The story behind that apple video and 9 key moments from Pierre Poilievre's Joe Rogan episode
During his trip to the U.S. to pitch tariff-free trade this week, Pierre Poilievre made time to sit down for an interview with U.S. podcaster Joe Rogan, covering a myriad of topics in their lengthy discussion.
After the Conservative leader opened the show by presenting Rogan with a Canadian flag-branded 70-pound kettlebell, the two briefly discussed the exercise equipment’s Russian origin. The conversation went on to include talk about Canada’s oil sands, maple syrup reserves and the identity of Justin Trudeau’s true father — Rogan has sometimes perpetuated the long-disproven rumour that the former prime minister is the illegitimate love child of Margaret Trudeau and former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. The pair later said the interview was arranged by Georges St-Pierre, a retired Canadian professional mixed martial artist and much of their interview covered the history of the sport.
Here are some key exchanges from the wide-ranging interview that lasted more than two hours. This transcript has been edited for clarity and length.
Poilievre informed Rogan that Fidel Castro is not Trudeau’s father
Poilievre: I read a a biography on Fidel Castro and then I read …
Rogan: Justin’s dad.
Poilievre: No, no, no. Not Justin’s dad.
Rogan: Right?
Poilievre: No, no, no, no. His dad was Pierre. His dad was Pierre. His dad was Pierre. I had issues with Pierre Trudeau, too, because …
Rogan: It is a great conspiracy theory, though.
Poilievre: Well, it is a hell of a —— I don’t think it’s a true one , though. His dad is …
Rogan: Unfortunately.
Poilievre: His, his dad was very controversial where I grew up because he did a lot of damage to the oil sector, and we’re from oil country, and so that was one of the things that I felt kind of resentful about, the national government, and one of the reasons I got involved (in politics) is because the west deserved a fairer deal.
Poilievre explained his role as opposition leader
Poilievre: This funny moment when Joe Biden came to Parliament Hill and I said, um, “Mr. President, I’m Pierre Poilievre. I’m the leader of his majesty’s loyal opposition.” And he said, “Loyal opposition. How can you be loyal and opposition at the same time?” It’s like, what the hell are you talking about? And because, you know, you guys have a, a system based on the, a republic, whereas ours is the British system and in our system the, the opposition is an act of loyalty. That’s what our system, it means that if you are opposing the government, you’re doing it out of loyalty, to the good of the people, and our house of commons.
You have a half circle in your Congress. We have two sides in our Parliament. It’s two-and-a-half sword lengths apart because they used to literally kill each other in the old English days. But the idea is the opposition is to prosecute the hell out of the government. Make the mighty low. The most powerful people in the country are supposed to tremble every time they walk in that place because no, every mistake they made, every abuse of power, every corruption they might have done, can be exposed, and in front of all eyes.
Poilievre said he wishes Trump would end the 51st state talk
Poilievre: We’re very proudly Canadian. So, we’re never going to be the 51st state. And I just wish he’d knock that s–t off, so that we can get back to talking about the things that we can do as two separate countries that are actually friends.
Rogan: Did that really have that much of an effect up there? Like, did people take (Trump) seriously?
Poilievre: I think at first everyone thought it was a joke, because we’ve always had these jokes like, you know, one day we’re going to take over Vermont, and Detroit should be part of Canada, and all that stuff. But then he kept saying it and saying it and uh, you know it became, it became, uh, a lot of people got upset about it, and I think understandably so.
Rogan: Understandably. Yeah. I mean it’s a crazy thing to say.
Poilievre: It is a crazy thing to say.
Rogan: I talked to (Trump) on the phone about it. It was like so funny. He’s like, “At first I was joking, but then people were like it’s a good idea.” That’s not a good idea.
Poilievre: Nobody’s saying that. I can assure him of that. But, and the tariffs aren’t a good idea either. We should get the tariffs out, because there’s so much we could be doing together as neighbours and partners if we got rid of those tariffs.
Poilievre said he’d leave negotiating with Trump to Carney
Poilievre: I think it’s in America’s interest to come towards a tariff-free deal and trade freely as friends and that will be good for both of us.
Rogan: Have you had conversations with Trump about this?
Poilievre: No. I believe in the rule of one prime minister at a time. So, I fought like hell to win. I didn’t win. We came very close. So, I’ve said, “Listen, I’ll leave it to the prime minister to do the negotiating.” And I’ve said I’ll support him any way I can. Even in my visit down here, I’m sending him text messages to tell him what’s going on to try and support his work because we want, we both want what’s best for Canada.
