How comedian Mark Critch landed the only year-end interview with Justin Trudeau

Mark Critch says it was pure luck and good timing that he, the self-titled "clown," landed the only year-end interview with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rather than any of the country's respected political journalists.

The Canadian comedian and This Hour Has 22 Minutes cast member sat down with the prime minister just before Chrystia Freeland resigned as finance minister earlier this month, sending shockwaves through Ottawa. The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) cancelled all of Trudeau's previously scheduled year-end interviews with at least seven media outlets shortly after.

"If it was a cartoon, you'd hear [the bomb falling]. And right before the 'boom' we did the interview," Critch told The Current's guest host Susan Ormiston.

That interview, as well as one with Jagmeet Singh — which Critch conducted while he was fighting the NDP leader in Brazilian jiu jitsu — will air as part of the 22 Minutes New Year's Eve Pregame Special. The show also has a standing request for Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, but so far he has turned down their offers to appear on 22 Minutes.

But despite rising political tensions, both within the governing Liberal party and amongst Canadians, Critch says being in political comedy is no harder now than it was in the past. He spoke to Ormiston about that, and his accidental exclusive with Trudeau. Here is part of their conversation.

You must be feeling pretty chuffed. As far as I can tell, you're the only guy who got a year-end interview with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this year.

I did get the big year-end interview. Isn't that sad? Nothing drives our great esteemed Canadian journalists crazier than when the clown gets the interview, you know?

WATCH | Mark Critch speaks with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

So what did you have to do to get it, Mark?

I'd been asking for a while and said, you know, "Hey, we should do something around the end of the year."

And they [Trudeau's team] were going, okay, yeah … we'll try and fit in something. And then they kept their word. They said one day, "Hey, we're going to be in Montreal on Friday if you can make it." And I think that was kind of a brush off, to be honest. [But] I was like, "Yep, I can get there."

And so we went to Montreal to a little restaurant there, and we had a lovely, lovely chat. 

Just to explain, of course, that was before the bombshell announcement by Chrystia Freeland when he cancelled [on] everybody else.