The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - Liberal Strategist Mocks Jamil Jivani's Looks – It Backfired Spectacularly

00:00:00.000 Hey guys, Wyatt Claypool here, and welcome back to the National Telegraph YouTube channel.

00:00:06.300 In this video, I want to talk about something that's a little bit frivolous, but I believe

00:00:11.580 will spark a lot of interesting conversation in the comment section below, and that is a liberal

00:00:18.100 podcaster claiming that Jamil Giovanni could never lead the Conservative Party or become

00:00:24.060 Prime Minister one day because he is quote-unquote unattractive. Now, I want to get into the clip in

00:00:31.640 just a second here, and I'm going to hold my thoughts back on that premise in general, but

00:00:36.600 before I get into it, I just want to encourage you guys, if you like the show, to leave a like on this

00:00:41.440 video, subscribe to the channel if you are not yet a subscriber, of course leave your thoughts on the

00:00:46.520 topic in the comment section below, and if you want to financially support the show, consider hitting

00:00:51.460 the join button below the video and making a contribution monthly that helps make the channel

00:00:56.160 more sustainable and makes me less reliant on the YouTube algorithm, making me able to talk about

00:01:02.020 silly subjects like this rather than only covering the biggest news. Now, also, before I get into the

00:01:07.840 topic, naturally, I just need to address the Tumblr Ridge shooting. Everyone pray for the families

00:01:14.360 affected, for those victims still in hospital. Absolutely, I think we should be keeping them in our

00:01:19.720 thoughts and prayers. I just personally did not want to cover this topic until there's been a few

00:01:25.180 days since then. Just based on the type of political commentary I do, I just didn't think it was

00:01:30.300 appropriate for me to start making comments on it at this time. Now, I have not liked the way that the

00:01:36.080 RCMP have talked about it or the way that our legacy media has covered it by obscuring details and coming

00:01:42.560 out with them very late. And I'm not saying anyone currently covering it on YouTube is doing

00:01:48.620 something bad. But just from my position, I just don't want to talk about it quite yet. But that's just to

00:01:54.220 assure you that I'm aware of it. I will talk about it eventually, just not today, and probably not for a few

00:02:01.120 days. But anyways, let's get into this far lighter subject. And that is David Hurley making a fool of

00:02:09.600 himself on his own podcast, The Curse of Politics. Now, for context, this is a podcast of political

00:02:17.940 strategists talking to other political strategists. So there are people who, although they are very

00:02:23.020 liberal on this podcast, for the most part, they tend to talk about things from the perspective of what

00:02:28.400 you should do from a strategy perspective. And they do a lot of kind of that nitty gritty behind the scenes

00:02:34.100 type commentary. But here is David Hurley, talking about the attractiveness of Jamil Javani, and trying to

00:02:42.560 make the case that he could never be the Prime Minister because he is unattractive.

00:02:47.300 So he, it's about him and his political future? Is this, is this the show where we're supposed to tell the

00:02:52.940 truth about politics? Is this we're supposed to tell the truth? He's too unattractive physically to be successful

00:03:00.100 the politics. Hmm. He's not going to be the leader of a political party.

00:03:06.960 Oh, I don't, I, uh, look, um, I don't know if I'd agree with that. I don't know if his

00:03:11.220 I'm not going to weigh in on that. Which part? That he's too unattractive?

00:03:14.980 Yeah, look, I'm going to. I mean, you got to break this down, Fred. I know it's day one, but come on.

00:03:19.040 Look, I just, look, as soon as the election was over, he immediately put out a, um, uh,

00:03:23.840 I can't believe you're going to dismiss this. It's not mattering. Of course it matters.

00:03:27.040 I don't look, I think he's well-spoken and I, I, uh, I'm not ever going to say if a guy looks

00:03:32.460 good or bad. I just can't do it. Now there is a lot of irony here to David Hurley, the host of

00:03:41.820 the podcast that you saw up there in the top left, trying to say that conservative MP Jamil

00:03:47.040 Giovanni is unattractive considering the man looks like a lawn gnome, but I'll take his point seriously

00:03:54.340 that the attractiveness of politicians matters. And by the way, he's not exactly wrong about that.

