Why did Leslyn Lewis call out Pierre Poilievre in the CPC leadership race debate

And Dr. Lewis joins us on the program now.
Dr. Lewis, thank you for taking the time.
How did you assess that debate?
Well, I assessed it from my perspective, which
I thought that I did very well.
I executed my position, and I was able
to call out people that I didn't feel
were being forthright with their position. Okay.
So there are clear differences, clear among
candidates, and that became very evident.
There was much challenging going on, and you
certainly challenged the perceived front runner, Pierre Poilievre.
Where does Mr. Poilievre fail as far as you're concerned?
Well, I think it's very important that people...
that candidates are upfront with what their positions are.
If you're going to lead this country,
you have to lead for everyone.
You have to be able to engage all different perspectives
and hiding who you are hiding what you believe in
is not going to go over with your opponents and
with delivery, they are going to be able to extract
from you what your positions are.
So it doesn't really matter what your
viewpoint is on a certain issue.
You just need to be confident
and courageous enough to articulate it.
Not everybody is going to agree with you on the
position, but Canadians need to know where you stand.
It's about honesty. It's about understanding.
It's about believing the candidate, whether it's at
the constituency level or the national level.
you have to believe what the candidate is saying
in order for the candidate to earn your vote.
Why should Canadians consider Dr.
Leslie Lewis to be the best
candidate for Prime Minister of candidate?
Because I will give our party the best chance to win.
Not only that, I believe that it's
very important that the next leader is
able to build bridges, bring people together.
Our country is in trouble, and many people
are crying out for hope and for opportunity.
We need somebody with not only parliamentary experience, but real
life experience that can relate to the average Canadian that
understands what it means to build a business, understand what
it means to create wealth, understand what it means to
maybe not be able to know where their next meal
is coming from, standing in a grocery line and not
knowing if your debit card is going to go through,
not someone who's had a paycheck their whole life, someone
who struggled and made it from the bottom up and
can relate to Canadians and then help build this country back.
Right now, our country is being run
by a minority of WOKE politicians.
The minor WOKE population is ruling
over the majority, the silent majority.
And we need to turn things around and
give people back their power and their freedom.
Dr. Lewis, there is a perceived divide, probably
a real divide among Conservatives within the
Conservative Party, social Conservatives, others who define
themselves as not being social Conservatives, Conservatives.
There's a divide on abortion and gay marriage.
As we watch the party evolve.
would you speak to that, please?
How do Canadians ... and you talk about
needing to understand that you're the person
who can bring the country together.
Can you bring the party together?
Well, I think it's important that, first of
all, we recognize that every voice is important,
and our party is a microcosm of society.
So we have divergent voices.
We're not a groupthink party.
And so when we celebrate the various voices
and we allow them to shine.
I think it will build a very strong, united party.
With respect to the divergent perspective, yes,
I'm defined as a social conservative in my
life as a lawyer, I represented the LGBTQ+
community who were persecuted in their country
and came to Canada fleeing persecution as refugees.
Many of those people landed in Canada with my
phone number in their pocket because I believe in
the inherent dignity of all human beings.
And so it's very important that Canadians
know what you believe, what policies you
will form, where you stand on issues.
And when we run away from that,
it's basically saying... I don't doubt that.
Can you bring this party together?
Look, we've seen two leaders now that weren't
able to deliver the party in such a
way to Canadians to have to form government.
And like Jean Charest was talking about, needing
to satisfy the Greater Toronto Area.
Maybe you have some comment on that,
But you have two leaders now.
They were elected by the party who
said they would pull the party together.
They weren't able to do it
to the satisfaction of Canadian voters.
Can you do that?
I absolutely can, because I think it's important that we
focus on what our strengths are on our unified voice.
When we begin from the premise that some voices need
to be silent, that some perspectives need to be hidden,
and we buy into this wokeism that is when
our party will continue to be divided.
I have been very vocal in telling people who
I am and also by saying I will formulate
policies that will uplift the entire Canadian population.
Everybody will prosper under my leadership.
And so that's the type
of voice... Justin Trudeau's policies.
I'm sorry to rush you, but
we started a little late.
Which of Justin Trudeau's policies would you
immediately address and which of Mr.
Trudeau's policies would you judge to be
most harmful to Canada and Canadians?
Any policy that infringes our Charter.
Canadiannever again should feel that a government
can freeze their bank accounts and confiscate
their property without a court order.
Canadians now are facing mandates and
they cannot travel because they're unvaccinated.
I would immediately get rid of that.
I would immediately restore Canadians to
their jobs who have been discriminated
against because of their vaccination status.
We have ways to reasonably accommodate.
I believe that we should do that. All right.
Now energy exports.
Let's talk about that before we talk about
energy exports, let me just draw the attention
to what Canadians are seeing today.
You're seeing it as well.
If you're out there, you're seeing
the price of gasoline just spiking.
Mr. Trudeau has increased the carbon tax and intends
to increase it three-fold by 2030.
What would you do about the carbon tax,
about the cost of energy and our inability
as a nation to export the actual fuels.
we have, the energy supplies we have in
abundance, but we can't get them overseas.
What would you do?
I would get rid of the carbon tax.
There are more efficient ways to protect
our environment without burdening average Canadians, heating
their homes, filling up their gas tanks.
I would repeal Bill C-48, Bill C-69,
and allow Canadian energy to thrive.
We have the third largest accessible
oil reserves on the planet.
We have the most ethical
and environmentally-friendly standards.
We should be able to get our LNG
to market, offset the 40% dependency of Europe
on Russian oil and enrich our country.
We need to bring our supply chains home, not only in
the area of oil and gas, but in food, in industries.
We need to start producing more in Canada and
bring down the cost of living for everyone.
Okay, very much so. The truth.
Let me ask you one more question.
In the time that we have left, Mr.
Charest pointed several times to the Greater Toronto Area,
the GTA, and pointed to the failure of the
Conservative Party of Canada to gain even a nominal
number of seats in last year's election.
I think it was four seats out of what, 54, 55.
And he talked about needing to be able to
generate that kind of return from the GTA.
When Canadians across the country here GTA,
they hear, oh, my God, Toronto again.
How do you reconcile the power of Toronto
just by just numerically with number of seats in
Parliament with the national desire to be represented?
Because you know what the feeling is, in
some parts of the country, Toronto gets everything
first, and then we get what's left.
What do you say to that?
Well, I think there are areas of the country like
the west, the east to some extent, and other areas
that have been completely overlooked and disrespected by Ottawa.
We need to change that.
We need to make sure that every Canadian
feels valuable and every region feels valuable.
But there is a real problem in
the large urban centers for the conservatives.
And those areas have large immigrant population.
We need to find ways to reach out to those populations.
I believe that my success story as coming here at
five years old, achieving the heights of the PhD, running
for the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada,
that success story resonates with the average immigrant
family who came here, left everything behind, has
strong faith values, strong family values.
So I believe that I'm in a unique position to
reach out to those centers and to win those areas
for our party and in the general election.