00:01:48.340You see it out west in Alberta with Premier Smith.
00:01:50.380You see it in New Brunswick with Premier Higgs.
00:01:52.200you see it with all of our friends here that are setting up booths and getting ready for the
00:01:56.500discussions and the conference we're about to have I think the biggest thing I want folks to
00:02:01.880think about with this conference is we are positioned for a big win across the country
00:02:07.680I think how do we take advantage of it how do we actually get things done I think you know the next
00:02:12.860couple years look less like 2006 or less like 1984 in this country and more like 1995 as it was in
00:02:20.140Ontario where there was a huge mandate to get some things changed and a lot of
00:02:24.880buy-in I think from the people of Canada to go in a very different and honestly a
00:02:28.640more conservative direction and so that's what I want people to think about I
00:02:31.360want them to think about what are the conservative things we want to
00:02:34.640accomplish as a country not just with government across civil society in the
00:02:39.100courts in the boardrooms and church groups what are the things we want to
00:02:42.260accomplish and how do we really harvest or harness this momentum there's always
00:02:46.520been a bit of a challenge when you talk about politics in Canada and that you
00:02:49.540have the ideologies underlying the political parties that have the same word as the parties
00:02:54.440themselves. And, you know, you have this big C, small C conservative divide, this big L, small L
00:02:58.780liberal. And I'm curious how you approach that issue, because obviously there are a lot of
00:03:02.580partisan conservatives here. You've got provincial premiers like Danielle Smith and Blaine Higgs,
00:03:06.860who I'll be speaking to on stage in the next couple of days. You've got conservative leader
00:03:11.000Pierre Polyev speaking, but it's not a capital C partisan conservative event. So where do you
00:03:15.560think the movement aspect fits into what you're doing here I think there's a
00:03:19.340number of core principles we all share across the conservative movement that
00:03:23.420people I don't say pick and choose from but they may lean into certain things
00:03:26.360than others right so if you're more economically minded or you're more
00:03:29.880libertarian you may have more affinity for a taxpayers group or from some of
00:03:33.080the things that are for our friends at the MLI are doing you may be a foreign
00:03:36.500affairs hawk and you may be more interested in what Prime Minister's
00:03:40.460Abbott or Prime Minister Cameron or excuse me Prime Minister Johnson will
00:03:44.240have to say or some of our other guests that are talking a lot about foreign
00:03:48.140policy particularly on Friday so I think there's something for everyone here at
00:03:51.800this conference and I want everybody to lean into the things that they believe
00:03:55.100in and that they find conviction in right and so it's a big movement it's a
00:03:59.360broad movement we're covering all kinds of issues but I think the things that
00:04:03.080unite us certainly is that need for change and everybody sees something that
00:04:07.940they want to see done in this country that are united around those core
00:04:10.940principles and as i said it's personal liberty uh it's freedom it's certainly limited in smaller
00:04:16.300government and i think it's moral clarity in our foreign affairs now more than ever there's been
00:04:20.420over the last few years in particular i think a profound shift in canadian politics but especially
00:04:24.580in the conservative movement and you look at some of the key changes here like the you know the
00:04:28.700ousting of jason kenny in alberta and then danielle smith coming in uh the ousting of erin o'toole
00:04:33.280and at the canadian level and pierr polyev coming and i'm wondering you know obviously again i go
00:04:38.560back to this is your first kick at this particular can in this role but how does that weigh into the
00:04:43.600discussions that you have the fact that there has been a major I don't want to say a turnover but
00:04:47.520certainly an expansion of the conservative movement to people that are not traditional
00:04:52.360lifelong partisans let alone conservative partisans I think there are these moments that
00:04:57.520happen every 10 or 15 years maybe it's once in a generation I'm not sure but there are these
00:05:02.100moments that there is a sea change and there is a shift and I think you saw it in the 1990s
00:05:07.320uh across the country whether even in places like the united states or in or in great britain or
00:05:12.200our cousins in australia and so i think those changes in sentiment and in feeling and particularly
