Canadian Crossing

Roy Halladay makes the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first attempt

#HOF2019 pic.twitter.com/A4Mk437eZt

— Baseball Hall ⚾ (@baseballhall) January 23, 2019

The focus has shifted from Montréal to Toronto in the Canadian perspective of the Baseball Hall of Fame. Long-time Toronto Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay made the Baseball Hall of Fame on his first attempt with 85.4% of the vote. 75% of the vote is required to make the hall.

Halladay pitched from 1998-2013, spending the first 12 years with the Blue Jays. He was one of 6 pitchers ever to win the Cy Young Award in both leagues, winning in 2003 and 2010. Halladay was a 8-time All-Star, including appearances as a Blue Jay in 2002, 2003, 2005-2006, and 2008-2009.

He had 63 complete games from 2002-2011, at least 30 more than any other pitcher in that time.

On December 15, 2009, the Blue Jays traded Halladay to Philadelphia for Travis d'Arnaud, Kyle Drabek, and Michael Taylor.

Halladay's widow, Brandy, is the logical pick to give the induction speech. While piloting a plane, Halladay died in a plane crash on November 7, 2017 into the Gulf of Mexico.

Vladimir Guerrero makes the Baseball Hall of Fame on his second attempt

Larry Walker improved his Hall of Fame situation in his next to last year of eligibility. Walker got 54.6% in 2019, up from 34.1% in 2018. Walker remains 87 votes shy of induction.

Some speak of the Colorado effect as to why Walker's numbers are so good. Walker's numbers with the Montréal Expos in Olympic Stadium were remarkable. Colorado can account for home runs but don't have as much influence on his lifetime .313 batting average. Walker's Gold Glove defensive prowess wasn't aided by the Denver air.

Walker would be the first Canadian hitter to reach the Baseball Hall of Fame. Ferguson Jenkins is in the Hall of Fame as a pitcher.

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Former Toronto Blue Jays slugger Fred McGriff finished his 10-year eligibility run with 39.8%. McGriff finished his career with 493 home runs. His Hall of Fame chances rest with the Veterans' Committee.

CanadianCrossing.com MLB coverage

Youppi!, one of 3 mascots inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, just celebrated his 40th birthday. The mascot was introduced in 1979. Youppi! does have Muppet DNA since his creator was a former designer for Jim Henson.

Youppi! was a part of the experience at Olympic Stadium until 2004 when the Expos moved. He has since found a home as the mascot for the Montréal Canadiens at the Bell Centre.

Bon anniversaire, Youppi!

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The 2019 class will be inducted in Cooperstown, NY on July 21.

Twitter capture: @BaseballHall

Stephan James, Ryan Gosling fall short of 2019 Oscar nominations

The 91st Academy Awards have a foreign flavour with The Favourite and Roma each having 10 nominations. Unfortunately, Canada isn't a strong part of those foreign ingredients.

Canada does have a pair of nominees in the best animated short category: Animal Behaviour from Vancouver-based Alison Snowden and David Fine via the National Film Board as well as Toronto-raised Domee Shi for Pixar's Bao. The other nominees in this category are Late Afternoon; One Small Step; and Weekends.

Montréal is the unifier for a pair of nominees in the live action short film category with Jeremy Comte for Fauve and Marianne Farley for Marguerite. The other nominees in this category are Detainment; Mother; and Skin.

Sound mixer Paul Massey is up for Bohemian Rhapsody and set decorator Gordon Sim is nominated for Mary Poppins Returns.

Toronto's Charlie Tyrell was a finalist for best documentary short with My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes but did not make the cut.

Canadians Oscars nomination scoreboard

The Best Actor category could have had a pair of Canadians in the mix. Ryan Gosling could have had his third nomination in that category for First Man. Stephan James received a Golden Globe nomination for the TV show Homecoming but could have easily picked up a Oscars nomination for If Beale Street Could Talk.

Getting buzz is not as good as getting a nomination, but that buzz will certainly help James in what else a relatively young career.

The nominees in this category ended up being Christian Bale (Vice); Bradley Cooper (A Star Is Born); Willem Dafoe (At Eternity’s Gate); Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody); and Viggo Mortensen (Green Book).

Chien de Garde fails to make Oscars shortlist

The list of 9 films was reduced to 5 this morning for the Best Foreign Language Film category:

Never Look Away (Germany)
Shoplifters (Japan)
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Roma (Mexico)
Cold War (Poland)

Birds Of Passage (Colombia); The Guilty (Denmark); Ayka (Kazakhstan); and Burning (South Korea) got bad news earlier this morning.

Roma, which does mention Quebec in its film, is a rare foreign film that is also up for Best Picture. Amour (2012) in French from Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke, is the only other film in the 21st century to reach that mark.

Yorgos Lanthimos, who is nominated for Best Director in this year's ceremony for The Favourite, got his first big break in the Best Foreign Language Film category for Dogtooth (Greece). In the 2011 ceremony, Dogtooth was also up against Incendies (Canada) from Denis Villeneuve. Those films lost out to In a Better World (Denmark) from Susanne Bier.

You also might know Lanthimos from The Lobster, which also features Rachel Weisz, nominated for The Favourite for Best Supporting Actress.

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The 2019 version of the Academy Awards will be without a host for the first time since 1989. Hard to imagine the Academy had a list of one, and that one was Kevin Hart.

The 91st Academy Awards will be on February 24 on ABC and CTV.

photos credit: If Beale Street Could Talk; First Man

Canadian rock and roll documentary makes Independent Lens debut on PBS

I was at a social event last month where they were showing Rock and Roll Circus on a continuous loop. Taj Mahal was playing on the screen. I looked at the band on screen and recognized Jesse Ed Davis on guitar. Then I remembered where I first learned about him: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World.

You can learn about Jesse Ed Davis and other native people and their contributions to rock and roll thanks to the Canadian documentary debuting tonight on Independent Lens on PBS.

I saw Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World during the 2017 Windsor International Film Festival. I enjoyed the film and found the information new, interesting, and well-presented.

I knew nothing about Link Wray and his influence on many well-known rock-and-roll stars. There were more unknowns to me, such as Jesse Ed Davis. I knew of Robbie Robertson and The Band as well as Buffy Sainte-Marie. 

I consider myself an expert on rock and roll and the influences that went into that music. And I was surprised how much I learned from this documentary.

You'll hear music that you might know from artists such as Jimi Hendrix and Redbone. Doctor My Eyes from Jackson Browne features Davis on a great guitar solo.

2017 WIFF Canadian films in review

2017 WIFF Canadian films in review: Documentaries

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

The Canadian documentary from Catherine Bainbridge and Alfonso Maiorana won 3 Canadian Screen Awards last spring for Best Feature Length Documentary, Best Editing in a Documentary, and Best Cinematography in a Documentary.

The film won Best Canadian Documentary + Best Documentary at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.

Rumble won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Masterful Storytelling at the Sundance Film Festival.

TIFF Canada's Top 10 from 2017

The film made the list of Top 10 best Canadian films as determined by the Toronto International Film Festival.

You can access more of the PBS coverage of the film. Check your local listings for the PBS station in your area and when the station will show the film.

video credit: Independent Lens/PBS
photo credit: Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World film

NHL the week in preview January 18, 2019

NBCSN brings Canadian teams to the U.S. audience on back-to-back evenings. The U.S. channel will be in Edmonton Tuesday night with the Detroit Red Wings. The first-round series from spring 2017 is on tap Wednesday night with Washington in Toronto.

NHL Network will carry Hometown Hockey via the Rogers Sportsnet feed.

CBC is lost without the Maple Leafs but gravitates toward the Montréal Canadiens hosting Philadelphia. The CBC knows what to do with the Battle of Alberta in the provincial capital in the late game.

Citytv showcases for the Ottawa Senators on the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis.

Rogers Sportsnet has Hometown Hockey has the lonely desert team in Toronto with festivities in West Kelowna, BC. Wednesday Night Hockey offers the aforementioned Washington game in Toronto.

Rogers Sportsnet One is a little obsessed with Edmonton with home games against Carolina on Sunday and that Detroit game on Tuesday. The channel also helps out on Wednesday night with the forgotten desert team in La Belle Province.

Rogers Sportsnet 360 gets involved on Saturday night with the Winnipeg Jets in Dallas.

The NHL All-Star Game break runs Thursday-Sunday.

NBCSN

Tuesday
Detroit @ Edmonton, 9p
Wednesday
Washington @ Toronto, 7:30p

NHL Network

Sunday
Arizona @ Toronto, 7p

Tape delayed
Friday Toronto @ Tampa Bay, 3p
Wednesday Detroit @ Edmonton, 1p

ESPN+

Friday
Detroit @ Calgary, 9p
Saturday
Philadelphia @ Montréal, 7p
Sunday
Detroit @ Vancouver, 4p
Wednesday
Carolina @ Vancouver, 10:30p

CBC

Saturday
Philadelphia @ Montréal, 7p
Calgary @ Edmonton, 10p

Citytv

Saturday
Ottawa @ St. Louis, 7p

Rogers Sportsnet

Sunday
Arizona @ Toronto, 7p
Wednesday
Washington @ Toronto, 7:30p

Rogers Sportsnet One

Sunday
Carolina @ Edmonton, 9:30p
Tuesday
Detroit @ Edmonton, 9p
Wednesday
Arizona @ Montréal, 7:30p

Rogers Sportsnet 360

Saturday
Winnipeg @ Dallas, 7p

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The U.S. feed hadn't seen a Rogers pregame since December 22, 2018. So the first pregame in several weeks turned out to be very U.S. friendly. Boston and Colorado got way more coverage than Toronto and Montréal in the Rogers pregame. We had no promotion of the late games, but that was far less of a surprise than the slanted coverage.

CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage

Scott Oake usually hosts After Hours from the site of the late CBC game. CBC went with Ottawa in San Jose but Oake was in Edmonton. Drew Remenda worked in his old stomping grounds in San Jose on Hockey Night in Canada on CBC. John Bartlett worked with Remenda doing the Senators game. Dave Randorf was back east in Montréal this week.

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NBCSN brought out the unusual team of John Forslund, AJ Mleczko, and Brian Boucher. 1 out of 3 isn't all that great. We saw Mleczko outshine Boucher last spring in the Stanley Cup playoffs. This was the only Montréal game on the channel's schedule.

Chris Cuthbert wasn't used in Boston on Monday night but NBCSN did use him late on Wednesday night in the non-exciting desert stop.

2019 CBC television winter schedule

The CBC promos returned to U.S. TV for the first time in 2019. We got 5 promos instead of the usual 6 promos. There certainly could have been a second promo in the 3rd period but there were no breaks in the last 6:55 of the period, an almost unprecedented stint.

Coroner and Unspeakable are brand new shows.

Early game: Coroner; Grand Slam of Curling (1st); Kim's Convenience; Unspeakable (2nd); Little Dog (3rd)

CBC Gem allows Canadians easy access to Canadian films

We've mentioned CBC Gem recently, CBC's new streaming service, in our recent Canadian TV updates.

This is only for those in Canada, but if you are in Canada, you get a lot.

There are 2 different options: free and $4.99/month. The monthly fee takes away ads from the programming, though children's programming doesn't have ads, and includes live streaming of CBC News Network.

You get programming from 14 local CBC channels, so you can keep up with other parts of Canada.

You can stream current and past episodes to a lot of CBC shows. You can also access international shows from the United States and the United Kingdom. You can also watch French language programming from the ICI Tou.TV streaming service.

You can also stream the entire season of shows, including current programming.

The other major cool part is getting access to Canadian films.

You can access many more details on the CBC Gem service.

CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage

I did access the old CBC app to watch shows on Canadian soil when I was in Windsor in November. This is how I was able to watch Crawford.

The app, even with ads, was very efficient. And I could even pull up older shows such as X Company.

You may not get some Canadian films that you would like to see. But you will get to see a lot of Canadian films.

Canada's cable TV reforms could deal blow to Canadian content

The live stream of CBC News Network is a nice incentive if you are getting one of the skinny basic services we've written about in the past. If you are from Halifax and now live in Toronto, being able to watch local Halifax newscasts and political coverage would be an important asset.

August 31 marks digital transition for Canadian TV signals

American and Canadian CBC viewers get 1-year reprieve on losing analog TV signals

CBC lost an lot of retransmissions that didn't make the transition to the digital world. CBC fans in Moncton and Saint John in New Brunswick, Quebec City, Saskatoon, and London, ON need cable or satellite to watch CBC.

This is a wonderful way to take advantage of programming that your tax dollars already pay for. If I lived in Canada, I would have signed up right at the start.

CanadianCrossing.com television coverage

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

We don't want this to seem like a plug for the CBC, specifically. Great Canadian TV can be found on all different kinds of platforms. After all, Global has brought us Mary Kills People and Private Eyes. Letterkenny is on Bell Media. Let's not forget Orphan Black on Space via Bell Media.

The CBC does have a lot of great Canadian TV shows and this option also brings you Canadian film you might not be able to find otherwise.

photo credit: CBC Gem

Schitt's Creek gets rare Canadian nomination for Critics Choice Awards

When Tatiana Maslany got Emmy love for her work in Orphan Black, the show itself wasn't honoured. So Schitt's Creek getting a nomination from the 2019 Critics Choice Television Awards was a big surprise.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel beat out 7 other nominees, including Schitt's Creek, for Best Comedy Series.

Canadian shows and films aren't ineligible but aren't usually considered. Schitt's Creek is the first Canadian show to ever be nominated in the category.

Schitt's Creek (nominated through Pop TV) was up against Atlanta (FX); Barry* (HBO); The Good Place* (NBC); The Kominsky Method* (Netflix); The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel* (Amazon); The Middle (ABC); and One Day at a Time (Netflix).

• — also a 2019 Golden Globe nominee

On the heels of a Golden Globes win, Sandra Oh won Best Actress in a Drama Series for Killing Eve.

Other Canadian nominees were Ryan Gosling for Best Actor for First Man; Ryan Reynolds for Best Actor in a Comedy for Deadpool 2; and Rachel McAdams for Best Actress in a Comedy for Game Night.

Eugene Levy and Catherine O'Hara got to present the awards for best actor and actress in a limited series or movie made for television. They received a rather long ovation from the crowd. Levy and O'Hara did a pretty funny bit about the superlatives that movies receive. They handled well the unexpected tie in the best actress category. Amy Adams gave a shout out to Jean-Marc Vallée for her win for Sharp Objects.

Stephan James was a co-presenter for best director.

The CW cameras showed O'Hara and Dan Levy on the blue carpet before the ceremony began. PopSugar.com's coverage noted that Sarah Levy, Annie Murphy, and Emily Hampshire were also in attendance.

Sandra Oh host and winner at the 76th Golden Globes

2019 CBC television winter schedule

Schitt's Creek celebrates Christmas with a holiday special

Season 4 of Schitt's Creek was presented for nomination. The fact that the show appears on Netflix may have been a crucial factor for the nomination.

Tatiana Maslany received 4 Critics Choice Television Awards nominations in every season but Season 3 and won for the first 2 seasons.

Orphan Black and Killing Eve aired on BBC America, but Killing Eve has had more nomination love. Orphan Black did win a Peabody Award in 2013.

The Sweet Hereafter got Academy Award nominations in the 1998 Oscars for best adapted screenplay and best director but not best picture.

CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage

CanadianCrossing.com television coverage

Season 5 of Schitt's Creek debuted last week on CBC. The Pop TV premiere of back-to-back episodes is Wednesday at 10 pm Eastern.

