Meet and Greet with Roman Baber
April 17, 2022
Takeaways from yesterday’s meet and greet with CPC leadership candidate Roman Baber:
1. I didn’t take a head count, but someone from Roman’s staff said 70 had registered. Of those who did attend, there was a wide cross-section of people, young and old, and hardly the usual demographic you’d normally find at a CPC event. One woman in her early 20s had purple hair with sand-colored dreadlocks. Many of the attendees said they had never voted before or that they had left the CPC, but came back and took out a membership so they could support Roman. I took all that as a positive sign that the freedom movement is alive and well in all corners of this country.
1a. Not a single person among the crowd was wearing a mask.
2. Before speaking, Roman made a point of going to each table and shaking the hands of every single attendee, including me. I made sure to thank him for being one of the few with the courage to stand up to Doug “Closed for Business” Ford.
3. The hour-long video featuring Roman’s speech as well as the Q & A:
4. Roman is not a great speaker, but he is a man of principle, which is what’s drawing a large number of supporters to his campaign.
5. One of the last to ask him a question was wearing a T-shirt with the slogan “Trust God, not the government.”
6. Dean Allison, the Niagara West MP, was there to support Roman. Loyal readers may recall the last time I spotted Allison at an event for a CPC leadership candidate. On that occasion, Lisa Raitt was speaking at the Beacon Harborside Resort, but failed to book a room in advance after sending out two emails inviting party members from across the region. It was only after Allison showed up that they finally arranged for a room. To make matters worse, Raitt showed up late and then skedaddled off quickly because she had another gig somewhere else. On the heels of an impressive performance in Burlington weeks earlier, Raitt promptly earned her way off this voter’s ballot. But unlike Raitt, Roman will rank very high on my ballot this time around. I’m not sure he has what it takes to be a prime minister, but I’d much rather have him as the leader than Jean Charest or Patrick Brown.
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