Canadian Crossing

Colbert kicks off Canadian letter drive over speedskating access

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sport Report - Cricket Scandal & Letter-Writing Campaign
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Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

A follow-up to a previous take on the ongoing "battle" between TV host Stephen Colbert and Canada over access to the Richmond Olympic Oval.

CBC aired a story and in the piece, a young child said, "Stephen Colbert is a baig baby." Of course, the Colbert Report picked up that quote.

Even Colbert admits Canada did offer the U.S. speedskating team access to the ice. Still it makes for "good TV."

The TV show is running a letter drive to get more access for the U.S. team.

The "Colbert Report" airs Monday-Thursday on Comedy Central (Comedy Channel and CTV in Canada).

CFL Playoffs All Set to Go

For the fifth time ever and the second year in a row, the CFL playoffs have a crossover team. If the 4th-place team in one division has a better record than the 3rd-place team of the other division, that team crosses over to the other division's playoff.

Last year, Edmonton became the first team to win a crossover, beating Winnipeg. This year, the BC Lions -- the only team in the playoffs with a losing record -- will crossover and play at Hamilton. The other first-round game will be Edmonton at Calgary.

Montréal and Saskatchewan earned first-round byes.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders and Calgary Flames tied for first place; Edmonton and BC were tied before the last game. The only team in the league that had no real chance was the Toronto Argonauts.

The trend away from postseason games in domed stadiums is now official. Used to be that Montréal, Toronto, and BC would host postseason games. Toronto misses the playoffs again and BC can't host a game. Montréal plays key games at Olympic Stadium, so the East final will be indoors, but that is the only one. And next year, BC will be back to playing outdoors as BC Place will be rehabbed -- though the facility will be used to open and close the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.

The 97th Grey Cup will be November 29 in Calgary. TSN carries the game in Canada; hopefully, Versus will rise to the occasion and simulcast the TSN feed in the United States.

'Colbert Report' puts Canada on notice

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On Notice/Dead to Me - Canadian Iceholes
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Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor U.S. Speedskating

The "Colbert Report" brought Canada into the spotlight, and not favorably. For not letting the U.S. team practice for the 2010 Games in Vancouver at the Richmond (BC) Olympic Oval, Colbert put Canada on notice, a large board filled with people or concepts that should suffer the maximum wrath from the late-night host.

Based on the message board of the "Colbert Report," perhaps the U.S. hasn't been completely denied access.

As much as the press is negative, there is stirred up excitement about the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Canada. 

Then there was this quote, albeit in character:

''It still tragically involves a lot of Canadians,'' the comedian said. ''It's kind of unseemly how many Canadians I'm going to have to be dealing with.''

Two hopeful signs: we are less than 100 days from Vancouver, and those on notice can be withdrawn by Colbert, but the process is long and not easy.

The "Colbert Report" airs Monday-Thursday nights on Comedy Central in the U.S. and the Comedy Channel and CTV in Canada.

100 Days to Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver

There probably isn't snow where you are, but winter is coming soon. This means the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver are coming rather soon, as in 100 days.

The Winter Olympics in February air on NBC (and its various channels) in the U.S. and CTV in Canada.

Rising Canadian folk star killed by coyotes in Nova Scotia

Taylor Mitchell was a rising folk star in the Canadian music scene. She was nominated for the Canadian Folk Music Awards' Young Performer of the Year.

Unfortunately, the 19-year-old was walking along a popular trail in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia and was fatally attacked by two coyotes.

This story felt very weird to me because I was just in Nova Scotia, though I was in Halifax. But I heard a lot about Cape Breton and noted that I would visit there in my next Maritimes visit.

I also remember meeting a young female musician back in August in Toronto who was from Halifax. We were flying to Halifax, and I was asking her about her music. I didn't think this was the same young woman only because the girl on the plane was from Halifax, while Mitchell was from Toronto. But having met this woman who was young, a musician, and passionate about the Maritimes made hearing the news that much more sad. 

There is a lot more to Canadian music than some of the groups and artists we know in the States: Rush, Loverboy, Anne Murray, Neil Young, Alanis Morissette. There are young up and coming artists such as Taylor Mitchell.

The experts tell us that coyote attacks on humans are rare and even more rare for an adult to be attacked. It's great that Canada has such beautiful nature, but it's still nature after all.

Canada PM Stephen Harper says he prefers watching U.S. news

If I lived in Canada, I would watch Canadian news, especially with the announcement that "The National" -- CBC's nightly newscast -- is being revamped with the debut of its new format tomorrow night.

Canada's PM Stephen Harper lives in Canada, but says he doesn't watch Canadian news. Instead, he watches U.S. news.

Unfortunately, we don't know which news channel Harper watches. Given his Conservative Party leadership, he could watch Fox News Channel. But he could watch CNN. I don't think MSNBC gets much if any play in Canada, and probably isn't Harper's cup of tea. 

The one issue that Harper ignores in not watching Canadian TV news is that Canada media outlets cover the world much better than U.S. news. Even "The News Hour with Jim Lehrer" can't hold a candle to regular Canadian news.

Stories that would never see the light of day from all around the world regularly show up on Canadian TV newscasts. This isn't liberal or conservative; people of all political stripes would agree that U.S. news does a lousy job of covering the world around them.

However, on a political tone, conservatives by and large are more afraid to watch anything they might disagree with, a tone that doesn't bode well in society, but is rather appalling for a country's leader to avoid watching because he may not like some things.

"It’s a strange signal to send to the public at a time when Canadian networks, aside from covering this country, which U.S. networks don’t, also spend considerable resources, and some of their correspondents literally risk their lives, to bring the Canadian perspective on international stories home from places that some U.S. networks ignore," Peter Mansbridge, CBC's national news anchor on “The National” told The New York Times. 

