Andrew Chapados hosts a pre-election 2021 debate special with Ben Bankus, T.J. Laramie (UFC Featherweight, fighting Nov 6 at Madison Square Garden), and Michaela Peterson, dissecting Canada’s political chaos—from Trudeau’s vaccine passport push (excluding 25% of Canadians) to his "misinformation" attacks on Rebel News, backed by disputed COVID stats (e.g., 70 deaths under 30 in six months). Bankus mocks Trudeau’s emotional framing and Ford’s inconsistent conservatism while predicting PPC gains, possibly 20% support from "closeted" voters. Peterson slams Tam’s "fake" case projections and warns vaccine mandates prioritize liability over science, concluding the election hinges on public distrust of establishment narratives. [Automatically generated summary]
Welcome everybody to the Andrew Says election special.
Thanks for joining us.
We are hot on the tail of the Canadian 2021 election.
Joining me now in non-specific order, we've got comedian Ben Bankus.
Ben, you're a podcaster.
You are a social media extraordinaire.
How are you doing today?
Pretty good.
Very lively answers.
Question.
Generic answer.
TJ Laramie, UFC Featherweight, at Laramie TJ on Instagram or TJ Laramie on Instagram at Laramie TJ on Twitter.
TJ, how are you doing?
You got a flight coming up, don't you?
How's everything going?
Good, man.
I feel great.
I fight November 6th at Madison Square Garden.
Ben Bankus can't help himself, you guys.
He's performing at a small bar next week.
Our third and last but not least guest is Michaela Peterson.
You know her from her podcast and of course her website and Michaela Peterson on Instagram.
Michaela, how are you doing?
I know you're very happy to see Ben Bankus.
What's new with you?
I'm fantastic.
I'm moving out of the country, so I'm doing great.
We got a lot of questions about that before we even start.
A lot of people want to know how and why you're moving and they probably want to know where.
You don't have to tell them that.
But what made you decide to want to move to the U.S.?
I don't like Toronto anymore.
Toronto used to be cool.
It was one of like the greatest cities in the world, I think.
And it's in chaos right now.
And I don't see it improving.
And so I'm going to spend at least the winter in Nashville and just wait it out and see what happens in six months because we either fix what's going on or everything gets much, much worse.
So I'm hoping things don't get worse, but I'm out of here for the winter.
Is this a subtle move of you getting hired by the Daily Wire out in Nashville?
No.
Not at all.
Okay.
Ben Bankus, did you get a chance to watch the debates?
We had a French, two French ones, actually, and an English one.
Did you get a chance to watch them?
What were your takeaways from that, Ben?
Well, no, because I have a life.
I liked how you asked Michaela how she's moving, like plane, train, automobile?
No, I watched my friend send my friend sent me Snapchats of the debates and he put the face filter of my face on Rosemary Barton.
So that's what I saw.
That was pretty funny.
That's the highlight for you, the whole debates, is your face being put on Rosemary Barton?
Yeah, I quote him on automatic.
Ben really saved his A-game, his A-material for us.
Jagmeet, Firebeard, Snapchat filters.
TJ Laramie, how did making the debates...
I hate you.
How did watching the debates make you feel?
Do you have hope for Canada after what you saw?
Are you enthusiastic about going and voting?
Or what was your response like for yourself when you heard all their questions being answered?
I'm going to be honest, the debate didn't really interest me too much because the party I support most wasn't invited.
So I didn't really take too much interest into watching that.
Michaela Peterson, do you think a lot of hope was given to Canadian citizens after the last two debates?
I mean, we saw politicians getting angry.
We saw them avoiding questions, arguing with each other.
What was your biggest takeaway from the debates overall?
In my opinion, the platforms are almost identical.
And the person that we should have seen debating was Maxine Bernier, and he wasn't invited.
So that's an issue.
A lot of Bernier loving here, I feel like, today.
Ben Bankus, if you have to make a prediction, do you think we're going to go into lockdowns again if Justin Trudeau wins?
Do you think we're going to have more border closures?
What do you think happens if Jordan or Jordan Peterson, Justin Trudeau wins the next election?
Well, Jordan Peterson might be the next prime minister of Canada.
Now, I think Bernier is going to win by a landslide.
Bernier.
I'm kidding.
Okay.
Yeah.
I mean, we're all with lockdowns forever.
I mean, what do you think?
You think he's just going to let up?
You think Trudeau is going to win and be like, we're all free now.
He's going to win and be like, lock it down.
And then, you know, there'll be another election in 18 months.
But I think that's the importance of for people who are like, I don't know.
I feel like it's a wasted vote to vote for PPC.
It's like, well, you're showing the establishment.
And, you know, if anything, you're pissing off Eric O'Toole because if he can't win because you voted for PPC, then that should be a wake-up call for everybody.