The awards are determined by the Broadcast Film Critics Association and the Broadcast Television Journalists Association. The 2019 Critics Choice Television Awards aired last night in the United States on the CW network.

photos credit: Critic Choice Television Awards/CW network

NHL the week in preview January 11, 2019

NBCSN shows its only Montréal Canadiens game of the season Monday night and, of course, the game is in Boston.

The NHL Network picks up the CBC feed for the Toronto Maple Leafs on Hockey Night in Canada.

CBC has those Bruins in Toronto in the early game with the Ottawa Senators finding the way to San Jose in the late game.

Citytv copies the CBC feed in the early game.

Rogers Sportsnet carries the hot Colorado Avalanche in Montréal early on Saturday night and features the Edmonton Oilers hosting the older desert team late. The regional channels have Roberto Luongo back in Vancouver with Hometown Hockey in Langley, BC. Wednesday Night Hockey follows Colorado to the Canadian capital against Ottawa.

Rogers Sportsnet One is following the Calgary Flames with a pair of home games Sunday vs. the ignored desert team and Buffalo late on Wednesday.

NBCSN

Monday
Montréal @ Boston, 7:30p

NHL Network

Saturday
Boston @ Toronto, 7p

Tape delayed
Friday Toronto @ New Jersey, 2p
Monday Anaheim @ Winnipeg, 2p (90-min)
Tuesday Montréal @ Boston, 2p (2-hour)

ESPN+

Monday
Colorado @ Toronto, 7p
Wednesday
Buffalo @ Calgary, 9:30p
Thursday
Toronto @ Tampa Bay, 7:30p
Winnipeg @ Nashville, 8p

CBC

Saturday
Boston @ Toronto, 7p
Ottawa @ San Jose, 10p

Citytv

Saturday
Boston @ Toronto, 7p

Rogers Sportsnet

Saturday
Colorado @ Montréal, 7p
Arizona @ Edmonton, 10p
Sunday
Florida @ Vancouver, 7p
Wednesday
Colorado @ Ottawa, 7p

Rogers Sportsnet One

Sunday
Arizona @ Calgary, 9:30p
Wednesday
Buffalo @ Calgary, 9:30p

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The NBCSN audience got John Walton and Pierre McGuire to call the Winnipeg Jets in St. Paul. We did joke about Gord Miller calling the game, given what happened last April. Miller and Chris Cuthbert were working their day jobs on Thursday.

NBCSN interviews the coaches by this pattern: home team coach in 1st period and road team coach in 2nd period. McGuire interviews the Minnesota coach and does a nice job. McGuire doesn't interview Paul Maurice of Winnipeg. We only monitor games involving Canadian teams. More often that you would imagine, NBCSN blows off the coach of the Canadian team and never blows off the coach of the U.S.-based team. This is just sad.

Elias Pettersson was injured and didn't play on Saturday for Vancouver in Toronto. Rogers Sportsnet still did a feature on Pettersson in the pregame. The pregame didn't air in the United States but the video was posted online.

CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage

ESPN+ proved its continued allergy to the Hockey Night in Canada feed. Carrying the Nashville feed with Montréal at home on Hockey Night in Canada continues the pattern. The channel also blew off a chance to carry a Bob Cole telecast. The service does carry home feeds during the week.

The NHL Network used the NBC Sports Philadelphia feed with the Calgary Flames on Saturday afternoon. The only relative surprise is that the channel carried the Philly feeds during the intermissions.

Cuthbert called his first NBCSN game of 2019 with Brian Boucher in the U.S. capital on Tuesday.

2019 Canadian politics preview

2018 brought a highly rare minority government in New Brunswick, a first-time party in charge in Quebec, and the mess that is Ontario. Marijuana legalization was also a big story.

How can we top that in 2019? Did someone say federal election?

The three people above plus Elizabeth May (below) will run in the October 21 election to be prime minister.

Bill C-76 allows all Canadians who live abroad to vote in the federal election. The Harper Government had banned Canadians from voting if they had been outside the country for 5 years. The new bill rescinds the old policy.

