Author Derek Smith of How the Prime Minister Stole Freedom on his latest book
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Summary
On this episode of Thick & Thin, I sit down with Canadian political satirist, writer, podcaster, and all-around funny guy, Peter Fonda. We discuss his new book, "The Prime Minister Who Stole Freedom" and how he and his wife built a career out of poking fun at Canada's Prime Minister.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
You put out that book, well, not last year, not that long ago, The Prime Minister Who Stole Freedom.
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It was like a parody on the whole convoy affair and things like that.
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Illustration, I guess I should use the proper term for it.
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Of course, it was a nice poetic Dr. Seuss sort of style.
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And it's come out, what, a couple of weeks ago, I believe.
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A lot of people are saying they enjoy it more than how The Prime Minister Stole Freedom.
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And we're really working hard to kind of keep pushing out the political satire as we move forward with our brand.
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I think that no matter which party is in power or whoever's kind of working behind the scenes,
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that we kind of focus on anybody being available to be in the crosshairs so long as they're warranting that kind of attention.
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I should note, actually, our Goofy Newfie there.
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I see Arthur Green noting what an awesome room you're in.
00:01:08.520
And I remember that from the last time you were on the show.
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It's quite a background you got going on there.
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You draw a lot of envy from that, along with your fine work in political parodies, satire.
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We actually built this room for my kids during the lockdowns because they started to get a real interest in retro gaming.
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And, you know, I'm really into preserving the 80s and 90s lifestyle that I grew up in that I kind of said to my wife,
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And, you know, I always joke that this is for the kids, but really it's for the whole family.
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I know it's the envy of a lot of families when they come over with their kids,
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but we've made a lot of friends, needless to say.
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Well, I'll get you back to your book because you made a lot of friends there.
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And, I mean, I like, you know, I think we kind of talked about that last time.
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I mean, I write big, long, drawn-out columns and people read them and it's great.
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But at other times, you know, there's a role for all sorts of ways to communicate
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and bringing people's interest to it, bringing their interest to the issues.
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And this is a fun way to do, which is still serious messaging.
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You know, even from the old CBC air farce or this hour has 22 minutes,
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Like you've got serious messaging packed within a good humorous package.
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And what I find is that on the political spectrum when it comes to comedy,
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I think that you kind of only see comedy on one side of the scale when it comes to publications these days.
00:02:43.720
And that's why when we first did How the Prime Minister Stole Freedom,
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our focus was let's start bringing comedy to another angle and make it simple enough
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that people who have forgotten to laugh over the last couple of years can look at something
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that really was a big movement in Canada, not only in the country, but for the world
00:03:02.660
And we'll poke fun at the gaffes at those who deserve it the most
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and kind of take the gloves off, which is essentially what we've done in the second book.
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We had a lot of people reach out to us when the first book went viral saying,
00:03:17.680
And I kind of just said, instead of finding one person, why don't we just do them all?
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Let's put them all in one book and kind of take the gloves off, so to speak.
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So that's kind of what we wanted to do was focus the comedy on the one side of the scale
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I mean, hey, I think it's fine when there's comedy, poke and fun at conservatives too,
00:03:39.620
And yeah, so the graphics of the transportation minister, for example, were great,
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but he is kind of a comical looking fellow to begin with.
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We all have our moments, you know, so I'm assuming he could draw a cartoon
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and make fun of my gray hair stuffing all over the place or whatnot.
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It's just, it's serious messaging, but people have to, it's not necessarily a cruel shot
00:04:00.240
I noticed there's a lot more text though, you know, this book, you went a little more
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in depth, I think, in it than the first one, you know, where you went more for the short
00:04:06.720
hitting poetic and there's a little more depth this time.
00:04:09.260
It was, well, the first one again was almost like a, like a parody of the Grinch, which is
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the way we wrote it out to kind of match the text and format of that book.
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We wanted to keep the Dr. Seuss parody like nature to these books.
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And when it came time to write our second book, we followed along on the one fish, two
00:04:32.040
But I've noticed a lot of Dr. Seuss books, aside from a small handful, they're mostly
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about rhyming and about, you know, they don't really have a purpose of a story.
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So when we wrote this book, I kind of said, you know, we want to have some of that text in
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there to really get across our point of the comedy, what we want to convey, the jokes and
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the gaffes and to really try and land them all into one small book and give everybody
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the justice they deserve in terms of being knocked for the slip ups they've had over
00:05:00.940
So it was definitely a challenge and it'll be a challenge going forward with our future
00:05:05.720
We have another book coming out in February and time for the one year anniversary of the
00:05:10.900
And it's going to be called Hold the Line, the Ballad of Tamara Leach.
