We watch them on giant screen televisions. In that view, they appear larger than life, almost too large for us mere mortal Canadians to dare approach. Grandiose speeches from the House of Commons stoke our political gall and invigorate us into action, at least on social media platforms. Meeting them face to face however, brings them down to our level making them seem almost ordinary. The funny thing is, they are ordinary Canadians that just happen to be doing something to make positive changes in society. Face to face, our politicians are just like us.
I received an invitation to attend a meet and greet style discussion event in Laval last night with Senator Leo Housakos and MP Raquel Dancho. I’m glad I went.
Honestly, we made sure we brought our checkbook, as we were almost certain there would be a huge push for donations. As it turns out, there was no passing of the plate, no “pay to play” agenda. It was just an honest discussion and Q&A with ordinary Canadians. The room was not huge, with seating for about 250 – 300 people with almost every seat occupied. Many stood at high top bar style tables, all together it was a pretty full house.
Senator Housakos started the evening off with introductions and the standard greetings. Unfortunate facts about Justin Trudeau’s government were not lacking. While the Senator took on the role of mediator for the Q&A part of the event, he made it clear that the real attraction was MP Dancho. Housakos and Dancho started it off with a discussion between themselves, which was more of an introduction of who Dancho was, where she came from, and how she got started in politics.
Her entrance on the political scene was not one of those stories we hear so often, she did not come from a long line of political brass, noting that she had no uncle in politics she could call up to help launch her career. She made it clear that she started at the bottom, as a volunteer for a local politician. Her success is purely self discovered.
Turning to the audience for questions, the first up was a middle aged woman, unremarkable from every other Canadian on the street. Let’s call her Jane Nobody. Jane really didn’t have a question. Instead she let it all out. All the frustration, all the hardship, everything wrong in the Canadian political landscape of the present was released from Jane in one long articulation. Jane spoke about the housing crisis, cost of living pressures, lack of accountability, and unchecked scandals from the current government. Woke culture was also mentioned with gusto. Like so many Canadians, it was evident that Jane was ready, past ready in fact, for a change. Dancho took it all in, every last word was not just heard by the MP, but listened to. After all, she’s heard it all before from Canadians coast to coast.
Another attendee mentioned the media bail outs, specifically to the CBC, noting that the news outlet was biased and rarely took the Liberals to task. Housakos and Dancho both chimed in on this one, echoing the “defund the CBC” stance of Pierre Poilievre. Being in Quebec and there being a number of Francophones in attendance, they were both careful to make sure they understood the concerns for French language television in the province. Like it or not, any politician hoping to get support in la belle province needs to have French Canadians on their side. Dancho mentioned that defunding the CBC while not crippling their French counterparts into extinction is no easy task, but that Conservatives were up to the task of finding an acceptable middle ground.
Election interference and the lack of Trudeau’s will to call an inquiry was another hot topic. Dancho made reference to the Roulleau commission, and Trudeau’s lack of understanding how the appearance of conflict of interest was as important as any actual conflict of interest. She reiterated that Conservatives would continue to push for an inquiry led by a non partisan and fair commissioner.
To end the formal part of the evening, Dancho once again reminded the room of how she came up in the political sphere, volunteering her time to a cause she believed in. While she did mention that financial donations were appreciated, she called on everyone to just do what they could to help. Manning phone lines at election time, or putting up campaign signs was as important as any check with multiple zeros in the amount.
After a standing ovation for the hosts was a one on one meet and greet. Unfortunately, the Senator was too mobbed with supporters for us to get close to. We did however get a few minutes of Dancho’s attention. We had comments…and questions. We’ll keep the details of our discussion between us for now, but some of her answers were inspiring, while others were unfortunately not what we wanted to hear, but reality none the less. I also asked that we be called upon to volunteer for the party when the time comes.
One would almost expect to be too star struck by these often larger than life personalities to dare approach them for anything other than a token selfie, but that’s just not how it happened. These two Conservative politicians are personable and approachable. They not only want to hear what Canadians have to say, they want to really listen to us and bring policies that will improve our lives and reverse the damage done over the last 8 (almost 9 now) years of Justin Trudeau’s senseless policies.
Thank you for the invitation from the Conservative party for this evening, and thank you Senator Housalos and MP Dancho for listening to us.