On January 31, 2024, Danielle Smith shocked many Albertans with a suite of policies designed to insert her personal beliefs into doctors offices across the province. Not only did these policies limit access to health care for trans youth, they also attacked trans participation in sports and will override the rights of parents to make decisions on their children’s medical care. Smith defended these policies saying that she would be engaging in “robust” consultation, but as a recent FOIP we comple...
Mar 03, 2025•54 min•Season 6Ep. 49
This is not the episode you think it is. It's difficult to imagine a more divisive time in living memory than what the world experienced in the first years of COVID. There's no question that the measures that were put in place saved lives, but there's also a reality that the manner in which they were implemented not only contributed to the division but also weren't implemented consistently. If you don't learn from your mistakes, you're bound to repeat them, so we sat down with Chad McDonald, who...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 40 min•Season 6Ep. 48
With Danielle Smith and the UCP making moves to bring in publicly funded but for profit delivered acute care in Alberta, we sat down with Chris Gallaway from "Friends of Medicare" to try and get a better understanding of not only these moves, but their impact and implications on Emergency healthcare in Alberta! Don't forget, we have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we're trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consider signing...
Mar 03, 2025•45 min•Season 6Ep. 47
Opioid Crisis Part 2? On an important follow up to last weeks round table discussion with advocate Guy Felicella and columnist Adam Zivo, we're sitting down with an expert in addictions and addiction treatment, Dr. Monty Ghosh to fact check what was said as well as ensure the context of our episode is set where it should be!! From his U of C bio where he is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine, "Monty Ghosh is an Internist and Addiction Specialist who works at the Uni...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 59 min•Season 6Ep. 46
With the UCP making major changes to how "problem" bears are "managed", in that they're allowing anyone with a hunting license to enter a lottery to win the opportunity to kill a grizzly bear, we're sitting down with Bear Expert and NDP MLA Dr. Sarah Elmeligi to find out why this is a terrible idea and most importantly, why it won't work! Don't forget, we have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we're trying to produce here at The Breakd...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 28 min
What's the deal with the Skybox Scandal? Alberta Politics moves fast, and that's made it hard to keep up with everything that goes on! instructor and effort to try and make sure that the more complex stories don't fall through the cracks, we're trying a new "rapid response" mini episode format, where from time to time, we'll do a quick but deep dive on a story that's making waves in Alberta Politics. For our first one, we take a look at the skybox and gifting scandal currently plaguing the UCP! ...
Mar 03, 2025•8 min•Season 6Ep. 44
With provincial and national politicians using the work of columnists and writers to justify their policy decisions, particularly in the realm of addictions and mental health issues, we put together a panel that you won't want to miss with opinion columnist Adam Zivo and public speaker Guy Felicella! In this conversation we try to unpack how it is that there can be a great deal of shared reality, but the conclusions and strategies that people come to can be wildly divergent. Don't forget, we hav...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 59 min•Season 6Ep. 43
Is private, for profit healthcare now starting to infiltrate the Alberta healthcare system? We chat with concerned community member Sarah Zagoda to find out more! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca! 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 and we can now accept e-transfers at info@thebreakdownab.ca! If ...
Mar 03, 2025•57 min•Season 6Ep. 42
It's another live episode with an open mic! What do guitars, soccer, expertise and twitter bots all have in common? Alberta politics of course! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, including a spring lineup! 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 and we can now accept e-transfers at info@thebreakdownab....
