The Breakdown With Nate Pike

On this weekly run down of the major events in Alberta politics, we take a look at the impact of a drop in oil prices, UCP staffing scandals, the impact of exploitive political leadership on radicalization our weekly round up of Danielle Smith Scandals plus a look at Rachel Notley's recent award show appearances! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at...

There’s new required reading for followers of Alberta Politics in the form of the book “Blue Store - The Rise & Fall of Jason Kenney” and we were able to sit down with one of the editors of the boom, political scientist Dr. Duane Bratt! Not only does Dr Bratt share how this book, which is a compilation of essays by renowned political experts from across the province came to be, but he also shares...

With the Alberta EMS system simultaneously in crisis and not in crisis depending on who you ask, we get into the recent EMS report as well as the both political parties attempts to politicize the situation! Plus we talk Budget Blowback! Danielle's Drugs! Property Taxes! AP Problems! GP Police! Shandy Shenanigans and more with commentary from Sarah Biggs! As always, if you appreciate the kind of co...

Recently, a local website published an article that disseminated a story about a trans woman in a change room that provoked a very strong response. With escalating rhetoric and bigotry targeting the trans community, we take a look at how that "story" has evolved and highlight the fact that the Calgary Police Service has since called it. Additionally, we take a look at some of the bizarre legislati...

So it appears the APP had their own internal independence movement and their leader Conspiracy Theorist Denis Modry is running for the UCP? We go through that, the healthcare update and the impact of privatization in health care, the new provincial budget and Sarah Biggs helps us try to figure out what happened with those bizarre introductions of insurrections on bail was all about? As always, if...

If there was a theme to the last week in Alberta Politics, it was that who you know determines how much you're getting paid. There were multiple stories breaking about the UCP using sole source contracts to make sure their friends are making bank at the taxpayers expense. Plus, Danielle Smith continues to muse about how to introduce more private health care delivery in Alberta and an ex-PC ministe...

On this episode of the Breakdown we unpack the conspiracy theory around "15 minute cities" and as well take a look at the recent uproar around Trans people in bathrooms before we get into a discussion and Q&A on how everyday Albertans can be prepared for and get involved in the upcoming provincial election with Politico and Strategist Sarah Biggs! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content t...

After a brief break we're back! And what a week it's been! The NDP's downward polling numbers in Calgary are rapidly becoming a bit of a trend, the Western Standard lowers the standard with a bigoted attack against Janis Irwin, The Emergencies Act was justified and Alberta's Justice Minister Tyler Shandro sure isn't happy about that despite the fact the UCP had asked the feds for help, Sheriffs in...

Danielle Smith came back from her sunny vacation this week and blew in with all the fury of a tropical storm! At her press conference on Thursday, not only did she reveal that she's recently been talking to an anti-vax protestor who claims she promised him a free pass on charges for his involvement in the Coutts border blockade, but also that she never knew that it wasn't;t a power available to a...

On this episode of The Breakdown, we're excited to welcome back Regan Boychuk to the show for a conversation on the irresponsible R Star program and on why he believes that Albertans need to demand a fresh look at how oil and gas royalties are handled! As always, thank you so much for your support! As always, if you appreciate the kind of content that we’re trying to produce here at The Breakdown,...

What was up with that handshake? As groundhogs across the continent were just tucking themselves back in, Danielle Smith finally appeared in public again, which can only mean at least another 6 weeks before the next provincial election! At this weeks First Ministers health meeting, Danielle Smith and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau exchanged what could only be called a handshake using the lowest def...

On this episode, we take a look at the latest events in Alberta Politics, including the walk back of Smith's COVID advisory council, Danielle Smith's drug deal that just keeps getting worse, Take Back Alberta's headfirst run into a brick wall on nominations being reopened, and we try and make a bit of sense of the story so far with the UCP 'S takeover (?) of Athabasca University! As always, if you...

Many people know "True North" as a fairly far right conservative media platform, but as we started to try and pull back the curtains on their story, we were shocked to find out just how intertwined they are with a number of other organizations, most shocking of all that they share a "Corporate Headquarters" address with none other than Danielle Smiths "Free Alberta Strategy" PAC!  Strap in, becaus...