Voter information cards will once again be a valid identification form for voting. Spending will be limited within the campaign and for the 90-day period before the election is called.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is running in the Burnaby South byelection on February 25. Unlike Justin Trudeau (prime minister, Liberals) and Andrew Scheer (Conservatives), Singh does not have a seat in the House of Commons.

Singh is running for a seat in British Columbia even though he is from Brampton, Ontario. As unusual as that sounds, this is something that happens in Canadian politics.

The Burnaby South riding was held by former NDP MP and current Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart.

Quebec turns to Coalition Avenir Québec to run province

New Brunswick will have a minority government

Doug Ford will be the new premier of Ontario

2019 will have a dramatic election in Alberta. Rachel Notley and the NDP have been in charge of a province that is used to penciling in some form of the word "conservative" on the ballot. This time, the United Conservative Party under Jason Kenney will provide the primary opposition. Miss the days of the Wildrose Party.

Prince Edward Island as well as Newfoundland and Labrador have provincial elections a few weeks earlier that should have fewer sparks than the one in Alberta.

Here are the tentative election dates for the provinces in 2019:

• Alberta — May 31
• Prince Edward Island — October 7
• Newfoundland and Labrador — October 8

Here is the list of the provinces and the year of their last provincial election.

Quebec — 2018
Ontario — 2018
New Brunswick — 2018
Nova Scotia — 2017
British Columbia — 2017
Manitoba — 2016
Saskatchewan — 2016
Newfoundland and Labrador — 2015
Alberta — 2015
Prince Edward Island — 2015

2018 Canadian politics preview

2017 Canadian politics preview

2016 Canadian politics preview

2015 Canadian politics preview

Canadian politics coverage on CanadianCrossing.com

We spend time in our yearly previews tracking female premiers. There is a healthy chance of having 0 female premiers before Canada gets really warm in 2019.

Kathleen Wynne lost in Ontario leaving Rachel Notley (Alberta) as the lone female premier. Canada had 5 women in charge at the start of 2014.

There is no female on the bench in either Prince Edward Island or Newfoundland and Labrador.

Wynne was 1 of 2 openly gay premiers in Canada. Wade MacLauchlan (Prince Edward Island) is running again for premier in 2019.

CanadianCrossing.com trade coverage

CanadianCrossing.com Donald Trump coverage

China revenge for the Canadian arrest at the behest of the United States. A horrible trade deal, hoping from relief from the Dems in the U.S. House. Tariffs ongoing with no relief in sight. We will be here to cover the sad, tragic, and hopefully good news on this front in 2019.

photos credit: Canadian Press; Justin Tang/Canadian Press

TIFF selects Top 10 Canadian films of 2018

The Toronto International Film Festival has a Canada's Top Ten for 2018 Canadian films with new guidelines for presentation. Week-long engagements throughout the year will replace the January festival.

"We're still making the list of films, so that doesn't change at all," said TIFF's co-head Cameron Bailey. "It's really just how those films get delivered to audiences."

The list has 6 films directed or co-directed by women. Here is the 2018 Top Ten list with the directors and province of origin:

Anthropocene: The Human Epoch Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier, Edward Burtynsky | Ontario
Sgaawaay K’uuna (Edge of the Knife) Gwaai Edenshaw, Helen Haig-Brown | British Columbia
Firecrackers Jasmin Mozaffari | Ontario
The Fireflies Are Gone (La disparition des lucioles) Sébastien Pilote | Quebec
Freaks Zach Lipovsky, Adam Stein | British Columbia
Genèse (Genesis) Philippe Lesage | Quebec
Giant Little Ones Keith Behrman | Ontario
Mouthpiece Patricia Rozema | Ontario
Roads in February (Les routes en février) Katherine Jerkovic | Quebec
What Walaa Wants Christy Garland | Ontario

I've seen 3 of these films: Anthropocene: The Human Epoch; The Fireflies Are Gone; and Giant Little Ones (below). Edge of the Knife; Firecrackers; Freaks; and Mouthpiece are on my radar.

