A Coffee with Erika Barootes, Co-Host of the Discourse Podcast and Senator in Waiting

Join us for a coffee and chat with Erika Barootes, a dynamic force in Alberta, serving as Co-Host of The Discourse Podcast, Department Head & Director of External Relations at MaKami College, and an Alberta Senator in Waiting! 

Erika, a Regina native, initially pursued sciences at the University of Calgary before shifting to a Political Science degree. Dispelling the myth that a poli-sci degree is a direct ticket to politics, she reveals how her early involvement as a youth representative on local constituency boards laid the groundwork for her deep understanding of the political landscape.

Though she initially wanted politics to remain a passion rather than a career, Erika was drawn in during Gary Mar's 2011 PC Leadership campaign, quickly rising from running his Calgary office to traveling as his Executive Assistant. Her career continued through various political roles in Edmonton, including an impactful run for President of the UCP and later putting herself forward for the Senate, advocating for Alberta and new programs for veterans.

Beyond the political arena, Erika is an avid runner and cherishes time with her family. She's also the engaging Co-Host of The Discourse Podcast, where she and Cheryl Oates, from opposing political viewpoints, foster respectful debate. What started as TV and radio segments grew into a popular podcast, drawing significant media attention.

Erika's commitment to practical political education led her to create and launch the Applied Politics and Public Affairs 2-year diploma program. This hyper-partisan online pilot program, which highlights what she wished her own degree covered, provides a comprehensive introduction to politics, public affairs, and advocacy, and has garnered immense interest across Canada.

Get ready to hear Erika's insightful perspective on navigating the world of politics, the power of constructive discourse, and her dedication to practical education for the next generation of leaders.

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Transcript

0:11

Well, good morning, everybody, and welcome to another edition of ABA Coffee In The Park. My name is Cam Milliken, and I am here with my co-host extraordinaire, Jennifer Herrick. Good morning, Jennifer. Good morning, Cam, how was your weekend? You know, weekends are good, but you need like another three days after a weekend. You know what I mean? Like I need a weekend and then a weekend. It's true. Because like weekends are just, they're just busy. It's busy. And your weekend? Your weekend was busy. You know about my weekend. I do, you had a ball tournament. I did. And I was running from a torrential downpour. You had like a tornado happen. With my wagon. Yeah, with your wagon. Mental picture, Jennifer running across the baseball field, pulling her wagon. Anyway, that's kind of funny. But yeah. But here we are. Here we are today. And it's a semi-nice day. I think. Sort of, yeah. Not real hot, not real cold, but it's a semi-nice day. And we want to tell everybody that we are coming to you live from the Wall Coffee Roasters in the heart of beautiful downtown Acheson. That's right. So if you hear a lot of noise in the background,There is a lot of noise today. There is today. There's a lot of meetings going on in here. So if you hear like coffee machines whirring and people talking, it's because we're live at the Wall Coffee Roasters. And if you have never been to the Wall Coffee Roasters, could I just once again promote, not again. Yeah, again, the Blueberry Honey Flat White. The best drink I've ever had. I'm not even kidding. I know some would disagree with this, but it is. It is the best drink. I don't care whether they disagree. It is the best drink. I'm just saying. It's good. It is good. Okay. Okay, but we're not talking about that. I know. And you don't like it when I talk about it. Is there something, what do we need to talk about? Well, no, it's fine. Okay. Well, anyway, tell us, what do we need to talk about? Well, we need to thank some very important people. Yes, we do. Which include our gold corporate sponsors, the Myshak Group of Companies, Genics, Parkland County, and Bow Valley Credit Union. That's right. Without them, we would not be able to do what we do. So, this is fantastic that we can do what we do because of them. Yes. Yes. Sorry. I've never said that before, but that just came to my mind. Well, it was a good one. Anyway, okay. So, hey, anything else you need to tell us? Let's just get to our guest, because I think this is going to be a great podcast. I don't think it's going to be dull today. Right now, this is not going to be dull. This is not a dull podcast today. So, introduce, here we go. Our guest today is none other than Erika Barootes. Yes. So, welcome Erika. Hi, Erika. Hi. Thanks for having me. Podcast personality, TV personality, radio personality, political personality. You're it. You're it. I think that's how many personalities my husband thinks I have. Multi-personality disorder. She has a number. Who will I be today? We don't