Shaun Newman Podcast - #265 - Roman Baber

Episode Date: May 16, 2022

Canadian politician who is one of six candidates running for leadership of the federal Conservative Party of Canada. We discuss he background and why he decided to run in the upcoming election. Let me know what you think Text me 587-217-8500 Support here:⁠ https://www.patreon.com/ShaunNewmanPodcast

This is Zubi. This is Brett Wilson. This is Brian Peckford. This is Keith Morrison. This is Tim McAlloff of Sportsnet. This is Dr. Peter McCullough. This is Daryl Sutter and welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome to the podcast, folks.

Happy Monday. I hope everybody had a great weekend. Certainly enjoyed myself this past weekend. Oilers advancing the second round. I'm not sure if the flames, if we're going to have the first battle of Alberta and 30 plus years or not. I'm certainly hoping,

so I never thought I'd say this sentence. I am cheering for the Calgary Flames tonight. As I record this, they're just puck drop, just started, and I certainly hope they pull it off. And by the time you hear this in the morning, I hope we got a battle of Alberta cooking. If not, bring on the Dallas Stars. Now, that was my weekend.

I hope you guys got out, enjoyed some of the warm weather, wherever you're at. And we got a great one on tap for you today. before we get there, let's get to today's episode sponsors. First off, Canadians for Truth, they're a non-profit organization consisting of Canadians who believe in honest integrity and principal leadership and government as well as the Canadian Bill of Rights, charter of rights and freedoms, and rule of just laws.

They got on their website, they got a COVID-19 prevention and treatment protocols. Their core values are the sovereignty of Canada, the truth in journalism, the truth in medical ethics, the truth and government protecting our children and the truth and their future, sorry, and the 1947 Nuremberg Code for more information and see what they're all about. Go to Canadians for Truth.net. Tyson and Tracy Mitchell with Mitchco Environmental. They are a family business that has been providing professional vegetation management services for both Alberta and Saskatchewild and industrial sector since 1998.

I keep mentioning that if you're looking for work, you're on your way back. In my time, it was when I was coming back from calling. You need some summer work. You want to get put to work and you want to make some coin, some dough. Give them a call. 780214, 4004. They're always looking to hire and if you're interested, they can put you to work. They're looking for good people, as we all are.

Go to MitchcoCorp.com.com.com. You can see what they're about. You can contact them through that as well. Clay's smiling, the team over at Profit River. They just celebrated their grand opening of the brand new facility. Of course, they specialize in a professional. We're supporting firearms from the United States of America and pride themselves in making the process as easy as possible

for all their customers. Of course, they do all the paperwork to get it legally across the border and make sure it gets from point A to point B with as little hassle as possible. Just go to Profitriver.com. They are the major retailers of firearms, optics, and accessories serving all of Canada. Gartner Management is a Lloydminster-based company specializing

in all types of rental properties to help meet your needs, needs, whether you're looking for just a small office or you've got multiple employees. Wade can help get you situated. Give them a call, 780808, 50, 25. And if you're heading into any of these businesses, make sure you let them know you heard about them from the podcast, right? Now into that Ram Truck Rundown brought to you by auto clearing Jeep and Ram, the Prairie's trusted source for Chrysler, Dodge Jeep Ram, Fia, and all things automotive for over 110

years. He's a Canadian politician who is the MPP for York Center. He was a member of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario until he was removed by Premier Doug Ford in January of 2021. Now, he is a candidate in this year's 2022 leadership election of the Conservative Party. I'm talking about Roman Babber. So buckle up. Here we go. I'm Roman Babber.

Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. All right, welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today, I'm joined by Roman Babber. So first off, sir, thanks for hopping in. Good to be with you, Sean. Now, for a lot of my audience, including myself, I don't know a whole lot about Roman. I know you're running for conservative leadership. I've certainly seen some videos online.

I feel like that's kind of the way of the world now. That's how we find out about everybody. So I thought maybe we'd just start with who is Roman, and maybe you could give me some of your background, and we'll jump from there. Yeah. My name is Roman Vavar, and some of your audience may have heard of me about a year and a half ago when I was removed. from the Doug Ford Conservative Caucus in Ontario for opposing the lockdowns. I decided that I wasn't going to go ahead with it anymore, feeling that Ontario's response to the pandemic potentially caused a lot more harm than good.

And I ask for a sensible approach to the pandemic, and that means focus protection on those that are vulnerable and long-term care homes, instead of locking down healthy, Ontarians and making them sick. Since then, I've been fighting against overreach to restore democracy, against passports, against mandates, and trying to give a voice to Canadians that otherwise would not have a voice. Yeah, fair. I guess I want to go back even further, Roman. I told you this before we started.