00:05:18.040for conservatives those are driven hard times really or a loss or lack of up
00:05:29.880world or in an activist role or in partisans um that's what really activates and brings them in
00:05:34.280and there's generational change right i think about rallies that i went to andrew 20 years ago
00:05:40.360or events like this 20 years ago it was very different than now i was usually the youngest
00:05:44.920person in the room i'm 38 years old i'm going to be one of the oldest people at this conference
00:05:48.440now i'm an old man now and i'm struggling with that it sneaks up on you fast that tell me about
00:05:53.160it tell me about it but i think you can see and you see it at all the rallies you see on tv and
00:05:57.640you see it in the states and you see it everywhere else so i think it's just part of a natural cycle
00:06:02.040and part of that generational change what is the the aspect that you would love people like tony
00:06:06.840abbott and boris johnson to bring to the table i mean both very very different political leaders
00:06:11.000in their respective countries and and oftentimes in the past i mean the big foreign speakers at
00:06:15.320this conference have typically been american because i think there's a lot of influence if
00:06:18.680you're a canadian conservative from from the american realm so what is it you'd love for
00:06:22.120these guys to bring to the table i think for prime minister abbott in particular if you look at his
00:06:27.560campaign for prime minister a decade ago he was not the most popular leader
00:06:31.400coming into it but he was seen as a very conservative and a movement-based figure
00:06:35.300very pro-life very limited government and he had this mantra when he was
00:06:39.680getting elected and it was this stop the boats because they had a huge immigration
00:06:43.940issue at the time it was axe the tax that might sound familiar and these were
00:06:49.880two positions that were not popular or not seen to be popular widely with the
00:06:53.000electorate but that is how he came to be in power and that's how he won his
00:06:56.360election and so I think talking about the ability to push back against the
00:07:01.220narrative that was out there in Australia at the time to have
00:07:04.480conviction in his beliefs that what he was seeing and how he was responding to
00:07:07.700it in a conservative way was the right thing to do and he had to lead and
00:07:11.380convince Australians to vote for him and I think for Prime Minister Johnson
00:07:15.180it's the same no question his work on Brexit is why and his championing of
00:07:20.120that cause is why it got done and he saw to it when he eventually then became
00:07:23.860leader and Prime Minister and delivered Brexit and I think for him as well
00:07:27.520conviction in his beliefs on things like Israel and Ukraine is another one where
00:07:31.720we're seeing the movement has very different views about what to do about
00:07:34.240Ukraine as you know and I think mr. Johnson has been anything if not
00:07:39.440consistent in his view that the West should support Ukraine in any way it can
00:07:42.740that there is evil in the world we must confront it and it's never nice and it's
00:07:46.180always ugly but it's the right thing to do and it harkens back I think to a
00:07:50.260heritage in the conservative movement going back to the Reagan era and Margaret
00:07:53.820Thatcher and Brian Mulroney and having that moral clarity in foreign policy. So Ukraine brings up a
00:07:59.340useful launching point for something I wanted to ask you in general, which was about how you deal
00:08:03.240with these schisms. I mean, we've seen internal conflict in the conservative movement on things
00:08:09.080that like foreign policy. And I think you see that especially now about, you know, interventionist
00:08:13.520versus realist views on foreign policy, things like supply management. I mean, anyone who was
00:08:17.200around in the 2017 conservative leadership would have thought, again, it's an important issue,
00:08:21.640You would have thought that was probably the most pressing issue because of how much oxygen it was taking.
00:08:25.400Certainly in COVID, we saw a fair split in parts of the right on how to handle that.
00:08:29.720So how do you grapple, if at all, with those issues at a forum like this,
00:08:33.220where on one hand you don't want this to be about infighting,
00:08:35.840but you also don't want to shy away from these things,
00:08:38.280which are very real and very relevant questions for the right to take up?
00:08:42.400I think the conference is exactly how you do it.
00:08:44.320I think having these debates and having these discussions and hearing from experts in the movement are how you do it.
