Juno News - Jamil Jivani on byelection win, media bias, and “liberal elites”

00:00:00.000 you're tuned in to the andrew lawton show

00:00:05.920 so i mentioned earlier this week there was a big win in durham not altogether unsurprising as i

00:00:14.080 said and i put the caveat there because it has been a conservative stronghold for 20 years but

00:00:19.300 the margin of victory by which the conservative candidate jameel javani won was actually quite

00:00:25.120 strong and i think there is a message in this to justin trudeau either that conservatives are in

00:00:30.800 fact uh looking beyond or conservative voters voters in general are looking beyond all those

00:00:35.520 evil scary conservative trump comparisons and also that the liberal vote is just not motivated to show

00:00:41.480 up people that voted for justin trudeau in the last three elections and especially the last one

00:00:46.480 election are just not motivated to show up and do it again so there's a lot to unpack there but i'd

00:00:52.060 rather focus on the guy himself we've had him on the show in the past on a number of occasions in

00:00:56.620 a number of different capacities both as a broadcaster as president of the canada strong and

00:01:01.320 free network and now as the mp elect for durham jameel javani good to talk to you thanks for coming

00:01:07.520 on and congratulations thank you andrew it's always good to good to chat with you and uh

00:01:13.340 yeah being called an mp is still something i gotta get used to so well mp elect i don't want to jump

00:01:19.160 on too much uh formality do you know when you are going to be uh sworn in i don't know yet no so

00:01:24.600 elections canada still has to go through their process of ratification and stuff so once that's

00:01:29.960 done that's when we can schedule the swearing in so we're sort of in their hands for the moment but

00:01:34.840 it'll be soon it must be very exciting i know you've gone through in the last few years a lot of

00:01:40.520 change i mean you've had to deal with cancer you obviously got fired from bell you turned around and

00:01:45.720 tried to and i think successfully stick it to bell with a with a lawsuit you uh you know taken over

00:01:50.680 the the canada strong and free network for a time like how do you begin to sort of decide what to do

00:01:57.000 now when you get to ottawa well i mean the the good thing about this job is that uh we were elected to

00:02:04.680 accomplish the goals that we set out so that's what i think our focus is you know it's uh it was a

00:02:11.000 12 word uh promise that we made many many times during the campaign which is ax the tax build the

00:02:18.280 homes fix the budget stop the crime that is the agenda and uh certainly at this point where our

00:02:24.680 job is to hold the current government to account we want to focus as much as we can on pushing for

00:02:31.240 ideas that we think are going to help accomplish those objectives and also for me locally you know

00:02:36.280 here in durham to make sure that i'm a good strong voice for the issues that people care about we

00:02:41.400 knocked on over a hundred and eleven thousand doors in the last few months and uh so i've talked to as

00:02:48.760 many of our voters as possible as many of our community members as possible and i think i have a

00:02:53.480 sense of what they want from me as the mp and that's what i'm out here to do one of the questions that

00:02:59.720 always comes up in politics is how much of a candidate's performance is them and how much is

00:03:05.800 the leader and you can never quantify it but i'm curious if you got a sense when you were out knocking

00:03:10.760 on doors how pierre polyev is perceived or if if he's even perceived by people because obviously

00:03:15.880 there's been a bit of a change this writing was formerly represented by erin o'toole who is the

00:03:19.880 previous conservative leader we get from the media no shortage of claims about you know pierre polyev

00:03:24.920 being the big evil scary conservative meanie how was that actually on the ground when you were

00:03:29.480 talking to voters well i think people are very happy with what they've seen from you know pierre

00:03:35.160 polyev up till this point you know since he became leader of the party i think a lot of folks unhappy

00:03:41.000 with our current government and unhappy with our current economy in particular see pierre as the change

00:03:47.480 leader that if you want something other than trudeau if you want an economy that as we say works for

00:03:53.640 those who do the work that is actually responsive to the needs of middle class and working class

00:03:59.000 families that pierre is the guy to make that change happen so on the ground a lot of support

00:04:05.240 for pierre a growing amount of support as people get to know him better and the reality is that you

00:04:11.160 know the reason we won by the big margin that we did the biggest margin in the 20-year history of

00:04:16.600 the conservative party of canada in durham was won by us on monday and i think that is because you

00:04:22.200 you know pierre polyev has become a symbol of change for people so we drew support from neighborhoods that

00:04:30.440 conservative party in uh candidates in the past may not have been able to get as much support from

00:04:35.960 because we are now seen as the change party so that's a very exciting thing for us you know nationally

00:04:42.280 but also locally it's very exciting because i think people have expectations for us that we're going to

00:04:47.400 deliver and now it's on us to actually hold up our end of the deal you made some waves on monday night

00:04:54.600 when you took aim at liberal elites which i played the clip on the show and i think the audience was

00:05:00.280 very much on your side on that one but i i was curious in in who you included in that because you

00:05:05.080 weren't just talking about the capital l liberal party led by justin trudeau you talked about uh telecom