I watched my first conservative debates ever in my life this week and one previous. And I thought you handled yourself very well. And I think that's a tip of the cap to you because you're under, well, I mean, you got all of the conservative party and then some more watching that. It's a national debate, lots of eyes on. And not exactly who you think is going to win the NBA championships, as I know you're an NBA fan, although that's a contentious issue with the right sort of people as well. So could you give us, like one of the things I caught. and picked up, and certainly if you've jumped to your Wikipedia page, you can find out exactly some of your personal history from before politics. One of the things I found an interesting

perspective you have is being an immigrant. So I thought maybe, can we go back all the way? It doesn't have to be this long, drawn-out thing, but I think it'd be interesting for people to understand where you came from, you know, coming to Canada and then maybe why you get involved in politics. Now, that could take some time. But I just, I think, your perspective is unique compared to, you know, some of the other candidates running for leadership. Absolutely. I was born in the former Soviet Union and we didn't gain our freedom until 1989. And that is why I have a unique perspective on democracy and how precious democracy is. We then moved to Israel and I lived in the state of Israel for almost six years. And then

we moved to Canada when I was 15 to the very electoral district that subsequently elected me 20 years later. I was blessed with every opportunity our country has to offer. I think Canada is the best country in the world because all you have to do to succeed in Canada is work hard and be nice to people. That's it. And if you just do those two things, then everything will be okay. And we get to do that and keep our religious values and cultural values, get to be ourselves. But I think, like many Canadians, that Canadian opportunity is eroding, and namely is Canadian democracy. And that's why I'm in this right. race. I love my country very much. I love Canadians very much. And I think that anyone that has an

opportunity to contribute against this erosion of democracy and Canadian opportunity should be doing so right now. Well, you're in a unique position when you say erosion of democracy. Like if I say that, Sean Newman in the podcast, or people are like, sure, Sean, but you're not actually, you know, in parliament, seeing things firsthand, that type of thing. You're finding everything out by watching or whatever. Your guy who's been in the building, in discussions while this government's been in control, when you say erosion of democracy, can you expand on that? Like, what have you been seeing? Yeah, for sure. Well, for instance, we still have close to 20% of Canadians that are treated like second-class citizens. I made the decision to do what most Canadians have, but it doesn't

mean that it's the right decision for everyone. And still we respect that it is a choice. We have never forced anyone to do anything against their will and forcing someone to make a choice between their ability to put food on the table and their personal health choice, in my view, is inhumane. I were seeing unprecedented censorship, not just government bill specifically designed to bring about censorship. But social media giants censoring everyday speech were seeing the Emergencies Act in Ottawa declared unlawfully when other statutes could have been easily dealt with

and that's in fact the prescription in the Emergencies Act, other legislation is not available, and yet the federal government proceeds to enact the Emergencies Act, the successor to the War Measures Act, against our own citizens, peaceful protesters, in fact. proceeding to seize their bank accounts, some of them, without a court order. I started out as a commercial litigator, and it's very, very difficult to freeze a bank account in our country. But to do that without a court order is very, very dangerous to our democracy.

And so I mean it when I say that I think that our democracy is being eroded. And, Sean, without democracy, we don't have anything. What do you mean by the You're a guy who's lived in different countries, right? Obviously, I have an idea of what Russia is. I played hockey in Finland, so I got Finland's Finnish people, sorry, their take on Russia and the history of those two countries,

and they have an extended history there. You lived in Israel. And then your parents bring you to Canada, Toronto, at 15. And, I mean, that's three. very different ways of life, I would say. So when you talk about democracy and what it means and Canada, I just feel like maybe you can expand upon that because I'm curious what you actually, you know, you should mean more by that because to most of us we go, yeah, we almost take it for granted,

I would say, because lots of us don't know any different ways. Like this has always been life. If I had to put a finger on the greatest risk to our democracy right now, other than the fact that we don't respect people's autonomy and choice anymore, regretfully, is the erosion of our freedom of speech. Speech is the holy grail of all rights, because through speech we defend all other rights. But if you're unable to express yourself on social media,

or if I'm unable to express myself in parliament, because that would mean being kicked out of my own party, or not being able to attend the public square because of gathering, rules or being potentially facing quasi regulatory offenses because the federal government now decides what is permissible to say online and what is not permissible. When you don't have free and independent media because it is funded by government and it does not allow for dissenting voices or dissenting perspectives, that is all. Everything that I've just described right now is very, very dangerous to democracy. And if you're unable to express yourself, then you are unable to

speak for rights of other Canadians. You are unable to speak for other rights, such as liberty or equality. And so this is a very key moment, I think, in Canada's history. Sure, I can think of examples coming from the Soviet Union where I felt a comparable fear. For instance, right before I start at school, I think at age five and a half or six, my family explained to me that I may never use the word America because saying the word America is something that might trigger some interest. The teacher will tell the principal. The principal will tell the KGB, and the KGB will wonder, who's this kid that's talking about America? And then they'll come knocking. When I was, I think, four and a half or five, I saw Grandpa praying for the Jewish New Year and he should.

