Canada – Page 3 – Crasstalk

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 →

Canadian Music: Beyond the Bilge

Look, we’re sorry about Snow. And Celine. And Avril. And we tried to stop Bieber. Really, we did! But the little man is like some indestructible combination of Godzilla and the Lucky Charms leprechaun. Oh, yeah, right, Nickleback. Ok, they were on purpose – it seemed funny at the time. However, that is no reason to assume Canada is a musical wasteland of soul-patches and mirrored sunglasses. There are good Canadian artists. There are, in fact, great Canadian artists. Better, there are many great Canadian artists. A veritable cornucopia of…alright, I’ll stop. But seriously: there’s lots.

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My Stomach is Canadian

The first few years of my life I lived a mere four miles from the Canadian border in the Akwesasne territory in northern NY. I spoke English with a patois of pidgin Scots-Gaelic, a few words of the Northeastern Mohawk dialect, and a little French. Continue reading →

Toronto’s Two Solitudes

City politics in the city of Toronto has been very interesting this week, since a vote Wednesday in Toronto’s city council led to the collapse of the mass transit plans of Toronto mayor Rob Ford. Ford had hoped to concentrate on expanding subway service in Toronto, opting against surface light rail; Ford’s opponents, led by Toronto Transit Commission chair, city councillor, and former Ford ally Karen Stintz won a vote that would instead restore plans for surface light rail routes. Mass transit has been an emotional issue in Toronto, and this vote aside the controversy is likely to continue. Continue reading →

North to Nahanni

On the Nahanni River, above Virginia Falls.

This is a story best told in pictures, but let me give you a little framework. 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 →

Booze, Hockey and Rebellion – Canadian History in a Nutshell

There are three great defining features of the history of Canada: booze, hockey and rebellion. Most of our great historic events have revolved around at least one of these. Several have involved two, and the occasional one involves all three. 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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Interview with a Canadian, Eh?

In the spirit of international cooperation and diplomacy with our northern neighbors, yours truly ventured out into the wilderness and captured an actual Canadian. An actual Canadian Crasstalker, Internet alias HonkIfYouLikeCookies, rumoured (see what I did there?) to go by the name Susan. After having my way with her (it’s exactly what it sounds like), I asked her a few questions about her native land and people. Here’s what I found out about those crazy Canucks:

What is the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard an American say about Canada?

Other than the entire Talking To Americans mockumentary by Rick Mercer, the dumbest thing an American has ever asked me was if I took a dog sled to school. It was asked by someone from the deep south. Continue reading →

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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