00:05:10.680 companies you even talked about i mean what i read as the ontario pc government did you not well i

00:05:16.760 specifically mentioned the ontario ministry of education because uh i mean the facts just bear it

00:05:22.280 out they have upheld a policy agenda that is very similar to what you might have seen with a liberal

00:05:28.680 government in power they have focused on a lot of virtue signaling uh they have focused on race politics

00:05:35.560 meanwhile the average student in ontario is still struggling with math with reading with

00:05:40.520 writing they have tried very hard to do in my view superficial things while the effects of pandemic

00:05:48.120 school closures are still being felt by middle class and working class families you know my job as

00:05:54.600 an mp is to care about what people in durham care about and i'm knocking on doors i'm talking to parents

00:06:00.520 every day i'm talking to students every day and they're telling me the school system isn't working

00:06:04.920 for us so i feel it's important to tell the truth and when i say liberal elite you're absolutely

00:06:10.360 right andrew i'm not just talking about people who are in one political party a lot of our voters

00:06:16.520 were former liberal voters and i don't hold them in contempt because i grew up in a community where

00:06:21.720 i was taught the liberal party is where you belong and it took me a while to figure out that that wasn't

00:06:26.520 true and it might take others a while to figure out that out too so i don't hold that against people

00:06:31.320 but when i talk about liberal elites i'm talking about the people who have abandoned the middle class and

00:06:35.400 the working class and as i said whether they're big bank ceos big telecom ceos the ministry of

00:06:42.040 education the activists and academics pushing for um you know anti-law enforcement anti-public safety

00:06:49.240 policies what all these folks have in common is that they are serving a privileged few while turning their

00:06:55.240 backs on the majority of people in this country and i gotta tell the truth about that and if it ruffles

00:07:00.040 feathers and it makes people unhappy get used to it because my job is to get is to work for the people

00:07:05.560 of durham my job is not to worry about offending people in the halls of power who are actually

00:07:10.440 making everybody's life harder one of the things you and i have spoken about this in the past and i

00:07:15.320 know you've spoken about it in speeches when you were at bell as a radio host you there was kind of

00:07:20.440 an expectation that was put on you that because you fit a certain demographic mold you would fit an

00:07:26.120 ideological mold as well and i know that was one of the things you took aim at uh when you spoke out

00:07:31.080 against them and i i can't help but notice that the narrative around you and your candidacy would

00:07:35.960 be different if you had a different political view like i i'm convinced and you may disagree with me

00:07:40.520 jamil that if you were a liberal you would be getting like the new york times style profile of you

00:07:45.640 know this bootstrap guy that got himself into yale and is now trying to change the country but just to

00:07:51.320 give you one headline from the globe and mail jameel javani will fit right in with activist

00:07:56.280 populist conservatism of polyev so you just basically get distilled down into this and i'm curious what

00:08:02.440 you think of the media's take on you i mean did they really cover you and did they cover you fairly

00:08:08.920 well i i do not expect fairness from the media uh so lex and i learned even before i worked in it but

00:08:16.120 certainly when working in it and just seeing all the pressure put on employees by these big media

00:08:21.080 corporations to serve a certain agenda um you know it's it's not easy to be fair in the media you

00:08:28.120 do have to sometimes put your career on the line because you've got management who doesn't want you

00:08:32.840 to be fair and doesn't want you to be impartial and objective so i don't expect it to be fair the truth

00:08:38.920 is this if you want to make a difference in this country right now you have to fight for the middle

00:08:44.040 class you have to fight for the working class you got to fight for the people who are not represented 0.98

00:08:49.640 in the media they don't work in the media it by by virtue of the type of training and education

00:08:55.880 and lifestyle that the media rewards therefore the voices of the middle class and the working

00:09:00.920 class are often not in these organizations whether it's a radio station or a tv station

00:09:05.960 and there are exceptions to that but by and large it's just not the case so just look at the polls you

00:09:11.080 know in every poll that comes out Pierre Polyev is at the top of the list because many many

00:09:16.680 canadians a growing number want change but you don't see that reflected in news coverage because

00:09:22.040 they're out of touch and our job is not to be beholden to out of touch media organizations they

00:09:28.440 can call me names when justin trudeau was calling me names and and a twofer and all that nonsense most

00:09:35.000 of these media organizations didn't cover that either they're not interested in providing an objective

00:09:40.120 view of what's happening they have their own values they have their own agenda when i say liberal

00:09:45.400 elites i am talking about the companies that own many of the media outlets that canadians rely on

00:09:51.160 for information so this is why i'm always keen to do independent media like true north to do local

00:09:58.200 media like we have here in durham we've got you know still a number of newspapers tv stations radio

00:10:03.480 stations because this is where you get a more accurate sense of what's going on in the country

00:10:08.280 and i'll tell you now as the mp elect for durham that is some that is wisdom i take into my new job

00:10:14.600 i will not be someone who's going to get pushed around by journalists who think if they give me