know. Who am I today? That's right. Thank you for being here. Yeah. Thank you for having me. And thank you for the blueberry honey flat white. Is it not the best you've ever had? Be honest. Tell the truth and shame the devil. You know what? I'm a black coffee drinker. So, I went out on a limb because I was trying to be polite to you, Cam. And then the return on investment was there. There you go. It's good! It's good! I know. See? So, everybody, I'm not lying. I'm telling the truth. But I'm glad Erika is drinking it. But I'm so glad that Erika is here today. I have had the privilege of watching Erika in action at many events. And it's just the best when she does it. She's amazing. It's unbelievable. So. So, let's find out a little bit about Erika's story. Erika, tell us about where you were born and where you grew up. Oh, I'm a Saskie girl. Come on! Yeah. So, yeah. Born and raised Regina girl. And then we had a cabin just outside. Very original name, Regina Beach. Yeah. On Last Mountain Lake. So, if anyone's from there, I did the traditional things of working at Donavals, working at Butler's Fish and Chips, which is a hot spot. It's now the Bluebird Cafe. Yeah. Yeah. I grew up out there and spent all my time, graduated and then like many Albertans was like, get the hell out of here, moved to Alberta early 2000s, went to university in Calgary and then eventually made my way to Edmonton. No, I feel like I'm listening to your story. I know. I googled Jennifer and then I was like, this is my life story. You know. Okay. What high school did you go to? Campbell Collegiate. I'm a South End Snob. Campbell Collegiate. Do you know about that? Campbell Collegiate? What was your school mascot? Oh, it was a tartan. A what? Like a tartan, like actually. Like a skirt? Yeah. You didn't have like a bird or a wild animal? Is this how? Well, I guess it's Saskatchewan. If you read it backwards, it's Snat Rat. We're the Snat Rats. Go team go, okay. Yeah, so we have like a big Irish guy, which I'm a ginger, so I really identified with. Right. And his little skirt, like he painted on the wall. Really? Very intimidating. And you're the tartans. So what was the name of your high school? Campbell. Campbell Collegiate. Campbell Collegiate Tartans. So if you ever go to Regina, you ask people what high school did you go to? You can immediately use stereotype them. You're North of Doody, NOD. You're Dirty North Ender, South End Snob. This is fantastic. This is kind of like Edmonton a little bit, but nonetheless. For like all 140,000 people that were there. Okay. So you left there and you went to Calgary. You went to U of C alum. U of C. What did you take? Well, I was originally taking Sciences. Okay. And then was like, why the hell do I have to balance a chem equation? This is stupid. And my requirement was to get a piece of paper. And so I was like, man, you know what I'm good at? Talking, bullshitting and having an opinion. So, Poli Sci degree. Hello. Poli Sci. Hello. Here we go. All you Poli Sci grads out there. There is a job for you. That's right. There is a job for you. Hey, this is like a good pivot to what I do now, but we'll come back to that. Yes. Okay. So you graduated from U of C. With a Poli Sci degree. I was super cool. I just like that degree, Poli Sci. What do you got? Poli Sci. That's kind of cool. It's like you're a fake scientist. Yeah. It is. Yeah. I'm a scientist of Poli. Without having to do chemical equations. That's really cool, I think. Anyway. Okay. So you graduated Poli Sci. Then what? Well, so I always tell people like a Poli Sci degree does not get you a job in politics. Even if you look at my resume, you might think that that was the first step. It was not. I was super cool that when my friends were pre-drinking on Thursday nights before the Den, I was at a board meeting for my local constituency association. So I would have to play catch up obviously. But I would go and I'd be like our youth rep, and I was involved in our conservative campus club. Yeah. I was there when the wild rose was splitting off from the PC's. It was very hot gossip back then. Hot gossip. So it's very triale. Well, constituency meetings aren't the most exciting. I'll give you that. Yeah, like I, yeah. Well, they gave me a lot of free stuff as a youth, though. I got to go to a lot of events. Yeah. Free stuff is good. I know. Well, you go to a lot of events and somebody paid for it. Yeah, that's right. It involved people, and I really did feel included. So I was on our, like the PCYA I was on, which I never liked because it was like, you want to sit at the big kids table. Yeah. But you were at the youth table. Yeah, I was. Yeah. You wanted to move up. I mean, my maturity might still put me there, I'm not sure. No, that's okay. No, but I know. I know the feeling. You'd be there with me. You just want to move up. Okay, but Erika, you're always interested in politics like growing up. Like when was that? Yeah, I'm like one of those stereotypical kids that my family was involved. So my grandpa was a senator in Saskatchewan for Regina Capel under Brian Mulrooney. He was the