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“Your brand is what people say about you when you’re not in the room.”
— Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
What happens when public servants look to personally cash in on their professional notoriety? Madness and money. Lots and lots of money.
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The Macro
British MP Nigel Farage is a former leader of the Brexit movement who, at the moment, serves as leader of far-right Reform UK party. He is also an online influencer on Cameo, the platform that allows regular people to pay for personalized video greetings from all kinds of famous people.
For just over US$144, you can get Farage to record a video offering birthday greetings, a vague speech to boost morale or an advertisement for crypto currency.
In a series of articles by the Guardian newspaper, it was revealed in the 4,000 Cameo clips Farage has recorded, he has used frequent and coarse racist memes, made fun of U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s breasts, called Welsh people “foreign speakers,” advocated for the release of convicted sex offender Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs, promoted gold as an investment and did a promotional video for Canada’s “Road Rage Terror Tour,” a series of rallies organized in 2024 by the far-far-right Diagolon, a group the RCMP considers a “militia-like network.”
More recently, it was discovered Farage had done promotional messages for a series of cryptocurrencies, most of which ultimately tanked after the Reform UK leader’s support.
Farage, who has been involved in all sorts of side hustles, even after he was elected to the House of Commons in 2024, is unrepentant although he is currently “unavailable” according to Cameo. “Bollocks. Everybody [says]: ‘You can’t have a TV show,’ ‘You can’t do Direct Bullion,’ ‘You can’t do Cameo.’ I can do what I want … I skipped university to work in the commodity markets.”
Britain’s Reform UK party leader Nigel Farage at the party’s annual conference in September 2025.(Thomas Krych / The Associated Press files)
I guess the dude has to make bank when he can. Still, it makes you wonder how many other politicians try to monetize their profiles as public servants.
At the top of the list is, of course, U.S. President Donald Trump, who has sold everything from branded T-shirts and hats, to cryptocurrencies, collectible coins, gold-plated running shoes and other consumer-packaged goods featuring the president’s image.
David Kirkpatrick, a journalist with The New Yorker magazine, has been tracking Trump’s side hustles, and reported in January that over the first year of his second term in office, Trump and his family had earned more than US$4 billion from endorsements and other business deals related to his position.
Although nobody even approaches Trump’s relentless marketeering, other politicians have tried the same thing.
Recently, former U.S. Secretary of State and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton started selling T-shirts and caps emblazoned with the phrase “Hold me in contempt until the cows come home,” which she uttered during a recent and prickly congressional hearing into the Jeffrey Epstein case.
But what of Canadian politicians? You can buy T-shirts mocking Canadian politicians, but there are few examples of the politicians themselves making money by monetizing their brands. So, in the interest of keeping the True North strong and free, here are some excellent ideas for homegrown politician product marketing.
Prime Minister Mark Carney: Hockey elbow pads with Canadian flags emblazoned on the pointy end. Oh, and they should be made in China because, you know, Carney doesn’t really care.
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew: A cocktail mixing set (beaker, strainer, bar spoon, jigger) to make Old Fashioned cocktails using Manitoba-made Royal Crown rye whisky. The beaker would be emblazoned with the words, “That’s the good stuff,” a riff on Kinew’s hilarious video urging Ontario Premier Doug Ford to back off his threat to remove Crown Royal from the shelves of government liquor stores.
Premier Wab Kinew speaks to reporters outside the Diageo Crown Royal distillery in Gimli on Jan. 13. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Free Press files)
Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham: To celebrate the mayor’s campaign for stricter bail laws, His Worship could hawk shirts and mugs featuring the poster from Sylvester Stallone’s 1986 movie Cobra, one of the greatest “it’s-so-bad-it’s-good” films of all time. Gillingham’s face has been substituted for the elegantly unshaven, mirrored-sunglass-wearing, match-chewing Stallone. The slogan would remain the same: “Crime is a disease. Meet the cure.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith: The unpredictable and separatist-minded Alberta first minister would sell T-shirts with the slogan “My Alberta doesn’t include Canada.” Enough said.
Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre: The Opposition leader just returned from a high-profile diplomatic mission to the United States, where he appeared on Joe Rogan’s wildly popular podcast, and gave him a 70-pound kettlebell painted with a maple leaf. Poilievre should sell a T-shirt that says, “I appeared on Joe Rogan’s podcast and all he got was this crummy kettlebell.”
If you’ve got other ideas for politicians and the products they could hawk, I’m all ears.
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