Mike Myers featured in two Carney campaign videos, one with a quiz

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The Liberal campaign has returned to its Mike Myers strategy a second time, this time with an explicit endorsement from the longtime American resident who had previously demonstrated his Canadian bona fides by telling Mark Carney who Howie Meeker and Stompin Tom Connors were.

In a video posted to the new Prime Minister’s X account Monday featuring the two wearing Hockey Canada jerseys and chatting on a hockey bench — the same outfits and location of the original video released over the weekend — the actor offers his endorsement and says he’s hopeful the Liberal leader will make sure Canada “continues to be the good guys.”

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But “sometimes you gotta get those elbows up,” Carney says later in the clip.

“But only for as long as necessary, and then they go back.”

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The video was met with support and skepticism on X, including many commenters noting each man had three passports apiece and had spent much of their careers outside Canada. One user tweeted a video of Myers bragging about being American, prior to Trump talking about making Canada the 51st state.

Myers had donned a “Canada Is Not For Sale” shirt and mouthed the words while making the elbow motion during his guest appearance on Saturday Night Live in early March.

Monday’s video follows a more scripted affair in which Myers’s Canadian-ness is put to the test with rapid-fire softball questions that was posted the night before Carney and company called a snap election for April 28 on Sunday.

In the scene, Carney is leaning over the boards as Myers arrives and greets him. Asked what he’s doing here, Myers says he decided to “come up and check on things.”

“You live in the States,” Carney asks in a declarative manner.

“Yeah, but I’ll always be Canadian,” Myers responds.

“But, you live in the States,” Carney says re-emphasizing his query and drawing a “Yeah. So?” in response.

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Carney, of course, is a Canadian with citizenship in Britain and Ireland, having obtained both in 2018. He has said he intends to renounce both, feeling a Prime Minister should only have one.

Myers, as it happens also has multiple citizenships. In addition to carrying a Canadian passport, he has a British passport by way of his parents — both immigrants from Liverpool — and United States documentation, which he obtained in 2006.

In the first video, Carney quizzed Myers with Canadian trivia featuring the Tragically Hip, Mr. Dressup, Stompin Tom Connors’ second most-revered tune, and Toronto’s two seasons — winter and construction.

“You’re a defenceman defending a two-on-one, what do you,” Carney presses.

“Take away the pass, obviously,” Myers replies.

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After the prime minister is satisfied, Myers asks him if there will always be a Canada. Carney says yes, prompting an “elbows up” and accompanying gesture from Myers, which he matches.

Carney was born in Fort Smith, N.W.T., in 1965 before relocating to Yellowknife, YK, as a four-year-old. He was about six when they moved to Edmonton, after which Carney attended Harvard University in Boston and then Oxford University in England where he met his British-born wife, Diana Fox.

In the following years, Carney worked for the investment firm Goldman Sachs at locations in London, Tokyo and New York before returning to Toronto.

He left the company to become governor of the Bank of Canada in 2003 but stayed in the role only 15 months before joining then-prime minister Paul Martin’s administration as senior associate deputy minister of finance, a position he maintained under prime minister Stephen Harper.

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He was re-appointed to lead Canada’s central bank again in 2008, helping the Conservatives steer the country through an economic crisis, before leaving Canada in 2013 to accept the role as the next governor of the Bank of England. He remained there for seven years, returning to Canada in 2020. He now lives in Ottawa’s Rockcliffe Park area but will seek election in the neighbouring riding of Nepean next month.

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In a 2022 interview, Myers had said he was “grateful” to be an American.

In Monday’s video, seated beneath a Canadian flag taped to a concrete wall, Myers says he “wouldn’t be anything without Canada” and tells Carney about his upbringing in taxpayer-subsidized housing, educational opportunities that led him to television and working for the CBC at one point.

“Do you think we should get rid of the CBC,” Carney interjects, “Because there’s a guy who says we should get rid of the CBC.”

“That guy’s wrong,” Myers responds.

The Austin Powers star said he’s supporting Carney because he won’t allow kindness to be mistaken for weakness in protecting Canada.

“It sounds like damning with faint praise, but I think you’re reasonable. And I think the world needs more grown-ups, we need more adults, dude.”

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