head, like he was chair of fundraising for the PCs there. My aunt was involved in Saskatchewan and actually like I was in political science. For anyone that lives in politics, it was like my friend's running for a nom, buy a membership, come out to support her. All of these things, her name was Jennifer Dyke. And so anyways, I got involved in 2004 through campus clubs, through that when I had changed degrees, I don't think I knew I was necessarily conservative, but I didn't not know. There was just nothing for me based on my dad's side of the family, the Barootes side, I was very involved. And so I kind of grew up as a party kid, and then I worked for Ron Stevens. So politics was your life? Yeah, I did, like I did co-op work terms for politicians. So when you guys sat around the kitchen table at home, did you talk politics? Oh no, I live with my mom and she's like quite left-leaning. Oh, okay. Like crystals and auras and that stuff. Okay, okay. So you didn't talk any of that then? So yeah. You saved that for, school. But my aunt, she was in Calgary, like really took me under her wing and kind of took me around, got me to conventions, like introduced me to people. Thankfully, like our last name is obviously not common and she had a good reputation. So it really did help pave the way. I think I'm probably far more conservative than my grandpa or my aunt are, but that's okay. No, that's good. That's good. And so you graduated, you did all of these things. What was your next move? Yeah, so I was like do the stuff that I really loved politics and I wanted it to be a passion. I never wanted a career in it, was like me at 22 years old. So, you know, did a few other different jobs, kind of one degree of separation away. And then in 2011, Gary Mar was running for the PC leadership. A bunch of my friends were getting involved with that campaign. And we were family friends with, or still are, I guess, but with Alison Redford and obviously she was also running, but I decided to be on Gary's team. This is like the who's who of like, this is- Of the conservative government in Alberta. Like, you know, I thought I was a little ingrained in it. I realize I know nothing. This is incredible. No, like I don't think I bleed green anymore for riders. I think it's just like Tory blue. Oh, man. So yeah, like I ended going from running the Calgary office to being on the bus with him, traveling with him as the executive. Being on the bus! Yeah. Touring Alberta. Yeah. How's that? Oh, it's where I got the bug. This is where I got the bug because I went to all these places. I had no idea how vast or different because I was only in Calgary and kind of spent summers in southern Alberta, but like really didn't know Alberta. You're traveling the province, right. And Alberta is different, isn't it? And on a bus with someones face on it. Alberta is different. Oh, my gosh. It's not just Calgary or Edmonton. No, I was all the way, like Fort McMurray to Lethbridge in a week. And they're a long campaign. So by the end of it, obviously, I think we all know how this ends. Gary Mar gets the Jim Denning Effect, doesn't win because of the voting system. Alison wins. OK, here's my question. You spent all that time riding the bus, going all these places, and you don't win. What does that feel like? Well, shitty. Yeah, I know. OK, I could have put it that maybe a little bit differently. It's still your team though. You've invested so much time. Yeah. Do you want to give up? Are you done with politics? Obviously not. Yeah. There's been times in my life where I've been done with politics for a hot minute, but in this case, Alison's team did a really good job of inviting the people that were at the helm of each campaign or involved and they brought us up to Edmonton. What was your official title? With what Gary's? For that campaign. Yeah. One of the executive assistants. Okay. Yeah. So like you travel with them. Yeah. Yeah. Do everything. Yeah. So that really exposed me to a lot because we were doing all these debate preps and policy and all of these announcements and Gary was go, go, go. He'd stand at the front of a whoop up days in Lethbridge and hand out plates and the retail politician, I learned from Gary Mar. He is so good at that. So anyways, we lost. I got a job offer for Edmonton. So that's when I moved up here or out, up, not here here, but Northern, up the QE 2. I hate when people say they're going up to Calgary. I'm like, no, it's down. It's down. She's not wrong. No, she's not wrong. It is down to Calgary. I know. If you don't know Alberta folks, because people listen all over the world, we're up, they're down. That's as simple as that. We're north, they're south. We're north, they're south. Playoffs, same thing. We're up they're down. That's right. They're out. On that note, who are you cheering for? Are you Edmonton? Yeah. Are you cheering for Edmonton? Yeah. Okay, good. No, I have to ask. Because what if you were cheering for Florida? For Florida. Then it'd be like, well, this is over. Thanks for coming. But anyway, it'd be like, it's been nice. The only thing we discussed before