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BIGGER THAN ME PODCAST
173. Aiemann Zahabi: Is Justin Trudeau Leading Canada Down the Wrong Path?
UFC Fighter Aiemann Zahabi slams Justin Trudeau’s leadership, discusses rising food prices, and breaks down the impact of the carbon tax. Aiemann Zahabi also shares why he backs Pierre Poilievre for Canada’s next election and gives an inside look at his upcoming fight at UFC Edmonton with host Aaron Pete.
Welcome back to another episode of the Bigger Than Me podcast. Here is your host, Aaron P. I'm a huge fan of the UFC. I think their fighters are inspirational I've spoken to this guest before where we explore philosophy and fighting. Today, we will be discussing politics Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Pierre Poliev, the carbon tax and his upcoming fight in Edmonton, Alberta, against Pedro Munoz. My guest today is Eamon Zahabi. Mr Zahabi, it is so good to have you back. It's been too long. How are you doing?
Aiemann Zahabi:Things are great. I'm excited. I got a big fight coming up. Great to talk to you always before the fights.
Aaron Pete:Amazing. I wanted to start this off in a little bit of a different direction. I've seen you on Twitter, you've got some opinions, so I actually wanted to start this off with more of a political take, because we've learned a lot about your philosophy in other interviews and I find that really interesting. Would you mind telling me how your philosophy informs your political perspectives?
Aiemann Zahabi:perspectives. I mean, you know, for me it's like always trying to do right by as many people as possible for sure, and you know, recently things have been taking a dive in North America, especially in Canada. I feel like the standard of living is falling for a lot of people and I think it has a lot to do with politics and decisions that people are making up there in Ottawa. So, yeah, I've been trying to get involved a little bit on Twitter and give my opinion, because Canada is known to be a great country with great people and a lot of things have changed.
Aaron Pete:Fair to say that MMA and sports in general teach you discipline and perhaps leadership skills. And I'm just curious when you, as a leader, as somebody who teaches other people, who tries to inspire other people, when you see our leadership in politics, what are your thoughts on that?
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah, well, if you're talking specifically about Canada, the leadership is terrible right now. I feel like it's really going in the wrong direction. You know, I've never really looked into like all the foreign investment that they do, but there's a girl on twitter uh, I can send you a link of one of her things that she posts, but she posted a thread of all the money that canada's sending to all these different countries and a lot of it is like just ridiculous stuff. You know, like 50 million for gender studies in this country for uh feminine products, and then it's like 100 million to this, to this country, for a bunch of nonsense studies that don't improve that country's uh ability to for families to either generate income or to have a higher standard of living. It's a lot of this like hush-push stuff that we have we do in the west because we have so much such a high living standard.
Aiemann Zahabi:When you're talking about african countries, you're giving them millions of dollars hush-push stuff that we do in the West because we have such a high living standard. When you're talking about African countries, you're giving them millions of dollars to not improve their life. Why don't you just give them $60 million to build wells or teach them how to produce more agriculture and things like that, but they're wasting all our tax dollars for things that make no sense and don't improve the standard of living over there, while the standard of living in Canada is going down the drain. So there's like this whole weird thing about, yeah, they need to raise taxes so they can give more money our tax dollars to other countries. That becomes inefficient tax spending. And then you know, even here our infrastructure is falling apart, everything is falling apart.
Aaron Pete:So it's kind of a bit of a nightmare for me now in terms of leadership of this country when, when you see somebody talking say it's prime minister trudeau like what, what is running through your mind in terms of like the approach?
Aaron Pete:Do you think someone like yourself could go into that world? Like I just see politicians in such their own sort of category that there's rules they think they need to follow, like practices of like don't tell the truth on something if it's not popular, kind of skirt the question and like I've had the opportunity to interview really interesting people like vashi capellos, who interviews politicians all the time, and they just view it as normal to like not get an answer to a question and I just like the same rules don't apply in this conversation. I wouldn't ask you a question and then you completely like avoid the the answer intentionally, and so I just I think about that and the role that normal citizens play. And then we have these like different rules for politicians and I'm just curious, do you see that same kind of challenge where, like we can't even get real, honest answers, even even if we agree, disagree, it's like we're not even getting real answers to some of these questions.
Aiemann Zahabi:It's a weird thing how they can sidestep these questions. It's super weird, especially Krisha Freeland. She's the worst. I've never heard someone answer a question so horribly. She always starts by well first, I'd like to say, and then she goes on this tangent of thanking or mentioning things that have nothing to do with the question and then by the end of it, she never even answers the question. It's so weird that we don't ever expect them to answer the question. That's something that I've learned, like now following politics. I haven't been following politics for very long, uh, but I find that so weird that they have the opportunity to never answer a question directly, like to get away with not answering anything. It's super weird. And another thing is, I don't think I can run for politics. I'm sure, like there's a whole a lot of things you have to learn. I'm just stating my opinion based on, like you know, how I would run my life or how I would run a business. I feel, like you know there's that one of the Shark Tank coaches, shark Tank investors, what's his name?
Aiemann Zahabi:Kevin O'Leary, talks about how you know, we have such a great country with such great resources, but we're managed by idiots. You know. He says that. Quote. He said that quote a million times in a bunch of different interviews. It's kind of like how it feels now. It's like we have all these natural resources. We have, like all these european countries or technically, our allies coming here asking us for natural gas and we could make money. They can receive natural gas instead of going to like you know russia for natural gas and we could make money they can receive natural gas instead of going to, like you know, russia for natural gas or a different country that's not our allies. So instead of helping all these european countries out, he decides no, we're not going to do it and instead of for like.
Aiemann Zahabi:I just find it weird this whole, this whole thing that they have. They're obsessed with climate change in canada and that we need to reduce our carbon tax imprint or whatever. But it makes no sense Because if you calculate all the trees we have, we're probably carbon neutral or negative. We're fine, we're already doing enough. I feel like we're already doing enough. And instead of sending money out to all these different things that are so inefficient, why don't they just invest in cleaning the tar sands, getting the oil out of the ground, cleaner and safer and better and more efficient? Why don't they invest in R&D or better things? It's just like it's all about. This government is all about inefficiency and I'm ready for a new government to step in. You know, I'm very big on Pierre-Paul Yves. I'm really hoping he's the real deal and his promise for change and things like that. It's true, he's the real deal and his promise for change and things like that. It's. It's true, you know.
Aaron Pete:I want to ask, before we get to Pierre, about the carbon tax, what? Are your thoughts on that.
Aiemann Zahabi:It doesn't make any sense to me. It doesn't make any sense to me that it's, they say it's always like eight out of 10 families benefit. It's such a weird thing that they keep repeating but then the the guy who, who's supposed to do the independent check comes out and says that it's not going to be true. That's not going to be true until 2031. So they've been lying to us. That has been better for eight out of ten families, but even in the official report it's not beneficial now and it won't be beneficial until 2031 makes no sense. And another thing that doesn't make sense is why would you take money from us to give us more money back? Just let us keep the money, you know? I mean, there are already so many people in canada going to all these uh, these uh places to to supplement their food at home. People are skipping meals. People can't afford groceries.
Aiemann Zahabi:I have a small business. I transport groceries, I transport fruits and vegetables. I have like a brokerage, the chance, you know, and the sales of fruits and vegetables are down. Food is so expensive. I don't know if you go to the grocery store. I know you're engaged now. You have a house, all this stuff. You're going to the grocery store.
Aiemann Zahabi:The price of fruits and vegetables is going up. It's not going down. The price of meat it's going up. It's not getting any cheaper to buy food, it's getting more expensive. And then you add the carbon tax and then these trucks have to pay diesel. Luckily, recently the price of diesel has gone down. That's because of the general oil market. The price of oil has gone down, but not because of the, the carbon tax.
Aiemann Zahabi:Carbon tax a nightmare and he wants to increase it by 61 cents doesn't make sense, because the people who transport the food are going to charge more for transport because their fuel costs will go up, which then they're going to end up charging more for the fruits and vegetables and other foods. So I just feel like the solution to their problems is to raise taxes. Who make the most money, have the best tax accountants, have the best tax lawyers and they find a way to either get their money out or to put their money in things that won't get taxed. So I don't think the solution is to raise taxes. What seems to be working the best is the countries who have the more the simplest tax forms end up collecting the most amount of tax, not the least amount of tax and even the least amount of tax, and even this whole thing with the new capital gains, they want to increase capital gains. Other countries have done it I think it was either Sweden or Norway did it and they actually collected less money in taxes because, before the rule was applied, people sold their investments and got the money out and money drained outside the country and people invested in countries that are more tax efficient.
Aiemann Zahabi:So smart money moves you know what drained outside the country and people invest in countries that are more tax efficient, right? So smart money moves. You know what I mean. So you're only going to end up taxing the poor and middle class more than you are going to tax the rich. The rich have the freedom to move their money and they have the best teams to move their money, right? So it's kind of like it's backwards.
Aaron Pete:How do you digest Justin Trudeau's argument that we do need to put challenges or kind of encourage people to move away from carbon? And this is one of the tools I think it accounts for like 14% of the plan to move us in the right direction, that we need something and that we need to set an example for other countries? We can't go to China, we can't go to India, we can't convince them to do something if we're not willing to do it ourselves, and this is just one of the tools to do that. How do you post like is that a good argument, is that a bad, or what are your thoughts?
Aiemann Zahabi:all right, I understand his point makes sense in the general scheme of things, but the the way to make it happen is not by taxing us more. If, if you want to generate more income, you have to find a way to make our country more efficient and to make our country have more exports and imports. And when people come to ask us to sell them things, we shouldn't say no, we should say yes, and there's got to be a way for them to make it cleaner, to get natural gas out of the ground, to get oil out of the ground, to make getting oil out of the ground cleaner. Uh, it doesn't make sense. That oil is the. Oil is not going anywhere. It's not going anywhere for the next 20, 30, 50 years. Man, we're still going to be super dependent on oil. We're still going to be super dependent on natural gas.
Aiemann Zahabi:And one of the solutions could be to make you know okay, let's uh, push hybrid cards, hybrid cars. They want to push hybrid cars more than gasoline cars. Let's make regular cars more efficient on gas, right, so they take less gas. Okay, here's another point why don't we increase our metro systems? Like we don't have enough metro. We don't have enough public transport. It's not efficient enough. You know, why don't we have a good subway system like New York and Montreal? Why don't we have a good subway system like New York and Montreal? We don't have a good subway system like that in Toronto.
Aiemann Zahabi:You know, there's so many different solutions than just taxes, because the money they're doing with the carbon tax, I want to know where it's going. You know, because the whole thing, even the thing with Jasper, right, like they ignored some of the things that people were suggesting for them to do To clear out some of that dead wood and all that different things. They didn't do so many things Like why didn't they use the cover tax money to improve the chances of Jasper not being burned to the ground? I don't know, it's weird, it's just. It's just weird, it's just very inefficient. And they also promised the liberals that there'll be the most transparent government. Uh, transparent government. We haven't experienced that at all. There's nothing transparent about them. Every time there's a problem, they prolong, they shut down government. It's super weird. So I don't know.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, we have Lytton that's not too far away from us and the whole city burnt down and still they're working on trying to build houses. And that was in 2021. It's been like three years and we haven't made progress. And so we keep talking about becoming more climate resilient and the communities that are kind of facing these challenges the worst are still struggling to address the issues that they faced previously. But if you were to meet Justin Trudeau, it sounds like he's going to be running again. He's put his foot down. What would you have to say to him? Because I feel like your philosophy, philosophy, your approach, your, your leadership abilities like what. What would you have to say to the man?
Aiemann Zahabi:he's gotta listen to the people, like I feel like people are a lot more outspoken against his government as of recently and a lot more people are lining up for food banks than ever before. There's a lot more junkies, uh, in all the different cities, a lot more homeless than everybody else, and it's it's okay to change your pot. It might, might as well. I would tell them it's okay to change your policies if you got them wrong, like if you. Because I feel like justin trudeau's intentions are good, like he wants. He has good intentions, but the results and his policies don't match up, you know. I mean like what he wants to accomplish and what has been accomplished don't match up and it's actually better to go back and change than to push the same wrong policies, to keep going down that road. It would garner a lot more respect if you turn things around and try new policies that can help clean up Canada.
Aaron Pete:Do you think that's a mistake that politicians make? There's like an old adage that you can never apologize. You can never take responsibility, and personally I think that's incorrect. I'm not a pollster, I don't know what the polls tell them, but I man, I love for justin trudeau to sit down, look in a camera and own every mistake he thinks he made by his own metrics, by his own standards, and just own it and say, but I'm gonna fix it and here's my plan to address these mistakes. But look at all the other things I've done. Let's keep on like. That would be inspiring to me to for a leader to just own their mistakes for a change.
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah, definitely. I would respect it way more and I feel like it would change people's public opinion about him, because right now, the vast majority of people can't stand him. That's the truth. He's not doing great in the polls and I think that if he was someone who could own the mistakes and have the right solutions to turn this country around, people would fall in love with them all over again, because when he came in, even me I voted liberal. My whole life, my whole life, I voted liberal. This is going to be the first. Whenever the next election is, I'm going to be conservative.
Aaron Pete:Wow.
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah, my whole life. My mom and dad voted liberal. Their whole lives. My parents immigrated here from lebanon, war-torn country, and even my mom she tells people I'm canadian. You know like canada saved her life, basically right. So that's why I tell people all the time I'm canadian. Yeah, I have a lebanese ethnicity, but I'm canadian, 100 canadian. But now I've got to go with conservatives because I feel like the liberals have kind of lost their way in their policies and things like that. But if he would own up to it and correct it, of course, I think he would get a lot more support.
Aaron Pete:Do you have faith in the population to accept that? I think you and I agree. But do you think, if you were recommending him, do you think that Canadians as a whole could hear him own his mistakes and not want him to immediately resign?
Aiemann Zahabi:are sweethearts. I I mean you. If you travel around the world, you'll never meet nicer people than canadians. So uh, yeah, I feel like this is a good chance. But uh, it's hard to deny pierre poliev right now. He's a lot more straightforward. He answers questions pretty much directly. You know he's much more open to uh to voice his opinion and and say what he believes in, and I really like the common sense approach Even him. He was talking about simplifying taxes, you know, doing a general reform on taxes, and I really hope that you know he follows through on what he says.
Aaron Pete:Okay, I got roasted the last time that I talked about Pierre because I wasn't clear. I'm very excited about him as well. He seems very interesting, I have. I think the momentum has hit a point now where we need to start to challenge him to take a little bit more responsibility as well, because he's coasting on the fact that everybody hates Justin Trudeau. But I think it's fair now to start to ask some questions.
Aaron Pete:I don't believe Pierre has done a tough interview yet. I've watched his Jordan interview yet. I've watched his Jordan Peterson interview. I've watched some of the interview. I watched him eat an apple and destroy a reporter. That was hilarious. That wasn't a real interview. That guy knew nothing like. That's not a really tough interview.
Aaron Pete:Lashley Capello's, who hosts power play, says she's invited him on. She invites him on all the time, doesn't respond, won't confirm an an interview. I don't think he's done a tough interview yet where they actually go into things, and I think he is way better at avoiding tough questions and he still has all of those hallmarks of a good politician where he's not really answering. If he's going to bring the budget down, if he's going to balance it, there are going to have to be actual programs that are cut, which? Which ones are those? They don't want to touch that topic yet, and I think they have a fair argument. It's not their job. They're the opposition right now. But I think, going back to this idea of leadership, there's no rule that says they can't start to lay out their platform now. They're just doing what strategy tells them is best, and not necessarily what Canadians, I think, deserve. What are your thoughts on that?
Aiemann Zahabi:Well, he said in one interview that it's not about cutting programs, it's about cutting waste. Like I was telling you, we send so much money abroad on things that don't make any sense, like there was a government-funded study for $280,000 about the study of archaeology in a video game. But why? Why does the government have to fund $280,000 for a study on archaeology inside a video game? It makes no sense. There's a lot of these things.
Aiemann Zahabi:I'm going to send you that thread about all these millions upon millions of dollars wasted on all these studies in the country and abroad. If you stop those things that are so inefficient, that don't help us and don't actually help the other countries, then we won't need to cut any programs because we'll just use that money. And also, pierre Pelletier has said that he wants to sell natural gas, he wants to sell natural resources, he wants to make Canada a more productive country and he's going to turn Canada into a business. He also talked about hiring not hiring, but gathering business people to make a team, to help reform the taxes, to make them more efficient and for strategies on how Canada can generate more income, because we really need to treat Canada as a business. That's what the United States does. We should be performing so really need to treat Canada as a business. That's what the United States does Like. We should be performing so much better than we are as a country.
Aaron Pete:Maybe more like a business, but like, probably not just like a business though, right, because like a business would never take care of. Like poor people, they would just fire.
Aiemann Zahabi:No, no for sure. More like a business. Yeah, definitely Not just a business, but even then, like, if you really have a successful business, no one on your team hurts. Yeah, think about it. A real business leader. Everyone on the team is happy to work for him.
Aiemann Zahabi:Look at elon musk. You think of the guys on the on the line. Don't like him. He worked. He used to work on the line. He was talking about it the other day on twitter. He knows everyone's name that's on the line in his factories, you know, I mean, that's a real leader, that's a real businessman, that's a person who takes care of his people from the bottom to the top, not only takes about the top. You know, I just feel like, yes, there are people who are rich from business but aren't good businessmen, but they've found a way to squeeze people. But then there are genuine businessmen who know how to keep a good work culture at the same time right. So there's always balance in life. There's always going to be balance, but Canada should be a powerhouse player and it doesn't make sense that we're not.
Aaron Pete:When you see Pierre Duce pull some of the stunts that he's done, how do you process that? Because he's calling people wacko and he does some character-y things that maybe aren't prime ministerial. That aren't maybe what you expect from the prime minister of canada or the future prime minister of canada. He does some interesting things.
Aiemann Zahabi:I respect it, man, I even like he, let's say, for example, when he went to go interview that business owner about bitcoin. Right, there's a guy who owns a shawarma shop and he was talking about how he invested in bitcoin and how bitcoin went up, went up and then his family benefited from that and how it's hard money. And then Pierre Poliev went and interviewed him and found it interesting and figured out what Bitcoin was and they started pushing Bitcoin and Bitcoin tanked a little bit and then, you know, the Prime Minister, trudeau, was talking bad about him. Oh, bitcoin, this Bitcoin, that. Look at Bitcoin now. Look at Bitcoin now. Some of Now look at Bitcoin. Now. Some of the smartest, richest people on earth are buying Bitcoin hand over fist Just because it dipped a little bit.
Aiemann Zahabi:Trudeau started throwing Pierre Poliev under the bus, but Pierre Poliev went out and took a risk. He went out and he tried to understand what Bitcoin was. So think about it. Look at BlackRock. Blackrock now. How much Bitcoin are they buying? How many billions of dollars are they spending on it? How many billions of dollars are they spending on it? How many billions of dollars are they spending on crypto? You got to think about it. I don't mind the way he talks. I feel like it just makes it more relatable, interesting.
Aaron Pete:This has been fascinating to kind of cover these topics Any reflections on the upcoming US election.
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah, for sure I'm hoping Trump wins. If Trump wins, it's going to be much better for North America than if Harris wins.
Aaron Pete:How do you come to that conclusion?
Aiemann Zahabi:Like I told you, he's all about business. He didn't start any wars when he was president. There's a lot of turmoil in the Middle East now with Gaza and Lebanon and things going on, and, uh, we're hoping that he can strike a deal with a pen instead of with a gun. And uh, you know he said it many times that that he wants the bloodshed to end, and that's what we want. You know, we want the bloodshed to end. It makes no sense how he had the abraham accords and then, all of a sudden, under biden and harris, things fall apart. Uh, you know it doesn't make any sense. I'm really hoping that he brings peace back through business. You know we need someone who's more business-oriented, who gets some of these richest, most powerful people in a room together and strike a deal with a pen.
Aaron Pete:Are you surprised that you're not more supportive of Kamala? Like she seems more middle-grounded, calmer, like, do you see, at least maybe the caricature of who she is? Seems like the argument against Biden was that he was too old, and I think that played out exactly how we all agreed.
Aiemann Zahabi:But then the person.
Aaron Pete:Yeah, undeniable. He resigned. But now we have Kamala and more just, neutral flavor, not dramatic in any way. How do you come to that conclusion that he's the better choice?
Aiemann Zahabi:She called Trump Hitler After they tried to assassinate him two times. She still calls him Hitler. It makes no sense. She wants him dead. I don't understand. She wants people to be motivated to kill this guy. It doesn't make any sense. Another thing is she's in power now. She's not making any of the changes we want to see. She says, oh, when you elect me, I'll do this, but you're already there. It doesn't make any sense. Everything that's happening now is under your feet. It's all being done while you're in power, so we don't. I wouldn't expect anything to change. I only expect things to get worse. You know, right, even her.
Aiemann Zahabi:It's all about taxing more. It makes no sense to tax more, doesn't make any sense to tax more. It should be about efficiency. Efficiency is is really the answer, and trump is all about cutting taxes. Even say, for the common person. If you work overtime hours, it shouldn't be taxed. For senior citizens, your, your, your, your checks, your monthly checks that you receive, you shouldn't be taxed. Yeah, how would that not better the standard of living? But for the average person?
Aiemann Zahabi:I think we've lost the plot where a lot of the, the left-leaning parties uh, there's kind of like destroying the middle class and weakening the middle class and expanding the poor and having more people depend on government subsidies and all these different government programs instead of finding a way. How can we raise the level of education of more people and get more people into middle class and have more better paying jobs for a vast majority of our population, instead of getting everyone addicted to programs? It's a weird thing. It's like I don't know the answer either. I don't know the final answer. Nobody knows the answer. That's why it's like even let's say like if I was in a room with trudeau.
Aiemann Zahabi:I don't know what the final answer is, but my, what I would tell him is if we look around canada, things are going. We're getting worse. Maybe we should change some of the policies to improve, and it's okay to to change them. If you try something, we're happy you tried. It didn't work, okay, let's change it. You're still in power. You still got another year and a half or whatever. How long he's got left. If he can turn it around in the next year you know what I mean he's winning the election.
Aaron Pete:Do you feel? Like maybe they are turning. This is an argument I've heard as well, and it's that they are turning it around. We're seeing mortgage rates continue to drop. We're seeing the interest rates starting to come down. Things are cooling off for both the US and Canada. It's just not maybe fast enough. The numbers are moving in a direction that I think we'd agree is not getting worse.
Aiemann Zahabi:It's not the same. Canada and the United States are not the same. Right now. It's two different things. One is, yeah, we're reducing interest rate. Okay, it's a lot faster than everybody else, but it's not a good sign because our labor market is weaker. Our GDP per capita we're producing less than Alabama Doesn't make any sense. We're like the difference between how much one worker in the United States produces about $60,000 in GDP per year, per capita and a Canadian produces $44,000. There's a huge disparity. The disparity wasn't that big not too long ago. It was a lot closer, right. So things are falling apart.
Aiemann Zahabi:Immigration is helping, for sure, like bringing in a lot of people is keeping our gdp up instead of falling apart. For sure, and I have no problem with immigrants. You know, obviously, my parents came here and, you know, saved their lives. So I have no problem with immigration. But my problem is more with how do we get the, the gdp per capita? How can we improve, uh, our production? You know our ability to get natural resources out of the ground. How can we sell more? How can we improve public transport? How can we do things that are real, that elevate even the poorest into middle class? We've got to take the poor and move them up, not take the middle class and move them down. That's kind of where I'm at.
Aaron Pete:Do you see why I wanted to talk to you about this? This is super interesting. Who knew that we would be discussing GDP per capita and that you'd have such complicated thoughts?
Aiemann Zahabi:Hopefully I don't get into any trouble for my thoughts.
Aaron Pete:No, and that's what I like about Sean Strickland there's a lot to be desired. I think he's quite the character, but the one thing is it's important that we don't cede all the ground to political analysts. I think is like my big takeaway from what he does, because you're speaking on behalf of, like your lived experience. Your family's lived like we. I just watch all these shows where there's political pundits telling me what to think about the issue, but it's like what do normal? Like like I wouldn't say you're normal, but like like what do people, real people actually just think from their understanding of what's going on in the world right now. And seeing your comments just made me think, like I appreciate that because that's a real, lived person's experience.
Aiemann Zahabi:You're not bringing what somebody told you to say or trying to fit within a narrative of like NDP conservative or like you're just coming to these conclusions based on what you're seeing, and I think that's something we forget to do sometimes you know, it's funny, as I was talking to my uh, my doctor, when I was getting uh checked up for my because I have to always do like an exam before, uh, I take a fight, I'm fighting next week, so I had to see my doctor or whatever and I was talking to him and one thing that came to my mind is that you know, what's weird is that? I find so it's like, let's say, the liberals are in power now, right, and the conservatives are called the, the opposition, but what's weird is that they don't really do things together, like I always, when I was younger, I always thought okay, whoever's in power, they're always making deals with the opposites, like the leader of the opposition, you know so like they'd always find common ground. So one person doesn't get too extreme, like one party doesn't get too extreme. But it seems like the liberals want only their ideas to work in their way and the conservatives want their ideas to work in their way without any help from any other party, like each party wants to do everything on their own, and I feel like that's so weird, because I thought the whole point of having the opposition want their ideas to work their way without any help from any other party.
Aiemann Zahabi:Each party wants to do everything on their own and I feel like that's so weird, because I thought the whole point of having the opposition was to bring some kind of control or some kind of like leveling off of the other group, instead of making each group extreme. Now you got two extremes fighting over something you know. So I find that super weird. Like imagine they work together and they found common ground and they'd be centrist like me. You know, I feel like the average canadian is more like in the middle of both conservative and liberal, you know, and it's weird that our, our policies aren't more even-handed. I, I don't know, I don't understand why they're not more even-handed. I thought that's what that's. The whole point of having all these parties is so that they can keep a balance within each other I agree with you.
Aaron Pete:I guess it goes back to my original point, though. Like justin trudeau did have to work with jagmeet singh, yeah, pierre doesn't have to work with anybody and the energy that pierre gives off is uh, I don't want to work with any like he doesn't. He gives that off more to me than justin trudeau gives that to, that energy to me. Yeah, yeah, I hear what you're saying.
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah, yeah, yeah I hear what you're saying, yeah, but even then, like I feel like okay, ndp and the liberals are too much on the same side there's not much control there. So it would be better if let's say, like purple, you have, like, rain them in enough, that it would be a lot more centrist. I feel like now you got two guys on the left side just pushing things towards you.
Aaron Pete:You can't call somebody a wacko and then say let's meet and try and find a middle ground.
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah, that's not good either yeah, for sure that's not good either. That's not good either. Yeah, I agree. I agree that's not good.
Aaron Pete:Maybe it's not the best thing, I don't know that's just what I think about with these types of issues is it's so challenging but it's so interesting to get your perspective because, again, like I love that, you have this deep thought through philosophy on how to live a good life, because then that influences how you think about who you want to lead your country, which is really important decision that we're going to be able to make in potentially a couple of months.
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah, I don't know if they're going to end up being able to do it in a couple months. I think it's going to take the whole year. There's no way. I don't see how the vote of confidence is going to go against Chudov as long as he's got the coalition going. But it gives him enough time to try to figure things out. He's got to figure it out. He's got to turn the ship around because right now we're going down.
Aaron Pete:Agreed. I hope we start to sort this out. I hope we have that coming together, as you were kind of describing, because I think that's important. But you have a fight coming up, my friend, and I'm super excited. It's always an honor to watch you fight. It's been a while since we've seen you perform. How are you feeling heading up to this? What are your takes?
Aiemann Zahabi:I feel amazing, man. Honestly, it's the best I've ever felt. I've never had such a great training camp.
Aaron Pete:I know a lot of guys say that, but this one it really was, and, like my, brother really took it to the next level and I had a lot of good training partners come in, so I really feel like I'm ready. How do you process between? Things are going well. You're on this trajectory and things have worked so far to not change. You see, this with some people I think we've talked about this before. You see people start to go, I'm going to switch it up now, or I'm going to level up and then they they maybe don't do what, like they're a wrestler, and then they start striking and they kind of forget what brought them to the dance. How do you make sure you balance that with, like you've got momentum now things are moving in confidence, I'm sure, is rising.
Aiemann Zahabi:How do you balance between trying new things and sticking with what continues to work? Well, you know, it's also depending on the opponent, right? So, like we watch the tape and then we try to figure out okay, what can I add, what can I subtract from what I did the last time, what can we do? So a lot of that is based on what we see could be a problem for him and what could be a problem for me, based on our stylistic matchup and, uh, you know just the to hone in on what's been working and to add just a little bit something different, you know. So it's not easy to figure me out. So, yes, there's gonna be a slightly, uh, different approach for this fight, of course, because it's like the opposite of my last opponent. My last opponent was taller, longer reach and faster. This guy is going to be shorter, shorter reach and and maybe average speed, maybe not faster than me, maybe the same. So it's like a totally different type of problem. So, new approach, and you know we had to obviously adapt the style to be able to put him out.
Aaron Pete:Interesting it's happening November 2nd. I'm super excited because you're finally back in Canada. How does that feel? It feels great.
