite commitments to "do the work". From there we take a look at how multiple UCP MLA's (past and present) manage to fail upward despite major lapses in judgement and we take a look at the massive job cuts coming out of the oil patch! All this and more plus our weekly live Speakers Corner! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We're back and coming in hot! On this episode we get through the last couple of days since the election before we get into the first of several deeps dives! We start with a look at the election itself before presenting a SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis of the NDP campaign that we've been putting together with conversations with experts for the last couple of weeks! From there we get into our open mic and the anxiety that many are experiencing with the election of Smith and the re-election of the UCP before Ziad Fazel breaks down what we know about the arena deal and how badly taxpayers are apparently getting taken advantage of which also sees a surprise appearance and commentary from Jeromy Farkas! It's possibly our longest episode yet, but we cover A LOT of ground! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram at at @thebreakdownab

With affordability on the forefront of many minds, we sat down with energy economist David Gray to try and make sense of why it is that electricity prices continue to skyrocket! Not only that, but David has been active in politics for more than a few years and had a front row seat to Danielle Smith's infamous floor crossing, so we get his insight on that as well! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On the eve of the election, we sat down with 6 (then) Alberta Party candidates to have an extended discussion on Where, Who and Why is the Alberta Party. That conversation covered the candidates and their own histories, why they chose to run for the Alberta Party and a whole lot more. If you're interested in what on of the smaller option parties is all about, this episode is for you! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We're 10 days into the Alberta Provincial Election and it's already shaping up to be one of the most controversial campaign trails in living memory! To start with, we try and break down the major events of the last week, including the ongoing UCP scandals, Danielle Smith's tattoo (does that really have to be an election issue? Really?) and a whole lot more before we get into... The videos. Multiple new videos of Danielle Smith making wildly controversial comments made the rounds on social media this week, including ones where she spelled out her apocalyptic vision of health care delivery in Alberta as well as two that created significant outrage for her comparison of 75% of Albertans to supporters of the nazi regime and claiming that health protections ruined Remembrance Day for her. As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We are extremely excited to present this long form conversation with the legendary Charles Adler! We cover a lot of ground in this chat, starting with his history in media, his shock at where Alberta "conservatism" has gone, his endorsement of Rachel Notley and his historic interview with Jason Kenny during the 2019 election! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

4.56 - On our very first mid-week round-up, we’re joined by politico and strategist Sarah Biggs to try and get caught up on the events of Alberta politics since our last episode, and there’s a lot! Danielle Smith and the UCP continue to crank out scandals, we take a look at the Super PAC that has seized control of much of the UCP “Take Back Alberta”, we run down the Q3 political party fundraising numbers and we chat about the NDP decision to remove a candidate after that candidate spoke out against a racist video and criticized the Stampede Board! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Danielle Smith is pushing a program called R* (R- Star) to encourage resource development and well sitecleanup, but there’s no shortage of critics condemning the program. We sat down for an in-depth discussion with Mark Dorin and Regan Sawchuk to learn a little more about this program and why it’s so controversial! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

