Juno News - The fear-mongering about ＂populist＂ Pierre Poilievre begins

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:05.100 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:13.240 Hello and welcome to you all to another edition of Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:18.120 This is the Andrew Lawton Show here on True North on this Monday, September 12, 2022.

00:00:24.020 the beginning of a new era in conservative politics in Canada, as we discuss the birth of

00:00:32.280 the Pierre Polyev leadership, which came about on Saturday, 68% of the point in the race. So I want

00:00:40.020 to speak about the conservative leadership in the context of what it means for the country,

00:00:45.920 what it means for conservative politics with a capital C and a small c. But I also just want to

00:00:52.100 begin, and I know that this may be something that we hear so repeatedly now, but I haven't done an

00:00:57.800 edition of the Andrew Lawton Show since Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II died last week at 90. I just

00:01:04.240 want to add my personal contribution to this for whatever it may mean, and that is that, you know,

00:01:11.100 Her Majesty's reign, whether you're a monarchist or not, has been really a period of stability in

00:01:16.860 Canada, in the Commonwealth, and around the world, and it's something that we are all the better for,

00:01:21.100 I believe, as a country. You know, if we were to birth a new nation right now, would we pick

00:01:26.140 a constitutional monarchy with a crown shared by the Brits? I don't know. But the fact is,

00:01:30.960 it's the system we have. And it's one that's working for Canada. And it is one that I think

00:01:35.100 we are tremendously blessed by. And whatever the future of the monarchy is in a Canadian context

00:01:40.480 or in a global context, I don't know. But I do believe whatever my political misgivings about

00:01:45.700 Prince Charles were. Right now he is Canada's sovereign, King Charles III. And I do say

00:01:51.180 with the most sincerity, God save the King. And I know there are some of you out there,

00:01:56.180 as we've seen in the comments in our content in the past few days that don't share that. That's

00:02:00.200 fine. But we have to accept that Canada as a relatively young nation still has been very

00:02:05.660 stable. And it wasn't just a flash the pan experiment of nation building when we were

00:02:10.920 birth back in 1867, a continuation of upper and lower Canada itself, a continuation of an era

00:02:18.080 before it in Canadian history. And it is the British crown that's been at the center of that

00:02:22.480 since the very beginning of the Canadian experience as we know it today. So with that

00:02:28.060 out of the way, I do want to speak about the new chapter we are experiencing right now in

00:02:34.240 conservative politics in Canada. We had over the weekend a live show. I was anchoring it alongside

00:02:40.080 my colleagues Sue Ann Levy and Harrison Faulkner. We had Elie Kenton-Nantel and Jasmine Moulton

00:02:45.700 coming in from Ottawa, and Candace Malcolm joined us from maternity leave, which we were very

00:02:50.360 grateful for. And it was difficult to, in some ways, pretend that there was a little bit of

00:02:55.440 suspense to what was going to happen, because I think everyone knew and has known since February

00:03:00.280 that Pierre Polyev was going to be the next Conservative leader. We didn't know how decisive

00:03:04.920 it was going to be, but we knew it was going to be him. Hamish Marshall, who is on Pierre

00:03:09.640 Polyev's campaign team, he was on the show on Saturday night, and he had said they expected

00:03:14.460 him to win with like 66.9%. So they were a little low because he won by 68.15%, I think it was. But

00:03:22.640 I think we say that's within the margin of error. So it's a very decisive win. Very decisive. And

00:03:29.780 I want to just contextualize this here because the media was basically putting forward the narrative that a Pierre Polyev leadership in the Conservative Party was going to be a death knell for conservatism.

00:03:41.420 We've seen political cartoons right now that have said basically we are only going to see the death of moderates and only the hardline conservatives are going to be there.

00:03:54.800 The Trumpian conservatism is what we've been told is here.

00:03:57.880 And the word you're going to see everywhere, the word you're going to see absolutely everywhere,

00:04:02.640 and you already are in columns and TV panels, is populist.

00:04:06.740 Now, I did a panel a couple of weeks ago, and I actually have a column I've been working on about this,

00:04:11.440 about trying to understand what populism is.

00:04:14.680 Because I think a lot of people take for granted that it's a bad word, that it's a bad thing,

00:04:19.680 that it's something we don't actually like and shouldn't embrace.

00:04:22.280 But populism is essentially the will of the people.

00:04:25.580 and there is something about Pierre Polyev's leadership that has tapped into a very populist

00:04:31.820 sentiment but I don't mean that in an evil scary way I mean that in a literal sense of he's talking

00:04:36.440 about things that matter to real people and when Justin Trudeau is doing like virtue signaling

00:04:42.000 and all of this stuff about oh we have to go net zero and we have to do it more quickly and 0.52

00:04:46.500 oh we have to be all about the transgender washrooms and whatever I mean Pierre Polyev

00:04:51.120 talking about things that matter he's talking about grocery store bills he's talking about

00:04:56.880 regulation and its effect on small business he's talking about housing and if you want to call that

00:05:03.280 populism i think it's actually the most pure manifestation of what populism is and i'm not

00:05:09.760 going to be one of these people that says oh well pierre pauliev being the leader means justin

00:05:13.360 trudeau's done or oh justin trudeau is going to mop the floor with him elections are complex they're

00:05:17.680 They're not just about who the most deserving person is.

00:05:20.160 They are about a lot of external and internal factors,

00:05:22.720 and it depends very overwhelmingly on timing.

00:05:26.300 If the election were held tomorrow,

00:05:27.940 the result might be different than if it were held in two years

00:05:30.420 or in three years, theoretically.

00:05:33.500 So all of this is to say that Pierre Pollyev

00:05:36.700 could be the next Prime Minister of Canada.

00:05:38.680 He might not be.