Like Michaela said, you know, Bernier wasn't at the debates.
So people are going to vote for him, I think, even more.
TJ, did any of the leaders come off as like realistic human beings who you thought they were giving real honest answers to the questions they were opposed?
With all the leaders, like Michaela said, the platforms are pretty similar.
And like you were saying with the lockdowns, their lockdowns are among all the platforms, too.
They support everything.
Conservatives, liberals, NDP, alike, they all pretty much support the same thing.
So you don't really see too much difference between the two or between all of them.
You just see mainly just nitpicking at one or the other.
It kind of gets boring to watch.
I think the other problem is that we're actually in a situation where a lot of people want lockdowns.
And that's the issue, more so than the government's wanting them, is they've already convinced people that they're a good idea.
Look at Australia.
And, you know, I know a lot of people are pissed off there, but a lot of people are happy to get money and not have to go to work and not have to commute and stay home with their families.
So, you know, unless you're doing something like we're doing or comedy or, you know, fighting and traveling or doing something interesting, if you're working a boring job, why not?
Why wouldn't you want to be at home?
Right.
So I think that's the bigger issue is kind of motivating our populations to not to strive for above mediocrity.
Michaela, you talked to a lot of people on your show.
Did anybody message you at all from overseas, from the United States, about the stuff that was happening during the debates?
There was a couple clips that we'll get to, one of which got viral with Justin Trudeau having a bit of a meltdown.
Did anybody ask you what the hell is going on in Canada right now?
I think people have just written Canada off, to tell you the truth.
Sort of.
I don't think America cares.
Yeah, sort out Australia.
I mean, Australians have enough to be concerned about being in Australia.
Americans don't care about Canada.
So no.
The only people who are showing interest in Canada at the moment are Canadians.
I didn't get messages other than that.
And I would say Canadians are concerned.
I also don't know if I agree with Ben or I'm just in a different group of people, but do you think people actually want the lockdowns to continue?
I find it very difficult to believe that people actually want this to continue.
Well, I am pretty outgoing.
I walk I'm doing sober September.
So I just talk to strangers now.
And I've been walking up to strangers and some people, you'll walk up to them.
It's more specifically around the vax pass.
But, you know, I ask people, are you going to vote against the vax passport or vote for somebody who's against it?
And a lot of people say, against it, against it.
We need it.
And those are the same people that if lockdown happened, they'd be like, well, we need it.
And they would blame.
you know, if they are upset about it, they're going to blame the unvaxed, you know, and then we'll move towards banning them from healthcare, which is pretty funny because then if the hospitals are full and the unvaxed can't get health care, then who the heck is in the hospitals causing the backlog?
Michaela, where are you getting the feeling that you think people are not for extended lockdowns?
I would say from Uber drivers mostly or people on the street.
I don't know.
it might be just be people i associate with but there are a lot of uber drivers and a lot of immigrants specifically immigrants that are not happy with what's going on so most of the people i've spoken with are they don't I've been informing them.
And like, they're like, wow, we're screwed.
One Uber driver I had, he came from, he was from Somalia and he had had a pretty rough time in Somalia and he was like, this is worse.
I was like, I'm so sorry you came to Canada in 2019.
That was really bad timing on your part.
But PPC, I've been explaining that party to people.
I think it's just a matter of, like, people don't understand what the party is, what the differences are, and how to vote for them even.
Like, it's like they don't exist yet.
Politicians officially worse than pirates.
Here you have it, folks.
DJ, you're pretty outward with your beliefs there and some of your political views.
I mean, you're not putting out dissertations or anything, but I think we can decipher who you're supporting.
What kind of feeling do you have in your circle of friends?
I'm sure you talk to a lot of different people, whether it's trainers, nutritionists, that sort of stuff, UFC staff.
What's your feeling around the people that you talk to?
Are they about done with all this?
Or do you think they would continue with it if the government put forth the request of the people to continue to lock down?
Majority of people I actually hang around with don't support the vax pass and all that.
But I do get like, I'm pretty vocal on social media.
So I get a lot of opinions from just people I don't really know.
And it's just like they're waiting for the next step.
They think the next step is going to be what eliminates all these lockdowns, what eliminates all these restrictions.
But that's how it's been since the beginning.
Oh, you know, just two weeks to flatten the curve.
And then it's just, oh, now it's a couple months.
Now we just got to hit these vaccination numbers.
And then it just goes to, oh, now it's going to be 90% to 100%.
So it just keeps going on and on and on.
And they always pick somebody new to blame.
Like last year when the school season started, they blamed the kids going back to school.
Like it's like they have a scapegoat every time something goes wrong, you know?
