Transcript
Zain
0:01
This is a strategist episode 1883. My name is Zain Velji. With me as always, Stephen Carter. And of course, the show for CBC, Shannon Phillips. My shirt.
Shannon
0:14
Got to rep your public broadcaster.
Carter
0:16
Can we all identify ourselves so that we can be properly represented for the NDP?
Carter
0:23
Yeah. So what are you? You are identifying as a?
Zain
0:26
Which one of my several identities do you want me to choose? I mean,
Carter
0:29
you can choose whatever one you want. I'm
Carter
0:32
identifying as a cis white male.
Zain
0:33
Okay, wow. So there's a cap on you.
Carter
0:36
Yeah, yeah. There's only one of me allowed. Shannon, what are you going to be identifying for the duration of this podcast as?
Shannon
0:44
Pronouns are she, her. Identify as a woman. Don't really see a problem with having to say it out loud. And I don't know why you guys are triggered by the National Post. I guess the culture wars of the right are working on you.
Carter
0:56
I'm not triggered at all by the National Post. I'm triggered by the contents of what was in the National Post. I'm triggered. I'm triggered by the NDP. And then I thought to myself, why am I being triggered? I shouldn't be triggered because I wouldn't
Carter
1:09
wouldn't be triggered if this was being done by the Green Party or the Marijuana Party or the Rhinoceros Party. Why am I worried about it happening with the NDP? So I'm not triggered.
Zain
1:19
I'm just going to clarify. Aspirational cis white male is what I'm going for. I would love to be you one day, Carter. One
Zain
1:27
One day. Not you exactly. Not
Carter
1:29
Not me. Far from
Zain
1:31
tribe. But everything that comes with it socioeconomically.
Carter
1:35
I am also aspirational. I want to be Ken Bozhenkul when I grow up. That's my new goal.
Carter
1:42
Yeah. I mean, that's my new goal.
Zain
1:44
Carter, we should give people some context about what you're blathering on about. And we will in mere moments. When
Carter
1:51
When we get to it. Let's see how Shannon's doing today.
Zain
1:54
Okay. Yeah. Shannon, how are you doing today?
Shannon
1:56
I'm great. I'm great. great, look at all these flowers behind me.
Shannon
1:59
They were all sent to me, not by Carter.
Shannon
2:02
Carter sent me no flowers. Did
Zain
2:03
Did you have a birthday?
Zain
2:06
Tomorrow's your birthday, and you get flowers in advance of your birthday? I know, that's ridiculous.
Shannon
2:09
Yeah, I got a bunch of different sets of flowers in advance of my birthday.
Zain
2:14
Who gets flowers in advance of their birthday? Who even gets flowers on their
Shannon
2:18
Well, people who know me know that I like flowers, and if they come in advance, then they do the job of making the children feel guilty that they have done nothing for my birthday.
Zain
2:28
Oh, interesting. Do a purpose.
Zain
2:29
purpose. It's a manipulative tool. Carter, how are you? Shannon's clearly getting flowers. It's a big day for her tomorrow.
Zain
2:35
Any news on your front, Stephen Carter?
Zain
2:40
No, you are apparently triggered. I also hear you're running 57 campaigns. I'm
Carter
2:43
not going to lie to you. It's starting to catch up with me now. Yeah,
Zain
2:48
September would suck for you? October's also going to suck. I just want to let you know.
Zain
2:52
I'm so tired. I
Carter
2:53
I am so tired right now. Why are
SPEAKER_00
2:55
you saying you're running,
Zain
2:56
running, like, what is it, 28?
Zain
3:03
Because it's not two.
Zain
3:05
Oh, my God. Okay, let's get into this. So for those that don't know, Stephen Carter is the brainchild behind the Calgary Party and the, let's call it, the Edmonton Accelerants. No, they're Better
Zain
3:16
Better Edmonton. Actually, they're called the Edmonton Accelerants. That's good.
Carter
3:20
That's good, yeah. Yeah, no, we tried to get it, but it was already taken by the arson squad.
Zain
3:28
it is resembling a bit of a dumpster fire for my perch, but, you know. Oh,
Carter
3:34
nicely done. Carter, why are
Zain
3:37
are you not saying you're just running the campaign for those two parties versus saying you're deep diving into the responsibility for all 20-some-odd eight?
Carter
3:45
I mean, I'm not solely responsible for all 28, for sure. I mean, we have campaign managers. Here we go, here
Zain
3:51
here we go. On
Carter
3:51
On each of them. But
Carter
3:53
But fuck me, I have 28 neurotic campaign candidates. I mean, not all of them, but all of them. All of them are neurotic. And
Zain
4:02
And if you're listening to
Zain
4:03
this and you think maybe
Carter
4:05
maybe I'm talking about you, I'm not. I'm talking about the other ones. Oh my God.
Zain
4:11
Carter, the best you could do in this case is accumulate a lot of losses.
Zain
4:17
I know, right? I'm looking at
Zain
4:19
you're not going to do well from a batting percentage perspective. Well, I
Carter
4:22
I mean, if I do, genius.
Zain
4:25
Yeah. Can I give you two minutes here to set the terms of success for the Calgary Party and the Edmonton Accelerants?
Carter
4:32
The Edmonton Accelerants and the Calgary Party both have the same level of success. Which
Zain
4:36
Which is what? What is what? Which is what?
Carter
4:39
Mayoralty candidate elected a majority of council candidates. Holy
Zain
4:43
Holy shit. You're now backing away.
