It has been true for too many years: Canadians only think you’ve made it when you appear on American television.
Take this Friday night on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. The comedian will start his show — now in its 23rd season — with a one-on-one interview with Liberal Prime Minister of Canada candidate Chrystia Freeland.
Maher, of course, has been trying to find anything funny about the tsunami of horror spewing forth from Washington since January 20th. Freeland, the former Deputy PM, appears to be playing catch up to Liberal front-runner Mark Carney in the run-up to the Liberal leadership race, which goes to a vote March 9.
Carney himself has made high profile stops on American television. Even though he wasn’t formally a candidate then, the former Governor of the Bank of Canada probably got more of a lift from going toe-to-toe with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show than he did appearing opposite political correspondent Rosie Barton on CBC News.
Back in September, even outgoing PM Justin Trudeau attempted some “Hail Mary” damage control opposite Stephen Colbert on CBS’s The Late Show. In recent months, during tariff negotiations, Trudeau has done sit downs with CNN and MSNBC. In January, Canada’s Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly appeared on CNN.
All of these Canadian politicians know that appearing on American news channels or US network late night shows have long tails. Everything winds up on Instagram, YouTube or other social media sites where it gets consumed in bite size chunks over coffee and cereal the next morning (see all the links, above). Carney’s 19-minute appearance on The Daily Show, for example, has so far racked up 3.5 million views.
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Ontario premier Doug Ford was so keen on capitalizing on his CNN News appearances opposite Erin Burnett that clips from the US cable newschannel were used prominently in his Ontario election ads.
The candidate who has seen his huge lead in the polls shrink as Carney entered the race to become Prime Minister, Pierre Poilievre, has taken a different approach. No risky Daily Show or CBS Late Show appearances for him. Instead, last October, he went viral with an apple eating video. Last month, for two cozy hours, he sat opposite Canadian psychologist, author and fellow right winger Jordan Peterson on his Daily Wire podcast.
Freeland on Maher, however, will be interesting. Maher will have read her book and could ask some unpredictable questions. It is a safe bet she won’t stick around for the “Overtime” segment (shown later on YouTube). There’s no way she’ll follow him home to get high on his Club Random podcast.
Maher’s guests on the desk Friday night are Rahm Emanuel, former U.S. Ambassador to Japan, former mayor of Chicago, and former chief of staff to President Obama; and Fareed Zakaria, columnist for The Washington Post, and host of the CNN podcast “Fareed Zakaria’s GPS.”
Real Time with Bill Maher airs at 10 p.m. Fridays on HBO, streams on Max and in Canada on Crave.