was you are an Oilers fan. That's right. We don't have non-Oiler fans. No. I'm not a huge fan, but I love this. This is so exciting. Wait. You're not a huge fan? No. Okay. Well, we'll leave that for after the podcast. Okay. Anyway, so you move up to Edmonton. Move up to Edmonton, work for, oh my goodness, Thomas Lukaszuk. So I learned a lot there. That's it. He was the Minister of Education. I can see the look on Cam's face right now. Pardon me. Maybe this is when I double down on my conservative values. Because I was like, you, sir, are not a conservative. I'm not going to say what I'm about to say. I still reference that. Are you married yet? But at this time? Are you married already? I think I was just morning when I left my house. It was a great weekend in Vegas. That's all I got to say. At this time, at this juncture in your career, are you married? No, I'm not. Okay. Yeah. No, I was moving up here, doing my thing. One of my best friends and I moved up here together. He worked in Premier's office, as did I later on. So I went from Thomas Lukaszuk's office, where basically I stole his cell phone and hid it, so he couldn't call media outlets. Very, very invigorating role. If Elections Alberta is listening, we have nothing to do with this. Okay. So you're right. This was not during an election. Then I was on tour. I traveled the province again. Clearly, I really like Alberta. Yeah. Traveled the province for Alison Redford in the general election. I'm still friends with those people to this day. We still have a tour team for Life Group Chat, but these are where best friends are made in politics. If I can say the ebbs and flows of losing, winning, these people, you're in the trenches. Friends are friends forever. Exactly. We barely won that one. That was in 2012. Then I got moved in. I was Director of Caucus for the WIPs office. Then I got pulled into Premier's office and was in her communication shop. I kind of had this pretty good trajectory for a 20s. But you know what they do though, the legislature, spoiler alert for people, is that... Yeah, just had to segue that one. All you wide-eyed young ladies out there who are thinking, I want to do this, it's about to end right now. It's going to be over right now. This is a piece of advice that I was given, is be higher, there's the shrubs, raise above the shrubs, but don't be as high as a dandelion because you can get chopped with the weed whacker. I've never heard this analogy, although I was because of my height, called a shrub a lot, but this is unbelievable. This is good. We're learning a lot. That's right, don't be a shrub and don't be a dandelion. Right, just be somewhere in the middle. Head down, work hard and I escalated, but then I was like 26 telling a bunch of 40, 50 year old people what to do. It was like, who is this broad? What is she doing? And I think a lot of times it's overpaid, underqualified is really what they say in politics. So, I had that experience. Here again for the taxpayers listening, we just want to say, you heard it here, everything you believe to be true, overpaid, underqualified. Hey listen, I had passion and that's what you gotta have. No, yes, no, I agree. You have to have passion. Yeah, and I worked my butt off, don't you? I had no life. You had no life. You're a doer. No life whatsoever. I didn't have any friends outside the building, didn't really get to know Edmonton and then all of a sudden my boss resigned and I had to help with a resignation speech, so then my life got flipped upside down. Yeah, how does that feel? Like, you're basically writing your own resignation speech. Yeah, I know. Writing his, you're writing your own, right? Yeah, so I feel like, no, it's true, but you just, like, you don't even think about that. Right. You're just in survival mode and it was so toxic. For people that watched it, I think they looked back and, you know, there's lots of thoughts about, was it fair, was it just, is it the same if it was today? All of these things, either way, it was almost like a sigh of relief because I felt like being there and watching, you know, caucus members and people say one thing to her face and almost like a sitcom, like turn around and it's like you're off camera and you just say horrific things. But that's politics, right? That's politics. This was a whole different level though. Like even in all, like 20 years, I've seen a lot and I still remember that as the biggest turn off of how team sports are played. Like I grew up playing team sports, this was not it. It was so horrible. Okay, so let me ask you then, at that time watching this unfold, did you think like, I'm not doing this? I'm out of here. Yeah, I was so happy to be severed. Like I was like, this is disgusting and I hate this and I don't want to do this and then I was like, I'll go work in fashion and I'll go work in all these other things. I'll start my own fitness business and so I really tried to stay away from politics and then naturally kind of in that process. You're a runner, right? Yeah. You run? Yeah. Marathons? Yes, I haven't ran one in a long time but I do run halves and 