Canadian Crossing

Jennifer Granholm debuts War Room on Current TV

We noted Jennifer Granholm's recent Colbert Report appearance as she promoted her new book. Well, the other reason she was there was to promote the new show on Current TV entitled the War Room.

Granholm has helped out with Current TV's primary and caucus coverage along with the Young Turks and Current chief and former Vice President Al Gore. Granholm, who served as Michigan's attorney general and governor for two terms, doesn't have that much experience on television, other than her brief stint on The Dating Game.

In her first episode, she had a rough time in the beginning; walking and talking on live TV is harder than it looks. Once she stayed still and started interviewing, Granholm had a natural charm in talking with her guests. She even had a Republican, fellow politician Bill McCollum from Florida. McCollum is a Newt Gingrich supporter. 

Journalism is not Granholm's thing, and no one will mistake her for Charlie Rose. She is very excited about liberal things. If you have at least two posters of Michael Dukakis and Lloyd Bentsen, you are pretty liberal.

Granholm doesn't play up her Canadian ancestry in public interviews. However, we hope that if/when Canada comes up in the presidential debate, Granholm will spotlight her knowledge. After all, besides her first four years in Canada, she did deal with Canada on issues as Michigan's governor. Then again, Rachel Maddow, who followed Keith Olbermann on MSNBC, has a mother from Newfoundland and Labrador.

The more pundits who know about Canada, the better Canada looks on U.S. television news.

photo credit: Current TV

NHL All-Star Game notebook: Ottawa on display

Shots of the Parliament building from the front. Shots of the Parliament building from the back across the Ottawa River in Hull, Quebec. Skaters going down the Rideau Canal.

This is what we saw in the outdoors shots from NBC Sports Network's coverage of the 2012 All-Star Game in Ottawa. Oh, and NHL jerseys covered in ice.

In the open, NBC play-by-play announcer Doc Emrick noted the 126 mile length of the canal, and pointed out that the canal is open for skating until the thaw.

Emrick also noted Ottawa's bilingual status, notable during the anthem, which was done as is tradition by Ontario Provincial Police officer Lyndon Slewidge. For the Ottawa games, O Canada starts out in English, switches to French in the middle, and ends in English.

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This game was set up to be a showcase for Ottawa captain and long-time star Daniel Alfredsson, who has played his entire career in Ottawa. Alfredssson got to captain one of the teams.

Alfredsson scored two goals, both against Montréal's Carey Price, and added an assist. Since Ottawa hasn't been good lately, Alfredsson has been ignored, especially in the United States. Great to see Alfredsson to have a chance to shine.

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"Spectacular" was the one word NHL commissioner Gary Bettman used to describe the experience in Ottawa. "Everything has been great. The city has been incredibly hospitable," said Bettman.

NBC Sports Network showed Bettman in the crowd during the game talking with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. We all know Harper is a big hockey fan, and we're sure he enjoyed not having to travel for once to get to the All-Star Game.

This was the first time Ottawa has ever hosted the All-Star Game, despite being in the league since 1992.

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After Danielsson scored his first goal, Emrick noted that Daniel has been around for so long that he started his Senators career at the Ottawa Civic Center. The announcers talked about how the Civic Center is located underneath the grandstand of the football stadium at Lansdowne Park. Later in the exchange, Roenick talked about his days playing across the Ottawa River in Hull, Quebec.

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Drake performed after the end of the 2nd period. The Canadian rapper/actor is from the Toronto area, and made it clear that he grew up and loves this sport. Several of the players, including Patrick Kane (Chicago) and Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay), came out to videotape Drake's performance.

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The announcers noted the somewhat rude treatment that Toronto players got in Ottawa. The Battle of Ontario does not rest, even in the All-Star Game.

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Though the results don't count, here are the scoring highlights of those who play on Canadian-based teams. Each team featured at least one scorer except for Montréal and Winnipeg. The Jets had no players in the game.

2012 All-Star Game scoring
Player	Team	Goals	Assists
Daniel Alfredsson	Ottawa	2	1
Joffrey Lupul	Toronto	2	0
Jarome Iginla	Calgary	1	2
Phil Kessel	Toronto	1	2
Henrik Sedin	Vancouver	1	2
Milan Michalek	Ottawa	1	1
Daniel Sedin	Vancouver	1	1
Jason Spezza	Ottawa	1	1
Jordan Eberle	Edmonton	0	1

 

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You knew that the Canadiens were going to be on the NBC Sports Network on Wednesday because the channel carries a Wednesday game and the Detroit-Montréal matchup was the only game scheduled on Wednesday.