00:03:59.820 The appearance of a politician does matter, but it demonstrates the bias of David Hurley,

00:04:05.840 who used to be, of course, a federal liberal strategist, that he thinks that Jamil Giovanni

00:04:10.700 is extremely physically unattractive. And that's why he could never be prime minister or even the

00:04:16.080 leader of a political party. Now, uh, I'm not going to argue here that like Jamil Giovanni is a

00:04:22.720 stallion of a man who's going to be on GQ. He's a pretty average looking guy, but it just demonstrates

00:04:28.200 how much that Jamil Giovanni must get under the skin of David Hurley that he ended up saying that.

00:04:35.120 And then you had Fred DeLore there, the guy in the bottom left, who is supposedly a conservative.

00:04:40.380 He's like an Aaron O'Toole kind of fakey conservative. He's obviously very uncomfortable

00:04:44.600 by the entire, uh, discussion being had. Uh, but here's the thing. There is a few things

00:04:51.860 I disagree with David here on. And then there's actually some things I disagreed with those who

00:04:56.400 are reacting to this particular clip about, because there were a lot of other content creators or

00:05:03.140 politicians, uh, commenting on what David Hurley said, saying that he is being like, I actually saw

00:05:09.000 people saying he's being, you know, catty and petty, which I agree with, but then they would say that

00:05:13.520 he's being like rude and racist. Now Jamil Giovanni is like half black or so. So I guess someone said 0.85

00:05:21.540 that he's being racist. Like, no, he's not a catty petty. Yes. Uh, would I even say rude? Well, not

00:05:29.220 really. When I say not really, and this is, this is where there might be tons of comments disagreeing

00:05:34.020 with me right here. The appearance of politicians does actually matter. This is a podcast of strategists

00:05:41.360 talking about political strategy. And I think that we actually do need to acknowledge strategists

00:05:46.620 behind the scenes. And I'm a sometime strategist talk about the attractiveness of candidates all

00:05:52.660 of the time, whether there's someone who looks like they could ever lead a party. People talk about

00:05:57.780 that. I, it's not rude because it's just kind of how politics works. Now, where I really

00:06:03.720 disagree with David Hurley outside of his just insane pettiness of calling Jamil Giovanni physically

00:06:09.800 unattractive. Again, he's just an average looking guy, but David hates him because he's super

00:06:13.820 conservative. So he's saying nasty things about him. It doesn't actually matter. Even if you are

00:06:19.440 unattractive as a politician, unattractive politicians are often more electable than attractive

00:06:25.740 politicians, because the chances that you are so attractive, it's actually kind of stunning and makes

00:06:31.000 too memorable is extremely, extremely low. You would in fact rather be someone who looks a bit odd,

00:06:38.080 a bit of a visual novelty and be remembered than be like, I'll just throw out a candidate's name,

00:06:44.660 be like Scott Walker in the United States. I think he was a senator at some point in like Michigan or

00:06:50.240 Minnesota or Wisconsin, one of those Rust Belt states might've been the governor. It doesn't matter.

00:06:54.580 He ran for president in like 2015 and he's just kind of like, his own team would probably describe

00:07:01.220 him as a guy who's like, you know, quite good looking, but he's not good looking enough that

00:07:05.920 anyone's ever going to notice. I need to bring up a photo of Scott Walker to get, to make my point

00:07:11.760 come across. Scott Walker, politician. Let's look that up. So this is going to be the weirdest video I ever

00:07:18.580 make in terms of just rating random politicians' attractiveness, random male politicians. Here's

00:07:25.500 Scott Walker, who again ran for president in the Republican primaries in 2015 and 16 against Donald

00:07:31.400 Trump and others. He was actually a guy who was leading early. He's a fine looking guy, but you will

00:07:36.320 never remember what that guy looks like. In fact, sometimes kind of being a good looking guy in politics

00:07:42.320 is a bad thing. And I mean like, you know, if we assume a five out of 10 person's average,

00:07:47.960 sometimes being a seven out of 10 looking guy is not a good thing. Think about Mitt Romney. Good

00:07:53.720 enough that people would describe him as good looking, but also good enough that you, but not

00:07:58.520 amazing enough that you're actually, you remember him that much. And also people kind of like to tear

00:08:04.800 down the guy who looks like he must've been, you know, admired by people in his youth or something

00:08:09.860 like that. People want to go after the jock character. They want to take the rich blue blood

00:08:15.900 good looking guy down a couple of notches. In fact, this is where I would say it was actually

00:08:21.360 kind of a good thing in that primary, uh, to be Ted Cruz before his beard, uh, before he had a beard.

