Juno News - May 03, 2022


True North’s Candice Malcolm to moderate first Conservative Debate on May 5th


Episode Stats

Length

28 minutes

Words per Minute

183.1363

Word Count

5,267

Sentence Count

257

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 What does it mean to be a Conservative in Canada, and what do Conservatives need to do to win?
00:00:04.800 Plus, yours truly will be moderating the very first Conservative Party of Canada debate
00:00:08.560 in Ottawa. I'm Candace Malcolm, and this is The Candace Malcolm Show.
00:00:22.820 Everyone, thank you so much for tuning in. So a bit of housekeeping, a little announcement
00:00:26.480 off the top of the show here. There is a Conservative debate happening on May 5th in Ottawa.
00:00:32.660 It's being hosted by the Canada Strong and Free Network. They'll be hosting that debate.
00:00:37.200 So far, there are six registered candidates that are going to be there, and the debate will be
00:00:41.200 moderated by Jamil Javani, as well as myself. So I'm very excited and pleased to be able to be a
00:00:46.580 part of that. And joining me on the podcast today to discuss the debate and the broader conference
00:00:52.160 and the broader Conservative movement in Canada is Troy Lanigan. So Troy is the president of the
00:00:58.200 Canada Strong and Free Network. It was previously known as the Manning Centre, and it was built to
00:01:03.320 support Canada's Conservative movement by connecting Conservatives across the country and sharing best
00:01:08.420 practices pertaining to limited government, free enterprise, and individual responsibility.
00:01:12.940 Troy is also the founder and part-time CEO of a new think tank called SecondStreet.org.
00:01:17.520 They do really excellent work. They examine public policy through stories told about families and
00:01:23.160 entrepreneurs and how they're impacted negatively, usually, by government policy. Troy also previously
00:01:28.700 served as the president of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He was over there for 10 years,
00:01:32.980 and he is the chairman of the World Taxpayers Association, which is a group that creates networking
00:01:39.420 and best practices to support lower taxes, fairer taxes all over the world. So Troy, it's great to have you
00:01:46.440 on the podcast. Thank you for joining us. Well, it's my pleasure to be here, Candice. I'm a big fan,
00:01:51.560 and I appreciate the opportunity to talk about our event. Well, let's talk about the event. So I was
00:01:57.180 very pleased when you reached out and asked me if I wanted to be involved in the debate. I think it's
00:02:01.820 a great opportunity and really the first opportunity that we have to look at these candidates, to have
00:02:07.180 them on the stage side by side. So before we talk about the broader conference, let's talk a little bit
00:02:12.340 about the debate and what is planned for that evening. Right. So we're kicking it off on Thursday
00:02:18.720 evening. That's May the 5th. And the opening night event will be a debate. The first opportunity to see
00:02:27.080 the leadership candidates square off against each other. And what's great, too, is it's not just a
00:02:33.400 party audience, but it's a movement audience. This conference, and we'll talk more about it,
00:02:37.980 is very much activists, leaders of think tanks, advocacy groups, bloggers, people in the media,
00:02:45.580 you name it. So it's going to be a discussion. And Candice, I know you're moderating, so you'll
00:02:51.380 be talking a lot about this. Talking about the movement itself and the connection points between
00:02:57.000 a lot of these candidates and the movements will be, I think, an important and unique contribution
00:03:01.780 of this debate that we're going to have on the opening night. And then, of course, we'll be able to
00:03:06.100 get into some of the policy distinctions amongst the candidates, too, both on the domestic and
00:03:10.640 national front. But a really exciting way to kick this off. We've been out for two full years now.
00:03:17.740 Last time we all got together at this event, it was called the Manning Networking Conference.
00:03:22.380 We had over 700 folks, and we had to take the last two years, cancelled in 2020. And then in 2021,
00:03:29.840 we were online. So I can tell you the enthusiasm for this event has been tremendous. And I think in
00:03:35.580 particular, kicking it off with a leadership debate like this is going to be a really exciting
00:03:40.740 start to the proceedings for the two days that we'll be holding this event.
