A review of Kellie Leitche’s ‘Canadian Values’
By Mercedes Deutscher, News Editor
Politicians are perhaps some of the greatest performers of post-modern times. Gone are the days when politicians would address the public through monotone radio addresses. Both John F. Kennedy and Pierre Trudeau revolutionized the political spheres forever by bringing in stylish politics that engaged American and Canadian audiences alike.
So it is truly a disgrace to the late Kennedy and Trudeau for a performer such as Kellie Lietche to inflict the public with such an awful display with her recent online video, aiming to focus on Canadian values.
Canadian Values, a political satire piece starring Leitche, follows the story of a woman who yearns for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. She vies on a set of Canadian values that have long since fallen into the darker chapters of history books. Lietche plays a character that has a supposed yearning for tolerance, only to then massively impede newcomers from entering the country by forcing them to go through a lengthy and grueling interview-based process that will undoubtedly be slanted to deter immigrants, should the Conservative Party come into power in 2019.
Perhaps Leitche believed that such a performance would win her a prestigious Conservative Party leadership. Yet, the Academy of Canadian Politics would not bite on such a disorganized piece of work.
For one, Leitche’s performance is little better than that of a frightened child forced into acting far too young. She often gazes into the corner or away from the camera, when there has been no previous established character in the scene. She also often takes pause, implying that she was not behaving as a professional would by having her line memorized before stepping in front of the camera. However, the most egregious of errors in Leitche’s piece is how the humour comes across as dead serious. While the lines are clearly meant to be comedic, the delivery is often far too sincere, and so the satire of the piece is lost. If the things she is saying weren’t so frighteningly prejudiced and hypocritical, one might think the entire film was meant to be taken seriously.
In fact, a super-secret video leaked to the Other Press shows candid footage of Leitche asking her directors for lines, and carefully gazing at a comically-sized poster board that has her lines written right on it.
I, for one, would much rather watch a performance by Kevin O’Leary. Even if the politician is essentially Trump Lite, at least he has television experience. Hell, Trump has television experience and he’s playing one of the most entertaining villains of our time.
Overall, Leitche has a long way to go if she wishes to succeed in the world of comedic politics. The goal is to make the audience think everything you’re saying is a joke, not for them to be wondering if you are being held hostage.
