Fox News guest mocked for saying Canada’s plastic ban is part of ‘dictator starter kit’

Radio host Ben Ferguson made the remarks in response to recent gun control and plastic pollution proposals in the country

This week, Canada said it will soon ban many single-use plastic products in an attempt to curb pollution.

In response, a Fox News guest had some choice words about both that proposal and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s recent efforts to rein in guns.

“It’s like it’s a dictator starter kit, right?” said radio host Ben Ferguson while appearing as a guest on a Fox News program. “You banned guns, handguns, a couple weeks ago and now you add straws to the list — it’s like, this is like a dictator starter kit.”

“So, the people in Canada, you might want to wake up. We take your guns a week ago and now we’re going to take away your straws, you’re not going to have a lot left pretty soon,” Mr Ferguson added.

“You can’t even blow spit balls,” Fox News host Harris Faulkner added.

Recently, the Canadian government has proposed a national handgun buying freeze and a mandatory buyback of “military-style assault rifles.”

The ban on some single-use plastic products is intended to reduce plastic waste, including from plastic utensils, plastic bags and some food containers. Straws will still be allowed for people who need them for “medical or accessibility reasons,” the Canadian government said.

The measure would start coming into force with some provisions by this December, and slowly ramp up over the next couple years.

Some users took to Twitter to mock the comments Mr Ferguson made on Fox:

This year, representatives from 175 countries agreed at the UN Environment Agency (UNEP) to create a treaty to tackle plastic pollution, which they called a “serious environmental problem at a global scale.”

In 2017, the world produced 348 million tonnes of plastic pollution, UNEP says, with further growth predicted in the coming decades. Plastic pollution and production are a threat to human health, wildlife and the climate crisis, they add.