Juno News - A youth conservative movement in Canada？

00:00:00.000 Hi, and welcome to the Candace Malcolm Show. I'm very pleased today to have a young guest on my

00:00:10.880 show, Ellie Cantin-Nittel. So Ellie is a grade 11 student from Redeemer Christian High School

00:00:16.720 in Ottawa. He's been involved in politics since the age of 14. Ellie also has his own YouTube

00:00:21.600 channel where he discusses politics, faith, and culture. On the debut episode of his show,

00:00:26.380 Ellie interviewed conservative leadership candidate Derek Sloan, and he just told me

00:00:30.880 that he has an upcoming interview with another conservative leadership candidate,

00:00:34.180 Leslie Lewis. So he hopes his show will be able to reach other people his age and show them what

00:00:40.200 it means to be a conservative and also the importance of faith. So Ellie, thank you so

00:00:46.200 much for joining the Candace Malcolm Show. Thank you for having me, Candace. It's so rare, Ellie,

00:00:52.300 to see a young person like yourself so interested in politics and so engaged. So what is, I mean,

00:00:58.200 how did you get involved in politics, especially at the age of 14?

00:01:00.740 Well, Candace, I've actually always had a thing for politics. I remember being in grade three,

00:01:07.600 and there was the liberal like constituency office beside my school. And I remember going one day

00:01:13.480 after school and getting a Dalton McGuinty pin, and I would walk around with that all day. Eventually,

00:01:18.460 over the years, I started getting my own views. And I would say really, when Justin Trudeau came in

00:01:23.760 power, and I just started to get very fed up with his like character and some of his policies. So I

00:01:29.140 started looking into the Conservative Party of Canada, and I got interested. And then the leadership

00:01:34.460 race came along. And I, my first event was the Manning debate, where I got involved in with Kelly

00:01:41.620 Leach's campaign. And then from there, I started working for the PC party during the 2018 election.

00:01:48.760 And then after that, through other connections, I got involved with the youth association. And now

00:01:54.520 with the new leadership race, I've done everything I can to make sure that, you know, true conservative

00:01:59.620 values are being represented by getting people acquainted with Leslyn Lewis and Derek Sloan.

00:02:07.960 So when you say when you say true conservative values, what does that mean to you? What does

00:02:12.520 it mean to you to be a conservative? Well, what really gets me to the conservative movement is

00:02:19.780 the idea of freedom, freedom of speech, freedom of, you know, religion, we have the freedom to think,

00:02:24.400 we have the freedom to do what we want with our money, we have the freedom, it's really the freedom.

00:02:29.260 And when we look at the left, they attack freedom. And we're starting to see a move, a little

00:02:35.380 movement in the conservative party to attack, to get these types of values in our party. And I'm

00:02:40.840 worried about that. Because I think freedom, now in Canada, we have different types of conservatives,

00:02:46.900 and they're all welcome, but we unite around the idea of freedom, which includes freedom to believe

00:02:52.600 in traditional beliefs, which is what I like to believe in. Interesting. And so you said earlier that

00:02:59.920 you, your first political engagement was with the Liberal Party, and Dalton McGuinty. It's kind of

00:03:05.380 funny, because you know, you talked about freedom, and presumably, if you're just looking at the titles,

00:03:09.280 you know, liberal, liberty, right, it should be based on freedom, but that's so far from what the liberals

00:03:15.400 are in this country. And in Australia, the Liberal Party is, is what we would consider conservative. And

00:03:20.320 in much of Europe as well, liberal sort of still means classical liberal ideas. So why was it that you

00:03:26.680 initially went to the Liberal Party? Was it because your family was liberal? Or what brought you down

00:03:31.960 that that path when you were when you're first starting out? Well, you make a very good point

00:03:36.520 here. And it really surprises me when, you know, we see the liberals being unliberal, because liberal

00:03:43.300 is about being open minded. And we see people on the left nowadays who call themselves liberal,

00:03:48.460 and they are close minded, they attack, you know, Derek Sloan, and they attack Leslie Lewis,

00:03:52.960 with their personal views. And that really, you know, disgusts me. So I got involved with the

00:03:58.720 Liberals, I was in grade three, I wasn't the most, you know, politically, you know, knowledgeable person.