00:10:18.840 bad coverage i'm going to change my values i was elected because of my values and i will continue

00:10:24.120 to stand for them let me just ask you about where you have to direct your attention now because you

00:10:30.200 know unlike anyone who gets elected in a general election and has you know two three four years of

00:10:34.600 breathing room you're being elected in a by-election which means you could see i mean you could theoretically

00:10:39.160 find yourself campaigning in like a month's time it looks like it's probably going to be about a year

00:10:44.040 a year and a half and until the next election but uh what pressure does that put on you to you know

00:10:49.400 perform as an mp to navigate this new life this new world like you know figuring out everything from

00:10:54.680 where the bathrooms are on parliament hill to you know how you can get a bill passed and then have to

00:10:59.160 turn around and do it again yeah well it's one thing that a lot of people might not know is that

00:11:04.680 getting elected to parliament there are things you have to do just like with any other job there's

00:11:09.800 orientation and there's the tech guy who has to explain how you use your phone and log into your

00:11:15.480 new email address like so there's a lot of those steps that i'm i'm just figuring out now and trying

00:11:20.360 to learn you know how it all works as quickly as i can but you know the truth is that um the fact an

00:11:26.600 election or general election could be coming so quickly is um you know this is exactly why we have to

00:11:32.280 to stay close to our people close to our voters close to the community because i want i'm not going

00:11:38.280 to be surprised i want to know what people want from their mp every step of the way i'm not going

00:11:43.560 to be one of those politicians just comes and knocks on your door every few years i want to be someone who

00:11:48.840 the public feels this guy has our back he's there to do a job he works just as hard as we do and we

00:11:54.600 can trust him to speak for us so that's the mentality i come into the job with and that's why i have the

00:12:00.200 confidence i have that you know we can take positions that the media might not like we can

00:12:04.840 stand for things that the liberals are going to attack us on they can throw all their darts and all

00:12:09.560 their stones all they want and i'm fine to take it because i really believe i have a sense of what

00:12:15.480 people want what the majority of people in our community here want and that's what i'm trying to

00:12:20.360 be accountable to uh is there like a bucket list thing that you'd love to achieve in your your first

00:12:26.200 site i don't even want to call it a first term because it's like a partial term but is there

00:12:29.480 there's something that you want to be able to get to the end of the the next you know 12 18 months and

00:12:33.560 be able to say i i've done this when you go to campaign for re-election yeah well i guess there's

00:12:39.480 two two things i have in mind one is you know i think nuclear energy is a really really important

00:12:45.000 part of the future of canada um you know we've been sort of sold this idea that you know free market

00:12:51.320 economics and the climate have to be at odds with each other that has opened the gates to a lot of

00:12:57.400 bad policies like the carbon tax i don't support any of that i mean obviously we campaign on axing

00:13:03.320 the carbon tax all the time but we do have you know lower emission options that will grow the economy

00:13:09.640 especially for us here in ontario and uh you know in my area in particular there are over 3 000 people

00:13:15.880 who are employed by our local nuclear plant so i think nuclear energy is a really big part of the

00:13:21.320 future and i want to do my part as an mp to push for that and get us away from this sort of anti you

00:13:27.800 know free market anti-economic growth approach that the liberals have taken and the other issue is i

00:13:34.040 want to draw attention to some of the challenges facing boys and young men in our society you know

00:13:39.400 andrew i commend you a great deal because you've been open with some of the challenges you faced as a

00:13:43.960 man mental health is one of the biggest things that are going on that are happening with boys

00:13:48.840 and young men we often don't talk about it often there aren't services available to a lot of us

00:13:54.440 and i think we need to make sure that um you know the the funding that goes out to programming

00:13:59.560 in our communities is accounting for the fact that you know the vast majority of people who are

00:14:04.440 committing suicide the vast majority of people who are dying from overdoses these are men and i think

00:14:10.920 that their stories need to be be told and heard and i know a lot of moms and grandmas who are

00:14:16.040 expecting me to stand up for their sons and their grandsons so that's a big part of what i'd like to

00:14:20.760 accomplish early on in this part of my journey as well well and i'm glad yeah you did tremendous work

00:14:25.800 as an author on that file and i i hope you pick that up as a member of parliament and obviously i i'm

00:14:30.600 available uh if you need anything but you've got that in in uh you seem to have that well handled and i

00:14:35.560 look forward to hearing what you do with that so uh mp elect for durham jamil javani it's great to

00:14:40.920 talk to you and congratulations again thank you very much andrew and i'm very happy for your

00:14:45.240 continued success and i'm a big uh fan of the show so always happy to be here oh it's a good thing you

00:14:50.120 didn't say that before the election you never would have won with an endorsement like that thanks a

00:14:53.560 lot jamil take care thanks for listening to the andrew lawton show support the program by donating to

00:14:58.920 true north at www.tnc.news

Juno News - March 08, 2024

Jamil Jivani on byelection win, media bias, and “liberal elites”

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript