In this episode, our guest is Michael Clark, Executive Director of the Christian Impact Network. Clark and a team of Canadian political leaders are hosting a series of events for current and aspiring public servants this summer all across Alberta.
00:00:00.000Good evening, Western Standard viewers, and welcome to Hannaford, a weekly politics show.
00:00:21.520I'm Jen Hodson, filling in for Nigel Hannaford while he's away on holiday.
00:00:25.520Today is Thursday, July 3rd, 2025, and our guest today is Michael Clark, Executive Director of the Christian Impact Network.
00:00:35.800Clark and a team of Canadian political leaders are hosting a series of events for current and aspiring public servants this summer all across Alberta.
00:00:44.540Clark himself, earlier this year, ran for the Liberal Leadership race, so he has an inside look into how the political sphere operates.
00:00:52.780The Alberta Christian Municipal Rally, the series of events put on by this team, acts as a springboard for faithful civic engagement, and it kicks off in Westlok, Alberta, on July 5th.
00:01:05.200On July 12th, the tour stops in Calgary at Southside Victory Church.
00:01:09.400The ACMR tour will visit multiple communities across Alberta, including Red Deer, Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Edmonton, Alder Flats, Drayton Valley, Sherwood Park, and Grand Perry, and others.
00:01:22.920You can check out the website, we'll post it in this video, so you can find out where a location is going to be near you.
00:01:52.760I was, you know, a lot of people say things like, you know, why bother? What's the point? It's too corrupt.
00:01:58.540If you're a Christian, you know, maybe Jesus is coming back soon anyways, so why bother?
00:02:04.780But I felt God kind of changed my heart, and, you know, I felt like, hey, why don't you stop whining about all the things you don't like and try to maybe fix some of them?
00:02:16.240So, that was probably the first domino to fall.
00:02:18.400And then I saw the municipal election coming up in 2022 in Ontario, and I thought, hey, why don't I give it a try?
00:02:27.320You know what I mean? I'm not going to make things any worse.
00:02:29.560We all know the things in the newspapers, and we read every day.
00:02:33.040So, I thought I would, I prayed, and just said, Lord, I'll throw up a website.
00:02:49.900We partnered with the Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C. to give them the political science training that these new people,
00:02:57.380they are just throwing their names in the hat, Jen, saying, they're saying, well, someone has to do something about the books in my, you know, in my kid's school board, you know, in the school.
00:03:05.620So, we had all these people in Ontario just saying, well, I'll try.
00:04:09.340Well, as it says on the, you know, the poster that's spreading around, come to this rally and let's seek the Lord for the future of Alberta.
00:04:18.740You know, that's, you know, perhaps, you know, other groups might be only looking at the polls.
00:04:32.360And what we do from reading the Bible is we seek the Lord.
00:04:35.580We, you know, it says in 2 Chronicles that if we, if those that are called by his name, if we seek his face and humble ourselves, he will hear from heaven and heal our land.
00:04:48.780And I think everyone watching this knows, whether you're a Christian or not, we need our, we need solutions in our land.
00:04:55.580There's a lot of very horrible things going on.
00:05:11.120We have multiple Christian MLAs from across the province and many mayors, counselors and school board trustees that, that are people of faith that we'll be sharing at these events.
00:05:24.960And we'll be praying for the candidates.
00:05:26.580We'll be introducing the candidates that are running locally.
00:05:31.100And, you know, giving an opportunity for the people to connect with potential candidates that line up with their values.
00:05:42.080So, it sounds like a whole force of people coming together with one single interest.
00:05:48.580And that is to seek the Lord, as you say, based on 2 Chronicles.
00:05:52.120And this acts as a platform for people to build a community, to build the support and get the tools and skills that they need to actually launch a political career or maybe to pursue their current political career in a way that is more in alignment with their beliefs.
00:06:10.880Yes. And you mentioned the 2 Chronicles verse.
00:06:13.540So, I recently spoke with Fetine Grisechi, who is organizing the National Day of Prayer in Ottawa on Parliament Hill on July 12th.
00:06:22.780And she used the same verse to illustrate what the goal is of that movement for leaders to come and to pray and for Christians all across the country to do so as well.
00:06:37.220And so, what do you think is the significance of this one verse?
00:06:41.020Why do we keep hearing it come up in various Christian movements?
00:07:04.220You know, if we humble ourselves, pray and seek his face, you know, if we want to just handle everything on our own in our country, well, go for it.
00:07:20.980And if you look at the history of our country, it was very Christian and built on Christian values and principles.
00:07:27.400And because of that, the whole world wants to come here because it could because a Christian nation does produce, you know, or a nation built on Christian principles does produce a wonderful free place to be.
00:07:38.160So I think that, you know, we did that for decades.
00:07:42.780And then in the past few decades, you know, things have digressed.
00:07:46.800So I think that if we return back to our foundations and we return back to that verse, he told us if you would like him to be involved in your country, then that was in the Bible.
00:08:03.440So that's what we can, you know, follow that verse.
00:08:06.300And it's probably the closest thing to a formula in a sense.