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Season 6Ep. 41
Danielle Smith made news on June 25th when she announced that she was going to "opt out" Albertans from the federal dental plan. Which leads to a lot of questions, like what are the current programs that are available, what are the criteria for them and how does the federal program match up? Which is to say nothing of the question if she even can opt Albertans out. On this episode, we try and unpack all of that, and we take a look at why Smith and the UCP are threatening the healthcare of Albert...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Season 6Ep. 40
We're pushing our dental episode back a few days to bring you this special conversation with none other than Jeromy Farkas! With the city of Calgary finally getting into the homestretch of the water crisis, Naheed Nenshi winning a landslide victory in the NDP leadership race, an impending ecological disaster and the Calgary Stampede all being things, we sat down with Jeromy to try and make sense of all of these things in an nuanced, thoughtful and occasionally lighthearted manner! Don't forget, ...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Season 6Ep. 39
To call the last Alberta legislative session a whirlwind is certainly an understatement! Where the Kenney government introduced single bills that were full of changes, making it hard for Albertans to follow, the Smith administration has instead just turned on a firehose of bills... Making it hard for Albertans to follow. So to try and make sense of all of the legal changes the UCP made in the last few months, we sat down with political scientist Dr. Duane Bratt in an episode that you don't want ...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 36 min•Season 6Ep. 38
It's another Alberta Politics roundup and open mic! We take a look at David Staples spreading right wing astroturf propaganda, the Western Standard making bank off of the feds decisions, the healthcare voucher system, the UCP's noncologist event and the condem,national of it from the medical community, Shannon Phillips retiring from politics, Smith seemingly wanting to cash out the Heritage Savings Trust fund on high risk investments, we fact check her chat with Real Talk and a whole lot more! D...
Mar 03, 2025•2 hr 9 min•Season 6Ep. 36
With NDP members receiving their ballots across the province, we've put all of our conversations with the remaining leadership candidates together in one marathon episode! It starts with Kathleen Ganley, followed by Sarah Hoffman at 31:19, Naheed Nenshi at 1:20:42 and ending with Jodi Calahoo Stonehouse at 2:25:00! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, including a spring lineup! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The...
Mar 03, 2025•3 hr 38 min
With the Western Standard episode out of the way, we’re back with a conversation with Jeremy Appel to talk about his book "Kenneyism"! In this chat we get into why Jeremy wrote the book, we unpack the mind of Kenney a bit and we talk about the future of Alberta politics with a contrast between Smith and Kenney! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, including a spring lineup! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Bre...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 37 min•Season 5Ep. 34
In 2019, Derek Fildebrandt revived Ezra Levant's former publication th Western Standard and set about building a media empire out of Western Canada that was predicated on (among other things) not accepting any government funding. But can they really say that they don't accept any government funding and that they don't get taxpayer money? Over that last 6 months we've completed a series of FOIP's that show that The Western Standard has indeed been getting taxpayer funds. Not only has the governme...
Mar 03, 2025•39 min•Season 6Ep. 33
It's time for a conversation with new Alberta Party leader, Lindsay Amantea! With more than a few pundits and political scientists making it clear that they believe Alberta is now inexorably a two party state, you have to wonder why the Alberta Party and it's leader believe that they have a place in the political conversation, and we pose exactly that question (and a whole lot more) in this upbeat and humorous conversation! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, inclu...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Season 6Ep. 32
Welcome to Episode 6.31, an in depth deep dive on Bills 18 & 20 with Political Scientist Dr. Lisa Young! In this conversation that is quite the ride, we hear from Dr. Young on what Bills 18 & 20 do and also what the implications are for the province of Alberta in both the short term and the long term, including an important call to action! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, including a spring lineup! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Season 6Ep. 31
It's our final interview of the NDP Leadership race, and we're sitting down with non other than Gil McGowan! In this conversation, we get Gil's thoughts on the economy, healthcare, the future of the NDP and a whole lot more, including his reaction to Bill 20 and the UCP's chronic overreach! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, including a spring lineup! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown, please consid...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 57 min•Season 6Ep. 30
Here's the Speakers Corner from our April 28th show! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, including a spring lineup! 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 o...
