Western Standard - Christian political leaders launch Alberta summer tour

00:00:00.000 Good evening, Western Standard viewers, and welcome to Hannaford, a weekly politics show.

00:00:21.500 I'm Jen Hodson, filling in for Nigel Hannaford while he's away on holiday.

00:00:26.140 today is thursday july 3rd 2025 and our guest today is michael clark executive director of the

00:00:33.580 christian impact network clark and team of canadian political leaders are hosting a series of events

00:00:39.580 for current and aspiring public servants this summer all across alberta clark himself earlier

00:00:45.820 this year ran for the liberal leadership race so he has an inside look into how the political sphere

00:00:52.140 operates. The Alberta Christian Municipal Rally, the series of events put on by this team, acts as

00:00:58.540 a springboard for faithful civic engagement and it kicks off in Westlock, Alberta on July 5th.

00:01:05.100 On July 12th the tour stops in Calgary at Southside Victory Church. The ACMR tour will visit

00:01:11.900 multiple communities across Alberta including Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Edmonton,

00:01:17.980 Alder Flats, Drayton Valley, Sherwood Park and Grand Perry and others. You can check out the

00:01:23.580 website, we'll post it in this video, so you can find out where a location is going to be near you.

00:01:29.420 Michael, thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me, Jen. This is great.

00:01:34.940 Great. So what inspired you to organize this event?

00:01:40.060 Well, if I go back to, you know, a few years ago, I would have called myself

00:01:46.540 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

00:01:53.920 lot of people say things like you know why bother what's the point it's too corrupt um if you're

00:02:00.100 christian you know maybe jesus is coming back soon anyways so why bother but i felt god kind

00:02:06.040 of changed my heart and you know i felt like hey why don't you stop whining about all the things

00:02:11.500 you don't like and try to maybe fix some of them. That was probably the first domino to fall. And

00:02:18.740 then I saw the municipal election coming up in 2022 in Ontario. And I thought, hey, why don't

00:02:26.180 I give it a try? I mean, I'm not going to make things any worse. We all know the things in the

00:02:30.660 newspapers and we read every day. So I thought I would, I prayed and just said, Lord, I'll throw

00:02:36.020 up a website. I don't think anyone's going to join, but ultimately 110 Christian mayors

00:02:41.260 counselors and school board trustees across ontario um signed up so i had a thing and then

00:02:48.880 um it was great we partnered with the leadership institute in washington dc to give them the

00:02:54.120 political science training that these new people they are just throwing their names in the hat

00:02:58.840 jen saying they're saying well someone has to do something about the books in my you know in my

00:03:03.040 kids school board you know in the school so we had all these people in ontario just saying well

00:03:08.660 I'll try and it was awesome we had a great conference weekly training built great camaraderie

00:03:16.120 with all the municipal candidates see they don't have a party municipally in Ontario so it kind of

00:03:22.120 acted like a fellowship for the politicians and wannabes so 17 of them got elected and then I just

00:03:28.560 I thought the prototype worked and I've been spreading it across the country and that's how

00:03:33.020 I ended up creating this 12-city tour in Alberta. That's very favorable results to have about 110

00:03:41.100 candidates come and participate in this leadership program and 17 of them got elected.

00:03:47.380 So given all these different facets that go into this kind of political training and preparation

00:03:54.000 from a biblical perspective, if people are thinking about coming out to these events that

00:03:59.740 are being hosted across Alberta, what can they expect to get out of the day? Will there be

00:04:05.200 speakers, activities? Describe what the day would look like. Sure. Well, as it says on the,

00:04:11.400 you know, the poster that's spreading around, come to this rally and let's seek the Lord for

00:04:17.200 the future of Alberta. You know, that's, that's, you know, if maybe perhaps, you know, other groups

00:04:22.820 might be only looking at the polls. What do the people want? What do the people want? And they

00:04:27.180 try to you know accommodate to that completely well a christian has another layer and what we

00:04:32.960 do from reading the bible is we seek the lord we we um you know it says in second chronicles that

00:04:39.680 that uh if if we if those that are called by his name if we seek his face and humble ourselves

