marjorie taylor greene air canada

American Congresswoman jokes Air Canada's new electric planes are powered by cyclists

A certain American politician, who is no stranger to controversy, has made some unusual comments about Air Canada and their new electric fleet.

Republican Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene was speaking at a Texas youth summit last week when she commented on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the airline, who recently announced the purchase of new planes. 

"So Air Canada, get this, has ordered 30 electric airplanes. Yeah, electric airplanes, how about that," she tells the crowd, ready to drop a hot take.

"It shouldn't surprise you, look who's the president of Cana—," Greene starts and quickly stumbles.

One would guess that Greene would correct herself, remedying her mistake of saying "president," but she just keeps on going.

"I mean Justin Trudeau, right?"

Just in case you aren't sure, Canada does not have presidents and Trudeau does not control Air Canada.

But it only gets worse.

Greene goes on to explain how she and and others were "joking" about how these planes operate.

"So we were joking around and we were talking, 'how is there an electric airplane and what does that look like?'" she says.

"Remember back a long time ago and you've seen movies where people in those slave ships... and they're down there and they're rowing, and they're being whipped to row?” Greene starts her inappropriate comparison, attempting to row.

"We're saying 'how are they going to keep powering these electric airplanes? It's like a spin class in a tube, where they've got everybody riding spin cycles and then those mean nasty airline stewardesses that force you to wear masks all the time on the planes, back when we were forced to wear masks, are they going to be forcing you to like keep spinning to keep the airplane in the air?" she asks, dead seriously.

She ends it with a laugh and final statement, "it's absurd."

Well she is right about one thing: this is an absurd remark. 

Let's break this down. No, electric airplanes are not powered by humans riding bicycles. Or hamsters on a wheel.

Just like every other electric vehicle, they are powered by batteries, electric motors and other technologies that use (you guessed it) electricity.

In fact, these specific planes from Air Canada are electric-hybrids, and are run exclusively on lithium-ion batteries and reserve-hybrid generators.

"Fully loaded, the ES-30 is projected to have an all-electric, zero-emission range of 200 km. This can be extended to 400 km with power supplemented by the generators, and up to 800 km if the load is restricted to 25 passengers," read a news release announcing the purchase.

This isn't Greene's first Trudeau bashing (or probably last). Back in May, she called the 23rd prime minister Fidel Castro's son after he announced the highly-controversial handgun ban.

This weird remark is just one of the many random and baseless conspiracy theories Greene has pushed from QAnon.

She has also frequently called for the impeachment of President Joe Biden, the mass deportation of "illegal aliens" and is known for being fiercely pro-life, homophobic and transphobic, and a Donald Trump supporter, among other not-so-great views. 

I suggest brushing up on some very basic information about Canada before speaking again! 

Lead photo by

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene


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