00:08:50.020And I think a lot of it is because I think folks have spent some time looking at these issues or reading into them but it's different when you actually get together in a room with a thousand conservatives and hash it out and hear from world leaders and hear from experts about the issues at hand and maybe it'll change some minds maybe it'll harden some stances I don't know but if there's any form to do it it's here at CSFN in Ottawa and the other conferences and events that we do.
00:11:02.480And we are going to shift gears and have a discussion in just a few moments with someone who has been at the forefront of a lot of these very debates and discussions that have taken place in Canadian politics.
00:11:13.280We've had him on the show on a number of occasions.
00:11:15.600Aaron Woodrick heads the domestic policy program with the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.
00:11:20.360And one of the big, bold questions that I think a lot of people have always wanted to find a conservative position on that is saleable, that is relevant, has been that of immigration.
00:11:30.200And we had a great chat with Aaron about this on the show a couple of weeks back.
00:11:33.540I think Candace Malcolm did as well on her show.
00:11:36.520But there's one of many issues in the domestic policy realm.
00:11:43.440So just from you as a domestic policy guy, also someone who's been broadly involved in the right of centre world in Canada for quite some time,
00:11:52.320what do you want to see a forum like this used for?
00:11:55.420What are the issues you think need to be front and centre?
00:11:57.700Well, I mean, like, first and foremost, now, I'm with a policy.
00:12:44.900The questions as a think tank, we put our minds to and, you know, we put ideas out there for any that this current government's that interesting.
00:17:27.520That doesn't mean they have an unlimited tolerance for things like crazy housing prices and not being able to find a doctor and things like that.
00:17:49.480And I've said this and others said this elsewhere, is that, boy, if you look at their track record, this certainly seems like a record they'd be happy to campaign against if they were in opposition.
00:17:57.520Yeah, that's a very good point on this. And it puts the Conservatives, and this is where you probably get annoyed, because now all of a sudden we pull it out of the policy realm. But the Conservatives have, I think, been, I've used the word timid in the past on this, because I think the Conservatives are seeing that a lot of immigrants in this country are very fed up with Justin Trudeau and the Liberals.
00:18:33.420This is the cohesion of Canadian society.
00:18:35.980But that's not how politics tends to work.
00:18:38.800Yeah, look, I think that the Liberal governments shift on this.
00:18:42.320I mean, I think they can largely justify on grounds of housing.
00:18:44.780And I know that, for example, Mr. Pauly, one of the things he did say was that we need to tie the rate of immigration to the rate of housing starts.
00:18:50.740I think that's a kind of, I believe even Sean Fraser said that that seemed like a reasonable proposition.
00:18:55.220You know, so I think that's a good thing.
00:18:57.900You know, I think for conservatives, especially, you know, historically, some of the challenges they've had, you know, being seen as perhaps less welcoming to immigrants than the Liberal Party.
00:19:09.180There's probably more trepidation there.
00:19:26.020They get here and they were sold a bill of goods.
00:19:27.820So I honestly think that's a healthy thing.
00:19:30.500And I think we also need to be mindful that in spite of the fact,
00:19:33.580I believe that most Canadians who have concerns about immigration are in good faith
00:19:37.480and they're not people who are discriminatory or prejudiced.
00:19:40.260There are bad faith actors out there and we don't want to give those people a platform to basically argue against all immigration in any case, anywhere whatsoever, which I think is, you know, I don't think there's that many of those people, but we do have to be mindful of that.
00:19:54.480No, and I think that's the incredibly important point here, is that when people like you and I have this discussion, and pretty much everyone I meet in respectable society, which I guess one day I might be a member of, you know, common sense immigration is the goal.
00:20:07.840So even when you say fewer immigrants, you're not saying no immigration, you're not saying end immigration, and you're not saying less immigration for the sake of there being less immigration.
00:20:15.920And I think that's the crucial point, is that oftentimes when someone says, you know, what Pierre Polyev said on my show in December, which is, you know, we need to tie immigration to housing, doctors and jobs.