00:03:47.200 Well, and it's also just a great opportunity for conservatives to ask questions of conservative
00:03:52.380 leaders, because we've seen so many times in the past with the way that the media cover and treat
00:03:57.960 the conservative candidates, you know, they focus on two or three niche issues, which are the issues
00:04:02.720 that the journalists care about. They're not the issues that Canadians care about. And they're
00:04:05.920 certainly not the issues that conservative members care about. So I think that having having us, I'm
00:04:11.640 very pleased that you reached out to Jamil and myself, because, you know, tapping into people who
00:04:16.240 are part of this sort of small C conservative network, and who will come from the independent media
00:04:21.460 side, I think I think hopefully we'll get, you know, more into the debates that that our viewers and
00:04:27.200 and people who follow true north, that they care about. So that that's what I'm hoping, hoping from
00:04:32.580 it all.
00:04:33.620 And it's, and it's not just the issues that we'll talk about. But I also think it's important to build
00:04:38.700 relationships to write that this sort of whole relationship between big C and small C often
00:04:44.420 breaks down. And sometimes these two sides get mad at each other, sometimes deservedly so but I think
00:04:50.620 the hope to isn't bringing the event together like this, that there can be a lot of those
00:04:54.220 conversations and a lot of friendships and relationships, and exchanges, struck up that I
00:05:01.060 think are important to get a lot of people on the same page and moving forward on this. So, yeah, I
00:05:08.520 think it's, everyone's looking forward to it, it's going to be exciting. And again, it's, it's a unique
00:05:14.520 audience. And one that I think is important, in getting this, this current debate, this decision and
00:05:22.400 who the next leader of the party will be a very important venue for that whole discussion to start
00:05:28.240 off.
00:05:29.240 Well, so that's happening on the Thursday night, kicking off the weekend of the conference, I know
00:05:34.000 that we have a whole bunch of our reporters from true north, myself, Andrew Lawton, several there will
00:05:39.700 be there on the ground at the conference. Why don't you tell us a little bit more about what you have
00:05:43.920 on the agenda for the conference? Give a little pitch to our viewers, especially people who live
00:05:49.420 in and around Ottawa or anywhere around Ontario who want to go for a little road trip, and check out
00:05:55.040 the sort of leading conservative, small C conservative policy conference in the country.
00:06:00.780 I'll do a pitch at the front end in the back end, but CanadaStrongandFree.network is our website.
00:06:06.680 And there's actually two events, Candice, the first on Thursday during the day before the grand event
00:06:11.880 starts off Thursday evening with the debate is a best practices forum. And it used to be that this
00:06:17.400 conference would always have a session or two for practitioners, how to improve coalition building
00:06:22.440 or improve our presence on social media and the like. And so when I came aboard a few years ago,
00:06:27.200 we wanted to set up a dedicated day just to exchanges of best practices. And so the best practices
00:06:34.600 forum is a separate event that takes place on the Thursday for the day before the debate starts.
00:06:41.100 And that information is also on the website. And, you know, we'll be talking, Facebook and Instagram
00:06:47.860 are sending a team up from the states to do a workshop on that day. We'll be having a discussion
00:06:52.920 about does traditional media matter anymore? Andrew Lawton is one of the featured speakers
00:06:58.540 in that discussion. We'll have a session on planning for success, addressing donor chill.
00:07:04.160 This has been a big issue for a lot of organizations in the movement post the Emergencies Act.
00:07:08.480 So that's a really important discussion we have on the Thursday. We talked about the debate Thursday
00:07:13.440 night and then into Friday, we'll have a number of issue discussions. Some of the big ones will be
00:07:18.960 on health care, what's happening in our cities, education reform, we'll have a session on market
00:07:25.600 solutions to emission reductions, the future of work, we have a debate we're featuring this year on big
00:07:32.640 tech regulation, hot spots around the world, the growing cost of living crisis. These are all issues that
00:07:40.160 you're talking about Candace, a lot of the movement in the country, ordinary folks are dealing with, as well as
00:07:46.240 some keynote speakers we're excited about. Our keynote on the Saturday morning is going to be Yanomi Park, who's a
00:07:54.720 defector from North Korea and an activist. I had the opportunity to be down in Florida last December at
00:08:01.200 a conference and hear her speak. She absolutely lit up the room. An incredibly powerful story and a great
00:08:08.000 speaker. And so we've got a full agenda of really relevant topics to the movement, but I think the
00:08:14.480 country as a whole. And we hope to blossom some ideas out of this. Obviously, we always try and
00:08:20.880 get these conferences to take action steps as to what people can do and how they can advance these
00:08:26.720 issues that are important to building a free or more prosperous society always. That's great. And we
00:08:32.720 have a special discount code for True North for anyone who wants to register for the conference. I don't
00:08:38.720 know exactly what the discount is, but you get a little bit of a discount from the registration fee.