00:08:12.340We need to repent as a nation and turn back to the Lord and reestablish biblical principles and codify them in our laws like they used to be.
00:08:47.800First of all, if you want to take, there's a saying going around that everyone's a Christian until the Bible comes out.
00:08:53.280And 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.
00:09:02.240So I I know that this idea of separation of church and state.
00:09:08.620First of all, it was a Christian idea originally, and I'm not an academic or a theologian or a master's divinity.
00:09:14.340So I don't know the complete history, but it's evolved into something that it never was supposed to be.
00:09:19.460It doesn't mean, you know, don't bring any of your values that you that you've gotten from your faith into the you know, the legal sphere or the legislation.
00:09:32.240Oh, well, if you are a person of faith, you can't you can't be involved in politics.
00:09:36.020So I think there's just a the wheels have fallen off the bus on that argument.
00:09:41.540And it's actually, you know, we do need a return.
00:09:45.560We across this country, we need tens of thousands of people to come in and fight what the bad guys are doing.
00:09:52.740You know, you can't just sit on your couch and whine about everything you don't like.
00:09:57.120And as I call it, be a Christian couch potato.
00:09:59.260You know, you need to you need to engage and and try to make it better, try to make things better.
00:10:06.980So in a practical sense, so if there are any aspiring political leaders or current political leaders that are having a conflict or raising questions within themselves about how to integrate their faith into politics without facing criticism or or backlash around that.
00:10:28.700What would your advice be to someone in this situation?
00:10:32.420First of all, it is a it is a challenge in a democracy, which is kind of means it's what the people want.
00:10:41.180Right. You're a representative of the people.
00:11:59.380And we can't we can't accept, you know, the country in this state.
00:12:04.340Right. So you've had some personal experience about this kind of conflict between being an aspiring political leader and a Christian, incorporating your your beliefs into policies.
00:12:19.560And when you launched your liberal leadership campaign, there were a lot of questions about how how to reconcile the liberal party agenda with Christian beliefs.
00:12:31.040And you had some very interesting ideas that you put forward in your campaign speech.
00:12:36.440So can you talk a little bit about those?
00:12:38.800What what did you feel was prompted in your heart to discuss is these issues?
00:12:44.720And how did you navigate that issue between faith and politics and even in that sense, more specifically, liberal party politics?
00:12:56.600Because 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.
00:13:09.180So can you talk a little bit more about that?
00:13:11.860Sure. So first of all, people, people all across the country were like, what is going on?
00:13:17.760And, you know, so Campaign Life Coalition had partnered with me and we're 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.
00:13:34.360It was it really warped. I've heard so many stories.
00:13:38.180It's just people are flipping out on the phone like what on earth is going on?
00:13:41.500Why are these guys? But I'll just I'll just frame it a little.
00:13:44.160So what happened was a group of Christians came to me.
00:13:46.660They knew I was Canada's political missionary and they said, hey, we've raised the money, but we don't have a candidate.
00:13:54.000Do you want to run? And this is the Saturday before the Thursday deadline.
00:13:57.660So it's not like I never even the word liberal probably never came out of my mouth before that.
00:14:03.100And, you know, but but they said I said, well, why would I want to do that?
00:14:08.220You know, I most things about the liberal party I don't like and their policies.
00:14:13.400They said, well, the winner gets to become the prime minister.
00:14:17.100So I thought about it for one second and thought, OK, well, you know, like when David walked up to the line with Goliath that day and said, what's the guy get who kills this guy?
00:14:26.580OK, I'll do it. So I only thought about it for one second.
00:14:30.120It just fit, you know, and I think through my experience with that, which was wonderful.
00:15:27.920And I've already decided you put God first, you know, in the Bible, when when they when the Israel had its first king, Saul, you know, we know what the people wanted.
00:16:09.460And I think that's something that a lot of our viewers would be interested in terms of what you're putting forward here is that you're speaking from experience.
00:16:20.260You're not just, as you say, a Christian couch potato, leaning back and giving advice based on something that you haven't actually done.
00:16:27.560So you put yourself through the ringer.
00:16:31.160And even if things don't turn out as we hope when we put our name in the hat for something like a liberal leadership race, but there's so many other things that are coming out of it.
00:16:41.660And now you're able to to build up others in similar roles that are aspiring to to lead Canada into a new kind of future that has hope and that is bright.
00:16:56.160And so, Michael, you described yourself and mentioned that others describe yourself as a political missionary.
00:17:11.360Well, 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.
00:17:20.540And and I thought, well, some people, you know, become missionaries and they go to Africa or they go to, you know, South America.
00:17:28.580I was like, well, what can I do it here?
00:17:30.740You know, why don't I just why don't I just be a missionary domestically?
00:17:34.560And then I thought, well, I think the political realm is really needs it.
00:17:39.340And I think I think a lot of Christians are afraid to, you know, they need to courage.
00:17:45.060I've spoken to thousands of politicians, Christian politicians across the country, and they say, you know, maybe we'd like to be more brave, but the church doesn't even support us if I do anything.