00:05:39.700 Justin Trudeau could end up getting ousted by his own party,

00:05:42.240 and we have, you know, if you're a praying kind,

00:05:45.460 you may want to pray or do a sign of the cross right now. Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland could

00:05:50.260 come in the next little while if Trudeau gets ousted and they replace him internally, and then

00:05:54.720 the election is fought on an entirely different plane. But the whole point about Pierre Polyev

00:06:00.540 right now is that while the media is talking about their caricature of him, he is speaking to real

00:06:06.300 people about real concerns. And a lot of the discussion that we had about Pierre Polyev's

00:06:13.920 campaign during the leadership race was about some red meat issues, things that might not be top of

00:06:18.900 mind in a general election. For example, he spoke about the World Economic Forum and the fact that

00:06:24.260 he would ban any of his campaign team members from going to the WF. Okay, fine. Might not be the issue

00:06:30.620 you hear canvassing at the door, but it does matter to conservatives right now. CBC defunding,

00:06:36.700 we'll get to this one in a couple of moments time, matters a lot to conservatives. Is it the ballot

00:06:41.520 issue for people on election day. Maybe, maybe not, but it matters. But then you talk about

00:06:46.320 other things that he also has addressed throughout his campaign. Housing. One of his most widely

00:06:52.780 viewed videos was a video of him standing in front of some, and I don't want to offend anyone

00:06:57.560 here, but some pretty derelict Vancouver house talking about the price of it and speaking about

00:07:02.360 how unattainable that dream of home ownership. In fact, I'd actually say it's not a dream. It's

00:07:07.760 been a promise, that promise to a generation of homeownership, how unattainable that is for so

00:07:13.140 many people. So Pierre Polyev is talking about these things that matter. Well, the media tries

00:07:19.660 to frame him in a way that I just don't think will stick. And I want to play a couple of clips

00:07:24.620 for you from his acceptance speech when he became the winner of the leadership of the Conservative

00:07:29.840 Party of Canada, the leader of His Majesty's Loyal Opposition. And in particular, he took aim

00:07:35.440 at, I think, where a lot of Canadians are about the federal government right now, and a government

00:07:40.180 that, generally speaking, under Trudeau, is looking down on people with scorn when they need help.

00:07:48.080 ...downgrade their diets to cover the 10% year-over-year jump in food prices. Seniors

00:07:55.640 delay their retirements and watch their life savings evaporate with inflation. 0.97

00:08:01.940 30-year-olds who did everything we asked them to do, got degrees, worked hard, are trapped

00:08:10.220 in 400-square-foot apartments, or worse, their parents' basements because house prices have

00:08:14.700 doubled under this government.

00:08:19.600 And those who do own homes are paying more interest on their mortgages, even though this

00:08:24.880 government promised interest rates would not rise for years.

00:08:30.060 are falling behind. And there are people in this country who are just hanging on by a

00:08:36.540 thread. These are citizens of our country. We are their servants. We owe them hope.

00:08:43.380 They don't need a government that sneers at them, looks down on them, calls them names.

00:08:47.680 They don't need a government to run their lives. They need a government that can run

00:08:51.520 a passport office. There's a remarkable contrast in that. A government that can run a passport

00:09:02.980 office. Again, not the thing that might matter to the most people in this country. I mean,

00:09:07.900 it matters if you're one of the people waiting in line for hours and hours to get a passport

00:09:12.140 application in. People that have to like bring their camping gear, like they're buying tickets

00:09:16.520 for like the comeback of ABBA or something. That might not be the thing that other people line up

00:09:21.220 or I would line up for that and bring my tent out.

00:09:23.520 Okay, the comeback of Led Zeppelin, say.

00:09:26.340 So people do that to buy a passport now

00:09:28.460 because, oh, you have to be there when it opens

00:09:29.840 because after all, if you don't get through,

00:09:31.520 you're not going to get a seat.

00:09:33.620 And the thing about this is that

00:09:35.260 how dare the government try to lecture Canadians

00:09:38.240 about anything when it can't even do

00:09:39.760 the most fundamentally basic things,

00:09:42.100 the things that the private sector

00:09:43.480 is by mandate not able to do,

00:09:46.660 like issue passports.

00:09:48.080 And the federal government is unable to do it.

00:09:51.220 These are the things that Canadians are seeing.

00:09:54.260 These are the things that Canadians are experiencing.

00:09:57.800 And Canadians are hurting.

00:09:59.500 I shared a story and I shared,

00:10:01.200 actually, I might've even shared the clip.

00:10:02.720 I was at a dinner at the,

00:10:05.180 I'm trying to remember what the venue was.

00:10:06.860 It was in Toronto anyway.

00:10:08.740 And it was by the Coalition of Concerned Manufacturers

00:10:11.660 of Canada.

00:10:12.740 And they were honoring independent media.

00:10:15.680 And True North was one of the recipients of the award.

00:10:18.420 And I was there to accept it on True North's behalf.

00:10:21.220 And Pierre Polyev was also there.

00:10:23.020 And he spoke at the time about this incident that had happened on the campaign trail where

00:10:28.020 a woman was really mad, was yelling, was shouting, was heckling, had bought into this

00:10:32.600 sort of online conspiracy about him.

00:10:35.100 And Pierre Polyev was talking about how his wife, Anna, who spoke Saturday night, was

00:10:40.740 very graceful with the woman and took her by the hand and kind of refuted point by point

00:10:45.180 and showed her grace, showed her love and said, you know, why are you so mad?

00:10:50.720 And what the woman had said is that she had lost both her sons to fentanyl overdoses.

00:10:55.500 And I don't know the circumstances.

00:10:57.020 I can't even remember the city it was.

00:10:58.380 I think it was Northern Ontario or something.

