Shaun Newman Podcast - #828 - Josh Udall

Episode Date: April 9, 2025

Josh Udall is one of the hosts of The Elev8 Podcast, a show hosted in Halifax that focuses on exploring topics in business, marketing, and politics with expert guests. We discuss the federal election, the Liberals hold on the east and Nova Scotia provincially voting in the conservatives. Cornerstone Forum ‘25https://www.showpass.com/cornerstone25/Get your voice heard: Text Shaun 587-217-8500Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcastSilver Gold Bull Links:Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/Email: [e-mail] Grahame: [phone]Bow Valley Credit UnionWebsite: www.BowValleycu.comEmail: [e-mail] Use the code “SNP” on all ordersProphet River Links:Website: store.prophetriver.com/Email: [e-mail]

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Welcome to this John Newman podcast. I'm going to try in and get this right. I can't even spit out my name, folks. Josh Udall. So, sir, thanks for hopping on this side. No, thanks for having me on, man. It really means a lot. Well, I was saying it before we started that like, you know, I, forgive me, I, folks, are we at 828? I think we're right around 828.

We've done a lot of podcasts on this side. Right. And one of the things we've been trying to do is track down interesting Canadians who are talking about Canadian things. And just when I think I'm hitting like maybe the bottom of the barrel and I don't mean that in a negative way, just like, you know, I'm, I'm, digging and I think I'm hitting you know like okay we found all the Canadians now let's just continue to talk to him somebody else comes up and I'm like who's that and then you go look at him you're like okay how is that I don't know who this is okay so let's let's just don't let's go so I'm going to assume a trunk of my audience knows who you are I'm going to assume that there's a

trunks and never even heard you who what where when let's hear it I want to hear a little bit about yourself and then we'll jump into some other topics absolutely no thanks for having me on Sean really appreciate getting to meet you finally I actually heard through you, I actually heard about you probably about a couple months ago at this point. I was talking to someone who was a fan of my show. And there's like, yeah, like, really like what you're doing. Have you ever heard of Sean Newman? He's been doing some great work out of Alberta, yada, yada and I was like, oh, no, actually I haven't heard him. So like that night followed you and kind of been loving the, your tweets that you're putting out and the, yeah, essentially

the messaging you're putting out is actually really interesting. I always thought that was cool. But for myself, yeah, so I kind of moved around a lot as a kid. I started out in Alberta, moved to Ontario, then I finished off out here in Halifax, Nova Scotia to go to university. My background is in design, user experience design, so I specialize in studying people, understanding their behaviors and how to use and understand those behaviors to develop and design software that they'll want to use and make sure that those design decisions that I make are connected to business outcomes.

That's my background. How did I get into politics? Well, here's the thing. I didn't want to. The COVID was the, it was kind of a wild time, honestly. So it was one of, I'm an extrovert by nature.

And the whole like groundhog day situation was just not fiving with me. And so I called one of my friends. It was like, you know what? Like I need something to look forward to in the week. Would you be interested in doing like a podcast once a week with me? And he's like, yeah, well, sure, let's do it. And so that's how I got into the podcast game.

And it was supposed to be about business, marketing and design. And then, you know, the government started infringing more on our lives. and it got to the point where I started infringing on how I was doing business. And I've always had an internal interest in politics, but there's always a rule,

like I'll never talk about it outside of like my family, my friends. And then things just got so outrageous that I started, I did one day where I kind of like did a little glimmer into the podcast and politics. And then the show started blowing up. And then people started coming to me for political content and the rest was history at that point.

When did you start the podcast? This would have been July, 20-20. So it was literally in relation to the fact that we were in the middle of COVID and they were shutting everything down. And when you say Groundhog Day, you're like literally COVID days sucked because you'd wake up and you can do anything. 100%. Exactly. And I just like, and every day was the same. And so there was just nothing to look forward to. So I was just looking for things like, all right, I'm going to do this once a week. I're going to do this thing once a week. So I have something to look forward to every day that isn't repetitive. And that was the origin of the podcast.

Now, I want to rewind in you back. You were talking about, you know, I like how you pronounce Berda, you know, Alberta. You really, really accentuate it. Anyways, it doesn't matter. That's a side note. I love it. You live in different parts. I was joking with you before, you know, in your military and you said, close.

Your family is in the ministries. Tell me a little bit about that. whether it's the ministry side or just like, you know, not having where you grew up in the same place all your life, you know, like that's a different viewpoint than most. Yeah, it's, it was interesting because we did move around a lot. Like the part I didn't tell you was I also spent the first couple of years of my life living in California as my parents were training to be in the ministry and then from California to Calgary then made our way across the country. And it was kind of just a weird experience because the hardest point of my life was, you know, again, I spent a lot

of formative years in Calgary, lived there from three years old up until I was 10. And then we decided to move across the country to Toronto, Ontario, which was a very different culture, very different time. And it was a lot to kind of adapt and get used to. But overall, what was the consistent thing was my faith. The consistent thing was the people I was around in terms of like people who were grounded in their faith and had a different perspective on those things. And that was always helpful for me. And so what it allowed me to do is I was able to be in a space, which I know this is not for everybody, but it was true for me. Church eventually became a place that I found a lot of safety in because everything outside of my life was always changing. I couldn't know who I could trust.

I didn't know who were going to be my friends, who were not going to be my friends. But the church culture was always the one consistent for me throughout. And that's what kind of led to me to having more, I guess, delving in the podcast space or delving into more public speaking is because that's where a lot of my public speaking originated. I would do a lot of preaching. I do a lot of messages and learn how to connect text to what we're living in our daily lives and this,

that the other. And that's kind of what I was able to bring into podcasting. I felt like those early days of going through church and going through church culture, if it kind of allowed me to do what I do today. Curious, this is probably a better question for your parents, but you said that you, you know, you started off in California. And in my brain, I guess I kind of just assumed your parents were always in it. Right. And so that you just, you were born and then you're just kind of bouncing around wherever they are.