Dave Strader and Pierre McGuire (minus Ed Olczyk) handled the call and had a lot of good Red Wings-Canadiens stories to fill the time since Montréal blew Detroit out of the water. The channel gets nervous when a Canadian-based team is on, and having that Canadian-based team winning by a huge score made the announcers a little nervous.

The game drew an audience of 241,000, an average figure for NBCSN. The night before, Minnesota vs. Colorado — in a 9 pm Eastern start — drew 190,000. But the 241,000 mark outdrew all three games on January 15-17.

The announcers know Montréal, so it would be intriguing to see what the storylines would be with other Canadian cities.

The NBC Sports Network has 4 more telecasts involving Canadian-based teams this season. The next two are in Montréal, February 15 with Boston and February 19 with New Jersey. The channel makes its first and only trip to Winnipeg as the Buffalo Sabres come to Manitoba on March 5 and will showcase Toronto's trip to Pittsburgh on March 7.

NHL All-Star Game showcases rare look at Ottawa on U.S. TV

For those who don't know Ottawa is the capital of Canada, you certainly will hear a lot about Ottawa in the next 4 days.

The NHL All-Star Game comes to Ottawa, a city that rarely gets showcased on U.S. hockey telecasts.

The Senators have been on the NHL Network once this year, a Saturday matinee at Madison Square Garden back on October 29. The NHL Network blew off two really good attempts to show Ottawa November 12 (at Toronto) and December 10 (hosting Vancouver), choosing not to carry a Hockey Night in Canada game those nights.

The NHL Network added a Saturday matinee late in the year when Ottawa travels to Philadelphia on March 31. NBC hasn't carried Ottawa since the last trip to the Stanley Cup finals. Versus/NBC Sports Network hasn't carried Ottawa in quite a long time.

That will change if Ottawa plays as well in the second half as the Senators have so far. After all, we've been promised that every single playoff game will air on a prominent U.S. cable channel. But when those playoffs come, Ottawa will likely be the only team out of the East that received virtually zero U.S. TV coverage. You'll see the Jets more than the Senators in the regular season.

The Comcast/NBC properties see Canada in much the same way as typical Americans: Toronto, Montréal, and Vancouver are important; everywhere else isn't as well-known.

Long-time Ottawa Senators star Daniel Alfredsson will be one of the captains for the NHL All-Star Draft, which will actually be held in nearby Quebec (suburbs of Ottawa) tonight. If nothing else, the location will teach those who don't know that Ottawa is on the Ontario-Quebec border. In my brief journey into Canada's capital, I marveled at seeing Quebec from the back of the Parliament building.

The All-Star Skills competition is Saturday night. And the NHL All-Star Game airs Sunday night from Scotiabank Place in Ottawa on CBC and the NBC Sports Network at 6 pm Eastern.

'Monsieur Lazhar' and Christopher Plummer get Oscar nominations

"Monsieur Lazhar" is one of the five nominees for Best Foreign Language Film for the Oscars, released earlier this morning. As you may recall, I saw "Monsieur Lazhar" at the Windsor International Film Festival, and I knew at the time that the film was Canada's entry into the Oscars.

The film is about a new teacher that comes into a classroom after their old teacher dies.

"Monsieur Lazhar" is the sixth Canadian nominee for the Oscar in this category, and the second one in a row from Canada that reached the Top 5. Denis Villeneuve's "Incendies" was nominated last year, but did not win. The other nominees throughout the years are "Water" (2006) and several films from Denys Arcand, nominations with "The Decline of the American Empire" (1986) and "Jesus of Montréal" (1989) and winner with "Barbarian Invasions" (2004).

The other foreign film nominees are "Bullhead" (Belgium), "Footnote" (Israel), "In Darkness" (Poland), and "A Separation" (Iran), winner of this year's Golden Globe in that category.

In the people categories, Christopher Plummer got a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in "Beginners." Plummer won the Golden Globe in this category earlier this month. While Ryan Gosling was nominated for a pair of best actor Golden Globes, drama ("The Ides of March") and comedy ("Crazy, Stupid, Love"), Gosling got zero Oscar nominations.

Plummer was last nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of Leo Tolstoy in "The Last Station."

In other categories, two National Film Board shorts were also nominated.

We said last November about "Monsieur Lazhar" that "as far as Monsieur Lazhar goes in the Oscars world will improve the slight chances of making it onto American screens." Being a nominee gets a foot in the door; winning an Oscar will put you on more screens. Bonne chance!

The Oscars will air on ABC and CTV on February 26.

NHL notebook: Heading into the All-Star break

The schedule is pretty light as we head into the All-Star break. NBC Sports Network will have another game on Wednesday from the Bell Centre, an Original 6 matchup as the Detroit Red Wings come into Montréal. This is the only time the two teams will meet this season.

