Transcript
Zain
0:04
This is a Strategist episode 1876. My name is Zain Velji. With me, as always, Stephen Carter and no one else. What happened?
Carter
0:11
happened? Was this a scheduling issue? It basically was. I mean, we could have invited any number of people to join us today. We have a solid roster. We have a roster of people we could have invited, and I didn't invite any of them.
Zain
0:24
why you've taken this on on your own. Can we talk
Zain
0:27
about this? like why have you why have you kept me out of the reach out process well
Carter
0:32
well because you know you bring us bad people zane and uh so i'm in charge who
Zain
0:37
who have whoever brought us name names i'm not naming
Carter
0:40
names the audience knows the
Zain
0:42
the audience where we're talking about the classic episode 500 classic
Carter
0:46
classic 500 yeah you
Zain
0:47
you need the people need to go back to the archive they
Carter
0:50
they need to do we
Zain
0:51
we didn't do guests and this was not a guest this was a fill-in and
Zain
0:54
and i was new yeah
Zain
0:55
and i wanted to celebrate in style episode 500 tells them everything they need to know i love
Carter
1:01
love that episode though i
Carter
1:02
mean it's tragic but it was it was something good what
Zain
1:05
what was your favorite part of the uh the argument that we had that ultimately led to the the destruction of the two microphones that we had to pay out of the non-existent patreon money at that time yeah
Carter
1:17
yeah i mean you telling me that i would never win a provincial election was really upsetting um you
Carter
1:22
you i don't have the skills to to win anything province-wide hurt my feelings let
Zain
1:28
let me litigate that again did you win a provincial election or did others lose a provincial election steven carter
Carter
1:35
that's just splitting hairs can
Zain
1:37
can you just tell us the name of the person that was on the top of the ballot for that provincial election just one more time for us allison
Zain
1:43
allison redford okay perfect for those of you which is probably very few keeping square at home he said said it again yeah
Zain
1:49
uh carter it's just the two of us so what are we doing we we have many options let me let me let's see through the options okay we can we can uh we can fuck around for for an hour um
Carter
1:58
let's do a tight 45 fucking around
Zain
2:01
okay sorry sorry i'm sorry yes we can fuck around for a tight 45 yeah that's
Zain
2:06
that's good fucking around needs a hard it needs a hard concrete yeah 45 we've been pretty good at the concrete 45s you know why because it seems like shannon's got a real job it
Carter
2:16
does it feels like shannon's like got places to go and people to see she works
Zain
2:20
works for a place that's got policy advisors yeah
Zain
2:23
as part of it like we don't advise on something as big as policy no
Carter
2:27
no i mean we talk about strategy which is we try to keep her
Zain
2:31
her time we try to keep her time relatively um in check uh and
Carter
2:37
which is not something
Zain
2:38
something uh respect for time is not something that i have had for our collective time when cory's been around um
Zain
2:44
um or or our time Because, Carter, time in my culture is very flexible. So
Carter
2:48
So we can fuck
Zain
2:49
fuck around for a quick 45. Yeah.
Zain
2:53
talk about the basketball game last night and just make this one of several NBA
Zain
3:00
to the Halliburton injury in the first. Halliburton? Halliburton. Halliburton, right. Yeah,
Zain
3:06
Do you want to go down that path? No.
Zain
3:08
You do not. We could do something we've promised never to do. Okay.
Zain
3:13
We could dig deep into the mailbag.
Zain
3:16
Really? We could dig deep into the mail, but do you want to actually do that? I
Carter
3:20
is there an easier way for us to phone in a whole episode?
Zain
3:24
There is not an easier way. I mean, since you've said, you pretty much showed me your lack of knowledge on the Halliburton side of things. I
Carter
3:30
I mean, Halliburton to me sounds like a company that does oil services. Carter,
Zain
3:34
Carter, we have, we actually have the Google sheet here.
Zain
3:39
This is just this week's questions. What? There's so many of them. How do we- Do we get these every
Carter
3:45
Who put this together? I've
Zain
3:46
I've never looked at this. I actually didn't realize that there's a tab at the bottom.
Carter
3:51
Well, I think they do this weekly. We
Carter
3:53
do this never. There's
Zain
3:54
questions? Let's see this. What?
Carter
3:59
Wow. This is not good.
Zain
4:02
My goodness, Carter. Okay. I'm just going to look through this. This is, it's broken down. It's broken down by Alberta National, Municipal.
Zain
4:10
And then we've got a section that's- does it matter that
Carter
4:15
that municipal spelled incorrectly it
Zain
4:17
it does not matter okay
Zain
4:18
what the fuck is with zane's swiss chalet hat do you love rotisserie chicken that much i can knock this one off okay
Carter
4:26
there was never a question in my mind i knew it to be sure oh
Zain
4:30
oh my god i've
Zain
4:32
i've got a swiss is swiss chalet is a national institution that does not get the love that tim hortons gets and
Carter
4:38
and it's way better than tim hortons go way better story i'm
Zain
4:41
i'm gonna tell tell people go read the story about
Zain
4:43
swiss chalet how it started the origin story the secret multi-millionaire that just passed away that's been behind swiss chalet is a canadian institution that does not get the love that it respects and so
Zain
4:53
carter i have swiss chalet flip-flops come
Zain
4:57
i have a swiss chalet oversized tea with the entire history yeah i went hard in the paint with their summer last their summer collection last season well it's pretty fucking good i'm
Carter
5:06
i'm proud of you i don't
Zain
5:08
have it today so uh for those wondering yes swiss chalet is the fucking best Carter, I've knocked one off the...
Carter
5:13
the... Not to you, bye,
Zain
5:15
Well, what we wish. I don't even want to joke about that.
Carter
5:19
We do it just for extra sauce, you know?
Zain
5:22
I want that sponsor so badly. We will quit this ailing and dying machine once we do have Swiss Chalet. Yeah, that'll be
Zain
5:30
You know, it's true. Like, their audience will match our audience one day, which is 5 p.m., 85.
Carter
5:39
Something like that. How
Zain
5:39
How many last meals in this country have been provided by Swiss Chalet? That's an actuarial science question I want
Zain
5:45
want to figure out. Well,
Carter
5:46
Well, since there hasn't been an execution in this country, since
Carter
5:49
since when? No, I
Zain
5:51
I don't mean like people asking their last meal at
Carter
5:54
at Swiss Chalet. I mean all
Zain
5:56
all people at 5.30 having some Swiss Chalet and then
Zain
5:59
then by 6.45 saying goodbye to the world. That's
Carter
6:03
That's what I mean. That's probably a significant number. I think it's more than 10. Do you think it's more than 10? It is. It's certainly less. It's more than zero.
