CBS’s Stephen Colbert welcomed Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to Monday’s taping of The Late Show in an attempt to help him reverse his collapse in the polls by labeling his Conservative Party opponent, Pierre Poilievre, “Canada’s Trump,” which naturally means he is, in Colbert’s eyes, a fascist, nativist-xenophobe.
Trudeau was in town for the United Nations General Assembly, and Colbert observed, “Here is one thing, you know, it's something that I am sure comes, you know, quite clearly at the U.N. General Assembly is that the far-right and flirtations with fascism at the very least is rising across the globe, even in Canada, your Conservative Party leader, your opponent there, has been called Canada's Trump, and I’m sorry about that and, but I am curious why at least some form of nativism or far-right xenophobia might grow in a country even as polite as Canada. Why do you think this is getting a foothold even in your country?
Since almost all of Colbert’s audience knows nothing about Poilievre, including his name because Colbert wouldn’t mention it, it should be noted that this alleged leader of “nativism” and “far-right xenophobia” has a Venezuelan-born wife and two mixed-race children. He insists Trudeau broke the “multigenerational consensus” in the country and would tie immigration levels to new home construction and move to a more merit-based system.
As for Trudeau, he took the opportunity to give a stump speech:
That phrase “even in Canada,” I mean, we’re not some magical place of unicorns and rainbows all the time. We got more than our fair share, but the things that we have managed to do, we've had to work really hard at. I mean, universal health care was, you know, decades of trying to bring people together and make it happen. We moved forward on world-leading fight against climate change with a price on pollution.
We’re moving forward with dental care for low income Canadians, we’re moving forward with $10 a day child care, these are things we have to fight for and that are really hard to do, but you can bring people together around thoughtful ideas and you can also lose those things too. I mean, there's a big argument right now about whether or dental care even exists. We delivered it to 700,000 people across the country and my opponent is gaslighting us and saying ‘oh, dental care doesn’t even exist yet.’
Whatever one thinks of Canada’s dental care debate, Trudeau, or Poilievre, a smaller role for government is hardly “fascism.”
Here is a transcript for the September-24 taped show:
CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert
9/24/2024
12:08 AM ET
STEPHEN COLBERT: Here is one thing, you know, it's something that I am sure comes, you know, quite clearly at the U.N. General Assembly is that the far-right and flirtations with fascism at the very least is rising across the globe, even in Canada, your Conservative Party leader, your opponent there, has been called Canada's Trump, and I’m sorry about that and, but I am curious why at least some form of nativism or far-right xenophobia might grow in a country even as polite as Canada. Why do you think this is getting a foothold even in your country?
JUSTIN TRUDEAU: That phrase “even in Canada,” I mean, we’re not some magical place of unicorns and rainbows all the time. We got more than our fair share, but the things that we have managed to do, we've had to work really hard at. I mean, universal health care was, you know, decades of trying to bring people together and make it happen. We moved forward on world-leading fight against climate change with a price on pollution. We’re moving forward with dental care for low income Canadians, we’re moving forward with $10 a day child care, these are things we have to fight for and that are really hard to do, but you can bring people together around thoughtful ideas and you can also lose those things too. I mean, there's a big argument right now about whether or dental care even exists. We delivered it to 700,000 people across the country and my opponent is gaslighting us and saying “oh, dental care doesn’t even exist yet.”