00:04:45.580 he will hear hear from heaven and heal our land and i think everyone watching this knows

00:04:51.300 whether you're a christian or not we need our we need uh solutions in our land there's a lot of

00:04:56.080 very horrible things going on so yeah people come we will seek the lord there'll be some

00:05:01.300 worship songs we have incredible speaker lineup so we have multiple mps stockwell day is is um

00:05:10.040 speaking at it um we have multiple christian mlas from across the province and uh many mayors

00:05:18.520 counselors and school board trustees that that are people of faith that will be sharing at these

00:05:24.500 events and we'll be praying for the candidates. We'll be introducing the candidates that are

00:05:28.800 running locally and, you know, giving an opportunity for the people to connect with

00:05:35.800 potential candidates that line up with their values.

00:05:42.020 Wow. So it sounds like a whole force of people coming together with one single interest,

00:05:48.560 and that is to seek the Lord, as you say, based on 2 Chronicles. And this acts as

00:05:53.920 a platform for people to build a community, to build the support and get the tools and skills

00:05:59.720 that they need to actually launch a political career or maybe to pursue their current political

00:06:05.900 career in a way that is more in alignment with their beliefs. And you mentioned the second

00:06:12.700 Chronicles first. So I recently spoke with Fetine Grisecchi, who is organizing the National Day of

00:06:19.580 prayer in Ottawa on Parliament Hill on July 12th. And she used the same verse to illustrate

00:06:25.860 what the goal is of that movement for leaders to come and to pray and for Christians all across

00:06:34.040 the country to do so as well. And so what do you think is the significance of this one verse? Why

00:06:41.300 do we keep hearing it come up in various Christian movements? Yeah, I think people like formulas

00:06:48.960 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

00:06:55.200 you're going to do and what he's going to do but he still has provided um you know some principles

00:07:01.920 to follow and that verse is just a great one you know if we humble ourselves um pray and seek his

00:07:07.880 face you know if we want to just handle everything on our own in our country um well go for it look

00:07:14.040 at the newspapers that's what happens when you when you when you take god we were very prosperous

00:07:18.920 this is a very prosperous country and if you look at the history of our country it was very

00:07:23.760 christian and built on christian values and principles and because of that the whole world

00:07:28.960 wants to come here because it could because a christian nation does produce you know or a

00:07:33.920 nation built on christian principles does produce a wonderful free place to be so i think that um

00:07:40.100 know we did that for decades and then in the past few decades you know things have digressed so i

00:07:47.060 think that if we return back to um our our foundations and we return back to that verse

00:07:53.860 he he told us if he would like him to be involved in your country then um he provided he that was in

00:08:02.820 the bible so that's what we can um you know follow that verse and it's probably the closest thing to

00:08:07.860 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

00:08:15.620 turn back to the lord and re-establish biblical principles and codify them in our laws like they

00:08:20.820 used to be wow okay let's delve into that a little bit deeper so in terms of humbling ourselves and

00:08:28.820 and seeking god and incorporating biblical principles into policies and laws so what

00:08:36.180 What would you say to someone that would hear about your event and say, well, I'm not sure about this.

00:08:42.200 Maybe we should keep church and state separate.

00:08:44.180 What do you say to that argument?

00:08:46.840 A couple of things.

00:08:47.920 First of all, if you want to take there's a saying going around that everyone's a Christian until the Bible comes out.

00:08:53.880 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.

00:09:02.240 so i i know that this idea of separation of church and state um first of all it was a christian idea

00:09:10.220 originally and i'm not an academic or a theologian or a master's divinity so

00:09:14.680 i don't know the complete history but it's evolved into something that it never was supposed to be

00:09:19.440 it doesn't mean you know don't bring any of your values that you that you've gotten from your faith

00:09:25.860 into the the you know the legal sphere or the legislation that's not what it means it's not

00:09:31.820 oh well if you are a person of faith you can't you can't be involved in politics so i i think 0.73

00:09:37.520 there's just uh the wheels have fallen off the bus on that argument and it's it's actually you