So most people I know are getting pretty fed up and tired with it, people in my personal life.
But as far as the political parties go, what I see a lot of in my friend group is, oh, we got to just get Trudeau out.
Yeah.
Let's vote conservative, you know?
But I'm like, man, it's the same thing.
You're voting for the same party, essentially, right?
So that's why you got to educate these people on what PPC is.
I mean, they've only been around for three years, right?
So some of these parties have been around for 100, right?
So it takes a while to build up.
I don't expect to win, obviously, this election, but to get a few seats is a substantial gain.
So just to inform more people, and obviously they're not giving Maxine much of a platform other than what he has on social media.
So he's already at a disadvantage.
So, but I think this election will definitely show a lot more numbers for PPC, which I'm pretty excited for.
Andrew, what I think is interesting is that, you know, this is like my friend here just said, what's your name again?
TJ said that, you know, they keep moving the goalposts.
So you have these people basically lying effectively about, you know, different statistics or what, you know, what we need to be at so we can open society.
And then they look at us, the citizens, and go, why don't you listen to the medical experts?
It's like, because the medical experts just are making things up.
The medical experts don't believe the medical experts.
If they believe them, then we would just not even, we'd be talking about something talking about baseball right now.
They've been wrong on almost every mark they've said.
So they just say things that are wrong and then they're like, why wouldn't you believe what I have?
It's like, nothing you say is true.
Michaela, I'm going to ask you about a lot what TJ said there, because I think that echoes a lot what I see in my inbox mostly is why don't you support Aaron O'Toole?
We have to get Justin Trudeau out.
Do you get a lot of complaints about the vote splitting argument and that the first goal should be getting Prime Minister Justin Trudeau out of office and then worrying about the specifics of policies that should be in place after the fact?
Do you hear a lot of that from your audience?
Yeah.
And I actually had Maxine Bernier on my podcast and I asked him that directly, which was, aren't you worried about splitting the conservative vote and then having Trudeau win?
Because that would be terrible.
Like, isn't that a concern of yours?
And his response was, there is no Conservative Party of Canada.
They are the Liberals.
And I was like, well, yeah, okay, but you probably just want to win.
So maybe that's not quite accurate.
But then I started looking into Aaron O'Toole's platform more and he wants a vaccine passport.
Like almost all of his policies are very, very, very similar to the liberals.
So he basically moved the Conservative Party over to the left to steal liberal votes.
So there isn't a Conservative Party.
So I'm a bit, actually, no, I've made my decision and I'm voting for Maxime Bernier in PPC.
And that's because.
Just step down and let Bernier do it.
That'd be so good.
Yeah, that's definitely not happening.
Hopefully he wins and then the PPC gets seats.
But I don't think there is a Conservative Party of Canada at the moment.
The Conservative Party of Canada, led by Aaron O'Toole, certainly isn't conservative.
Caleb Peters is taking a dark turn into the realm of no hope, I think.
I want to show some videos here.
Justin Trudeau, he's been, people have been pointing out that he's been very angry on the campaign trail.
Now, he said people have a right to be angry not more than a couple of months ago.
And then when people started showing that anger towards him, the heckling, the blocking his bus and what have you, he said all of a sudden, no, those other people out there protesting this, they need to stop with the anger.
Vaccination Messaging Debate00:05:41
It's not who we are.
And I should have said that my best, Ben Bankus, Trudeau, and personally, it's not who we are as Canadians.
So producer Justin, can we go ahead and play that video of Justin Trudeau, Justin and Justin there, talking about how you can't get on a plane or a train or you shouldn't unless you're vaccinated because of how dangerous it is.
You deserve better.
You deserve a government that's going to continue to say, get vaccinated.
And you know what?
If you don't want to get vaccinated, that's your choice.
But don't think you can get on a plane or a train beside vaccinated people and put them at risk.
We need to be strong in the decisions we're taking going forward.
And we need to put people first, which we have always done.
Ben Bankus is motioning something to me.
I mean, it's clearly on Adderall.
Like there's like how like nobody's that passionate about anything, even politicians.
Michaela Peterson, do you think this is going to create a two-tiered society putting this many people?
I mean, it's 25% of the Canadian of the country of Canadians who wouldn't qualify to be on a plane or a train.
Is this creating a tiered society system like we see in some other countries?
100%.
I watched a clip yesterday of a university professor.
There's this woman who's been a tenured university professor for 20 years, and she's an ethics professor.
I can't remember the university, but she got fired.
Western, yeah.
She got let go because she wouldn't get vaccinated because she said it was unethical to force, you know, vaccines or vaccines that haven't been around for a while on people.
So I've had people, one of the guys I had on my podcast, his name's Rav Aurora.
He's a journalist for the New York Post, and he got fired from his job because he's not vaccinated.
