Trudeau discusses divorce, Trump and political woes with comedian Mark Critch

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Comedian Mark Critch landed a year-end interview with Justin Trudeau, touching on the prime minister’s political struggles, divorce and Donald Trump.

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The conversation was recorded on Dec. 6, 10 days before Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s shocking resignation and the subsequent decision by the Prime Minister’s Office to cancel all year-end interviews. It aired on CBC on New Year’s Eve.

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“ Oh, 2024, what a garbage year, hey? We’ve all had a horrible 2024, but nobody’s had a harder 2024 than you,” Critch teased Trudeau at the beginning of their conversation. “I mean, down and up in the polls, inflation, tariffs. Pierre Poilievre called you a wacko. I mean, just a garbage year. And for Canadians, it’s been a great comfort that no matter how bad 2024 got, we could always say, ‘You know what? At least we’re not Justin Trudeau.’

“You had a hard year!”

The prime minister took Critch’s comments well, joking and riffing with the cast member of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. “You had the low point of the year. For you, you kind of embarrassed all Canadians when you were caught on tape dancing to Taylor Swift,” Critch said as the prime minister took it in stride.

“ I was in the mood. I was going on,” Trudeau responded.

“You’re wearing your Swifty bracelet,” Critch pointed out. “ How old are you? But you have to remember, you know, you can’t really dance like no one is watching. You have to dance like someone is filming you on your phone,” the comedian teased.

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“ Well, that’s just the, the era we’re in right now,” Trudeau retorted, playing off of Swift’s latest Eras concert tour.

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Trudeau again dismissed Donald Trump’s comments encouraging Canada to become the 51st state when asked about his November meeting with the president-elect at his Florida estate, Mar-A-Lago, the so-called “winter White House.”

“ There was a lot discussed during those three hours. That was an off-hand, jocular moment. I don’t think it was serious, even from him.”

Critch roasted Trump for tweeting an image of a Canadian flag against the backdrop of what appears to be Matterhorn, a prominent mountain in Switzerland. “Is that our greatest defence? Is that Americans are really bad at geography?” Critch asked, drawing the prime minister’s laugh.

“I  think our greatest offence is that we do things together across the border, and anything they do that will hurt us will also hurt them, and that’s something that he doesn’t want to do,” Trudeau said.

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The comedian teased Trudeau about a “devastating breakup” — a reference to the New Democrats ending their deal to support the Liberals, not to the announcement in August 2023 that the PM and his wife, Sophie Grégoire Trudeau, were splitting up after 18 years of marriage.

‘It hurts’: Sophie Grégoire speaks on cutting ties and bouncing back from heartbreak

Near the end of their brief conversation, Critch asked Trudeau if he saw any parallels with his father, Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and his famous walk in the snow in 1984 that ultimately prompted his departure from the national stage.

“When my father was my age, he still had a dozen years of prime ministering ahead of him,” replied Trudeau, who turned 53 on Christmas Day.

Critch posited: “ I think Pierre Poilievre is at 99 per cent in the polls. Do you think you can do this?” to which Trudeau responded unequivocally: “Yes.”

“Right now, we’re in a moment where everything is difficult. And Pierre Poilievre is trying to convince Canadians not to believe in themselves, not to believe in the CBC, not to believe in climate change, not to believe in gun control, not to believe in women’s rights. I believe Canadians rise to the occasion, and I am certainly not going to stop fighting at this moment where it’s so important,” Trudeau said.

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The comedian teased in an interview with Radio Canada on Wednesday that his prized conversation would likely ruffle feathers among members of the Fourth Estate.

“I did get the big year-end interview. Isn’t that sad? Nothing drives our great, esteemed Canadian journalists crazier than when the clown gets the interview, you know?” he said, recalling how the two met at a Montreal restaurant. “We had a lovely, lovely chat.”

Vacationing Trudeau can’t escape catcalls and mockery: ‘Get out of B.C.’

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