00:20:27.640You know, yes, I think a lot of people could read between the lines and say he's probably talking about a lower number, at least for the time being.
00:20:33.240But it's not lower because he wants fewer immigrants. It's lower because he wants the immigration system to work.
00:20:38.460And I mean, people can agree or disagree with the position, but I think that's the crucial difference here.
00:20:42.380Yeah, I think that there's sort of a spectrum of opinion on immigration, and that window shifts based on things like housing prices, on jobs, on incomes, opportunity, doctors, infrastructure.
00:20:53.440So if those things are taken care of, I think you have a wider acceptance and tolerance and appetite for immigration.
00:20:59.740When those things are all problems, immigration then kind of gets reduced to essentially just creating problems on the demand side, because that is the one variable that governments can control.
00:21:08.360If you have a problem with demand, you can kind of turn off the tabs.
00:21:11.460You can tighten the screws on it, so to speak.
00:21:13.920So, you know, I don't—look, there are other challenges with immigration, you know, issues of integration and identity.
00:21:20.380These are the thorniest parts that I think a lot of people are still uncomfortable getting into.
00:21:23.820But I think, by and large, most of it is still economically driven.
00:21:27.120And if that's addressed, I think you kind of take a lot of air out of that balloon.
00:21:30.420So from a policy perspective, how do you deal with the value question?
00:21:33.400Because I think there's still a lot of trauma, to use that term, in the right from the 2015 election, which was an election in which the Canadian values question was put forward.
00:21:41.680I think there was a fair bit of disingenuousness in how that policy was criticized by people.
00:21:46.160But I think it was also, you need to have the conversation in society and in culture before politicians can pick it up.
00:21:53.560And I don't think we've had that in the last decade.
00:21:55.500No, and I mean, if I can be frank, I think one of the real, the things that has opened a lot of folks' eyes is what's happened since October 7th.
00:22:01.460Some of these protests we've seen, you know, that, for lack of a better word, there's anti-Semitism.
00:22:07.400There's been lots of attacks on Jews in Canada and Jewish Canadians.
00:22:35.640How do we treat this issue seriously without understating or overstating the case?
00:22:41.360This is something serious that we have to grapple with, regardless of which government's in power.
00:22:45.260Yeah, and there was a poll that the UK Telegraph had put out of British Muslims.
00:22:50.360And it found that one in four British Muslims polled believed that Hamas had committed murder and rape on October 7th.
00:22:56.000Now, I don't know in a Canadian context what those numbers would be, but if you were to see something similar or even just to use the UK example, that's a big problem.
00:23:03.920If you can't even have a core group of that population agreeing that what happened even happened, let alone what was wrong.
00:23:13.220We're seeing now for the continuation this last six months and further, we're seeing pretty much on a weekly basis these sorts of protests.
00:23:20.240And there are these little peaks, but, you know, it's Jewish neighborhoods that are being targeted, Jewish businesses.
00:23:24.820And are you optimistic that that can be translated into this adult conversation on Canadian values?
00:23:32.780Or if anything, do people just retreat?
00:23:38.040And one of the challenges that in a liberal democracy, how do you screen for the sorts of things that we're talking about, right?
00:23:43.800Like we all can all remember Kelly Leach's Canadian values test, right?
00:23:47.740And, you know, widely mocked at the time, but yet when you drill down to it, the idea of having some kind of test where you can filter out, you know, the problematic people from the wrong places, you know, in a perfect world, that's how you would stop these ideas from getting into Canada.
00:24:02.420But what kind of test, what would that look like?
00:24:05.980I mean, this is a really challenging debate.
00:24:07.860And it would be one of those tests where there's a clear right answer to every question.
00:24:11.520And then you get the other thing of, are these views, for example, if you were to say, do you believe the Holocaust happened?
00:24:16.800And that was one of your Canadian values questions that you asked.
00:24:20.360Are people proud and loud and say, you know, absolutely, I'm a Holocaust writer?
00:24:23.980They'd be like, okay, I'm going to answer it this way because I know that's what they want.