In a special live episode recorded on November 8th during the byelection that saw the election of Danielle Smith to the Alberta Legislature, we combined our weekly rundown of Alberta politics with a live play by play of the byelection and all of the implications with the help of political strategist Sarah Biggs and political pundit Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On another live episode of The Breakdown, we run down the last week in Alberta politics with help from Sarah Biggs and Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean starting with the ongoing health care crisis before moving on to mandate laters, addiction myths and finally we somehow land on dinosaurs walking with humans! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Continuing with our new format of running episodes twice a week, we run down the last week in Alberta politics with help from Sarah Biggs and Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean! With education minister Adriana Lagrange making blatantly false comments about masking at a recent press conference, we start by asking where the real leadership is on in addressing the respiratory virus that’s cutting through Albertas kids right now. From there we get into the new mandate letters, Danielle Smiths apparently debunked claims about her ancestry and a whole lot more! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On another live episode of The Breakdown, we run down the big events in Alberta politics with help from Sarah Biggs and Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean! We start with the costs of the border blockades, Smiths false Cherokee claims, Indigenous condemnation for the “Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act” and we pull back the covers a bit on Danielle Smiths proposed train from Calgary to Banff and look at where the motivations might be coming from and who stands to gain! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On this live episode of The Breakdown, we run down the big events in Alberta politics with help from Sarah Biggs and Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean with a special focus on the recent televised address from Danielle Smith and the kinda-sorta announcements she made! Before that though, we get into Smiths continued heritage scandals, more Shantrums from Justice Minister Tyler Shandro and the recent communications debacle from the Alberta Paramedic Association! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Danielle Smith worked extremely hard to change the channel on her many incendiary comments on Wednesday with her paid provincial address, but it seems like she’s already committed to changing the channel back after her stunning comments on vaccination on her weekly “You province, your premier” radio show, and with the help of Sarah Biggs and Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean, we try to make sense of that! We also take a look at the ongoing health care crisis, trailers at the Children’s Hospital in Calgary, the recent limitations on health protections from health minister Adriana Lagrange, and we spend an inordinate amount of time breaking down the NDP’s odd fixation on margarine and ask them, in the kindest words possible, to just do butter… As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On November 29th, Danielle Smith finally unveiled her Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act, and as much as people were expecting it to be be bad, it turns out it’s actually much worse and gives the UCP the power to create and change laws with no oversight whatsoever. To try and make sense of it, we held a special live episode with the help of Deirdre Mitchell-MacLean that got more than a little feisty! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Danielle Smith has finally introduced her Alberta Sovereignty Act and despite the wide expectation that it was going to be watered down, to the shock of many it is actually much, much worse! We sat down with Sarah Biggs who has been in Edmonton for the throne speech and the introduction of the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act as well as Deirdre Mitchell-Maclean to try and figure out some of the implications of this democratically corrosive piece of legislation. As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The last few days have been moving at breakneck speed in Alberta politics. In under 4 days we went from having UCP MLA’s and Ministers swearing that Smiths Sovereignty Act was perfect to having Smith herself acknowledge some of the foundational flaws that exist within the act, and we try and track that all down. In addition we’re joined by advocate Don Slater to get his take on AISH being reindexed before we’re joined by strategist and politico Sarah Biggs to try and make sense of the rollercoaster that is Alberta Politics! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

There’s a pediatric health crisis in Alberta and with it a major shortage of children’s tylenol (acetaminophen) and childrens ibuprofen. On Monday Danielle Smith announced that she had arranged for the purchase of 5 Million bottle of children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen. Only problem is, the company that she bought it from doesn’t make it yet, they aren’t legally allowed to seek drugs Canada yet, and many estimates put the drugs arriving in the spring of 2023. Plus the press conference was a disaster. So with the help of Sarah Biggs, we break down all of that, the recent resignation of two deputy CMOH’s and we have a special visit from our newest pawlitical analyst! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On this episode we unpack the roll out of of Bill 1 and it’s fascinating evolution from a Bill that Smith sold to an angry base as being a Bill that would redefine how Alberta relates to confederation to it’s current form which appears to be business as usual with added red tape and the flawed expectation that MLA’s can interpret the constitution better than the courts. Plus, she’s really angry about straws. We also take a much deeper look at Danielle Smith’s bizarre decision to buy 5 million bottles of children’s medication from a company that isn’t approved to make them by Health Canada with @ZiadFazel before looking at the ongoing collapse of health care, the new police act and more! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The UCP is having a rather bumpy start to the week… First Danielle Smith announced that despite an ongoing health care crisis and trailers parked outside of the Children’s Hospital in Calgary that she was being told that it was unimaginable that healthcare could be doing any better. But then the real fireworks started when Smith equated the oppression and genocide of Indigenous peoples under colonialism to the relationship that Alberta has with Ottawa, followed up by the minister of Advanced Education releasing a video that referenced a literal manual on white supremacy for Alberta as being a cultural touchstone. So we try and unpack all of that with the help from politico and strategist Sarah Biggs! Plus we take a look the problems that substitute teachers are facing here in Alberta! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

As we head into the homestretch for the year (and maybe even a short break over the holidays), we try and get a handle on not only where Alberta Politics is heading but where we actually even are right now! To try and get a clear view of this, we sat down with provincial politics prognosticator and political scientist Dr. Lisa Young and chatted about the current state of Alberta, what’s happened to the level of our political conversation and what political parties in Alberta might need to do in order to not only get ahead in this new landscape but also maybe (?) try and make things better for Albertans! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

