Christian political leaders launch Alberta summer tour
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Summary
The Alberta Christian Municipal Rally (ACMR) is a series of events put on by the Christian Impact Network (CIN) aimed at training current and aspiring public servants across the province. In this episode, we chat with Michael Clark, Executive Director of the CIN and host of the ACMR Tour, about what it's all about.
Transcript
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Good evening, Western Standard viewers, and welcome to Hannaford, a weekly politics show.
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I'm Jen Hodson, filling in for Nigel Hannaford while he's away on holiday.
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today is thursday july 3rd 2025 and our guest today is michael clark executive director of the
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christian impact network clark and team of canadian political leaders are hosting a series of events
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for current and aspiring public servants this summer all across alberta clark himself earlier
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this year ran for the liberal leadership race so he has an inside look into how the political sphere
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operates. The Alberta Christian Municipal Rally, the series of events put on by this team, acts as
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a springboard for faithful civic engagement and it kicks off in Westlock, Alberta on July 5th.
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On July 12th the tour stops in Calgary at Southside Victory Church. The ACMR tour will visit
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multiple communities across Alberta including Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Edmonton,
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Alder Flats, Drayton Valley, Sherwood Park and Grand Perry and others. You can check out the
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website, we'll post it in this video, so you can find out where a location is going to be near you.
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Michael, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me, Jen. This is great.
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Great. So what inspired you to organize this event?
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Well, if I go back to, you know, a few years ago, I would have called myself
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a christian couch potato i i didn't even i didn't even vote for 15 years i i i was the you know a
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lot of people say things like you know why bother what's the point it's too corrupt um if you're
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christian you know maybe jesus is coming back soon anyways so why bother but i felt god kind
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of changed my heart and you know i felt like hey why don't you stop whining about all the things
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you don't like and try to maybe fix some of them. That was probably the first domino to fall. And
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then I saw the municipal election coming up in 2022 in Ontario. And I thought, hey, why don't
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I give it a try? I mean, I'm not going to make things any worse. We all know the things in the
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newspapers and we read every day. So I thought I would, I prayed and just said, Lord, I'll throw
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up a website. I don't think anyone's going to join, but ultimately 110 Christian mayors
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counselors and school board trustees across ontario um signed up so i had a thing and then
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um it was great we partnered with the leadership institute in washington dc to give them the
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political science training that these new people they are just throwing their names in the hat
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jen saying they're saying well someone has to do something about the books in my you know in my
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kids school board you know in the school so we had all these people in ontario just saying well
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I'll try and it was awesome we had a great conference weekly training built great camaraderie
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with all the municipal candidates see they don't have a party municipally in Ontario so it kind of
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acted like a fellowship for the politicians and wannabes so 17 of them got elected and then I just
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I thought the prototype worked and I've been spreading it across the country and that's how
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I ended up creating this 12-city tour in Alberta. That's very favorable results to have about 110
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candidates come and participate in this leadership program and 17 of them got elected.
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So given all these different facets that go into this kind of political training and preparation
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from a biblical perspective, if people are thinking about coming out to these events that
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are being hosted across Alberta, what can they expect to get out of the day? Will there be
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speakers, activities? Describe what the day would look like. Sure. Well, as it says on the,
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you know, the poster that's spreading around, come to this rally and let's seek the Lord for
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the future of Alberta. You know, that's, that's, you know, if maybe perhaps, you know, other groups
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might be only looking at the polls. What do the people want? What do the people want? And they
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try to you know accommodate to that completely well a christian has another layer and what we
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do from reading the bible is we seek the lord we we um you know it says in second chronicles that
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that uh if if we if those that are called by his name if we seek his face and humble ourselves
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he will hear hear from heaven and heal our land and i think everyone watching this knows
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whether you're a christian or not we need our we need uh solutions in our land there's a lot of
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very horrible things going on so yeah people come we will seek the lord there'll be some
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worship songs we have incredible speaker lineup so we have multiple mps stockwell day is is um
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speaking at it um we have multiple christian mlas from across the province and uh many mayors
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counselors and school board trustees that that are people of faith that will be sharing at these
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events and we'll be praying for the candidates. We'll be introducing the candidates that are
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running locally and, you know, giving an opportunity for the people to connect with
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potential candidates that line up with their values.