Right. So do I understand that, right, that like maybe they got into it later on in life instead of right at the beginning of their courtship or what have you? You would be accurate. Yeah, my parents were not church people in the slightest. They actually found church in their 20s, and that's where they found each other. What pulled them in a minute? Like, once again, these are questions for your family, but I'm like, curious, you know, you got to, you got to obviously watch it unfold and continue to unfold.

So like what pulled them to California? Like, was it, I don't know. I'm just kind of curious. Like, why? Absolutely. No, these are fantastic questions. I don't think anyone's actually asked them before, which makes us fun. But yeah, the church, what we were part of, that was just kind of the culture at that time was all the training for church leadership was in L.A.

That's where you went to go train, learn how to do ministry. Then they sent you out to one of these smaller churches. And that's how to kind of operate. Like, I was born in Toronto and spent early days in Toronto. Then my parents were kind of being trained to or being groomed essentially to become leaders in the church. and then after that point, the church felt like it was time for them to learn and train more. And so they sent them to California for a year. And that's where they trained where they could learn how to be leaders.

And then from there, they got sent to Calgary. It's fascinating. What, I don't know, what, I don't know, what's word I'm looking for here, folks? What grouping of churches were they a part of? We were part of the international churches of Christ, which was a spinoff of the main, the main line churches of Christ. So, yeah. It's, you know, like when I, you know,

I've had lots of different people on here. And one of the things that, you know, coming from my youth, I guess, is I got to travel a bunch across Canada. And then as I played hockey, I got to go into the States and on and on and got to see part of the world. And one of the things we talked,

man, this is a long time ago. This is probably 2020, honestly. Maybe 2021. I'd had a military guy in here and he said, you know, you want to solve some of the problems of Canada. You should create an exchange program where the East comes and lives out in the West just for a little bit. It doesn't have to be for a crazy long time just so they can experience it. And the West should go live out in the East so that, you know, as your kids are growing up, they're actually seeing the nation and getting to live in different parts. And so there's usually a couple of options where that actually plays out.

And one of them is certainly the military, right? They're always different stations, the RCMP and ministries. It's funny, I never think about it. But certainly you're answering a calling to different spots. And so you get to see different chunks of the country, which where you sit now, I guess, with a show talking about politics, I'd be curious your thoughts on what the heck we're going through right now with Poliev, Carney, did the liberals even stand in a chance? You know, like it was just two nights ago or I guess, you know, I was record this last night with Pierre

in in eminent and they're saying you know was it 10,000 was a 15,000 it doesn't matter it was a lot of people showing up for a political rally uh is there any chance this guy has of losing when he wherever he goes the fanfare is just you know honestly a little bit insane um what are your thoughts uh out east it's it is quite fascinating to watch i know you kind of hit on the attitudes between the west and the east and you know when carney was doing his um one of his rallies in BC on Sunday night. That was one of the clips that went viral, and I made sure to clip it myself

and was Carney essentially sending shade Daniel Smith's way. And as someone who can appreciate what Alberta brings the table, who can appreciate how they've been treated, not too well by our federal government, I just felt like if he's the current, the prime minister, technically, and wants to continue being the prime minister, I feel like he should act like a leader

and not be disrespectful to the premiers that he's going to have. have to work with especially the issues that we're seeing around energy these days. So for him to kind of slag Daniel Smith, I thought, well, it was kind of unbecoming. You know, I clip that, put it on X. And, you know, the first day, the conservative groups kind of got it, retweeting it, re-sharing it, all that craziness. And then eventually it crossed the Rubicon into the left side of X. And man, they were ruthless.

And it was interesting to see how they view Alberta. and they view them in like a vacuum that they're only there to serve us is kind of what I gathered. And that was quite frankly shocking to me because I'm like, you have to admit like Alberta serves like a pretty good role within our country's fabric. And you're just going to treat them as you're treating them. It makes almost zero sense to me. And so with that being the case, we go and see what Pauliav was doing. Obviously, he's going to pull the crowd.

He's going to pull in Alberta. And I know the liberals are saying, oh, see, of course it's an Albu. Why is he campaigning in Alberta? Does he think he's going to lose Alberta? He's like, no. He went there to prove a point. Carney's been only doing rallies in safe places around the country that are liberal red. That's all where he's been going.

And he's polling 50, 100, 150, 200 people. On max, I think it was his latest rallies, maybe 2000. It maybe touched that. Well, they have said, okay, I'm going to go to Edmonton and pull 15,000 people in an industrial park. not a place that has transit. No, not a place that can be easily accessible. No, in an industrial park that people had to walk a good chunk of time to be able to go from their car to the rally.

This is incredible what we're watching. And the only thing that comes even close to what we're seeing is Justin Justin Dureau in 2015. All the fanfare he got. And the liberals are like, oh, he's the next best thing. He's awesome. And the liberals couldn't stop talking about his crowd sizes. The liberals couldn't talk about how popular he was.

and that pales in comparison to what we're seeing with Polyev, and I didn't think we'd ever see it for conservative candidate, but I think we're witnessing it right now. So do you think that Kearney stands a chance then? Yes. So hear me out. Here's the thing. As we are witnessing one of our, all of our institutions

and all of our media, all of our polling, is being weaponized in this election from what we're seeing. and at some point that stuff's going to have an impact at swaying public opinion it's going to do enough it could do something to where people are like discouraged and they don't want to go vote like conservatives are going to lose anyways why am i going to bother and so that is the one thing i have to kind of keep in mind but there is something i kind of as well there's you know an x factor i'd say is right now as you said we're seeing the rallies we're seeing the crowds we're seeing um the liberals and how they're reacting The thing is, I think conservative voters want this more.

