Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared as a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert for an interview while in New York to attend the 78th gathering of the United Nations General Assembly on Monday.
The conversation was practically devoid of anything that resembled a hardball question, instead, talk show host Colbert asked the prime minister to sell him on Canada, the differences in each country’s bacon and his favourite Star Wars movie.
Colbert also asked Trudeau about Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, who the late-night TV host claimed has been called “the Trump of Canada.”
“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,” said Colbert.
“I’m curious why at least some form of nativism or far-right xenophobia might grow in a country as polite as Canada. Why do you think this is getting a foothold even in your country?” he asked.
Trudeau said that while Canada has its fair share of rainbows and unicorns, it’s not a perfect country.
“That phrase ‘even in Canada’, I mean we’re not some magical place of unicorns and rainbows all the time,” Trudeau responded. “We’ve got more than our fair share but the things that we’ve managed to do, we’ve had to work really really hard at.”
Trudeau cited universal healthcare as being a “decades of trying to bring people together” before mentioning his fight against climate change, dental care and child care.
“There’s a big argument right now about whether dental care even exists,” said Trudeau. “We’ve delivered it to 700,000 people across the country and my opponent is gaslighting us and saying, ‘Dental care doesn’t even exist yet.’”
Neither Colbert nor Trudeau cited any examples to substantiate the claims that the Conservatives were flirting with fascism.
When asked by Colbert why the Conservatives were presenting a motion of nonconfidence to force an election, Trudeau said that “Canadians are hurting right now.”
The prime minister addressed the housing crisis, which he said was being felt “a little sharper” in Canada than in the U.S.
“Well, it is a really tough time in Canada right now. People are hurting. People are having trouble paying for groceries, paying for rent, filling up the tank… We’ve lost a little ground over the past decades on building houses, so the housing crisis is a little sharper,” said Trudeau.
However, he claimed that Canada’s economic outlook was better off “on a macro level” than that of the U.S. but that Canadians “don’t feel it when they’re buying groceries.”
“People are frustrated and the idea that maybe they want an election now is something that my opponents are trying to bank on because… People are taking a lot out on me for understandable reasons. I’ve been here and I’ve been steering us through all these things and people are sometimes looking at change,” said Trudeau.
He went on to say that he plans to “keep fighting” to win a fourth term as prime minister.
The Conservatives will present a motion of nonconfidence in the House of Commons on Wednesday, however, it’s unlikely that it will pass as both the NDP and Bloc Quebecois have said that they will support the Liberals in the vote to maintain their government.