10k's. Okay, I just want to pick that up. I was at the track this morning. Were you? Yeah. Running? Running circles. Yeah, because I go to the track but I just watch. But anyway, I just like... That sounded creepy. Oh no, see I just forget. So okay, so... I go with it. The hot dogs are good at the hot dog stand. God, stop. Okay, so I'm just saying. How you mute his mic... No. You can't. No, it's too late. All right, so you're thinking of quitting. Yep. But what happens? Then I joined The Wild Rose and I was very involved, like not really very involved. So if you're not from Alberta, if you're listening to us somewhere in the world, The Wild Rose was another political party that started in the province of Alberta. That split off. It was a split off. Everyone was members of the Progressive Conservative. There was discontent in the early 2000s. They fractured it to be more of a right-wing party, more focused on free enterprise, a little bit more libertarian values. And then, so I went there. And by that time, the Progressive Conservatives, many would argue, kind of was a very centrist party. And so, but then Jason Kenney came along. And he merged those two parties. Very fast forward. It's not about Jason Kenney today it's about me. No, no, yeah. And so... Do you know who, one of our guests was, remember Broddy Olson? Yeah. Broddy was a big Wild Rose. So Broddy was one of the presidents of Brother Ferd when I ran for party president. We had Broddy on the show. And he had me into his house. He has meetings at his house and he plays the violin. Remember he told us that. He plays the piano and the violin. He played his violin on our show. Just, I'm just saying. Oh my gosh. If you've never listened to that part, you should. Anyway, so yeah. I'm gonna go listen to it. He's very good. Oh yeah, he's amazing. Yeah, so I ran for president because- Of the Wild Rose Party. No, no, no. Of the UCP. Or the constituency. No, the UCP. The whole thing. Okay. The whole deal? Yeah. Oh. Well, I won too. How do you not know that? I'm so confused. Okay. I said Jason Kenney merged the party. We're at the merge point. 30 seconds ago. When you go back to your timestamps, 30 seconds ago. It's short attention span. Yeah. Okay, so. That's fair. So, the two parties merged. Then there's obviously an election. There's a lot of details to make a party merge. It doesn't just happen, but for lack of time, the two parties merged. We had a founding AGM. I ran against two other individuals for party president, meaning of the whole thing, the whole province, because I love this province. Yes. And I won. You won. So as the founding president. So probably if you are a member of the UCP, I probably asked you for money at some point in time. Well, yeah, pretty much. But I still do, actually. I got my little blue card. Anyway, that was kind of cool. Sustaining donor. All right. At first I thought I was pre-approved for a credit card, and then I realized I was pre-approved to give more money. I guess. Anyway. Which one do you find more valuable? That's other podcast for other day. All right. So you were president, and then where did that take you? Yeah. So we won an election, party was on a high, I decided not to run, and actually I was trying to get into the reserves. Because I, on my medical, passed everything else. Like I used my running, my aptitude, like I was, I felt a good candidate, and you know, like if we're going to war, you're going to be in the reserves? Really? Yeah, that's what I was trying to do. So I didn't get in. But why? How come? Because, so on the medical form, they'll just red flag stuff, and I had said that I had taken antidepressants once in my life. But why did you want to be in the reserves? Because I think that the, well, I don't think, I know that when I was serving as president, it made me really love my province and service above self and all of those types of things, that I was like, how can I do more? And I like being front line, like as much as being president. But in that time, it was the founding role of the party. You're really in the trenches for lack of a better term. And so I was like, how could I do this? That's cool. Yeah. And so that, but then I didn't get it. You could have like driven a tank or something. Yeah. Well, that's if you get accepted. Yeah. I did not. And they said, oh, you can fight it. And I was like, you know what? Yeah. You don't want me? It's like begging an ex-boyfriend to take you back. No, thank you. That's great. Like, you don't want me? Bye. We were just talking about that. I swear. You don't want me? I'm out. Like, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So, they said, you can fight it. You go through this. They just red flag it because of this and that. And I said, well, that's a problem with the system. And so, I met a few gents that- gents, oh my goodness, who am I? I met a few guys that told me about this process and they said, well, it's just the, you know, it's bureaucrats and they just go through this form. But then, they told me about the challenges with when veteran- or when people leave their service to