They will crawl over broken glass to be able to vote Pollyev. But I guarantee if it's raining out on election day, liberals aren't going out because hating Trump just isn't enough to wanting to feed your family. Sorry to say. I don't know. Liberals are freaking crazy. You think there's definitely like that. There's the like the left wing boomers who are.

like, you know, really passionate. But like, I just, what I'm seeing from the, all the other age groups is they have to, they have to get out and vote. And that's the part where I'm saying that's the chance right now is if the young and the youth and even the millennials don't go out and vote, then that's where the chance is stood by Carney. Yeah, you're, you're pointing to the voting percentages and how they break out. And there is, I will tip my cap to you on.

that because like there is a lot to be said about, uh, um, what groups are going to be turning out and what groups feel like they're being heard and what groups on and on and on. There's a growing dissatisfaction and, and a certain, uh, age range in the, in the popular, you know, I just on the phone this morning, honestly, to a guy from Alberta that I think very highly of. And he's working on his way to the, the states right now. He's working on his, you know, I'm getting out of here. I'm done with this. Yeah. It's just, I'm just done with it. And then That sentiment hit, you know, when you go back to when you started, heck, when I started, 2021, that was reaching what I thought at the time was a bit of peak insanity, you know, like they're going to lock us in our own country, people flooding out. And now the same people don't even want to, they don't even care if it's Carney or Pulley up.

There's, there's a growing sentiment of that where they hear, you know, have to start how the Easterners think about Albertans. And this is done with this. I'm just done with this setup. I'm not, I'm not doing it. And it'll be, well, I mean,

we're how many days away now? We're, we're essentially, uh, 20 as we sit here, 19 as this airs days away from an election. Did you ever think you'd be like, well,

I have, I guess I'm, uh, taking the conversation in different direction. Did you ever think you'd be so happy for an election to finally happen? Like it, has it not been just like slow plate and feet dragging and it's like, we're just gonna,

we're not, going to tell you when the election's coming. And then finally, it's, it's less than three weeks away. And you're like, I, you know what, one way or another, we're going to have an answer. That, that is saying something because we've been held in limbo for so long. Yeah. I think that's like the struggle with like a minority government in general, even just how our system is set up, um, is when you see so much our system didn't work how it was supposed to. That's the reality. When you see so much corruption happening in the governing party and the party that's supposed to help bring them down refuses to, that means you have,

broken your system and you've broken the trust in that system and that's why I feel like people are mentally exhausted and spent and I feel like this is kind of like that last hurrah that I there's a part of me if I'm being honest that like is thinking about okay if this goes a conservative minority like we will be back in the polls by October I just 100% believe that and so we will see what happens there was a relief sure that the election came but But it was Mark Carney, and it wasn't Justin Trudeau. And Mark Carni, people need time to see Mark Carney for who he is. And that's why they called the election when they did.

That's quite right, because they don't know him enough. They don't know how corrupt he really is. And he didn't want people to find out about it. So he called that immediately. And people tend to equate what's happening in Canada to what happened down south the border. But the only thing I would say to that is, I would say it's the same thing if Trudeau got swapped out for Freeland, that would have been the same thing. However, what we're seeing right now

is the equivalent if Biden got swapped out for Gavin Newsom, that would have been a different election if Gavin Newsom was going head to head with Donald Trump. And that's why the polls are getting so close right now from my perspective. So your own Halifax, you're walking around, you're having conversations. What is the population out there that you talk to, I mean? What, like, what do you see out there? Because, you know, like, to me, that is a very different scenery, a very different scene than what I walk out and see in oil country, you know, ag, just all the things, right? Like, what is the, I don't know, what is the feel you have for Halifax and, you know, Nova Scotia? Well, right now what we're seeing is rural areas are very much like

boom, Pollyev, no question about it. Those are the farmers. Those people are working hard. Those are the people that are wanting to stop being taken advantage of by the federal government. it's the people in the cities that have been chopping at the bit to vote for someone who isn't Poliov. A lot of people were reluctantly going to be voting Polyev. And when Trudeau got swapped out for Carney, all of a sudden, there's like, oh, thank goodness. I don't have to vote for the bad guys. So is it the Donald Trump effect? Is that why they're in the position where they want to vote for like even more of the same or worse?

Like, is that why they're so against Pollyev and more so Donald Trump, like the way that Kearney and the liberals have positioned themselves against Trump? Like, is that what you're seeing out in the East or is it something different that I'm missing? A little bit of that. But there's actually a lot of reality of people just really couldn't bring themselves to vote for a conservative. Like, it really is coming back down to the virtual signaling that's been happening in the past 10 years is people think they are bad. people if they vote blue. Then the Trump stuff was added on top of that and I was like, well, we need someone to deal with this and Polio's not the guy. He's too young. We need someone with experience, a banker who knows money, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's what you're seeing right now.

And people legitimately believe the party is different. They actually believe here in Halifax, Nova Scotia, within the cities. They believe that this is a new government just because they swap the face out. I'm telling you the truth, the conversations we're having. That is what we're seeing with people on the ground here within this city, which is honestly kind of mind bogg. I don't know what to say to that. That's tough to hear, actually, you know? Like, because you go like, you know, I just go back. How many months ago now?

Four months, five months, whatever it is. And you're like, Pierre's getting a super majority. Like, there's just no way everything is turning up blue. It is just like, and then, in comes Mark Kearney. You're like, oh, why did they do that? And now you're just seeing it play out. all the rural people have had their mind made up for five years. But the cities, from what you can see out east,

have been waiting for the person to get paratrooped in so they could go vote. Yeah. And say that they did their piece as a Canadian saying they kept the conservatives out. Meanwhile, all the things that they're complaining about have been caused by the governing party who's been in power for the past 10 years. it just doesn't compute with them. Just because there's a new face in there. There's no thought to it being the same cabinet.

