00:00:49.060I think that my husband and the entire Conservative Party of Canada ran a very good campaign and I feel very good about it.
00:00:56.220So I'm just wondering, when you first met Pierre, when you went on your first date, did you ever think that you would be here on an election night in the situation that you're in right now?
00:01:08.180No, because it's not definitely not just with Pierre, but with me, my background is, you know, Pierre and I, we come from very humble beginnings.
00:01:15.260So everything feels surreal. At the same time, I would say yes, because I've always believed in the potential of Pierre.
00:01:21.980So in that sense, I'm not so surprised. So it's good to be here.
00:01:26.280Well, it's funny because there was a feature in a magazine from like 25 years ago when he was a 20 year old young man talking about what he would do if he was prime minister.
00:01:34.260So I guess he was one of those people that wanted to be prime minister from a very young age.
00:01:39.600So why don't you just tell us about your day? What have you what have you done so far?
00:01:43.220I presume you voted today or did you vote in the advanced polls?
00:01:46.060We voted today. So this morning, well, first of all, we got home last night very late.
00:01:50.280So this morning we woke up very eager to see the children for the first time in about two to three weeks.
00:01:56.700So we spent time with the kids before they headed to school and then we went to vote.
00:02:00.780And after that, we just went to see our team in the war room to, you know, thank them for the hard work.
00:02:07.900And then it's been rather a quiet day after that.
00:02:10.820It's like the eye of the storm, you know, where it's quiet. There's nothing much for us to do.
00:02:14.940It felt a bit weird, but we're in a hotel room and we're going to be with our children, Pierre and I,
00:02:20.500just the four of us quietly awaiting to see what Canadians are going to choose for this election.
00:02:27.000Well, what a tremendous campaign and what an experience to get to travel around the country,
00:02:32.040see every part with your husband in this role and with your children, too.
00:02:35.600I have to say, Anna, it's brought me a lot of joy to see your children on the campaign trail.
00:02:40.480And, you know, I caught an interview that you and Pierre did where I think your son would see the people lining up to the rallies and say,
00:02:48.540oh, those are daddy's friends. Isn't it wonderful to have children to sort of like take you away from the stress of politics?
00:02:55.140Because you, you, you know, spend time with them, you see the world through their eyes.
00:02:59.040And, you know, it's a great way to sort of break up the stress of politics.
00:03:05.360Absolutely. I think it was a very natural decision for us to keep the family together as much as we could.
00:03:11.460It's something, it's also a value that I want to pass on to the children that we're a tight family and whatever one of the family members chooses to do,
00:03:20.120we tackle it as a team. And so that's been really wonderful to do.
00:03:25.120And, you know, they're very young. So I don't know, as you know, our daughter, Valentina, she has special needs.
00:03:31.620So she's nonverbal. So we don't really know what she's taking in.
00:03:36.060And Cruz is three years old, but, but we believe that, you know, one day they, they will remember, they will talk about this experience and we're going to be very glad that we decided to bring them on board with us.
00:03:46.780Well, it's just, it's just such a nice relief. Like, you know, even for me and, you know, my life is, is one 10th as, as demanding as, as yours, you know, sometimes you have a hard day or busy day and you just, you go spend time with the kids and it's like, you know, all the stuff, all the politics, everything that might be happening online just kind of disappears.
00:04:03.220And there's such joy in, in being around children. So it was really nice to see them.
00:04:07.680It always puts things into perspective, you know, whatever you hear, like, do you tune off the noise right away? Because it put things into perspective that what truly, really matters is our family and, you know, the future of, of our children, which is our purpose and why we do this as well for everybody else's children too, as well.
00:04:24.520Well, exactly. I think so many people were casting their ballots today, thinking about the future, thinking about young Canadians.
00:04:31.420And it's so interesting to see, you know, I think my whole life in politics, there's been like an adage that if you're, if you're conservative, when you're 20, you don't have a heart.
00:04:39.480And if you're not a conservative, by the time you're 40, you don't have a brain.
00:04:41.900And yet in this election, it seems that older Canadians are the ones, you know, that are, that are voting, or at least if you believe in the polls, it might be leaning more towards, you know, doubling down on the last nine years.
00:04:55.080And it's conservatives, younger, the younger generation, the under 34 votes.
00:05:00.880So tell me a little bit about how you think the Conservative Party and Pierre Polly have, have been able to capture that younger, that younger crowd and that younger vote in this election.
00:07:06.740And I remember growing up, my mother will take the four of us kids and she will always tell us to hold tight to her little belt so that she can feel that all four kids are holding on to her because, you know, children could be taken away and that level of crime.
00:07:22.220So one of the reasons why my family was looking for better opportunities and came here to Canada was because of the safety, how safe Canada used to be.
00:07:31.800And now we're in a situation where we don't really recognize the country.
00:07:35.100My father and my stepmother, they own a pharmacy in Toronto, and they have a video of four men with masks pulling into their driveway and they were coming to do God knows what.
00:07:49.440And it's so sad, but my dad had already prepared for that where he had a system where my stepmother can automatically lock that door.
00:07:57.200So you can just imagine the fear that my family lives under and all of Canadian families are living under.
00:08:04.360And it's just so ironic because one of the reasons why my family left South America, Caracas, Venezuela, was because of that reason.
00:08:12.060And so it's unfortunately, you're right, Pierre is the only one who's been talking about these issues.
00:08:17.320I think other parties have been trying to distract because they know that Pierre is the one who's been connecting with the real issues.
00:08:41.960I just want to ask you a question about during the debate, each candidate was asked what their sort of regret of the campaign was.
00:08:49.060And Pierre probably almost got teary when he was talking about how he regrets that he can't spend more time on the ground with individual Canadians.
00:08:57.520And it seems to me that this is like one of the things that really helps him as a leader because he, and like you said, for three years, he travels and he talks to people.
00:09:09.320He hears about the things, you know, that I hear about when I go out that you hear about with your friends.
00:09:13.520But I mean, imagine hearing about it from tens of millions of Canadians all the time and being one of the first people to really understand those issues.
00:09:21.240And so I'm wondering, like, you know, you've traveled with him and you've gone on these campaigns.
00:09:26.380I know it's hard for him to be able to leave, but like, you know, what is it like to go to a rally with him?
00:09:33.240Well, I was with him every single day of this campaign.
00:09:36.100And you're absolutely right when you say that my husband listens.
00:09:38.840Actually, whenever I go on my little solo tours and I give a speech and I talk about my husband, I'd like to tell people that, you know, everybody knows Pierre Polyev as a very good articulate man, very good debater, good communicator.
00:09:53.560But actually his best and strongest quality is that he listens.
00:09:58.660And so he has a good pulse on what's happening on the ground.
00:10:01.740And he loves, loves people and it shows because he stays after, like for hours after rallies so that he can hear the people, listen from there directly.
00:10:13.020And that's how he knows what's happening on the ground.
00:10:15.200And that has really created a strong movement of people that feel that have been left behind, that their voices have not been represented in Ottawa.
00:10:25.100So Pierre's bringing their voices to Ottawa rather than the other way around.
00:10:29.520And you're right, I mean, I can't even describe the rallies.
00:10:34.440I don't know if you've had the chance to come to one of those, but the last rally that we had was last night in Pierre's writing.
00:10:42.800And I got very emotional because this has been a three-year culmination for us.
00:10:48.460And to think that it was our last rally and being with all of the people, they shared their stories, their pains, their struggles, and we're doing it for them.