A day in the life of a Canadian Dad by Pierre Poilievre

Ah, Pierre Poilievre strikes again with another improbable video! It was so unpopular that the Conservatives pulled it from circulation when it was met with fact-checking and ridicule. But videos can be saved to other platforms like YouTube and shared. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fPFNKvM06fU

Pierre might be forgiven for romanticizing the past but painting this junk as the picture of tomorrow under his leadership is not only inaccurate – it’s dangerous. Why?

Even though we yearn for it, Canada, as pictured in this video, is not like that now and won’t be like that anytime in the foreseeable future irrespective of who leads the country.

Note: all “quotes” are Pierre Poilievre’s.

The video starts with Pierre, dressed in a white top and stetson, telling the audience that he’s going to paint a picture of “what home and hope looks like.” It might be what hope looks like but it’s not what home looks like.

One major ick in this video is that much of the footage used is from outside of Canada. For example, an elementary classroom was filmed in Serbia. A “Canadian dad” drives his pickup truck through an American suburb. Newly built “Canadian” homes are located in Slovenia. The “Canadian countryside” pictured in the video is in North Dakota, USA. “Canadian” cattle are seen grazing in California. A family walking in a “Canadian” park is located in Richmond Park, London, England. And so on. Someone took the trouble to do an image/clip search, and the results (with hilarious comments) can be seen here: https://x.com/disorderedyyc/status/1825265002674287077 or via the thread reader as a full article: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1825265002674287077.html?utm_campaign=topunroll

And then there are story elements that don’t flow properly or make sense:

It starts with a little girl being met by her teacher with a “high five” as she jumps off the school bus. But the next clip is of a Canadian dad’s point of view of a rural suburban area.. and Pierre’s voice over states “but before walking in the door (of the school) they look back at dad in his pickup truck who has dropped them off”.  So does “Dad” drop her/them off or does he follow the school bus (like why?) or is he some unknown creep following them?

And then we’re back to Pierre’s beloved wood shots – this time of a hammer driving nails into wood. Pierre’s voice over: “he (the Dad) rolls down that suburban street with his windows open in the school zone, driving slowly so that he can hear the beautiful crackling sound of hammers, pounding nails into Canadian lumber. On newly built affordable Canadian homes.” One viewer was astute enough to note that most builders today use air nailers or nail guns.

On his way to work at a well site (your typical Canadian fossil fuel job, for sure), Dad stops at a gas station to fill up his pickup at Petro Canada “…with affordable and lower-taxed Canadian-made energy.”  Yes.. good old Canadian – ‘clean and ethically produced fossil fuel energy’ – that the Conservatives love to push. While global temperatures soar. But hey.. our fossil fuels are ethical. And by the way, Dad is pulling into the service station at night… um.

Dad leaves the gas station (it’s day again) and drives by fields of mystery growth… Pierre says “barley or canola” but it looks like wheat to me, and we all know how much the Conservatives value Canadian wheat and Canadian farmers ————->

The time changes to sundown as Dad then passes a tiny herd of “… cattle grazing on the countryside. Producing the best food from the best farmers anywhere on earth.”

Nice thought, but the reality is that unless you can afford the premium prices of grass-fed beef, you are eating meat raised in feedlots where cattle are crammed into pens standing in their own waste and fed grains and pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones (unless stated otherwise) – before they are trucked to the slaughterhouse.

From his truck, Dad “…looks up and what does he see? He sees a brand new fighter jet. They’re doing a training mission in the sky, getting ready to defend our home and native land.”

Many on Twitter have gleefully pointed out that the planes in the sky are Russian jets. I’m not sure how Russian jets are defending our home and native land.

The drivel continues ““The same plane is soon seen from the University campus, where kids are hustling off to class a little late, having just procrastinated on that university essay, knowing that when they get to class, they will have the chance to debate freely and fearlessly without worry of being censored.” I think it’s worth noting that Canadian students are currently not censored.

“Later in the day, the whole family of the student, that welder, the kids, moms and dads come together for a big family celebration because it’s been 10 years since one of the adult kids in the family has been sober and overcome his drug addiction, and they gather around the table to have a big, beautiful dinner to celebrate, [with] some wonderful venison that was shot with totally legal Canadian firearms.”

Yummy … venison on a hot summer’s day, killed by legal Canadian automatic weapons!

Anyway, the family dinner is done and Dad and family pile into the car or pickup and “…leaves the driveway and they turn and look west And what do they see? They see wheat. Foothills. Rockies. And a big blue twilight sky, and they look at each other in the eye and they say ‘we’re home. These are our people. This is our country. This is our home.’ “

And so, Pierre Poilievre’s video leaves us with a final image that’s as accurate as it is subtle—like using Russian fighter jets to defend Canada’s “home and native land” or driving through American suburbs to find the true north, strong and free. It’s a stirring vision of Canada, if you overlook the minor details like geography, reality, and the fact that much of the footage isn’t even Canadian. But hey, why let facts get in the way of a good story? Just remember, if you ever find yourself lost in the landscape of Pierre’s Canada, don’t worry—you’re probably in North Dakota.