West of Centre

**New episode drops Friday, August 21**

ENCORE PRESENTATION 

There’s great concern that people in Ottawa aren’t taking what’s happening in Alberta seriously enough. With national unity at stake, some Senators are looking west from the upper chamber and acknowledging there are indeed structural issues at the federal level that’s fueling frustration.

This week on West of Centre, Kathleen Petty welcomes a panel of Prairies senators. Alberta Senator Paula Simons, who was appointed in 2018 and sits in the Independent Senators Group; Saskatchewan Senator Pamela Wallin, appointed in 2008; and Manitoba Senator Charles Adler, who was appointed in 2024. Both sit in the Canadian Senators Group.

The panel pulls no punches in questioning whether Canada has done the work it needs to become a true energy superpower. For them, it’s time to turn words into action. As trade tensions with the U.S. simmer, they’re blunt on CUSMA: Canada can’t take its own self-interest out of the equation because negotiations are not about love, but business. And while they disagree on the strategy for a potential fall referendum on separation, they also tackle another referendum question about Senate abolishment. 

• Host: Kathleen Petty
• Guests: Senator Charles Adler, Senator Paula Simons, Senator Pamela Wallin
• Producer: Diane Yanko

**New episode drops Friday, August 21**

ENCORE PRESENTATION 

Back in January 2001, six influential Alberta conservatives sent then premier Ralph Klein the now famous 'firewall letter.' Under the heading 'Alberta Agenda,' the letter proposed withdrawing from the Canada Pension Plan, establishing a provincial police force, bypassing the Canada Revenue Agency in favour of the province collecting its own income tax, and Senate reform. These ideas were seen as fringe. Extremist even. But with the passage of time, some of the key measures in the firewall letter have influenced conservative policy in Alberta, and are now being set in motion 25 years later by Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

This week, West of Centre host Kathleen Petty gets the inside story on the firewall letter, straight from two of its signatories. Ted Morton, an executive fellow at the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy and a former PC cabinet minister; and Ken Boessenkool, a longtime policy advisor who worked with former prime minister Stephen Harper (credited as the catalyst for the letter, and another one of its six signatories).

These insiders describe how the hostile reaction to the letter came as a surprise, as the ideas contained in the letter were things other provinces were already doing. They talk about the visceral reaction 25 years ago to the word 'firewall,' and how it came to be added to the letter. And how the nine questions on a referendum that Albertans will vote on in the fall is seen as 'anti-firewall letter.'

• Host: Kathleen Petty
• Guests: Ken Boessenkool, Ted Morton
• Producer: Diane Yanko

**New episode drops Friday, August 21**

ENCORE PRESENTATION

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

As Canada stares down the barrel of fresh U.S. tariffs (50 per cent), there is a realization that the counter-strategies that succeeded in President Donald Trump's first term won't cut it today. For our expert panel, the power to change Trump's mind won't come down to the federal government or Prime Minister Mark Carney. Instead, the pressure will come from America's voters, businesses and political funders.

What game is the U.S. playing in targeting products such as Christmas decorations, dog leashes, toilet paper and hockey sticks, while exempting crude oil, potash and critical minerals? Host Kathleen Petty has assembled a couple of the big guns to help make sense of the strategy:

• Gitane De Silva, executive director of the University of Alberta's Peter Lougheed School of Politics and Democracy; founder and president of GDStrategic; and Alberta's senior representative to the United States from 2016 to 2019. 
• Martha Hall Findlay, a member of Carleton University's expert group on Canada-U.S. Relations; director of the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy; and a former Liberal MP.

As Canada contemplates how it may respond, the experts caution there's a big difference between standing strong and hitting back. They say our country needs to stop wishing the U.S. would play fair, and focus on what can actually be done about the trade relationship. They say Alberta is getting greater recognition thanks to the dispute, and that Albertans and Canadians are seeing how each province contributes to the country as a whole.

• Host: Kathleen Petty
• Guests: Gitane De Silva, Martha Hall Findlay
• Producer: Diane Yanko

As Canada stares down the barrel of fresh U.S. tariffs (50 per cent), there is a realization that the counter-strategies that succeeded in President Donald Trump's first term won't cut it today. For our expert panel, the power to change Trump's mind won't come down to the federal government or Prime Minister Mark Carney. Instead, the pressure will come from America's voters, businesses and political funders.

What game is the U.S. playing in targeting products such as Christmas decorations, dog leashes, toilet paper and hockey sticks, while exempting crude oil, potash and critical minerals? Host Kathleen Petty has assembled a couple of the big guns to help make sense of the strategy:

• Gitane De Silva, executive director of the University of Alberta's Peter Lougheed School of Politics and Democracy; founder and president of GDStrategic; and Alberta's senior representative to the United States from 2016 to 2019. 
• Martha Hall Findlay, a member of Carleton University's expert group on Canada-U.S. Relations; director of the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy; and a former Liberal MP.