00:09:43.820 know we do need a return we need we across this country we need tens of thousands of of people to

00:09:50.480 come in and fight what the bad guys are doing you know you can't just sit on your couch and whine

00:09:55.240 you know about everything you don't like and as i call it be a christian couch potato

00:09:59.240 you know you you need to you need to engage and and try to make it better try to make things better

00:10:06.040 so in a practical sense so if there are any aspiring political leaders or current political

00:10:13.680 leaders that are having a conflict or raising questions within themselves about how to integrate

00:10:21.100 their faith into politics without facing criticism or backlash around that, what would your advice

00:10:30.060 be to someone in this situation? First of all, it is a challenge in a democracy, which kind of

00:10:38.960 means it's what the people want, right? You're a representative of the people. What do the polls

00:10:43.700 say? But to the Christian politician, there's a bit of a tension there because they have another

00:10:50.220 agenda also which is to honor the lord the bible is very clear that god is sovereign over the earth

00:10:57.760 it says that he uses alberta as his footstool he uses the earth as his footstool and he is the head

00:11:04.460 of the government so you know there is a it is a challenge to try to reconcile i think for a

00:11:10.640 christian politician how do i how do i you know appease both you know because i just go with the

00:11:16.600 people want it could lead down a dark road then we're not honoring the lord but if i if i'm brave

00:11:21.280 and stand up for what is right as a leader maybe i won't the people won't like that i won't get

00:11:27.180 elected so it's up to every individual christian how do you work that out into your policies into

00:11:32.800 your into your agenda how you present yourself and and i don't our organization doesn't tell

00:11:38.880 people what to say we don't have a buck of policies i simply we simply want to encourage

00:11:44.180 christians to just come to the table and get involved and it is uh it's definitely a challenge

00:11:51.200 but we have to and if we don't well look at the newspaper flip through some of the western standard

00:11:56.980 headlines they're they're frustrating and and we can't we can't accept you know the country in this

00:12:03.960 state right so you've had some personal experience about this um kind of conflict between being an

00:12:12.240 aspiring political leader and a Christian incorporating your beliefs into policies.

00:12:19.940 And when you launched your liberal leadership campaign, there were a lot of questions about

00:12:24.880 how to reconcile the liberal party agenda with Christian beliefs. And you had some very interesting

00:12:33.200 ideas that you put forward in your campaign speech. So can you talk a little bit about those?

00:12:38.660 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?

00:12:56.580 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.

00:13:09.420 So can you talk a little bit more about that?

00:13:11.740 Sure.

00:13:12.280 So first of all, people all across the country were like, what is going on?

00:13:17.740 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.

00:13:33.720 Pro-life liberal.

00:13:35.080 It was, it really warped.

00:13:37.000 I've heard so many stories.

00:13:38.180 It just, people were flipping out on the phone, like, what on earth is going on?

00:13:41.480 Why are these guys?

00:13:42.640 But I'll just, I'll just frame it a little.

00:13:44.160 So what happened was a group of Christians came to me.

00:13:46.580 they knew i was canada's political missionary and they said hey we've raised the money but we don't

00:13:53.120 have a candidate do you want to run and this is the saturday before the thursday deadline so it's

00:13:57.980 not like i've been i never even the word liberal probably never came out of my mouth before that

00:14:02.720 and um you know but but they said i said well why would i want to do that you know um i most things

00:14:10.520 about the liberal party i don't like and their policies they said well the winner gets to become

00:14:16.040 the prime minister so i thought about it for one second and thought okay wow you know kind of like

00:14:21.740 when david walked up to the line with goliath that day and said what what's the guy get who

00:14:25.840 kills this guy okay i'll do it so i only thought about it for one second it just fit you know and

00:14:32.040 i think through my experience with that which was wonderful and you guys helped with that a lot and

00:14:37.260 we got we were pretty close to becoming me becoming a candidate but you know the takeaway

00:14:41.440 way is Jen it's hey every Christian in the country was that a little weird yes but why not like try 1.00

00:14:49.460 something do something out of your box get off you know your couch stop stop watching tv and