showed me a Siddura, a prayer book. And Dad said to me that if the KGB found out that we had this prayer book at home, then Grandpa would go to the labor camp for five years, because the only religion allowed in the Soviet Union was communism. And so that is the extreme form of cancel culture. When you have nonconformity to state edict that results in criminal penalties. but we already penalized people for their behavior and for their choices. And that is not something that I'm willing to see in our country. Well, the reason I push on you for your previous life, so to speak, is when I hear that, I go, like, holy shit.

Like, I've listened to, or listen, I've read Soljinnitzen. And, you know, it's like, ah, that can't happen here, right? like kind of mentality. And when I hear you talk, I think it just gives some perspective to what's happening in Canada. Everybody loves to throw out communism and these keywords that are supposed to,

you know, get a rise or whatever else. But here's a guy who can remember in his past that, you know, like this is where we could get to. I mean, we're already in ways

getting towards that because, you know, when you comes to censoring individuals, I don't have to look farther than myself. I've had people on here that's been censored, right?

Like, I mean, and I'm like for a conversation. And to me, that's the best part about being an hypocrisy, is you get to have a open conversation, get to explore ideas, and that should make us all better. And instead, we're starting to really push like we don't want that. We want, we want the narrative, that's it, and we move on.

One of the things that really showed me this was going Ottawa. What were your thoughts? I know watching Pulliev, they were really all over him about he wasn't there, he was there, he didn't come out until after it was already done, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. What are your thoughts on Ottawa and the Freedom Convoy and everything that led up to that? What a remarkable episode in our country's history where everyday Canadians decided that they're going to take protest to Parliament Hill. and opposed one of the greatest injustices of our generation.

One of the saddest things coming out of Ottawa that no political leadership, most notably the Prime Minister, had the courage to meet with them. It's unfortunate that the whole reason why the truckers and other Canadians were in Ottawa is to protest for their ability to freely earn a living. And that was something that was completely lost in the conversation.

I think earning a living is sacred. It's why in Ontario I brought what's called the jobs and jobs bill. I sought to protect workers against workplace mandates and unfortunately the Dufford government voted down my bill on second reading. But beyond that with respect to Ottawa, everything we saw that or everything we've heard that the Prime Minister tried to spin about the protesters was false. There was no foreign collusion. There was very little foreign money less than 14%.

The arson was not connected, and there were no weapons found anywhere near the site. And February 18th, in my view, will go down probably is one of the worst days in Canada's history because we saw an illegal invocation of the Emergency Act subsequent to the main event itself, occur on the ground and I could never believe that in our country I would see police forces handling protesters peaceful not even people that were inside a truck or or blocking Wellington partially but but standing but standing on on Spark Street or standing on Matt Caff and and being brutalized or arrested effectively without cause but at the

At the same time, Sean, I think that it was a beautiful day. Because what did we see from the protesters? Peace. You did not see resistance. You did not see them assaulting anyone, no kicking, no violence. They either left or peacefully surrendered into custody. And that's what we have to take away from that day when people think about this movement, that this was a truly peaceful movement.

Yeah, one of the hardest things I've had to, I was saying to you, before we did this. You know, we get to, for the listener, we get to go and sit and have a coffee and just kind of get to know one another. Is, I'm not a politician. I'm definitely far from it. The listener knows if they've listened to, you know,

the 200 and closing in on 70 episodes that have come and gone, I didn't want to go into this realm. I just, to me, when you have a leader in our country saying the things he's saying and a national news, not reporting on any of it, right? To me, I look and go, the future is very dark if we don't start to talk about this

and change this and honestly get ahead of this. And I feel like I'm running down a hill after a snowball. Not that Sean Newman can do one thing, right? And so it probably, if I go back, Roman, a year and go, I'm going to start having different candidates of the Conservative Party on the podcast, I would have laughed at myself because I just wouldn't be here.

Have you always wanted to be in politics? Is this something that you're like, this has been a life goal? Like, I moved to Canada, I can't wait to be Prime Minister of Canada or leader of the Conservative Party. Is this something that Roman's been like, oh yeah, here we go.

This is what I've been looking for since the beginning of time. I think that any politician that tells you that they do not want to lead is probably being disingenuous with you. I got into politics because first of all, I was curious. I'm generally curious and I wanted to understand better how the world works. And I wanted a front row seat to how decisions are being made and how life is affected.