As Canada contemplates how it may respond, the experts caution there's a big difference between standing strong and hitting back. They say our country needs to stop wishing the U.S. would play fair, and focus on what can actually be done about the trade relationship. They say Alberta is getting greater recognition thanks to the dispute, and that Albertans and Canadians are seeing how each province contributes to the country as a whole.

• Host: Kathleen Petty
• Guests: Gitane De Silva, Martha Hall Findlay
• Producer: Diane Yanko

A non-binding trilateral agreement to advance the multibillion-dollar Pathways Project, as part of the push to build a new bitumen pipeline to B.C.'s southwest coast, has now been reached. But in this episode of the podcast, there are serious questions about the math: on emissions, economics, and business case.

Host Kathleen Petty is joined this week by three journalists who have all been analyzing this latest MOU:

• Max Fawcett, lead columnist for Canada's National Observer.
• Emma Graney, energy reporter for the Globe and Mail.
• Jason Markusoff, writer and producer for the CBC.

Along with some head-scratching when it comes to the math, the panel wonders about the ability to fill the new pipeline. They note the absence of oil company representatives alongside the prime minister and Alberta premier for these major announcements, and question how long the companies will sit on the sidelines.  

• Host: Kathleen Petty
• Guests: Max Fawcett, Emma Graney, Jason Markusoff
• Producer: Diane Yanko

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and several prominent federal Conservatives, including leader Pierre Poilievre, had a showdown with Calgary's mayor over a local noise bylaw. It was a master class in political communication by Jeromy Farkas, according to one panellist, in a battle with the Conservative political machine over how long and how loudly people are allowed to party in the Stampede city.

Sounding off with host Kathleen Petty this week:

• Alex Boyd, Calgary-based writer for the Toronto Star.
• Rob Breakenridge, a columnist and podcast host at The Line.
• Jason Markusoff, producer and writer for the CBC.

The panel also dissects the nine referendum questions on immigration and constitutional reforms on the fall ballot in Alberta, musing whether they're moot when voters are being asked to contemplate breaking apart the country.  

• Host: Kathleen Petty
• Guests: Alex Boyd, Rob Breakenridge, Jason Markusoff
• Producer: Diane Yanko

About 3.4 million Albertans are eligible to receive a $100 energy rebate. The provincial government says the cash will bring meaningful relief from the pain of the cost of living. But for some on this week's episode, the move doesn't cure what's causing affordability issues in the province.

This week, host Kathleen Petty is joined by The Hub's Alberta Edge podcast panellists.

• Falice Chin, Alberta bureau chief for The Hub.
• Amber Ruddy, a former Conservative staffer and a vice-president at Counsel Public Affairs.
• Keith McLaughlin, a former chief of staff for Alberta NDP cabinet ministers and a partner at New West Public Affairs.

Also on this episode: disagreement about where the heated rhetoric is headed around Alberta treaty chiefs calling for the RCMP and auditor general to investigate whether the fall referendum amounts to criminal treason by Premier Danielle Smith and her UCP government. However, all agree the option of an early election is a strategic necessity even if it's highly unlikely.

• Host: Kathleen Petty
• Guests: Falice Chin, Amber Ruddy, Keith McLaughlin
• Producer: Diane Yanko

Danielle Smith uses the energy MOU has Exhibit A in her argument for remaining in Canada. Pierre Poilievre uses it as Exhibit A in making his case that the federal government is failing Alberta.

Our guests worry that divisions over how to battle separatism could fracture the provincial conservatives and even pose problems for federal conservatives.

Host Kathleen Petty is joined by two people with deep ties to the Conservative movement.

• Ian Brodie is a former chief of staff to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a political science professor at the University of Calgary, and a senior advisor at New West Public Affairs.
• Sean Speer served as senior economic policy advisor to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and is editor-at-large at The Hub.

Both explore the perils of this debate within the broader Conservative movement.

• Host: Kathleen Petty
• Guests: Ian Brodie, Sean Speer
• Producer: Diane Yanko

West of Centre's citizen panel is back, this time to weigh in on October's referendum, where Albertans will be asked to decide the future of their province within Confederation.

Returning to join host Kathleen Petty are Darryl Stanier, who runs a logistics supply chain business; Sunil Shah, an electrical engineer; and Chelsea Matisz, a research scientist. 

The panel agrees Alberta has legitimate grievances within Confederation. But they disagree on whether the 10 questions Albertans will vote on are necessary. They have differing takes on whether the Alberta-Ottawa memorandum of understanding will lead to a new bitumen pipeline to B.C. One panellist says Premier Danielle Smith is losing the art of humility and the United Conservative Party is governing for its base rather than the majority of Albertans.

• Host: Kathleen Petty
• Guests: Chelsea Matisz, Darryl Stanier, Sunil Shah
• Producer: Diane Yanko