00:08:28.160 Uh, it's because Ted Cruz genuinely is kind of a memorable dude based on how he used to look.

00:08:34.800 And now I said this online and so on and said, well, he's not really ugly, but I know a lot of

00:08:39.400 people describe Ted Cruz without the beard as like ugly, that that's overstating it. He's like,

00:08:44.680 you know, an average or slightly below average looking guy. He has a particularly distinctive

00:08:50.320 nose and his ears pop out a little bit, but guess what? You remember him. Donald Trump objectively

00:08:56.620 looks kind of weird. You also remember him. Do you know who actually is a very distinctive looking

00:09:02.520 politician? It's Chris Christie. Being fat can actually help you because guess what? You don't look

00:09:09.100 like you take yourself all that seriously. You're kind of heavy. You're not vain. You in fact,

00:09:13.660 don't really keep the pounds off. It kind of works for Doug Ford. Now, this is not how you usually are

00:09:19.500 supposed to speak about people publicly. It's just the reality of politics. Uh, even David Hurley,

00:09:25.480 who was saying that Jamil Javani is physically unattractive. Would he exactly make a bad candidate?

00:09:31.520 Looks like a bit of a lawn gnome, but also he looks like a bit of a lawn gnome. And you're never going to

00:09:36.100 forget that I said that about him. Uh, Jamil Javani, in fact, is kind of a distinctive

00:09:40.620 looking person. He's bald. He's half black. He has a sort of like shape to the way he like to the,

00:09:47.020 like to his face and whatnot, a bit of a rounder head. You always remember what Jamil Javani looks

00:09:51.880 like, but there are countless men and women in Canadian politics who, even if they were your MP,

00:09:58.460 you will never remember what they look like, even if they've been around for decades, because they're

00:10:02.880 just kind of like too generically good looking in a way that is just not memorable because eventually

00:10:09.080 all these people get the same haircuts and they, they don't wear glasses and they wear the same

00:10:14.340 suits and you forget what they look like. In fact, I'm going to do something right now that maybe I

00:10:20.820 should not do. And I don't actually mean, and I'm kind of being hyperbolic by acting like I'm going off

00:10:26.100 on a limb here, but this is something I posted earlier today in response to this whole thing.

00:10:31.160 And it may be controversial, but a lot of people did agree with me. And if Pierre Polyev's team is

00:10:36.140 watching this right now, I mean nothing by this. It's just my general weirdo take on politics.

00:10:42.420 I think one of the biggest mistakes Pierre Polyev has ever made in his political career

00:10:46.420 is getting laser eye surgery and taking the glasses off. This is my post. I said,

00:10:52.660 I'm of the opinion Pierre Polyev should have kept wearing glasses. Makes him more visually distinct.

00:10:57.820 And his opponents like to cast him as abrasive and cocky, which wearing glasses visually helps

00:11:03.000 diffuse a bit by making someone look more academic and not concerned about your appearance. Since some

00:11:08.760 people are worried about how they look with glasses and don't enjoy wearing them. Tons of people don't

00:11:13.940 like wearing glasses. That's why lots of people wear contact lenses. They don't like how they look

00:11:18.620 with glasses on. But glasses kind of help soften you. If your opponents keep trying to cast you as,

00:11:24.920 you know, abrasive and cocky, well, you know, he's not really cocky. He wears glasses. And so he's kind of

00:11:31.080 doesn't really care about trying to look sporty or anything like that. He's focused on the job. It's just a

00:11:36.360 visual shorthand that this person's smart and academic by wearing glasses. Now we know that's not actually

00:11:42.060 true in real life, but it's just one of those biases in all of our brains. I wear glasses and I

00:11:48.040 even wear specific types of glasses because without them, I actually have a bit of a disproportionate

00:11:52.740 face. I have a very big forehead. That's true. Everyone knows it. And by wearing glasses, I draw the