And his parents are potentially being fired because they're not vaccinated.
So yeah, this is a huge problem, which is why I'm going to be wintering in Nashville.
Ben Benkis, does this set a precedent for the ability for people to ask mainly, I guess, government places to ask medical history for other things?
Are we going to go down the road where people need to prove that they're disabled, you know, to wear wheel, to use a wheelchair?
Are you thinking this is going to set a bad precedent for the future of this country?
Well, I think people with herpes shouldn't be allowed in nightclubs.
I don't know.
Well, digital IDs are coming to Ontario.
That's going to be linked to everything.
But my thing is when you go to a government agency to get even your passport or anything, they're just so slow and unorganized.
And it's, you know, even with this vax passport rollout, it's going to be a disaster.
The 22nd is going to be hilarious.
There is just going to be people clamoring over each other.
There's going to be fake passes left, right, and center.
They're creating another, all of these restrictions from lockdowns, quarantine, all this stuff, it just creates more and more black market.
And, you know, my one friend who's a lawyer said this, that basically the population is being trained like the rule of law is being eroded because everybody's breaking the rules at all times.
You know, and if we have Bill C10 and C36 come in, every, you know, a casual, every golf course conversation will be a federal crime.
So what are we doing here?
We're just making everybody a criminal and we just get to pick it, you know, like in Soviet Union, you just pick who are we arresting today because everybody's guilty.
TJ, as I mentioned, 26% of the population would not qualify to be on a train or a plane.
That's one-dosed people and people who haven't been vaccinated at all.
How do you think this type of messaging, and I think it's clear that Trudeau has gotten angrier as his campaign has gone on.
There's no doubt about that in my mind.
How do you think people who are unvaccinated or unqualified to go on a plane or a train, how do you think this sounds to them?
Well, I think it's pretty obvious that you're just putting these people at a lower tier in society compared to other people, you know, based on a vaccine status.
And then we go back to the point where it's like previously, if you were flying internationally, you needed a test to fly.
You needed all these things.
You needed a test to come back.
So my question is like, okay, do you trust your vaccines or do you trust your tests or do you trust neither?
That like, if there's not other measures put in place to possibly whatever, like curve COVID or whatever's out there, then I'm not sure what to really believe.
You know, everybody's, all these politicians are going back and forth.
Medical professionals are going back and forth and they're not being really too direct with what works or what they trust or what they believe in.
And as far as Trudeau goes in that video, you just played, he's just starting to sound very desperate.
And they pretty much coerced most of the population to get the vaccine.
So most people aren't really against vaccine passports because it doesn't affect them, right?
So that's part of the master race now.
Exactly.
So if you can give someone a chance to maybe feel a little bit better, a little bit higher up than somebody else, they're going to take it, especially, you know what I mean?
It's no nuisance to them at this point.
But it's all about liability, right?
Like it's really just businesses and companies just being like, how, what, what do we do so that we don't get sued if somebody gets sick?
And then, you know, and the people are like, it's not about science, it's about control.
Yeah, it is to an extent, but it's also just the law is like such that everybody's trying to protect themselves.
Fiscal Sense Debate00:05:27
And this is their way of doing it.
And it makes no sense.
It's not logical.
It just has to do with, well, we don't want to be sued.
So we better make sure everybody has to be vaxed, blah, blah, blah.
I mean, that theory would make sense if vaccinated people are completely 100% safe.
Well, it doesn't make sense.
It's just paperwork, right?
like how can we well it's as easy they're They're coming out with this digital QR code for the vaccine passports as easy as screenshotting your friends and using that as a fake one.
This is a scam.
Can I have one?
You guys, we talked a lot about the party's platforms not being dissimilar enough for it to matter whether Maxine Bernier on the stage of the debates.
I want to show a video of Aaron O'Toole on a news broadcast where they sort of ask him how he plans on getting out of debt with all this spending.
Can we play that clip, please?
We have a massive debt here.
How do you intend, if you are elected prime minister, how do you intend to have this paid off so that generations are not paying for this for years to come?
Great question, Melanie.
We're spending right now $424 million a day more than we're bringing in.
That's not sustainable, and that's leading to inflation.
So we have a plan to balance the budget over 10 years, focusing on help for families, help for small businesses, especially services and restaurants struggling after the pandemic, get them back on their feet.
Some funds for health care and for mental health.
We've got the third pillar of our plan is a national leadership role on mental health.
But we have to get spending down in a way that's fair and disciplined.
I love the debit card B roll.
That's my favorite part of the whole broadcast there.
I want to just go off a list off the top of my head here that I wrote down of the things Aaron O'Toole plans on spending more on mental health, child care, restaurant rebates.
He wants to give people money back for eating in restaurants a couple of days a week.