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During the Canadiens-Penguins game Friday night, the Root Sports announcers made a note that the mayor of Quebec City was in Pittsburgh to take a look at the Consol Energy Center, the new home of the Penguins, as the city looks to build a new NHL arena for a return of the NHL (Phoenix Coyotes?).

One of the announcers made a comparison to someone who looked like a "furtrapper from Quebec." Part of me was horrified at a multiple century stereotype, but part of me appreciated that he knew that about Quebec's history.

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The NHL Network went 1-for-2 in the extra games, picking up the Rogers Sports Net Pacific feed for the Sharks-Canucks. Thanks to the two teams, pulling off the regulation-time win just under the 2:30 mark, allowing the full CBC pregame to be shown on the NHL Network.

The visiting feeds should take some of the beautiful shots of Vancouver that RSN Pacific had on the telecast. Vancouver got its "one" snowstorm of the season, but the snow had melted and the city was under beautiful sunshine. What a glorious show.

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Problems at the Air Canada Centre caused significant delays during the Montréal-Toronto game Saturday night. Two observations: 1) the CBC kept things at the rink. NBC and the NBC Sports Network would have freaked out and showed tons of commercials; CBC kept things on hockey; and 2) Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson, and Glenn Healy are entertaining when they expound on hockey. Delays such as those rarely happen in hockey and they stalled better than any baseball rain-delay announcers. Of course, Hughson has called Montréal Expos and Toronto Blue Jays games in his career.

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The NHL Network has definitely made two unfortunate changes. The feed we get in the States from Hockey Night in Canada won't show cutaways to other games. The U.S. audience gets silence during the breaks. While the Florida-Winnipeg was exciting, we didn't get to see much of anything on what was going on. And once again, the game ended with another game going into OT (that exciting Panthers-Jets matchup), and we couldn't see the conclusion. When you run 15 hours of NHL Tonight, why can't that wait until 10 pm Eastern?

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The CBC announcers were talking about the outdoor hockey game at Hamilton's Ivor Wynne Stadium. They drew over 20,000 each for a AHL game and a old-timers game between former Maple Leafs and Canadiens.

Sad to think that Phoenix still has a NHL team when Hamilton draws 20,565 to see a minor-league hockey game outdoors. Hamilton has the Canadiens' top farm team and the Bulldogs hosted the Toronto Marlies. Are there even 20,565 hockey fans in Phoenix? Miami? Columbus?

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The NHL Network blew off the latest installment of the Battle of Alberta. Calgary has had Edmonton's number and won again Saturday night. Taylor Hall returned from his 30-stitch gash in his head and his black eye.

Hall's roommate, Jordan Eberle, was the guest on After Hours. The episodes are easier to get online these days at cbcsports.ca.

Sarah Burke, 1982-2012, pioneer in freestyle skiing

Watching the outpouring of spirit after the passing of Sarah Burke was beautiful. The response in the United States was stronger than what I expected, even with her track record on the ESPN X Games.

Many tragedies abound from this shortened life, but the idea of Burke being a major reason why superpipe was added to the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, and her not being able to be a part of that is rather cruel.

Burke was a pioneer for women in freestyle skiing. Her legacy will live on in others, both men and women, in the sport.

Her injuries from the accident were too much to overcome. Burke was 29.

Keystone XL pipeline isn't dead, just held hostage to U.S. and Canada politics

The false deadline did the trick. The uproar over the Obama Administration denying the Keystone XL pipeline played right into the U.S. Republican plans. Prime Minister Stephen Harper overplayed his part, reacting more harshly than was expected.

The GOP-led House inserted a 60-day deadline for the Keystone XL pipeline project, even though all the parties (especially TransCanada) were working on a new path for the stretch through Nebraska. These things take time, but the Republicans weren't looking for patience, but rather a short-term political gain. The U.S. media, for the most part, fell right into line. The White House, for its part, pointed out that the project isn't dead, TransCanada can submit the proposal again, and the artificial deadline was just that, artificial.

President Barack Obama said in a statement that the decision is "not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline."

Earlier: GOP forces President Obama to an artificial Keystone XL pipeline deadline

As we noted on Tuesday, Harper is trying to push through a pipeline to the West Coast. Harper wants to move quickly on principle, but would love to put pressure on the United States to speed up the Keystone XL pipeline process.

TransCanada has some blame as well for proposing the original path. The area in Nebraska would be at considerable risk. In the minds of TransCanada (corporations are only people in the United States), the reason for going the way they did made sense. However, the move cost them time and money.

Factor in that the Canadian government really wants this pipeline. The Obama Administration, if the pipeline follows a good path, is interested in going along with the project. After all, don't you think the Obama White House would love to play up jobs in an election year?

The Republicans are in line with the Keystone XL pipeline, but the political tactic of rushing to judgment means they want it sooner rather than better.