Carter
6:12
For sure. I'm going to go with more than 10.
Zain
6:16
this year. Are we going public with this episode? Because now I feel like we need to get the entire brainpower of our listenership to
Zain
6:23
give me an actuarial flow
Zain
6:25
flow through of how many people this is. How many last meals have
Zain
6:30
have been had at
Zain
6:33
Okay. We're not counting the last meals requested at Swiss Chalet
Carter
6:35
Chalet because we don't have the
Zain
6:37
the death penalty in
Zain
6:37
same way, but we're talking about how many last meals have been had at Swiss Chalet. Let's
Carter
6:41
Let's do this public. This is going to be a public episode. Okay. Here we
Carter
6:47
phoning it in at Swiss Chalet. No, no. We need
Zain
6:49
need a place for people to show their math. Where can we do that?
Carter
6:53
We have a Patreon page. No,
Zain
6:55
They need to go somewhere to do it. Oh,
Carter
6:57
Oh, okay. Um, how about, uh, lastmealatswiss
Zain
7:00
lastmealatswiss.ca. Do you think that's that last meal
Carter
7:03
meal at swiss.ca probably exists. We can take that. Okay.
Zain
7:07
So come to lastmealatswiss.ca. We'll have a, we'll have some sort of form there in
Zain
7:12
order for you to figure out and give us your math. Okay. Now we will be able to tell Steven and I, if you have chat GPT this, okay.
Zain
7:19
Cause it will look too polished. We will be able to tell if you have perplexity this, cause it will look too good. Okay. Carter and I want, want
Zain
7:27
want your logic. We want the brain. We want your brain. We don't want anything artificial. We want none of the slop in our inboxes
Carter
7:35
That's not just, you know, ask them for something without offering something back. Oh, yeah. What are we going to give them? The best response gets a $15 gift certificate for Swish LA. No,
Zain
7:46
No, no, no. Okay, well, and added, I will find a Swish LA hat, sign it for you, and send it to you. Oh,
Carter
7:51
Oh, my God. This is a lot. Carter, do you want
Zain
7:53
want to sign it too?
Carter
7:54
Yeah, I'll sign it too, but my signature makes it really valuable. can
Zain
7:57
can we get cory decided or is that against his like would that be counted as something you
Carter
8:01
you know what let's get cory decided let's
Zain
8:03
let's get cory decided okay
Carter
8:04
okay questions asked like we'll just be like hey cory will you sign this you will get the
Zain
8:07
the original strategist and we might even reach out to chester you might get four signatures on the swiss chalet hat okay oh
Carter
8:14
oh my god not chester we will
Zain
8:16
will get you a swiss chalet hat we will sign it with four distinct signatures that are more than likely from the four people we tell you they are. I see how it is. We protected
Zain
8:29
ourselves against the hedge of Corey being a member of parliament and maybe not being able to sign a Swiss chalet hat.
Carter
8:33
hat. He can sign shit. I don't know if he can sign shit. He can sign certificates. We
Zain
8:38
We need the brain trust of this podcast to let us know if Corey can sign shit. Here's
Carter
8:43
Here's what we do. Here's what we do. We get him to do a certificate of, you know, from the federal government.
Zain
8:50
Corey will reach out and
Zain
8:53
and use his powers in government. Exactly.
Carter
8:54
Exactly. He will give you a certificate acknowledging your achievement.
Zain
8:59
I actually am in love with this idea. This
Carter
9:01
This is the best.
Zain
9:02
Now, our lack of follow-through has been historically noted by our listenership. No,
Carter
9:09
No, this one's going to be huge. We're
Zain
9:10
We're very pumped about this, but we actually want your explanations of how many last meals have
Carter
9:19
Do people think this
Carter
9:21
podcast is scripted, Carter? I think
Zain
9:22
Lastfeel.swiss.ca. We will have a form there where you could explain your logic. You know what? I'm going to offer this, and I don't even know if we can do this. We're going to let you upload attachments if you need to. If you need to show your work and you've done it on paper,
Zain
9:36
we will let you upload attachments. Carter, I think we have to go deeper into the mailbag. Do you want to do this, actually? Yeah, we
Carter
9:41
we may as well. We've already killed nine minutes. We've got 35 minutes to kill.
Zain
9:45
I've answered one question. And created probably the greatest promotion that we've ever experienced on this show. We
Carter
9:51
We might do a custom URL for every question. Okay, let
Zain
9:55
let me jump this. I'll give you a choice. Do you want Alberta? Do you want federal? Or do you want municipal?
Zain
10:01
municipal? Because we do have questions from all three, literally from this week. Let's do
Carter
10:05
do provincial because today is by-election day. We've got 67
Zain
10:07
67 things on here.
Carter
10:08
Okay, today is by-election day, so let's do provincial.
Zain
10:11
I've not read these in advance. Westriff Center did a good episode on something. I'm not reading that. What outrageous claims could NDP make that would cause the UCB conservatives to light their hair on fire? Basically, anytime Smith starts a sentence, it's, would you believe? Okay. How about this? There is a few questions around the NDP.
Zain
10:28
Touch on that. But I do like this question. Why does it seem like the NDP are doing such a bad job of holding Smith to account? We're seeing more stride in opposition from a former cabinet minister than Nenshi. Okay. There's that statement. But then the question is, what can opposition forces beyond the NDP do? And maybe we can start there and work back to the NDP because it is by-election night. Is that fair? So why does it seem like that forces beyond the official opposition and others are also having an issue? And maybe I can expand the scope. Why does it feel like this seems to be a thing beyond Alberta as well, Carter, that we're having a tough time opposing conservatives? We've had some time to soak in what the first hundred days of Trump have looked like. We've had the last couple of years of Danielle Smith.
Zain
11:15
Give me your starting thoughts here and I'll kind of add to the pile. Well,
Carter
11:18
Well, I think that we don't have a history of opposing the government particularly well in Alberta.
Zain
11:25
what, Rachel and the NDP? That
Carter
11:27
That was one time, and that was a moment
Carter
11:32
moment in time, if you will.
Carter
11:34
An early election call, a tremendously unpopular previous premier, a
Carter
11:39
a tremendously unpopular premier at the time saying things like, look
Carter
11:43
look in the mirror.
Carter
11:45
They basically gave away the election to the NDP. And then really
Carter
11:49
really it was up in the air whether it would go to the Wild
Carter
11:52
Wild Rose or the NDP.
