Stupid questions for smart candidates: 2019 Manitoba election edition
It's not what they answer, it's how they answer questions about pop culture and their personal lives
As Manitoba's summer election of 2019 enters its final stretch, some voters can be forgiven for wishing to see its backside.
The leaders' debate was snippy. Online attack ads have been nasty.
At the same time, there have been light-hearted moments — from PC Leader Brian Pallister's fondness for talking about "money on the kitchen table" to NDP Leader Wab Kinew's Dr. Seuss-like catchphrase "How do you do? I'm Wab Kinew," to Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont's promise at a press conference to "cancel the apocalypse."
In an effort to inject even more levity into the campaign, CBC News asked the leaders of the four parties with the potential to form a government to subject themselves to a series of pop culture and lifestyle questions.
Kinew, Lamont and Green Party Leader James Beddome took part in the exercise. PC Leader Pallister declined to participate — the first time a politician at any level of government has spurned the opportunity to take this quiz, which has been part of elections dating back to 1998 across two media outlets (CBC News and the Winnipeg Free Press).
The purpose of the quiz is not to test knowledge or play "gotcha" with the leaders. (Although as part of a 2016 quiz, Pallister told the Free Press his last personal trip outside of Canada involved a fall 2015 visit to North Dakota — which CBC found omitted trips to Costa Rica in 2015 and early 2016. Pallister later apologized for what a spokesperson described as a lapse in memory.)
Rather, the intention is to reveal something about their personalities.
In other words, how the leaders answer is more important than what they answer. Here's what they had to say this year:
How could you improve upon Old Town Road?
Green Leader James Beddome: I'm not sure. I'll think I'll leave it as it is.
NDP Leader Wab Kinew: Bringing Lil Hank Williams [a.k.a. Mason Ramsey] on is pretty much impossible to beat and that was the last remix I heard of that song.
Liberal Leader Dougald Lamont: I don't think you can. That's an amazing song. Yeah, I don't know. Can't be done.
Choose one — Russian Doll, Chernobyl or Fleabag — and tell me why.
Beddome: I'm going to take a pass on that. I'm not even sure what you're getting at. I'm missing that pop culture reference.
Kinew: Russian Doll, only because it's the only one that I've seen.
Lamont: Chernobyl. It's the best one. It's the most interesting — both harrowing and relevant. There was just another nuclear explosion in Russia the other day.
What was the last film you watched in its entirety?
Beddome: The one on Netflix that recently came out, that looked at Brexit, the Brexit referendum. [The Great Hack.]
Kinew: Probably Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Saw that in the theatre with my kids. We all loved it.
Lamont: Avengers: Endgame. It was a little too busy. It was good without being great.
What book are you reading now?
Beddome: I've been slowly chipping away at Thomas King's [The] Inconvenient Indian.
Kinew: China's Vision of Victory. It's non-fiction [by Jonathan Ward]. He's a historian by trade and he's basically looking back at Chinese military history, current events and then charting forward until 2050 — basically China's plan to become a global superpower.
Lamont: J Is For Junk Economics by Michael Hudson. He's an economist. He's actually a very interesting economist who has given advice to Canada and China and places all over the world. He predicted the 2008 financial crisis and has a very interesting view of the world.
Name your favourite Canadian artist.
Beddome: I'm a big fan of The Guess Who, so I'm going to go with that.
Kinew: Norval Morrisseau. I grew up in the culture that he took his inspiration from and he gets it right, but also, at the reserve house that I grew up in, in our kitchen there was a Morrisseau original. So I had the great privilege of seeing one of Canada's great artists every morning when we'd come running out of our rooms for cereal.
Lamont: Sloan. The band, Sloan. They're great. Their last album was unbelievably great. I saw them at the Spectrum when they played.... The Pyramid! It hasn't been the Spectrum for years. There we go. I'm aging myself.
Can Matt Nichols take the Bombers all the way this year? If so, why?
Beddome: I hope so. [Federal Green Leader] Elizabeth May was in recently and she touched the Bomber gnome, and it helped them beat the B.C. Lions.
Kinew: It's a big question mark over that right now, I guess, but I believe.
Lamont: No. I think they'll do better, but it's not going to be good enough. Sorry.
What's wrong with the chemistry in the Winnipeg Jets' dressing room?
Beddome: Two years ago, it was their year. This year, it wasn't their year. Give them another chance next year and see what they can do.
Kinew: My favourite story of that was hearing about [Dustin] Byfuglien throwing [former Jets winger Evander] Kane's track suit into the shower, so I don't know if things have gotten better or worse since then. I would just hope that the Jets look out into the crowd and see how hyped people are to see them play, and just say, "Let's work this out, guys."
Lamont: I think probably somebody is wearing too much of a certain kind of antiperspirant, and I think that's probably one of the things that's happening with the chemistry.
Why can't Valour FC score?
Beddome: Not sure. You'd have to ask him.
Kinew: I'm not much of a soccer guy. I would suspect there's not enough running and kicking going on. That's my very soccer-guy analysis.
Lamont: They've got to work harder and they've got to force their offsides. I mean, come on, guys.
What musical instruments do you play?
Beddome: I used to play a few chords, in high school, of guitar, but I was never very good.
Kinew: Mainly the drum. I also play a little bit of sampler and keyboard. I can strum a guitar, very poorly.
Lamont: Piano, guitar, bass, drums, harmonica. I think that's it.
What's the last purchase you made online?
Beddome: I just had some new suits coming in on order because I need to up my style game.
Kinew: I ordered a phone case, for my iPhone, by an artist by the name of Christi Belcourt. She does really cool floral Métis kind of artwork.
