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

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 0.70

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? 0.88

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 0.99

00:15:44.320 alternatives for people. So quit talking about the American system. We need to talk about the French 0.99

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 1.00

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 0.89

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 0.78

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.

Juno News - May 03, 2022

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

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript