And to add to the irony, the politician blathered on and on and on, saying nothing during a long and stemwinding speech, which Pierson was forced to mercifully cut off after around 20 minutes.

She was waiting for the Q&A section that never came. After he finished speaking, he left without taking questions from reporters, leaving her - and no doubt the Ottawa Press Corps - aghast.

"Did we just get gaslit?" she asked.

It was definitely a long day for her on air. 

If you want hilarious and non-shouty opinions about american politics, just listen to lbc in the UK.
But, they rarly talk about canada.
Unlike the US conservitive talk hosts, ours like alex are much more calmer and don't shout or spew there uneducated beleefs.

No, not if you're talking about the one in Quebec City on Thursday. I listened to it and it mostly seemed like a pretty tepid campaign speech with not a lot new in it, which is fine.

But the fact he did not take a single question from the press is inexcusable, especially when that's what most of the media was waiting for. 

I doubt either CFRB or AM640 would have taken it live had they known that's how it would end. Most reporters will tell you the Q&A is where the real news comes from. 

Typical this has turned into more political finger-pointing, which was not my intent.

My original comment was about how people like Alex Pierson and Vassy Kapelos had to fill empty airtime, when an announced 1 PM speech time started 40 minutes late. Not a nice thing to do to press people on a deadline, leaving those going live with egg on their face. They can't go to anything else, when it's supposed to "start any minute."

Forty minutes is a very long time to have to ad lib about an anticipated speech that never seems to happen.

It never happened to me on air but I know a lot of really good reporters who've had to fill that time. And they hate it. If they're going to cover it live, at the very least such a speech should begin within 10-15 minutes of the announced start time. More than half an hour late with no explanation is outrageous, a waste of valuable air time and a middle finger to the media. And it doesn't matter which politician or party it is. It's wrong either way.  

RadioActive wrote:

They can't go to anything else, when it's supposed to "start any minute."

Disagree, it's called show prep. You have a three hour show? Have six hours worth of material ready. Every day.
The endless tap dancing and "we're just waiting for..." is amateurish at best, a disservice to the audience, and sadly happens all too regularly in radio today.

Coupled with the fact that everybody knows these things start late, there's no excuse for the obvious tap-dancing, which can be done without making it glaringly obvious. "While we wait for this presser, let's talk about...". You then drop that diversionary topic once the presser begins.

I agree with Binson Echoec.  The fact that the PM's speech was late should not have been huge issue.  Alex Pierson and her producer should have been prepared or had another guest to speak to about the topic prior to the speech.  The fact that Carney didn't take questions is a non issue.  It wasn't a press conference.  He was making a speech to the country.  I will give that early afternoon was an odd time but he is in the middle of a two day conference with his cabinet.  There is plenty of time for questions on Monday when parliament resumes.

cash wrote:

The speech was a waste of time and there's no need to keep poking the bear at this point. We all know Trump is an asshole and things have changed. What are you going to about it is the the question. 

The poking of the bear is long overdue.  It is not a question what Carney is going to do about it but rather what are all countries going to do.  Carney finally said in a very tactful way what many other leaders were thinking.  That's why his Davos speech was reprinted in the NY Times and papers in Europe.  More pushback for Trump is coming.

When I was a producer I expected every live event we would broadcast to be late...we prepped for this with either a guest on before the event would start so we had someone to blab with to kill time or we had a topic associated with the event lined up to discuss to also kill time...sure we could babble on and on as well where necessary but that's the job...Carney has been absolutely great lately, especially on the international stage...Trump is a fucken embarrassment to himself and the USA...if you're still a Trump supporter in Canada after his current bullshit about the North America defence dome, annexing Greenland, his 1 billion dollar 'Board Of Peace' that includes dictators, human rights violaters and despots, including Canada as a 51st state on a map he posted on social media, and saying Canada is not grateful and only exists cause of the USA then please fuck right off.

Last edited by Johnny B (January 23, 2026 11:43 am)

Interesting that Pierre Poilievre waited and waiting to comment on Carney's Davos speech, which some pundits are calling the best ever delivered at that conference.
Poilievre finally commented today, praising the speech openly, then offering some criticism... very mild criticism.
He said Carney now needs to turn words into actions.
 

Last edited by newsguy1 (January 23, 2026 1:32 pm)

What fascinates me about the Ryan Wedding arrest story is that AM640 took it live (if an hour late), and CTV, Global and CBC all aired the presser as it was happening. But neither CNN and MS Now in the U.S. even mentioned it in the entire hour leading up to the press conference, nor did they take it live when it finally happened. (I didn't check Fox, because I don't really consider it a news channel.) 

It's interesting to me that this was such a huge story here that three networks interrupted programming for it, and yet it didn't even get mentioned once on the two big U.S. cable news channels in the time period I was monitoring them. That says something but I'm not exactly sure what. 

That's strange because CNN made a big deal about him being captured earlier with breaking news reports this morning. Something is wrong at CNN when they were all over the reports of Wedding's capture and then no follow through with the press conference or any mention after.  I am thinking of getting MS Now to see if they have improved over MSNBC which really wasn't that great IMO.  Fox I tried for about 4 months, and will not bother with that garbage propaganda/infotainment trash network. 

 

Wedding will be a major story in the coming months, not only for being Canadian, but allegedly for ordering the murder of a Brampton area family in a case of mistaken identity.  This a guy , when convicted, deserves the ultimate penalty. 

mic'em wrote:

Wedding will be a major story in the coming months, not only for being Canadian, but allegedly for ordering the murder of a Brampton area family in a case of mistaken identity.  This a guy , when convicted, deserves the ultimate penalty. 

Agreed. Unfortunately, Canada has not had the "Ultimate Penalty" since 1976 and hasn't used it since 1962.

mace wrote:

mic'em wrote:

Wedding will be a major story in the coming months, not only for being Canadian, but allegedly for ordering the murder of a Brampton area family in a case of mistaken identity.  This a guy , when convicted, deserves the ultimate penalty. 

Agreed. Unfortunately, Canada has not had the "Ultimate Penalty" since 1976 and hasn't used it since 1962.

Wedding will be facing trial in the U.S. I believe long before he ever gets into a Canadian courtroom ?