Jagmeet Singh and Doug Ford are Going on a Date
Published October 25, 2017 at 3:48 pm
Federal NDP leader and former Brampton MPP Jagmeet Singh and Toronto mayoral hopeful Doug Ford are planning a date for one another – and the results should be very interesting.
Federal NDP leader and former Brampton MPP Jagmeet Singh and Toronto mayoral hopeful Doug Ford are planning a date for one another – and the results should be very interesting.
Don’t worry – you won’t be seeing these two taking a long walk on the beach and enjoying a candlelight dinner anytime soon (though there’s nothing wrong with that and it might also be entertaining to watch). Instead, these political opposites will appear in an episode of the brand new, first-of-its-kind show, Political Blind Date.
Political Blind Date is a new TVO original where politicians with different points of view go on a “date” and talk about an issue they disagree on.
No scripts, no speaking notes, nada. Just two politicians meeting face-to-face for an in-depth, genuine conversation.
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Here’s how it works.
Each politician takes the other to a location that highlights their side of a relevant, debatable topic. The goal is to encourage one another to find common ground on their chosen issue.
“TVO Originals like Political Blind Date share thought-provoking, in-depth debates that explore social, economic and political topics,” says Lisa de Wilde, Chief Executive Officer of TVO. “The politicians featured in this program get outside of their comfort zones to explore a range of perspectives on the big issues of the day.”
On Singh and Ford’s episode, they’re talking transit, “riding bicycles on busy streets and visiting a much-debated streetcar line.”
You may or may not know that Singh is an avid cyclist, so it might be fun to see him in his element, and to see what the two touch on during their “date.”
“Political Blind Date is a fresh and engaging antidote to today’s divisive political climate,” says John Ferri, Vice-President of Current Affairs and Documentaries at TVO. “In this series, we ask politicians to drop their speaking notes, in keeping with TVO’s journalistic mission to provide a place for in-depth and civil debate.”
TVO hopes the series will “energize audiences when they see rival politicians meeting face-to-face, and speaking candidly as friends and colleagues about the issues that matter to Ontarians.”
“We believed that if politicians had an opportunity to connect as human beings around issues that meant something to them on a personal level, not just as politicians, then we might capture real, heartfelt attempts to make change on the most important challenges facing Canadians,” said Tom Powers, Series Creator and Executive Producer and Mark Johnston, Series Writer and Director.
If you were curious about other politicians that will appear, the series will also feature Liberal MP Adam Vaughan, Toronto City Councillors Giorgio Mammoliti and Maria Augimeri, Mayor of London Matt Brown, NDP MPP Cheri DiNovo, and others, covering topics like safe injection sites, correctional facilities, and social housing.
In the very first episode, federal Albert Conservative MP Garnett Genuis and Ontario Liberal MP Nathaniel Erskine-Smith debate the legalization of marijuana that’s not far on the horizon at a cannabis dispensary, a production facility, and interviewing a former marijuana addict.
The mini-series will last six weeks, and each online episode will run for about half an hour (not much of a time commitment for an audience!) starting Tuesday, November 7, 2017 at 9 p.m.
As for Singh and Ford, it’ll be interesting to see what hot talking points they cycle through!
Check out the trailer:
Photo courtesy of @politicalblinddate on Instagram
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