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With one guiding question, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani hopes to expand a movement and ignite a national conversation. “How do we restore the North? ” Jivani asked roughly 50 people at the University of Toronto Mississauga (UTM) last Friday. “How do you make sure we restore the promise of Canada for as many people in this great country as possible?” Jivani, 37, had already launched his “Restore the North” initiative last month, aimed at addressing policy gaps to help young men, a demographic that he says is overrepresented in crime, overdose and homelessness statistics. But following the assassination of American conservative activist Charlie Kirk, his initiative expanded into campus tours, creating an event that is part rally, part recruitment drive, and part debate. Participants are given a mic to debate or discuss issues with three Conservative MPs sitting at the front of the room. It's a rotating cast, except for Jivani, who acts as the event’s host and main spokesperson. It’s a northern facsimile and tribute to Kirk’s campus events, which drew thousands and were credited with spreading the MAGA message at American universities. Last week's short tour of campuses in southern Ontario, including one Friday at UTM, attracted young men who say they feel dismayed by dwindling job prospects and frustrated by super-charged identity politics that popularized the concept of “toxic masculinity” — leaving them feeling alienated and questioning their ability to freely speak their minds, especially on university campuses. CBC spoke to about 10 of the attendees at the Oct. 17 event in Mississauga. They said they feel men — some participants specifying white men in particular — occupy the bottom rung of a hierarchy of identities, putting additional pressure on them in a sluggish job market. The unemployment rate for young men surged to 22 per cent earlier this year. “This is my first opportunity to actually talk to someone that's in the government and about issues that have really concerned me,” said Brady Burns, a Brock University student. “I just wanted to say this is my first time doing anything political in my community,” added Stefano Piscione, 20, while speaking at the mic. He said his struggles to find a job helped inform his belief that immigration levels should be slashed. “It’s a big disservice to the people of this country when you import labour.” This is the demographic en route to becoming the new face of the party's base, said Ginny Roth, a Conservative strategist and partner at Crestview Strategy. “I think Jamil Jivani and other young MPs in the Conservative caucus are seeking to build on what the Conservatives have been building over the last number of years,” said Roth. “When I was young, Conservative voters were old. And now Conservative voters are pretty young.” A right-wing counterculture? Jivani is a something of an ascendant figure in Canadian Conservative politics. He rose in prominence following the publication of his 2018 book Why Young Men, in which he considers the root causes of radicalization in young men while also sharing his own story. Once labelled “illiterate” by the Ontario education system, Jivani charts in the book how he chose to pursue academics instead of criminality. He ultimately graduated from Yale law school, where he met and befriended U.S. Vice-President JD Vance. Jivani has been an impassioned advocate for young men, pre-dating his election to the House of Commons in 2024. In a preamble at the Restore the North event, he said his goal is to encourage young people to inspire hope and not to give up on themselves or their country. He wrapped up the first slate of tour dates in mid-October, and though no additional dates have been announced, he said in a statement he looks forward to visiting more campuses soon. Jivani stands out in Pierre Poilievre’s caucus as being willing to talk about potentially contentious subjects: he is an advocate for the rights of Christians, has called for the end of diversity, equality and inclusion programs and has criticized Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s brand of conservatism as “hollow.” He was also the first in his party to call for the end of the temporary foreign worker program, which, months later, became the Conservative’s official position. Jivani declined an interview with CBC News, but spoke to the right-leaning publication The Hub earlier this month. He said he believes the phenomenon of young men gravitating to conservative political parties can be linked to both economic and cultural worries, echoing New York Times columnist Ross Douthat’s argument that there is a conservative counter-culture movement in 2025. “Liberal ideology has been so deeply embedded in so many institutions that young people who are looking for change are looking for a different way to respond to their circumstances,” he said. Turning Point North? Kirk was dubbed the “youth whisperer” for his ability to attract young people into the MAGA movement, and the ties to his Turning Point USA organization are explicit, not implied. Jivani’s opening remarks referenced Kirk’s assassination and his activism on behalf of the American conservative movement, saying that Restore the North aims to have the “same type of energetic and enthusiastic conversations up here.” Unlike Kirk’s appearances, popular in part because of his occasionally caustic and contemptuous responses to left-wing questioning, the majority of the questions the Conservative MPs took at the Mississauga event were friendly — though not necessarily mainstream. Several audience members identified themselves as being part of the Dominion Society, a Canadian anti-immigration group that seeks to deport between four and eight million people living in Canada through what it calls “remigration." When they put that idea to Jivani, the MP acknowledged the immigration system should be reformed — in line with his party’s position — but asked the audience member to “acknowledge it is complicated.” “It’s going to take thinking about how we pull the different pieces of the Jenga tower out without disrupting things to a point where now our quality of life gets worse because we’ve been too disruptive,” he said. “Look, my personal view on this is that a moratorium on immigration is not a bad idea, right?” But having open debates is the point. Jivani spent minutes before taking questions talking about the need to protect and expand freedom of expression. Kirk attracted critics and condemnation for comments on race, claiming things like “prowling Blacks go around for fun to target white people,” and also religion, claiming “Islam is not compatible with Western civilization.” But the free exchange of ideas was central to his message — and he was shot while sitting underneath a sign that said “prove me wrong.” The battle of protecting free speech on campuses has raged over the last decade, prompting Ontario to force colleges and universities to come up with “free speech policies” or face government spending cuts. The issue of speech on campus was part of what compelled Burns to travel to the UTM event. “I’ve experienced teachers and faculty repeatedly telling young people like myself that my opinions are wrong because they don’t fall within the left-leaning social norm,” he told the crowd and Jivani that day. “Part of what we’re doing is we’re here, to make sure we signal to you, you’re not alone in the way that you might think,” Jivani responded, adding that students ought to be exposed to multiple points of view to be best prepared for the real world. While leaving the event, Burns said Jivani’s response was “exactly what I was looking for.” 'Upside and risk' Many of the attendants, including Piscione, also said they were affected by Kirk’s killing — even if they didn’t always agree with his views. “It was a political assassination,” he said. “It’s sickening. It’s saying, well, if they disagree with him, they very much disagree with me.” And there are those who disagree, who see a focus on young men as secondary to other equity-seeking groups who have faced barriers to opportunities, who disliked Kirk’s rhetoric and beliefs, and who call for Conservatives to focus on other things. But to Roth, it’s a matter of taking a stand. “Like so many things, there's both upside and risk,” she said. “But I don't think really strong political leadership ... can happen without taking on some risk.”
