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Starting this weekend, The Vassy Kapelos Show will play on 650 CKOM and 980 CJME on Saturdays from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Ahead of her show joining our airwaves, Evan speaks with Vassy Kapelos, chief parliamentary correspondent, host of Power Play and Question Period for CTV and host of The Vassy Kapelos Show.
Listen to Vassy Kapelos here:
Evan Bray: You have some ties to our province, I hear?
What did you learn in Swift Current all those years ago that still helps you today as CTV’s chief political correspondent?
KAPELOS: Oh my gosh, I learned so much. I don’t even know where to start, to be honest. I just remember that night that Brad Wall won. And to me, that was a big media scene in Swift Current, right? That was his riding and that’s where he had his sort of victory speech.
To this day, remember the sentiment like, ‘oh my god, if I can do this for the rest of my life, like this is exactly what I want to do.’
It was as far from what I ended up doing in Swift Current, right? I was working for a local station that was sort of the public broadcaster there but also online.
I was shooting and editing, doing a lot of stories that were important locally, but I had moved from Toronto there, so it was a big shock to the system. I was lonely and homesick and all those things.
From a life perspective, it really made me tougher. From a work perspective I was terrible, to be honest. It provided me so many opportunities to get better and to learn about what’s involved in this.
That point of reference from the start of what I wanted to get to and how much fun I knew I could have, and the thing I really knew in my heart I wanted to do, which was to cover politics, just getting a taste of that never really left me.
‘Oh my god, if I can do this for the rest of my life, like this is exactly what I want to do.
Many of us have never seen before, in terms of a constellation of events unfolding prior to Donald Trump winning the U.S. election. You could have put together a long laundry list of issues that would be top of mind for Canadians heading into the election.
Mark Carney said yesterday the U.S. tariffs threat and the trade war are the biggest crises of our lifetime. Has this new threat taken over for Canadians, or are all of those other issues still there?
KAPELOS: The answer to that question is going to probably be the biggest factor in determining the outcome on April 28. Because six months ago, three months ago, I would have concluded wholeheartedly that despite Donald Trump saying some stuff, issues around affordability and the cost of living were dominant for Canadians because prices are 20 per cent higher than they were three years ago. Even as inflation adds, things are still really, really expensive. People can’t buy a home, all that kind of stuff.
But it’s the nature of the threat from Donald Trump. If you were just talking about tariffs, we would, of course, be worried about the economic impact. We would be concerned about job losses and all the stuff that’s associated with that. It’s because it’s next level, right? It’s sovereignty.
It’s talking about annexing Canada, things that you just would never have even conceived of. I would argue, even in November, when he got elected, I don’t think we thought this was going to happen a few months later.
I can’t say for sure, the degree to which it subsumed everything else, but I can say the combination of that with Justin Trudeau leaving has certainly had an impact on public opinion polling that I’ve never seen in all the years that I’ve been working whether that continues and then informs the final outcome, I don’t feel comfortable saying that yet, because there’s still a lot of things happening on the ground. But the sort of issue set that we’re dealing with has migrated, for sure, and it isn’t exactly what it was or kind of even close to what it was last year.
Has what’s been going on right now brought an awareness around supper tables in Canada that maybe didn’t exist before?
As a really proud Canadian, I hope that’s the case. I don’t know what all the policy prescriptions are, but I don’t think it’s a bad thing that we’re all kind of obsessed now with how to never be in this position again.
I hope that whoever forms the next government is seized with that and makes the most of it. I don’t know exactly what it looks like, but I agree with your assessment. In my lifetime, other than the first few months of COVID-19, I have never been as struck by the degree to which people who don’t normally consume the stuff that I do are reaching out.
I would include my sisters who you couldn’t pay to watch my shows, are consuming them every day, right? Because they’re so worried about what the future holds for the country and for themselves and their kids and everything. Whether that leads to something better, my fingers are crossed, but certainly, that opportunity does exist for us.
What do people expect from this show, the Vassy Capello show that we’ll be hearing one to three on Saturdays?
Well, I’m really focused on getting lots of different perspectives on big issues, like the ones we’ve been talking about. Being fair and making sure there are different parts of the country, different political perspectives who are represented, and then also there’s meaningful debate – it’s not boring.
They’re going to disagree on stuff, but hopefully, you’ll be able to listen on a Saturday and get a sense of what went down in particular, in the context of right now, for example, during the campaign, the big moments that you need to know about. Then, you’ll see it through a really analytical lens at times. We also do other stuff.
This is my radio show is like my joy in that. It’s all politics, but it’s also other stuff that’s really interesting. Hudson Bay closing, managers getting bonuses, for example, and 9000 employees not even getting severance.
We try to hit on some of the other big issues that are going down. And also, like lighter stuff. We have a Talk Science To Me, segment that’s great about sort of different studies that are going on. And we have a segment called the Explainer Stuff we talk about all the time, but we kind of want more explanation on so we hit a number of different things. I just hope it’s a couple of hours to sit back, enjoy and relax and maybe learn a few things along the way.
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