Carter
11:54
And I think it was, you know, I've covered 32
Carter
11:57
32 different times that I think that it was Jim Prentice himself when
Carter
12:00
when he chose to look at Rachel Notley and
Carter
12:03
and focus his attention on Rachel Notley in the debate. They
Carter
12:05
gave that that particular outcome. But we didn't have a history of a groundswell prior to that election. No one walked into that election saying, you know what, the opposition really have it this time. People were thinking, oh, Jim Prentiss, he's calling the election. He must know something that we don't know. Everybody was thinking that except the Strategist podcast, which is one of the reasons we started the podcast. We had 526 episodes in the can on the Zune exclusive. Yes,
Carter
12:37
Yes, we did. Including
Zain
12:39
500, the one I referenced. Yeah,
Carter
12:40
Yeah, and then we brought it, we
Carter
12:41
we brought it public, much
Carter
12:43
much to the chagrin of Chester, who was still angry about it.
Carter
12:47
But we brought it public as a result of the NDP looking like they were going to be the ones to, you know, to win and us, us trying to force that, you know, narrative, because we were the only ones talking about it. nonetheless
Carter
13:02
nonetheless zane um we don't have a history of opposition from the general population uh it's certainly not the same way we would see ontario the same way we would see quebec same way we would even see british columbia um that history doesn't exist uh our organizations our organizational strength is weak in that particular area because a lot of people are told if you don't support the government then just keep your mouth shut yeah
Carter
13:29
right and and this is a keep
Carter
13:31
keep your mouth shut you know what did ralph klein say shoot shovel you
Carter
13:37
and stay quiet wasn't i can't remember what it was but basically shoot shovel and shut up um that that's what he said when when we had mad cow disease and that seems to be the mantra of of alberta um
Carter
13:50
um just keep your mouth shut and and everything else will work itself out.
Zain
13:55
Carter, here's an extension of that question for you. Who do you think the majority is in Alberta politics? Is it like zealous conservatives, or is it more like flabby progressives? Do you feel like—and the reason I add those words in front of it is because
Zain
14:11
often it feels like the lion's share of people do
Zain
14:15
do have an opportunity to open themselves up to the NDP, which is where I think the NDP's overall strength and strategy lies in, which is that the pool is there. But
Zain
14:22
But how would you kind of define the electoral base in our province?
Carter
14:25
I think I would define it in terms of engagement rather than in terms of ideology. Left
Zain
14:29
Left and right. I
Carter
14:30
I think that we have a hyper-engaged population of about 30% of the population. 20% is
Carter
14:36
is UCP-leaning or conservative, and 10% is progressive-leaning. But
Carter
14:41
But it is a relatively small group of hyper-engaged. And even then, I've expanded hyper-engaged to basically include people who think about politics once in a while. Then we have the unengaged, who are by definition not tied
Carter
14:57
tied to any ideology. And then we have the less engaged, and they're in the middle, and they'll move back and forth as required. But they're less engaged,
Carter
15:06
engaged, and their less engagement goes really far. They're not going to get engaged enough to mount a protest against something in Alberta. We would see, like, what's the biggest protest we've seen in Alberta?
Carter
15:23
couple thousand? 15,000? Not even 15,000. 5,000 people, maybe? I mean, someone should probably go to largestprotestinalberta.ca and put in what their guess in the largest protest is. And
Zain
15:38
And we will know if you have researched it.
Carter
15:40
it. If you've researched it, yeah. Yeah, because largest protest in alberta.ca feels like something that we should know. We should know. Was it Bill 13 that Ralph Klein brought forward? Was that Bill 11?
Carter
15:54
I don't remember. Way back in the 1990s.
Carter
15:59
Might even have been the late 80s. No, 90s. 90s. Because he was elected in 93. So
Carter
16:04
So it was in the 90s when he brought in Bill 13 or
Carter
16:08
One of those two. But
Carter
16:09
we'll find out because we've got the largest protest in Alberta.ca.
Zain
16:14
Carter, when you're on the opposition side of things, formally
Zain
16:19
as the NDP or informally as grassroots movements who don't like what this government is doing, talk to me about where
Zain
16:29
where your propositional message comes in.
Zain
16:32
This is something that I'm trying to maybe impose
Zain
16:35
impose a point on you, which is, do
Zain
16:37
do you feel, because I will ask it as a question, because I'm not sure I have a deep conviction to this point, but
Carter
16:42
but I'm going to
Zain
16:42
phrase it just as we kind of bat this around. Do you feel like one of the things is that people have a fatigue towards things they can oppose, A, because they're happening so quickly, and the timeline of their sort of active moment, especially when it seems inevitable that they will happen or pass, is just so narrow trans rights or certain labor union sort of asks for example so that the time horizon because they're just going to there's a post-secondary we didn't really even get to the collective progressive spirit in this province didn't even get to absorb understand protest by the time it was done you
Zain
17:19
you know what i mean yeah and and i think so that that that's one part of it but the other part is like the
Zain
17:25
alternatives the lack of solutions promised versus just opposing Do you feel like there's a there there that advocacy groups need to think about, even if they're opposing government legislation or stances, that they may need to start thinking about what gives people hope beyond just standing up and saying no to something, which is proposing an alternative or a solution? Or do you feel like that's
Zain
17:45
that's not actually how you diagnose the issue or how you propose a strategic shift
Zain
17:49
shift in some way? I
Carter
17:52
I think the strategic idea needs to be presented in a fashion that reflects the selfishness of the voter. And I think that oftentimes when we talk about trans rights, and please don't paint me as anti-trans, that would be very upsetting for me. Trans rights is not an everyone situation, right? LGBTQ is not an everyone situation. situation um you know most or most issues aren't in every one organization i think i've talked about the calgary floods before um
Carter
18:22
um the calgary floods happen and and hundred thousand people are displaced you know we have a we have a massive flood massive damage every community
Carter
18:30
community service is stretched to the actual absolute limits i go to the home depot up in west hills and i'm picking up you know stuff that i'm going to need to go and inspect my house um to make sure that it's you know it hasn't been damaged in the floods and uh because we were evacuated we were taken out of our homes um and
Carter
18:51
and uh people are buying flowers bedding flowers right people are are plant doing their planters they're they're trying to make sure that their house looks pretty like what the fuck right Right. Like one hundred
Carter
19:04
hundred thousand people out of one point two million were just were displaced. One out of every 12 people had were impacted by this. But the 11
Carter
19:14
11 out of 12 people didn't give a fuck.
Carter
19:17
And it didn't impact them. It didn't change their lives. And they were still making sure that their bedding flowers were, you know, put in nicely so that their house would look pretty. You know, they were just fresh rain. So you're allowed to plant.