No thought to 80% of the MPs being all the same. The fact that even brought Sean Fraser back, which I just learned how huge his writing here is in Nova Scotia. His writing extends from Annie Ganesh down to Lawrencetown, and to give you an idea of how far that is, that's a two and a half hour drive. And his riding takes up that whole area. And then when you get into the cities, because it's based on population,

that's where all the writings are. Bo, bo, boom, boom. And that's where this is starting to favor the liberals because all the city people are really interested in voting liberal and not so much the conservative party. However, I will give some encouragement, though. Conservative Party here in Nova Scotia is handing out signs like candy like they haven't ever seen before.

People are expecting this classic writings to remain liberal, but there's something to be said. The ground game's been strong. The sign, there's way more conservative signs than I've ever seen my life. And that could mean something. Signs in the countryside, though, or signs in the city? Signs in the city. That's what has been shocking me.

Hmm. Yeah, it's almost like, you know, you almost talk yourself out of the despair of like the liberals are getting back in because of the cities. Because what your eyes are telling you is what our eyes are telling us with a lot of things, you know? Yep. By-elections, conservatives were winning. and, you know, in battlegrounds where normally they would not win, they would have no chance, they're winning. And then you go while you watch the rallies and you can see that Pierre everywhere he goes, thousands upon thousands of people, it's just in Alberta. It's everywhere he goes. It's just thousands of people.

Wherever Carney goes, are there crowds there? Oh, for sure there are. But they also are like, oh, by the way, you folks can't get in. No, you're not going in here. We're going to hold you all out. They got security. they're not taking questions. It's like it's just playing out like everyone for everyone to see.

And so that's another thing. And now you're saying, well, actually, now you mentioned it, I can see conservative signs everywhere. Just like certain things you're like, it seems like everything is turning up conservatives. But you get online and you hear the things and they just keep reinforcing it. I don't know what to, I don't know what to make of all this.

Well, I think, Sean, you're hitting the one thing that I think has been puzzling to many, including myself, is this is just a weird election. There's just so much going on and so much combat, like, information that's conflicting with each other that you're just, it's not fully adding up. But we even look at,

Poliav had a ride a rally here in Halifax last year, pull 2,500 people in red HRM. So it, it's just, it's, again, the sign game is strong. The people are putting the signs out. I went through one of, one of the major liberal strongholds, which is Darren Fisher's riding. And conservative signs are all over the place, outnumbering the liberal ones. And he's had this riding for a very, very long time.

So we'll see how it all goes. It's like people are saying one thing and I'm hearing one thing, but then I'm also seeing some stuff on the ground with how many signs are out there. And it's conflicting information. It's really odd. How like, curious, growing up traveling across Canada, were you always a political family? Or is this something that, oh yeah, this is something. Yeah.

This has been around the supper table. This has been something you've talked about lots. Yeah, it's specifically when I got older to more so around when I was 12, 13. That's when the conversation started picking up more politically. We were definitely a Harper family through and through. And it was just one of those things where my mom comes from an immigrant household. Her parents came over here on a boat from Italy. But the thing was interesting is that her dad got a job immediately

and who was in power at the time, liberals were in power at the time. And he told his whole family that you need to vote liberal for the rest of your life because they gave me a job. And that was the messaging in her family. And then things got really hairy, was Jean-Cretchen, a Paul Martin, and my no-no had passed away. And my Italian family flipped conservative after all that happened. And they voted Stephen Harper.

And so much so that my no-no was in a house alone in Niagara Falls. And my mom called her like, hey, who are you voting for? And she's like, don't tell anybody, don't tell anybody, whispering on the phone, you vote in Stephen Harper. You know, it was just kind of weird, that whole switch. And since then, my mom was liberal, has flipped a conservative back when I was like 11 and 12. And that's when we started talking more politics around the table after that. it's it's that is like come on spit it out Sean it's like it's a hard story for me to

like I fully understand it but I'm like but still so you get over to a country you go you got to vote like can you imagine saying no matter what happens you're voting this color no matter what because it brought us here yeah and it's like but grandpa what happens if they ask us to just do something horrific that goes against everything we've learned in life, goes against our faith, everything. Yep. Don't care. You vote the red.

It's like, what? That doesn't make any sense. It doesn't make any sense. Yeah. Like, you know, because I keep hearing this, right? Like all the, all the immigration going on, right? All these people flooding in. And they're all voting red.

I'm like, why? Are all these people dumb? Like none of them can just like go, you know, there's some things going on here, but there's some other things that doesn't make any sense. I wouldn't mind working and making a living. and earning them for myself. Like, are none of those people immigrating across? Is it just all a certain sect of people that just,

nope, they just want to be given things by the government. That's it. I have a hard time believe in that. Well, I think both can be true. I think what we're seeing is the immigrants who are fresh here. Of course, they're going to vote for the party that brought them here. That makes sense. But the immigrants who have been here for a handful of years, I've been talking to them,

there's like, this party's nuts. They're nothing, they don't align with any of my values. I'm not voting for them. Well, imagine you're, you come from a Christian nation. Faith is a big part to you. You come across, okay? You get here. Like, oh, man, this is amazing.

And you're getting money given to you and everything's great. And then you go to sign your kid up for school and they're talking about how boys can be girls. You're like, nope, uh, uh, uh, yeah, it's a culture shock and a half. It's a culture shock sitting on this side. I'm like, I don't understand this. This is ridiculous. And then, and then that's what that's, you know, like Carney's going to take, oh, the Americans can't have their warm, woke, and we're going to be all inclusive.