00:08:43.760 So you can use the code. It's TNMFRIEND22. So the letter T-N-M and then the word FRIEND22,
00:08:53.920 and that will give you a discount, which we appreciate that. 15% off the registration fee.
00:08:58.560 Oh, that's great. That's wonderful. Great. Well, I hope listeners will head on over and sign up because
00:09:05.040 it's going to be a really fun weekend, really engaging. I always leave these conferences, Troy,
00:09:08.800 feeling really motivated and inspired and excited because so often as a conservative in Canada,
00:09:15.120 you feel lonely or you feel like, you know, everyone is up against you or that, you know,
00:09:20.800 the principles that you care about and believe in are being abandoned and not just being abandoned,
00:09:25.360 but being mocked and being disregarded. And going to an event like that where you hear passionate
00:09:31.840 speeches and you hear people who are really doing things to take concrete steps, you know,
00:09:39.120 new ideas, fresh ideas, plus the networking side, the friendship side. You know, there's so much to
00:09:45.280 to gain and to benefit from these conferences. And one thing I wanted to add too is we have an
00:09:49.920 exhibitor hall. We have 25 people that are signed up as exhibitors this year. So as you make your way
00:09:55.520 through the hallway in between the, you know, with the lunchroom and the various things, sessions and
00:10:01.680 the breakouts and everything else that's going on, you'll have an opportunity to interact with 25
00:10:06.480 exhibitors, think tanks, advocacy groups, some industry groups come in. And it's just a great
00:10:14.400 opportunity to make some new connections. We have a lot of new exhibitors this year, we have some new
00:10:18.560 sponsors. And you know, it's interesting whenever we run surveys on this afterwards, Candace, we find
00:10:25.200 that a third of the people and we have we've had as many as 700 at this are attending for the first time.
00:10:31.200 So that's exciting too. And then those people, I think, as you say, get motivated and excited. And it
00:10:37.840 hopefully, you know, encourages them to do things in the movement that contribute to
00:10:44.400 to the issues and those things that we hold near and dear.
00:10:47.600 Well, I want you to tell us a little bit about your new organization, your other organization,
00:10:51.520 Second Street, because for viewers and listeners who aren't familiar with it,
00:10:56.240 you sort of take a different approach to public policy than a traditional think tank. So can you
00:11:00.720 tell us a little bit about that project?
00:11:02.160 Well, yeah, we some time ago, born with a friend of mine of some people know Mark
00:11:09.440 Milky and Calgary, and we'd go to conferences, we'd always hear these sessions at conferences,
00:11:14.640 especially when we went down to the United States that the conservative movement needed to tell more
00:11:19.440 stories. And of course, we knew this to be true. But then we'd immediately go back and you'd start
00:11:23.760 talking in numbers and statistics. And we came up with the idea, what if we set up a think tank that,
00:11:28.880 you know, is it statement of purpose was to tell stories of how public policy intersects
00:11:35.600 in people's lives. And so that's really the concept of secondstreet.org. So I'll give you
00:11:41.840 a really good example. One of the biggest issues that we focus on is healthcare reform. And we know
00:11:48.800 as, you know, Fraser Institute, for example, has just done tremendous work on measuring healthcare
00:11:54.640 waitlists. It's 13.2 weeks longer than doctors recommend from the time you see your general doctor
00:12:01.680 two, you see your specialist, and then there's another timeframe until you get a procedure done.