00:11:00.720 But the gist of it was that people are hurting.

00:11:03.720 And they are.

00:11:04.700 And I don't think Justin Trudeau recognizes that.

00:11:06.740 If he does, I don't think he cares.

00:11:08.160 I think Justin Trudeau is so disconnected from the subjects over which he rules that

00:11:14.580 he has no idea what real pain is.

00:11:17.160 And he certainly has no idea how pervasive that pain is in Canadian society.

00:11:23.600 And when you have a government that is looking over a population of people that cannot afford

00:11:29.520 to go to the grocery store, that cannot afford to fill up their cars, and he has the audacity

00:11:34.620 to start playing wedge political games about people's vaccination status, and he starts 0.79

00:11:40.320 race baiting, accusing them of being white supremacists, misogynists, neo-Nazis, people

00:11:45.160 who have barely been hanging on by a thread 0.91

00:11:47.940 and now have been told by the government

00:11:49.440 you are not allowed to go visit your dying relative

00:11:52.540 in another province because you can't get on a plane

00:11:54.660 or people that have been told

00:11:55.580 you don't actually deserve to keep your job

00:11:57.660 for the federal government in some way

00:12:00.000 or for the civil service

00:12:00.900 or for the federally regulated industry

00:12:03.080 in which you might've worked

00:12:04.480 because we don't agree with your personal choice.

00:12:08.920 And Trudeau doesn't know or doesn't care.

00:12:11.940 and this is a wide open berth for some other politician to walk through to say you know what

00:12:19.140 I actually do hear the people and I do represent the people and I do understand the people's pain

00:12:25.260 and that doesn't even need to be a conservative there's nothing inherently partisan about

00:12:30.740 recognizing the humanity of the people that live in your country but Justin Trudeau has made it

00:12:36.780 partisan by spitting on the very people who most need to be recognized, the very people who most

00:12:44.400 need to be understood, because they are the people that in some cases are absolutely teetering

00:12:50.320 on the edge. And it's shameful that we have a government that just continues to look down on

00:12:55.320 these people, continues to insult them, to mock them, to hold them in contempt, and then wonder

00:13:00.540 why they are disenfranchised, wonder why they are not exactly confident in the institutions

00:13:06.480 that government tells them to protect and to uphold and to support i want to share enough if

00:13:13.920 i can of pierre pauliev's acceptance speech talking about that very issue the pain that

00:13:18.960 people in canada are enduring right now we have people who can't afford to pay for their kids food

00:13:29.120 and four and five canadians have actually cut their diets in order to deal with the 10

00:13:34.800 percent year-over-year increase in food prices. We have countless young adults still living

00:13:41.220 in their parents' basements, stuck in small apartments. I met a guy in Timmins who told

00:13:47.180 me he couldn't afford the $2.50 a liter diesel price to gas up his truck and drive over to

00:13:54.600 Thunder Bay and say goodbye to his dying parents one last time. Another worker in St. John's

00:14:01.460 told me that he had to tape up his work boots, which he showed me, because he can't afford

00:14:07.820 new ones. And I meet seniors all the time whose savings are evaporating because of 40-year

00:14:14.620 highs in inflation. They don't know how they're going to live out their days. Canadians are

00:14:21.640 hurting. And it is our job to transform that hurt into hope. And that is my mission.

00:14:31.460 from Pierre Polyev speaking to the conservative caucus this morning his debut address

00:14:46.920 which largely was about unity but he touched on some of the very themes that I think will guide

00:14:52.460 the conservatives messaging over the next weeks months years however it takes however long it

00:14:58.180 takes to get to the federal election. And I want to share, I referenced this before. This was a

00:15:03.460 Toronto Star editorial cartoon by Theo Moudakis that I think speaks to some of this media hysteria

00:15:10.220 we're talking about here. And it has everything. So I'm going to do like a full analysis of this

00:15:15.340 tweet in the next minute if I can. So you can see it on the screen there. It's first off, Trump is

00:15:20.780 now calling Pierre Polyev. So we've already got the Trump connection in there. And he says a word

00:15:26.200 of advice, my friend, do not hide anything at home. And then Pierre Palliev is standing at the

00:15:30.740 top of his stairs with a really squinty expression, pouty lips. He's on the cell phone. He's looking

00:15:35.480 down. And at the bottom of his stairs are, I believe, Aaron O'Toole and Jean Charest. And

00:15:42.720 the guy in the bottom left looks like Ronald Reagan, but I think it's like a very, very old

00:15:47.000 Patrick Brown. And they're tied up and he's labeled them moderates, conservative moderates.

00:15:52.660 And there are two people on the other side as well.

00:15:55.300 I don't know, maybe Christy Clark is one of them.

00:15:56.900 And the image here is that Pierre Paulyev has tied up in a weird basement bondage dungeon

00:16:04.020 all the moderates in the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:16:07.380 And it's a strange message for a number of reasons, because for starters,

00:16:12.420 I don't know if you'd want to have Aaron O'Toole or Jean Charest or Patrick Brown bound up in your basement.

00:16:17.020 It seems like a strange pastime, but I'm not one to judge.

00:16:19.580 The other part of this, though, is that 68.15% of the points went to Pierre Polyev.

00:16:26.580 70%, I believe, of the raw vote went to Pierre Polyev of conservative members.

00:16:33.960 This is about as decisive and clear a mandate as you can get in an internal election.

00:16:39.860 This is more decisive than Stephen Harper's showing of votes.

00:16:43.560 So he got, I think it was like 56 or 58% of the points and 68% of the popular vote when

00:16:49.260 he ran for the leadership against Peter McKay going back however many years.

00:16:52.940 So Pierre Poliev has won pretty decisively.