Like, as somebody who, if I traveled over to Italy and they started doing that, I'm like, nope, I don't like this. I need to get the heck out of here. So like, to me, I agree, it can be both. But then you stack on all the things have gone on in the last 10 years. And if you've been here for longer than a hot minute, you're starting to look at this going, we need a change. aren't you yeah well i actually had an individual in my show uh show kushal who um he lives in

canada for half the year he lives in india for the other half uh and he was talking about just the indian population uh here in canada and we were at that point talking about the bc election and he was talking about how you know a lot a lot of his community were voting conservative and and frustrated by the result that they got he's like it isn't my community he's voting nDP it's the damn white people like i don't know why i keep doing this to yourselves we're frustrated at that we are voting conservative here and you keep voting against your interest we don't get it i was like oh snap all right you that's interesting isn't it yeah absolutely so why do we keep doing this have you have you have you given that much thought in terms of why we keep voting liberal yeah like i mean

yeah certainly the cities want certain things i get it um um one thing one thing one thing thing I would say is we have to look at kind of where we're at. So people keep talking as if Trudeau had this strong, strong mandate through 12 years. He didn't. He had a strong mandate for his first term and then won two minorities by the skin of his teeth, the next two elections, one of which was COVID-related. And it was all about keeping people safe and praying on their fears. And that's kind of what I'm seeing with the Liberal Party in general over the past couple elections, is they're trying to win elections based on fear. And that's the big distinguishing factor we're seeing right now, is they're hoping for the red herring. Red herring in 2021 was COVID. Red herring in 2025 is Donald

Trump and him taking over. Even though we all know, Sean, I know you know this. It is just pure rhetoric. But these people up here in Canada really believe Donald Trump is going to amass the army and take us over or take us over economically. That's what they really believe. And the liberals know that and liberals know they don't have a platform they don't have anything a record to run on all they can do is we'll fight Donald Trump elbows up that's all they have that's the red herring and i think that may fall short this time here can only go so far people are seeing hope and polio's platform and i think that will win at the end of the day yeah i i i uh when you've lived in the dark dungeons of fear for as long as we have, right?

Because it's been, you know, go back 2015, it wasn't. I remember 2019 the election result, though, and being like, what is going on and feeling, you know, there was a huge Wexit movement at that point in time, Oat West. Yeah. Okay, so Oat West, 2019 was a big year. Yeah. And then, of course, that didn't amount to anything. But we're, we're six years past that now.

So there's been six years of some form of. spare, not to mention in 2020, you get COVID and then you get those and you have the freedom convoy and you have the demonization of a whole group of people and on and on this goes. And you go, a little bit of hope, you know, if this was 20 years ago or whatever, maybe 15 years ago, there was hope, I guess 10 years ago, 10 years ago there was hope in Justin Trudeau, right? That's kind of how they sold it. Yeah. Now it's like, we need hope away from the liberals.

You might be right there a little because like the fear. thing I think is starting to bug everyone. Enough with it. Let's get back to life here. Well, I'm actually curious. I want to get your perspective on this, Sean, because I know how I think. What do you think lost the conservatives the election in 2019? 2019? Yeah. Okay. Who ran in 2019? Was that old tool? No, that was sheer. Mm-hmm. Hmm. You know, I honestly, if I'm being completely honest, yeah. 2019, I started the podcast and I was focused on one thing, sports. I would say I didn't start paying attention until the 2021 election.

So I can't even give you a good answer. You know, they said it was shears to take and he missed an open net. That's what I know. I probably shouldn't say that on Aaron's a guy who's now talking politics, but I don't like lying, folks. I like to me, there's no point in blowing smoke when I actually don't have an answer for you. Why? You simply just quoted Peter McKay. He said the exact same thing.

He was disappointed in the party because they literally could have had, they had an open net and they missed it completely. And this was the issue is people were frustrated with what Justin Trudeau was doing. They were fresh with what the liberals had done. They were annoyed by all of the scandals that had taken place. But Shear didn't focus much on what the conservatives were going to do. He focused on Trudeau sucks. And the moment that really lost in the election from my perspective was the debate where they, I can't remember what it was they were debating over. but Andrew Shear made it a point to shift his whole body right at Justin Trudeau and tell him,

you're the wrong, you're the what's wrong. You caused this, you did this, bump, bum, bum, abo. And people were completely turned off by that. And that's what led to another Trudeau minority from my perspective. It was just kind of a weird. Trier didn't do a good job of communicating with the conservatives were going to do differently and give them hope. They just said, Trudeau sucks.

You vote for us. And that was the, I think that's what lost in 2019. politics is such a weird sport. Yeah. Or weird. I don't even know if it's a sport. Coming from a sporting background, right? Like, you know, when you put it in things, you know, like it's body language.

His body language and his tone lost him in election. That's what I hear. I'm like, huh. Yeah, 100%. When right now, all I want is an aggressive person to call Trudeau a moron. You are the problem. Come on, folks. That's what we all want.

We want a strong leader. Do we not? Mm-hmm. And why is Carney? No, I hate saying this. I hate it. I literally hate saying this on here. Why are some people drawn to him?

Because what you said earlier, well, look at his background. He looks like the mature individual in this. He can deal with the fine. He can go head to head with Trump. When you say it like that, I want to punch myself in the face myself. Because I'm just like, but it's true. Like, I mean it's true in the sense that I can see how that can be perceived to the voting audience because here in Canada we are different I mean I run into

people such as yourself that at age 12 it started around the kitchen table oh that's that's really interesting because there's a lot of people that have no idea you know what was the thing that we're saying this this morning you know in Saskatchewan and no offense to Saskatchewan folks I love you all I'm originally from there there's people if you showed up to their doorstep don't know if they have an MLA or an MP or the difference or the fact that you know like just simple little nuances in politics. They don't understand with federal, provincial, municipal, et cetera, et cetera.