00:14:54.780 everyone else and complaining or oh they're doing a good job why don't you Christian you know as

00:15:00.920 they say in the bible gird up your loins and try try something I I don't even care just and that's 0.68

00:15:07.240 what that was to me that was just trying you know what if it had worked and you know we could have

00:15:13.840 had a pro-life you know candidate in there so you know as far as the tension you know that I was

00:15:20.320 talking about I suppose I felt it but I've already decided myself you know I'm a missionary I'm a

00:15:26.260 political missionary and I've already decided you put God first you know in the Bible when

00:15:33.500 when they when the israel had its first king saul um you know we know what the people wanted we want

00:15:39.260 we want saul but but you know we must as christians look to to what does god want and what

00:15:45.620 what is he asked what does he ask of nations and provinces and cities in his in his word so um you

00:15:54.700 know i that's how i resolve the tension yes you listen to the people you have to be respectful

00:15:58.580 and you're, if you get elected, you're for all the people, but you have to put the Lord and his

00:16:05.080 commands first. Wow, that's a great point of view. And I think that's something that a lot of our

00:16:12.440 viewers would be interested in terms of what you're putting forward here is that you're

00:16:18.100 speaking from experience. You're not just, as you say, a Christian couch potato,

00:16:23.320 leaning back and giving advice based on something that you haven't actually done. So you put

00:16:28.180 yourself through the ringer you answered that call and even if things don't turn out as we hope when

00:16:34.420 we put our name in the hat for something like a liberal leadership race but there's so many other

00:16:40.000 things that are coming out of it and now you're able to um to build up others in similar roles

00:16:47.620 that are aspiring to uh to lead Canada into a new kind of future that has hope and that is bright

00:16:56.120 Right. And so, Michael, you described yourself and mentioned that others describe yourself as a political missionary.

00:17:04.280 So what do you mean by that? And how did others come to know you as a political missionary?

00:17:10.740 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.

00:17:20.540 and and i thought well some people you know become missionaries and they go to africa or they go to

00:17:26.260 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

00:17:32.160 just be a missionary domestically and then i thought well i think the political realm is

00:17:38.020 really needs it um i think i think a lot of christians are afraid to you know they need

00:17:44.160 courage i've spoken to thousands of politicians christian politicians across the country and they

00:17:50.160 say you know maybe we'd like to be more brave but the church doesn't even support us if i do

00:17:55.380 anything so there's this weird this disconnect between you know our sunday life and the rest

00:18:01.360 of our week and i want to try to work to change that paradigm and and you know i so i think you

00:18:07.420 get more trouble in a lot of churches saying the p word politics than the f word in in a church

00:18:12.700 setting. So I think we need to work through that. And yeah, that's what I think about that.

00:18:21.540 Yeah, there does seem to be a hesitancy in some churches to speak about this. And, you know,

00:18:28.220 we talked a little bit earlier today about backlash and pushback, even within the Christian

00:18:34.140 community for people who are making these efforts to integrate biblical values into politics.

00:18:45.820 And so that would be quite a journey. And I think that more and more people are hungry to hear this

00:18:51.860 kind of courageous message. And so through the Christian Impact Network, you and some other

00:18:59.840 leaders are putting on this series of events. So people might be asking, what is the Christian

00:19:05.640 Impact Network? And you're the executive director. So why don't you tell us a little bit about that

00:19:10.720 organization and your role there and the overarching mission that this group has?

00:19:17.980 So we're a group of Christian professionals across the country that are actively trying to

00:19:25.780 culture through our work in politics law education media and general christian advocacy

00:19:32.400 our motto is on earth as it is in heaven which comes from the lord's prayer because we desire

00:19:39.660 to see human activity on earth align with the father's will and reflect the current and present

00:19:46.860 reality of christ lordship and dominion in in canada in the world so yeah we we basically

00:19:54.160 my role i i guess if i had a spiritual gift it would be a a defibrillator maybe a rototiller

00:20:01.300 or something and just to just to i see i see you know potential solutions and we're trying to

00:20:07.620 to create initiatives like this i think you've also written about our upcoming david and goliath