Carter
19:32
I don't know. I mean, this this is you've got to you've got to instill something to the to the selfishness
Carter
19:39
selfishness of the of the people. And it's selfishness or is it hope, Carter? No. Like this is what I'm. No, it's not hope.
Carter
19:45
No. I mean, everybody. I mean, hope has been used. We've seen Barack
Carter
19:49
Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both use some variant of hope.
Carter
19:53
But we've also seen lots of people fail on hope. What
Carter
19:56
What do you think ambition then
Zain
19:57
then fits in? Where
Zain
19:58
Where do you think like, where do you think, you know, if we're proposing trans rights, sorry, if we're opposing the government legislation on their anti-trans legislation, that's a better way to
Carter
20:07
to put it. That's probably a better way of putting it. Yeah.
Zain
20:09
Yeah. What is the
Zain
20:12
the hope there? What is the ambition there? Versus being like, let's not do this. It
Zain
20:16
It almost seems like progressives in today's environment have become de facto defenders of the status quo, that
Zain
20:22
that they're trying to keep everything the same, which has
Zain
20:25
has a bit of historical irony, considering progressives are the one trying to advance the cause, not to stick with the status quo. But we've almost been stuck, forced
Zain
20:33
forced into the position of defending rather than actually proposing what the future should look like.
Carter
20:40
Well, I think that progressives are struggling right now. There was a lot of achievement that occurred in the 2000s, 2010s that is starting to backslide in the 2020s. I agree. I talked
Zain
20:54
about that as progress that wasn't banked, progress that felt like it was... Or
Carter
20:59
Or it's just the ebb and flow of a pendulum. You think so? I absolutely think so. I think that when you take a historical look on this type of thing, you see great strides forward, followed by sometimes micro steps backwards and sometimes significant steps backwards. You see the introduction of the freedom of the press, the removal of propaganda and control control of the federal government in
Carter
21:26
in the 1940s to the openness of the 1950s, and that is then met with the McCarthy era. So, you know, like little
Carter
21:34
little steps, little steps forward, little steps backward. You know, it takes decades for Reagan's changes to the Broadcast Standards Act to really really destroy
Carter
21:49
destroy television news, radio news, radio, television as we know it,
Carter
21:57
ultimately leading to the nightmare that we're in now. I mean, I'm not sure, Zane, that we can say that this is anything but the normal ebb and flow of a step forward and two steps back, sometimes two steps forward, one step back. back uh this feels like um these right you know the it's a smaller subset that's been attacked but it which doesn't in
Carter
22:21
in any way shape or mind make it better but
Carter
22:25
the win is the the two steps forward one step back i think is where we are right now i
Zain
22:32
tend to disagree with that i think i think some of the ways that some progressive things have been sold in recent years have have tried to capture progress quickly, which is never a bad thing if you're bringing folks along. But I feel like a lot of the backslide we are currently experiencing on a number of issues, diversity issues, trans rights, et cetera, is maybe because, in
Zain
22:53
in part, not to say that those that want to backslide it do not have nefarious agendas. Some of them certainly seem to. But
Zain
23:01
But in part, it's because I don't think enough people were brought along and felt like they had had a stake in the issue, or they had an understanding of the, they're almost kind of told that this is a new reality.
Zain
23:12
And I think any political movement that, movements, plural, that says this is the new reality without, you know, bringing folks along, has that risk of folks kind of saying, okay, once the backslide gets here, maybe that backslide was more representative of my views, or because I wasn't brought along on the original decision, I'm
Zain
23:33
I'm going going to naturally kind of go along with the backslide. I think that's good progress that as in banks looks like. I'm not saying that's the problem that ails the NDP, to be clear. But I do think that is a broader sort of Western democracy issue that many are feeling right now, which is, we seem to have made great progress, even if you look at the last five years on the issue of diversity, equity and inclusion as a construct.
Zain
23:53
Great progress in the first two years after 2020. And then like a tremendous backslide starting with what
Zain
23:58
what happened in the US there on and after i think that's a good representative example of things
Zain
24:02
things people felt like they had to do versus things people felt like they were bought into and were pushing something for for for some success i
Carter
24:09
i think you're giving people too much credit i think that people do not pay attention the way that you're describing it um i think that uh the
Carter
24:17
the greatest challenge for any opposition party any government any any uh
Carter
24:21
uh social advocacy group is
Carter
24:24
is uh getting people to give a fuck for longer 15 or 20 minutes. And as soon as it starts to feel like it disadvantages them or that they're not part of the majority, they
Carter
24:35
they slide backwards. I mean, and this is the this is the challenge is that a large portion of people are making their decision not because they have a strongly held position on it, but
Carter
24:45
but because they are part of the majority and they want to be on the side that wins. wins
Carter
24:49
um you know i i i've seen that in virtually every election that i've worked on you
Carter
24:54
know people go oh who's the winner gonna be who's winning right
Carter
24:58
right like that and and that becomes one of the biggest motivators right go
Carter
25:04
go back to 2015 looks like rachel notley was the one who was threatening um jim
Carter
25:09
jim prentice ergo everybody moves to rachel notley viability
Carter
25:15
more more More than viability, it's about who's
Carter
25:18
who's the winner because I want to be on the side of the winner. That's how shallow the decision-making is.
Zain
25:23
Come with me then to New York City right now. Have you been following what's happening with Zoran Mamdani?
Zain
25:29
You actually have not. No.
Zain
25:31
You have no idea. You don't know what's going on. Give
Carter
25:32
Give me one sentence of background and we'll see if I got one fact for it. Democratic
Zain
25:35
Democratic Socialist that could win on the seventh ballot against Cuomo tomorrow night.
Carter
25:40
Oh, okay. In the Democratic
Carter
25:41
primary. Yeah, no, I'm not paying attention.
Zain
25:42
A lot of propositional messaging. messaging, a lot of working class messaging, trying to re-own that overall sort of narrative. I think it's a fascinating example. I want to move on though to tonight, Carter. Let's use tonight and tomorrow as a reset point for the NDP,
Zain
25:59
not a reset, but like a new chapter because Naheed Nenshi will get a seat in
Zain
26:02
in the legislature based
Zain
26:04
on the election outcome of Edmonton Strathcona, which we know.
Zain
26:07
There's a by-election in Olds, which
Zain
26:11
the Alberta Republican Party is playing in, and then there's Is this bellwether,
Zain
26:13
bellwether, lack thereof? Don't know if it's going to be close. Don't know if it's going to be an NDP outright re-secure with
Zain
26:21
with decent margins as they won last time in Edmonton-Ellersley.
Zain
26:24
What do you think the impacts of tonight are for the NDP? And then flash forward for the NDP for me in terms of what you feel like they need to do if tonight, tomorrow is considered to be a new act for them. Well,
Carter
26:34
Well, let's make sure.