It’s our second last show of 2022! And while we still have one show left in the year, MLA’s and Ministers called it early this week, ending the latest legislative session early despite having limited debate and rushed through legislation! Also, Alberta has a surprise new member of cabinet with Parliamentary Secretary for Civil Liberties, Tracey Allard being appointed with literally no announcement! We try and make sense of all of this and more with the help from our chief WTAF correspondent Sarah Biggs! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We’re back from break! We start by running through the events of the last few weeks in Alberta Politics including taking a look at new UCP nominations, the importance of one vote, Danielle Smiths walking back of pretty much all of her leadership race promises before we do a deep dive on the “Take Back Alberta” Initiative that has been buying up NHL game advertising time to see who is behind them and how they’re connected to Smith. (It’s pretty close) Then we sit down with @ZiadFazel to hear his concerns about masks for healthcare workers, especially for health care workers who are working with the elderly and the vulnerable in long term care facilities. Zaid explains his understanding of the history of mask procurement in Alberta and he has a lot of questions that sound like they very much need some answers! Plus we’re again joined by Sarah Biggs to try and make sense of it all! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On this episode, we take a look at the recent provincial political party fundraising numbers, the effective of the gas tax being cut (again), we try and fill in the blanks on on a recent story about Danielle Smith’s Chief of Staff and we take yet another look at the ongoing children’s fever medicine purchase by the UCP from a company that wasn’t allowed to seek those drugs here. As always, we’re joined by Sarah Biggs to try and makes sense of it all! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Danielle Smith and the UCP have announced to task forces to address social issues, but there are a lot of people who are raising some very serious concerns around the motivations and methods of these task forces. One of those people is Euan Thomson, founder of the harm reduction group Each & Every. We sat down with Euan to hear what his concerns are in regards to these task forces and why he’s concerned that instead of harm reduction, they might well just be causing more harm… As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On another one of our Alberta Politics round-ups, we take a look at the embarrassing controversy surrounding UCP Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Nick “S-CLub” Milliken and his weekend of embarrassing and brutally ignorant tweets. Plus we do a bit of a deep dive on exactly what is this “Just Transition” that has the UCP all up in arms and more! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

The start of this week saw two press conferences from the UCP government that didn’t go very well at all… First we saw the “Affordability” Presser where UCP Minister Nate Glubish effectively admitted that the UCP had dropped the ball on several programs during COVID and then inexplicably couldn’t explain why the Alberta government had opted to create a costly program that delayed affordability payments instead of working with the CRA like BC. But then we saw a Danielle Smith Press Conference that saw the revelation that the UCP apparently had botched the application for children’s medications and was now pushing costs onto AHS as well as her some remarkable journalism that saw her fact checked real time in a way that she didn’t seem at all prepared for. To help make sense of all of this, we’re joined again by politico and strategist Sarah Biggs! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

We’re super excited to be able to share this episode! Lydia Greene is one of the founders of backtothevax.com, a grassroots organization working to dispel vaccine hesitancy and she comes to it from a place of very real personal experience! Lydia spent years immersed in the extreme anti-vax/wellness culture but has since come out the other side and is now not only working to better inform people but also pursuing a career in healthcare/public health! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On Thursday Danielle Smith flipped the world of Alberta Politics on its head (again) by stating at a press conference that she had been directing prosecutors to look at specific cases, which would be a huge violation of the independence of Crown Prosecutors. What followed was a dizzying few days where statements were issued, Smith offered multiple clarifications and ultimately it was said on her weekly radio show that there would not be any kind of an investigation. We walk through all of the events and we try and make sense of it all with the help of politico and strategist Sarah Biggs! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

