‘Debaters’ respond to cookie campaign

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This article was published 16/07/2025 (236 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The comedic cookie protest cooked up by local bakery co-owner James Chambers to lure the CBC show “The Debaters” back to Brandon has yielded responses from both the team that oversees production and show host Steve Patterson.

“Dear James/comedy aficionados of Brandon,” Patterson wrote in a post on X Wednesday morning in response to the Sun story on the cookie protest earlier this week. “I am speaking to my producers about this. And, in solidarity with your just cause, I will also eat at LEAST one cookie per day. Though they won’t be as good. Because they’re not from Chez Angela’s.”

And while the show’s producers proved cool to the idea of bringing it back to Brandon anytime soon, the response by CBC executive producer Lee Pitts late Wedensday afternoon suggests that Chambers’ social media campaign was hardly a half-baked idea.

“James Chambers of Chez Angela has really risen to the occasion to get our attention, it’s a real treat to watch his videos,” Pitts wrote in a statement to the Sun, using the characteristic word play that the radio show is known for.

“He’s certainly not taking a cookie cutter approach. It’s the kind of delicious listener engagement we love to see! We’ve enjoyed the creative recipe for his videos, his variety of ingredients, including mixing in the Centennial Auditorium and city’s mayor!”

As we reported earlier this week, Chambers, who owns Chez Angela Bakery and Café with his wife Angela Chambers, has spearheaded a social media campaign as a means to bait the producers of CBC’s “The Debaters” into bringing their show back to the Wheat City, using comedic videos of eating cookies as a foil.

His video cookie protest has drawn significant online interest, and garnered thousands of views over the last two weeks. Alas, the results of his campaign has been mixed, stirring a pun-filled response from Pitts, but no Brandon show date for this season.

“This is crummy but unfortunately our tour dates are set far in advance so we can’t come to Brandon anytime soon,” Pitts wrote. “That’s just how the cookie crumbles.”

As the show does record each year at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival, Pitts offered him instead some complimentary tickets for that show to “tickle his taste buds,” as well as a promise that Brandon was on their radar for future years.

When reached on Wednesday afternoon, Chambers said that while they didn’t get the result they wanted, “we are so glad to hear that — at least down the road — our city is in consideration and that ‘The Debaters’ will come back to Brandon.”

In the meantime, the “cookie sit-in” that he had been planning as part of the protest for Saturday has transformed into a “100 cookie salute” for anyone who wants to join them at Chez Angela’s.

“Together we will raise 100 cookies to ‘The Debaters’ and eat them, eagerly anticipating their return in the seasons ahead.”

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com