get under veteran's affair. There's a huge gap there, about two to three months where sometimes you can't get your supports and that's like when you're going into PTSD and AWOL and integration back into civill- Yeah, civilization. So, it's like, I would say probably your most critical time besides like when you're in service, right? For sure. This time where they've already served and why are we not supporting them better? And so, then I kind of carried that on as I was working in other places. And then decided to run for Senate. Yes. And so, put my name on a ballot once internally. It was like, you know what? Let's go province-wide. And in Alberta, for listeners, we do elect our Senate. And we were doing it almost four years ago in the municipal election. So, you get an additional ballot where you could vote for a senator, which in theory gets proposed to the prime minister and the governor general. Right. And they would appoint based on that slate. Yes. Not so much the case when you have a liberal Trudeau government. However, I still did it because again, it gave me an opportunity to travel the province, talk to Albertans who are the most wonderful people in the whole world. Yeah. Advocate for things that matter to me like this need for a new program or more supports for those who served our country and just general advocacy for Alberta. Yeah. And you won? And you won. I did. Technically first place. So I like the term, you're a senator in waiting. Yes. And then I just say senator in waiting longer because they've all been appointed in the 16th. So we should call you Senator Erika Barootes. Well, I've tried to also rebrand it to senator-elect because it sounds... It does. More formal. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So... So either one you'd prefer. I thought that's it. Well, I just think it's cool. We're sitting here with a senator. I know. It is pretty cool. Don't you think that's cool? I think it's fantastic. We've never had a senator on the show. No. This is the first. This is unbelievable. Okay. So let's just talk about Erika for a moment. Yeah. Okay. So you've done... This is amazing. You've done all these amazing things. Well, thank you. You're married. Yeah. Children? I have two step kids, 11 and 14. Eleven and... Teenagers almost. Yeah, they're two girls. Two girls? It's quite a journey. And what do they think of their mom? Like you're just on... Can they keep up with you? Like you're on fire. Like sometimes they bike while I run. Does that count? They complain anyway. They bike while I run. Come on, kids, keep up. Let's go. Okay, yeah. Okay. I hope, all I hope, cause we only have them on the weekends. They're with their mom and stepdad the rest of the time. That they just see, like I get up early to go for runs. I do a bunch of stuff that I try and show them that you can do a lot in 24 hours. Yeah. Sometimes you have to take power naps, but otherwise there's a lot that you can do. And if you believe in something, it's like not really jamming it down their throats. No, no. Yeah. Just live by example. Yeah. And it's just like, you know what? Let's go, go, go. How long have you been married? Five years. Over five years. Five years. Yeah. And your husband, he does? He has an insurance brokerage. OK. I can't tell you more than that because I don't really know. Oh, shit. No, he started his own. It's just insurance is really hard to understand. If Erika's husband is listening, feel free to reach out to us and tell us the name of your brokerage firm and we'll put it on the air. I promise. OK. OK. But he does a lot of risk management. He's very good at what he does. So much could be sad right there, but I'll just start. I'm not saying nothing. I'm just sad. I'm just saying. Are you calling me a liar, Cam? No, no, no. But Erika, we have to talk about your podcast now. Yes. So tell us about the podcast and how that came to be, because we were chatting about that earlier. Yeah. And I think the story is fascinating. It is cool. Yeah. You started a podcast. Yeah. So which isn't easy. No. I'll just say, like, give you guys credit. It is more work than people think. It's also really, really fun. It is. It's a blast It doesn't feel like work sometimes, but, you know. Anyways, so, yeah, I did all of this political stuff. I was working as principal secretary for Premier Danielle Smith and on her transition team. I've known her for a long time, obviously, and she said, you have experience. Would you come and be on my team? Of like how government works and Premier's offices and politics, and you know the party better than most people, as the founding president. So brought that on, and she was very helpful for me during my Senate campaign. She was with AEG, and so... AEG? Yep. Are they a sponsor? No, I'm a board member. I know you are. On the AEG. They should be a sponsor. That's a good point. We've had Catherine on the podcast. We've had Catherine on the podcast. Anyway, sorry, we're diverting. Well, Catherine, if you're listening, you should sponsor that and The Discourse. Thank you for that. She's a big fan of The Discourse too. But you've got to split the proceeds. Split the proceeds. Split the proceeds.