I've also been incredibly blessed. Like I said to you, I practiced law for 12 years before I was elected. and eight of the last of which I practiced as a partner in my own firm. And I felt that I had a unique opportunity to contribute to government because I wanted to bring my private sector experience to government to try and fix it. I'm not sure I got to do that quite much, but I'm still not done. And there's nothing cynical about wanting to help people. some guys or girls just walk around and they see a banana peel on the floor and they pick it up because someone might slip.

And that's fine. And I felt that I've always wanted to do that. And so did I think that I would be here right now? I'm not sure. But I feel that I have the blessing to be here right now. I've been able to speak clearly for the last two years about lockdowns, about passports, about mandates. speak in a moderate fashion, in a sensible fashion. We're in a very, very difficult situation.

You can't just break through the wall here. We have to climb. We have to dig inch by inch. And that's what I've been trying to do. To move the conversation in a different direction. Is there a better way? Do we need to log down healthy people and make them sick? Or can we reevaluate the risk, given how transmissible and common the virus is?

do we need to potentially force people into a medical decision that they don't want to make when we don't see that there is any efficacy against transmission or infection? Do we need to focus on individual choices or do we need to instead perhaps focus on beefing up the health care system? I feel like it's not always black and white. there is gray and there's areas where we can agree or to agree to disagree. But this division that we're seeing right now in our country, and specifically to come back to what you said about the prime minister, when he demonizes an identifiable group of people

suggesting that someone's putting someone else at risk, it's one of the worst things I've heard in the history of our country. It's hateful and it's unbecoming of high office. and we need to kick him out of office. Yeah, I don't think you'll get any argument from this side of the table or from anyone that listens to this. I've thought if there's one thing, Canadians, cross the board doesn't matter what party they're voting for.

Could all agree on right now? I think Trudeau just needs to go. I don't mean to say we need to drag him out on the streets, anything like that, nothing. It's just he needs to go. You can't sit in lead a country and seed hate and divide the people and cause what he's been causing. Take COVID out of the mix at this point,

just like what he's been saying is ridiculous. And I think when you start thinking that about any leader, it's time for a change because you can't have a leader you don't trust anything in. I mean, like the entire world, it feels like at this point thinks we have a laughing stock of a guy sitting at the top. But I would say, though, to be frank, it's not just Chudeau himself. It's the prevalent radical laughing ideology that is driving. the Liberal Party and the new Democrats,

where they feel that collectivism and now comes ahead of individual freedoms. You know, Canadians have done the right thing, but other Canadians have not, since when is government telling us what's right or wrong? That's not the role of government. And I'm concerned. It's not just Justin Trudeau.

I'm very concerned about Christia Freeland, the finance minister, who seems to be the successor, I'm actually more nervous about her than him because she's smart. And I think that I'm running not just to lead this party, I'm running to unite the Conservative Party of Canada. I'm running to unite Canadians in the center and right of center. And that includes Canadians that voted for a different party last time around, to whom I will apologize for the fact that the Conservative Party refused to stand up for them,

against lockdowns, against passports, against the mental health pandemic that's been perpetuated against them. We have to unite right of center because we cannot afford to have either Justin Trudeau or Christia Freeland or Mark Carney come back. We're fighting for the future of our country, for the very nature of our country. You think you can unite the conservative party?

There's a lot of people, and I'll raise a hand on this side. You know, when the Maverick Party got formed out west here, I interviewed a bunch of them because I was like, this is an interesting idea. And at that time, I mean, from the West viewpoint, we always vote blue. I mean, like, you just look at the country. It's just all blue, but it's already decided.

And we lose every time. And not every time, but you get the point in recent history. And we go, the eastern side of Canada, I don't know where they're at, but we can't figure it out. You're from the eastern side of Canada. Do you think there's a way to unite the Conservative Party? and is that going to happen in 2025? It will happen hopefully even before I win the leadership.

There are three components here. The first one is I have to bring back voters that were disillusioned and went to vote for another party. And like I said, I will apologize to them and I'll say, I promise you that under my leadership, I've shown courage and I spoke out when it wasn't popular. and a lot of Canadians might disagree with me, but at the verily still know where I stand on issues. And so I will bring formerly conservative voters that went and voted for another party back.

Second of all, I will start respecting social conservatives within the conservative party. I don't think that government has a role in how people start or grow their families. as conservatives we believe in small government that should stay out of people's lives. So it should stay out of the most intimate areas of people's lives and their health care. But it doesn't mean that we should not welcome those that think about life differently than I do. And that means allowing them to contest down ininations, allowing them to introduce legislation. It's their parliamentary right. allowing them free votes on matters of conscience.

