Juno News - Pierre Poilievre is in. Now what？ (ft. Jamil Jivani)

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

00:00:05.920 i do want to speak about the new chapter we are experiencing right now in conservative politics

00:00:14.880 in canada we had over the weekend a live show i was anchoring it alongside my colleagues sue

00:00:20.720 ann levy and harrison faulkner we had ellie kenton nantel and jasmine moulton coming in from ottawa

00:00:26.440 and candace malcolm joined us from maternity leave which we were very grateful for

00:00:30.760 and it was difficult to in some ways pretend that there was a little bit of suspense to what was

00:00:36.460 going to happen because i think everyone knew and has known since february that pierre polyev was

00:00:41.280 going to be the next conservative leader we didn't know how decisive it was going to be but we knew

00:00:46.040 it was going to be him i want to talk about this in a bit more of a broad context here specifically

00:00:50.440 as it regards the conservative movement in the country and i want to make clear there we're

00:00:55.600 obviously it's the conservative party of canada because this party did just elect a leader

00:00:59.520 but he is a movement conservative pierre polyev and that term i find often gets lost in the

00:01:06.440 partisan discourse but remember it's a lot bigger the conservative movement with a small c than the

00:01:11.580 conservative party of canada jameel javani is the new president of the canada strong and free network

00:01:18.120 and we had him on the show just after he was named the president at their big conference in ottawa a

00:01:23.980 couple of months ago but he joins me on the line now jameel good to talk to you sir explain to me

00:01:29.300 i mean this idea of a conservative movement i think is lost on a lot of people and i don't think in

00:01:33.560 canada we've always done a good enough job at fostering this so tell me how that really unfolds

00:01:38.960 from your perspective at the canada strong and free network first off yeah i think you made an

00:01:44.240 excellent point andrew when you said that the conservative movement is bigger than the conservative

00:01:48.420 party and i think that's important for people to realize is that being a conservative

00:01:52.960 isn't about wearing a certain team jersey or being involved in politics you know a lot of people

00:01:59.340 will never work in politics they'll never run for office but they'll maybe they vote in different

00:02:04.280 ways maybe they don't vote at all but they can have conservative values they can have a conservative

00:02:09.260 outlook on the world and that can be as you said cultural stuff it can be economic it can be all

00:02:14.700 sorts of different things you know there's decades and centuries worth of writing and thinking about

00:02:19.640 what it means to be a conservative and i'd be hard pressed to summarize that now but what i would

00:02:24.300 say is that you know it is around basic ideas around family community small government pro-business

00:02:31.460 pro-economic growth about the idea that people should have the chance to live according to their own

00:02:37.700 values and not have those values infringed upon by a government that wants to sort of force uniformity

00:02:46.200 onto the people a lot of basic ideas that i think conservatives do agree on even though we do have

00:02:51.700 lots of disagreements as well and at the canada strong and free network we try to be a place where

00:02:56.540 people can come together across the conservative spectrum share their ideas debate ideas at the end

00:03:03.200 of the day be a bit of a a training ground for the sorts of things that might become reality should

00:03:09.000 you know conservatives run governments you know we want to be able to produce policy thinking and

00:03:13.980 you know cultural thinking that might influence the way governments uh you know make decisions at

00:03:19.340 some point down the road uh whether that's in the short term or the long term so it's very exciting

00:03:24.020 to be part of the movement because we welcome you regardless of whether uh you know the conservative

00:03:28.700 party wins an election or not we welcome you regardless of whether you like the the particular

00:03:33.840 leader of a conservative party at a given time and as you said the interesting thing about someone like

00:03:39.480 is that he does unite the party and the movement in a way that hasn't been true for some time now

00:03:46.300 you know i think with under erin o'toole there was a pretty big gap between the party and the movement

00:03:51.180 on a number of issues pierre polyev steps in and i think has closed that gap in a way that's really

00:03:56.360 helpful yeah it's always difficult for anyone to live in the shadow of a predecessor and i i almost i

00:04:03.360 feel bad about holding up stephen harper as the benchmark of what an ideal conservative leader should

00:04:08.400 be because obviously his government wasn't perfect no government is but i i do think that pierre

00:04:13.160 polyev has tapped into that harper coalition and even move beyond it i mean the freedom convoy

00:04:20.260 coalition if i can call it that or the anti-mandate coalition which he's really spoken to is not at

00:04:26.460 all filled with partisan conservatives and and i think that even talking to some of these issues has

00:04:31.820 really helped him move beyond what even stephen harper had like i remember i was at a rally of

00:04:37.380 polyevs in london ontario and he was doing it at the best western hotel which is like a big event