00:16:56.560 And if you talk to people on his team, and if you look at the people on his team, it

00:17:00.940 isn't just this like far right flank that the Toronto Star's delusional fantasies believe

00:17:06.220 are there.

00:17:06.940 It was people that were from the red Tory side, the blue Tory side.

00:17:10.140 There were some social conservatives.

00:17:11.960 There were libertarians.

00:17:13.280 for people from all different parts of this so-called big blue tent that seemed to rally

00:17:18.340 behind Pierre Polyev's leadership. Now, I'm not saying he didn't appeal to the right flank,

00:17:24.340 but I go back to what I said about people hurting right now. These are not partisan issues. If you

00:17:29.960 want to talk about expanding the base, you have to talk about things that you can discuss that

00:17:34.320 really tap into, that really tap into the conservative sentiment that is already there

00:17:40.980 without abandoning that, without diluting it, without watering it down. I want to just share

00:17:46.500 a clip of exactly why this is so important. This was Justin Trudeau responding in a roundabout way

00:17:52.920 to Pierre Polyev's leadership. Our job as a government is to build an economy where everyone

00:18:02.340 Everyone is ready to thrive in a net-zero world, an economy where everyone has real

00:18:11.060 opportunities for meaningful work, an economy where people can count on their neighbors,

00:18:18.180 on their communities, and yes, on their governments, to have their backs through difficult times

00:18:25.940 in the present and into the future.

00:18:29.700 do this, we all need to work together. Now is not the time for politicians to exploit fears

00:18:38.480 and to pit people one against the other.

00:18:45.820 Now is not the time to pit people against each other. That time was like, you know,

00:18:51.180 six months ago when the Freedom Convoy was on and Justin Trudeau said they were all like racist

00:18:55.080 swastika waivers. That was the time to do that. Now is not the time. The time passed. That was

00:18:59.500 old. That was old news. We don't do that now. Okay. Well, we'll see if that holds up. I want

00:19:04.320 to talk about this in a bit more of a broad context here, specifically as it regards the

00:19:08.600 conservative movement in the country. And I want to make clear, we're obviously to the Conservative

00:19:13.320 Party of Canada because this party did just elect a leader, but he is a movement conservative,

00:19:19.520 Pierre Polyev. And that term I find often gets lost in the partisan discourse. But remember,

00:19:25.220 it's a lot bigger, the conservative movement with a small c than the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:19:30.580 Jamil Javani is the new president of the Canada Strong and Free Network, and we had him on the

00:19:35.980 show just after he was named the president at their big conference in Ottawa a couple of months

00:19:41.220 ago, but he joins me on the line now. Jamil, good to talk to you as always. Thanks very much for

00:19:45.420 coming on today. Oh, I'm having trouble hearing you there. Jamil, do we have you?

00:19:55.220 All right. I don't seem to be getting Jamil's audio, so we will try to sort that out in just

00:20:06.060 a moment's time. But I think one of the big issues that we need to address here when we

00:20:11.200 talk about where Poliev fits into this whole discussion of the conservative movement is that

00:20:18.140 in Canada, conservatives with a small C are a minority. And we sometimes pretend otherwise.

00:20:26.120 And we say, well, you know, it's an inherently conservative country. And, you know, immigrants

00:20:30.840 are often conservative and blue collar workers are often conservative and all of that. And that

00:20:35.520 may well be true. There may be some truth to that. But I think political conservatives

00:20:40.160 are very much in a minority. And the reason I think that's an important point to note here

00:20:46.520 is that if you are talking about cultural values,

00:20:50.400 if you're talking about cultural values,

00:20:51.800 and I don't mean social values necessarily,

00:20:53.480 but just in general,

00:20:54.580 the culture that exists outside of partisan politics,

00:20:56.780 you have to find a way

00:20:58.180 to make this stuff relevant to people.

00:21:00.440 And that's something I don't think

00:21:01.600 capital C conservatives

00:21:02.820 have always done particularly well.

00:21:04.520 I think we have Jamil back on the line.

00:21:06.260 Jamil, do we have a functioning connection now?

00:21:09.600 I hope so.

00:21:10.520 I can hear you.

00:21:11.300 Can you hear me?

00:21:11.900 Yes, we do.

00:21:12.800 There we go.

00:21:13.360 Now, Jamil's a pro

00:21:14.900 because he hosted a tremendous talk radio show for quite a while.

00:21:18.200 So he knows the perils of live media, as do I all too well.

00:21:21.820 But I'm glad we have you now.

00:21:23.640 Good to talk to you, sir.

00:21:25.120 Explain to me, I mean, this idea of a conservative movement,

00:21:27.800 I think is lost on a lot of people.

00:21:29.540 And I don't think in Canada,

00:21:30.540 we've always done a good enough job at fostering this.

00:21:33.440 So tell me how that really unfolds from your perspective

00:21:36.540 at the Canada Strong and Free Network, first off.

00:21:40.140 Yeah, I think you made an excellent point, Andrew,

00:21:41.860 when you said that the conservative movement is bigger

00:21:44.100 than the conservative party. And I think that's important for people to realize is that being a

00:21:49.260 conservative isn't about wearing a certain team jersey or being involved in politics. You know,

00:21:55.400 a lot of people will never work in politics. They'll never run for office. Maybe they vote

00:22:00.420 in different ways. Maybe they don't vote at all, but they can have conservative values. They can

00:22:05.260 have a conservative outlook on the world. And that can be, as you said, cultural stuff. It can be

00:22:10.040 economic. It can be all sorts of different things. You know, there's decades and centuries worth of

00:22:15.120 writing and thinking about what it means to be a conservative. And I'd be hard pressed to summarize

00:22:19.160 that now. But what I would say is that, you know, it is around basic ideas around family, community,

00:22:26.200 small government, pro-business, pro-economic growth, about the idea that people should

00:22:31.840 have the chance to live according to their own values and not have those values infringed upon

00:22:38.660 by a government uh that wants to sort of force uniformity onto the people a lot of basic ideas

00:22:45.540 that i think conservatives do agree on even though we do have lots of disagreements as well

00:22:50.020 and at the canada strong and free network we try to be a place where people can come together across

00:22:55.700 the conservative spectrum share their ideas debate ideas at the end of the day be a bit of a a training

00:23:01.860 ground for the sorts of things that might become reality should you know conservatives run governments

00:23:07.300 You know, we want to be able to produce policy thinking and, you know, cultural thinking that might influence the way governments, you know, make decisions at some point down the road, whether that's in the short term or the long term.

