NDP leader raised the “epic crossover” in style video games using AOC

Ottawa – Jagmeet Singh committed a horrific murder in front of Alexandria’s Ocasio-Cortez Friday night. Fortunately, the victim was a video game character, not a human.

The leader of the NDP confronted a controversial congressman in “Between Us,” a popular online multiplayer game, as a way to reach young people where they spend their time.

Among the Hungarian missions carried out by iconic figures in space clothes, Singh and Ocasio-Cortez praised the importance of comprehensive pharmaceutical care, political courtesy, living wage and rehabilitation over the punishment.

“The other world is not only possible, but it is also there.” Pointing to cheap healthcare and more generous employment insurance north of the border, Ocasio-Cortez said it’s in many places in the United States, within a three-hour drive of people who say it’s impossible.

Singh, who challenged the US representative via Twitter on Thursday, said lawmakers are obligated to reach out to younger Canadians who are struggling to deal with the pandemic.

“I think it’s a great way to reach young people who have been hard hit by the coronavirus, and who are often blamed. They are the ones who work in the jobs that reveal them – in service jobs, retail, restaurant and bar jobs,” Singh said in a phone interview.

He added, “They are also the ones who lost their jobs because these are the sectors that have been affected by the closure.”

“It’s really hard to physically distance yourself when your career is not stable and you’re still going to school or haven’t found a partner.”

Singh said he and AOC, as the New York congresswoman is known, share progressive values ​​on health care, economic equality and climate change, views that are consistent with a growing segment of young voters.

Ocasio-Cortez aired her debut on “Between Us” last month in an effort to lure young people to the polls for the November 3 elections in the United States, attracting 439,000 viewers at the peak.

The Friday match, which aired on the online gaming site Twitch, began at 7 pm ET and continued past midnight.

“It will be one of the most epic transitions in Canadian politics,” Singh said hours ago. It attracted as many as 26,000 concurrent attendees at one point, while the event recorded an average of 270,000 concurrent viewers, according to Twitch.

Ocasio-Cortez, a flag bearer of controversial left-wing progressive politics, was first elected to represent her New York City neighborhood in the House of Representatives in 2018.

Since then, she has become one of the most familiar faces on Capitol Hill, and is part of the Democratic Party’s progressive wing that includes former presidential candidates Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

“Among Us” pits a team of young astronauts trying to return to Earth against one of them, a sneaky saboteur or “trickster” who aims to kill the other crew members before they can repair their ship and identify the fraudster.

He said Friday’s encounter – “Talking Together, Finding Who’s Good and Who’s Not” – was Singh’s first interaction with Ocasio-Cortez outside of posts and direct messages on Twitter.

“If you think of fraudsters as being at the top taking advantage of the system or wealthy people who are not paying their fair share … that’s a great metaphor.”

His colleague also found symbolic significance in the assignment.

Canadian Members of Parliament and US Congressmen are venting to each other in space. What could go wrong? Okasio Cortez tweeted Thursday in response to Singh’s call.

The match was not full of fun and games.

“Are you real? Jagmeet, you just killed her in front of me,” AOC said while playing. “He’s so good at this, it’s scary.”

“Are you trying to call me?” Singh asked. “It is believed that there was solidarity here.”

The congresswoman admitted she was “impressed” by his deceitful plea of ​​innocence after he denied committing the horrific act.

She added, “Damn, they are dirty.”

Periodically, Singh asked viewers to tune in with chants of “yes” to show their enthusiasm for policies such as a wealth tax or “more support for the youth,” while Ocasio Cortez lamented the “intimidation about socialism” in the United States and there was “Fox News coverage.” .

One of the most watched events in Twitch’s nine-year history was Ocasio-Cortez’s live broadcast on October 20, which featured fellow progressive MP Ilhan Omar, which has become a popular way for politicians to woo young supporters.

The record still belongs to a professional player who played the famous “Fortnite” game with Canadian superstar Drake and rapper Travis Scott and Jojo Smith Shuster, the broad recipient in the NFL, with 628,000 viewers watching at the same time.

This report was first published by The Canadian Press on November 27, 2020.

– with files from James McCarton