What was the Alberta Party thinking?  That's the question that we kick off this episode with after they deployed a clunky AI Avatar in a new video this week. From there we move into the ongoing developments in Justice Minister Tyler Shandros hearing with the Law Society, skyrocketing insurance rates and why the UCP's measures won't make the impact people need, the ongoing health care crisis and Sm...

Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro finally has his hearing with the law society and for inexplicable reasons, his defense has spent a surprising amount of time debating whether or not Tyler actually cried on the day he showed up to confront a physician in their driveway. Plus! The privatization of Alberta Health care continues and we recap the ongoing scandal and new revelations from the last...

Danielle Smith announced her new COVID Inquiry Chair, and it's a figure well known in Alberta Politics, Preston Manning! But there's some very important questions about Prestons payday and the kind of bias that he's potentially bringing to the inquiry. Also, on Thursday, yet another scandal broke in regards to the Smith government potentially trying to influence the independent Crown Prosecutors O...

It's January 18th and we're back to talking about the "Just Transition" because that seems like it's all we talk about in Alberta these days... On Tuesday Danielle Smith falsely claimed that the "Just Transition" would eliminate up to 2.7 million jobs, and despite being corrected by, well, pretty much everyone, she has continued to double down on this ridiculous claim. Add to that the fact that Op...

On Thursday Danielle Smith flipped the world of Alberta Politics on its head (again) by stating at a press conference that she had been directing prosecutors to look at specific cases, which would be a huge violation of the independence of Crown Prosecutors. What followed was a dizzying few days where statements were issued, Smith offered multiple clarifications and ultimately it was said on her w...

We’re super excited to be able to share this episode! Lydia Greene is one of the founders of backtothevax.com, a grassroots organization working to dispel vaccine hesitancy and she comes to it from a place of very real personal experience!  Lydia spent years immersed in the extreme anti-vax/wellness culture but has since come out the other side and is now not only working to better inform people b...

The start of this week saw two press conferences from the UCP government that didn’t go very well at all… First we saw the “Affordability” Presser where UCP Minister Nate Glubish effectively admitted that the UCP had dropped the ball on several programs during COVID and then inexplicably couldn’t explain why the Alberta government had opted to create a costly program that delayed affordability pay...

On another one of our Alberta Politics round-ups, we take a look at the embarrassing controversy surrounding UCP Minister of Mental Health and Addictions Nick “S-CLub” Milliken and his weekend of embarrassing and brutally ignorant tweets. Plus we do a bit of a deep dive on exactly what is this “Just Transition” that has the UCP all up in arms and more! As always, if you appreciate the kind of cont...

Danielle Smith and the UCP have announced to task forces to address social issues, but there are a lot of people who are raising some very serious concerns around the motivations and methods of these task forces.  One of those people is Euan Thomson, founder of the harm reduction group Each & Every. We sat down with Euan to hear what his concerns are in regards to these task forces and why he’s co...

On this episode, we take a look at the recent provincial political party fundraising numbers, the effective of the gas tax being cut (again), we try and fill in the blanks on on a recent story about Danielle Smith’s Chief of Staff and we take yet another look at the ongoing children’s fever medicine purchase by the UCP from a company that wasn’t allowed to seek those drugs here. As always, we’re j...

We’re back from break with a supersized return so big we split it into two parts! In Part 2 we Sit down with @ZiadFazel to hear his concerns about masks for healthcare workers, especially for health care workers who are working with the elderly and the vulnerable in long term care facilities. Zaid explains his understanding of the history of mask procurement in Alberta and he has a lot of question...

We’re back from break with a supersized return so big we split it into two parts! In Part 1 we run through the events of the last few weeks in Alberta Politics including taking a look at new UCP nominations, the importance of one vote, Danielle Smiths walking back of pretty much all of her leadership race promises before we do a deep dive on the “Take Back Alberta” Initiative that has been buying...