00:23:19.580 So it's very exciting to be part of the movement because we welcome you regardless of whether, you know, the Conservative Party wins an election or not.

00:23:27.120 We welcome you regardless of whether you like the particular leader of a Conservative Party at a given time.

00:23:33.060 And as you said, the interesting thing about someone like Pierre Polyev is that he does unite the party and the movement in a way that hasn't been true for some time now.

00:23:43.120 You know, I think under Aaron O'Toole, there was a pretty big gap between the party and the movement on a number of issues.

00:23:49.600 Pierre Polyev steps in and I think has closed that gap in a way that's really helpful.

00:23:54.660 Yeah, it's always difficult for anyone to live in the shadow of a predecessor.

00:23:59.040 And I feel bad about holding up Stephen Harper as the benchmark of what an ideal conservative

00:24:04.520 leader should be, because obviously his government wasn't perfect.

00:24:07.320 No government is.

00:24:08.640 But I do think that Pierre Polyev has tapped into that Harper coalition and even moved

00:24:14.720 beyond it.

00:24:15.560 I mean, the Freedom Convoy coalition, if I can call it that, or the anti-mandate coalition,

00:24:20.380 which he's really spoken to, is not at all filled with partisan conservatives.

00:24:24.960 And I think that even talking to some of these issues has really helped him move beyond what even Stephen Harper had.

00:24:32.420 Like, I remember I was at a rally of Polyevs in London, Ontario, and he was doing it at the Best Western Hotel, which is like a big event space in London that has all these conferences.

00:24:42.660 And Jenny Byrne, who was on his campaign and also was integral to the Harper government, she and I were speaking and she said, like, even when Harper did rallies here, we weren't filling that overflow room that we were for Pierre Polyev.

00:24:55.240 So to get that many people out in a leadership event for someone compared to like what a sitting prime minister who had a fair amount of star power was able to do, this is something quite significant.

00:25:07.100 Yeah, and I think it's because Pierre Polyev has become synonymous with change for people.

00:25:12.120 You know, those crowds come out because they're looking for something new, looking for something different.

00:25:17.320 They want to break away from the Trudeau administration.

00:25:20.180 They want a different way of doing politics, a different way of governing.

00:25:24.380 And Pierre Polyev represents that.

00:25:26.140 I mean, that is why I think he was able to pick up so much momentum from the trucker convoy, is that the trucker convoy was an expression of a desire for change.

00:25:35.280 People were frustrated with the Trudeau government.

00:25:38.480 And Pierre Polyev has represented much of the same thing to people.

00:25:41.300 And so, you know, that's something that on the right we have not had in a very long time, you know, that the conservative party would be the counterculture party, the party that's challenging people in power, the party that's going to hold, you know, the wealthy to account for creating a system that in many ways is disadvantaging a lot of middle class and working class families.

00:26:02.800 I mean, that is exciting, I think, for conservatives.

00:26:06.020 And that's why he's getting a crowd unlike anything we've seen before, because people are hungry for something different.

00:26:12.160 And now we've got a guy who's actually offering that.

00:26:14.520 And the thing about Pierre, too, and this is something that a lot of his critics, including sort of the red Tories, sometimes don't want to acknowledge.

00:26:21.920 But he's also a substantive guy.

00:26:23.920 He's got ideas for policy.

00:26:26.240 He has a vision for how he would govern.

00:26:28.400 and i think being able to back up that demand for change with real tangible ideas that's that's

00:26:35.420 going to be a recipe for success i think yeah i mean when polyev went on kind of the bitcoin

00:26:41.460 spree during the leadership race i know a lot of people were mocking it and i went to one of his

00:26:46.620 events which was at like a shawarma place that has been very big into cryptocurrency and i was

00:26:50.960 talking to a lot of the people there who again have never really been political because they're

00:26:54.720 crypto people. So their whole ethos is just like, leave us alone and let us live our lives. And

00:26:59.140 they're getting excited about him. And you could tell when he was talking about Bitcoin that this

00:27:03.660 was like a policy nerd that was really just geeking out on something that mattered to him

00:27:08.240 personally. And I actually kind of like that in politicians that actually believe something from

00:27:13.220 their personal lives and are importing it. I mean, same as Maxime Bernier in supply management. Like,

00:27:17.920 again, you could tell he believes that and he wants to have his little policy wonk nerd out

00:27:21.940 over it. And I think we need more of that. I mean, I I'm so tired of politicians that

00:27:25.900 could not summon an independent thought if their life depended on it.