Poilievre defended Alberta’s oil sands
Rogan: I’ve seen some of the oil extraction that they’ve done up in Alberta. When you look at the area, it looks like, like scorched earth.
Poilievre: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It’s the most responsible oil extraction in the world.
Rogan: But when you when you see these — what is that one area that often gets criticized? Fort Mac? Is that what it is?
Poilievre: Yeah, it’s, their open pit mines. You, you open up a mine, you take out the, you take out the bitumen. You subtract, you separate the sand from the oil. You make it less viscous by putting diluent in it and you ship it off. And then after the oil is, after the mining is done, they resurface it and you wouldn’t even know there was a mine there.
Rogan: And there’s no impact to groundwater, no impact to the environment?
Poilievre: I mean, there’s an impact no matter what you do, but at the end of the day, the people who live there are very healthy and very happy and they’re the strongest supporters of the expansion of the oil sands. It’s an incredible —
Rogan: Because, economically …
Poilievre: It’s, oh, it’s incredible. It’s the best resource in the world. So, it’s like there’s no decline rate. You guys have shale here, but you know, as the years go by, you get less and less out of a shale reservoir. We we have very little decline. We can keep producing and producing.
We have what’s called in situ where there’s an entire oil sands operation under your feet. You could be out in a forest hunting and you wouldn’t even know that under your feet they’re extracting it through a whole system of pipes where they inject just steam, steam vapour that loosens up the oil. It sinks down. It goes into another pipe. Comes up to the top. And you can have beautiful pristine nature. The bears, the deer, the birds, they don’t even know that there’s extraction happening under their feet. So, we have the best industry, the most responsible industry anywhere in the world. It’s been a really disgusting PR campaign by extremist environmentalists, and frankly some of our competitors to try and make our industry look bad. But it’s the best industry in the world.
Rogan: Yeah, they got me. I saw some videos on it. I was like, “Oh my god, what are they doing to the ground? What are they doing to the earth? It looks horrible.”
Poilievre: They’re all, it’s all bulls–t. We have the —
Rogan: It looks horrible.
Poilievre: Yeah, but I mean it, that’s just a superficial look at it. I’ll take you for a tour in the oil sands. You’ll be amazed.
Poilievre said he’s happy when Carney steals his ideas
Poilievre: I proposed to to bring back the auto pack between Canada and the U.S. to have tariff-free trade going both ways across the the border. So, that’s an example of how I’m in a position to actually offer solutions even though I’m not in the government, and then hopefully government actually steals my ideas, and I’ve been encouraging them to steal my ideas.
…
Rogan: What were the criticisms of you? Like what did your opponent say that like, people, that resonated with people?
Poilievre: Um —
Rogan: What were they trying to say that maybe was not accurate
Poilievre: It was funny because they all disagreed with my ideas, and they said these are all very scary ideas.
Rogan: Scary?
Poilievre: And then they said — first of all they said they said that I had no policies, then they said they’re scary policies, and then they stole my policies right before the election. So, but, hey listen, if the government that’s in power now steals all my ideas and does the things I want to do, then I then I’ve won because that’s why I came here. I didn’t just do it so that I could have the, my name on the door. So, I keep saying to the prime minister, steal my ideas, right?
Rogan: But he doesn’t want to.
Poilievre: Well, he, I won’t criticize him on foreign soil, but we’ll, uh —
Rogan: I understand. Good for you.
Poilievre: Yeah, I mean, we have a mutual respect.
Rogan: That’s such a Canadian thing to do.
Poilievre: That is a very Canadian thing to do.
Rogan: So polite. You know, that’s what I’m saying about Canadians. They’re so polite.
Poilievre explained his famous apple interview
Rogan: One of the great interviews that I loved about you, you were eating an apple, and you were talking to this guy, who was being completely ridiculous. And you were asking him to define what the the issues that he had and it was so funny. It was like, this is what happens when a rational person meets a person with empty narratives.
Poilievre: It was such a weird moment because —
Rogan: You just kept eating that apple.
Poilievre: It was such a, it was such a good apple. It was so good. That’s the thing. And the thing is, I didn’t even realize I was being taped. I thought it was a print interview.
Rogan: Oh, that’s hilarious.