I've been made to vote against my conscience, and that's the stomach pain that I will not inflict on anyone. And finally, when it comes to regional issues, I think folks in Ontario and Quebec need to start appreciating that there is life outside of Ontario and Quebec. And that means that first we welcome everyone into the national conversation. and it's not just Canadians but conservatives from Eastern and Western Canada. Second of all, I propose to unite our country behind economic opportunity,

and that to me means unleashing our remarkable natural resources, which I believe is a blessing, and I'm not going to let oil and gas be canceled. I would like to turn Canada into the natural resources superpower that we ought to be. and finally, specifically with respect to the West and Alberta, the province that we're in right now, and generally speaking, I'm not against, sorry, I'm against dependency, and I'm against redistribution. You know, joked about me coming from the Soviet Union. Equalization is redistribution. You take from one and you give to another.

And I don't think we should be encouraging dependency. That's why a couple of days ago I have announced that I will phase out equalization before the end of my first term. I'll encourage independence among the provinces for their natural resources. And it's time to welcome Western Canada, long overdue, into the conversation, appreciate regional differences, enable economic opportunity, develop our natural resources. I think that there's room for unity in our country. We need political courage to do so. It's a lovely idea.

Like I listen and I go, hmm, it sounds all. lovely, right? Equalization payments, they've been talking about that, whether we should do, I mean, once again, I'm just a, I'm just a Joe Schmo, right? Do you think that message you'll carry across and, you know, like, you're just one man? Even if you win leadership, you think you can enact that and actually get Eastern Canada to go like, yeah, this makes sense for us. I think it comes down to courage and political leadership. Yes. I think. I think, that Ontario would certainly be interested in ending equalization payments. I know that there are some provinces that are receiving equalization payments like New Brunswick, who no longer want equalization payments. Premier Higgins said, I think, in 2018, that he would rather develop natural resources than receive equalization. And, you know, I look at what happened in Newfoundland

and Labrador, who used to be a have-not province that is now by virtue of developing its its natural resources is now a half province that is paying into equalization. And I don't understand why maritimeers would want to be any different. And same with the province of Quebec. The province of Quebec is blessed with remarkable gas reserves. They also figured a better mousetrap for cheap hydro. Quebec should be the hydro capital of North America. And so when it comes to these difficult issues,

you need to push back a little bit, just like I push back against lockdowns, when no one else in the country was willing to push back against lockdowns. Some people say, Roman, you're a lawyer, but you understand that it's not constitutional. Well, excuse me. The Constitution says that government ought to be committed to equalization, provided that provinces cannot maintain a comparable level of services. Well, I'm not satisfied that Canadian provinces are unable to provide comparable levels of services. We need to look at the definition. And if they're not able to,

then before I phase it out, I'd like to see if we can get there over the first four years that I'm in office and give them an opportunity to reach their economic potential instead of continuing with this dependency. I'm optimistic. I do like an optimistic person. Optimism, I think, is lacking in our country. Everybody wants to stare at all the tough times or the bad coming or all that all that you know you mentioned 12 years of law you practice 12 years of law um i guess i'm curious what is the you know like overlook the course of two years i just assumed you know charter of rights all these law things would just like protect us and what instead i saw was like they're just words on a piece of paper if you don't fight for them if

you don't act like they mean something, it comes back to the people, the politicians, everybody in a country to uphold the actual rule of law. Twelve years of practicing it, I assume the rule of law means an awful lot to you. Very much. And I'm blessed to teach it a little bit as well in an after-school program. The rule of law means two things. It means that we're all equal before the law and that government is, also under the rule of law. And it's the second tenant that is very, very important right now that

we consider. Because I believe that the Justin Trudeau government does not respect the rule of law, because it does not place itself under the rule of law. I just described the Emergencies Act. The Emergencies Act is very clear. The emergency may only be declared if there is no other piece of legislation that's capable of handling the emergency. And we know that there are municipal bylaws, Highway Traffic Act that could potentially clear it. We're not that an Ottawa resident was able to see a judge and get an injunction against the honking so the system works. There needs to be an immediate risk to material, very, I forget the exact word, but an imminent risk to a considerable loss of life or property. That did not, those conditions

were not met. The province must be unable to handle the emergency. There's no one who was satisfied that Ontario could not. And finally, the emergency was actually over by the time that parliament, the alleged emergency was over by the time that parliament actually voted on it. Beyond that, we've seen this government materially erode the rule of law repeatedly. The censorship bill eroding our speech is not demonstrably justifiable. You can't justify this need to censor what Canadians can say online. We know what the line is. Do not, God forbid, incite violence,

and do not demonize people like the Prime Minister is doing, so to potentially subject them to some sort of hatred or risk. We saw this Prime Minister, this government, awarding sole source contracts to a charity that paid the Prime Minister's family members speaking fees. He accepted a lavish vacation from a stakeholder. He interfered in a prosecution. Government can never interfere in a criminal court proceeding. That is a key tenet of our democracy because then it might engage in favoritism or then it might come after its political opponents.