00:24:27.880And then it ceases to be a meaningful tool for immigration.
00:24:31.100Plus, the other thing is that, I mean, we live in a obviously highly digital world now.
00:24:34.900Ideas can cross borders whether or not people are physically here.
00:24:37.500So even if you manage to keep out the individuals with these views,
00:24:41.240what's to say they're still not going to be able to access them at the click of a button?
00:24:44.220Yeah, and so I guess the question is, do we need to go back even further and define what Canadian values are?
00:24:50.340Because I think there's a lot of relativism in this, where if you were to go and poll Canadians born in Canada who've only ever lived in Canada,
00:24:56.840say, what's a Canadian value? You're probably going to get some very superficial answers, I think.
00:25:01.420I think you're going to get hockey and maple syrup and kindness, which are core things.
00:25:06.260But really, to get down to the values of what you need to build a society, do we have that in this country?
00:25:12.480Yeah. And I mean, the one way to look at it is that we're just part of a sort of broad, you know, Western civilization. We all, you know, the countries have similar values. What makes Canada distinct? Is there something different? Do we basically have the same values as Australia or the UK or US or some combination thereof?
00:25:27.880So, you know, as a country that often struggles to define itself, I think that puts us in a particularly challenging spot vis-a-vis some of our peers.
00:25:36.320They kind of know who they are to start with, and so they can measure people coming and adapting, you know, because they've got a starting point.
00:25:42.220In Canada, it's sort of like we're struggling with that starting point in the first place.
00:25:56.220to you. All right. Thanks very much. We'll get you to exit stage left there. And oh, we were trying
00:26:01.920to hide. There we go. We were we were trying to hide the hide our stage magic from you, but we
00:26:06.020failed at doing so. But that's all right. We will have a great time with this. And just on that note,
00:26:10.740I think it's incredibly important here that we have the discussion in society and in culture.
00:26:16.780And I'm often asked about the value of independent media. And I think the reason is that politicians
00:26:21.200are and we're going to talk to one in just a couple of moments here are inherently followers.
00:26:25.040And that's not to say you don't have politicians that really want to lead, but there needs to be a base of support on an issue, on a discussion, before they can even do that, before they can even get involved in that debate.
00:26:37.040So I had the great privilege on Monday of emceeing the swearing-in ceremony of Jamil Javani, who was just elected a little over a month ago as the Conservative Member of Parliament in Durham, and he joins us now.
00:26:48.900Jamil, congratulations. Good to talk to you, sir.
00:26:51.960Yeah, so I had joked when I swore him in that if Justin Trudeau found out I was the emcee, they might have actually rescinded the election results, but they didn't.
00:26:59.660You took the oath, you signed in, you even got the chance to ask a question in question period on Monday.
00:27:04.980Just on that note, and this isn't even a partisan question, but how does it feel?
00:27:08.360Because you're a guy that's come through tremendous adversity, you've written about it, you've conquered many challenges, but is there a moment when you walk into that house and you're just, wow.
00:27:47.520Like, do we keep this country, you know, do we maintain it to be something special, a place where people from all over the world can come and have a better life?
00:27:53.980Or do we wind up, you know, losing what we built?
00:27:56.640And it really puts into respect when you see all the portraits on the walls and the old furniture, just, you know, how deep that foundation is.
00:28:03.940I was mentioned earlier on when I was speaking with Adam Bullock, who's the president of the Canada Strong and Free Network, that you had the job last time.
00:28:22.140I mean, this is an important organization for building our movement.
00:28:25.680And our party needs a healthy conservative movement, which is why I was very happy to have this role.
00:28:31.140And, you know, now that I'm in the party and I'm sitting in parliament, I don't lose that perspective.
00:28:36.380I know how important the non-governmental organizations are to make sure that we have a just country and a country that pursues the best ideas.
00:28:42.660You spoke in your question on Monday about basically the millennial struggle that I think has become pretty common, commonly shared by not just Pierre Polyev and people in your party, but by people in this country.
