On Sunday’s Last Week Tonight, John Oliver made a compelling case for U.S. citizens to concern ourselves with Canadian politics—and delivered a quick brief of some of the more surprising scandals from a few Canadian campaigns (including one candidate who was caught on camera peeing into someone’s coffee mug during his day job). But if there’s one person Oliver doesn’t want Canadians to vote for, it’s incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
“Canada is America’s next-door neighbor, and Stephen Harper is her dickhead boyfriend,” Oliver explained. “You know, the one she won’t split up with despite the fact he tells her what to wear and makes her listen to his shitty, shitty band.”
In addition to weakening environmental protections, scaling down healthcare for some refugees, and taking a strong stance against marijuana, Harper’s government also panders to Islamophobes, and once banned women from wearing the niqab while taking the oath of citizenship. And he actually does have a shitty band—the Van Cats, whose cover of “Sweet Caroline” may be more offensive than his politics.
So Oliver made a PSA starring a beaver playing “Sweet Caroline,” a moose getting a free colonoscopy, and Mike Myers dressed as a Mountie, riding a snow plow. As the two make it rain with money to pay the anticipated $5,000 fine, their message to Canadians is clear: “Don’t vote for Stephen Harper.”