$10 for them, $10 for us. Okay. Well, we get the first. Because it was my idea, Cam.$20 for them, $5 for us. Okay. Perfect. All right. So Cheryl Oates, who I do my podcast with, worked for Rachel Notley. So if you're picking up anything, as she's on the left, I'm on the right. She's NDP. She is. You're conservative. Very much so. During the election, somehow we're both in the war room, which means we're on the core campaign team. She was traveling with Rachel and I was managing issues, which if you watched this last election, I was very busy. But in addition to that opportunity and gift, her and I started doing power of politics on Fridays before the election as kind of a national feature that they did about the Alberta election. So she and I came on. I would come with my highlight of the week and then she'd be able to use some key messages and push back on me about how I'm misleading people or whatever and vice versa. So we really challenge each other and kind of stick it to you, but in a respectful kind of way and in a structure that I think actually was very, very fair. And so we started doing that and then all of a sudden, we started getting over the election requests. Hey, we've asked Cheryl, would you be on or we've asked Erika, would you be on? So her and I during an election, like in enemy territory, we're texting each other being like, so do we want to do this? Like, do we want to do this? Do we interview? Do we want to go on it? It was very similar to us. That's not the story I heard from the wire. But yeah, so we went through all of that and we ended up being like, we just joke like unofficial spokespeople for our parties because everyone really liked this dynamic duo. And I think we were talking about this before we started filming. The recording was that you've got two women running for premier. Either way, you're getting a female premier. One being returning and one was premier and now is getting a mandate from Alberta. It's kind of a cool scenario. And then two very strong opinionated women, in Cheryl and I, that knew both of our leaders quite well and our parties. And so they would have us on and I think it was just like probably a cool reflection for people to have these two leaders with two females spokespeople kind of advocating for the party and the brand. So basically it got to the point that both campaigns were only putting the two of us up, only putting us up together. We did a good job. It's pretty fair, right? Like Cheryl is a former journalist. We call ourselves, someone told us this. It was actually Ryan Jesper said that I'm Don Cherry and she's Ron MacLean. She's Ron MacLean. And I was like, and he told us that? I love it. That is so true. I thought you'd be insulted by that. I'm like, no, I think that's a good one. No, I think that's fantastic. Yes. Yeah. No, I think that's great. We both listen to the podcast and I have to concur. I love it actually. I know. I was like, this is a compliment. No, I love it as a bit of a... I mean, I hope I don't get cancelled like he did. Yeah. No. Well... I could. I would be. It just takes one short statement and you're done. So that's all. Hey, I've been kicked off running groups. Yeah. I lost my Lululemon ambassadorship for being conservative. That's different. So I guess that's kind of the same. Well, yeah, I don't know. But anyways, okay. So you do your podcast. I think it's great. What's the name of it? It's called The Discourse. Okay. So people, YouTube or wherever you get your podcasts. Right. So people, take a listen to The Discourse. Okay. We're at 30. Okay. Can I talk really quick about one other thing that's very important? Yes. And I'm going to because the microphone is still on. I also launched- That's a first right there. I don't even want to turn her off because I'm scared. I'm scared to turn her off.<v SPEAKER_1You're cutting into my time Cam. So I did build an Applied Politics and Public Affairs, two-year diploma program that's recognized by Advanced Education. And it is basically what I wish my Poli Sci degree taught me, what I wish I learned in my entire career in politics, how to run campaigns, how to do stakeholder management, how to do comms in politics, influence public policy, how a bill is passed, how our system works or doesn't work in a federal system. All of these types of things, and it's to teach people should you be interested in getting into politics, public affairs, advocacy. I didn't know that existed. Well, it's a good thing you guys asked me that. Good thing you didn't cut her off, Cam. Okay, no, because, you know, I'm like this much into politics. You're like this much into politics. For the listeners, he is a thimble to his arms extended, like a bird spanning its wings. I'm like, that's right. Okay. And it was like for me, it was like baptism by fire. It was like, yeah, so this is... I had a science. Yeah, you have a you have a poli science, a poli. So, okay, so you teach this course. So we are, we did the pilot in January in person, realized that we need to make it online