Lamont: I bought a bright red jean jacket to peacock around rural Manitoba.
Where did you go the last time you took a vacation outside the country?
Beddome: This past winter, I went to Havana. It was very interesting. Obviously [I] take it with a grain of salt, but I read the different media there and sort of have the different perspective of a different system, and a system that's going through a lot of change with the Castros now leaving.
Kinew: I haven't taken a vacation outside of the country since 2015, when I took my family to Paris and Italy. So we did Capri, Naples, Rome and Paris.
Lamont: My wife's family is from Ottawa, so we would drive. We decided to take the southern route through the States, so it would have been Michigan, Minneapolis and places like that.... I think it was four years ago.
How many cars does your family own and what are they?
Beddome: I still have the same old 1998 Buick that I've had for far too long, since my grandma passed and I got it. I do actually have an old 1946 Chevrolet Stylemaster — hollowed-out body and an electric motor. I've been working on the conversion — was hoping to do some this summer, but Brian Pallister kind of ruined my summer a little bit. My partner has a vehicle as well. She has a Volkswagen Golf.
Kinew: We have a Ram [truck] and a [Honda] Civic.
Lamont: We have one Honda Odyssey van.
When was the last time you took the bus and where did you go?
Beddome: Two days ago. I think I was running around to do campaign errands. I think I took the bus downtown.
Kinew: I think it was when we had a transit day of action over this past winter.... I basically took it to work.
Lamont: June. Sometimes to the legislature or to get home, I would take the bus.
What are your pets and what are their names?
Beddome: My pet is Harold Stripes Whiskerson. He's on Instagram as @stripesmeow for those that want to follow him. He's an orange cat. He's absolutely adorable and lovable, and he's who I cuddle with when I need some retreat time after a campaign or a busy day.
Kinew: We have a chocolate lab by the name of Folsom. We have another chocolate lab by the name of Caravaggio. So one was named by myself, the other was named by my sister. You can guess which one named which. And then once I married Lisa, we welcomed a chihuahua by the name of Guapo into our family.
Lamont: I have a dog named Joe and my kids have two guinea pigs named Fíli and Kíli. I believe those are dwarves from The Hobbit.
What is the value of your home?
Beddome: I live with my partner and she owns the home. Somewhere around $200,000 — $220,000, maybe.
Kinew: About $800,000.
Lamont: I think $350,000, maybe? $300,000?
Where do you get your groceries?
Beddome: Often from the Farm Fresh Food Hub at 725 Kylemore. Also sometimes St. Leon Market and occasionally from Safeway as well. And we also do some ordering from time to time of chickens or other products from Food Ethos Farm [near Coulter, Man.], and I also try to get some beef from my dad's farm, too.
Kinew: Foodfare on Lilac and Corydon, or Safeway at River and Osborne.
Lamont: Jardin St. Leon is one place. Foodfare is another. Safeway, quite a bit, and Superstore.
What was the last meal you cooked?
Beddome: I can't even think of the last meal I cooked.
Kinew: I did this tempeh with peanut sauce dish. I tried meal prep for the week and basically it was … sort of like a Thai-inspired vegan meal, with rice and protein in it.
Lamont: Within the last two days, I came home late, cooked myself some chicken and threw in some tzatziki and tomatoes.
What do you think of Beyond Meat?
Beddome: There are some environmental benefits in terms of eating less meat. I think that shows the trend. That said, Beyond Meat itself, I've also read some questions about its production.... I'm sort of somewhat ambivalent on it.
Kinew: I tried it for the first time at Folk Fest this year. I was blown away. Really good. As a meat eater, I'm trying to reduce my carbon footprint by eating more vegan. I was very impressed.
Lamont: It tastes good, but I think there's a lot of hype.
What's your drink of choice?
Beddome: I tend to like red wine and I like my beer. I tend to like a real hoppy IPA. A lot of great local IPA is out there right now in Winnipeg. It's been great to see the scene develop.
Kinew: Bubly, the soda water.
Lamont: Lagavulin single malt Scotch.
Have you consumed cannabis since legalization and if so, in what manner?
Beddome: From time to time in the evening or on a weekend I tend to share a little marijuana with friends.
Kinew: No, I don't smoke.
Lamont: Yes. CBD [oil], mostly for pain.
What talent do you possess that would surprise voters?
Beddome: I'm a good researcher and reader. I can speed read pretty quickly. I don't know if that would surprise voters. I'm kind of an unsurprising person, I think.
Kinew: I'm probably better with a computer than most people. I did my master's thesis on machine translation, developing, like, a Google Translate type of algorithm for the Ojibway and English language pair.
Lamont: Moose calling and goose calling. This is something I picked up at The Pas Trappers' Festival. I saw a guy named Omar who is legendary, so I can't say I learned from the best, but I watched the best. [Proceeds to make goose and moose calls.] I did that on stage of the Trappers' Fest, and I did not get tarred, feathered or booed off stage. Sadly, though, no moose nor goose came crashing through the wall like the Kool-Aid guy or anything like that. It was not at that level.
Aside from your spouse or romantic partner, who is your best friend?
Beddome: A long-standing friend of mine since I grew up, Josh. My business partner, Seneca [Longclaws] is pretty important to me. The other lawyer who works at our firm, Steve [Hunter].
Kinew: My sons: Dom, Bezh, Tobasonakwut.
Lamont: My friend Gavin Adamson. I've known him since we were in elementary school. Since we were about 12, we've been really good friends. He teaches journalism at Ryerson.
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