No tax in just that's a real thing.
No tax in December on purchases, funding for the reserves and increased health care.
That's aside from mental health and child care, increased healthcare spending.
Ben Bank is this plan where it's over 10 years, which essentially is elect me twice and I'll do what I promised to do.
Does this make any sense fiscally to you?
Yeah, I'm really the person to ask about financial responsibility.
I don't know.
I mean, if you go on Aaron O'Toole's social media, he talks about these issues that, you know, people, if the world wasn't falling apart, people would be like, yes, great, let's talk about that.
And like Michaela said, he's trying to get the liberal vote.
He's trying to get the woke vote.
And the people who would regularly vote conservative are in the comments going, what about the vax pass?
And what is that leading to?
And that is, you know, every time he speaks, if he's not talking about that and he just brushes those questions aside, then, you know, he's going to lose core true conservatives.
You know, and some of them are maybe are more radical that are more anti-vax versus they're just pro-choice.
But, you know, that's just the road he's going down.
And sometimes I watch some of the things he says and I go, this guy wants to lose.
Michaela, how do you think Canadians feel about this ever-growing debt?
Do you think that is, I mean, obviously people notice when their costs of gas and their rents going higher and everything's exploding into inflation.
But do you think this is really top of mind for Canadians spending more and more money and increasing our national debt?
No, I kind of agree with Ben.
I think if we're not talking about COVID and reopening or closing or getting vaccinated or not getting vaccinated or forcing vaccinations, nobody cares about anything else right now.
It's like, are you when COVID inevitably goes up in the winter, are you going to shut down the economy again?
Like, that's the question people want to know.
Are you going to mandate vaccine passports?
Which I think we have a clear answer on that, which is yes, I think from both parties.
Right.
Guys, I think they're both on.
Isn't Aaron O'Toole saying that he won't mandate it?
Yeah, he's saying he'll let the provinces implement their own vaccine passports, but I think they would still probably keep a federal one in place if I had to guess.
All the provinces are already putting one in place, so it makes no difference.
Yeah.
So he wants to sound like he's very pro-provincial rights and that is everyone in like none of it.
Like you can't go to Walmart, none of it, if you don't have like a somebody look up how many Walmarts are in none of it.
I'm guessing it's under two.
Hopefully one.
Hopefully at least one.
TJ Laramie, you're a working class guy.
You fight for a living.
You do contracting.
You do haircuts.
What is this kind of talk of we have unlimited amounts of money from the conservative candidate?
How does that sound to you?
Well, I mean, at the end of the day, like Ben and Michaela were saying, everybody's concerned right now is COVID and whether or not we're going to be in lockdowns again because industries like for me, for example, if I'm cutting hair and barbering or even training.
Training's been extremely hard in Canada with all these lockdowns and things shutting down, right?
So how are we going to ensure that these people are going to be able to make money?
Misinformation and Its Impact00:08:22
How are we going to stay open?
And there's no answer to that.
And there's no definite answer on any of those topics currently.
It's, oh, if the numbers go up, we're going to lock down.
And they're already, you can already tell they're slowly retracting things back now.
And we're moving towards a lockdown for sure within the next month or two.
You know what I think is interesting is that they only talk about who the vaccinated versus unvaccinated with hospitalizations, but they don't talk about that with cases.
So they'll be like, there's a thousand cases and of that, 300 people are in hospital.
And of that, you know, 90% or whatever are vaccinated or unvaccinated.
It's like, well, who's who's spreading it?
Is it only the unvaccinated?
Because let's look at the case numbers, who's vaccinated versus who isn't.
That's, I mean, is that stupid?
No.
And at the end of the day, too, I mean, if you like my haircut, by the way, oh, the screen.
Yeah.
My girlfriend's doing a job.
At the end of the day, if these people are vaccinated and it's supposed to show you less symptoms, these people aren't getting tested.
They aren't going to be getting coughs or sneezes or losing their taste and smell.
So they won't be going to get tested and they won't be bringing in the numbers that we should be seeing if they want to stop the spread so bad.
And I think a lot of unvaccinated people aren't getting tested because, right?
Like generally, I think people who get the most tested for COVID are people who are the most worried about COVID, the people who are wearing masks, getting vaccinated.
They're the ones who are like, do I have it?
I have a sniffle.
People who are unvaxxed are like, I don't know, I had a cold.
I laid down and then I, you know, I played Grand Theft Auto for two days.
You know, so it's very uncomfortable.
People also don't want to quarantine, right?
So if they have a cold and they're like, well, maybe it's COVID, they don't want to go get tested so that they're being checked up on if they're, whether or not they're quarantining.
So I would say a lot of people aren't getting tested.
It's like the logic.
