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.
[See NewsBusters for more]