00:27:31.800 Yeah. Now look, Andrew, I'm not going to pretend I understand Bitcoin at all. That's

00:27:36.160 honestly just goes way over my head. So I can't. I understand shawarma. I don't understand Bitcoin

00:27:41.360 either with a lot of, so you're not alone there. Don't worry. Yeah, no, I could definitely do

00:27:46.280 shawarma too bitcoin i'm not as as familiar with but um you're right like even on things like when

00:27:52.200 he talks about you know removing gatekeepers for newcomers to canada so that they can you know get

00:27:58.720 a job in the profession they've been trained in he's got specific policies right he's talking

00:28:03.360 about certain waiting periods where people have to be informed whether they can get a job or not

00:28:08.140 like he's got some specific ideas and even on things like housing he's talked about you know

00:28:13.260 withholding certain funding to municipalities unless they're willing to change their zoning

00:28:18.060 laws. You know, these are specific, tangible policy ideas. And I think that, again, I know

00:28:24.040 that his critics, especially his critics who call themselves conservatives, they are going to

00:28:29.700 question, you know, whether he's got the substantive backup on these ideas. But I think, you know,

00:28:35.520 the reality is clear. I mean, he has specific policy ideas. And I think as more Canadians hear

00:28:40.800 them they'll realize that this is not the guy that a lot of the media has made him out to be

00:28:45.140 he's not consumed by anger he's not some kind of like caricature of populism he's a guy who's got

00:28:52.240 real ideas that might make uh the economy a bit more fair to the average person and make

00:28:57.980 opportunity more available to the average person and i think that's exactly what canadians are

00:29:02.460 looking for yeah it's funny how so many of the attacks from within and without the conservative

00:29:09.240 movement, or I guess not a lot of these are from the conservative movement, but nevertheless,

00:29:13.320 they're all the same, no matter who's there. Like QP put out a statement this morning and they were

00:29:18.560 like, you could tell they just dug out their attack on Andrew Scheer. And they were trying

00:29:22.100 to find a way to like make it work on Pierre Polyev. This was a line. It's too bad that unlike

00:29:27.400 Andrew Scheer, Pierre Polyev does not hold American citizenship because he would be right

00:29:32.300 at home as a governor of state of a state like Alabama. And it's like, so they had like come up

00:29:38.320 with this like witty attack in 2019 and they didn't get a chance to use it they're like let's

00:29:42.280 let's let's find out okay if he were american then he would be like it's but when when people

00:29:47.380 see this or that cartoon i played earlier from the toronto star of like you know erin o'toole

00:29:53.380 bundled up in pierre balieff's bondage dungeon it's like i have to assume that most people will

00:29:57.540 just see that and see the guy with the photogenic family talking about inflation and be like i don't

00:30:02.440 yeah i don't really see how those two things connect you know first off it's like they

00:30:07.560 mention alabama or like the united states like we're supposed to like hate america like it's just

00:30:13.000 so it's yeah we're supposed to all like alabama supposed to like trigger this pavlovian response

00:30:17.140 of like oh yeah we hate them yeah like i mean you know like martin luther king marched in alabama

00:30:22.260 like alabama actually has been home to a lot of people who do good things and fight for good

00:30:26.960 things like it's weird to me when they mention america as if we're supposed to be like hating

00:30:31.920 our biggest trade partner in the first place but nonetheless to your bigger point andrew i think

00:30:36.900 absolutely right like this is a game plan right this is a playbook we've seen used over and over

00:30:42.100 and over again which is designed to make um you know basically borrow democrat talking points

00:30:48.180 that are used to attack republicans act somehow like our countries are the exact same and use the

00:30:53.940 exact same criticisms against canadian conservatives it's like you know there's not a single canadian

00:30:59.380 conservative with any uh record of success in decades who has campaigned against things like

00:31:05.380 universal health care. You don't see it. And yet you would think from listening to people like

00:31:09.780 CUPE or the Toronto Star, that there is no difference between Canadian conservatives and

00:31:14.420 Republicans. There are meaningful differences, right? And so they just try to play this game

00:31:19.140 where they import American culture wars and they think Canadians aren't smart enough to see what

00:31:23.860 they're doing. But unfortunately for them, I think a lot of Canadians are smart enough to see what

00:31:28.340 they're doing. And you can't just keep saying things like Trump, Trump, Trump, and thinking

00:31:32.260 that that's an argument because that actually doesn't mean anything yeah i i would agree with

00:31:37.540 that wholeheartedly and the one thing i've always said too is that we know the media attacks and the

00:31:42.260 activist attacks are going to come and i think that the one big thing and i sort of view independent

00:31:47.140 media as being essential to this is ensuring that when a politician does say something that is

00:31:52.260 markedly conservative that there's a base of support they're willing to back them up because

00:31:57.060 you you have to counter that natural instinct that a lot of them have and we certainly saw

00:32:01.300 on Aaron O'Toole to scurry at the first sign of pushback by saying actually no as Canadians we do

00:32:06.540 believe that and we do agree with that and I I go back to that conservative movement discussion

00:32:10.860 and I want to talk to you about this event you have coming up in Red Deer on September 24th and

00:32:16.080 I'm very privileged to get to be not just speaking but I'm going to be doing a live broadcast of the

00:32:21.400 Andrew Lawton show which I've never actually done before a live audience before so that's going to

00:32:25.400 be on September 24th in Red Deer. But tell me what this event is, first off.

00:32:30.860 Well, it is a conference for the movement. And to your point earlier, it's about getting people

00:32:35.480 together outside of the political party to think about what does it mean to be a conservative?

