By Sheroog Kubur, July 16 2023—
On July 7, Justin Trudeau made an appearance at the kick-off of the Calgary Stampede and commemorated the event by challenging opposition leader Pierre Pollievre to a pancake-eating competition. Trudeau won the competition by 2 pancakes, the final score being 46-44.
The Liberal Party leader stated he wanted to embrace the spirit of the Stampede by engaging in some friendly competition with other federal party leaders. He also challenged Jagmeet Singh and Yves-Francois Blanchet to participate in the competition alongside the two of them but both were unable to attend.
The competition took place following the Stampede Parade in Olympic Park during the annual breakfast. Crowds gathered and were able to place bets on who they believed they would win. Competitors had one minute to eat as many dry pancakes as they could, with no breaks for beverages permitted. Neutral third-party observers were called upon to tally the number of pancakes consumed.
Poilievre was initially winning having consumed 25 pancakes in the first half while Trudeau was sitting at 23. In the last 15 seconds, Trudeau picked up the pace by consuming a record 20 pancakes in 10 seconds — also earning him the Guinness World Record for most pancakes consumed in the shortest time.
“It was exhilarating to witness such passion in action,” said Barbara Martel, a tourist from Manitoba coming to watch the competition. “They were being great sports about it and it really livened the atmosphere.”
This competition took place following the announcement of the abolishing of the first-passed-the-post electoral system. Trudeau had not announced what would be replacing the system, however, Canadian political scientists strongly believe that this is an indicator of a new direction in Canadian politics.
“Now that politicians are willing to engage with the people on a human level we are optimistic about how this will factor into the new electoral system,” said Dr. Robert Nolan, a political scientist at U of C. “It’s very possible that this is how parties decide the leaders of their parties going forward.”
This article is part of our humour section.