The idea that Canada's leader would find the U.S. news perspective to be sufficiently homogenized enough for the Canadian perspective is rather startling. Watching a helicopter follow a car chase in Southern California is rarely relevant outside the LA area, yet it still makes its way onto U.S. newscasts. Watching all of this in Ottawa would be even less relevant.

Canada through the eyes of 'How I Met Your Mother'

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I confess I don't normally watch this show. I certainly know of it and have seen parts of episodes, and somehow knew that Canada fit into the show a little bit.

But I did notice the teaser for this past week's episode, featuring Robin possibly taking a U.S. citizenship test. Robin is played by Canadian actress Cobie Smulders (her real name), so points for authenticity.

In the episode, Robin gets into a fight at the Hoser Hut. As you can see in the photo, Robin is wearing a Vancouver Canucks jersey (Smulders is from Vancouver). As a result, she is threatened with deportation. So she debates about studying to be an American citizen but not wanting to lose her Canadian identity.

Throwing out a few illogical happenings, since this is a sitcom after all, the take was pretty funny. Later in the episode, Robin wakes up in Toronto after a few too many drinks. Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) follows her to Toronto, an opportunity to have him make a few jokes at Canada's expense.

Kudos to the show's writers, who set a scene in a Tim Horton's. True, there was too much flannel in the scene. But Barney says nice things about Tim Horton's coffee and Canadian health care.

Apparently, this isn't the first episode dealing with Robin's possible deportation. Sorry I missed it up until now.

I want to find a bar like the Hoser Hut. In major cities, we have English pubs and Irish bars. Why not a Canadian bar? The only one I found was in Paris was The Great Canadian Pub on the Left Bank not far from Notre Dame.

You can watch the episode here. 

"How I Met Your Mother" airs Monday nights at 8p Eastern on CBS-TV and City TV in Canada.

New U.S. Ambassador to Canada debuts his blog

David Jacobson is the relatively new U.S. Ambassador to Canada. It would have been nice if ambassadorships were neatly tied into the inauguration date, but it's good to see we have a new ambassador, especially since the Obama Administration has already shown more appreciation for Canada than in the previous eight years.

One way that Ambassador Jacobson is improving communication is starting a blog. So far, he has been sharing his inspirations about the country where he is now residing. The blog can be found at http://blogs.ottawa.usembassy.gov/ambassador/.

So far, the Ambassador has shared adventures in the Ottawa Valley and Byward Market in the nation's capital, Montréal (including a picture of him eating poutine), and experiencing early winter in Calgary. Though the ambassador isn't that familiar with the neighbor to the north, his enthusiasm seems sincere.

Of course, there are a number of issues where Ambassador Jacobson will walk the tightrope of diplomacy, so some seriousness will have to come around at some point. Still, the blog is a good sign of more openness and a chance to see Canada through the eyes of someone seeing it in wonder.

Watching Hockey Night in Canada in the U.S.

Admittedly, I have seen HNIC in the U.S. When the MLB preview kicks in during the spring, I did get one weekend of HNIC. But that was in April with NHL Center Ice, and well before the NHL Network took HNIC for itself. And this was way before I purchased a HD set.

But my cable system added the NHL Network, and I have a HD set (only 32"). And I was ready to watch Hockey Night in Canada in style.

Unlike the previous version, there are no Canadian commercials (something I miss). The U.S. commercials are pretty lame and there is no mention of Tim Horton's. Otherwise, it's Hockey Night in Canada.

The coverage actually started in Stockholm, Sweden in the afternoon with Detroit and St. Louis. But the true classic adventure kicked off with the pre-game, followed by Toronto @ Washington. Per recent tradition, the CBC also covers the other Eastern teams in Canada, as amusingly, all three Eastern teams were playing in the United States [Montréal @ Buffalo, Ottawa @ NY Rangers]. The opening West Coast game was Calgary @ Edmonton.

We got Coaches' Corner with Ron McLean and Don Cherry, Coast-to-Coast, Hot Stove, and all the other features, especially After Hours.

Hopefully, HNIC will bloom in its fullest form, though there may be some unusual scheduling being done by the NHL Network. We may literally have to check our local listings. But it felt good to see hockey the way it should be.

Canadian NHL teams on U.S. TV

Looking for Canadian teams on U.S. TV for the NHL? You can have some luck but it depends on how you can access the NHL.

If you are limited to Versus' coverage, you might not even think there are teams outside of Toronto and Montréal. Of the 5 appearances of Canadian teams on Versus, 4 of them involve Toronto or Montréal. Calgary is the exception, being at Chicago.

Oct. 12 8 pm        Calgary at Chicago       
Nov. 30 7 pm        Buffalo at Toronto      
Dec. 14 7:30 pm  Buffalo at Montréal     
Dec. 21 7 pm        Buffalo at Toronto      
Mar. 16 7 pm       Montréal at NY Rangers    

But for some of us, there is much better fortune. My cable system added the NHL Network. Given how much I pay, they should have added something.

The NHL Network is scheduled to carry CBC's Hockey Night in Canada and selected telecasts from TSN. There also may be other games involving Canadian teams carried on a U.S. network that would be available on the NHL Network.

The first HNIC will be Toronto @ Washington followed by the battle of Alberta, Calgary @ Edmonton.

For those who aren't familiar, Hockey Night in Canada is a long-time Canadian tradition of hockey on Saturday nights. The Eastern games start at 7 p.m. Eastern followed by a late-night West Coast game. Don Cherry is part of the festivities in Coaches' Corner, featured after the first period in the early game.