Appearing as a guest on Monday's The Daily Show on Comedy Central, Canadian actress Ellen Page criticized Fox News for negatively portraying Canadian health care as she defended her home country's national health care system. Page:
There are a lot of great things about Canada. Public health care. ... When you hear, you know, the misinformation from, you know, certain news networks ... your sister news networks, Fox News. It's very funny because when you grow up with something like that in Canada and then you hear about the system here, and you're, like, excuse me, what?
Jon Stewart twice invited her to criticize America, asking a bit later, "Do you look at us as, like, your younger brother, like, when you look at us, do you guys go, like, 'Those guys,' like, or is it more like, 'They're gonna break something'?"
Page declined to blatantly trash America, proclaiming, "I love the States," although she did assert that, in Canada, "there's a little more maybe camaraderie of spirit, a little less fear, and we, I think, take care of each other a bit more."
When the Comedy Central host jumped in to joke that "You're communists," she laughed and replied, "We are dirty, dirty communists."
Stewart, who has a history of calling himself a "socialist," seemed interested in promoting Canada versus the U.S. as he twice joked that Canada is "perfect."
Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, May 20, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart on Comedy Central:
JON STEWART: Now, for someone who's from such a beautiful part of the world where people are kind and, I would think, down to Earth and honest ... have you ever visited somewhere where people were angry at Canadians?
ELLEN PAGE: No, but I wouldn't blame places for being angry at Canadians. I mean, I love being from Canada, and I love a lot of the things about the country, but, you know, why not? We're not perfect.
(PAGE AND AUDIENCE LAUGH AT JON STEWART'S FACIAL EXPRESSION AS HE PAUSES BEFORE RESPONDING)
PAGE: Sorry.
STEWART: Yes, you are.
(PAGE AND AUDIENCE LAUGH, AUDIENCE APPLAUDS)
STEWART: This is very interesting to me. From a Canadian perspective, what would you take issue with? Because we look at it up there and we think, like, "Where's your bank failures?"
PAGE: There are a lot of great things about Canada. Public health care. (AUDIENCE APPLAUSE AND CHEERING) When you hear, you know, the misinformation from, you know, certain news networks ... your sister news networks, Fox News. It's very funny because when you grow up with something like that in Canada and then you hear about the system here, and you're, like, excuse me, what? You know, there's lots of great things about Canada, but, you know, we have the situation with the tar sands right now, which is decimating our environment.
STEWART: But you have so much environment to decimate. (AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)
Do you look at us as, like, your younger brother, like, when you look at us, do you guys go, like, "Those guys," like, or is it more like, "They're gonna break something"?
PAGE: No, and I live in the States and I love the States, but, yes, we do, I think there's a little more maybe camaraderie of spirit, a little less fear, and we, I think, take care of each other a bit more and don't, sort of (PAUSES)-
STEWART, JUMPING IN: You're communists.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)
PAGE: We are dirty, dirty communists.
(AUDIENCE LAUGHTER)
STEWART: But perfect.