But they're not back there anyway about it.
It's the logic of going to a restaurant and they like, they ask you those questions.
First of all, going to a restaurant, if you're on a date and the first question is, do you have diarrhea to see if you can come to the restaurant?
But who's going to a restaurant and they, oh, you have a screening test?
Oh, I do have all these symptoms.
I better go home.
Like, it's so stupid.
I think that comes from the liability thing again, Ben.
But it just makes people go insane because they're just like, what am I doing?
No, no, no, no.
Everywhere you go, you have to go, no, I assume they're going to trick you.
And you're going to be like, actually, one of the no's was a yes.
We actually tricked you.
So you have COVID.
You have to go home.
So the federal debates were lovely times.
And a lot of the first debate seemed to be focused around the leaders not wanting to talk to rebel news or, you know, try to give their latest cool quip and clever quip to one of our reporters.
So I want to show Justin Trudeau.
I would qualify it as a meltdown.
People like Avi Yamini, Jack Pasobik said that he was on the verge of tears.
Take that as what you want for how it looks to you.
Let's go ahead and play that clip.
This is him responding to a reporter, Tamara.
I thought it was a fairly simple question.
Let's go ahead.
The reality is, organizations, organizations like yours that continue to spread misinformation and disinformation on the science around vaccines,
around how we're going to actually get through this pandemic and be there for each other and keep our kids safe, is part of why we're seeing such unfortunate anger and lack of understanding of basic science.
And quite frankly, your, I won't call it a media organization, your group of individuals need to take accountability for some of the polarization that we're seeing in this country.
And I think Canadians are cluing into the fact that there is a really important decision we take about the kind of country we want to see.
And I salute all extraordinary, hardworking journalists that put science and facts at the heart of what they do and ask me tough questions every day, but make sure that they are educating and informing Canadians from a broad range of perspectives, which is the last thing that you guys do.
I want to know what science he's referring to specifically.
I mean, he mentions how dangerous everything is for children.
I have the stats right here.
12 people under 20 in the country died of COVID.
70 people under 30 and less than 1,000 people under 50.
So if you span that over six months, that's one person per day under 50 that has died of COVID.
So I'm not sure exactly.
We don't want anybody to die, obviously.
That's an easy thing to say.
But when you're going to call somebody an organization anti-science and then just not have the correct terminology on your hands about how dangerous it is for children, that's really strange to me.
TJ Laramie, what do you make of that?
I know that's the first time you're seeing that.
How does that make you feel with the prime minister that he hates us so much that he can't answer a question about something?
Honestly, that video, like, it's not surprising to see that kind of response from him because it's just one source of media that's going a little bit against what or just showing the other side of what people, what people are seeing in all the other mainstream medias.
And it goes against slightly what he's trying to promote to support, where I mean, he's going into the morality of, oh, if you don't get vaccinated, you're hurting other people.
You're doing this.
You're a bad person, you know, where it's like, oh, and then he brings children into it.
Of course, you have to do that, you know, because that's the last straw, you know?
But like you were saying, if you're talking about science and you want to talk about numbers, kids are a little, like, there's a little difference between this and the regular flu when it comes to fatalities with this virus, right?
So if he's talking about science, I mean, you just show the numbers and people can decide for themselves.
It's not hard to figure out.
Ben, a group of individuals doing media together, I would think, is defined as a media organization.
Does the prime minister know?
Why does he think it's a victory to not call us a media organization?
I don't know, but I'm offended that he assumed your individuality.
Is that a gender thing?
I don't know.
I think he's just trying to like turn on woke people or like women, they, whatever.
Because he does look good in a suit.
Can we at least admit that?
He was kind of hot in that video, but not for me.
But like, if you were like believing in how evil Rebel was and you saw him do that, you'd be like, yeah, he's sticking it.
So he's just trying to get people.
He's using, he's trying to use this anger fear thing and get people angry.
And, you know, they will.
Like, if you were to talk to people who support him and they'd be like, Rebel, to say, they just regurgitate what he says.
They're evil.
They're bad.
It's misinformation.
I like how he says misinformation and disinformation.
What is that?
It's like, what's the difference?
He's saying we're doing it on purpose and by accident because we're too stupid, I guess.
I'm not sure.
Michaela, you're not a big fan of Trudeau.
I take it.
I know you're not a big fan of mine.
How does Justin Trudeau and the other leaders, Blanche Shet, Jagmeat, the coolest guy in the world?
How do you think this looks to a person who's a fan of neither that the leaders just can't take a question because it's from somebody they don't like?
Excuse me?
I'm a little bit concerned that most of the population can't tell Trudeau is not very smart.
So seriously, like if you haven't figured it out by now, then when are you going to figure it out?
