Canadian politician Pierre Poilievre casually rebuffed a left-leaning reporter — while eating an apple — during a recent exchange that has since gone viral.
Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada and the Official Opposition since 2022, is currently running to serve as prime minister — and he made it clear that he was not going to allow reporters to set the narrative without a fight.
WATCH:
Pierre Poilievre casually smacks down a left wing journalist while munching on an apple. pic.twitter.com/FeAcjCncvw
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) October 17, 2023
“On the topic, I mean, in terms of your sort of strategy currently, you’re obviously taking the populist pathway …” the reporter began.
“What does that mean?” Poilievre asked around a mouthful of his apple.
“Well, appealing to people’s more emotional levels, I would guess,” the reporter replied with a laugh. “I mean …”
“What do you mean by that?” Poilievre pressed.
“Certainly you tap, certainly you tap very strong ideological language quite frequently —”
“Like what?” Poilievre asked between bites.
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“Uhh, left-wing, you know, this and that, right-wing, you know, that type of —” the reporter appeared to be caught off guard by the question.
“I almost never talk about — I never really talk about left or right, I don’t really believe in that,” Poilievre stated.
“Okay, a lot of people would say that you’re simply taking a page out of the Donald Trump book —” the reporter tried a different tack.
“A lot of people — like which people would say that?” Poilievre asked, taking another bite.
“Well, I’m sure a great many Canadians, but —” the reporter tried to continue, laughing uncomfortably.
“Like who?” Poilievre was insistent.
“I don’t know who, but —” the reporter protested.
“Well, you’re the one who asked the question,” Poilievre pointed out. “So you must know somebody.”
“Okay,” the reporter laughed again, trying to salvage the point. “I’m sure there’s some out there, but anyway, the point of this question is, why should Canadians trust you with their vote given not just the sort of ideological inclination in terms of taking the page out of Donald Trump’s book, but also …”
Poilievre pushed back again, asking, “What are you talking about? What page? What page? Can you give me a page? Give me the page. You keep saying that —”
“In terms of turning things quite dramatically in terms of Trudeau and the left-wing and all of this, I mean, you make quite a — you know — it’s quite a play that you make on it, so —” the reporter appeared to struggle to find his question.
“I’m not sure — I don’t know what your question is,” Poilievre replied, appearing confused.
“Then forget that,” the reporter gave up, opting to strip the question down to its simplest form: “Why should Canadians trust you with their vote?”
Poilievre delivered a simple answer: “Common sense. Common sense. For a change, we’re going to make common sense common in this country. We don’t have any common sense in the current government.”
Poilievre went on to turn his attention to current Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, explaining why he believed the liberals had failed at their chance to govern.