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It's not a conflict of interest for me to have my husband advise me
Jul 21, 2025
It's not a conflict of interest for me to have my husband advise me
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0:00
Earlier this week, Lou Arab, the husband
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of former Premier Rachel Notley, uh said
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that you were full of it for some of
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your explanations about why your husband
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is attending government meetings
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regarding trains. Uh how do you respond
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to that? Should the ethics commissioner
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have a look at this and and if you've
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done nothing wrong, if your husband's
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done nothing wrong, then then why not
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have a look at it, clear it up and and
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move forward? Well, I I believe you
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don't understand and maybe the former uh
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premier's hus or the pre former
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premier's husband doesn't understand
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what the lobbyist registry says. You if
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you are getting paid by somebody to
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lobby government, then you have to
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register as a lobbyist. He was getting
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paid by QP and he never stepped down
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from his position the entire time his
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wife was was premier. My husband, on the
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other hand, quit the media when I became
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an elected official in 2012 because he
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didn't want to be involved in daily news
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because he knew that that would put him
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in a conflict of of interest. There is
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no one that is paying my husband. I'm
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not paying my husband. There's no one
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paying my husband to give me advice. I
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ask for his advice because I value his
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opinion. And in fact, I think if you
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look historically, you will see that uh
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uh former premier Ralph Klein's wife
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also served as the head of a premier's
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advisory committee on children's issues.
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When I was involved in politics in
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British Columbia, Ted White's wife
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worked for him at the constituency
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office office. She didn't get paid
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anything for it, but she worked with him
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at the constituency office. If you look
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internationally, they actually in the US
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have roles for the first spouse. They
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provide them a budget and they do
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speaking. They get they head up
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commissions. So, uh, no, it's not a
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conflict of interest for me to have my
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husband advise me. That's kind of the
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role when you get into politics. It's a
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family affair. He advises me and no one
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else. And I can ask for his advice on
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anything I want. And no, I'm not going
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to ask the ethics commissioner to weigh
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in on whether my husband can talk to me.
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Not his business.
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