00:04:43.840 space in london that has all these conferences and jenny byrne who was on his campaign and also was

00:04:49.320 integral to the harper government she and i were speaking and she said like even when harper did

00:04:53.980 rallies here we weren't filling that overflow room that we were for pierre polyev so so to get that

00:04:59.760 many people out in a leadership event for someone compared to like what a sitting prime minister who had a

00:05:05.320 fair amount of star power was able to do this is something quite significant yeah and i think it's

00:05:11.520 because pierre polyev has become synonymous with change for people you know those crowds come out

00:05:16.820 because they're looking for something new looking for something different they want to break away

00:05:21.660 from the trudeau administration they want a different way of doing politics a different way

00:05:26.120 of governing and pierre polyev represents that i mean that is why i think he was able to pick up so

00:05:32.040 much momentum from the trucker convoy is that the trucker convoy was an expression of a desire for

00:05:37.960 change people were frustrated with the trudeau government and pierre polyev has represented much

00:05:43.460 of the same thing to people and so you know that's that's something that on the right we have not had

00:05:48.780 in a very long time you know that the conservative party would be the counterculture party the party

00:05:54.840 that's challenging people in power the party that's going to hold you know the wealthy to account

00:06:00.020 for creating a system that in many ways is disadvantaging a lot of middle class and working

00:06:05.280 class families i mean that is exciting i think for conservatives and that's why he's getting a

00:06:10.340 crowd unlike anything we've seen before because people are hungry for something different and now

00:06:16.040 we've got a guy who's actually offering that and the thing about pierre too and this is something

00:06:19.900 a lot of his critics including sort of the red tories sometimes don't want to acknowledge but he's

00:06:25.600 also a substantive guy he's got ideas for policy he has a vision for how he would govern and i think

00:06:32.640 being able to back up that demand for change with real tangible ideas that's that's going to be a

00:06:39.140 recipe for success i think yeah i mean when polyev went on kind of the bitcoin spree during the

00:06:45.840 leadership race i know a lot of people were mocking it and i went to one of his events which was at like

00:06:50.900 a shawarma place that has been very big into cryptocurrency and i was talking to a lot of the

00:06:55.120 people there who again have never really been political because they're crypto people so their

00:06:59.060 whole ethos is just like leave us alone and let us live our lives and they're getting excited about

00:07:03.540 him and and you could tell when he was talking about bitcoin that this was like a policy nerd that

00:07:08.980 was really just geeking out on something that mattered to him personally and i actually kind of

00:07:12.980 like that in politicians that actually believe something from their personal lives and are importing

00:07:18.900 it i mean same as maxine bernier in supply management like again you could tell he believes

00:07:22.340 that and he wants to have his little policy wonk nerd out over it and i think we need more of that

00:07:26.980 i mean i i'm so tired of politicians that could not summon an independent thought if their life depended on

00:07:33.380 it yeah now look andrew i'm not going to pretend i understand bitcoin at all that's it honestly just

00:07:40.420 goes way over my head so i can't i understand shawarma i don't understand bitcoin either with with a lot of

00:07:46.420 so you're not alone there don't worry yeah no i could definitely do shawarma too bitcoin i'm not as

00:07:51.380 as familiar with but um you're right like even on things like when he talks about you know removing

00:07:57.140 gatekeepers for newcomers to canada so that they can uh you know get a job in the profession they've

00:08:03.220 been trained in he's got specific policies right he's talking about certain waiting periods where

00:08:08.580 people have to be informed whether they can get a job or not like he's got some specific ideas and

00:08:13.860 even on things like housing he's talked about you know withholding certain funding to municipalities

00:08:19.140 unless they're willing to change their zoning laws you know these are specific tangible policy ideas

00:08:24.820 and i think that again i i know that his critics especially his critics who call themselves uh

00:08:30.660 conservatives they um are going to question you know whether he's got the substantive uh backup on

00:08:36.900 these ideas but i think it you know the reality is clear i mean he has specific policy ideas and i think

00:08:42.820 as more canadians hear them they'll realize that this is not the guy that a lot of the media has

00:08:47.620 made him out to be he's not consumed by anger he's not some kind of like caricature of populism

00:08:54.420 he's a guy who's got real ideas that might make uh the economy a bit more fair to the average person

00:09:00.740 and make opportunity more available to the average person and i think that's exactly what canadians are

00:09:05.700 looking for yeah it's funny how so many of the attacks from within and without the conservative

00:09:12.500 movement or i guess not a lot of these are from the conservative movement but nevertheless they're