00:11:59.360 eyes towards my eyes. It's very good that way. And another thing that Polyev should probably do. And

00:12:07.120 again, this is like, again, this is, I keep saying this, this makes me seem so shallow that I'm talking

00:12:12.760 about the appearances of politicians, but it does matter. If I could have Polyev's team watch this

00:12:18.020 video and appear Polyev or his team are watching this, I'm so sorry that this seems so weird of me

00:12:23.020 to be talking about. He needs to change the haircut. He needs a softer haircut that isn't so slicked back

00:12:30.420 and doesn't have mousse in it because it makes it seem like a stiffer haircut and it makes him seem

00:12:35.820 stiffer. It makes him seem more abrasive. You want a haircut that maybe even flops forward a little

00:12:41.200 bit and sits almost kind of like mine a little bit. Not that this is the ideal, but it's a little

00:12:45.780 bit softer. I don't put anything in my hair. This is such a weird video. I'm going to keep saying that.

00:12:51.040 Another thing he can do is wear more color because without, with not enough color, it ends up making

00:12:57.780 him look very, you know, not authoritarian, but it makes him look very institutional. It makes him look

00:13:05.100 very establishment. So by putting on some lighter colors, by maybe even wearing occasionally like

00:13:11.940 a light or like kind of a medium brown suit, not like chocolate, but darker brown, that could help.

00:13:17.620 Put on a pink shirt under a burgundy suit or something like that. Have something on that puts

00:13:23.720 a little bit of color and makes you a little bit more breezy feeling. This is just how politics works,

00:13:30.320 people. Like you actually, this is a thing I criticized David Eby for, the NDP premier. So I'm

00:13:35.640 going to now move my criticism over to another politician. So I'm giving advice to everybody.

00:13:40.020 David Eby is really tall. And so he actually needs to be very cognizant of the fact that he doesn't

00:13:46.620 look down on people because he is so tall that he ends up kind of looking a bit awkward the way he ends

00:13:52.940 up looking at people. I'm going to try and bring that up on screen. David Eby is also kind of hunchy,

00:14:02.640 which a lot of taller people end up doing. But even just looking at him talking with Mark Carney

00:14:09.240 here, and this can't be avoided because he has to look the guy in the eyes. David Eby and his people

00:14:13.560 need to avoid having him standing next to people like this as much as possible. Because especially

00:14:19.580 because he's so much taller than a man like Prime Minister Mark Carney here, he hunches over and

00:14:25.200 he looks down and he starts looking like an emu looking at someone. He's going to like peck their

00:14:29.080 eyes out or something like that. I made fun of that one time because he's talking to this woman who's

00:14:32.860 like 5'1 and he's 6'7. And so he's like staring down at her in this like video where he's like he's

00:14:40.220 filming it himself. And it looks really, really weird. Tons of other politicians in Canada need to

00:14:47.120 basically, like, don't always try and look sporty. Don't always try and look cool. Oftentimes being

00:14:54.100 more characterful works better. You know, wearing more color, not always wearing the dark navy suit

00:15:00.560 and trying to seem like a G-man. Don't try and get a haircut that looks too slicked back. You look and 0.91

00:15:07.740 you end up looking like, here's a good example. You know the show The Office? I know you know the show

00:15:13.000 The Office because I look like Dwight Schrute. But Michael Scott, the character Steve Carell plays

00:15:19.600 in season one, has his hair deliberately slicked back because they were trying to be more like the

00:15:25.360 UK show, the UK version of the show early on. And they were trying to make him a little bit of a

00:15:29.520 detestable, annoying character. And so they deliberately had him get a thinner haircut and

00:15:35.360 slicked it back so that you could kind of see his head through the hair. And in later seasons when

00:15:41.100 they want you to like him more, they actually bring the hair forward and they make it softer.

00:15:45.460 It's a little bit more like this. If I go then to season two, you'll know what I'm talking about.

