The Conservative candidate elected in GTA byelection is taking aim at “liberal elites” he says are betraying the working class.
Jamil Jivani won the Durham byelection Monday night with 57.4% of the vote, a 20-year record margin of victory.
In Jivani’s acceptance speech at Chuck’s Roadhouse in Courtice, Ont., he said “elites” are to blame for many of the problems facing Canada today.
“When we talk about what’s happening in the country right now, I do think it’s Liberal elites betraying the working class. When I say liberal elites, I am talking about Justin Trudeau and the Liberal party,” Jivani said.
He wasn’t just talking about the Liberal’s in the House of Commons, however. He railed against big banks and telecommunications companies – and also Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government.
“I’m also talking about the liberal elites who run the Ontario ministry of education in this province…the liberal elites who are activists and academics trying to consistently undermine law enforcement and public safety, leaving the most vulnerable Canadians with fewer protections from our justice system,” he said. “They’re the people pushing DEI and ESG initiatives while hiking up the cost of living for hardworking people.”
Jivani said these efforts amount to “performance theatre” that doesn’t help ordinary Canadians.
“They are the people who virtue signal and engage in performance theatre while your life gets harder. And they’re the people who serve the interests of a privileged few and make you feel like a bad person for expecting our country to work for you, and they’re wrong,” Jivani said.
During his speech, Jivani remarked on the moment Trudeau called him a “two-fer,” which several Conservatives accused of being a racial term.
“Justin Trudeau doesn’t really know what to do with people like me and with a lot of people in this room,” Jivani said. “He looks at us and thinks his party owns us and owns our communities. He looks at me and sees a millennial son of an African immigrant, grandson of a public school custodian, a survivor of cancer thanks to our public health care system and raised by a single mother, and he thinks that people like me owe his party something, that we have to fall in line with his party, I disagree.”
With over 57% of the vote, Jivani reflected the mandate given to him as Durham’s newest MP-elect.
“I think that people want change in this country. When you have a byelection, you have the opportunity to show that. As people think about what the general election is going to look like, we want to show them. People want change. People want Pierre Poilievre,” Jivani said. “We need a change in Ottawa.”
Jivani said his first priority as MP will be trying to build more homes in Durham Region. As a millennial, he ran on the fact that he is still a renter at 36-years-old despite working his whole life.
“There’s a lot of people my age, people younger than me, who want to own homes, people living with their parents that want to start a family and move forward in their lives. So housing and affordability, those are my main concerns.”
Oshawa Conservative MP Collin Carrie was also in attendance.
“Jamil’s the type of guy that gets people on board. He’s young, he’s intelligent and a great communicator and that’s contagious,” Carrie said. “There’s a real enthusiasm for change and Jamil represents that.”
Carrie said the number one issue he heard from Conservative voters when door knocking with Jivani was getting rid of Trudeau’s Liberal government.
In contrast with Jivani getting over 57% of the vote, Erin O’Toole, when he was leading the Conservative Party in the last election in 2021, received 46.39% of the vote.
Robert Rock, the Liberal candidate, who ran against Jivani in the nomination for the party received 22.5%.
School trustee who branded parental rights protesters “neo-Nazis” faces censure
A greater Toronto area school trustee is facing censure over several “disrespectful” posts disparaging Christianity and parental rights protesters.
Durham District School Board Trustee Deb Oldfield was found to have violated several sections of the board’s Code of Conduct.
According to Office of the Integrity Commissioner investigator Jeffrey Shapiro, Oldfield’s comments mocked religious beliefs and sowed polarization following a particularly heated May 15 board meeting at which parental rights advocates showed up to challenge policies at the school board rooted in gender ideology.
Specifically, Oldfield’s posts were criticized for their lack of specificity in criticism, their use of extraordinary labels such as “neo-Nazis” and “fascists,” and for failing to meet the high standard of care expected of her position.
One of the contentious posts featured a political cartoon mocking Christian beliefs, while another condemned an entire religion based on the actions of a few individuals, drawing criticism for its discriminatory tone.
“When offering a criticism, be specific as to what happened and explain why one disagrees. Unless truly required, avoid labeling, particularly with extraordinary labels such as ‘white supremacist’ and ‘fascist’,’” wrote Shapiro.
According to Shapiro’s report, Oldhand could not substantiate her comments that the demonstrators who were protesting gender ideology in schools were extremists.
“Certainly, there are neo-Nazis and other hate groups in Canada who, among other goals, may seek actual violence against the 2SLGBTQIA+ community. Parents and the other people that I saw on the DDSB recording, who spoke at the May 15 meeting, do not appear to be those groups and should not be talked about with the same labels as those spreading hate, unless it can be demonstrably proven,” argued the finding.
Additionally, a retweet inaccurately portrayed the school board’s policy on book objections, while another post was criticized for its disrespectful and unprofessional nature in addressing concerns raised by parents.
“Some of the impugned tweets (as indicated) draw disrespectful and unprofessional blurry lines between parental concerns and hate groups, and/or are not issue-based, and/or have a tone of being “demeaning and disparaging”. They are accordingly “disrespectful and unconstructive”,” said Shapiro.
“While these tweets were intended to make the DDSB an inclusive environment for all people, some of them did the opposite. Some of what was expressed ran contrary to the human rights of DDSB students, and some of it was misleading as to actual DDSB policy.”
The Integrity Commissioner’s rulings have yet to be ratified by the Board and are up for consideration later this week.
Several other trustees also face censure, including Linda Stone, who spoke in support of parental rights.