00:32:40.460 What are some of the ideas that conservatives are excited about? And what is the role of the

00:32:45.100 conservative movement in building, as you put it, that base of support for ideas so that

00:32:51.260 conservative politicians know what we expect of them, and they can go out and actually act on

00:32:56.080 behalf of the conservative base, of conservative voters, of families that are looking for change

00:33:01.840 in this country right now. So on the 24th in Red Deer, Alberta, we're going to get together

00:33:06.220 and start what I think is going to be a process over the coming months and years of building out

00:33:12.560 a set of ideas for what the next conservative government might actually be held accountable

00:33:17.940 for what are we expecting of them what do we want them to do so i see our our conference on the 24th

00:33:24.020 as an opportunity to start that conversation get some thought leaders together get some newsmakers

00:33:28.740 together and start building out that vision for what we believe a conservative future might look

00:33:34.180 like so you know you being there and doing your uh show live is going to be really exciting we'll

00:33:39.380 have andrew shear there to kick things off and talk about what he thinks the takeaways and lessons

00:33:44.740 learned from the poly of campaign success uh is uh jason kenney will be there to give one of his

00:33:51.060 last speeches as premier of alberta and then we'll also have six of the ucp leadership candidates

00:33:58.020 there to talk about their vision for how to you know do a battle with the ndp uh when the general

00:34:03.460 election comes in a few months so there's gonna be a lot of interesting things on the table and

00:34:07.940 i think it's important for conservatives to build these kind of relationships to debate ideas

00:34:12.740 exchange ideas and importantly remind ourselves because so many conservatives especially young

00:34:17.620 conservatives tell me all the time they feel alone on university campuses they feel like they can't

00:34:23.300 say what they believe in their workplace they're worried they're going to be ostracized if they're

00:34:27.700 outed as a conservative and we're trying to you know do these sorts of events to remind people

00:34:32.500 you're far from alone there's tons of people who think like you there's tons of people who

00:34:36.820 want you to be successful come and network with us let's build this movement together so we can

00:34:41.460 have each other's backs it is a great all-star panel you have and i'm not including myself in

00:34:47.540 the all-star category i'm just going to be uh doing my little bit and also by the way shameless

00:34:51.780 plug i'll be signing copies of my book the freedom convoy there so if you do come and i want to hear

00:34:57.140 andrew sheer and jason kenney and me and the ucp leadership candidates you can also grab a copy of

00:35:02.260 my book while you're there but the one thing that i really find to be important about these things

00:35:07.220 first off after the last two and a half years anything that gets me in the room with normal

00:35:10.820 people is, I think, a very, very good thing. And, you know, we saw a lot of these people in Ottawa

00:35:16.080 at the Canada Strong and Free Network conference back in, I think it was like April or May. The

00:35:22.220 last few months has blended together. But the other thing that I would bring up is that there's

00:35:27.120 always something tangible that I've gotten out of these about, you know, what it is that you can

00:35:31.500 actually do. Because I think a lot of the times, you know, we can talk about policies and talk

00:35:35.320 about ideas and we can we can find some common ground or you know strengthen our ability to

00:35:40.860 you know sharpen our rhetorical knives and all of that but but when you come out of these things

00:35:45.220 there's always been something i found going back to the manning center conferences very tactical

00:35:50.280 about it yeah yeah i mean well i think we have to recognize that we're you know if we want to

00:35:57.000 sort of change the direction of this country we've got to get active right so it's not like

00:36:01.120 the typical networking where you might just collect some business cards and you know go for

00:36:05.300 coffee when we talk about networking at the Canada Strong and Free Network we're talking about

00:36:10.080 strategizing game planning figuring out how we can support one another figuring out how we can

00:36:15.420 encourage one another you're right there is a goal here to be action oriented and you can app

00:36:21.940 there's no way you could come to one of our conferences and not leave with a sense of where

00:36:25.600 you're needed because everyone is needed and I think what we try to do is make the case of the

00:36:30.380 different ways that people can get involved in the movement, the different roles that are out

00:36:35.120 there, the different organizations that are out there, the different issues that we need people

00:36:38.780 to be working on and thinking about. So yeah, anybody listening who'd like to come out,

00:36:43.460 please do check us out. The website is CanadaStrongandFree.network. You can also hit me

00:36:48.380 up on social media at Jamil Javani on Instagram, on Twitter, where we post the links to the

00:36:53.800 conference. The early bird ticket prices are still up until the end of the week. So we encourage you

00:36:59.240 to register. And yeah, I mean, and it's really, we're blessed to have people with the kind of

00:37:05.860 vision that you do, Andrew. And I think this is something that's unique about what we do,

00:37:10.180 what you do, as opposed to other political, you know, organizations or movements in the country.

00:37:16.260 I think a lot of conservatives are drawn to the movement for the best reasons, because they really

00:37:21.380 believe in the cause, they want to do something for other people, they want to use their voice

00:37:25.560 for good. And I think, you know, people who feel that way will find a lot of like-minded

00:37:30.520 individuals at conferences like ours. Well, I'm very much looking forward to it. I'm,

00:37:36.020 I'm honored to have the opportunity to take part. And I actually, apart from like an event I did in

00:37:40.940 Toronto, this is like the first ever book signing I've done, certainly in Alberta. So glad to be

00:37:45.680 there. Hope to see a lot of you who are tuned in there as well. Do come and say hello. Jamil

00:37:49.980 Giovanni, president of the Canada Strong and Free Network. We'll see you in Red Deer in a couple of

00:37:54.220 weeks. Yeah. See you in red deer, Andrew. Thanks. I'm looking for it. Thanks a lot. That was Jamil

00:37:59.320 Giovanni. Great friend of true North. And I'd say friend of the conservative movement. So I, again,

00:38:04.220 I think when he invited me, I was like, maybe, maybe like tried to play it cool by like waiting

00:38:08.100 five minutes or something, but I was like, looked in the calendar and I'm like, yep, I'm doing it.

00:38:11.500 So thank you very much to all of you for the kind words on this. One thing I want to really say here

00:38:19.360 is that we can talk about,

00:38:21.740 and when I say conservative movement,

00:38:23.320 I'm including libertarians,

00:38:25.340 I'm including fiscal conservatives,

00:38:27.360 I'm including foreign policy conservatives,

00:38:29.600 I'm including a lot of like populist conservatives

00:38:31.860 and all of that.