Aiemann Zahabi:I'm super excited because you're finally back in Canada. How does that feel? Oh, it feels great. I love, like I said, I'm Canadian, I'm born and raised here, so I love to get the chance to fight in Canada in front of the Canadian crowd. You know, hopefully they all come out and support. I can't wait to put on a great performance for everyone in Canada and I just love being here.
Aaron Pete:Absolutely. And then again, going back to like the style, I'm curious as to how you make sure that you keep the right mindset, because that's something interesting you had mentioned previously was around like oh, is it three? And like three, going on that, moving forward, having the streak. How do you keep that going? How do you not connect yourself with those numbers? How have you been processing that energy?
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah. So actually, a friend of mine suggested I work with a mindset coach for this fight. So I hired a mindset coach. We've been working for a couple months now and the main, one of the main things that we did was we threw away.
Aiemann Zahabi:I don't I surrender the outcome, like the outcome is not even a thought in my mind anymore, like I try not to care about it at all and I just focused on, like, every day I work on getting one percent better and I judge myself every day in terms of, like, how well I did, what I need to improve, uh, what I'm what, and I also to try to use a lot of gratitude, what I'm looking most forward to in the day. You know things like that and I'm just trying to improve and do everything with intent. Everything is with intent, you know. So I'm able to improve.
Aiemann Zahabi:So I have to criticize myself, but obviously I don't want to be too over critical, but I have to always getting closer to perfection, even though perfection is unattainable, but I'm still working towards something right. So every day I'm working towards improving my game and I'm trying to make it 90 about me and only 10 about my opponent. As long as I'm ready, I play my game. I should, I should come out with the victory or, at the very least, amazing performance, because the performance is worth more than winning and losing. As long as you look good, you win, whether or not the judges say so you are excellent at leading me into my next question.
Aaron Pete:I was going to ask one thing I've noticed that's unique in the interviews you've done to date is a lot of people have a lot more questions about this opponent because perhaps it's more of a, there's more of a name known in Pedro Munoz. How do you process that? Because it just I've seen a few of the clips, I've seen a few of your interviews and people are like how are you preparing for him? He's got this and it's like the opponent's just like. It's just statistics on a sheet. It's just you're looking at a body in front of you but the name almost comes with something. How do you make sure not to let too much of that in? Where it's like it's all of a sudden like I think izzy had that at one point in time people were like, oh it's, it's this guy. And like you're fighting this guy. Conor mcgregor had that for a period. So you kind of get this connection to the person rather than this is their fight style. This is how I'm preparing. How do you not let too much of that in?
Aiemann Zahabi:he's just a human being, man. He breathes, he bleeds, he sleeps. You know he's breakable, just like everybody else. Uh, and it's all about strategy and game planning. I'm at the point now I feel like they gave me the name because I belong there now with all these guys and I've made my place in the ufc. You know, I have my name in a few records too now. So, like I've cemented my place in the ufc, you can get my rookie card. Next step video game. Uh, yeah, so I feel like it. Ufc is my house now. I belong in there just like everybody else, like it's in the top 15, top 20, and I feel like there's no doubt in my skills. I feel like, like the people who appreciate skills, they know how good I am and that you know. For me, I'm going to use him as a stepping stone now.
Aaron Pete:What does that mean to you? To be able to kind of cement that?
Aiemann Zahabi:That's great. You know childhood dream. It's something I've always wanted to do and I'm really happy to have been able to accomplish it and I know it took me longer than that. People like I feel like we always talk about my age, but I feel like the real story is that I never gave up on it. I sacrificed everything I had to sacrifice and I lived out my dream and I'm still here doing it and I still have a lot of momentum behind my back to keep going and reach for that belt. So I feel like it's going to be a great story when I'm done, regardless of whatever happens by the time I retire. Even then, I've set up my retirement working with Sportsnet and things like that, and I feel like I'm being a good example for my children so that my daughters know that whatever they want to become, it's worth the sacrifice. It doesn't worry about the timeline so much, Just consistency. Over time you can achieve what you want, but without consistency over time you can give up on anything.
Aaron Pete:And I think another cool piece about you is this humility that you've brought each time, and your brother and you making sure that you keep the humility and the desire to just focus on constant improvement, and I think that's a huge takeaway, because we all focus on the end goal and a lot of the end goal we end up moving the goalpost anyways. When I started this, my goal was to hit 100 episodes. Then you flow by that and it's the next goal. So even focusing too much on a goal, you can miss out on the opportunity to improve each day, which I think is really inspiring of something you've definitely like ingrained in me through these conversations oh, I'm happy I've done that.
Aiemann Zahabi:Man, that's great to hear. Uh, yeah, for me and my brother, really, the philosophy is, if you've done everything you can to prepare, the outcome doesn't matter. Just do everything you can to be ready. You know some, sometimes it's lady luck gets in the way. You know what I mean. Sometimes it happens there's a million ways to win, a million ways to lose, but uh, your hard work is yours forever, right, all the hard work and all the sacrifice, everything you do, as long as you've prepared to your best, you get to keep those qualities in those aspects that you've added to your life and, uh, you'll always be able to be successful in some way. You know, like I already feel like I won, like I'm already a winner. You know, and regardless of the outcome of the next fight or the fight after that or whatever, I feel like a winner already and I just got to keep the ball going.