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Wow. So it sounds like a whole force of people coming together with one single interest,
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and that is to seek the Lord, as you say, based on 2 Chronicles. And this acts as
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a platform for people to build a community, to build the support and get the tools and skills
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that they need to actually launch a political career or maybe to pursue their current political
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career in a way that is more in alignment with their beliefs. And you mentioned the second
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Chronicles first. So I recently spoke with Fetine Grisecchi, who is organizing the National Day of
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prayer in Ottawa on Parliament Hill on July 12th. And she used the same verse to illustrate
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what the goal is of that movement for leaders to come and to pray and for Christians all across
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the country to do so as well. And so what do you think is the significance of this one verse? Why
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do we keep hearing it come up in various Christian movements? Yeah, I think people like formulas
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and i i don't think you know god's not a genie in a bottle you don't just get to tell him what
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you're going to do and what he's going to do but he still has provided um you know some principles
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to follow and that verse is just a great one you know if we humble ourselves um pray and seek his
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face you know if we want to just handle everything on our own in our country um well go for it look
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at the newspapers that's what happens when you when you when you take god we were very prosperous
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this is a very prosperous country and if you look at the history of our country it was very
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christian and built on christian values and principles and because of that the whole world
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wants to come here because it could because a christian nation does produce you know or a
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nation built on christian principles does produce a wonderful free place to be so i think that um
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know we did that for decades and then in the past few decades you know things have digressed so i
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think that if we return back to um our our foundations and we return back to that verse
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he he told us if he would like him to be involved in your country then um he provided he that was in
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the bible so that's what we can um you know follow that verse and it's probably the closest thing to
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a formula in a sense so yeah it's very it's it's very simple we need to repent as a nation and uh
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turn back to the lord and re-establish biblical principles and codify them in our laws like they
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used to be wow okay let's delve into that a little bit deeper so in terms of humbling ourselves and
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and seeking god and incorporating biblical principles into policies and laws so what
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What would you say to someone that would hear about your event and say, well, I'm not sure about this.
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Maybe we should keep church and state separate.
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First of all, if you want to take there's a saying going around that everyone's a Christian until the Bible comes out.
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And what I would say is if you if you look in the Psalms, there's a verse that says that unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain.
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so i i know that this idea of separation of church and state um first of all it was a christian idea
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originally and i'm not an academic or a theologian or a master's divinity so
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i don't know the complete history but it's evolved into something that it never was supposed to be
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it doesn't mean you know don't bring any of your values that you that you've gotten from your faith
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into the the you know the legal sphere or the legislation that's not what it means it's not
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oh well if you are a person of faith you can't you can't be involved in politics so i i think
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there's just uh the wheels have fallen off the bus on that argument and it's it's actually you
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know we do need a return we need we across this country we need tens of thousands of of people to
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come in and fight what the bad guys are doing you know you can't just sit on your couch and whine
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you know about everything you don't like and as i call it be a christian couch potato
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you know you you need to you need to engage and and try to make it better try to make things better
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so in a practical sense so if there are any aspiring political leaders or current political
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leaders that are having a conflict or raising questions within themselves about how to integrate
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their faith into politics without facing criticism or backlash around that, what would your advice
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be to someone in this situation? First of all, it is a challenge in a democracy, which kind of
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means it's what the people want, right? You're a representative of the people. What do the polls
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say? But to the Christian politician, there's a bit of a tension there because they have another
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agenda also which is to honor the lord the bible is very clear that god is sovereign over the earth
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it says that he uses alberta as his footstool he uses the earth as his footstool and he is the head
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of the government so you know there is a it is a challenge to try to reconcile i think for a
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christian politician how do i how do i you know appease both you know because i just go with the
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people want it could lead down a dark road then we're not honoring the lord but if i if i'm brave
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and stand up for what is right as a leader maybe i won't the people won't like that i won't get
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elected so it's up to every individual christian how do you work that out into your policies into
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your into your agenda how you present yourself and and i don't our organization doesn't tell
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people what to say we don't have a buck of policies i simply we simply want to encourage
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christians to just come to the table and get involved and it is uh it's definitely a challenge
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but we have to and if we don't well look at the newspaper flip through some of the western standard
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headlines they're they're frustrating and and we can't we can't accept you know the country in this
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state right so you've had some personal experience about this um kind of conflict between being an
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aspiring political leader and a Christian incorporating your beliefs into policies.