00:38:32.960 But I think the huge part of this,

00:38:35.280 the huge part of this for the majority of Canadians,

00:38:38.580 I think should be about freedom.

00:38:41.520 And I'm not promoting Pierre Polyev here.

00:38:45.220 I'm explaining why it is that he did something,

00:38:48.220 why it is he did what he did,

00:38:50.000 why it is that he resonated with so many Canadians

00:38:52.640 and so many Conservative members.

00:38:53.920 And he actually summed up quite well, I thought,

00:38:57.680 what it is that unifies

00:38:59.500 all of these different factions of Conservatism.

00:39:02.600 And before we close the show today,

00:39:04.360 I want to play this clip.

00:39:05.240 This was from my first interview with Pierre Polyev

00:39:07.360 of the Conservative leadership race

00:39:09.380 shortly after he declared.

00:39:12.520 Talk about the internal race here

00:39:14.820 in the Conservative Party.

00:39:15.920 A lot of the time, I mean, everyone knows the saying, the big blue tent, and underneath that, you've got your red Tories, your blue Tories, your libertarians, your social conservatives, your foreign policy people, your populace.

00:39:27.300 I mean, you have all of these different people here.

00:39:29.540 Where do you fit yourself?

00:39:31.480 And more importantly, what are you going to do to keep that tent together, to keep that family happy, which, as we've seen in the last couple of years, isn't always a given?

00:39:40.460 Where do I fit?

00:39:41.320 i'm a conservative a real conservative and i haven't left the conservative party to become a

00:39:46.200 liberal for a decade like jean chariot did i'm a conservative um how do i keep them all everyone

00:39:52.680 together well let's break it down and let's focus on the principle that unites all the different

00:39:58.760 groups that you just listed and that principle is freedom so progressive conservatives want

00:40:07.000 women gays minorities immigrants first nations to have the freedom to pursue their own path

00:40:15.000 and achieve their potential free from discrimination fiscal conservatives want

00:40:20.520 economic freedom that is control over your own money the ability to start a business

00:40:26.280 unimpeded by government gatekeepers social conservatives want religious freedom to raise

00:40:32.040 their kids with their own traditional values and preach their faith without censorship.

00:40:37.320 Rural and firearms conservatives want the freedom to own their own property legally without

00:40:43.800 undue government confiscation or penalties like when Jean Charest supported the long gun registry

00:40:50.280 that wasted a billion dollars. And so if you look across the board at all of the

00:40:57.400 different branches of conservatism all of them the many that we did they disagree on many things

00:41:03.480 but they all agree on one thing and that is that we need more freedom that's why

00:41:07.960 i'm running for prime minister to put people back and control their lives and make canada

00:41:11.640 the freest country on earth was pierre pauliev early on in the conservative leadership race hence

00:41:21.960 the digs at Jean Charest. But I think the point of that is that he has a message that he's

00:41:26.980 articulated, which is one of freedom. And it is the role of independent media, it is the role of

00:41:32.060 True North to ensure that he does not waver from that. I mean, we all know of the so-called pivot

00:41:36.600 that happens after you win the conservative leadership, the pivot that Andrew Scheer did,

00:41:40.320 the pivot that Aaron O'Toole did, and the pivot that on some issues Pierre Polyev may do.

00:41:45.160 And I'm not at all perturbed if his message style changes, delivery changes. I don't care about that.

00:41:51.960 What I do care is if the message changes.

00:41:54.600 Pierre Polyev has made some very specific promises like defunding CBC, like ending the liberal gun grab, like supporting conscience rights.

00:42:03.080 These are things that I think are absolute deal breakers for a lot of conservative voters, for a lot of right-leaning Canadians.

00:42:09.400 And you better believe True North will hold him to account on those as we did, as we did for Aaron O'Toole.

00:42:17.540 And we will do that for Pierre Polyev.

00:42:19.820 have. So he has said a lot of the right things for our audience throughout the course of the

00:42:24.680 leadership race. That's absolutely true. But he has to make sure that his actions follow through

00:42:29.360 on those words. And we have the clips. We have the receipts, as they say. So we are going to

00:42:35.100 end things there. I do want to just say very much a huge thank you to all those who tuned into

00:42:40.240 our live conservative leadership results show on Saturday night. It was a great pleasure. We

00:42:46.040 beat CBC. I mean, that's not that it takes that much effort, but we beat CBC and we did it without

00:42:51.580 $1.4 billion. So I think there are two things to take away from that. Number one, I think I'm

00:42:55.940 asking Candace for like $100 million raise because clearly True North has earned it. But I also would

00:43:01.660 say that it is so tremendously important to continue supporting independent media. This

00:43:06.560 means by sharing and watching, which thank you to those of you who do. And also financially,

00:43:11.000 I know it's tough. I know people are struggling, but if you are able, and if you think there's a

00:43:15.240 value for what we're doing. Please do head on over to donate.tnc.news. That's it for us for

00:43:22.080 today. We will say adieu there and I'll be back tomorrow with a very special guest on the show.

00:43:28.040 It's not Pierre Paulyev. I don't want to oversell it, but we do have a very special guest on

00:43:31.840 tomorrow's show. So you do want to tune in for that. I think we're starting at 5 p.m. Eastern.

00:43:36.040 That's 2 p.m. Pacific and 6 30 p.m. in Newfoundland and Labrador. So thanks to all of you. We will

00:43:41.900 talk to you tomorrow. Have a good one. Thank you. God bless and good day.

00:43:45.240 You

Juno News - September 12, 2022

The fear-mongering about ＂populist＂ Pierre Poilievre begins

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