00:12:06.320 But instead of talking about these numbers, and statistics like that, which are very important,
00:12:11.360 we try to compliment it, we've gone out and interviewed a lot of people, for example, that
00:12:15.440 are sitting on waitlist and in pain and suffering and tell their stories about how the system, how that
00:12:20.640 public policy has served them. And it's not very good. We we've had, we interviewed one woman in
00:12:26.960 Ontario, Candace. She's lost not one, but two daughters. Can you imagine this two daughters
00:12:34.640 died on waiting lists, we have some of the worst wait lists in the industrialized world, we've got
00:12:40.080 to address this, we've got to talk about it. And you know, I'll say to this effect that one of the top
00:12:44.800 panels that we're doing this year at the conference will be on healthcare reform. We've got to start having
00:12:51.920 a mature conversation about healthcare reform in this conversation. And challenging this idea that
00:12:58.240 only government can provide a monopoly and ration care, this is people's lives, this is serious.
00:13:05.440 The practice in Canada is like nowhere else in the world. And it's time we start to confront
00:13:11.760 important issues like this and go on the offensive, frankly, to a policy of rationing that has not
00:13:17.680 served people well. So Second Street tells those very real stories and uses that as a tool, hopefully,
00:13:24.000 to motivate and get the attention of policymakers to make important public policy changes in this regard.
00:13:30.480 Well, the story you told Troy is so awful, and you just hate to hear those kind of things. But
00:13:35.280 you're right that conservatives tend to sort of shy away from debates on healthcare, I was always told
00:13:41.360 it was the third rail of Canadian politics and that talking about it, you know, will just derail any
00:13:47.280 political campaign. And we sort of saw that with Aaron O'Toole in the last election, that he sort of,
00:13:53.840 you know, proposed pretty modest changes to improve the system. And the liberals came drumming out that
00:13:58.880 he was trying to privatize and Americanize the healthcare system. The media were all too happy to jump
00:14:04.880 up and start using those talking points to accuse him of trying to privatize healthcare. I actually think
00:14:10.000 that there was a clip that the finance minister Christy Freeland shared that was from one of your
00:14:14.880 events where Aaron O'Toole made a comment that Twitter slapped a manipulated media thing on the
00:14:21.360 video because she had taken it out of context or whatever. But, you know, to me, I think that COVID
00:14:27.120 gives a huge opportunity to have this conversation because so many people, so many people like our
00:14:31.680 healthcare system in theory. But then, you know, as soon as they have to interact with it, they realize
00:14:36.640 how bad it is. Like I have a friend who had a baby in Toronto, and she doesn't even know who the doctor
00:14:41.760 was who delivered the baby because the doctor ran in, ran out, no idea who it was, like can't even
00:14:47.600 tell the story of like, the doctor who delivered the baby. It's like, you know, that kind of thing,
00:14:52.640 it's like, it's so dehumanizing, so impersonal that something's, you know, such an important moment in
00:14:58.160 someone's life, and you don't even have any kind of care. What do you envision for a change to Canada's
00:15:05.040 healthcare system? And how can conservatives really lead that conversation?
00:15:07.760 We have a supply problem in healthcare is that there's more demand than there is supply available.
00:15:14.320 And the way to do that is to allow profit and not-for-profit alternatives for people to have
00:15:21.600 choice in the system. Take away the, yes, have a universal system that's government provided, but don't
00:15:27.680 deny the right of people to pay out of their pockets or have alternatives other than that single
00:15:33.600 system. And everyone likes to compare it to the United States. It's a ridiculous comparison.
00:15:38.080 Every other country on earth, I think, except for Canada, North Korea, and Cuba don't allow
00:15:44.320 alternatives for people. So quit talking about the American system. We need to talk about the French
00:15:49.520 system. We need to talk about the Norwegian system, the Australian system, the Kiwi system. I mean,
00:15:55.280 every other country offers people choice. And what's frustrating is that wealthy people,
00:15:59.840 of course, can get onto a plane and fly down to a clinic in the United States or Bangkok.
00:16:04.560 Medical tourism is a huge industry now all over the world. The wealthy can afford that,
00:16:08.560 but those in the middle and lower class have to sit in these wait lines. That's extremely
00:16:13.760 debilitating for them. And it hurts the economy. It hurts their families, everybody.