And once again, folks, I'm not judging because I'm on a collision course with learning all this as I go along too on this side. But like, it's interesting to me that such a little thing could lose your election. Because I trust what you're saying. It makes sense that, you know, from your eyes, that's what lost them in the election. Like, to me, what did O'Toole? How did O'Toole lose it? he was weak he he literally was a limp candidate like we all watched him and

like this is the guy I can't I don't get I don't want to vote for this guy this guy sucks I ain't am I wrong no that's exactly how the the feeling was that's why he got ousted so quick right it was all set and done like so you look at you look at Pierre he's calculated he uh you can love it or hate of folks he he he's pretty charismatic I think right i mean he ate a freaking apple and it just exploded you know like it's pretty wild when you think about it and you know for whatever reason i don't know what it is why do people not like maxine burning you've been staring at this longer than i have why is it that maxim can say pretty much everything you want to hear out of a politician and yet it's like yeah it's going nowhere

why is that um it's just because it doesn't come across genuine i'm being quite frank with you Really? Is that what it is? Yeah, at least from people I've talked to, people get very upset. At least people in the Conservative Party get fairly upset because he just shows up every four years in campaigns, but doesn't do a whole lot in between elections. And the criticism that came about him

was the fact that he owns houses in Florida and kind of lives in America a lot of the time. Then he rears his ugly head and says, hey, I'm here. And conservative stink, vote for me, and we'll leave it at that. And that's where people get kind of annoyed by. It's like, okay, if you actually believe in your policies,

why aren't you here trying to do a ground game between elections, trying to make this look better, because at least you can say, you know, say you want, it was his job. He was the opposition. But Pollyev's been here for the past four years calling out all the liberal BS. Maxime's been in Florida. And people see through that, unfortunately. And I think that's what's part of it.

You know, if I may stick up for the PPCers for a quick hot second, did he did he not get arrested, folks? I feel like he got arrested in the middle of COVID. He did show up to the truckers protest. You know, they've been throwing some rough, rough shakes with not being allowed on the national debate stage multiple times now and multiple, you know. And so while I can under the genuine thing, hmm, I can think on that for a bit. The not being here in between the election cycles, I don't know about that. I guess I never really thought about it before.

But like when I see from this side, especially through COVID, I can't speak to before that. I can speak to the COVID time. It felt like Maxime was in the middle of the fray almost all the time, speaking out, talking about things. And yet, you know, here we sit, 2025, election in less than three weeks. Maxine was just on the show last week, I think, folks. I think it was the last week.

And we got done it. And I'm like, man, he just said, Everything that I want a politician to say. But it's funny, the phone line where all the feedback from the podcast comes, wasn't like, I'm voting Maxime, Maxine's the best. It was like a cluster. Why is that? Why is it the, you want a politician to say the things, but maybe the genuine part is something.

I mean, obviously, that's an interesting take. Well, here's a thing is like, I don't disagree with what you said about 2021 and what he did. that that actually resonated with a good chunk of the population because he was he was in the muck of it he was dealing with it and they saw what they're throwing at him that's why pbc saw the most success they've ever seen in 2021 but then the election happens they don't manage to get a seat and then and then that's when he kind of disappeared and fell off uh and that's when people are like okay now you're showing up in 2025 where was the energy in 2021 we like that guy but we haven't seen you until now what's going on and

And that's kind of a lot of the questions I know people are having about Maxine, again, about his essentially the authenticity of it. Well, I appreciate a different side of the country, like the opposite side of the country's take on it, right? Because like, well, it's just, it's just putting more pieces of the picture together, if you will, right? Because you have, like you say, 2021, yeah, there's a Maxine there. And then a space and then 2025. And people for sure are going to be upset us talking like this about Maxime. Not that I wish Maxime no ill will whatsoever. It's curious to me, the voting public, how they perceive things. The liberals have been, it's frustrating. I have to applaud them

at times and how brilliant they've been in a very, like dark and nefarious way. I don't like them. I don't like what's going on. But like even, you know, I had a guy on, um, shout out to Peter, uh, uh, Schultz, who talked about them sending Trudeau down to meet Donald Trump. And what that was going to do. They knew that Trump's going to eat his lunch, but that's going to do. And I'm like, man, that's, when you think about that, that's smart. And the liberals have been very probably calculated in their approach to things, even with Carney coming in and the fact that we're even having the possibility. Like, don't you just, love or hate the, uh, the conservatives folks. Don't you just hope you wake up on the morning of the 29th and you, uh, you flip open the website

because you didn't want to even care to watch anything. And boom, it says new prime minister for Canada, Pierre Poliath, and you go, oh, thank goodness. Let's just move on with life. And I know there's a whole bunch of people. They're going to go with Sean. He's leading us. I know.

I know. But for a moment, it's just like maybe everything isn't completely corrupt and insane, because it has been insane for the last 10 years. Yeah. And we're seeing it full throttle. You know, and I also want to give a shadow. Like, I'm not here trying to, as you said, not trying to hate on Maxine. I'm just reporting what I've been hearing on the ground from people.

That's all I've been seeing and hearing. But when it comes to the craziness we've seen in the past 10 years, we're starting to see it right in this microcosm right now of these next, of currently the past couple weeks and then moving on to the next two weeks is things are, the corruption is so clear at this point. We're seeing it in our media establishment. We're seeing it in even in our pollsters. We're seeing it in just weird ways that everything's kind of manifesting. And it almost feels like this is the last screech of the empire, the last screech of the establishment, being like, we know we could lose this. And that's when I know people, like, especially the PBC members, just like, oh, Paul Yev, he's a fake. He's the same as Trudeau.