It's January 18th and we're back to talking about the "Just Transition" because that seems like it's all we talk about in Alberta these days... On Tuesday Danielle Smith falsely claimed that the "Just Transition" would eliminate up to 2.7 million jobs, and despite being corrected by, well, pretty much everyone, she has continued to double down on this ridiculous claim. Add to that the fact that Opposition leader Rachel Notley finally took the bait and also condemned the federal plan (that hasn't yet been detailed) to retrain workers laid off by automation and efficiency for jobs in green energy and it's been a wild, wild week. We also take a look at the partial privatization of EMS in Alberta, the recent win for Take Back Alberta in Jason Nixon's constituency and we count another few ways that Danielle Smith has played her base! And of course, strategist and politico Sarah Biggs joins us to try and make some sense of it all! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Danielle Smith announced her new COVID Inquiry Chair, and it's a figure well known in Alberta Politics, Preston Manning! But there's some very important questions about Prestons payday and the kind of bias that he's potentially bringing to the inquiry. Also, on Thursday, yet another scandal broke in regards to the Smith government potentially trying to influence the independent Crown Prosecutors Office when CBC broke another story. This comes on the heels of Smith trying to walk back multiple comments where she has said that she herself had contacted the Crown Prosecutors office. And of course, strategist and politico Sarah Biggs joins us to try and make some sense of it all! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro finally has his hearing with the law society and for inexplicable reasons, his defense has spent a surprising amount of time debating whether or not Tyler actually cried on the day he showed up to confront a physician in their driveway. Plus! The privatization of Alberta Health care continues and we recap the ongoing scandal and new revelations from the last days about Danielle Smith and the premiers office allegedly trying to influence prosecutors, apparently in part on the advice of... Ezra Levant? And of course, strategist and politico Sarah Biggs joins us to try and make some sense of it all! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

What was the Alberta Party thinking? That's the question that we kick off this episode with after they deployed a clunky AI Avatar in a new video this week. From there we move into the ongoing developments in Justice Minister Tyler Shandros hearing with the Law Society, skyrocketing insurance rates and why the UCP's measures won't make the impact people need, the ongoing health care crisis and Smith's bizarre pivot on Justin Trudeaus "Just Transition". As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Many people know "True North" as a fairly far right conservative media platform, but as we started to try and pull back the curtains on their story, we were shocked to find out just how intertwined they are with a number of other organizations, most shocking of all that they share a "Corporate Headquarters" address with none other than Danielle Smiths "Free Alberta Strategy" PAC! Strap in, because this is one wild ride! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On this episode, we take a look at the latest events in Alberta Politics, including the walk back of Smith's COVID advisory council, Danielle Smith's drug deal that just keeps getting worse, Take Back Alberta's headfirst run into a brick wall on nominations being reopened, and we try and make a bit of sense of the story so far with the UCP 'S takeover (?) of Athabasca University! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

What was up with that handshake? As groundhogs across the continent were just tucking themselves back in, Danielle Smith finally appeared in public again, which can only mean at least another 6 weeks before the next provincial election! At this weeks First Ministers health meeting, Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau exchanged what could only be called a handshake using the lowest definition of the word, but what was the deal that potentially came out of that meeting? Plus we catch up on all of the latest events in Alberta Politics and address the rumours swirling around Nate and the next provincial election. As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

On this episode of The Breakdown, we're excited to welcome back Regan Boychuk to the show for a conversation on the irresponsible R Star program and on why he believes that Albertans need to demand a fresh look at how oil and gas royalties are handled! As always, thank you so much for your support! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Danielle Smith came back from her sunny vacation this week and blew in with all the fury of a tropical storm! At her press conference on Thursday, not only did she reveal that she's recently been talking to an anti-vax protestor who claims she promised him a free pass on charges for his involvement in the Coutts border blockade, but also that she never knew that it wasn't;t a power available to a premier to even do that! But then on Friday she released one of the most whitewashed revisionist history videos in recent memory that spurred national backlash before she doubled down on Saturday. All of this is on the backdrop of a proposed program to give successful oil and gas companies $100,000,000 of taxpayers money to clean up oil and gas sites that they had already promised to clean up at a time when many a making record profits of billions of dollars! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

After a brief break we're back! And what a week it's been! The NDP's downward polling numbers in Calgary are rapidly becoming a bit of a trend, the Western Standard lowers the standard with a bigoted attack against Janis Irwin, The Emergencies Act was justified and Alberta's Justice Minister Tyler Shandro sure isn't happy about that despite the fact the UCP had asked the feds for help, Sheriffs in Calgary, Take Back Alberta continues their takeover of the UCP, and Preston Mannings panel is up and running with more than a few familiar faces! As always, Sarah Biggs joins us to try and make some sense of it all! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing up as a monthly supporter at our Patreon site at www.patreon.com/thebreakdownab. If you’re listening to the audio version of our podcast, please consider leaving us a review and a rating, and don’t forget to like and follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.