So if you're someone who's attracted to that kind of response and you can't see the kind of, like Ben pointed out, he's, I wouldn't necessarily use the word manipulating, but kind of manipulating people's emotions.
If you can't see that, you're probably not very smart.
And if most of the country is like that, I don't see how we're going to make it through the winter.
It's pretty crazy that people want to believe in that.
Like, we know what he did for a living before.
It's not like it's a mystery.
Population Concerns00:09:32
It's like he was co-board instructor.
He was a drama teacher.
I remember my drama teacher.
I failed.
I actually failed drama because they didn't go because it was so bad.
And I guarantee you, his class was no better.
So it's pathetic.
It's not like he has a PhD or something.
He's a PhD.
I love Ben Bankus.
I think you're forgetting that.
I want to get to some fan questions.
I put up a post yesterday if anyone wanted to ask any questions.
And this will be the thing that I think sends us into the Ben Bankus stratosphere here.
This is his time to shine.
I'm really trying to set him up.
Well, the first question is from Philly Boy Hoops, who I think is Ben Bankus.
He wanted to know: when is Michaela running for prime minister?
I think we can turn that into a question of: is Michaela Peterson ever considering running for public office?
I think you probably have more influence depending on how big your social media game is.
Like, look at somebody like Joe Rogan.
So, no, but I'm planning on getting bigger on social media and trying to influence things that way.
Like even having people on your platform, I hooked Maxine Bernier up with my dad.
So he's going on dad's podcast next week.
So hopefully that'll change things.
But I think that there are better ways to, how do I put this?
Better ways to have some power than necessarily going into office.
Plus, I don't think I could handle it.
I'm too volatile.
But don't you think it's a stepping stone nowadays?
Like, you know, like how Trump did, like getting some sort of fame or notoriety first, I think could help.
And then doing it.
And then doing it.
Yeah, we'll see.
Rogan might see president of the U.S. in our lifetime, potentially.
He might just get fed up and run.
I could get behind that.
Well, we'll see what the future brings.
Maybe.
That'd be.
Or I might stay in Nashville.
That would be good.
That'd be badass.
I like that.
President Rogan and Vice President.
President who, Ben Bankus?
Michaela?
Are you a real citizen, Michaela?
Is that what the secret is here?
No.
Okay.
No, I'm not.
But that would be cool if Michaela was prime minister, Rogan was president.
Wow.
I can get behind that.
If Rogan becomes, if Rogan becomes president, then I'll consider it.
Yeah.
That's a fair trade-off.
Okay.
The second question is for TJ from Rob Van Barnveld, 85.
What would you say to Teresa Tam if you met her face to face?
Oh, man.
Like, I wouldn't really have words.
I would just have to ask her.
Like, my biggest thing with her is where she comes up with all these make-believe fake numbers, her predictions on all these skyrocketing waves.
At one point, she was predicting Canada to have over 60,000 cases a day.
It's like she's just pulling these things out of thin air.
I wanted to ask Ben Bankus, but I don't know if I should.
I'll keep it tame.
Go ahead.
Okay, no, I won't.
I would just, I would ask her if she's seen my work.
Michaela, if you could have one of these people on, like Justin Trudeau or Teresa Tam, maybe even Doug Ford, what's the bare bones, most simple question do you think you're going to ask one of these people?
I assume that you disagree with the way they've handled everything.
I would probably ask them, okay, say vaccines don't spread the, don't stop the spread of COVID.
What's the plan?
Like, say COVID doesn't go away and vaccines don't work very well and people are still getting sick.
What's the plan?
Are we still shutting down the economy?
Like at what point do we say, okay, this is around.
We don't have a great solution for it and we need to just continue, like open up the economy and just live with it.
So that'd be my question is just what does it look like when we say, okay, we're done.
This is here and we just have to get through this and this is life now.
Forced suicides.
Are Doug Ford's daughters going to come on your show?
I think that would be a good move for them.
I don't.
Do you think that's possible, Michaela?
Probably.
I could reach out and see.
I don't know.
I don't know.
If I were them, I'd probably be staying away from controversy.
They don't.
They don't.
I hear you on that.
And then I'm going to touch on that too.
They're happy to do on social media, but wouldn't that sort of be like if Michaela Peterson refused to comment on the stuff that's going on with her dad?
Yeah, but I mean, my brother is not around.
He doesn't exist on social media.
So I can see why families would want to stay not involved.
I clearly wanted to be involved.
I don't know how to fix these things.
I'm not very happy with Doug Ford either.
Like he's supposed to be conservative and he just goes, feels like he goes in whatever direction whoever spoke to him last goes.
Sounds like they're going to be on the Ben Bankus podcast as their first step.
That should go over well.
This question is for Ben Bankus from Wickwire.