because there was interest actually from all parties. Come on. Yeah. So I just launched the second pilot in May. We're doing it all online. I've met with political parties across Canada. Yeah. I've been speaking at conferences about it because it teaches, you know, whether you want to run someday, or you want to run campaigns, or you just want to know more about politics, or you have a business. Where do people find this? You want to learn how to advocacy, campaign, like advocacy, lobby, influence, community, grassroot organizations, any of that. Where do we, where do people find this? Yeah, so if you go to makamicollege.com, and we have two campuses in Edmonton and Calgary. Again, this program is in the evenings and online, meant for people that work full time, that want to just use this to either upskill or make a career change or are coming out of, like I was at the homeschoolers convention on Saturday, individuals that are young and involved in their community and want to be able to get a credential. If I had known that two years ago, like, but she just said young, so I'm done. But anyways. Is that the threshold, two years? What I just said. But anyway, that's that's amazing. Like it's for adults, mature students, we call them. Grade Niners are doing really good with it. But anyway, yeah. Yeah. So if you go in and you check out the Applied Politics and Public Affairs, my LinkedIn, I always post about it because we need good people in politics this day and age. No, I'm being serious about that. Yeah, I really believe we really have to do a bit of a one-eighty. Well, I'm careful, but we need some really good people in public. And it doesn't matter. Like I said, I have, Cheryl's teaching a course. She's teaching. So we've got people from the left, the center, the right. We do everything from like finding what ideology or values and beliefs you have as an exercise to the biggest thing I think that I'm really excited about is that we teach people to understand their own bias and not get in group think and how you can learn from other perspectives. So non-partisan. Hyperpartisan. Hyperpartisan. Okay. Yeah, I like that. We embrace what your values and beliefs, but it's recognizing your bias and being open to other perspectives and contrasting that. Good for you guys doing that. I think that's fantastic. I do too. I really do. The road show I just took you on of my journey led somewhere and it was to like hopefully teach more people. To that. The commercial at the end. Yeah. All right. So we have one more. We're way over time. So hang in there with us folks. We're way over time, but hang in there with us. Don't drive off the road. Just hang in there with us. No. Okay, one final question. Because we ask every guest, every guest, all 50. Two, did we say? Multiple. Multiple. Over 50. Over 50. Yes. We ask every guest this question. Okay, Erika, best piece of advice you've been given, either personally or professionally, they carry with you to this day. Learn everyone's name on the way up because you're going to pass them on the way out. Wow. That's from Gary Mar. That is learn everybody's name on the way up because you're going to pass them on the way out. That's fantastic. I can still name the names of the people that watered our flowers at the legislature. Yeah. It's very important. Everyone has a role. Love it. I love it. I love it. Is that the best one you've ever had? Well, pretty close. I'm going to say, no, that's pretty close because I don't remember people's names. So I have to do that. Anyway. Wow. Okay. Well, we're like five minutes over. That's okay. Five is okay. It's okay. And this has been, I'm not going to say I'm exhausted, but I'm tired and I'm not tired. But this has been incredible. Yeah. Have a blueberry honey latte. Flat white. This has been incredible. We could go on and on and on, and I could listen to you forever because you always intrigue me. But you get the privilege of doing that. You can just get in the car and listen to yourself all the way home. But anyways, it's incredible what you're doing. And thank you for taking the time. Yes. Thank you so much. Thanks, everybody. It's unbelievable. But you know what? What a great insight into what it's really like. In politics. Yeah. And Erika does that just straight up. No filters. Straight up. No filters. No BS. This is the way it is. That's right. Yeah. She really does that. So yeah, a lot of fun. Great person. Erika is amazing. And I'm glad she's around because she's one of those people who calls it as it is. And I like that. Yeah, I do too. It was a lot of fun. Yeah. Thanks everybody for listening. Hey, make sure you tell your friends, your co-workers, your neighbors. If you don't have any friends, make one so you can tell them about the podcast. Even tell your enemies and subscribe. Subscribe. Because you don't want to miss an episode. That's right. You don't want to miss this one and you don't want to miss the upcoming ones because they're all awesome. So thank you for listening everybody. Hope you have a great week. Thanks. We'll see you next week. See you next time. Bye-bye.