00:28:56.160You know, you've got the millennials that can't afford to buy houses.
00:28:59.000You've got people that are priced out of the communities that they've always wanted to live in and have grown up in.
00:29:03.360And you've lived that struggle yourself.
00:29:05.600And I mean, I don't want to, you know, MPs just got a pay raise this year.
00:29:08.640So I'm not going to say, you know, everyone feel bad for Jamil Javani.
00:29:11.680But this has been a challenge that you've lived and the government has talked about it, but they've not offered any solutions on this, have they?
00:29:20.780No, the Liberal government certainly has not.
00:29:23.220I mean, the truth is that millennials put Justin Trudeau in the prime minister.
00:29:27.480Yeah, it was our generation who elected him because he promised us something better.
00:29:32.560And I think we're going to be the generation that takes him down.
00:29:35.640We're going to be the generation that elects his replacement,
00:29:37.880who will elect Pierre Polyev to be the next prime minister
00:29:40.660because we've given Justin Trudeau and the Liberals eight years
00:29:43.280and our lives have only gotten harder.
00:29:45.340I knocked on over 100,000 doors in my riding of Durham
00:29:48.440in the past year working on this election.
00:29:51.300And I can tell you every single day I was hearing stories
00:29:54.200from millennials who feel like their life is on hold.
00:30:58.920And we're feeling that pressure from the economy.
00:31:01.140So I think part of it is just getting older and establishing yourself and realizing we've got to take some, you know, ownership of the country and make sure we're guiding it in a better place.
00:31:09.600You know, I'm 36. Me getting elected as part of our generation, start sort of getting into parliament, making our voice heard that we're no longer going to be just on the margins as like the young voice.
00:31:18.680But we are the voice that we are. We are part of this team treated like equals, just like everybody else.
00:31:23.300One thing that I will say that was great about your swearing-in ceremony was that you were unafraid to share who you were. And you had a worship team there. You had a pastor there. You had all of these things that were told are not supposed to be a part of politics.
00:31:38.860So you're a different type of candidate. I think you're a different type of, you know, well, you're certainly part of a different generation.
00:31:45.380But I'm curious how that weighs on you. Like, have you had an opportunity to take stock of like what type of MP you want to be?
00:31:53.980Yeah, I've I've led with honesty and transparency the entire way through.
00:31:59.060I think that that is what has made Pierre Polyev catch fire in this country,
00:32:03.460is that people see him as someone who's willing to tell the truth,
00:32:06.340confront the liberal media when they're not giving us a fair shake.
00:32:09.600And I think that's what people want from their politicians right now.
00:32:11.900They want someone who, when they see them on YouTube or they see them on television
00:32:14.840or hear them on the radio, that we're going to tell the truth.
00:32:17.520And we're more loyal to the people of Canada than we are to the liberal establishment
00:32:22.040and the liberal institutions that want to shape and dictate public opinion.
00:32:26.620So I'm very clear about who I am, my beliefs, my values,
00:32:29.800and I think that is why people of all different cultures and backgrounds
00:32:33.020trust me to represent them because they know whether I'm knocking on their door
00:32:36.540or they're watching me on TV or on the internet that I'm telling them what it is
00:32:41.560and that if I say I'm going to do something, I'm going to do it.
00:32:44.000So what is it that you would like to achieve in the next,
00:32:47.640I mean, let's assume you have 18 months in this role before you're back to the polls again.
00:32:51.240Do you have a bucket list of things that you feel you could get done
00:32:54.720within that relatively short period of time?
00:32:56.520My first goal right now is just to kind of learn how everything works.
00:32:59.100Well, figure out where the bathroom is.
00:33:24.480i'm excited about it but you know and that's what i want to continue doing is showing people that
00:33:28.480the affordability issues are not don't have to be this way that there are deliberate choices that
00:33:33.680our current government is making that is making life more expensive and as and i want people to
00:33:39.040understand that and not to feel that this difficult lot in life that a lot of us have been given right
00:33:43.440now is it doesn't have to be this way and if i can make people see that to have hope that things can
00:33:48.720be better and we go into the general election with a lot of people saying we deserve better
00:33:52.880We're going to change the status quo. I would feel like it was a great first year and a half.