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And we've actually gained permission from Tamara to use her name and likeness in the book.
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And I'm really looking forward to bringing that one to everybody in February.
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And that's going to be a little more rich text as well.
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I wanted to talk about that with you moving on, too.
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I mean, there's been a person, you know, again, I wouldn't say unsung.
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I think lots of people have been certainly giving Tamara credit, you know, do where it
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I mean, she was never anybody, people who knew her before the convoy and that, I mean,
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she was politically active, but she didn't expect or plan or want to be in the middle of
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But she took on the role and stuck with it and went with it kind of where it carried her.
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And now she's been, well, she paid a terrible price.
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She was in prison for a long time, repeatedly and is still facing these charges.
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You're going to give it, you know, some coverage from a point of view, again, that doesn't have
00:06:03.800
to be a dry editorial, but it's still an important book.
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Yeah, I've been very fortunate over the last few months with the success of the first book
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to not only make very good friends with Tamara, but also with people in the political
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I was recently in Ottawa a few weeks ago for the Emergency Act Commission for support to
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Tamara to sit with her and kind of just, you know, be there for support for what she's
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The government's taken away her voice and silenced her out of embarrassment for the way
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If you've been following the POEC at all, you'll notice that they really haven't done
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much to present a case for the Emergencies Act or for invoking the Act.
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And it's really hard, not only for myself to sit there as a citizen, but to look at somebody
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as Tamara and say, this is somebody who was locked away in jail for longer than her charges
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would have kept her in jail for had she have been convicted.
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She's not allowed to, you know, do anything in terms of talking to people or socializing
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anywhere or accepting awards or she'll get locked up again.
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It's really tough to watch somebody go through that because they say she's free, but it's
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And hopefully justice is served when all this is done.
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And as a friend, I definitely stand by and support everything she's going through and
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can honestly say she's one of the nicest, kindest people I've ever had the pleasure
00:07:29.360
And I really can't understand the prosecution that's going ahead on her.
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No, and I've had people email me to say, why haven't you had her on the show?
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Look, I would desperately love to have Tamara on the show.
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She will be thrown back into the remand center.
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If she dares start talking on media, she can't do it.
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The moment she's free to, I'm going to be sending emails and nagging her.
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And it's funny you say that because when I was in Ottawa, like her lawyers, her, her,
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where she stays is a few blocks from where the commission is being held.
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But there's actually a boundary in Ottawa where she is not allowed to go.
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Everywhere she goes, her lawyers must walk with her.
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She was outside having a cigarette on the sidewalk.
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And there's people actively watching where she's sitting that they've called the police
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and said, oh, she's outside without legal representation.
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And the police have come by and said, if you were three inches more over this in this
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direction, we would have had to take you to jail.
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And her lawyers literally have to follow her around like they're attached to her and grafted
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And I look at that and go, it's just unfair treatment.
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I've met a very large handful of convoy organizers at my time in Ottawa and, again, online and
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And I've kind of always said at one point, not that they should have been charged as
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I think if you're going to charge one, you need to charge them all.
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There were some who now can put out books, who can go online and have their podcasts and
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do whatever they want to do, while others are silenced and damned just to make an example
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out of them, which I just don't agree with at the end of the day.
00:09:20.240
Yeah, well, and it was, whether people want to admit it or not, it was an organic movement.
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Nobody planned this six months in advance or really had a solid structure or anything
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And that's why there's a number of people who did get charged.
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Some of them are more sympathetic people than others, I guess you could say, in the public
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And I believe that's part of why Tamara, though they fear and loathe her so much from the
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prosecution standpoint, is because she's the most frightening.
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Because when you listen to Tamara, when you talk to Tamara, like I have spoken to her before,
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I just can't have her on the show, she's not crazy.
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She's not looking to make trouble or hurt anybody.
00:10:00.780
And people realize that the more they see of her, the more they understand of her, she
00:10:06.240
Whether you agree with what the convoy was or not, they realize that this prosecution
00:10:11.580
It's way too much for somebody who's really not presenting a harm to society.
00:10:16.880
I've said from day one that I take the same stance as Pierre Polyev did during the convoy,
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I support those who come legally to voice their concerns legally.
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And those who commit illegal actions should be charged and held to a high standard of those
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And when it comes to people like Tamara, I mean, anybody who's been a critic of her, I simply
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say it's a shame you don't have time to sit down with her and have a conversation.