00:15:52.240 Here we go. This is not the best of visual. But look at this. You have his hair slicked back there

00:15:59.040 on the left. And on season two, they bring it down and give him a more traditional business cut

00:16:04.120 because they want him to be a hero. So in politics, never slick your hair back or you end up kind of

00:16:10.680 looking pompous or you look hard edged. You know, you look stiffer because your hair is quite literally

00:16:16.740 stiffer. This is the again, this is such a strange video. Doug Ford being overweight actually helps

00:16:23.980 him. He doesn't seem as pompous when he does that, even though he's an extremely pompous, arrogant person 0.98

00:16:28.640 because he's not vain. He's kind of a little heavier. He doesn't care. That's fine. Honestly,

00:16:33.720 sometimes being fit makes you seem arrogant. Look at Vancouver Mayor Ken Sims doing biking in his

00:16:41.640 office, always wearing sports gear, being very fit. He comes off as a very vain, petty man just through

00:16:49.280 that. I could go through like tons of people in the BC conservative leadership race, but I don't want to

00:16:54.680 go into it. But again, looking sometimes, even as her as David Hurley says there by going after Jamil

00:17:02.180 Giovanni saying he's unattractive, so he can't be prime minister, being unattractive sometimes kind of helps

00:17:06.780 a little bit. Now, there are certain things everyone should do, like, you know, they should be doing their

00:17:10.660 hair in a certain way, they should be trying to wear more color, all this stuff. But in fact, you want to be

00:17:16.000 distinctive, but also be approachable. It's those two things, visually distinctive, approachable.

00:17:23.180 Oftentimes, being just generically good looking, but then wearing generic clothes and all this stuff,

00:17:28.120 you end up blending into the background of everybody else. So if you are a politician out

00:17:33.260 there or aspiring to be a politician, take some tips. Don't try and just look like every single

00:17:39.460 other person or they're going to forget who you are. Don't put on contact lenses because you think

00:17:44.320 you look better in contacts than in glasses. You are sometimes not trying to look as good as possible,

00:17:50.020 you're trying to look as unique and distinctive as possible. You know, put on that bow tie, put on

00:17:55.620 the more colorful tie. It sometimes helps just make sure it at least matches and looks good or there's

00:18:01.740 proper fashionable contrast going on. Again, this is the weirdest video I've ever made in my life,

00:18:08.240 but that video that David Hurley put out was, you know, a good reason to talk about it. Again,

00:18:14.180 there's so many conservatives out there, and I'm a conservative, obviously. So many conservatives out

00:18:19.020 there are trying to be outraged like he's insulting Jamil Giovanni, and yeah, he's kind of trying to

00:18:24.380 insult him, but they're taking the wrong, like, lesson away. It's not about, no, no, Jamil Giovanni's

00:18:30.560 super attractive. No, no, no. Jamil Giovanni's a very average looking guy. Most people, myself included,

00:18:35.780 are average looking people. What you want to then do is try and be visually distinctive,

00:18:40.540 and that's where David is so wrong. Jamil is visually distinctive. You remember him when you

00:18:47.320 saw him. Anyways, with that all being said, thank you guys for watching this very strange semi-rant,

00:18:54.320 semi-manic ramble. Like, share, subscribe. Leave a comment on what you think. What do you think is

00:19:00.940 a good-looking politician that more people should aspire to be, or maybe an unconventional type

00:19:07.700 looking person who you never forget? Like, here's actually, here's actually an example before I wrap

00:19:13.480 this video up, of a politician I genuinely think is in Canadian politics who genuinely looks good

00:19:22.900 enough where you actually remember him in a good way. Like, you just don't, you see him once, and you

00:19:28.340 see, and you never forget him because he's genuinely, like, kind of, like, like someone you're like, oh,

00:19:32.680 that guy's, like, kind of, like, really handsome. I would say it is the former premier of British

00:19:39.580 Columbia, Bill Vanderzam. Bill Vanderzam is, like, the actual prototypical guy who's, like, you know,

00:19:46.840 big jaw, broad shoulders, you know, handsome looking dude that everyone will remember because of just

00:19:52.740 how kind of startlingly good-looking he is for a politician. You know, someone who could probably be

00:19:57.800 on television and host, like, host, like, a late-night show. That's, unless you're Bill

00:20:03.480 Vanderzam, don't try and be that, or you're just going to blend into the background. Anyways, see you

00:20:08.420 guys all later.

The National Telegraph - Wyatt Claypool - February 12, 2026

Liberal Strategist Mocks Jamil Jivani's Looks – It Backfired Spectacularly

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