Zain
26:35
With Nahid now getting a seat.
Carter
26:37
Yeah. I mean, let's take Old Stittsbury, Three Hills right off the table, right? Yes.
Zain
26:41
Yes. Yes, that does not implicate them in that same way. That is correct. Unless
Zain
26:44
Unless you disagree, unless you feel like vote percentage or something is something you're looking at there. Nothing.
Carter
26:52
I don't expect them to increase their vote percentage. I don't expect them to increase their vote total. I think that it will be a UCP victory with the Alberta Republicans higher than anybody would like.
Carter
27:09
Really? Really? That's what I'm hearing.
Carter
27:12
Now, am I wrong? I wish I had this in front of me. Not a prediction. Is
Zain
27:14
Is this the same geographic territory that once had a separatist seat
Carter
27:18
seat in the by-election?
Zain
27:19
It is. Okay, so you know that. I'm glad you do.
Zain
27:21
Okay, so there is a history clearly here, but 30 is wild to me. Let me tell you this. You tell me this. If
Zain
27:28
If that's 30, does
Zain
27:30
does that become the story of the night?
Carter
27:32
Oh, absolutely. Unless Ellerslie
Carter
27:37
Right? Right. If LRC goes to the UCP, then
Carter
27:40
that's the story because the NDP collapsed. So
Zain
27:43
So we could have a story tonight of an NDP loss where they've won last time, last general election. Or it could be the separatist narrative comes right back at us and just drives in where we talk about Danielle Smith's referendum, what she's playing with fire on, et cetera, et cetera.
Carter
28:00
Well, and then the idea of an early election, right? rate. Don't both
Zain
28:07
both of them give you that early election sort of landing spot? I don't know, for lack of a better term.
Carter
28:14
I think that if Ellerslie goes to the UCP and the Republican Party gets over 30%, we're going to the polls in the fall of 2025.
Zain
28:25
You mean in a matter of months?
Carter
28:27
Yeah. And we call them September the 8th. On what premise? How
Zain
28:29
How would you frame that premise for her? An assailable, what mandate is she trying to capture? I think
Carter
28:33
think that she needs a brand new mandate given the Donald Trump and there's a brand new government in Ottawa. There's a Donald Trump issue.
Carter
28:41
issue. There's a separatist issue. Now, the fact that she stoked the fires doesn't mean she can't campaign against separatism. She needs to campaign against separatism.
Zain
28:51
She can ironically wear Team Canada before the NDP get a chance to do so. Yep.
Carter
28:54
Yep. And because they want to-
Zain
28:55
- that to you by the way right now that that she has this opportunity to both engineer not engineer let me be partially
Zain
29:04
partially engineer and give voice to while lowering the bar the separatist movement
Zain
29:11
and then still continue to not continue to but then just find a canada flag in the recycling bin and be like oh by the way i was always this yeah
Carter
29:17
yeah i think that's
Zain
29:18
i'm obviously partisan on this issue so i'm trying to be as balanced as i can but like she's
Zain
29:22
she's kind of doing a version of that yeah
Carter
29:23
yeah absolutely she's doing a version of that you
Carter
29:25
you know i mean uh i lit a fire i mean this is most arsonists right i lit a fire but i called the fire department um you know i wanted to see how it all all came out i mean she's the arsonist in this story by
Zain
29:37
by the way i'm anti yeah like i'm anti-fire sort of thing yeah oh
Carter
29:39
oh i've been anti-fire since from the beginning i called the fire department sure i lit the fire but i called the fire department you know so i'm anti-fire uh And she's going to be the one who who stoked the separatist movement, who gets to stand up and say, I am saving us from the separatists. And she can't have 30 percent, 40 percent, 50 percent. So tell
Zain
30:06
tell me, tell me this. Tell me this. Yeah.
Zain
30:10
That bad party, the Alberta Republican separatist movement, gets their 25 to 30 tonight. night uh
Zain
30:16
the ndp win ellerslie yeah does
Zain
30:18
does she need ellerslie in order to make her case she doesn't right she's
Carter
30:23
she's probably more threatened by 25 or 30 percent from the republicans than she's worried about edmonton staying orange yeah
Carter
30:34
right now she knows that she can win calgary in
Carter
30:37
in a much larger way than she won calgary in uh in the last election in 20 was it 2023 yes
Carter
30:45
so she she she knows she can win calgary um it's
Carter
30:49
it's sure it's two years early and the last person who called an election early in alberta got his ass handed to him but
Carter
30:58
right now all signals are go um
Carter
31:00
um if she makes a case that she needs a new mandate to deal with uh prime minister carney um and to deal with the separatists i think that she's got a clear path to having an election in uh september early october of 2025 which is a disaster for municipal elections um
Carter
31:20
um an absolute disaster tell
Zain
31:22
tell me about um
Zain
31:25
tell me about the ndp playbook here can you write a few bullet points for them based on some of the scenarios that we see tonight so like you can you help the ndp out Yep. Scenario A is,
Zain
31:35
and I'm going to call this the likely scenario, even though I don't have inside intel, which is that they win back Ellerslie and the Strathcona NAD's going to win.
Zain
31:42
And this gets that 20 to 30% in holds.
Carter
31:48
B is they lose Ellerslie and that 20 to 30% still holds. I'm
Zain
31:52
I'm just going to keep that number for the Republican Party because I don't know where to oscillate it, but I just, a strong showing that is gets people to look twice. Let's Let's call it that, right? That's what that 20 to 30 is, as we've discussed.
Zain
32:02
Give me some strategic
Carter
32:04
strategic bullet points for scenario A and scenario B for the NDP here.
Zain
32:07
Scenario A is the one where they win, Ellerslie. Scenario B is where they lose it. Do they shift the attention straight to republicanism? Do they take any seconds of their own? Do they talk about... Give me some thoughts here on
Zain
32:19
on their W and their L tonight. I
Carter
32:21
I think that if they win, Ellerslie, they got to talk about themselves as the natural opposition to the separatist movement.
Carter
32:27
They are the real opposition to the separatist movement. They cannot believe how much this has been stoked by Danielle Smith and how quickly it's happened. They are Captain Canada. You know, they are the ones wrapping themselves in the Canadian and the Alberta flags. They're
Carter
32:41
They're the ones who are going to make sure that
Carter
32:43
that the Alberta Republicans are not a force in the next election in 2027.
Carter
32:49
That needs to be their talking points. They need to make sure that they're strong
Carter
32:54
strong and that they come down to the Calgary Stampede with
Carter
32:59
significant presence and significant activity so
Carter
33:03
so that everybody sees everybody everywhere. There's
Carter
33:06
There's been an ongoing complaint of where's Nahid.