And I'm like, I hear you. but the length they've been going to sewer this man leads me to believe that what he's been saying is true is that he's not the same as Justin. He's not a Wef member. He's not going to be catering to these multinational interests. Because if that were the case, I don't think this election would be as greasy as it has been.

I don't know. I don't know what to say. I'm just like, I'm interested because I got a guy on the other side of the country who has a different, you know like the one thing that i i find very intriguing about talking to you is um i host a live show on on fridays show tos and i mentioned to him i said yeah i got i got i got a guy coming on from the elevate podcast i never even you ever heard of this he's like no it's like oh that's interesting right because it's like different networks different people is there some crossover obviously because you mentioned you know somebody brought up my name um and and and then obviously you you slid into

to my realm and I'm like, oh, interesting. But one of the things that's really interesting about, or to me that's really interesting, sorry, is like completely different networks, completely different conversations, completely different perspectives. It doesn't mean that we don't look at some of the problems the same. It just means when we're talking about certain things,

you know, you being out in Nova Scotia, like, I'm just kind of curious. Like, are they completely upset with the liberals? Yes, in the countryside, but no in the cities. I would say yes, because of how our last provincial election went. You mentioned the point where there's people who don't fully understand the difference between provincial and federal. Sure. And I think we saw that transpire in our provincial election here, where we have 56 seats, I think, total in the province.

And the conservatives won 44 of them. like just smoked. The liberal leader, Demon win his seat, the NDP or the official opposition with six seats, something like that. Like,

they got absolutely smoked. Do you think that'll translate over to the federal election? I'm hoping so. I'm hoping so. It's tough to say, but what I will say is that

the conservative government here hasn't, or the PCs, haven't done anything that's upset the population. They've actually, the populations received them very well in what they've been doing in the past several months. And so the only thing that's upset the left, really, it's really ticked off the left. And this is the one thing, I think one, is one Tim Houston over, who's the Premier, over to a lot of the Nova Scotians, was obviously the threats and the pressure that we were getting from Donald Trump.

He's like, for the first time, a Premier in this province says, we need to start doing mineral extraction. We need to start getting our natural resources out to markets. We need to start picking this out. We cannot, cannot pander and be submissive to the very loud minority mob who will come for us, who thinks everything's, everything's bad. We can extract our resources in an environmentally sensitive way, but we also just need to start doing it because we need to start making some money in the province. And what happened?

Well, the next day, everyone's at province house with their signs, You can't, you know, no fracking. You know, let's start going off about all the random things that they were going off about. He gets in the mic and says, there's been too many premiers who have bent the knee to the mob and to these environmental groups. I will not be doing that. We will be moving forward on this and they have to get used to it. And that's the first time we saw any boldness from leadership here when it comes to standing

up for Nova Scotians, which was very, very interesting. and that won a lot of the population over. So I could see that possibly translating to a federal vote. I feel like a lot of us want boldness at this point in time. Wherever you stand on the social issue order, when it comes to just standing up for your voting base, isn't that like a common thing? We're all just kind of like, that'd be nice.

Honestly, can we just get back to where our politicians stand up for what we believe in? And not what the loud mob, who's this tiny little section, of society have been screaming at them. But what you just said, that's super rare. Like that's, that's extremely rare in politicians today. You know, and I, and we got Premier Daniel Smith, right? Like, I mean, we got the one who I think if you're sitting in Canada, your, your most conservatives are wishing they had Daniel Smith in their province because

what the, what is perceived, and I think, you know, like my hat's off to her. She's been standing up to the mob and with a lot of support, I might add, from the the Alberta population to stand up against, you know, the woke. Like just, just let's just get back to normal days. Can we just get back to normal days? You got to stand for something here. But that's interesting because if that's what's pulling you closer to the to the Nova Scotia population, that would almost lend me to believe they're going to show up and vote conservative on election day, wouldn't it? Yeah. Because of the end, the the pro mineral, um, or the resource work, like that's 100%

what people want here. They see it. The Quebec sees it. And people typically would have been upset that Tim Houston was meeting with Daniel Smith, typically. But now they've been seeing that Alberta and Nova Scotos are trying to work together to make something happen. And people are excited about it here. And people have hope, which shows that they're able to put the virtue signaling identity politics to the side and able to see what we actually need to get done for this country, which is trying to get our resources out to market. And that, I think, is a positive conversation. Hmm. Before I let you out of here, anything from Nova Scotia or from your podcast, for that matter, I haven't actually brought up to show you got. Maybe we should spend a couple of minutes on what you've been doing. Because honestly, forgive me. My brain is stuck on election and you're giving me a few things I've got to think about. Elevate. Talk to me about that. Walk me through this. Walk the audience through what you're doing on YouTube and on other platforms, I assume. Yeah, as I said, start off the show.

It was just a show I did for fun once a week. And then over time, it developed into a political podcast. And now it's moved into, in some ways, was forced to become a show that was kind of like this. Me talking to a camera about what's happening in terms of political events and political stories that are happening across the country. And I do that every day. The only day I'm taking off is now Sundays. But I'm going twice a day a weekdays and then once on Saturdays and then taking some. Sundays off, but trying to get as much information out to people as possible.

Have this conversation 15 to 20 minute videos a day and just trying to keep people updated. Yeah, well, if I've learned anything, I started out doing a podcast a week to two to five. And I go, I could probably be having, you know, you go, how did they ever get to like a 24-hour network that's just constantly talking? And don't get me wrong, 24 hours is over doing it. But at the same time, why do they do that? Well, I can understand why. Sitting here doing five different conversations a week and trying to keep, like, there's just days here.

Like, how am I supposed to talk about all this? How are we supposed to bring somebody on to talk about how insane Canada is right now? Right? Like, it's just like all the time. We do, we do on Fridays, we do a live show where we talk about the headlines of a week, just of a week. And every time by the end of it, I'm so annoyed. I'm like, how is this all happening in one week?

