Campaign using cookies to bait ‘The Debaters’

In an attempt to coax one of his family’s favourite national radio comedy shows back to Brandon for an upcoming episode, local bakery co-owner James Chambers is attempting a little comedy campaign of his own.

Chambers, who owns Chez Angela Bakery and Café with his wife Angela Chambers, has decided to bait the producers of CBC’s “The Debaters” into bringing their show to the Wheat City with cookies — and a social media advertising campaign that leans heavily on his own signature brand of comedy and resolve.

“I’m calling it a cookie protest,” Chambers said on Monday morning in an interview with the Sun. “For the last six years, they’ve been announcing dates, and Brandon hasn’t been on (the list). So we’re eating a cookie every day in protest until they agree to come back to Brandon.”

“The Debaters” last came to Brandon in 2019 for its live stage show at the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium, shortly after the couple opened their bakery on 10th Street.

“We were honoured to serve them lunch when they were here, and we had a great time at the show. They haven’t been back since 2019, so we just thought it was time for them to return.

On Monday, Chambers taped his next video in the campaign, a series in which he does not speak into the camera but instead uses visual humour to get his point across. Not only does he involve many of his staff members in the daily video postings — available for viewing on the bakery’s Facebook account — but he has also enlisted the help of Brandon Mayor Jeff Fawcett, who appears next to Chambers in the Day 8 video.

Fawcett can be seen in the video, quietly eating a cookie in tandem with Chambers, with both nodding their heads shortly after.

The Day 12 video showed Chambers doing a magic trick with his hands, making a cookie disappear after taking a bite out of it. And in another, he employed the use of a drone at the WMCA, having it pull away to reveal the inside of the theatre after he takes a bite out of a cookie.

Chambers says that the campaign is all in fun, but he hopes that organizers of “The Debaters” are paying attention nonetheless.

“You know, it’s kind of fun. It’s an inconsequential protest, right? Nobody gets hurt either way. There’s no dire consequences. If they come, they come. If they don’t, they don’t. But if they do come, then it’s good,” Chambers said.

“I think, too, you know, we’ve kind of had a heavy year so far, geopolitically and locally, and you know, in our community and in our province. This is just some light-hearted fun. It’s nothing too serious, and I really have no problem eating a cookie every day.”

Why cookies?

Chamber says the whole thing started in 2022 when “The Debaters” began announcing tour dates again post-pandemic. In a social media response on what was then known as Twitter, Chambers replied to “The Debaters” account suggesting that they come back to the Wheat City, and ended the message with “We’ve got cookies.”

“And they said, ‘Noted, Westman has cookies.’ But then they went dark, and we hadn’t heard from them. So earlier this year, I reached out to (show host) Steve Patterson again on Twitter (now X), and I said, ‘Hey, you know we even offered you cookies. What is it going to take to get back to the city?’ And he said, ‘Cookies? Nobody told me about any cookies.’ So I thought that was the bait. I thought that that was the angle that we could go now.”

Thus far, he has not heard back from “The Debaters,” and the show’s website continues to show tour dates for their live show at locations in Quebec, Ontario, Alberta and B.C., as well as radio tapings this coming September on Canada’s east coast. But Manitoba — and especially Brandon — remains absent from the location list.

Attempts by the Sun to contact producers with “The Debaters” went unanswered on Monday. But a lack of any response thus far has not crumbled Chambers’ cookie protest endeavour.

In fact, he and his wife are planning a “cookie sit-in” later this week — possibly Saturday.

“We’re going to be inviting the community down, and it’ll be a free cookie for everybody to come and sit out on the street, and we’ll just do a cookie sit-in to try and protest as a community.”

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com