00:09:16.900 all the same no matter who's there like cupy put out a statement this morning and they were like you

00:09:22.100 could tell they just dug out their attack on andrew shear and they were trying to find a way to like

00:09:26.020 make it work on pierre polyev this was a line it's too bad that unlike andrew share pierre polyev does

00:09:32.660 not hold american citizenship because he would be right at home as a governor of state of a state

00:09:37.860 like alabama and it's like so they had like come up with this like witty attack in uh 2019 and they

00:09:44.020 didn't get a chance to use it they're like let's let's let's let's find out okay if he were american

00:09:48.260 then he would be like it's but when when people see this or that cartoon i played earlier from the

00:09:54.020 toronto star of like you know aaron o'toole bundled up in pierre polyev's bondage dungeon it's like

00:09:59.300 i have to assume that most people will just see that and see the guy with the photogenic family

00:10:03.700 talking about inflation and be like i i don't yeah i don't really see how those two things connect

00:10:09.460 you know first off it's like they mention alabama or like the united states like we're supposed to

00:10:14.340 like hate america like it's just so it's yeah we're supposed to all like alabama supposed to

00:10:18.580 like trigger the pavlovian response of like oh yeah we hate them yeah like i mean you know like martin

00:10:24.100 least their king marched in alabama like alabama actually has been home to a lot of people who

00:10:28.660 do good things and fight for good things like it's weird to me when they mention america as if we're

00:10:33.460 supposed to be like hating our biggest trade partner in the first place but nonetheless

00:10:38.500 to your bigger point andrew i think you're absolutely right like this is a game plan right

00:10:43.060 this is a playbook we've seen used over and over and over again which is designed to make um you know

00:10:49.060 basically borrow democrat talking points that are used to attack republicans act somehow like our

00:10:54.980 countries are the exact same and use the exact same criticisms against canadian conservatives

00:11:00.020 it's like you know there's not a single canadian conservative with any uh record of success in

00:11:05.780 decades who has campaigned against things like universal health care you don't see it and yet you

00:11:11.460 would think from listening to people at qp or the toronto star that there is no difference between

00:11:16.580 canadian conservatives and republicans there are meaningful differences right and so they just try

00:11:21.620 to play this game where they import american culture wars and they think canadians aren't smart enough

00:11:26.740 to see what they're doing but unfortunately for them i think a lot of canadians are smart enough to see

00:11:31.460 what they're doing and you can't just keep saying things like trump trump trump and thinking that

00:11:35.700 that's an argument because that actually doesn't mean anything yeah i i would agree with that wholeheartedly

00:11:41.860 and the one thing i've always said too is that we know the media attacks and the activist

00:11:46.020 attacks are going to come and i think that the one big thing and i sort of view independent media

00:11:50.820 as being essential to this is ensuring that when a politician does say something that is markedly

00:11:56.180 conservative that there's a base of support they're willing to back them up because you you have to

00:12:01.060 counter that natural instinct that a lot of them have and we certainly saw an arrow no tool to scurry

00:12:06.260 at the first sign of pushback by saying actually no as as canadians we do believe that and we do agree

00:12:11.060 with that and i i go back to that conservative movement discussion and i want to talk to you

00:12:15.140 about this event you have coming up in red deer on september 24th and i'm very privileged to get to

00:12:20.660 be i'm not just speaking but i'm going to be doing a live broadcast of the andrew lawton show which i've

00:12:25.620 never actually done before a live audience before so that's going to be on september 24th in red deer

00:12:30.900 but tell me what this event is first off well it is a conference for the movement and to your point

00:12:37.220 earlier it's about getting people together outside of the political party to think about what does it

00:12:42.340 mean to be a conservative what are some of the ideas that conservatives are excited about and what is

00:12:47.380 the role of the conservative movement in building as you put it that base of support for ideas so that

00:12:54.420 conservative politicians know what we expect of them and they can go out and actually act on behalf

00:13:00.180 of the conservative base of conservative voters of families that are looking for change in this

00:13:05.460 country right now so on the 24th in red deer alberta we're going to get together and start

00:13:10.420 what i think is going to be a process over the coming months and years of building out a set of

00:13:16.580 ideas for what the next conservative government might actually be held accountable for what are we

00:13:21.940 expecting of them what do we want them to do so i see our our conference on the 24th as an opportunity

00:13:27.860 to start that conversation get some thought leaders together get some newsmakers together and start

00:13:33.540 building out that vision for what we believe a conservative future might look like so you know

00:13:38.500 you being there and doing your uh show live is going to be really exciting we'll have andrew sheer

