Rhys Waters and his family immigrated to Halifax from Wales over two years ago.
He wanted to learn more about Canadian politics and started searching around for a podcast that had a comedic take on the subject.
When he couldn’t find any, he created his own called Canadian Politics is Boring.
“It was kind of a fun project during lockdown just to pass the time, have some fun, focus on doing comedy work and it was a subject I was interested in learning about,” Waters told NEWS 95.7’s The Rick Howe Show.
“It seemed like a really good way of forcing myself to learn about the topic and then also share what we were learning with others.”
Waters has teamed up with his friend, local film director Jesse Harley, who has no interest in politics.
He then presents him with a strange and unusual tale, like the Pig War of 1859 and that time we almost named one of our territories Bob.
“We found out about this UFO welcome site in Alberta that was built by a defence minister called Paul Hellyer … he opened a welcome centre, so when they arrive they have a place to land in Alberta, which is just fascinating,” he said.
“We’ve also got a new episode that we’re going to release soon about American invasion plans for Canada, and part of that plan was to drop poison gas on Halifax to take out the Atlantic fleet.”
Waters said his co-host usually has no idea what’s coming and he tries to surprise him with a bizarre piece of Canadian history.
“So it’s completely improvised. I tend to tee the story up and tell it in a particular way and it’s up to him to respond and react,” he explained. “Usually I try to shock him as much as possible with things he wouldn’t expect.”
The pair originally planned to do 12 episodes, but the podcast has quickly found a growing audience.
“It just kind of grew organically,” he said. “Now we’re committed to it for the rest of our lives, or at least until people stop listening.”
It doesn’t appear that will be happening any time soon. Canadian Politics is Boring has just been added to Rogers Sports and Media’s Frequency Podcast Network, which should expose it to a larger audience.
The network’s head, Jordan Heath-Rawlings, said he’s listened to many podcasts on Canadian politics, but none have made him laugh like this one.
“I’ve never seen an independent politics podcast grow so big, so fast,” said Heath-Rawlings in a news release.
“I feel like Rhys and Jesse have barely scratched the surface of both their potential as a show and Canada’s sordid and hilarious political history.”
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