Mar 03, 2025•46 min
Dr Wesley is a political scientists and professor at the Univeristy of Alberta who specializes in taking a look at not only how Albertans see themselves, but also how they believe other Albertans see the world around them as well! Dr. Wesley does these investigations through his organization, Common Ground and recently he and his team completed some important research taking a deeper look at not only how Albertans view some of the big issues facing our province but also how they believe other Al...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 3 min•Season 6Ep. 28
Welcome to episode 6.27, a conversation with Harm Reduction and recovery advocate Guy Felicella! Guy made headlines recently when he was barred from a recovery conference in Calgary, and he generously sat down with us to explain what happened, but we get into a whole lot more than that, including the nature of recovery, the crossover of BC and Alberta politics and a whole lot more! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, including a cold weather lineup! As always, if y...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Season 6Ep. 27
Time for another panel! With the political temperature in Alberta reaching a rolling boil over Calgary and Edmonton initiating blanket rezoning (even though Edmonton has completed the rezoning already), particularly to access federal housing funding, we decided it was time for another deep dive! To make sense of this we’re joined by Robert Tremblay of the Calgary Climate Hub, Kathryn Davies of “More Neighbours” and Edmonton City Councillor Micheal Janz! To learn more about the climate hub or to ...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 29 min•Season 6Ep. 26
It's another Alberta Politics roundup and what a week! EMS profitization! Policing subsidization! Why is misrepresented BC drug policy playing such a big role in Alberta politics right now? We debunk a boatload of myths and we do a deep dive on Danielle Smith's Bill 18 and its attack on municipalities, post secondary education and well... pretty much everything? Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, including a cold weather lineup! As always, if you appreciate the ki...
Mar 03, 2025•2 hr 14 min•Season 6Ep. 25
There’s a lot of conversation around the physician shortage in Alberta, but how did we go from being on of the most appealing provinces for physicians to practice in to one that is struggling to even fill residencies? To get some answers, we sat down with President of the Alberta Medical Association, Dr Paul Parks! But we don’t stop at the physician crisis, we also get into the literal disintegration of healthcare in Alberta, the opioid crisis and we revisit the legendary December 10, 2023 press...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Season 6Ep. 24
With incredible advocate Guy Felicella being banned from attending a recovery conference in Calgary this week, we figured it was time for a throwback to our episode originally aired on August 28, 2023! We are SO excited to present our conversation, with survivor, advocate and all around amazing person Guy Felicella! This is one of the most intense episodes we've done yet, and it's an absolute must watch/listen! Guy Felicella grew up in a middle-class home in British Columbia but due to trauma, u...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 19 min
We sit down again with Disability Advocate Don Slater to get his thoughts on how the provincial budget affects disabled Albertans, unintended consequences for the fight against the carbon tax, the erosion of social contact and a whole lot more! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, including a cold weather lineup! 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 o...
Mar 03, 2025•51 min•Season 6Ep. 23
It's Part 2 of our March 31 episode and this is our speakers corner! You don't want to miss this one because not only do we hear from a few of our regular speakers but we also hear from advocate and politico Anna Murphy! Don't forget, we now have merch that's available at www.abpoli.ca, including a cold weather lineup! 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.p...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 4 min
It's time for another Alberta Politics Roundup and Speakers Corner and sure enough, this episode goes so long we're breaking it into two parts! In Part 1, we take a look at the recent Take Back Alberta troubles, the effect of the houselessness processing facility in Edmonton, the status of the grassy mountain coal mine, the latest on the NDP Leadership race, Premier Smith's attempt of a performative federal committee hearing before we get into the recent OFFICIAL UCP anti-trans tin foil hat even...
Mar 03, 2025•2 hr 4 min•Season 6Ep. 22
We've been working on having conversations with all of the candidates for the NDP Leadership, but as you'll see this conversation is more than a little different, and it's because what Jodi brings to the table is very different than any of the other candidates. Not only do we get into all of the same topics that we have addressed with the other candidates, including the future of the NDP, Alberta's economic and energy future, the environment and safe supply but we also get into a simultaneously ...
Mar 03, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Season 6Ep. 21
