Canadian Crossing

Beauty of Canada dominates U.S. government Web site

If you are old enough to remember when TV stations signed off in the middle of the night, often you would see a video montage of the physical beauty of the United States. There are sections that are amazing.

So when you saw the picture of a beautiful landscape on the Web site for the U.S. Senate Committee on Environment & Public Works, it would be easy to believe that it reflected somewhere in the U.S.

Except the picture was of Lake Louise, just north of Calgary in Alberta, Canada.

When the Chicago Blackhawks were in Calgary earlier this season, the local TV people showed a beautiful shot of Lake Louise. It was gorgeous and magnificent, just a part of the amazing landscape that Canada offers as well.

While this was clearly a mistake, it would be tempting to say that they couldn't find as pretty a picture in the U.S. as Lake Louise in Alberta. We know that isn't true, but the beauty of Lake Louise is so apparent that it passed for the U.S.

Filming in Canada is done in part due to tax breaks and the difference in the dollar exchange rate. So Canada is used to being incorporated to pretend to be the U.S. This government Web site snafu just took it to extremes.

_{Image portrayal courtesy of this link.}

Playboy rewards a Canadian with Playmate of the Year

Picture from Reuters.

For the first time since 1982, a Canadian will be the Playmate of the Year. The woman pictured above is Jayde Nicole, 22, from Port Perry, Ontario. Nicole is the first Canadian to win the prestigious PMOY since Shannon Tweed in 1982.

While there was a 26-year gap, Canadian women have made a splash on the pages of Playboy, including Dorothy Stratten, PMOY in 1980 who was murdered by her estranged husband, Tracy Tweed (Shannon's sister), and perhaps the most famous Canadian to grace the pages of Playboy, Pamela Anderson. yes, that Pamela Anderson, born in Ladysmith, British Columbia.

Maclean's: How Bush became the new Saddam

The difference between U.S. media and Canadian media:

The current cover story of Maclean's features a look at how George W. Bush has become a Saddam-like figure in Iraq. The cover picture is Bush dressed up like Saddam right down to the mustache.

Read the piece before you decide on the story's validity. The analysis is strong and well thought out, whether you agree or not.

But the question I've been asking is whether the U.S. mainstream media would ever run a story like this. Despite the "land of the free" concept, the conclusion is that no U.S. MSM outlet would even dream of doing something like this.

Maclean's is as mainstream a news magazine as there is in Canada. But Canadian media isn't as afraid to run stories as U.S. media is. Fortunately, the alternative media isn't afraid.

* A special shout-out to this site, which first mentioned the Maclean's piece to Canadian Crossing.