https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=deyhHyPFn7M
Conservatives could capture, I think, not only the working class, quite straightforwardly, especially working class men, but could probably also capture the immigrant population because immigrants are a lot more conservative in Western countries than the population at large. And the fact that they generally vote for the liberal left is really a consequence of egregious errors that have been made by conservatives in communicating with immigrant populations. Because the message to them should be, look, we want you to come here and thrive, and we basically share your values. And so don’t be voting for the handout people, because they make false claims of, you know, diversity and ethnic inclusivity. It’s all a bloody ruse, and that isn’t what you came here for. There’s a lot of lip service paid, I think, on the progressive side of the spectrum to reaching out, whereas I think you’re very right that the values that we have in the conservative movement are really reflective of newcomers who come to Canada. I don’t want it to sound sloganeering, but I do frame out how we build our coalition out and how we describe what it is that we want to do from a philosophical point of view on a range of six different values. So obviously, freedom. And you saw that Pierre Paulia really talked a lot about freedom of the individual to make their own choices, get the gatekeepers out of the way, and just allow people to have more control over their lives. But there’s also family, and this is the other part that I think builds out our coalition to include social conservatives, is we know that the best environment for an individual to be able to thrive is when they’re surrounded by a supportive family. So any policies we can do to support families staying together, thriving, helping each other, is going to be something that builds our movement. Then there’s faith. And I would say that there’s an open hostility to faith on the other side of the spectrum, whereas we embrace faith communities across the full range because we know that that adds that additional layer of support if something goes wrong. Our faith communities are some of the most generous communities when you look at how they support members who end up in trouble. On top of that, then I would add fellowship, because there are some people who are no longer part of a faith community, but they’ll join the Rotary Club or their Elks Club or their Lions Club. And that’s another way that you can build community. And some of the most amazing initiatives happen in a community at a local level when they’re able to identify an individual issue and come together and government stays out of their way. And then on top of that, free enterprise, it won’t surprise you. I was an intern at the Fraser Institute from years ago. And to me, free enterprise, genuine free enterprise, where a person with an entrepreneurial spark is able to get together the capital and try something new and have that creative destruction that happens when you come up with something truly transformational to the economy. That’s what we’ve got to nurture, because that is what genuine entrepreneurship and capitalism is really all about. And then the last one is philanthropy. And we always forget that our biggest supporters of all of our institutions, funders of hospitals and wings at universities and all of our charitable organizations are the people who really did well through a free enterprise. And they feel like they need to give back to their community. That is the full cycle of what conservatism is about. And I don’t know why we don’t talk about all of that, because that to me is a full vision. One of the things that’s worth pointing out is, you know, part of what’s tearing our culture apart at the moment are battles about identity. And the progressive solution to the problem of identity, which is really the problem of meaning and purpose in life, let’s say, is subjective definition. I’m whatever I say I am. What I say I am is whatever I feel I am, moment to moment. It’s intrinsic to me. And that’s a really pathological, narcissistic and egocentric viewpoint. And it’s doomed to failure. And the reason, and I mean this technically, the reason it’s doomed to failure is because your mental health isn’t something you carry around in your subjectivity. Your mental health is in large part a consequence of being properly and harmoniously nested in that hierarchy of institutions that you just described. And this isn’t taught properly to young people. And young people are looking for purpose, which the left, by the way, provides them with, right? Because it provides them with a messianic vision. You don’t know what you’re doing. You could be saving the planet, right? You could be a rebel who’s saving the planet. And that’s a hell of a lot better than nothing. But the conservatives can say, look, you need to get married. You need to have a long-term partner. Because without that, well, first of all, you’re not going to grow up. And second, you’re going to be lonesome. And third, you’re going to need love. And it’s like, find a partner. That’s the basis for a family. And then, you know, you should probably think about having some children in a stable, monogamous, heterosexual, long-term family. Why? Because you’re not going to be sane without that. Now, sometimes you’re not going to be sane with it either. But, you know, otherwise, you’re lonesome and alienated and juvenile and depressed and nihilistic. And your life is pointless. And then, well, you need that civic engagement. Because you need to contribute to the community. And with regards to faith-based organizations, is the left and the radicals are opposed to such things. But it’s not like they don’t have their own faith-based propositions. They just substitute for traditional religion, idiot, rational religion. And it’s completely counterproductive and preposterous. Most of that religion is based on something like a recounting of the Marxist story. And every time the Marxist religion has taken the reins of power in any country whatsoever, ever, all there was was genocide and poverty. And so that’s, if you want an example of a pathological religion, you can certainly point to Marxism. And the young people that I’ve been communicating with around the world are dying to hear a proper story about identity. And if you say to them, look, take on some responsibility, have some entrepreneurial dairy, establish a long-term relationship, get married, have children, engage civically, grow up and become part of your family, your community, your state, your province, your country, and dedicate yourself to a high-level religious view of the world, then you have an identity. You’re embedded in multiple layers. And that actually constitutes psychological stability and purpose. And the conservatives have done a very bad job of delineating that vision for young people. But if you do, they’re extraordinarily receptive. You’re very right. And I think part of the challenge was that we’ve had so much social change over the last 20 years. And the conception of what it meant to have that strong, stable relationship was very binary. It was one man, one woman. I think now that we’ve broadened out the understanding that everybody needs a life mate, and it doesn’t matter whether that’s someone of the same gender or the opposite gender, having a life mate is what is important. And now we’ve also broadened out so that those who have have married in even same-sex relationships also are developing families as well. And I think that that has made the conservative movement far more inclusive than it might have been historically. And you see this all the time. I mean, there is this notion that those who have that sort of characteristic from the LGBTQ plus community are automatically aligned with the progressives. And I can tell you that is not the case, that we have gay leaders in the conservative movement. We have gay staff members in the conservative movement. We actually have a transgender woman who heads up our chief firearms office in Alberta. I don’t know why nobody has written that story, because it’s a really amazing story, and she’s an amazing woman. And she has great support from the firearms community because we are able to have a broad enough reach and broad enough coalition that everybody is invited in. And we agree on the core values that we were talking about. We agree on the issues associated with individual rights and freedom and entrepreneurship and family and community. And when you can have that common ground, then you can have a very broad coalition. So I think we had a bit of a bumpy ride for a couple of decades as we were trying to sort some of those traditional values out. But I am very proud of where the conservative movement is today and how inclusive it is. And I want to make sure that we continue to be that inclusive.