Carter
33:10
He needs to be, in
Carter
33:12
in fairness to him, he
Carter
33:13
he is very good at Stampede.
Carter
33:15
He will be highly, highly visible during Stampede. He knows how to do 100, 150 events in 14 days.
Carter
33:23
he's great at it. So he needs to just do
Carter
33:28
out with the rest of that team. Yeah.
Zain
33:30
Okay, so that's the win strategy. The win is you don't take a victory lap on Ella as though you were supposed to win anyways. You then take the Canada flag and you say, we're not going to let her take this. Like if they give that up to her, so to speak, or let her take it, that's a strategic L there. They need to grab that flag and say, we're the natural defenders of this province and this country. Yeah.
Zain
33:49
On a wedge that the majority, okay. Okay.
Zain
33:52
Does that strategy change, Carter, if they lose Ellerslie tonight? Yeah,
Carter
33:54
Yeah, because they'll be weaker.
Carter
33:56
They'll be weaker. They won't be able to stand up and say, we are the ones who can stand up and pound
Carter
34:03
pound our chests, say that we are the ones who can oppose the
Carter
34:07
the separatist movement. The truth of the matter is that
Carter
34:10
that they will be weakened.
Carter
34:13
So they need to, in
Carter
34:15
in that particular case, they need to say, we are going to undertake a significant significant um re-evaluation of our positions a significant re-evaluation of how we're communicating with uh with calgarians and edmontonians and the people of alberta and we're going to come back in uh six weeks at the beginning of august or the uh
Carter
34:38
uh middle of august and we're going to have a a
Carter
34:41
a strong we're going to begin ndp 2.0 under nahed nenshi
Zain
34:49
publicly acknowledged reset i
Carter
34:52
think it's the only way i think that if you pretend that you're strong when you're actually weak it's a huge mistake um
Carter
35:00
recognize you have six weeks you can you can do a reset in six weeks we've
Zain
35:05
we've seen we've seen wilder shit in in canadian politics there's rumors
Carter
35:08
rumors that they're they're bringing in some really solid uh community you you know, organizational structures and some really solid organizational staff, if they're doing that and they have the ability to stand up and say, this is where we're going,
Carter
35:24
then I think that they can do really well in six weeks. And in six weeks, you know, two weeks without a stampede. Can I ask you, why
Zain
35:31
why six weeks? Why are you giving them six weeks? Is this just an arbitrary number or are you tethering it to something?
Carter
35:35
It needs to be done before the beginning of September.
Zain
35:37
I hear you, because you're looking at that early election. Because
Carter
35:40
Because the early election's coming in three weeks after your six weeks fair
Carter
35:44
your brand and i would do a brand shift
Carter
35:47
you're not going to be the ndp anymore oh
Zain
35:50
oh talk to me about that bit more i don't know i'm not into that but personally as you can see i react to that yeah
Zain
35:56
i'm i'm more than willing to listen carter
Carter
35:58
what are you talking about
Carter
35:59
because when i hear
Zain
36:00
hear brand shift i'm not hearing brand change and i maybe i wanted to maybe i felt like i heard brand change so i'll let you explain it rather than me emoting my reaction to it
Carter
36:08
it well your brand first of all isn't working right
Carter
36:10
right if you've lost ellerslie you your brand is broken right
Carter
36:13
right so let's be clear no one's buying your product anymore sure you won strathcona but if you you know if you lose if you won strathcona with anything less than 65 percent um you're losing strathcona like you've lost a significant amount of food
Zain
36:27
food okay keep going keep going i'll pose my objections in a second your
Carter
36:30
your brand isn't working right
Carter
36:31
right so take that as step one step
Carter
36:34
step two it used to be the instead of the Alberta New Democratic Party, it used to just simply be the New Democrats.
Carter
36:41
When Pam Barrett was the leader, it was the New Democrats. It was the Alberta New
Carter
36:44
No, it was just the New Democrats.
Carter
36:47
There was no Alberta tagged to the front, back, and left. Well, that's what
Zain
36:49
what you're going after.
Zain
36:50
Sorry, I thought you were going after the party aspect, not the... Okay, keep going. So I
Carter
36:53
I would rename, or I would come out of this as the Alberta Democrats.
Zain
37:00
do you want to be associated with the Democrats in the U.S.? Absolutely,
Zain
37:03
Fuck, man, that is a failing alien.
Carter
37:06
You know why? They get 45% of the vote, and you lose Ellerslie. Oh,
Zain
37:14
I don't agree with that. Well,
Carter
37:16
Well, I get that impression, but
Carter
37:19
they're losing Ellerslie. Carter, we've seen rebrands. They're
Zain
37:23
They're losing Ellerslie. Name the last successful political rebrand in this country.
Carter
37:31
A rebrand, a shift in name is essential in this province.
Zain
37:36
i may have agreed with you three
Zain
37:39
three years ago damn right i don't agree with you i don't agree with you now i really don't well
Carter
37:43
well i mean you being wrong though isn't necessarily new 10
Zain
37:47
10 minutes we're gonna get through three questions you know why because we've got 60 questions
Zain
37:50
we're gonna get through how
Carter
37:50
how just can did we answer any questions so far no
Zain
37:53
no i think we've given people great things to think about carter because
Carter
37:56
because i'm not sure that we've answered any questions and they've okay you know what you can answer these they've annoyed me and
Carter
38:02
and now i'm thinking you know what i don't like these questions you
Zain
38:05
you know i'm going to put these two together because i like these questions this is a good question uh
Zain
38:09
uh is there an effective way to pressure elected mla from stepping away from their party line and i'm going to tag in a second question here
Zain
38:18
what would it take for peter guthrie to be an effective disruptor you could see how those are related right
Zain
38:22
right uh so so maybe and let's let's focus on the first part first which is and i'm assuming Assuming this means government MLA, although this person has not said that, but they do have a follow-up, which is if you speak to them in person, meet and greet, and have only a couple of minutes times, what's the move? It's actually a good Stampede question, right? You run into a bunch of these folks during Stampede. How do you get them to have sympathy and then go as far as stepping away from their party line? That's the question that is asked here.
Zain
38:51
think I know where you're going to go, but I'm going to give you a shot at it anyways.
Carter
38:54
Assume sympathy with the individual.
Carter
38:57
So you start off with, I know you're in a difficult spot. Yep.
Carter
39:01
I know that you and
Carter
39:02
and I have agreed on lots of different things.
Carter
39:05
And so immediately you're bringing them over to your side. Yes.