Ben, can you weigh in on how Howard Stern is praising the establishment and vaccines?
I don't know.
People get rich and then like if I was rich enough, I probably wouldn't be here.
I'd come on this show.
I don't know.
Like, you know, people get to that point where they're like, what do I got?
What do I give me the, you know, like Biden, give me the list.
What am I saying?
I agree with the establishment, you know.
So a lot of people who would have said differently 20 years ago how they feel are now on the side that you're like, I can't believe Howard Stern or so-and-so is agreeing to this.
And it's like, because I don't know, they probably just don't care anymore.
But if it was them 20 years ago, they totally wouldn't be on board with this.
And that's why a lot of conspiracies exist because it's like, I don't know, these, I don't know what I was going to say.
I had a thought.
Yes, I promise you.
Well, I do think that Justin Trudeau is always, you know, he can't, he doesn't understand why there's so many conspiracies, yet he legalized weed and made everybody high 24-7.
He's like, so everybody's high now.
Why do they have conspiracy theories?
It's like, you did that.
All right.
I think it's time for our last question.
I want to get some predictions from you guys.
Maybe a comment on how Maxime Bernier was kept out of the debates.
I know I think most of us have spoken to him in person at this point.
Starting with TJ, what exactly do you think is the result going to be from this election?
Do you think Bernier makes a big splash?
Do you think Trudeau gains or loses ground?
What do you think?
I definitely think PPC is going to win at least one seat in Maxime's riding for sure.
Seeing two to three would be ideal.
But like I said, they've only been around for three years.
They're getting zero media push at all, you know, by the big sources.
No spot in the debates.
People really don't know who they are.
But if they can even have any showing in the House, that would be great.
Mikhail Henderson, same question to you.
What's your bold prediction that we should all bet $10,000 on right now?
I think the conservatives are going to win.
There'll be a liberal minority.
And I think the PPC are going to see more votes.
I think going on dad's podcast next week will help.
And then hopefully maybe next round, they'll be more seen as a legitimate party.
Yeah, I think the conservatives are going to win, though.
I think everybody's kind of fed up with Trudeau.
I hope.
Ben Bankus, are you writing yourself in on Election Day?
What does that mean?
Voting?
Voting for yourself.
Like what?
All right.
How about you just answer this question?
Who am I voting for?
No, what do you think about that?
The joke was expecting you to know anything you're coming in with.
You're going to vote for yourself instead of anybody.
Oh.
Well, let's leave the comedy to me, Andrew.
It's like when I'm doing a show and I ask an audience member something and then they try to be funny and I'm like, no, don't do that.
Just answer.
First of all, I want to say what I thought before that I forgot, was I was saying about the Howard Stern and these guys.
It almost feels like society waited for all these people to get rich enough that they wouldn't care about all this going on.
And a lot of people that would have been outspoken about this are like dead and gone.
So that creeps me out.
That's just my conspiracy.
But as far as what's going to happen, I don't know.
It's going to be, you know, Aaron O'Toole and Trudeau are neck and neck.
That's what they keep saying.
They're neck and neck.
It's like, well, one guy, isn't one guy kind of supposed to be like in jail or something?
And then the other guy's just bald?
I don't know.
Hopefully Bern, it would be so cool if all the polls were just wrong.
Like it was like a Trump style just sweep.
But I think it's possible actually that the I think it's possible that Jagme could win because the PPC could split the vote.
So it could actually get higher.
They're at 11% or 12% now.
They could get as high as 20% when the, because a lot of people are closeted PPC voters and kind of everybody's going to be in that 20%.
And, you know, so it's a toss-up.
I think it's a real toss-up.
People are, you know, if you look at the polls, it's not, but like, like, and Michaela has the more prudent view of it.
But I think it could really be a toss-up.
So many times to meet Canadian.
Lockdowns.
Toss-Up Polls00:00:55
Who knows if they're coming again?
Hopefully not.
I want to thank all of our guests, Ben Bankus from the Ben Bankus podcast on YouTube and Instagram.
And of course, his Patreon, TJ Laramie, UFC Fighter, TJ Laramie on Instagram, fighting what day again, TJ?
November 6th.
November 6th.
I'm going to be watching Michaela Peterson, the Michaela Peterson podcast.
She's fleeing the country.
But thank you for joining us.
Michaela, is everything okay over there?
You seem a little depressed.
I'm not depressed.
I don't seem depressed.
I'm fantastic.
This is just what Andrew.
This is Andrew's like flirting or something.
No, it is not.
Okay.
Thanks to our love shutting down, Andrew.
Yeah, that's what I go for.
I go for the bad joke and then Ben comes in.
It's okay if you're blushing because then you almost look tan.
Thank you to producer Justin and the producer Efron.