00:33:57.660One of the challenges when you're in opposition is that you're elected with this mandate.
00:34:01.800And I don't want to say you're powerless. You can hold the government to account.
00:34:05.440But at the end of the day, the NDP have given the Liberals a blank check on this.
00:34:09.040And, you know, conservatives have made tremendous efforts to, you know, with a non-confidence motion a couple of weeks ago,
00:34:14.420motions on the carbon tax that have just been blocked at every point.
00:34:18.000So is there a frustration you have already, not to take away your enthusiasm and optimism, about, like, people are in crisis now.
00:34:26.880And for some people, I actually don't know if they're able to hold on a year and a half.
00:34:31.880Well, if we continue to do the job that Pierre Polyev has started, which is to continue pushing the accountability to the Liberal government, maybe we can push them to have an election sooner.
00:36:14.220So one of the great things that we've been able to do with Pierre Palliv as our leader is take
00:36:18.540advantage of social media as to communicate with the public and not have to go through the
00:36:22.540traditional liberal media channels. And I think that has helped us get the message out there
00:36:26.700so that people knew what was happening on April 1st, that the tax is going up 23%,
00:36:31.740the cost of groceries, gas and home heating was going up. And people feel that. Almost every day
00:36:36.540I hear from people in Durham, whether they're farmers or their moms and dads, consumers,
00:36:41.020people are producing um various goods and manufacturing items that they feel the tax is
00:36:46.940affecting them on their bottom lines and when the liberals come out and say oh it's okay that you're
00:36:50.940paying more because we're going to give you a rebate i mean they just like what is happening
00:36:55.100here like this is so against their life experience so i do think that is coming across and i think
00:37:00.540people know like they can feel it every day that they're having to make tough decisions
00:37:04.460where as they used to be able to do two things with their paycheck now they can only do one
00:37:08.220and it's getting tougher and tougher so our message is definitely resonating and i do think
00:37:12.300especially in a place like durham where i represent where you do have a lot of working
00:37:15.660class and middle class families i think they can feel that they're butting up against a ceiling
00:37:19.900right now that it's getting harder to get ahead in life and the carbon tax has been one of the
00:37:24.380key policies that's getting in their way i'm just amazed as we close here that you're two days in
00:37:29.260and you're not even wearing your pin oh i thought you'd be wearing that loud and proud just out
00:37:32.700there yeah i i've gotten to know a lot of the security and uh some of the local police have
00:37:37.020spend a lot of time with the guys who work at work at the house of commons so they do recognize
00:37:40.620me without the pen i've been able to get in and out of security back back in in the 2011 election
00:37:45.580when you had elected all those like 19 year olds from quebec the issue is that like the security
00:37:49.660thought they were all like interns and they're like no i'm a member of parliament but you don't
00:37:52.940need to do the don't you know who i am because they all know who you are now well uh congratulations
00:37:56.620again jameel it's great to see you in this role and i look forward to having you back on as an mp
00:38:00.300now thanks andrew have a great time with the canon strong all right thank you you didn't have to
00:38:03.660to organize it this year i did not know you had to come have fun all right well thank you very
00:38:07.180much thank you always good to see you and you can head out that way there when uh when you feel like
00:38:10.780it all right well uh thank you so much to jamil we're going to continue on with the show here and
00:38:15.660i wanted to talk a little bit about the bigger picture for a moment because i have been somewhat
00:38:19.740disconnected from all of your comments right now so we'll try to get to those uh in the shows that
00:38:24.860come this week but one of the things i've always loved about being at the canada strong and free
00:38:29.100network conference is that in some ways it's a big old family reunion so all of these people that we
00:38:33.180We have on the show on a regular basis, like Aaron Woodrick from McDonald Laurier or our friend Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
00:38:40.300They're all just walking about. And today, by the way, the conference hasn't even actually really started.