00:16:18.480 So to provide those alternatives to have a lever off the monopoly system so that there can be more
00:16:25.120 supply and more provision. And I want to say too, you mentioned COVID. COVID has laid bare the problems
00:16:31.920 in our healthcare system. And what's interesting is if you go to our website on secondstreet.org,
00:16:37.760 you'll see we've done some polling. And in the last year, we've seen a six to 7% increase. I don't
00:16:42.960 have it in front of me right now in support for private alternatives. The public, Candace,
00:16:47.920 is ahead of the politicians on this issue. The public increasingly understands that rationing
00:16:53.840 something as important as people's healthcare is wrong. It's got to change. We understand,
00:16:59.760 you know, the private sector provides groceries, right? We seem to be feeding ourselves. No one
00:17:06.160 would suggest that maybe the government should ration our food or our grocery supplies in the same way
00:17:13.280 they shouldn't be doing it for healthcare. So I think common sense is coming to this. And
00:17:18.720 I'm excited about the conference in that sense that this panel is going to we're having former
00:17:23.360 Liberal Premier Gordon Campbell from from my home province in British Columbia, we're having former
00:17:28.960 NDP Premier from Nova Scotia, Daryl Dexter is going to be speaking on this conference, we have someone
00:17:34.160 coming on from the UK. This is going to be a very unique panel. And that's why we're featuring it right
00:17:39.920 up front and up top, because we think it's one of the most important public policy issues. And you
00:17:44.640 know what, it's a real opportunity for conservatives and conservative politicians to not just play the
00:17:50.080 fiddle of the status quo, but stand out and be bold, stand up for people's right to have choice in the
00:17:56.800 healthcare system, reduce these lists by improving supply and increasing supply in the system long
00:18:02.880 overdue. And so I hope when we get a diverse panel like that, that's speaking relatively from the same
00:18:09.440 hymn book that that's going to be a powerful news item, I hope that that that panel has and again,
00:18:16.640 getting that conversation moving forward as the polls are indicating that more and more people in
00:18:20.640 Canada are ready to accept this kind of change. I think I think that's great timing. And I'm really
00:18:26.880 looking forward to that panel in particular, Troy, I'm going to be a little bit pessimistic with my next
00:18:31.520 question for you here. You know, there was a time where there was some excitement with something
00:18:37.120 called the resistance, there was a group of conservative premiers that were pushing back
00:18:41.360 against Justin Trudeau's radical progressive agenda. And it was sort of like, you know, these
00:18:45.760 guys were holding the line, they were going to push conservatism, conservative politicians were doing
00:18:50.480 great in the provinces. And so you had almost across the board, right, center right or right leaning
00:18:56.720 premiers. And yet, at the same time, here we are in 2022. And it seems like every single province
00:19:04.640 that's governed by a conservative is not doesn't look like it's being governed by a conservative
00:19:10.240 is pushing out some of the most radical left wing policies. I'm talking about things like critical
00:19:14.720 race theory, and sort of race based policies in Ontario schools, extreme lockdowns, and and
00:19:21.600 I'll say right out persecution of Christian pastors in Alberta, they don't really feel like they're
00:19:28.800 being governed by conservatives. And it seems like such a missed opportunity. And sometimes I get
00:19:34.160 really down on this idea that, you know, you have you have these premiers, they win elections,
00:19:39.120 they get elected, they're in office, now's their chance, now's their opportunity. The provincial level
00:19:43.520 is where you can do so much in terms of education, health care, social spending, all that kind of
00:19:48.320 stuff. And yet, you know, we have these, these leaders, these governments led by people who
00:19:53.360 kind of kind of abandoned conservative principles, they don't have the thoughtful policy leaders in
00:19:58.240 their offices, they don't have the courage to stand up to the media environment, they're constantly
00:20:02.800 taking the knee, they're constantly apologizing for conservatism. If for you, Troy, someone who comes
00:20:08.080 from the movement side, someone who's been working your whole career and building up the infrastructure,
00:20:11.760 the sort of, you know, grassroots conservative movement, making sure that policy people are connected
00:20:17.120 with people who are more politically inclined and connecting the small C and big C worlds.