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Because after five minutes, you'd sit questioning yourself, how can anybody do anything?
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I don't think she has a diabolical bone in her body.
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And like I said, I haven't spoken to her on the phone since the convoy, but I had a good
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conversation back when she was with the Maverick and trying to organize that.
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And again, people would say, oh, that's a party that's out there.
00:11:04.000
So you're getting back to that with your next book.
00:11:06.660
It'll give, I guess, another platform to just be able to explain herself.
00:11:09.320
Somebody who's been so demonized and, you know, since Montreal has been directed at
00:11:18.960
But at the same time, show Canadians that she was speaking for all of us.
00:11:22.520
This wasn't just her or a group of truck drivers.
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This was her saying, this is the voice Canada needs.
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No matter what side of the spectrum you're on, whether you vote for the left, the right,
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the middle, your rights at the end of the day are your rights.
00:11:35.980
And she would be fully supportive of anybody's rights to protest.
00:11:39.940
And that's kind of the point we wanted to move on to with her story.
00:11:43.700
And I know as we go on to future books, we're maybe going to try to drift a little bit out
00:11:47.080
of the political realm and kind of just stay in comedy and satire and from time to time
00:11:51.920
We don't want to put ourselves in a box, but this was a story I felt was really necessary
00:11:56.180
and also that should be out in time for the one-year anniversary of the convoy.
00:12:00.120
Well, and so with your books, obviously, you're going to be doing more.
00:12:05.160
Let's get on to where can people get your books, Derek?
00:12:08.220
Currently, people can find them on Amazon, both digitally and physically.
00:12:11.980
We're still working with multiple publishers to try and find a way to get them into retail.
00:12:16.720
Unfortunately, because of their content, even though it isn't crude or obnoxious, because
00:12:21.460
it criticizes the government, a lot of retailers don't want to carry these books.
00:12:24.860
And I know there's a lot of people out there that really just don't want to support Amazon
00:12:29.680
And I've said, you know, we're working, we'll keep people posted.
00:12:32.080
But as for right now, they can find them on Amazon.
00:12:35.140
And I believe they have it on sale for Black Friday.
00:12:42.000
I mean, you know, it's a great time, though, where, I mean, the booksellers kind of all
00:12:48.120
I mean, even back in the 90s, when I'd buy lots of books, it was Kohl's or Chapters.
00:12:53.620
There was really only a handful, only a small amount of independent booksellers, and they
00:12:57.960
And if you were an author and you couldn't get into those booksellers, well, you're out
00:13:01.540
I mean, unless you're going to knock on doors and sell them, you couldn't do so.
00:13:07.540
Your book, despite those retailers, can reach a wide number of people across the country
00:13:14.120
Have you had much, actually, for foreign sales, now I come to think of it?
00:13:17.900
We've seen a ton of foreign sales off the first book.
00:13:21.400
And I think a lot of it is just as slow to the plate as to getting promotion out and things
00:13:27.100
But I think the first book did very well in Australia.
00:13:31.460
We had sales in the Netherlands, in Eastern Europe, Japan.
00:13:40.060
So we're kind of being bought up all over the world and people are just enjoying the
00:13:44.600
And at the end of the day, that was the purpose of them, was just for people to smile, have
00:13:51.300
And that's what we want to keep doing going forward.
00:13:54.380
So the easiest way to find the newest one, I imagine, is if you just go to Amazon and
00:13:58.000
search for one face, two face, black face, blue face, it should bring you right to it,
00:14:02.880
If you even search for How the Prime Minister Stole Freedom, I believe if people click on my
00:14:06.480
author name, it'll take them to all of our books.
00:14:12.960
What's your Twitter handle if people want to get you?
00:14:15.200
Because of the letter, the character Max on there, it's under Unaccept Fringe.
00:14:21.620
And people can find us under there because Unacceptable Fringe is the name of our company
00:14:28.780
They can also find me on YouTube at Unacceptable Fringe, where I occasionally post some videos
00:14:33.820
and content when I'm not dealing with a family full of sick children with the flu.
00:14:38.680
And I try to get my point out if people want to see me on the other side of books and
00:14:45.980
Well, I thank you for your work on the books and for coming on to talk about it.
00:14:49.240
I really hope they continue to take off and I'm looking forward to watching them keep them
00:14:57.060
Here's an update on commodity prices around Lethbridge for today.
00:15:04.400
Cash barley is trading at $4.50, feed wheat at $4.64, and corn is higher at $4.59 per tonne.
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vise for January movement at $18.80 per bushel.
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