THE SOUND

Canadian Politics Is Boring

A recent immigrant takes listeners on a tour of his new country’s government

BY TREVOR J. ADAMS

Not long after Rhys Waters and his family immigrated from Wales to Nova Scotia, COVID-19 hit.

He’d been trying to learn more about his new country’s politics, with little success, so his pandemic project became Canadian Politics Is Boring, a very tongue-in-cheek podcast about how the country is governed, featuring Waters and his decidedly apolitical friend Jesse Harley, a local filmmaker.

It began as a way “just to pass the time, have some fun, focus on doing comedy work,” Waters said on The Rick Howe Show in 2020. “It seemed like a really good way of forcing myself to learn about the topic and then also share what we were learning with others.”

But it’s taken on a life of its own, finding a loyal and fast-growing following. Recently their show cracked Apple’s Canadian top five, was number-one trending on Spotify, and became Canada’s third ranked comedy podcast.

For an eye-opening start, begin at the beginning with “The Early Drunk Adventures of Sir John A. Macdonald.” The name sets the tone. canadianpoliticsisboring.com