He went and interfered in a prosecution of a favorable stakeholder. He is beyond the rule of law all the time. And that is something that we must end immediately to preserve the rule of law and to preserve our democracy. You know, I sit here, Roman, and I watch everything you just said. And I go, he's playing a different game. You're in that game of politics. I just, I watch it and I go, it's like, I joke with a lot of people.

I'd love to have Justin Trudeau's job where I could do a shitty job, get paid really well. I could break laws, not go to jail. If the regular Joe does half of what he's done, we're in the slammer. Or we're paying, you know, like, we're just, we're not doing well. Except here he is, doing it out in the open for everyone to see, and he's not held accountable. You think he will be held accountable at some point? I get the accountability question a lot. And I propose that I speak about it not just vis-a-vis the Justin Trudeau and his government and the rule of law.

but generally for many Canadians that have been so aggrieved by what has transpired. Parents with teenagers who try to harm themselves or develop an eating disorder. Families of members that missed their cancer screening and therefore were diagnosed late. Or the small business, average Canadian small business accumulated $180,000 worth of COVID-related debt. people lost everything or lost everything they worked for or had to remortgage or sell their homes. Since I've been at this for more than a year and a half, I've been receiving literally tens of thousands of messages.

Nurses that lose their jobs after being hailed heroes because they have natural immunity and they decided to make a different medical choice or police officers that put themselves in harm's way every day and put themselves at risk are now being told that they're risking the community because they made a different medical choice. I have a lot of sadness in me.

And I think it's okay to be frank. I have resentment as well for what we've seen has been happening to Canadians. I guess that's one of the reasons I'm here. But we're not going to get accountability until we vote out Justin Trudeau, Christia Freeland and the liberal government. You can't start thinking about accountability until you're in office. We don't have the means to design the structure for accountability. For instance, right now he has a review on the invocation of the Emergencies Act. It was supposed to review the propriety of the government's use of the Emergencies Act. Instead, he's prosecuting Canadians again, asking the questions,

what was the motivation of the convoy, who was financing the convoy, and so on and so forth. we do not have subpoena power we do not have access to documents we can't interview witnesses this accountability that the country sorely desires whatever it looks like is not going to be had until we unite politically and vote him out that's what i propose that we focus on right now we have to get this right we can't have a split right of center and allow them to come back. We can't have a conservative party that conservative members

or conservative voters do not trust. We can't have leadership where you don't know what they mean or what they say or where they stand or they run to the right during leadership and then right to the left or to the center during the general election. Too much is at stake right now.

Well, and I think for a lot of people out West, we always get told one thing and then you go back out east, and it doesn't always, what's said in one province isn't always the message across Canada. And I'm curious. You know, as I sit here and talk to you,

I don't know you other than the couple hours we've sat, and we've only been going here for 35 minutes kind of thing. But just sitting across from you, you seem like a passionate guy, a guy who believes in what he's talking about. And a man, for the most part, I would say, that got into politics for arguably the right reasons. That's just my take sitting across from you. I've always argued if you had a man or woman get up on stage and just say most of the things you've just said.

Like, we just need to get back to who we are as Canadians. We need to unite the country. This is a message for not only conservatives, liberals, just across the board. We're going to do the things that Canadians do. We're going to look out for, you know, the environment. Nobody wants to go dump oil on the ground. You know, like us oil field workers out here, we got more, we're doing more environmentally friendly things than probably the rest of the world.

You just get no time for it. All we get one photo and it goes around the world saying we're a bunch of dirty hillbillies. I mean, it's almost laughable. So then you just stop listening because it's like nobody's even standing up for. and all that. But I come back, sorry, I'm on a little bit of a tirade here. I just come back to it, Roman, I go, I listen to you and I go, what you're talking about is something I feel like should carry across the country where it's just like, listen, guys, we want to do what's right for a country. We want to improve all the lives. We want to get out of your life. You know, like making medical choices, trying to force you into things you don't want to do, whether it's, you know, getting the shot or some other thing down the road. Like, that's uncomfortable for everybody.

That makes life extremely difficult. That's what we've all felt for the last two and a half years, right? Or two years. I just keep coming back to it. You think this can work. You think, like, you've been on the campaign trail now. You've had your official debates. I mean, you've got a bunch of them coming up.

How are you feeling, like, that you get, now that you've sat there, that you're sitting in little old Lloydminster. Tonight, you're in Lecombe. You know, you're going to be bouncing around like, A man with his head chopped off, not literally, just you run around about as fast as you can go. And Canada isn't this small little country. I mean, you're literally real quick here coming out west. Like to come to Lloyd and then the Lecombe, that's a ton of driving.