Poilievre: That’s why, I think, I was so relaxed. But, so I’m in the most beautiful place in the world. If you ever, if you haven’t been to the Okanagan, it’s unbelievable. Like, it’s lakes, it’s mountains, it’s nice dry weather and there’s orchards and vineyards there. Like you’d love it. And so I’m in an apple orchard and I’m walking around just talking with people and my staff says, “This reporter wants to do an interview” and I’m enjoying the apple. He comes up and starts asking questions. Nobody who was there thought this was a moment. Like we’d thought nothing of it. We dumped the whole thing — my staff, unbeknownst to me, was recording my whole walk. We dumped this 15-minute video on the internet. No one noticed it. And like three weeks later, my phone blows up and people say, “Hey, how about that apple?” I’m what is, what are they talking about, this apple thing? And then, you know, within three days, everybody’s talking to me about this damn apple that I had almost forgotten about eating. So, it’s one of the weird things —
Rogan: Well, that conversation sort of, it embodied this issue. It really did. Because you have rational thinking and empty narratives colliding —
Poilievre: Right …
Rogan: While you’re eating an apple. Like you’re so casual about it. You’re actually eating an apple. Which was so perfect. I mean, you couldn’t if — if you planned on like, if you had a PR team, “I think you should be eating an apple.” They’d be like, “Oo, I like it. So, he’s casual. He’s eating fruit. It’s healthy.” You know —
Poilievre: It was totally coincidence. Like, out of nowhere, not planned. And not even noticed. Like I said, no one there thought this was going to be a moment. We just like totally forgot about it.
Rogan: Well, it made it in America. It was viral in America, and we were like, “How come that guy’s not the prime minister? What the hell’s going on?”
Poilievre: Well, in the meantime, you can buy Ambrosia apples from the south Okonagan. I’m really plugging a lot of sales for the Canadian economy today.
Rogan talked up Canadian maple syrup
Rogan: You know what I found out about Canadian um maple syrup?
Poilievre: What’s that?
Rogan: It is actually a superfood and it is actually better for you than honey.
Poilievre: Is that right?
Rogan: Yeah. It contains a bunch of polyphenols and a bunch of like healthy nutrients. I always thought maple syrup was just a guilty pleasure you poured on pancakes.
Poilievre: No, it’s a totally Canadian thing.
Rogan: But apparently it’s really good for you.
Poilievre: So, you take it before your workout?
Rogan: No. No. I just watched a Instagram video yesterday. Somebody sent it to me and I was like, “What is this?”
Poilievre: We’ll have to send you a bunch of maple syrup from Canada.
Rogan: Oh, I’ve got a bunch …
Poilievre: We actually have a maple syrup reserve in Canada. Like, a reserve of excess stockpiles.
Rogan: Like an oil reserve?
Poilievre: Well, we don’t have an oil reserve. This is something I want to change. I want to have an oil reserve, but I also want to keep the maple syrup reserve because we’re Canadians after all. There’s nothing more Canadian than that.
Poilievre said Alberta separation will never happen
Rogan: There was talk about Alberta separating
Poilievre: That won’t happen.
Rogan: What was that about?
Poilievre: Ah, it won’t happen. Some people are frustrated. But they, you know, there’s some legitimate frustrations, but at the end of the day, Canada’s going to be united. And Albertans, I’m born and raised Alberta, and Albertans are seriously patriotic, Canadian.
Rogan: Very patriotic.
Poilievre: Yeah. They’re great people. Hardworking.
Rogan: Some of the nicest people you ever met.
Poilievre: They are great people in Alberta.
Rogan said he would vote for Poilievre
Rogan: I think your message resonates with me and if I was a Canadian I would vote for you 100 per cent.
Poilievre: Thank you. Thank you for that. Well, it’s, you know, it’s a privilege to do this work and I consider it very humbling and I’m very proud to be Canadian and to take the message of Canada here to our American friends.
Rogan: Well, I’m glad you’re here doing that and I think this is going to have a big impact. I really hope it moves the needle up in Canada.
Poilievre: Absolutely. And down here, we got to get these tariffs gone.
Rogan: Well, let’s work it out. And, if you win, I’m coming up there. I promise.
Poilievre: Well, we’re going to try to get you up there earlier. I’m going to keep working on you. And you look at that maple leaf on your new kettle bell every day. Eventually, we’re going to we’re going to work subliminally into your subconscious and get you up.
Rogan: Well, look, like I said, you don’t have to sell me on Canada. I love Canada and I love that gift.
Watch Joe Rogan’s full interview with Pierre Poilievre:
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