Like, Kanda can't be this broken? And yet, when I hear you go, yeah, I'm up to, you know, I'm doing two shows, you know, and I'm six days a week. I'm like, oh, no, you can have the same issue we have. It's not like you just need one show, keep over it. It's moving so fast. Everything is so fluid right now. And it's changing by the day, honestly.

It's almost impossible to stay on top of at times. Yep. Yeah, it's, uh, it is, it will, make your headspin. Actually, I had one of those days last night. I usually record my shows the night before, like 11 o'clock my time to release for 7 a.m. the next morning. And I sat at my desk for four hours last night trying to figure out what the heck I was going to cover. And it was like, it was just mind numbing. And I have those days where I'm like, there's just so much that happen. What do I cover? And so it's just like, I get it, man. It can be a lot. And it's a lot for

the viewer. I can understand. It can empathize with their viewers like that. It's a lot. That's why I try to keep it down in bite-sized snippets to a degree 15 and 20 minutes. Try to keep a light, try to keep a fun, try to keep the tempo up, just so it doesn't feel as heavy. Because, quite frankly, the material that we're dealing with is heavy. Yeah, you've got to add a little bit of humor into it. And you know, you've said the word multiple times today, hope, right? Like, to me, a world without hope is a pretty dark place, you know? And certainly, I know on this side that there is a lot of hope out there.

right like you just have to put the spotlight on it and show like you know like 15,000 people roughly showing up in eminent. That's a pretty cool story. I mean, whatever you want to say about it, that's pretty cool. Uh, because we've, I don't know, I've been too many political, uh, um, venues or, or, or, you know, like, um, I mean, it was just in Alberta, the UCPA GM had 60, what was it, folks, 6,500, 6,000. I can't remember what the number was. It was the largest, AGM in Alberta history, if not Canadian history. I can't remember now. Now I'm going to butcher that.

But it was pretty cool. And the thing about that many people in the same spot is the atmosphere is, for lack of a better term, electric, which already just starts bubbling new conversations and people start walking a little differently than the dark days of, I think, COVID, where, you know, don't meet with five people. And you're not allowed to meet in a hall. You're not, don't do any of that. You know, you think of where we've come from. And the fact that 15,000 people took a night of the week to show up to a random, like you say, I saw the video of the shop.

It was monstrous, which was pretty cool. Josh, appreciate you hopping on and doing this. Any final thoughts? Where people can find you, fire away. Yeah, absolutely. First of all, thanks for having me on. It was great to be able to have these conversations and seeing what is going on in the country and kind of get in your perspective of Alberta, then obviously the Nova Scotia. I don't know how much of you have.

of a perspective I gave it. It's like, what did you think of 2019? It's like, I actually, no, no. I don't know. I love talking to the burdens, baby. Love talking to burdens. It's fantastic. No, you guys are awesome. But yeah, it's, you know, always here to try and, you know, keep things light,

keep things fun. You know, as you said, 15,000 people, if that was, the number is insane, regardless of where it happens, especially for politics here in this country. I love Pierre Polly. I have some curious your perspective on that where he called out the reporter today. Like, come on. That was a big, that was a big, big rally, wasn't it? Have you seen what they've been saying about he, they're, they're saying he really, well,

and you probably covered this, but they're really trying to draw the comparison of him to Trump, always talking about the size of events. When you get a number like that, what do you mean? You're not going to talk about it? Like, come on. If Carney had that, he'd be talking about it. No, we're not going to talk about it. It's because you guys are losing and you know it and you can see it.

Yeah. I mean, even, I mean, come on, let's talk about, we talked about the beginning of the show. the liberals had huge crowds for Trudeau and that's all they could talk about back in 2015. Come on, man. Give me a break. But I guess anyways, I'll finish off and get you out of here.

But yeah, Elevate Podcasts. You can follow us on X, on YouTube. We're starting to get back into Instagram. And it's just the Elevate podcast with an 8. And we would be happy to see you there and continue to report on politics. Why the name Elevate? Oh, baby.

Again, it originated as a business show. And so we wanted to elevate people understanding of how to make money. And that's how it went. And then the problem was we gained a pretty decent following over time. And then the politics stuff just kind of like grew it like crazy. And I was like, well, the brand recognition is already there. The people love the branding, which is the colors, the black, blue, and the red.

And I was like, I guess we're just keeping it as the other podcast. I didn't bother changing it. Why? When you started talking politics, when was that? That was COVID? Yeah, it was actually I know exactly when it was. It was when they started bringing the vaccine passports in. And I was like, okay, this is a little much here.

This is getting kind of crazy. And that's when things popped off. And you were doing it on YouTube? Is that or was it separate from YouTube at that time? Yeah, all right. We had next to know YouTube following actually at that point. They was all through like clipping things. Yeah, like 95,000 followers right now on YouTube or my undershooting you.

we'll say 95, 95, we're 500 away from 100,000. Please keep following us. There you go. Okay. So you got 100,000 on there. Yep. And, but your, your elevate, the podcast was actually just on like Spotify and things like that. Yeah, like we had like a YouTube presence. We just kind of post the full show and that was it. But like we had maybe a handful of followers. We really, when we started this thing, it was just like, so yeah, we got a real following like this time last year. We got a real following like this time last year. We got. got up to like maybe 30,000 followers, just going once a week type of thing. And then, and then, yeah, we were at that point, but just past November and we crew by like 50,000 since November. So once you start going every day. Cool. Well, best of luck, T. I appreciate you hopping on and doing this. And, oh, but now we know where you're at. We'll probably be paying attention. Either way, Josh, thanks for hopping on on this side. Thank you, Sean. Really appreciate your time.