117 episodes
West of Centre CBC
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- News
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4.3 • 236 Ratings
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Kathleen Petty sits down with politicians, pundits, and other thoughtful westerners for conversations about the priorities, preoccupations and politics of Albertans and others who are West of Centre.
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Alberta's "stay-out-of-my-backyard bill "
Danielle Smith introduced what she calls the "stay-out-of- my-backyard bill " this week. If passed, it will allow the UCP government to kill federal deals not approved by the province. It’s the latest of many federal-provincial battles. West of Centre host Kathleen Petty is back! Joining her is Kelly Cryderman from the Globe and Mail, pollster Janet Brown, and CBC Calgary's Jason Markusoff.
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Recovery rhetoric
Hundreds are dying from drug overdoses in Alberta. This week, the UCP government announced it will rebrand mental health and addiction services as Recovery Alberta, in line with its preferred approach to the crisis. And the podcast will also tackle Calgary’s mayoralty recall petition. West of Centre guest host Jason Markusoff is joined by journalists Alanna Smith of the Globe and Mail, Rick Bell of the Calgary Sun and Keith Gerein of the Edmonton Journal.
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The frontrunner vs the Teflon premier
Rakhi Pancholi is out. And Naheed Nenshi is in and the apparent frontrunner in the NDP leadership race. But Premier Danielle Smith’s UCP is ready to defend a much bigger lead than it won in last year’s election,at least according to a new poll. Guest host Jason Markusoff sorts through the numbers with pollster David Coletto. Then, our panel weighs in. It is made up of Lisa Young, a University of Calgary political scientist, freelance columnist Graham Thomson and the Toronto Star’s Alex Boyd.
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By unpopular demand
A new police agency. Political parties in the cities. An Alberta pension plan. By all accounts, fairly unpopular initiatives driven by Premier Danielle Smith. So, what are the policy and political motivations behind them? Guest host Jason Markusoff is joined by Cynthia Moore, former UCP president, Feodor Snagovsky, a University of Alberta political scientist, and Janet French from CBC’s legislature bureau.
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The orange half dozen
There are now six in the race to replace Rachel Notley. Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi joined the race on Monday, confirming weeks of rumours. So how does this shake up the race, and how might each candidate bid to stand out in the weeks ahead? Host Kathleen Petty is joined by pollster and political analyst Janet Brown of Janet Brown Opinion Research, Keith McLaughlin, political strategist and former chief of staff to Notley government ministers, and Cheryl Oates, a former advisor to Rachel Notley and co-host of The Discourse podcast, to discuss what issues might define the race and what members are likely to prioritize in the weeks ahead.
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"Tin pot dictatorship"?
The Saskatchewan government is breaking the law by refusing to remit the natural gas portion of what is commonly known as the carbon tax. And the provincial minister in charge has hired a lawyer! West of Centre explores the politics around the unprecedented decision and looks at the parallels with Alberta.
Host Kathleen Petty is joined by CBC Reporters Adam Hunter and Sam Samson and political columnist Murray Mandryk.
Customer Reviews
Today’s show
Were do you find these loony tunes
Progressive propaganda
This pod is not objective news or opinion panels. It is heavily progressive/leftist biased in its coverage of current events. It is clear that they are towing their party's line and throwing shade at anything conservative.
APP adventures in misinformation.
An interesting albeit infuriating discussion about the APP. Where to start. Perhaps with Jim Dinning claiming that the telephone town halls is “listening” to people. 14,000 people on a phone call with curated questions and comments is not listening, it’s preaching. It’s a sales pitch with what can charitably be described as false product claims. Second, he spoke glowingly about the “actuarial scientists” who did the Lifeworks report (which he miscalled Morneau Shepell many times for a reason). However it’s interesting to note those same scientists have had their names redacted on the report, which is a very odd practice for a quasi academic paper that has so much at stake. Bottom line is as much as Dinning is trying to take the high road he is about to immolate his reputation on a partisan political exercise that is doomed to fail.