Justin Trudeau gets a serious grilling from Hasan Minhaj in tough Netflix interview
In his four years as Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau has spent much of that time building a rep as the dream leader of progressives around the world, being praised for his policies around immigration, climate change, and social and gender inequality. But now his crown is starting to slip -- and not just because Jacinda Ardern's on the scene.
As Hasan Minhaj explains in the latest, Canada-focused episode of his Netflix show Patriot Act, Trudeau's approval rating has halved in the face of a scandal that's consumed his year -- and his election prospects. On Aug. 14, Trudeau accepted responsibility after being found in the wrong by the country's ethics watchdog.
And Minhaj, as it happened, had conducted an interview with the embattled leader on Aug. 12.
"Now, I interviewed him two days before that ethics report came out," says Minhaj. "So he was still pretty chatty."
And Trudeau probably wasn't expecting this interview, for a Netflix show hosted by a comedian, to be as tough as it is. While Minhaj has plenty of fun material here, he keeps Trudeau on his toes, grilling him on Canada's history of selling tanks and weapons to Saudi Arabia after softballs about Tim Horton's and Kawhi Leonard, and getting him to admit he opposes Quebec's controversial secularism bill before trying (jokingly) to trick him into reciting the Shahada.
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Early on, Minhaj takes Trudeau through a cute game where he shows pictures of middle-aged men and asks whether they're world leaders or Minhaj's friends' dads. He mostly does well, although Canada's ambassador to Ecuador might have an awkward phone call ahead of her on Monday.
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And Trudeau also didn't get off lightly on his green bona fides: Minhaj asked him about the controversial Transmountain oil pipeline, then fact-checked his response in the studio; dubbed him the 'White Panther', and begged him to leave WaCanada's version of vibranium -- its oil -- in the ground.
And while Minhaj acknowledges that the country's Conservative party has a far worse record on environment and climate issues, his point is that Trudeau's policies don't match up to his reputation as the pragmatic green warrior.
"I understand, we all love Canada -- I know it," says Minhaj. "None of you guys wanted to hear any of this! I might as well have done a 20-minute takedown of Tom Hanks. But there are realities about Canada and Trudeau that we cannot ignore. ... Political pragmatism has to reckon with the reality of climate change."
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The full episode is worth a watch, and is available on Netflix now.
Caitlin is Mashable's Australian Editor. She has written for The Guardian, Junkee, and any number of plucky little music and culture publications that were run on the smell of an oily rag and have since been flushed off the Internet like a dead goldfish by their new owners. She also worked at Choice, Australia's consumer advocacy non-profit and magazine, and as such has surprisingly strong opinions about whitegoods. She enjoys big dumb action movies, big clever action movies, cult Canadian comedies set in small towns, Carly Rae Jepsen, The Replacements, smoky mezcal, revenge bedtime procrastination, and being left the hell alone when she's reading.
