This is Pierre.
(Pierre Trudeau, Prime Minster of Canada from April 1968 to June 1979 and again from March 1980 to June 1984.)
This is poutine.
(A mixture of French fries, gravy and cheese curds. Very popular with French Canadians.)
More about them later.
On May 2, 2011 Canadians elected a majority Conservative government. Not long afterward, complaints began flooding in about strange robocalls being received by voters in the Guelph, Ontario region.They reported receiving calls directing them to the wrong polling station. More complaints came in from over 200 of Canada's 308 ridings, in all ten provinces.
Preliminary investigations by Elections Canada revealed that these fraudulent calls displayed the phone number of a prepaid disposable phone, registered to a "Pierre Poutine". The day before Election Day, this phone was used to call an automated call company with Conservative links. "Pierre Poutine" used the phone to record messages directing voters to phony voting locations.
Elections Canada is now conducting an investigation into over 800 complaints.
When Canadians heard that the scandal had been traced back to "Pierre Poutine" they just had to laugh. You see, Pierre Poutine is the creation of well-known comedian Rick Mercer from the political satire show, "This Hour Has 22 Minutes". The show had a regular feature called "Talking to Americans" in which Mercer interviewed Americans on the street, in an attempt to satarize their lack of knowledge of Canadian affairs.
He would question them about their opinions on such matters as whether Canada should build a dome over its national igloo, or officially join North America. He asked students to sign a petition against the Toronto polar bear hunt. He once asked some Americans to condemn Canada's practice of euthanizing senior citizens by setting them adrift on Northern ice floes.
In these segments Mercer often referred to "Prime Minister Pierre Poutine". ( the PM was actually Jean Chretien at the time.) His victims never seemed to notice the error and went on to berate poor Pierre Poutine about all kinds of misdeeds.
In one very famous interview, Mercer spoke of Prime Minister Poutine to someone who very clearly should have known better. Thats right, George Bush.
Elections Canada is looking into all of this and meanwhile we can only speculate on where it will all lead. In the meantime, here is funny video about the mysterious man:
Well, that's the news for now. Take care eh?