Western Standard - January 31, 2026


“Hopeful and Inspiring”： Delegates Weigh In on Poilievre’s Speech

Mentioned
Pierre Raphael Chang Jim Piggott Aurora Harper Drake Pats
Carney talks big in Davos, delivers little at home THE PIPELINE： Poilievre’s leadership on the line this week

Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

159.06

Word count

829

Sentence count

76


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we talk with members of the Conservative National Convention in Quebec City, Canada, about the results of the leadership convention, the future of the party, and the upcoming election. We also get to hear from some of the candidates who were in attendance at the convention.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 So could you state your name and what writing you're from?
00:00:02.320 Raphael Chang from Aurora, Oak Ridge, Richmond Hill.
00:00:05.120 And how are you funding the convention so far?
00:00:07.260 Oh, it's fantastic. It's an excited gathering of thousands of Conservatives who are very supportive of Pierre.
00:00:13.660 I think I was very happy to see the number that Pierre got yesterday.
00:00:17.360 It was a resounding mandate that he has for the next election.
00:00:20.720 It was the time to make sure that he's ready to fight whenever the election is coming,
00:00:25.520 and I'm glad Conservatives supported his candidacy going forward.
00:00:29.560 So with that number, 87.5% or there, thereabouts, you would say that's pretty well overwhelming support from the party to continue his mandating.
00:00:36.400 Oh, yeah. This number was higher than even what Prime Minister Harper got in 2006 during the Leadership Review or 2005.
00:00:44.100 This is a very clear result, and it's something that I was very happy to see.
00:00:51.240 I think, honestly, his speech last night was something that probably got him a few extra points,
00:00:57.080 just with how genuine he came across and, you know, he really wants to get the job done.
00:01:02.800 What things that he said he really stood out to you the most from his speech last night?
00:01:06.100 Well, I think the fact that he's going to continue fighting for the younger generation.
00:01:08.960 That's very important for someone like myself.
00:01:13.620 You know, there were times supporting Conservatives maybe even just five years ago where we had no youth in the party,
00:01:19.800 and now, you know, this convention is full of hundreds of delegates that are under 25.
00:01:24.440 So just the fact that Pierre is going to continue supporting our youth is very important.
00:01:28.360 He's going to keep fighting for the next generation.
00:01:30.020 That's something that I'm excited to continue supporting him in doing.
00:01:33.100 And last one, are there any policies or party motions you're looking to be passed today
00:01:37.940 or anything you're sort of championing yourself?
00:01:40.400 Not particularly.
00:01:41.780 Our riding association co-sponsored several of the proposals, but for me, you know,
00:01:47.080 I know there's a lot of good stuff there.
00:01:48.540 I've got to go up there now and check it out, but we'll see.
00:01:52.220 We'll see if there's anything particular that we like.
00:01:55.960 Right on, last one.
00:01:56.480 As a Packers fan, who you got in the Super Bowl?
00:01:58.100 Oh, I got the Patriots.
00:01:59.740 I was actually at the Pats game in week one.
00:02:02.320 I won it this year.
00:02:03.560 So Drake made his first game.
00:02:04.940 I'd like to say I gave him a little luck.
00:02:06.400 All right.
00:02:06.620 Thanks, man.
00:02:07.160 Take care.
00:02:07.680 Hey, so why don't you just start by introducing yourself and what riding you're in?
00:02:12.300 My name is Jim Piggott, and I'm the Burnaby North Seymour representative.
00:02:18.100 Also, I'm on the National Constitution Committee of the party.
00:02:22.400 Okay, cool.
00:02:23.560 Well, what did you think of Pierre's speech last night?
00:02:27.240 Phenomenal.
00:02:27.640 I've listened to Pierre many, many times, and this was not a stump speech.
00:02:36.580 This was purely fresh.
00:02:39.400 It was hopeful, and it was inspiring.
00:02:41.960 And I'm glad.
00:02:45.060 I was hoping for 90%, but, you know, 87% is wonderful.
00:02:51.280 I'll take that all day long.
00:02:53.360 Okay.
00:02:53.840 Yeah, I was actually going to ask you about the percentage vote.
00:02:56.440 So, yeah, it turned out to be 87%, but...
00:02:58.800 I think it's 87, yeah.
00:03:00.140 87, yeah.
00:03:01.060 And so you were hoping for 90%.
00:03:02.460 Is that what you were thinking was going to...
00:03:03.960 Yeah, I think that Pierre deserves that, and I think, you know, the results of his speech,
00:03:12.600 he could have got that.
00:03:14.320 Okay.
00:03:14.800 Well, is there any policies that were voted on that you really wanted to be discussed at
00:03:21.240 the convention?
00:03:21.740 Well, we were shilling for the environmental policies, and most of the environmental policies
00:03:31.880 were actually defeated.
00:03:34.240 They did not make it from the breakout rooms into the convention floor today in the plenary
00:03:39.100 session.
00:03:40.620 So, I guess environment is not critical importance to the delegates in this convention.
00:03:48.540 However, we think that the policy declaration of the Conservative Party is, it's really important
00:03:56.780 to have extremely compelling and the firmest environmental policies of all parties, because
00:04:07.920 environment is critical to most Canadians, I guess to every Canadian.
00:04:13.100 Okay.
00:04:13.400 Well, any, what's like the one environment policy that was like the most important to
00:04:18.560 you?
00:04:19.560 It's the, we, let me just go back to a convention in the 2023 Quebec City National Convention.
00:04:31.900 We were successful in getting environmental principles embedded.
00:04:36.400 This is like clean air and climate, clean water and land, and biodiversity.
00:04:42.560 And we were going for the site contamination in this round, and national parks and waterways,
00:04:52.460 and fisheries.
00:04:53.660 So, those are not, those did not pass, but we know that they're essential for environmental
00:05:00.520 statements.
00:05:02.680 Okay, well, that's very interesting.
00:05:04.420 So, thank you for sharing with us, and yeah, thank you very much.
00:05:07.460 Thank you for interviewing me.
00:05:08.540 Thanks.
00:05:09.060 Thank you.
00:05:09.740 Okay, have a good one.
00:05:10.720 Thank you.
00:05:11.720 Thank you.