It’s been just over a month since the federal election when—in one of the night’s top three shockers—rookie Liberal candidate Bruce Fanjoy defeated Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre in the Carleton, Ont., riding the longtime MP had held for 20 years.

And next week there’s a book coming out about how it all unfolded.

Penned by Ottawa Citizen columnist Brigitte Pellerin, Bruce Fanjoy’s Apple Crumble Recipe: How One Man Unseated a Would-Be Prime Minister, is a mere 100 pages long, but “it’s a good story” the author told Heard on the Hill last week by email.

“I wrote it in three weeks, so it’s short,” Pellerin explained. “I have worked with Bruce Fanjoy on his campaign to defeat Pierre Poilievre in Carleton since early 2023 and I wanted to share his story. Who he is, why he did what he did, and how.”

The title refers to a viral video from last year of Poilievre eating an apple during an interview with British Columbia journalist Don Urquhart. After Fanjoy’s April 28 win, the MP-elect received many apple-related products, like pies, according to social media photos.

The book is based on several interviews Pellerin did with Fanjoy over the last two years, and with his wife Donna, his brother Stephen, and members of the Fanjoy campaign’s small team.

Pellerin said her big take-away from writing this book is something Fanjoy himself likes to repeat: “Together, we can do hard things.

“After the Convoy and occupation of Ottawa, and the overwhelming unpopularity of Justin Trudeau, it looked like we were headed for a Maple MAGA government in Ottawa. Bruce decided to stand in the way of that. I am honoured to have played a role in helping him unseat Pierre Poilievre.”

Fry welcomes Fanjoy to the #DragonSlayerCaucus

And on the subject of Bruce Fanjoy, the rookie MP continued to enjoy rock-star status in his first week in the House, with his Liberal colleague Hedy Fry having a bit of a fan-girl moment.

“Met with Bruce Fanjoy, Member of Parliament for Carleton, who defeated Pierre Poilievre!

“I never thought I’d find myself saying this… but it was a pleasure to meet with the Member from Carleton. BTW we are thinking of forming a #DragonSlayerCaucus.”

The 11-term MP for Vancouver Centre, B.C., had her own Fanjoy moment when she was first elected back in 1993, defeating then-Progressive Conservative prime minister Kim Campbell and dubbed “the Giant Killer” at the time. “Fry was the fifth person to unseat a sitting prime minister, and the first to do so in their first run for office,” according to Wikipedia.

Scarpaleggia ‘good’ but not top five ‘Speaker’s drag’ performances

Toronto-based media consultant and analyst Lucas Meyer said he couldn’t resist re-posting his list of top five so-called “Speaker of the House drags” when news broke on May 26 that Liberal MP Francis Scarpaleggia was chosen by his peers as the next House Speaker.

“While a good performance by Francis Scarpaleggia, still not enough to crack the Top 5—as I did here after [Greg] Fergus got elected,” Meyer posted on X last week with a video of him from 2023 dissecting what he feels makes for good political theatre in the Westminster tradition of physically dragging the speaker to the chair.

“To me, it’s all about who commits to the bit the most. Not just the person being dragged, but also the leaders doing the dragging,” Meyers explained to HOH in an email. 

“Politics has become so polarized in recent years and this is something that actually provides some levity for all parties,” said Meyer, who confessed he enjoys “nerding out over presenting politics as sports commentary,” drawing on his past career experiences.

Despite Fergus and Scarpellegia’s more recent performances, neither was able to crack Meyer’s top five list which includes then-Liberal MP Peter Milliken who claims both fifth and fourth places—he was speaker for 10 years—Joe Clark-era Liberal MP James Jerome in 1979, and coming in second place is current opposition leader in the House Andrew Scheer, who served as Speaker in the Stephen Harper era from 2011-2015. 

But first place for Meyer remains former Liberal MP Geoff Regan. “Regan stands alone. Shaking his head, pulling back, acting like his arm is being twisted, having his tie pulled…he totally leans in,” Meyer explained to HOH of the 2015 video of Regan being dragged by then-prime minister Justin Trudeau and then-interim opposition leader Rona Ambrose.

A Royal touch in the Senate Chamber 

While physical touching is generally considered off-limits when it comes to Canada’s monarch, two notable people were spotted being familiar with King Charles III in the lead-up to his giving the Throne Speech in the Senate chamber last week. 

Margaret Trudeau and His Majesty greeted each other with a hug and kiss on both cheeks as the dignitaries who’d gathered for the speech relaxed for a few minutes of chatting and greetings. “It was a warm embrace from a former prime minister’s wife and the mother of another—who would have met the King when he was young and still the Prince of Wales,” the CBC’s Verity Stevenson posted as it happened on May 27. Indeed, as future king and as then-wife of prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Charles and Margaret had met on numerous previous occasions in Ottawa in 1975 and Montreal in 1976. Margaret was accompanied last week by her eldest son, former prime minister Justin Trudeau. 

Moments later, ex-governor general Michaëlle Jean was seen leading her former boss by the hand to greet Assembly of First Nations National Chief Cindy Woodhouse Nepinak. 

“On the one hand, the general protocol is that one doesn’t do that: initiating physical contact, let alone physically leading members of the Royal Family,” royal historian Justin Vovk of McMaster University told the CBC’s Royal Fascinator Janet Davison on May 28.

“Jean probably did overstep the broad protocols, but she may have been given consent by His Majesty to do so or felt she could, based on their previous working relationship,” Vovk said. Author and historian Carolyn Harris’ hot take for the CBC was that royal tours in Commonwealth nations often have “a relaxed atmosphere,” and that unlike his mother, “King Charles III has embraced comparative informality on royal tours of Canada.”

cleadlay@hilltimes.com

The Hill Times