Aaron Pete:Amazing and there's doors flying open for you. I loved seeing you on Sportsnet. Would you mind showing this growth in the new world?
Aiemann Zahabi:yeah, yeah, of course I can't wait to, uh, to keep growing in that kind of field like I I'm doing my youtube channel also to like to just keep practicing getting used to being in front of the camera and things like that and, uh, having a chance to go on sportsnet and interview the fighters. I found that, like, it's a such a nice, easy life. It's so much nicer to make a mistake and I get punched in the face. You know, it's very, very nice. The producers were very kind to me, so I'm hoping to expand on that, to do more of that and then like, also like, just blow up my youtube channel as well and just like.
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah, I've got my hands in a few different pots, but fighting is number one. Fighting is above all else until I retire, and it's hard for me to like do more in terms of like social media. Even now, I was expecting to do weekly videos for training camp and this and that, but you know what? The hard work was more important than making videos, right? So, anyways, once fighting is done, I'll be able to be more on social media for sure.
Aaron Pete:And you're, to me, a great person for that, because I think there's oftentimes two types of people who go into that world one, they want their face out there more, and then there's the person who, like, respects the game, understands the work that people are putting in and want to highlight that. That's one thing I really love about ariel is like he's very good at trying to highlight the person and give them the opportunity to share who they are. Like. The cooking with Volk was one of my favorite episodes because you really just gave somebody a platform to share who they were, and I think that's like that's a skill set in and of itself and it's something you show during the interviews I watched you do was this willingness to kind of uplift them and give them the opportunity to shine, and that's what makes people fall in love, I think, with the interviewer a lot of times is that they're doing that for so many different people.
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah, exactly, you know, I think that's beautiful.
Aaron Pete:I love all that kind of stuff for sure. When can we expect another video to come out and how can people connect with your YouTube channel?
Aiemann Zahabi:Oh, I mean Emma Zahabi, official on YouTube. We have a few videos coming out next week for Fight Week, which is going to be interesting. Just a couple of new inside videos that I'm going to try to get one of my friends to film throughout the Fight Week. I'm going to have another person edit it for me, so I'm not going to be doing any of that stuff, okay, guys, so you don't think I'm distracted. It's actually going to be my friends who are going to be doing it, releasing the footage for me. But, yeah, check me out on YouTube and check me on Instagram.
Aaron Pete:Fantastic. There's one last thing we have to accomplish. I have been on a three-day fast. I am so hungry. Yeah, I don't want you coming at me. You raised your fist last time we did an interview. I was terrified.
Aiemann Zahabi:So I protected myself.
Aaron Pete:I brought some food. I'll be honest. I tried to do a 10k run the other day on the three day fast and I was very dizzy. That was a bad idea. I drank a lot of. I find I'm much thirstier there's yeah, I'm more thirsty and thirstier doing this than I think I'd normally. I consumed much more water than I would normally consume as a consequence of this.
Aiemann Zahabi:Yeah, I mean it's normal because you're going to be sweating all day, especially if you try to do a 10 kilometer run. You're going to be dehydrated like crazy, and when you don't have a lot of food, you're not getting as many electrolytes, right. So when you're going to need to rehydrate more often and plus you want to keep yourself full, you don't want to feel hungry. So you can also put, like when you're doing a three-day fast, you could put lemon in some water and you could put some salt in there just to keep your head from getting too dizzy, and things like that. But it's a huge accomplishment to be able to do that, man. So congratulations, very proud of you this time around.
Aaron Pete:Thanks, man. I disappointed you the last time. I did two days but I didn't do the three days and I was a huge disappointment. And then you stopped talking to me. You started ignoring me. You didn't remember. I get it. I get it. I get it. So now I get to go enjoy my Tim Hortons turkey bacon sandwich as an ease in back to this. But you are so inspirational, my man. Like I, appreciate always the opportunity to speak with you. I'll be rooting for you coming up. I'm so happy to see you perform again. It's just so cool to be able to speak to you and then go watch.
Aiemann Zahabi:I'm a nerd like that.
Aaron Pete:I think it's just so surreal to watch you go perform after chatting with you. So thank you. I'm so happy to see you going into different worlds, sportsnet doing your live shows and I'm just I've had so much feedback from people I know being like it's so cool you get to interview him, like it's so cool that he's performing out in Vancouver or now it's going to be Edmonton. It's just cool to uplift another Canadian and to be able to participate in all of this. So thank you a million times for being willing to do this.
Aiemann Zahabi:Oh, thank you, man. I love being on your show. You're a great interviewer and for me, like you, I love helping Canadians out and I think that's a huge thing that's been missing lately in Canada and Canadians should support Canadians and we should have each other's back and we should really pull this country together and get it to what it used to be, get it back to its glory days.
Aaron Pete:Agreed. Thank you so much. Best of luck to you.
Aiemann Zahabi:And I can't wait to watch you perform. Thank you, buddy.
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