00:20:13.980 program where we're going for 13 to 18 year olds and and systematically you know discipling and

00:20:20.080 developing them to become christian politicians and lawyers and journalists some of you some of

00:20:25.880 the western standard guys are helping me with you know can we develop a hundred new christian

00:20:29.780 journalists and influencers and and then some of the groups like campaign life are going to help

00:20:35.040 me with general advocacy so so yeah those are some of the programs we're doing and um that's

00:20:42.080 you know what we're up to and what we're about and you also mentioned partnering with a program

00:20:48.820 out of Washington DC at the Leadership Institute. So people that attend these events that you're

00:20:58.280 hosting across Alberta, there's a mention in the press release about how there's an opportunity

00:21:04.180 for future endeavors working together. So the Leadership Institute in Washington DC is mentioned

00:21:12.360 as is a fellowship and ongoing support as well. So people aren't really just signing up for

00:21:18.580 a day they're signing up to uh to be part of a new support system so maybe you can just elaborate

00:21:26.240 on that before we close so the event this 12 city event is for everyone in alberta you should you

00:21:32.060 should all come to it we're going to have a wonderful program and get involved um for the

00:21:37.420 for the candidates if you are a mayor counselor school board trustee candidate if you sign up

00:21:43.640 into our fellowship you will get access to yes the leadership institute in washington washington

00:21:49.660 dc they were very active in my in the ontario municipal election with my candidates and um

00:21:56.820 yeah so basically the candidate and then we have like just you get connected to all the other

00:22:01.620 christians running in the province at different levels and across the country so it's a it's it's

00:22:07.240 a pretty interesting group and you know if you want to come to the event go on the website and

00:22:12.860 register christianimpactnetwork.com you can register for one of the 12 city events all the

00:22:18.220 information's on the website with time where's the location and then for the candidates there's

00:22:23.300 an application they can sign up to if they want to speak at the event they're welcome to if they're

00:22:27.820 a christian candidate and they've signed up with us so yeah and and if there's any other churches

00:22:34.040 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

00:22:39.400 in because we do have some more space at the end of the trip great yeah and so as i understand it

00:22:47.580 different speakers will be at different stops during the tour that's right okay so i what i'm

00:22:54.860 trying to do is i've got some members of parliament some mlas some some organizations like john hilton

00:23:01.120 o'brien and cam wilson and um i'm probably forgetting a whole there's a whole bunch of

00:23:06.440 people that have agreed to to come so some of them will be able to come to some of the locations and

00:23:10.980 then some of them recording videos fateen you mentioned i spoke with her she's sending in

00:23:15.580 a video and the last thing i say about that maybe maybe she said this on your show she was 0.99

00:23:21.020 approximately 300 votes short to win in the province of new brunswick in her provincial run

00:23:27.120 and it it's like guys that's one church you know had got out and and pushed you know so don't

00:23:35.020 complain later when the law you don't like the laws and you don't like you know whether whatever

00:23:39.360 your thing is drag queens and libraries or something if that bothers you did you even help

00:23:44.100 the christians stuck their neck out to try to stop that so yeah wow that's such an interesting

00:23:50.240 perspective so anyone who is interested to learn more can find uh the poster to this event and

00:23:57.900 series of events included uh in this link and we'll also link to the website so people can go

00:24:04.560 and click around, find out more about the Christian Impact Network and the other organizations that

00:24:09.440 Michael is working with. So, Michael, thank you so much for joining us today and for telling us

00:24:15.380 more about this series of events that you're hosting. And we look forward to hearing more

00:24:20.260 about it. Thank you. Yeah, thank you, Michael. I can't wait to see all you guys. Tell everyone

00:24:26.820 hi at the office and see you guys soon. Absolutely. We'll see you soon. And thank

00:24:33.040 Western Standard viewers for joining us for The Hannaford Show. Nigel Hannaford will be back soon

00:24:38.080 and I appreciate you bearing with me while I am the one in the chair today. Thank you and good evening.

Western Standard - July 04, 2025

Christian political leaders launch Alberta summer tour

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