Zain
4:45
Why would I back
Carter
4:45
back away? We're not even started. started.
Zain
4:47
So this is for, you're not, you're not running the forever Canadian strategy here, which is, uh, the one that Shannon and I support, which is just collect as many signatures and have a good time.
Carter
4:56
No, I'm, I'm not. Okay. We're
Zain
4:57
We're going to hold you to this then. We're going to hold you to this. Yeah.
Carter
4:59
Yeah. I mean, I think you should, I think that the accountability episodes are going to be fantastic. I mean, I'm assuming we'll do 28. Can we just do them right now? Can we just do it right now? 28 accountability episodes. It's going to be great.
Carter
5:12
Shannon's has ever been part of an accountability episode. She doesn't know what it is, even.
Zain
5:16
Are you familiar with these?
Shannon
5:18
Oh, yeah, I've certainly listened to them, but...
Zain
5:20
but... They are our most listened episodes, Stephen Carter, usually by yourself.
Carter
5:24
Yeah, I listen to them over and over again. Over and over. And think about what went wrong.
Zain
5:28
Yeah, as articulated by yourself. Should we get on with it? We've got a shit ton of things to cover, and they cover the...
Zain
5:36
They cover the field geographically across this country. They also are deadly serious, if not, and then some of them are pretty fun. So, Shannon, we're going to put this all into our casing of fine, fabulous or fucked. I've got a series of stories that are happening in Canada on the political scene. I'm going to ask you fine folks whether you think they are fine for the party or the person in question, if they're fabulous or if they're totally fucked from a strategic angle. Shannon, Shannon, I'll let you decide whether we start federal or we start provincial in this province of Alberta. And then, Carter, I'll let you decide subsequently on the next question whether you want serious or fun. So Shannon's going to get us going. And then, Carter, you're going to get to decide our fun level on our second round.
Carter
6:24
Golly. Because I'm the fun one. You're not the fun one, Shannon.
Shannon
6:29
I'm not. I do play a bit of a scold role on this podcast. I didn't say that.
Carter
6:35
that. I'm going to get in trouble again. Jesus.
Shannon
6:40
That's fine. I don't even know how to join it. So, like, I know I accused you of being a boomer last time, Carter, but I think I'm going to take on the boomer mantle on the whole Discord thing.
Shannon
6:49
Okay, I think we should start with federal because there's a lot going on federally. There is provincially, too, but right now, as we speak, there's quite a bit going on federally. Done
Zain
7:00
Done and done. Let's start federal and let's start very breaking news hot off the press. Kevin Roberts, the Heritage Foundation president and architect of Project 2025. That's a name that you probably don't know, but Project 2025 probably is. Well, he is addressing Carney's cabinet. Carney and team say he was invited to share his U.S. trade policy insights ahead of next year's Cosmo review. But Project 2025, for those that are not in the know, initially Trump distanced himself from it and then now has almost wholly embraced it, elevating traditional family values, restricting abortion, dismantling federal departments. That's just a couple of things in their paving of the authoritarian and Christo-fascist agenda that they're implementing in the United States.
Zain
7:43
I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that. Shannon Phillips, for
Zain
7:47
for the carny liberals, that's all I care about our domestic politics. Is this fine? They can weather this. Is this fabulous? This is a masterstroke to invite this guy. Or is this totally fucked from a strategic Strategic angle, fine, fabulous or fucked for the Carney government?
Shannon
8:01
It's really hard, I think, to separate the moral piece from
Shannon
8:05
from the strategic piece, you know, for some things, right? Like we
Shannon
8:10
we sometimes get worked up over public health and vaccination policy or the convoy and, you know, the respect for the rule of law. This, for me, falls in that category of it is hard for me to see the forest for the trees on the strategy part. I think it's fucked, though, because what is to be gained from hearing from these people? At the end of the day, Trump's going to do whatever the fuck he wants on trade.
Shannon
8:33
And so none of these fart catchers out there, whether it's Howard Lutnick or anyone else, you know, out there interpreting Trump and doing the Kremlinology of what's going on in his head, none of that matters. None of it matters. So, I don't know what we're doing, you know, rolling out the red carpet for this guy. His views are putrid, to
Shannon
8:55
to say the least.
Shannon
8:57
And, I mean, I'm sure that there's been some conversations, you know, with Letnick or others, with our Prime Minister's office, and relationships have been made. So maybe this is a bit of an olive branch. But Christ,
Shannon
9:13
Christ, how many olive branches do we need to these fucking fascists?
Zain
9:19
Carter, you are a king of separating the moral from the strategic. In fact, I could argue that is your role on this podcast, is parking the moral and heading into the strategic. We'll talk about the moral outrage in a second because there's a ton of shit, right? Like this guy is also the author of the quote, this is a second American revolution, which will remain bloodless if the left allows it to be. which is an insane quote by this author of the or this author of the 900 page manifesto known as project 2025 but carter do the hard work for me separate
Zain
9:48
separate the moral and from the strategic fine fabulous or fucked from
Zain
9:52
from the carney government nothing
Carter
9:53
nothing i want to do more than say this is fine absolutely not nothing i want to do more than say you know what this is just getting a point of view from someone who has the year of the american president who has who who can set the direction who can tell us what the direction is what he's thinking how he's thinking it and then that it may in fact arm our cabinet to be more prepared to deal with the lunacy that is trump it would be it
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