Carter
39:09
And I have one question for you.
Carter
39:13
How is it that you're able to stand with Danielle in the face of blank, the coal mining, in the face of the- Trans rights.
Carter
39:21
Trans rights. In the face of- Cosec funding or whatever.
Carter
39:24
The separatist question. question another
Carter
39:27
the alberta pension plan um whatever
Carter
39:30
whatever the situation whatever you want to do but you have to start off by bringing them over to your side to begin with okay
Carter
39:40
you know uh who should we pick on searle turton right our good friend sir good friend
Carter
39:45
comes down and i say searle we have agreed on so many different things how do you stand how do you and with Danielle when
Carter
39:53
it comes to the question of separation. Do
Zain
39:55
Do you go after them personally? Like, this is, I'm glad
Carter
39:58
glad this person asked this.
Zain
40:00
Yeah, like, but do you kind of say, like, I thought you were better than this? I've always heard people kind of say, like, you know, I thought, like, almost shaming them into it. Where does, you
Zain
40:10
know, obviously you don't want to do that publicly, but if this person's question is about a private conversation, which I like the setup here, how
Zain
40:15
how personal can you get around someone's values and almost like, I hate to use this word, but I think it's an appropriate one. their morality right like i thought you were better than this i
Carter
40:24
i i've done i've had these conversations a number of times and
Carter
40:27
and have you used
Carter
40:28
terminology like that values based morality based questions because ultimately the hardest thing for an individual to walk away from is his or her own values right
Carter
40:39
right they will be accused
Zain
40:40
accused of not being consistent with them well
Carter
40:42
none of us are consistent with their values but
Carter
40:44
but you to have a an obvious inconsistency pointed out is fair
Carter
40:50
is true is challenging it's a challenging moment um
Carter
40:55
and was this actually a question yeah
Carter
40:57
yeah it was it's a good question exactly wow out of 67 that's not bad one
Zain
41:02
one good question what
Zain
41:03
what what does guthrie need to do let's end it here what
Carter
41:05
what does guthrie need to do to be
Zain
41:06
be an effective pest i'm using the word pest but i like it he's
Carter
41:09
he's just got to start implying that he knows stuff that it's he knows things that that have occurred behind the scenes that's
Carter
41:16
that's what the media are looking for they want they don't want just another person standing up and saying like nahed nenshi there's something that smells bad about this deal with the corrupt care right guthrie's
Carter
41:29
guthrie's got to be able to stand up and say i was in the room i
Carter
41:33
i saw what was bad about the corrupt you know about this this contract i see the lack of morals i see the lack of integrity that's why i left i
Carter
41:45
the chits i have the receipts that's what he needs to be imply if he's going to be the most successful uh disruptor that he possibly can be so
Zain
41:55
so so carter here we go over
Zain
41:57
over under in our lightning round no no i
Carter
41:59
i gotta ask you
Zain
41:59
you a question no you okay oh yeah you've got a question for it put
Zain
42:01
put it put it in the over under lightning round no
Carter
42:03
no no it's before the hell it's a bigger question than that zane okay
Zain
42:07
okay fine well Well, I'm just trying to give you their tight 45, but I guess neither of us are Shannon, so we've got all the
Carter
42:12
the time in the world. We've got all the time in the world.
Zain
42:13
Fucking lay it on me. Like, I've
Carter
42:14
I've had two phone calls during this. Two. I mean, I feel pathetic right now. Like, that's just nothing.
Carter
42:20
Here's my question for you. What is the state of the race in the Calgary municipal elections in 2025? What's your read on it? I'm obviously biased, but you're not biased. You're just sitting there, some guy hanging out. You're watching things unfold.
Zain
42:36
it's a really good question and i don't know what it's june it's june so i
Zain
42:42
i think this will come down to what i call a classic realtor election which
Carter
42:46
classic realtor election real
Zain
42:49
is just like real real realtor
Zain
42:51
realtor realtor with the with the real
Zain
42:53
don't forget the copyright and the trademark there yeah
Zain
42:55
they're not happy when you don't use that carter um if
Zain
43:00
if man everything Everything else has been overshadowing municipal or the anticipation of municipal. For a long time, we were talking about the overlap of federal on municipal, provincial referendum on municipal, provincial referendum potentially tagged on, election provincially over municipal. We just talked about that, right? So municipal is always kind of like the last thing to kind of get anyone's attention. We're
Zain
43:22
We're in June, and I feel like the punch through that is required has not happened yet for some of the candidates that
Zain
43:28
that need to punch through.
Zain
43:30
Name names. Like candidates you may be working with, Carter. Just some of those people. Chicken
Zain
43:37
That being said, that being said, I, like you, agree that six weeks is a long time. I think this retail cycle is going to be really important for these candidates. They're going to have to come out of this retail cycle between July,
Zain
43:48
July, Stampede, Folkfest. Is that August still? Mid-August? Yeah,
Carter
43:52
Yeah, it's early August. Okay, so
Zain
43:53
so let's use that five-week period, which I believe is like five to six weeks, your number.
Zain
43:57
That's going to be huge for these people to define themselves, to understand what they stand for. I go back to my point of ambition and what these folks need to describe, because if that doesn't happen, it becomes a Jyoti Gandak, Jeremy Farkas re-election, where for the political insiders, there's been a bit of evolution in terms of what people feel about those two characters, which I think is interesting. But for the secondary and the tertiary class of Calgary citizens, it's a rematch again where conservatism is in favor and he holds the mantle there. That's my on the sidelines minimal attention thought
Zain
44:34
thought process. You understand this more intimately. You probably know the dynamics between first, second, third, what percentage it takes to win. I also believe this will be one of those elections where the winner may have 29% to 36% in terms of what they get in terms of vote share to win, because that's going to be a few people who can carve out 12% to 15% homes.
Zain
44:56
And maybe they were thinking that they could carve out 30% to 40% homes, but their ceiling is 12% to 15%, either as a byproduct of performance, name recognition,
Carter
45:06
runway. They just didn't start enough. But I
Zain
45:08
I think those dynamics probably end up with a mayoral candidate that does not have a strong mandate. Regardless, a mayoral candidate that ends up with 28% to 35% is not a 50% plus one winner, which means that the election is one thing, but the mandate on the back end is even more fascinating to me around what they feel like they've got permission to do.
Zain
45:33
Right now, all things equal, election tomorrow, Farkas. Do
Carter
45:36
Do you think he's actually been able to walk away from his... He has his progressive creds now, and he has his conservative creds. Which ones are actual real?
Zain
45:46
I think this might play either
Zain
45:49
either strategically or lucky for him. I'm not sure I want to decide just yet because I haven't seen it. Where with the political class, enough people have forgiven him, and there isn't an exciting progressive that's punching through just yet on paper.