You're losing hours on end. How's the campaign been going so far? And I just keep coming back to it. You think it can work? Because the dividing of political votes has been brought up over and over and over again. It doesn't matter if it's provincial, federal. That is a common theme from the start. I apologize because I literally rattle off like six or seven questions in there.

But some food for thought for you to fire back at. Very quickly, with respect to natural resources, Canadians can process and derive energy safer and cleaner than any nation in the world. That's why producing energy at home is better for the planet. and I'm going to unleash Canada's natural resources potential. And that means diversifying what we do. I want to refine in Canada. I'm going to repeal the anti-pipeline bill

because it's safer to transpond well through pipeline than by train. It's a no-brainer. And I'm interested in mining. There's an insatiable appetite right now for minerals and precious metals around the world. And it's good for our northern communities, for our indigenous communities. To your question, the campaign is going well. We'll keep exceeding expectations.

First, there was some question. You know, Roman was removed by one conservative government, provincially. Was he going to be allowed to run for the federal conservatives? My application was approved. Then there was some question, is Roman going to be able to raise the fee? It's $300,000 plus 15% administration fee.

We did. We raised $353,000 to, to get on the ballot and the necessary signatures, and we don't have... We have the lowest average donation of all campaigns, 10 times lower that of Jean Choray and Patrick Brown and Scott Atchison. It's a truly grassroots movement coast-to-coast of Canadians that are worried about the erosion of our democracy.

We got into the debates. People weren't sure what to expect. Never on the national stage before. I think we've exceeded expectations in the debates, did really, really well. And so we're exceeding expectations and people are considering my campaign seriously. And I hope that I'm going to continue to surprise people. But back to what you're asking, am I optimistic that this can be done? Yeah. I also, I don't see another choice. Frankly, I don't see a choice. I don't see another choice to get out of this nightmare

that Canadians have been living under for the last two years other than politically. Unfortunately, the courts appear to be, you know, disjointed. Media is not going to come around and own up to what happened in the last two years. Social media expression is going to continue to be eroded. I don't see any other way other than the old-fashioned way, and that's to beat them at the ballot box. Yeah, roll up your sleeves and get going kind of thing. for sure.

You have a sign here on the wall that I read before this podcast started, quote from Joe Rogan, whatever time you have attack like you're trying to save the world. I think it's not something I could say. It's grandiose, I think. Only Joe Rogan can say something like that. But I think people, I think people with common sense, and decency must appreciate that our country is fundamentally transforming into something we do not want. I think that Canadians generally do not want this collectivist utopia that the liberals are trying

to bring about here because it failed everywhere around the world. We just want to work hard, love our families, and for government to leave us alone. and that is not that is a simple message to convey it's a message that we can get behind leave us alone yes we can win this well i i'll come back the the wall quote is grandiose but that led me to where i'm doing this full time now i once upon a time was working full time uh we had three kids and of course i was married in a house and bills and blah blah blah blah we all get it right and joe talking to a lady about responsibility and whether or not at his age if he could start back at square one and still become Joe Rogan essentially. And he said, it was laughable. He was basically

like, well, no. And then she's like, no. He goes, okay, you could. But you get done work, all you're doing is working on your craft. You get up in the morning, you're working on your craft. And you go to work, you come back home and you're working on your craft. And to me, that's why it's on the wall. Because anytime I had a down, you're doing, you're working on your craft. And to me that's why it's on the wall because anytime i had a down day uh you come in here and see some of the things you've built and you go no you just got to keep grinding and keep moving keep talking and keep interviewing and keep you know for me reaching out to people uh like i say if i rewind a year um now is roman babber uh Wayne crexky well no not you not you

yet, but at the same token, a year ago, I wouldn't have thought I would have had a conservative party candidate sitting, you know, driving to Lloyd Minster to come sit and do this. And so when I look at you, and I hear the story of exceeding expectations, that's all you got to keep doing. You just got to keep moving. You got to take the quote and you got to keep reminding yourself that as you go along. You asked me where my vote is, and my vote is kept close to the chest because I don't, for the listener, I want them to think for themselves. I don't want to try and direct an army to come vote for anyone. And I don't think Joe Rogan does that either.

He brings people on, let them say their peace, and then people get to sit and think on it. And I wish that's where we were back to. I think that's what Canada should be. That's where we ought to be. And you're making me have to think about this a lot harder than I wanted to. And I was going to give you a little bit of a feather in your cap. You were asking me about the debates because I, well, like I said, off the top. I got to watch the debates.