Both major TIFF 2018 winners made the list. The Fireflies Are Gone won Best Canadian Feature Film and Roads in February won Best Canadian First Feature Film. The latter film takes place mostly in Uruguay.

What Walaa Wants, one of 2 documentaries on the list, focuses on the quest to be one of the few women in the Palestinian Security Forces.

Sgaawaay K’uuna (Edge of the Knife) is the first feature made entirely in the Haida language.

Genèse (Genesis) from Philippe Lesage is from the same director as the molasses-paced The Demons.

2018 TIFF Canada's Top 10

TIFF selects Top 10 Canadian films of 2016

We will be highly curious as to whether the strategy works in Canada to improve accessibility to Canadian films by Canadians. We also don't know about possible changes in patterns of how the list will work in the United States. People outside New York, Los Angeles, and New Orleans would like to see Canadian films.

This would be more fun if I were stationed in Toronto. I would be able to give some depth as to whether these were the best titles. Chien de Garde, Canada's nominee for Best Foreign Language Film, is nowhere to be found on the list. Can't say Roads in February would be a better film but likely couldn't be any worse.

2018 WIFF Canadian films in review

The Filmmakers shows what Canadian female directors go through to make a film

Film review: The Fireflies Are Gone

2018 TIFF Canadian film wrapup

2018 TIFF preview

2018 TIFF Canadian film preview

CanadianCrossing.com film reviews

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

There also is the criticism that most Canadians haven't had access to most or all of these films in 2018. Hopefully, through theatres or Netflix or other streaming service, Canadians will have a chance to see these top titles in Canadian film.

You can track the screenings throughout the year at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in downtown Toronto.

video credit: YouTube/TIFF Trailers

The Northwest Angle is one of several Canada-U.S. border disputes

We talk about the 49th parallel bordering the U.S. and Canada since that is the border from Manitoba west to British Columbia. Everything above the 49th parallel belongs to Canada except for the Northwest Angle.

The Northwest Angle consists of a small land mass jettisoning north separating Manitoba and Ontario via the state of Minnesota. Reportedly, about 120 people live in this extension.

There is a petition in the United States to give that land back to Canada. The petition is called "Give Canada back the Northwest Angle located in Manitoba." The petition is launched under We the People under the White House Web site. If a petition reaches 100,000 signatures, they are reviewed by administration officials for an official response.

During warmer weather, residents of the Angle can access the rest of Minnesota by boat through the Lake of the Woods. During colder weather, the only way for those people to reach the United States is to drive through Manitoba.

If the Northwest Angle were to revert to Canada, that would be a great way to try and claim to be in Canada. Being forced to move just to stay in your country would seem rather unfair.

The other oddity of note is Point Roberts, Washington, a skin flint of an area that hangs below the 49th parallel just south of Tsawwassen in the Vancouver suburbs.

Point Roberts is reportedly used by the United States government as a place for witness relocation since the area is surrounded by 3 sides by water and the fourth side by the Canadian border.

Like the Northwest Angle, you can get to the rest of Washington state via Canada.

U.S. border patrol annoys Canadians by land and by sea

The recent documentary Lobster War focuses on the Gray Zone, 277 square miles of sea off the coast of Maine and New Brunswick.

You might recall this was the area where U.S. border patrol was harassing Canadian seafood harvesters in disputed waters back in July.

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian society coverage

CanadianCrossing.com U.S. society coverage

The world is filled with places distinguished by unique geography on the border of countries. Pheasant Island (Ile des Faisans in French; Isla de los Faisanes in Spanish) is shared by France and Spain every 6 months. Gibraltar, owned by the United Kingdom, and Spain had an unique relationship.

The Northwest Angle and Point Roberts wouldn't be as isolated if the United States and Canada had a Schengen relationship like we currently see in the European Union. The likelihood of flipping either place is as slim as getting a borderless system between Canada and the United States but we continue to dream.

maps credit: Google