00:04:06.480 And I guess I just liked the word liberal. And, and so I got involved. And I just thought some of

00:04:11.840 their policies made sense. And my parents are both scientists, so they're, they tend to lean more to

00:04:16.800 the left. So that's why I initially initially, initially, initially, hopefully, we can edit this,

00:04:24.080 initially became a liberal. And during the 2015 election, however, I didn't like Justin Trudeau,

00:04:32.880 I have never been appeased by Justin Trudeau, I thought he was immature. And I thought that he was

00:04:37.600 not somebody that I saw the Prime Minister. So I actually supported Tom Mulcair in the 2015 election,

00:04:42.640 because I liked his character. And it's after I saw Justin Trudeau and his policies, and how they

00:04:48.080 were destroying Canada versus Donald Trump, and his policies that were, you know, very successful.

00:04:53.200 And that's when I started to see that conservatism was the way to go.

00:04:56.320 Interesting, you say that you see Donald Trump as being very successful. Can you give us a few

00:05:02.480 examples or explain what it is about Trump that you like?

00:05:04.640 Well, Donald Trump came in, and he broke the status quo. There was this whole status quo that,

00:05:12.400 even in the Republican Party, there was this new movement of more progressive Republican Party,

00:05:16.720 and Trump came with a very traditional policy plan that had some new ideas in it as well. And he came

00:05:23.680 forward. And when he came in, his economic policies, the United States was doing very well under Donald

00:05:29.920 Trump, and lowest employments in all other categories. And he put in policies to, you know,

00:05:37.600 bring out the American dream and to protect traditional values. And that's something that

00:05:41.920 I really liked about President Trump. And at the same time, while he was doing that,

00:05:46.080 Justin Trudeau was putting in bills that were restricting free speech, expanding government,

00:05:50.560 and slowing down economic growth.

00:05:52.080 Yeah, absolutely. It's such a stark difference. So, Ellie, who would you say is your

00:05:59.440 political hero or idol? Do you have a favorite politician? Or it doesn't have to be a politician,

00:06:03.920 maybe a favorite book that you've read or a thinker, and why? Someone you would recommend,

00:06:09.760 you know, for people your age and other young people interested in politics, but they might not

00:06:15.760 be conserved yet. Who would you point them to?

00:06:18.160 Well, it depends for what audience. I think that if you look at a politician,

00:06:23.760 Doug Ford is a very good example of a unifier. Doug Ford managed to swing people who

00:06:29.120 weren't traditionally conservative while still having a traditionally conservative platform.

00:06:33.680 I think someone like Ben Shapiro is, as a public speaker, is someone that I really like. You know,

00:06:38.960 Ben Shapiro is very, very honest and fact-based. You know, I think in the States now, unfortunately,

00:06:43.440 there are too many people who are, you know, conservative, but they're only known because

00:06:48.560 they're, like, rich. And that ends up putting a bad image on the conservative movement. So, I really

00:06:56.320 encourage all young people stay away from those, you know, conservative celebrities who don't know

00:07:01.200 what they're talking about and that are only doing and saying things because they're being fed this

00:07:06.800 narrative and they are wanting to get likes. You need to be wise and you need to look at real thinkers

00:07:12.880 like Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin, or Joe Rogan, because they won't have a partisan mainstream conservative

00:07:20.320 view. They have their own views. And I think that those own views can make people from different

00:07:25.040 sides come together and embrace the conservative movement.

00:07:28.000 Yeah, they're far more authentic. And one of the things I find, especially with someone like Ben

00:07:33.120 Shapiro, is how sort of unabashedly conservative he is, but also religious. And he's willing to defend

00:07:40.080 religious views that in Canada, Ellie, have become very unpopular. Like, the lesson that I think a lot

00:07:45.120 of people took out of the 2019 election with Andrew Scheer as a leader was like, hey, look, you can't be a

00:07:50.640 social conservative anymore. In Canada, you can't be a religious person and expect to run for public

00:07:56.320 office. Whereas in the United States, you know, there's still a very big religious portion in public

00:08:02.640 life that says, no, we demand to have a voice and so much so that the pro-life groups in the U.S. have

00:08:09.680 been wildly successful. Why do you think there's such a difference between Canada and the U.S. in that regard?