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And when you launched your liberal leadership campaign, there were a lot of questions about
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how to reconcile the liberal party agenda with Christian beliefs. And you had some very interesting
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ideas that you put forward in your campaign speech. So can you talk a little bit about those?
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What did you feel was prompted in your heart to discuss these issues and how did you navigate that issue between faith and politics and even in that sense, more specifically, liberal party politics?
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Because someone who is aspiring to be a political leader, who is grappling with their faith issues, their personal convictions, what the public wants, and also towing that party line.
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So first of all, people all across the country were like, what is going on?
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And, you know, so Campaign Life Coalition had partnered with me and were calling people all across the country saying, you need to, you know, potentially drop your other party commitments and join the Liberal Party to vote for this pro-life, you know, candidate.
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It just, people were flipping out on the phone, like, what on earth is going on?
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So what happened was a group of Christians came to me.
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they knew i was canada's political missionary and they said hey we've raised the money but we don't
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have a candidate do you want to run and this is the saturday before the thursday deadline so it's
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not like i've been i never even the word liberal probably never came out of my mouth before that
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and um you know but but they said i said well why would i want to do that you know um i most things
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about the liberal party i don't like and their policies they said well the winner gets to become
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the prime minister so i thought about it for one second and thought okay wow you know kind of like
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when david walked up to the line with goliath that day and said what what's the guy get who
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kills this guy okay i'll do it so i only thought about it for one second it just fit you know and
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i think through my experience with that which was wonderful and you guys helped with that a lot and
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we got we were pretty close to becoming me becoming a candidate but you know the takeaway
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way is Jen it's hey every Christian in the country was that a little weird yes but why not like try
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something do something out of your box get off you know your couch stop stop watching tv and
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everyone else and complaining or oh they're doing a good job why don't you Christian you know as
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they say in the bible gird up your loins and try try something I I don't even care just and that's
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what that was to me that was just trying you know what if it had worked and you know we could have
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had a pro-life you know candidate in there so you know as far as the tension you know that I was
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talking about I suppose I felt it but I've already decided myself you know I'm a missionary I'm a
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political missionary and I've already decided you put God first you know in the Bible when
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when they when the israel had its first king saul um you know we know what the people wanted we want
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we want saul but but you know we must as christians look to to what does god want and what
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what is he asked what does he ask of nations and provinces and cities in his in his word so um you
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know i that's how i resolve the tension yes you listen to the people you have to be respectful
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and you're, if you get elected, you're for all the people, but you have to put the Lord and his
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commands first. Wow, that's a great point of view. And I think that's something that a lot of our
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viewers would be interested in terms of what you're putting forward here is that you're
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speaking from experience. You're not just, as you say, a Christian couch potato,
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leaning back and giving advice based on something that you haven't actually done. So you put
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yourself through the ringer you answered that call and even if things don't turn out as we hope when
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we put our name in the hat for something like a liberal leadership race but there's so many other
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things that are coming out of it and now you're able to um to build up others in similar roles
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that are aspiring to uh to lead Canada into a new kind of future that has hope and that is bright
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Right. And so, Michael, you described yourself and mentioned that others describe yourself as a political missionary.
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So what do you mean by that? And how did others come to know you as a political missionary?
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Sure. Well, I kind of made the term up, you know, during that, you know, when I decided that I wanted to try in the municipal election.
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and and i thought well some people you know become missionaries and they go to africa or they go to
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you know south america i was like well what can i do it here you know why don't i just why don't i
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just be a missionary domestically and then i thought well i think the political realm is
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really needs it um i think i think a lot of christians are afraid to you know they need
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courage i've spoken to thousands of politicians christian politicians across the country and they
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say you know maybe we'd like to be more brave but the church doesn't even support us if i do
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anything so there's this weird this disconnect between you know our sunday life and the rest
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of our week and i want to try to work to change that paradigm and and you know i so i think you
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get more trouble in a lot of churches saying the p word politics than the f word in in a church
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setting. So I think we need to work through that. And yeah, that's what I think about that.
