OTTAWA – As a highly educated Black immigrant woman with degrees in gender studies, the environment and international law, conservative leadership hopeful Leslyn Lewis says there is a “narrative that doesn’t exist. to nothing” about what he should think and how he should behave.
His background, which includes a niche practice representing refugees persecuted for their sexual orientation and helping companies build renewable energy projects in developing countries, is well suited to common views of a “culture warrior” as Jordan Peterson called him in a recent interview.
“Are you sure you’re not a closet leftist operative?” he asked in a wide-ranging three-hour chat on his podcast.
He refused it.
In the same interview, Peterson questioned Lewis, who insisted there was a global government conspiracy trying to overtake sovereign nations and that vaccine passports could be used to track your personal behavior in purchase, why he should not be dismissed as a socially conservative conspiracy theorist.
“I’m a very educated person and I don’t care if someone calls me a conspiracy theorist because it means they’re not intelligent enough to argue with me,” Lewis said.
The stance represents a departure from his days at Toronto’s York University, when he felt he needed to keep his political views to himself while studying for his PhD in international law with a focus of green energy. Lewis said he felt like an undercover agent, hiding his political beliefs.
“I would never say I’m a conservative,” Lewis told Peterson.
He lamented what he saw as a lack of diversity of thought as he worked on his thesis on how to use green tech to improve energy security in developing countries.
“That’s the end of my university career, and that’s not good.”
Lewis went from complete political obscurity to Conservative party stardom in 2020 when he burst onto the national stage in the final leadership race. He placed third in that competition which turned out better than some pundits expected, including some riding in the field.
He won over Conservative voters with his uncompromising stance against sex selection and forced abortion.
Before becoming an MP in 2021, the leadership candidate used his law degree to help Canadian companies offer green solutions like solar power to wean people in developing countries from fossil fuels.
“We have women suffering from chronic lung diseases because of the amount of fossil fuel they have to burn to do basic things like cooking,” said Lewis, who recalled the project in an interview. in The Canadian Press.
Incorporating environmental work into his practice is an ambition, he says — something he pursues while working in a more lucrative area of law like immigration.
His doctoral thesis is also an ode to the untapped potential of renewable energy in the developing world, beginning with a view of global energy consumption from the sky.
“While North America and Europe seem to be illuminated by flickers of light similar to a harmonious radiant bulb, the African continent has some glimmers,” he wrote in his 2019 thesis.
His academic enthusiasm for renewables and professional interest in green tech have earned him some suspicion from some Conservatives who have an interest in the continued development of Canada’s oil and gas sector.
“With his PhD in hand, it is unlikely that any candidate in the history of Canada has been more intellectually prepared to give more subsidies to the green lobby,” Dan McTeague, the president of Canadians for Affordable Energy, charged in a blog post about Lewis’s environmental platform in the last leadership race.
Lewis was quick to challenge the skepticism, suggesting in an interview with the conservative-leaning True North news outlet that people who hold that view don’t understand his thesis.
He said he wants to help people in developing countries develop their greatest natural resources in an environmentally friendly way, which is exactly what he wants for Canada.
In his view, resource development and environmental management are not mutually exclusive, and the climate change debate is dominated by fear and polarized by politics.
“I believe that the environment is a non-partisan issue, and that it should not be politicized,” Lewis told The Canadian Press.
A government run by Lewis would incentivize green energy while recognizing that Canada still needs fossil fuels to operate, he said.
Lewis indicated he would discard the more ambitious greenhouse gas emissions targets set last year by the Liberals in favor of potentially rolling back those established by former prime minister Stephen Harper in 2015.
And even then, says Lewis, it should only be done if it doesn’t infringe on Canadian independence.
“Any international agreement that I believe meets the needs of our sovereign nation and meets our goals I have no problem with,” Lewis said.
Lewis is deeply suspicious of global entities such as the United Nations, the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization, which he insists on his website are trying to “change our way of life.”
“We have many international organizations that violate our freedoms and our freedoms and someone with international experience who can dissect these treaties and understand how these treaties affect our sovereignty, very important,” Lewis told Peterson.
He added that he believes that the government has a social condition for people to avoid eating beef because of the greenhouse gas emissions from cows.
“They program us to want to eat bugs and not want to eat, especially meat,” Lewis said. He explained in a blog post that the government demonized and put undue pressure on animal farming while opening a cricket processing facility in London, Ont.
He pointed to a new plant seeking to produce protein from crickets to sell primarily to pet food manufacturers.
Lewis also explained his concerns about the environmental, social governance program of the World Economic Forum that encourages investment in business with small carbon footprints.
“The carbon footprint is about to replace what we know as our dollar,” Lewis said. “Our whole lives will be measured by how much carbon footprint we contribute to society or how well we reduce our carbon footprint.”
At the end of the day, Lewis said he doesn’t really care what people call him.
“No shame, you can call me whatever you want. I’ll keep talking,” he said.
“I’m going to continue to get my message out there and I’m going to continue to send information to Canadians and prove what I’m saying with information, to let Canadians know what their government is planning for them.”
This report in The Canadian Press was first published on Sept. 3, 2022.
Laura Osman, The Canadian Press