And I thought you did it very well. And I would encourage people to, I mean, just search it on YouTube. You can find the full debates and go watch them. If you're a conservative party member. If you're not, go buy one for it. It's like 10 bucks and you can become a conservative party member, right, to vote for the next leader of it. And when it's going to be this important, I agree with you on that word, it is going to be very, very, very important. September, right?

September is the vote. the announcement is September 10th the vote is around August you must be registered with a conservative party before June 3rd in order to be eligible to vote it's not a general election but I'll

address that in my final word well then that's good to know I think that's a good date for people to so if you're literally go online this is the easiest thing in the world to go do just go online conservative party dot CA or something it's conservative dot CA

thank you But at the same time, we encourage folks to register through my secure portal, especially if they want to lend us their vote so we can keep track of your ballot. And it's at join roman.ca. Join roman.ca. All they need to remember, they'll get pay the conservative party $15. Anyone over 14 is eligible to vote. Think of the conservative party as a club.

You can't vote in the leadership of the club for club president unless you're a member. And so please join before June 3 to be eligible to vote. You know, back to this quote, attack that you're trying to save the world, I would suggest to Canadians that we need to unite to try and save our country. And we're not even asking for a lot of time. But we are asking for engagement. And like you said, about a year ago, you had less interest in politics, but it's when unfortunately bad things happen in countries that everybody becomes a little bit more engaged. Let's hope that I can make you disinterested in politics a couple of years from now. I'd be happier for it.

I think we'd all be happy. I was joking with you. Well, the Oilers are in the playoffs. You're going, hopefully by the time this airs, they've won game seven. I think everybody gets a picture of when we're recording it. They just won game six. The flames have game six tonight. Like that's two years of almost like nobody in the buildings of the NHL ranks here in Canada.

When that's like our pastime. You can imagine. And that wasn't, you know, that story can be told across a bunch of different countries. You were mentioning that this isn't a standard election. What do you mean? I think that it's very, very important, given the erosion of democracy that we're experiencing, that we roll it back as quickly as we can. A lot of people ask me about the fairness of our elections.

I do believe that we still have a fairly fair election in terms of process. I think that elections Canada tries to do its best and trying to play it fair. but I think that there's a lot of friction going into the election, namely by the way that media covers elections and candidates and political parties. And given that a lot of the media coverage is subsidized by government, I'm not sure to which extent Canadians are able to enjoy full, picture, full perspective, and therefore, without a doubt, there is some friction when it comes to our election. So, especially in last couple of years when we saw unprecedented amount of ad revenue

thrown into the news media, I think it's very important to end this relationship between the government and the media because you can't have a vibrant democracy when you don't have a truly independent media in that the government signs the media's paycheck. So joinroman.ca, lend me your vote. you may have another candidate in the race that you like, but it is a ranked ballot. You can rank me first, and if I follow up the ballot, then your vote will go to another person. Register before June 3rd and vote. Join me in my optimism that there's enough democracy in the DNA of Canadians to see us through this.

Well, here's your final one. I'll give you one more question because I like to end on this. ending on this and I apologize for not giving you this sooner so I'm going to be a tough one for you maybe maybe not I've I've you're only like the third or fourth podcast I've thrown this out we do the final five brought to you by crude master transport their local company that's supported the podcast since the very beginning and I interviewed Heath earlier on in the podcast he's the owner he said if you're going to stand behind a cause that you think is right then stand behind it absolutely what's one thing that Roman stands behind

Well, democracy. It's, like I said, our ability to respect each other as individual autonomy, diversity of opinion, free and fair elections, independent media, pluralism in our country, when I see that Quebec will not allow a Sikh police officer to wear a turban if they want to police the streets of Montreal or for a person to communicate in English with her doctor. Equality, the rule of law that I've discussed with you,

which means that government is also under the law. That's for sure. Well, I appreciate you coming in and doing this. I wish you best of luck on the campaign trail. You do have a new watcher. I have been watching the conservative debates religiously now. So I'm paying attention to what all of you are saying and how you all debate. And I wish you best luck in that because that is, I mean, to debate anything,

especially you know on a grand scale televised everything else you're putting uh um while yourself at a lot of risk right uh media in and people in general are unrelenting and uh i appreciate you sticking your hat in the ring uh to be one of the nominations and so i wish you best of luck and i do appreciate you making the trip out to lloydminster to sit and do this with me good to be with you sean thank you for having me hey thanks for tuning in today guys i hope you enjoyed it i'm going to do my best to try and get the other five candidates in the conservative party leadership race and see if I can track them down. I think it would be, you know, not only for myself, but I think anyone else who's paying attention, not only good to just hear one voice, but maybe to hear them all

and get a feel for what they're about and who they are. So I'm going to do my best to do that. Regardless, I hope you have a great Monday and go kick some ass and we will catch up to you Wednesday. All right.