00:08:14.800 Well, I think Canada has always been more progressive on the matter. And when we look at the history of

00:08:21.680 the church in Canada versus the States, we have places like Quebec that were run dogmatically by

00:08:28.000 the church. And that caused a big backlash and a big unpopularity with religious customs and religious

00:08:35.440 values. What I think happened, though, in the 2019 election is because Andrew Scheer didn't run a

00:08:41.680 strong campaign. Doug Ford, who is also pro-life, ran a very strong campaign. And he even had in his

00:08:47.680 campaign that he wanted people under 16, when they got an abortion, that their parents would have to

00:08:53.200 get a signature. And he put that in his platform and he won anyways. And they never discussed this

00:08:57.600 because they had other things, he had other more bold policies to talk about. So what happened in the

00:09:02.720 2019 election, and this is what worries me now with where the Conservative Party is going, is that

00:09:08.480 Andrew Scheer didn't have a very strong platform, and he wasn't a very strong candidate. So they

00:09:12.880 managed to pick abortion and gay marriage as issues for why you shouldn't vote for Andrew Scheer, despite

00:09:19.440 the Conservative Party policy saying that a Conservative government cannot introduce legislation on both of

00:09:24.240 these issues. But now what concerns me with the Conservative Party is we still need to stand with our

00:09:31.920 values. And we should look at what's popular. And I think what Lesley Lewis is proposing to ban

00:09:36.320 sex selective abortion. This is something that 84% of Canadians agree with, because it's not about,

00:09:43.360 you know, healthcare, it's about, you know, somebody not wanting a girl as a baby. And I think that is

00:09:50.480 wrong. And the majority of Canadians think that is wrong. And I think that as Conservatives, we should

00:09:54.480 follow our principles and our values, and we should burst through the status quo and put forward bold policies

00:10:01.520 that include abortion. Well, absolutely, Ellie. And I think you're, you know, very brave. And also

00:10:07.200 great, it's great that you get out there, and you communicate your message, especially through your

00:10:10.960 YouTube channel, to other people who are who are just sort of getting getting involved. Before we

00:10:15.600 started filming, you were telling me a little bit about the high school that you go to, because I

00:10:19.040 mentioned you went to you go to a Christian high school, you're in grade 11 there. So I'm just kind of

00:10:23.760 curious, you know, we're in the pandemic, everything's locked down right now. I've been reading a little bit,

00:10:29.520 and Barbara Kay was a guest on our show. And she talked a little bit about the idea that a lot of public schools

00:10:35.120 were just really unprepared for the coronavirus and didn't have any kind of a curriculum planned, whereas

00:10:40.400 the independent schools and private schools did a much better job. So you attend a Christian 1.00

00:10:45.040 independent school, what's been your experience, Ellie? Well, I'll tell you, when I used to go to

00:10:51.680 a secular private school prior to that, and I've seen on social media, the people my generation that are

00:10:57.280 unreligious and that are depressed all the time, because the only thing they rely on is, you know, 0.99

00:11:02.800 superficial likes on their phones. And so when I first went to my Christian school, I was shocked

00:11:09.440 to see that there are other people my age who not only accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior,

00:11:14.400 but also are not reliant on superficiality and are not immoral people. And it's really been great,

00:11:20.480 because we have a community. I love community, and I love the evangelical Christian community.

00:11:25.360 And we have this community in our school, people support each other, people, you know, spread the

00:11:32.000 gospel together. And we have a diverse group of Christians, we have Catholic Orthodox, you know,

00:11:37.920 mainland Protestants, evangelicals, fundamentalists, we have all of these different types of people all

00:11:43.920 coming together, and being united as Christians. And I love this. And on the second point, you mentioned

00:11:49.760 being ready, our school is so well organized, it is unbelievable. Everything that they do is to

00:11:57.760 perfection. And this is not, this is the online learning is another good example of that they were

00:12:04.560 prepared during March break, prepared everything in under a week, and we were good to go. And they've

00:12:09.680 improved when there were issues in the way. So I'm very pleased with how they dealt with the matter.

00:12:15.200 Well, that's great, Ellie. I'm glad you have a nice community surrounding you. And hopefully you're

00:12:19.920 getting through this time being stuck inside, not being able to see your friends and

00:12:23.760 doing everything online. But it's great to see someone your age, it's really just, you know, talking

00:12:28.960 and having this discussion and promoting conservative values and ideas. So Ellie, keep up the great work. 1.00

00:12:34.320 I feel like you're going to have a great future ahead of you. And hopefully, you'll come on again and

00:12:38.800 engage with our True North audience once again. So thank you for joining us.

00:12:43.120 Thank you so much. And if you're interested in checking out the work that I do, feel free to

00:12:48.640 check out the Save the Gen Z. We're on Instagram, on Facebook, we're on Twitter, and of course,

00:12:53.040 YouTube. And we have great interviews coming, three interviews coming this week

00:12:57.200 with different people, including Leslie Lewis. So you don't want to miss that out.

00:13:00.960 Great. All right. Thanks so much.

00:13:03.680 Thank you.

00:13:08.800 Thank you.

Juno News - May 28, 2020

A youth conservative movement in Canada？

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