2001: Michael Enright, host of the Sunday Edition of the Canadian Broadcasting Corpation's radio program This Morning, interviewed former President Jimmy Carter on the air. The interview concerned Canada's heavily subsidized softwood lumber industry, about which Carter had recently written an editorial piece in The New York Times. The interview took a turn for the worse when Enright began telling Carter to speed up his answers. Then Enright asked, "I think the question on everyone's mind is, how did a washed-up peanut farmer from Hicksville such as yourself get involved in such a sophisticated bilateral trade argument?" Carter seemed stunned by the insult. Finally he replied, "Excuse me? A washed-up peanut farmer? You're one to talk, sir. Didn't you used to be on the air five times a week?" The tone of the interview did not improve from there. Carter ended up calling Enright a "rude person" before he hung up. Enright then revealed that the interview had been fake. The Toronto comedian Ray Landry had been impersonating Carter's voice. The interview generated a number of angry calls from listeners who didn't find the joke funny. But the next day the controversy reached even larger proportions when the Globe and Mail reported the interview as fact on their front pages. The editor of the Globe and Mail later explained that he hadn't realized the interview was a hoax because it was "a fairly strange issue and a strange person to choose as a spoof."
Comments
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.

---

Page 1 of 1 pages

---

See! Canadians do have a sense of humour.
Of course the current prez. George Dub-Ya is to easy a target!
Posted by T.Sanford  in  Cnada  on  Thu Sep 23, 2004  at  12:37 PM

---

Some of us do. I rememeber that interview and was fooled myself. Had a good laugh when I found out.
Posted by Ikester  on  Sun Apr 03, 2005  at  11:54 AM

---

"Canada's heavily subsidized softwood lumber industry" is as big an American fantasy as Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction. How many times do NAFTA and the WTO have to rule that Canada's software lumber industry is NOT heavily subsidized before America just gives it up?
Posted by Ordhaj  in  Canada  on  Mon Apr 04, 2005  at  12:38 AM

---

Indeed.

The various groups tabled to rule on the issue have more Americans than Canadians, and yet they always rule in favour of Canada.

And yet the government is still able to indoctrinate myths like "Canada's heavily subsidized softwood lumber industry".
Posted by J. Lam  on  Wed Jun 01, 2005  at  08:07 PM

---

Yeah, all we ever hear about here in the U.S. is "Canada's heavily subsidized softwood lumber industry." I often lay awake at night thinking about Canada and its lumber.

It's my obsession.
Posted by Umm  on  Tue Sep 20, 2005  at  02:27 PM

---

can’t help but lack humour here: on a site named “museumofhoaxes”, i read the phrase “canada’s heavily subsidized softwood lumber industry”.

for our slower friends: not a cent spent by any government in canada, federal, provincial or municipal, just a bizarre (at best) assertion by the us administration that canada should charge more for lumbering rights to make up for the fact that lumber is inherently more expensive in the us than in canada.

hey! canada has *more wood*, get it? the facts about the softwood dispute are easily obtained on the net.

but then again, the liberal media don’t put enough emphasis on primary schools being opened every day in iraq, do they?
Posted by jief  in  alicante  on  Thu Apr 06, 2006  at  04:20 PM

---

Maybe it's one of those double hoaxes? That's truely surreal, thus genius.
Posted by Sarah  in  Liverpool, UK  on  Sat Apr 22, 2006  at  04:02 PM

---

It was a HOAX, trashing Carter by a CANADIAN on a canadian broadcast...get a grip Canadians...and stop trying to under cut our lumber prices, you lumber gougers.
Posted by Flip Wilson  in  Hollywood  on  Sat Mar 31, 2007  at  07:55 PM

---

is the ongoing use of "liberal media" just another April Fool hoax? Almost all major U.S. news outlets are now owned by large conglomerate corporations who donate MUCH more money to conservative politicians than moderate or liberal candidates. It's no longer the 80's when the press leaned liberal because most of the journalists were left of center. News is now edited by the empty suits heading departments of huge corporations... and they are anything but liberal... or intelligent! And Canada's lumber industry is fine, they have MUCH more forest land than the U.S. Besides that, they're too busy slaughtering baby seals to cheat on lumber prices!
Posted by Scott  in  California  on  Sun Apr 01, 2007  at  11:39 PM

---

Oh, a baby seal joke. How clever.
Posted by Scott  in  Canada  on  Tue Apr 03, 2007  at  10:47 AM

---

Too funny! I remember hearing that when it happened, and believe me, it didn't matter what the topic was, it was the tone that made it so funny.

For all the posters here turning this into a political issue....get a grip. This is a site about humour! Leave your politics elsewhere and have a laugh...it may do you some good. :-D
Posted by JK  in  on the floor laughing  on  Wed Apr 02, 2008  at  09:39 AM

---

Page 1 of 1 pages

---

Name:

Email (if you want to be notified of responses):

Location:

URL:

Note: To prove that you're a human being, not an automated spam bot, you've got to type in the word you see below. If you register as a member of the site you won't have to do this. Once registered, you'll then also need to login. If you're seeing this notice, and you've already registered, that means you haven't logged in. As a member you also won't have to enter your personal info every time you leave a comment.

Submit the word you see below:

Smileys

Remember my personal information

Notify me of follow-up comments?