00:13:43.620 there to kick things off and talk about what he thinks the takeaways and lessons learned from

00:13:48.980 the poly of campaign success uh is uh jason kenney will be there to give one of his last speeches

00:13:55.380 as premier of alberta and then we'll also have six of the ucp leadership candidates there to talk about

00:14:02.180 their vision for how to you know do uh battle with the ndp uh when the general election comes in a

00:14:07.620 few months so there's gonna be a lot of interesting things on the table and i think it's important for

00:14:12.340 conservatives to build these kind of relationships to debate ideas exchange ideas and importantly

00:14:18.180 remind ourselves because so many conservatives especially young conservatives tell me all the time

00:14:22.820 they feel alone on university campuses they feel like they can't say what they believe in their

00:14:27.940 workplace they're worried they're going to be ostracized if they're outed as a conservative

00:14:32.580 and we're trying to you know do these sorts of events to remind people you're far from alone

00:14:37.060 there's tons of people who think like you there's tons of people who want you to be successful

00:14:41.860 come and network with us let's build this movement together so we can have each other's backs

00:14:47.140 it is a great all-star panel you have and i'm not including myself in the all-star category i'm just

00:14:52.020 going to be uh doing my little bit and also by the way shameless plug i'll be signing copies of my book

00:14:57.220 the freedom convoy there so if you do come and i want to hear andrew sheer and jason kenny and me

00:15:02.180 and the ucp leadership candidates you can also grab a copy of my book while you're there but

00:15:07.220 the one thing that i really find to be important about these things first off after the last two

00:15:11.940 and a half years anything that gets me in the room with normal people is i think a very very good

00:15:16.420 thing uh and you know we saw a lot of these people in ottawa at the canada strong and free network

00:15:22.180 conference back in i think it was like april or mid the last few months has blended together but

00:15:27.620 the other thing that i i would bring up is that there's always something tangible that i've gotten

00:15:32.020 out of these about you know what it is that you can actually do because i think a lot of the times

00:15:36.820 you know we can talk about policies and talk about ideas and uh we can we can find some common ground or

00:15:42.420 you know strengthen our ability to you know sharpen our rhetorical knives and all of that but but when

00:15:47.380 you come out of these things there's always been something i found going back to the manning center

00:15:51.700 conferences very tactical about it yeah yeah i mean well i think we have to recognize that we're

00:15:59.060 you know if we want to sort of change the direction of this country we've got to get active right so it's

00:16:03.860 not like the typical networking where you might just collect some business cards and you know go for

00:16:08.580 coffee when we talk about networking at the canada strong and free network we're talking about

00:16:13.540 strategizing game planning figuring out how we can support one another uh figuring out how

00:16:18.260 how we can encourage one another you're right there is a goal here to be action oriented and

00:16:24.420 you can app there's no way you could come to one of our conferences and not leave with a sense of where

00:16:29.060 you're needed because everyone is needed and i think what we try to do is make the case of the

00:16:33.620 different place ways that people can get involved in the movement the different roles that are out

00:16:38.260 there the different organizations that are out there the different issues that we need people to be

00:16:42.340 working on and thinking about so yeah anybody listening who'd like to come out please do check

00:16:47.380 us out the website is canada strong and free dot network you can also hit me up on social media

00:16:52.900 at jamil javani on instagram on twitter where we post the links to the conference the uh early bird

00:16:59.060 ticket prices are still up until the end of the week so we encourage you to register and uh yeah i mean

00:17:04.980 and it's really we're blessed to have people with the kind of vision that you do andrew and i think

00:17:11.140 this is something that's unique about what we do what you do um as opposed to other political you

00:17:16.980 know organizations or movements in the country i think a lot of conservatives are drawn to the

00:17:22.180 movement for the best reasons because they really believe in the cause they want to do something for

00:17:27.060 other people they want to use their voice for good and i think you know people who feel that way

00:17:32.260 will find a lot of like-minded individuals at conferences like ours well i'm very much looking forward

00:17:38.740 to it i'm i'm honored to have the opportunity to take part and i actually apart from like an event

00:17:43.780 i did in toronto this is like the first ever book signing i've done certainly in alberta so

00:17:48.420 glad to be there hope to see a lot of you who are tuned in there as well do come and say hello

00:17:52.820 uh jamil javani president of the canada strong and free network we'll see you in red deer in a

00:17:57.140 couple of weeks yeah see you in red deer andrew thanks thanks for listening to the andrew lawton

00:18:01.460 show support the program by donating to true north at www.tnc.news

Juno News - September 13, 2022

Pierre Poilievre is in. Now what？ (ft. Jamil Jivani)

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