00:38:46.580It's going to be, I think, registration opens at three. So in about an hour and a half.
00:38:51.280And then we have the big event with Tony Abbott and Boris Johnson tonight.
00:38:55.380So tomorrow and Friday will be the big two days. Like I said, I'm on with former, not former, no, I demoted him.
00:39:01.780I'm on with current New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs tomorrow,
00:39:05.380and we'll have some footage of that to share on the Andrew Lawton Show probably next week.
00:39:09.840And also Danielle Smith sitting down with her on Friday.
00:39:14.620I'm trying to remember because I did one with her.
00:39:17.240Well, at True North Nation, I did a sit down with Danielle Smith.
00:39:20.240And then I did one also at the Canada Strong and Free Networking Conference in Red Deer.
00:39:24.400But I had like 10 minutes notice on that one because they weren't going to do an interview.
00:39:27.640And then she had said she wanted it and I was just available.
00:39:30.700So this one I had a bit more notice on, so I will have to come up with some stellar questions that I haven't already put to Premier Smith.
00:39:38.540But she's always been a big fan of True North and a big supporter of our work.
00:39:43.120But I'd mentioned one of the things I'm interested in is how you get beyond the momentum right now that exists in the conservative movement, where Adam Bullock talked about this.
00:39:53.220Obviously, a lot of people on the right say, yeah, they're riding high.
00:39:56.540Pierre Polyev is leading in the polls.
00:39:59.560But what do you do with that mandate? And that is such a crucial question here. And remember, even if, you know, Pierre Polyeb wins some big giant super majority and he goes into parliament with, you know, 212 seats or something like that, what do you do with that?
00:40:15.440How do you keep the coalition that is required together?
00:40:20.300And I remember not to besmirch the good name of Stephen Harper in halls that tend to view him very favorably.
00:40:26.320And I view Stephen Harper very favorably.
00:40:30.540And even when he got his majority government, a lot of the big, bold change that a lot of people on the right had been hoping for and looking for from him never came.
00:40:38.720He never touched CBC, never touched the Canadian Human Rights Commission,
00:40:41.800left the Senate with a tremendous number of vacancies
00:40:45.600that will make it very difficult for a future conservative government.
00:40:50.020I haven't looked at the numbers lately,
00:40:52.600but the Senate is going to be a big obstacle to what a conservative government does.
00:40:57.980The Senate is going to be a tremendous obstacle,
00:41:00.060and it will take many, many years before the power balance in the Senate
00:41:04.400shifts back to a point where the conservatives have a mostly automatic green light
00:41:09.440that they can put on their legislation.
00:41:10.960So that's going to be, I think, very interesting to see unfold here.
00:41:15.100So these are some of the bigger picture discussions that I would ask people who are here,
00:41:20.500especially people who are involved in the conservative movement and involved in conservative
00:42:53.820The other reason is I just think that this might be one of the most important elections in a generation.
00:42:59.580And I got a chance to know Pierre through interviewing him a couple times.
00:43:03.500I think he's the real deal and would love to be part of his team to write this country, get this country back on track and write it in the right direction.
00:43:12.020You're in an interesting situation in your riding because you're going up against the NDP locally.
00:43:18.120Nationally, it's a fight against the Liberals.
00:43:20.680And I'm curious how that translates down, because I think we've heard anecdotally that Conservatives are drawing from lifelong NDP supporters and non-voters.
00:43:29.880And I'm curious how you're seeing that on the ground in an area where the Liberals are not really the first or even second choice for people as it is.
00:43:36.480Yeah, they only got 13% of the vote in the last election.
00:43:40.020I think what's going to hurt the NDP the most, I think we're appealing to them in a lot of ways,
00:43:45.180but what's going to hurt them the most is that almost nobody voted for Justin Trudeau,
00:43:49.680and yet their member of parliament has been voting to prop up this government
00:43:53.540and everything that they've put forward for the past coming up on three years.
00:43:58.940So I think that's what's going to hurt them.