00:20:21.760 Do you share my pessimism? And why do you think that? Why don't conservatives have more courage? Why
00:20:28.080 don't they take pride in the fact that our ideas are better? We have great ideas, we have, you know,
00:20:32.880 all these opportunities now that we have provincial leaders in these capitals, and yet, it doesn't
00:20:37.680 really feel like we're getting ahead. Yeah, well, I certainly share your frustration. It is really frustrating
00:20:43.120 when you see a lot of conservatives that don't always behave as conservatives. My theory of change,
00:20:48.800 though, and I'm wearing my movement hat is that politicians tend to be more followers than they
00:20:54.480 are leaders. I think this is what's been proven time over time. In my book I wrote some time ago in 2015,
00:21:02.240 the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, one of my favourite chapters, one of my
00:21:07.040 favourite times in public policy change was the 1990s. Because we didn't have a lot of conservative
00:21:12.240 leaders in provincial capitals at the time. But what we had done is we had changed that we had
00:21:17.680 really changed the course of the conversation about debts and deficits in this country. I remember
00:21:22.720 Jason Kenny and I, young Troy and the young Jason Kenny were with the Taxpayers Federation taking this
00:21:29.120 debt clock across the country province by province. And we'd follow Paul Martin around during his
00:21:33.920 consultations and set up this debt clock and made ourselves available to media. And you know, we just,
00:21:39.840 we just worked and worked and worked, think tanks worked, advocacy groups worked, commentators in
00:21:46.000 the media, we changed the channel in Canada. And what happened is it didn't matter what partisan label
00:21:52.960 a lot of these politicians have, whether it was Roy Romano at the time in Saskatchewan that closed
00:21:57.200 hospitals and really cut back on spending, if it was Mike Harris in Ontario, there was a sea change in
00:22:05.680 the country that regardless of what label you are under, that we couldn't live on borrowed time and
00:22:10.080 borrowed money anymore. So we are able to have really meaningful change regardless of what party.
00:22:15.200 So you see, I think it always has to come down. This is why the movement infrastructure is even more
00:22:21.760 important than the parties in my view, Candace. We've got to have those, those conversations, we have
00:22:27.200 to have that, that movement infrastructure that continues to move the agenda, move the discussion,
00:22:33.040 right? We just talked about healthcare, that's a perfect example. Politicians aren't going to take
00:22:38.640 up that position of reforming healthcare until they feel they have the political space to do so.
00:22:43.600 And how do they get that political space? Because people like yourself that are having these
00:22:48.800 conversations, advocacy groups and think tanks like Second Street are out working on the ground,
00:22:54.160 creating the space that politicians understand that it's a winning formula to take on that position.
00:22:59.840 I mean, Ralph Klein back in his day, ran on a campaign of cutting spending aggressively. I mean,
00:23:07.680 could you imagine that today? No, because I don't think the ground is there, has been tilled enough
00:23:13.840 by the movement and leaders in the movement to create the kind of room that's necessary for that. So yes,
00:23:19.440 we do get disappointed by politicians big C, but also understand that, you know, we're losing some of
00:23:27.520 these public battles too. And that's also a responsibility in all of us that need to till
00:23:32.480 the ground, so to speak, with the general public to create space for these folks. It's what the
00:23:39.280 environmental movement's done so well, you know, and I mean, there's a lot of examples on the other
00:23:43.200 side too, that are extremely frustrating, but they've taken control of the agenda in ways. And so
00:23:49.280 we all have a responsibility. I get frustrated with conservative politicians, but I don't blame them all
00:23:54.400 the time because I know I've seen it and I've lived it. We worked our asses off in the 1990s to change
00:24:00.000 the conversation in this country about managing our finances. And we won. We balanced budgets,
00:24:07.200 we ran surpluses, we were able to lower taxes in the early 2000s. That was a golden era of fiscal
00:24:12.320 policy in this country. And boy, it's gone for a wreck since. But I understand what ingredients it took
00:24:18.560 to achieve those things. Well, you know, you say that there's no appetite for
00:24:24.240 what Ralph Klein was pitching back then. I mean, I'm looking at some of the very gloomy financial
00:24:29.440 outlooks and seeing, you know, six plus percent inflation interest rates starting to go up. I mean,
00:24:35.680 we might be back in a situation like that before we know it, just given how out of control the spending
00:24:41.760 has been, Troy. And yet at the same time, I don't know if you caught this, but the way that the media
00:24:46.560 was covering the legacy media was covering the budget, you know, they called it a conservative
00:24:50.960 budget, they called it a spend, that it was cautious and moderate and prudent. It was, it was pretty
00:24:58.880 wild to see journalists calling, you know, 50 plus billion dollar deficit, a modest, prudent budget. But I
00:25:07.200 guess that's the power of Trudeau bucks going to journalists and the, the changing attitude there. Final
00:25:15.600 question for you, Troy, what do you think the future holds for conservatives in Canada?
