NewsPoliticsCanada

Poilievre’s Canadian dream ad deleted after visuals revealed to be non-Canadian

Irish Mae Silvestre
Irish Mae Silvestre
|
Aug 19 2024, 6:49 pm
Poilievre’s Canadian dream ad deleted after visuals revealed to be non-Canadian
Tom St. Denis/YouTube | @disorderedyyc/X

In a new ad, Pierre Poilievre paints his ideal vision of Canada, from grandparents walking with their grandkids to farmers making a living. However, the now-deleted ad is going viral for the wrong reasons.

The three-minute video features a speech by the Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) leader during the 2024 Calgary Stampede. It is interspersed with clips of children, university students, farmers, and families as he asks people to imagine his version of the Canadian dream.

Though the original video was deleted, others have reuploaded it.

“It’s easy to forget what home and hope look like,” says Poilievre.

…That might be because most of the stock footage featured in the ad wasn’t filmed in Canada.

Eagle-eyed viewers were quick to point out that Poilievre’s Canadian dream is not actually very Canadian.

Calgary-based Twitter user @disorderedyyc breaks down the video clip by clip with details of where each stock footage was filmed.

“Here’s a thread of all the clips I have confirmed to NOT be Canadian,” they stated, starting with a clip of a student that was filmed in Serbia.

As for the dad driving his pickup truck “down that suburban street,” it turns out the scene was shot in “a typical American suburb,” according to the video details on the stock video website.

While it would be great to have more “newly built and affordable Canadian homes,” the video details reveal that the homes featured were in Slovenia.

One scene shows the dad driving in his pickup truck driving along the countryside, which turns out to have been filmed in North Dakota and California.

It only gets worse from there.

Poilievre continues to narrate the Canadian dad’s experience, stating, “And he looks up, and what does he see? He sees a brand-new fighter jet. They’re doing a training mission in the sky to defend our home and native land.”

However, one user pointed out that the video features Russian fighter jets.

The next scenes feature a university student who was filmed at Kyiv Polytechnic in Ukraine, and the following scene is of a female hunter filmed in the US.

As for the university student’s imaginary family celebration, that scene was filmed in Tuscany, Italy, where relatives enjoy “a wonderful venison that was shot with totally legal Canadian firearms.”

The clip of two grandparents taking their grandchild home from school was filmed in Richmond Park, London, while scenes of foothills and the Canadian Rockies were in Wonosobo, Indonesia, and the Uinta Mountains in Utah.

“If you’re making a video about the Canada ‘we know and love,’ maybe you shouldn’t be using pictures of Utah’s Rockies or the ‘foothills’ of Indonesia,” stated X user @disorderedyyc.

One person pointed out that the school scene, which features Kawartha Montessori School in Ontario, was the only one that appeared to have been filmed in Canada.

Tom St. Denis/YouTube

The NDP has released a statement calling on Poilievre to “condemn phony campaign tactics.”

“It’s one thing to use a stock photo, but quite another to launch an entire fantasy in which Russia, America, and Serbia represent your dream for our country’s future,” reads the statement.

Canadians roasted the video on social media, calling the ad “lazy and amateurish.”

Some Redditors pointed out the lack of diversity in the ad.

“White fantasy world by Pierre Poilievre. Oh, and it’s a rural world where everyone drives pickups,” stated user OutsideFlat1579. “Not hard to see why it got roasted.”

“Apparently, home in CPC Canada only has white people,” wrote MurtaughFusker.

Reddit user NedMerrill asked, “Is there a saboteur on their communications team??”

“That was the most horrific cringe-y LARP cosplay I ever saw, and I now have to go crack my head against a brick wall till I delete that visual,” wrote Redditor datznotpepper.

User Spartanfred104 summed it up by stating, “Wow, that was painful.”

What are your thoughts on Poilievre’s ad? Let us know in the comments.

ADVERTISEMENT

SUBSCRIBE TO THE HIVE

Get the latest news sent to your inbox and stay in the loop