00:17:56.060So there's this weird disconnect between, you know, our Sunday life and the rest of our week.
00:18:01.880And I want to try to work to change that paradigm.
00:18:05.640And, you know, so I think you get in more trouble in a lot of churches saying the P word politics than the F word in a church setting.
00:18:13.320So I think we need to we need to work through that.
00:18:17.400And yeah, that's that's what I think about that.
00:18:22.200Yeah, there does seem to be a hesitancy in some churches to speak about this.
00:18:27.560And, you know, we talked a little bit earlier today about backlash and pushback, even within the Christian community, for people who are making these efforts to integrate political or sorry, integrate biblical values into politics.
00:19:08.340So why don't you tell us a little bit about that organization and your role there and the overarching mission that that this group has?
00:19:17.480So we're a group of Christian professionals across the country that are actively trying to shape culture through our work in politics, law, education, media and general Christian advocacy.
00:19:32.400See, our motto is on earth as it is in heaven, which comes from the Lord's prayer, because we desire to see human activity on earth, align with the father's will and reflect the current and present reality of Christ's lordship and dominion in Canada and the world.
00:19:51.980So, so yeah, we, we basically, my role, I guess, if I had a spiritual gift, it would be a defibrillator, maybe a rototiller or something.
00:20:02.120And just to, just to, just to, I see, I see, I see, you know, potential solutions and we're trying to, to create initiatives like this.
00:20:10.640I think you've also written about our upcoming David and Goliath program, where we're going for 13 to 18 year olds and, and systematically, you know, discipling and developing them to become Christian politicians and lawyers and journalists.
00:20:24.720Some of you, some of you, some of the Western standard guys are helping me with, you know, can we develop a hundred new Christian journalists and influencers and, and then some of the groups like campaign life are going to help me with a general advocacy.
00:20:36.920So, so yeah, those are some of the programs we're doing and that's, you know, what, what we're up to and what we're about.
00:20:45.120And you also mentioned partnering with a program out of Washington, DC at the Leadership Institute.
00:20:52.920So people that attend these events that you're hosting across Alberta, there's a mention in the press release about how there's an opportunity for future endeavors working together.
00:21:07.760So the Leadership Institute in Washington, DC is mentioned as is a fellowship and ongoing support as well.
00:21:16.620So people aren't really just signing up for a day.
00:21:19.700They're signing up to, to be part of a new support system.
00:21:24.460So maybe you can just elaborate on that before we close.
00:21:27.860So the event, this 12 city event is for everyone in Alberta.
00:21:31.600You should, you should all come to it.
00:21:33.080We're going to have a wonderful program and get involved for the, for the candidates.
00:21:38.400If you are a mayor, counselor, school board, trustee candidate, if you sign up into our fellowship, you will get access to, yes, the Leadership Institute in Washington, Washington, DC.
00:21:50.400They were very active in my, in the Ontario municipal election with my candidates.
00:21:55.540And yeah, so basically the candidate, and then we have like, just, you get connected to all the other Christians running in the province at different levels and across the country.
00:22:05.920So it's a, it's, it's a pretty interesting group.
00:22:09.680And, you know, if you want to come to the event, go on the website and register, christianimpactnetwork.com.
00:22:15.360You can register for one of the 12 city events, all the information's on the website, what time, where's the location.
00:22:21.800And then for the candidates, there's an application they can sign up to.
00:22:25.120If they want to speak at the event, they're welcome to, if they're a Christian candidate and they've signed up with us.
00:22:30.620So, yeah, and, and if there's any other churches, they're like, hey, why didn't you stop in our city?
00:22:36.400I'd say, hey, then email, email us and we'll, we'll fit it in because we, we do have some more space at the end of the trip.
00:22:53.340So I, I, what I'm trying to do is I've got some members of parliament, some MLAs, some, some organizations like John Hilton O'Brien and Cam Wilson.
00:23:03.340And, um, I'm probably forgetting a whole, there's a whole bunch of people that have agreed to, to come.
00:23:08.500So some of them will be able to come to some of the locations and then some of them are recording videos.
00:23:12.480Fetine, you mentioned, I spoke with her, she's sending in a video.
00:23:16.640And the last thing I say about that, maybe, maybe she said this on your show.
00:23:20.500She was approximately 300 votes short to win in the province of New Brunswick in her provincial run.
00:23:27.680And it, it, it's like, guys, that's one church, you know, had got out and, and pushed, you know, so don't complain later when the law, you don't like the laws and you don't like, you know, whether, whatever your thing is, drag queens and libraries or something.
00:23:41.800If that bothers you, did you even help the Christian stuck their neck out to try to stop that?
00:23:48.800Wow, that's such an interesting perspective.
00:23:51.680So anyone who is interested to learn more can find, uh, the poster to this event and series of events included, uh, in this link.
00:24:01.800And we'll also link to the website so people can go and click around, find out more about the Christian Impact Network and the other organizations that Michael is working with.
00:24:11.040So, Michael, thank you so much for joining us today and for telling us more about this series of events that you're hosting.
00:24:17.960And, uh, we look forward to hearing more about it.