00:25:20.080 Generally speaking, are you optimistic? Do you think that we have the groundwork in place to really,
00:25:26.080 you know, win some of these culture battles and get a conservative prime minister back in office? Or
00:25:31.440 do you think we still have a ways to go? Oh, I always want to be optimistic. I've dedicated my life
00:25:37.600 to these fights. So of course, I want to be optimistic. I think some of this stuff is coming out of
00:25:42.560 necessity. When we talk about the growing crisis in healthcare, when you just talk about the growing
00:25:47.600 crisis and absolute horrific financial management of our country and our country's affairs, all of
00:25:53.200 these things begin to necessitate a change of policy. I mean, the market is reckoning, right?
00:25:58.160 What happened in the 1990s was, is that we started to get downgrades and we were unable to borrow in the
00:26:02.480 way that, that we had been up to that point. Unfortunately, sometimes it does take a crisis for
00:26:06.880 everything to get together. But I do think when you look at some of the signs that are coming up,
00:26:11.040 especially on the economic front, we are certainly coming to a reckoning and we have that opportunity.
00:26:15.360 So we as a movement, and certainly, politicians need to be in a place to take up that role of
00:26:21.520 leadership. And so I want to be optimistic. It can be really frustrating. And sometimes it is
00:26:30.400 frustrating. But we keep pushing, we keep having these conversations, we keep working and moving
00:26:36.000 forward. And I think that's, that's all we can hope for, you know, in the early going,
00:26:42.000 I like to use this analogy of the 90s. But you know, there was a time in the early 90s, I really
00:26:46.960 believed I've never lived to see the day of a balanced budget in this country, like you just think,
00:26:51.120 Oh, my God, like, this is the permanent state of things, but it wasn't, it did change. And we did
00:26:56.400 start to create momentum. So as I say, I've seen what it's like to be on the on the winning side in a
00:27:02.000 public policy sense. And I hope that there's obviously, I wouldn't be doing this if I didn't
00:27:08.000 believe that there could be another renaissance of our ideas of a more limited, responsible
00:27:14.160 government. And let's we got to continue to build that that big coalition of people that want to
00:27:20.320 want to work with this site. I like to think it's it's a movement of the people that just want to be
00:27:25.520 left alone, we want, we want government out of our lives. And we want to have more decision making
00:27:30.560 authority to ourselves. Some are tapping into that right now. And hopefully that momentum continues.
00:27:37.920 Well, I don't know your specific views on the trucker convoy. But that's what I saw it as a
00:27:42.560 groundswell of sort of just regular everyday people who weren't political, who weren't organized,
00:27:48.080 who weren't part of a network, they were just fed up, and they went to Ottawa to tell the government,
00:27:52.720 basically leave them alone. And that gave me hope that there's still some common sense out there
00:27:58.800 amongst everyday Canadians who are sort of more apolitical. Well, Troy, I really appreciate
00:28:04.960 your time. I'm very excited about the upcoming conference. So again, we encourage everyone to
00:28:09.680 go over to what's the what's the website where they can register for the conference?
00:28:13.360 Canada strong and free dot network will have information both on the best practices and on the
00:28:18.640 main networking conference itself. Great. All right. Well, thank you so much to you,
00:28:23.920 Troy. Thanks for your time. And we look forward to seeing you soon.
00:28:26.720 Thank you, Candice, to you and to True North for giving the opportunity to promote and
00:28:31.680 talk about these conferences and events. Thank you.
00:28:33.600 All right. I'm Candice Welcom and this is The Candice Welcom Show.