Poilievre’s Conservatives Should Draft Kevin Vuong

One of the most under-the-radar yet remarkable political stories in Canada since the 2021 federal election has been the comeback story of a former federal Liberal candidate turned Independent MP Kevin Vuong.

After surviving a likely CCP-backed smear campaign (based on frivalous old allegations) and getting elected in one of the deepest of deep red federal ridings, Spadina Fort-York, in spite of Justin Trudeau stating Vuong would not be allowed into the Liberal caucus, Vuong has become something of a conservative Maverick on many issues.

There is a strong case for the Conservative Party of Canada to add Kevin Vuong to the caucus and grant him the opportunity to run for a Conservative nomination in a riding where he can be competitive. 

Most Independent MPs would be satisfied to sit back and ride out the rest of their term, not assuming they could get anything done, but Vuong has been aggressive in his pursuit of foreign corruption and extremism in Canada. No doubt Vuong’s background in the Canadian Royal Navy has given him a special focus on national security. 

Vuong has pushed hard along with Conservative MPs to get the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) listed as a terrorist organization to stop the flow of IRGC money being laundered through Canada. Vuong cares about this issue very deeply as he lost a friend on flight PS-752, an airline with 138 Canadians that was shot down over Tehran by the IRGC in 2020. 

This is why Richmond Hill could be a great riding for Vuong to run in under the Conservative’s banner. Pro-regime Liberal MP Majid Jowhari is deeply hated by the large Iranian community and Vuong has the credibility with the community to beat him in 2025. 

But Vuong hasn’t just made himself a strong ally of the anti-regime Iranian Canadians; he has been hawkish on protecting Chinese Canadians from CCP intimidation and election interference and called out Khalistani extremist influence in Liberal and NDP politics in Canada. 

More recently, Kevin Vuong has proven himself to have a moral backbone, unlike many Toronto politicians, by not falling for the moral relativism on the Israel-Hamas conflict. He has called out the pro-Hamas rallies and anti-semitic thugs trying to intimidate Jewish Torontonians and disrupt their businesses. 

Some of his most recent viral moments have been his defense of the Jewish-owned Cafe Landwer, a business that had been targeted by anti-semitic thugs. 

It is not just foreign affairs connected issues Kevin Vuong has taken the initiative on; Vuong has been the main organizer in his riding to prevent the opening of a homeless respite and injection site within a block of an elementary school.

Despite not being the community’s local city councilor or MPP, Vuong, as a federal politician, has taken the time and effort to help protect St. Mary’s Catholic Elementary School. 

Vuong lines up with the Conservatives in his opposition to the carbon tax and other affordability issues, opposes radical MAID policies, and has been echoing much of the same “common sense” rhetoric that Pierre Poilievre has popularized over his team as the Conservative Party leader.

Vuong is a politician who has truly fought back against Liberal gatekeepers and bucked conventional wisdom to turn what could have been an uneventful time as an Independent MP into a real legacy and he is only halfway through his term. It would be unfortunate if his time in office was to end in 2025. 

Despite the media barbs the Liberal Party and legacy media may try to throw at the Conservatives if they add Kevin Vuong to caucus, the lame smears will be worth it to add a hard-working grassroots politician to the Conservative’s roster.