DOCT

7 posts

A Few Interesting Canadians

You Americans sure do love your celebrities. It’s kind of baffling that a failed presidential candidate (or even a failed presidential candidate candidate) can become a household name; not just in your country, but across the border and around the world. Herman Cain, really? Were he and his ilk really worth the obsession?

Canada has exported a few superstars, of course; Bryan Adams, Justin Bieber, Celine Dion. (You are most welcome to keep them). But we don’t exalt our power players to nearly the same degree.

Here are a few Canadians who, through actual achievements, are generally recognizable throughout this land. Continue reading

Watch and Learn: Canadian Heritage Minutes

In 1991, the CBC and CTV began airing sixty second short films during commercial breaks and movie previews about inspiring and important moments in Canadian history called Heritage Minutes. Over time, these melodramatic commercials became so entrenched in Canadian culture that parodies sprung up (as seen below) and inside jokes ensued among Canadians, such as referencing “burnt toast.” Here are just a few minutes from a series that has expanded to more than 125 commercials: Continue reading

Random Musings on Brave New Waves, Best Canadian Music Program Ever

There was nothing like BNW for going to sleep by, you’d be lulled nearly to sleep by some lull in a 10 minute long instrumental sound painting only to be woken up violently when the song switched to loud chaotic noise. This happened about once a night or so.  – posted by Space Coyote at 5:40 AM on February 2, 2007

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Everything I Know About Canada I Learned From Degrassi

Like many young Americans, most of what I learned about Canadian pop culture came from an extraordinarily uneven combination of Anne of Green Gables books and watching Degrassi: The Next Generation.

I watched D:TNG on The N for most of middle and high school, and came away with the belief that most people in Canada were extremely slutty aspiring pop musicians who got “social diseases” and eventually moved away to star in shows on The CW (or show their boobs in terrible Lifetime Network movies. NSFW.)

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