My Internship in Canada

In this satirical look at the vagaries of Canadian politics from Academy Award-nominated director Philippe Falardeau (Monsieur Lazhar), a Member of Parliament finds himself thrust suddenly into the spotlight, and it's up to his young Haitian intern to help the hapless backbencher navigate the complexities and pitfalls of Parliament Hill.

A Conservative minority government trying to pass a bill that will enable them to go to war suffers a setback when one of the Tory MPs falls ill — leaving the key vote for the government's warmongering initiative in the hands of independent MP Steve Guibord (Patrick Huard), a former hockey player whose pro career fizzled.

Feverishly courted by the Tories and subjected to a moral tug of war at home — his ambitious wife (Suzanne Clément) wants him to vote Yes; his peacenik daughter (Clémence Dufresne-Deslières), No — Guibord is unable to decide.

As the vote nears and Guibord is beset on all sides — with demands and threats also coming from a group of hard-right local politicos, First Nations protesters, and peace organizations — salvation arrives in the form of his new intern, Souverain (Irdens Exantus), a young Haitian student who knows considerably more about the ins and outs of our parliamentary system than does his boss.

Not only a witty and incisive portrait of wheeling and dealing in Ottawa, My Internship in Canada also exposes Canadians' tendency to focus on the regional and specific at the expense of the wider picture. As Falardeau's gently skewering satire demonstrates, sometimes it takes a person from another country to explain to us the workings — and the value — of the unique system that makes our democracy (sometimes) function.