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Yeah, there does seem to be a hesitancy in some churches to speak about this. And, you know,
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we talked a little bit earlier today about backlash and pushback, even within the Christian
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community for people who are making these efforts to integrate biblical values into politics.
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And so that would be quite a journey. And I think that more and more people are hungry to hear this
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kind of courageous message. And so through the Christian Impact Network, you and some other
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leaders are putting on this series of events. So people might be asking, what is the Christian
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Impact Network? And you're the executive director. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that
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organization and your role there and the overarching mission that this group has?
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So we're a group of Christian professionals across the country that are actively trying to
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culture through our work in politics law education media and general christian advocacy
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our motto is on earth as it is in heaven which comes from the lord's prayer because we desire
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to see human activity on earth align with the father's will and reflect the current and present
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reality of christ lordship and dominion in in canada in the world so yeah we we basically
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my role i i guess if i had a spiritual gift it would be a a defibrillator maybe a rototiller
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or something and just to just to i see i see you know potential solutions and we're trying to
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to create initiatives like this i think you've also written about our upcoming david and goliath
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program where we're going for 13 to 18 year olds and and systematically you know discipling and
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developing them to become christian politicians and lawyers and journalists some of you some of
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the western standard guys are helping me with you know can we develop a hundred new christian
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journalists and influencers and and then some of the groups like campaign life are going to help
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me with general advocacy so so yeah those are some of the programs we're doing and um that's
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you know what we're up to and what we're about and you also mentioned partnering with a program
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out of Washington DC at the Leadership Institute. So people that attend these events that you're
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hosting across Alberta, there's a mention in the press release about how there's an opportunity
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for future endeavors working together. So the Leadership Institute in Washington DC is mentioned
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as is a fellowship and ongoing support as well. So people aren't really just signing up for
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a day they're signing up to uh to be part of a new support system so maybe you can just elaborate
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on that before we close so the event this 12 city event is for everyone in alberta you should you
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should all come to it we're going to have a wonderful program and get involved um for the
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for the candidates if you are a mayor counselor school board trustee candidate if you sign up
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into our fellowship you will get access to yes the leadership institute in washington washington
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dc they were very active in my in the ontario municipal election with my candidates and um
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yeah so basically the candidate and then we have like just you get connected to all the other
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christians running in the province at different levels and across the country so it's a it's it's
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a pretty interesting group and you know if you want to come to the event go on the website and
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register christianimpactnetwork.com you can register for one of the 12 city events all the
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information's on the website with time where's the location and then for the candidates there's
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an application they can sign up to if they want to speak at the event they're welcome to if they're
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a christian candidate and they've signed up with us so yeah and and if there's any other churches
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they're like hey why didn't you stop in our city i'd say hey then email email us and we'll fit it
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in because we do have some more space at the end of the trip great yeah and so as i understand it
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different speakers will be at different stops during the tour that's right okay so i what i'm
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trying to do is i've got some members of parliament some mlas some some organizations like john hilton
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o'brien and cam wilson and um i'm probably forgetting a whole there's a whole bunch of
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people that have agreed to to come so some of them will be able to come to some of the locations and
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then some of them recording videos fateen you mentioned i spoke with her she's sending in
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a video and the last thing i say about that maybe maybe she said this on your show she was
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approximately 300 votes short to win in the province of new brunswick in her provincial run
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and it it's like guys that's one church you know had got out and and pushed you know so don't
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complain later when the law you don't like the laws and you don't like you know whether whatever
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your thing is drag queens and libraries or something if that bothers you did you even help
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the christians stuck their neck out to try to stop that so yeah wow that's such an interesting
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perspective so anyone who is interested to learn more can find uh the poster to this event and
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series of events included uh in this link and we'll also link to the website so people can go
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and click around, find out more about the Christian Impact Network and the other organizations that
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Michael is working with. So, Michael, thank you so much for joining us today and for telling us
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more about this series of events that you're hosting. And we look forward to hearing more
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about it. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Michael. I can't wait to see all you guys. Tell everyone
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hi at the office and see you guys soon. Absolutely. We'll see you soon. And thank
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Western Standard viewers for joining us for The Hannaford Show. Nigel Hannaford will be back soon
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and I appreciate you bearing with me while I am the one in the chair today. Thank you and good evening.