Is Canada heading down the same violent path as the US？
Episode Stats
Words per minute
197.23306
Summary
The other day, Logan Couture, an NHL player for the San Jose Sharks, stepped forward on social media to say he was attacked for expressing his political views. He said he would vote for Donald Trump if he was an American voter, but he's not.
Transcript
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Whenever I see scenes of political violence unfolding in the streets of the United States,
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it's saddening. It's disheartening. But I say to myself, at least it's not happening here in the
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streets of Canada. Or is it? Are we starting to get bad? The other day, Logan Couture, he's an
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NHL player for the San Jose Sharks, but he's a Canadian boy born and raised in London, Ontario.
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He stepped forward on social media to say he was out and about in Toronto the other night and he was
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talking about politics and he said, well, if he was an American voter, but he's not, but if he was,
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he would vote Republican. He would vote for the re-election of Donald Trump. And he says he was
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sucker punched for saying that. He was assaulted. He was attacked for saying, basically, here's an
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election in a democratic society that got two main parties and he's going to vote for one of the two
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main parties. Attacked for that in the streets of Canada. It is so upsetting that that happened.
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Logan Couture was called a liar. It never happened. Some people in the blue checkmark brigade said,
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oh, this story seems fabricated. He just responded and said, well, okay, if you're not going to believe
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me, you're not going to believe me. Now, I don't know all that much about Logan Couture. I see in a
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story at the London Free Press, they talk about the charities and causes he supported. Seems like a
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pretty decent guy. But regardless, why is someone in Canada, NHL player or not, being sucker punched for
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expressing their political views? Now, more than ever, people seem to feel emboldened to become
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indignant and infuriated when they learn that someone does not share the political views that
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they hold. And usually, that's them being infuriated with people on the right. Conservatives,
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people say they're going to vote for Donald Trump. This is unacceptable. It is so disappointing.
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Look, I've been a political commentator for over a decade in this country. And do I have very strong
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views? Yes, I do. But I've also learned from hearing back from viewers and listeners, readers,
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you get the tweets, you get the emails. People have all sorts of different views for all sorts
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of different reasons. People are complex. You'll meet people walking in the street at an event at the
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park where I take my kids to play and they say I'm voting liberal, I'm voting conservative, NDP,
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Green Party, communist even. They say I'm a Bernie supporter, Hillary supporter, Trump, Biden,
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and Ron Paul, and so forth. And you go, okay. And then they tell you their story and you realize,
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okay, there you go. This is a person who's expressing themselves in a democracy. Is it okay
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to have a conversation, a vigorous debate, disagree with them? Sure. But this idea more and more now
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that, okay, you don't vote the same way I vote. I'm having nothing to do with you. I don't even want
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to talk to you. And in the case of Trump supporters, it's even okay for me to sucker punch them.
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That's the way we're heading. And it's incredibly disappointing. It's sad. And I hope Canada does