Zain
46:01
So they go with Farkas because it's like, Like, has he fundamentally changed? I'm willing to take a shot.
Zain
46:06
He's also a machine at
Zain
46:08
at the one-on-one game, at
Zain
46:10
at the keeping in touch with everyone game, which I think has helped a lot of the political organizing class feel more comfortable with Farkas. And then I think he takes advantage of the fact that many of the people in the second and third ring still feel like he's a conservative or, if branded with a bit more negativity, conservative enough. That's how I look at it. I don't have the numbers you have. I don't have any of the poll, but it becomes a realtor election. The second and third ring know Jeremy Farkas, and the one name I haven't mentioned is our sitting Mayor Jyoti Gondek, who I've got a lot of time and respect for, but it seems like from at least some of the polling, is going to be competitive enough, but might not have the same chance that she did last time.
Zain
46:48
But that's where I kind of see this race going. It's like, I'm not saying it's Farkas for the taking, but if those things align where enough progressives have forgiven him on the organizing side and the political side, and enough people still view him as conservative enough and
Zain
47:00
we're in a moment of more conservatism or at least more moderation than some of the things that gondek sold um during the last sort of months of her race around progressive hopes right if i'm being honest like you sold progressive hopes carter and i bought i was one of those customers who said yup like relatively last minute if this is the choice i'm going with gondek this is easy um
Zain
47:21
if that doesn't exist to the level and
Zain
47:23
and Farkas might be able to do a bit of like capture in that in that way that could be quite fascinating well
Carter
47:28
well make sure we go to uh why is Zane wrong dot ca uh are
Zain
47:33
to give a full explanation I should
Carter
47:35
should allow you explanation you know
Zain
47:37
know I have respect for for and a ton of admiration why is
Carter
47:40
is he wrong and tell us why he's wrong right or wrong tell
Carter
47:44
tell us why you agree with Zane or why you don't and keep in mind here's
Zain
47:47
here's a genuine question I have for you yeah here's a genuine question i have for you why are none of these candidates outside
Zain
47:53
outside of maybe sharp punching
Zain
47:56
with a fervor and intensity on
Zain
47:59
on daniel smith as you did with gondek and jason kenney that
Zain
48:03
that that's one element of it that i'm actually struggling with just as an like this is pure observer right so you might tell me oh you're saying you're wrong like here's 10 things that everyone's been doing and then it becomes a question of why none of it's penetrating which
Zain
48:14
which is a different tactical question that a lot of folks are struggling with is getting but why
Zain
48:19
why is no one seem to be hitting daniel smith on the daily about everything if there's if there's some softness around who's pushing back why are some of these merrill candidates the farkas is and the bryans and the gondeks where
Zain
48:31
where are we on hitting daniel smith on a on an hourly basis let alone daily it's
Carter
48:37
it's hard to hit a shadow she
Carter
48:39
she moves so quickly she moves from one thing to the next thing that you throw we'll punch it and then the next thing that that thing is kind of the ndp
Zain
48:46
ndp answer isn't it it's
Carter
48:47
it's gone it's it's like punching a wisp right
Carter
48:49
right like why was it not why was it not like that with kenny because
Carter
48:53
had to stand on the on the covid stuff he
Zain
48:55
he was just it was the one issue that he would not back out on everyone he couldn't back away from it he was
Carter
48:59
was defined on it and it gave us a much stronger attack how much of
Zain
49:04
of an assist do you think you feel like you got from the opposition ndp in the gondek race that that they had defined kenny in such a way or helped define him in such away? None.
Carter
49:15
Tell me why. Because the NDP were nowhere near us. I was in absolute shock that the NDP didn't at least come to steal our people, to
Carter
49:24
to steal the structure.
Zain
49:25
I don't mean from a ground war organizational perspective. I mean from an air war definition
Carter
49:29
Nothing. We defined him way more on our own.
Zain
49:33
You think so? Absolutely.
Zain
49:35
So you feel like this is a struggle that everyone is having right now is how to hit Danielle Smith from a municipal- It's
Carter
49:39
It's like throwing a punch at at a ghost have you
Carter
49:43
haven't really tried that hard right now but it's
Carter
49:46
it's it's it's in part because we can't see the punch fair
Zain
49:50
fair i see what you're saying about that you
Zain
49:53
you have to find the angle if you can't
Carter
49:57
can't throw it there's
Zain
49:57
there's simultaneously too much and not enough because none of it's been bundled is how i look at it yeah
Zain
50:05
it's like a lot of raw ingredients uh carter over under our lightning round lightning
Zain
50:09
yeah yeah There's just one question here, which is, first of all, a reminder, lastmealatswiss.ca. That's where you can go to give us your actuarially
Zain
50:21
analysis of how many people have had their last meal.
Zain
50:25
We'll use today as a stopper, June 23rd, 2025, up until today. How many people in this country have had their last meal at Swiss Chalet? Carter, I'm going to let you work this out on
Zain
50:35
on Mike here. Give it to us from top of the dome, Stephen Carter.
Carter
50:41
Well, Swiss Chalet, I remember coming to Calgary in the 80s. We're
Zain
50:45
We're talking Canada-wide, sorry. I
Carter
50:46
I want to be
Zain
50:46
be very clear. But
Carter
50:47
But I'm only familiar with the Calgary.
Zain
50:49
Okay, so you're going to just use Calgary as a template. I like where you're going.
Carter
50:52
Calgary has approximately been 10% of the population. Let's just say, no,
Carter
50:55
no, not, yeah, 5
Carter
50:57
5% of the population. No, 2% of the population. It doesn't matter.
Carter
51:01
Math's not my strong suit.
Carter
51:03
So here's the number.
Zain
51:04
Okay, what's the number?
Zain
51:09
don't need to see the work.
Zain
51:12
It's pretty good. I don't mind 67. 67 feels right. I'm going to give you a range.
Carter
51:17
Well, no, no, no. You got to pick a fucking number. You
Carter
51:19
You can't do a range. I'm
Zain
51:21
I'm not very good at math either, but I think it's between 9 and 5,000.
Carter
51:25
That is not wrong. Pick a number.
Carter
51:31
Dick! Is this... No,
Zain
51:34
no, no. It's fine. I feel like this is a poor strategy on my part, but I feel like you're
Zain
51:40
you're going exactly where I was going to go. Give us your number, lastmealatswiss.ca. That's a wrap on episode 1876 of The Strategist. My name is Zane Velja. With me, as always, Stephen Carter and no one else because we weren't organized, and we'll see you next time.