Often, when all the politicians involved appear to be playing to politics, consider which politicians are thinking long-term. History teaches us that the long-term thinkers get it right.

The only long-term thinker in this process is U.S. President Barack Obama. This doesn't mean he's right or has handled this in the best fashion. Comparatively, Obama is Thomas Jefferson on the need for the Louisiana Purchase, which is where most of the Keystone XL pipeline will be.

Colbert Report spotlights Canadians Jennifer Granholm and David Frum

The Colbert Report loves Canada, beyond the mocking. As we should know, the Colbert Report airs in Canada on CTV and the Comedy Channel. So having back-to-back Canadians on the Colbert Report this week might have been a coincidence, but a happy one it was.

The two Canadians are political, one from "each side." Tuesday started off with former Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm, who has a new book out — A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic Future — and will start soon on her own nightly series, "The War Room," on Current TV. Granholm has contributed to coverage of debates, the Iowa caucus, and primaries on the cable channel.

Colbert sneaked up on Granholm, trying to get her to admit the deep dark secret about why she can't run for president. Colbert wanted her to say because she was born in Canada. Granholm threw him off by mentioning she was on "The Dating Game."

Eventually, Granholm admitted she was born in Canada and moved to the United States at the age of 4.

When Colbert mentioned Canada, someone from the audience shrieked in delight. Granholm said, "Oh, you got a Canadian up here."

"Or a wayward moose that just got goosed by a loon," Colbert replied.

Later, Colbert called Granholm a "maple syrup back." Colbert asked her whether she had a green card at the age of 4. Granholm said she did.

Colbert went to the other side of the aisle with his interview with David Frum. Unlike Granholm, Frum previously has been a guest on the Colbert Report.

Since Frum has been on the show, Colbert didn't point out Frum's Canadianness. Frum is definitely more Canadian than Granholm, having grown up in Canada and only becoming a U.S. citizen in 2007. Colbert and Frum argued Republican philosophies and the two Mitt Romneys from different vantage points.

Harper government exaggerates impact on U.S. 'radical groups' on Northern Gateway pipeline protests

The Harper government isn't happy that protesters are concerned about a pipeline from Alberta to the Pacific Ocean through British Columbia. What is a little surprising is that the Harper government is blaming the United States. Well, more specifically, "U.S. radicals."

No, environmental protesters aren't racing across the Canadian border with picket signs in their cars.

Canadian citizens are expressing concern over a proposed Northern Gateway pipeline project that will run oil from the fields of Alberta through British Columbia to Kitamaat, BC.

Environmental groups, along with the First Nations people, have the right to protest, especially given the environmental concerns faced with such as pipeline. But that doesn't mean the Harper government isn't trying to make that task much more difficult.

Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver singled out U.S. influence, even though the amount of money is a tiny percentage of the funds from Canadian environmental groups.

While Canadian charities are limited in what they can fund, according to Canadian tax law, speculation is that the Harper government wants to make it more difficult for charities to spend money on activities. Reportedly, charities can do "non-partisan political activity that is directly related to their primary charitable objectives and does not account for more than 10 per cent of their overall budget."

This could be splitting hairs, but it would be difficult to imagine that environmental protesters would protest a pipeline in a Conservative government but not a Liberal or NDP government. The environment is still the environment. That would make their activities non-partisan; The Harper people have a much thinner skin than previous governments.

Blaming the United States is baffling; perhaps this is a backlash to the Keystone XL pipeline debate from the United States. I had a conversation at a party on the Keystone XL project with someone connected to the Albertan government, and he talked about how Keystone XL was one pipeline that had followed the several pipelines already carrying oil from Canada into the United States. I seriously wonder if most American protesters realize this.

One pattern under the majority Harper government is rushing to cut off debate much sooner in the process. Whatever criticisms I might have over the Keystone XL pipeline protesters, they have legitimate points that are being addressed by the Obama Administration in the United States. Would be more than a shame if legitimate concerns in Alberta and British Columbia were swept aside for "time concerns" and "nuisance factors." Besides, these projects almost always get built.

The United States and Canada are two functioning democracies, though their rules on speech differ. The right to protest is a crucial ingredient in the success of the democracy, even if that right is used by a government to blame another country for the actions of its own citizens.

NHL notebook: Cammalleri, Borque make debuts with new Canadian teams

U.S. viewers got to see the debuts of the two major players in this week's big trade between the Montréal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames.

Michael Cammalleri was quoted from an English translation of a French translation of English words of a losing attitude. While Montréal management said the thought of trading Cammalleri was bandied about for some time, the trade came very soon afterward, very very soon.

Cammalleri scored the Flames only goal in the loss to Los Angeles Saturday night.

Rene Borque made his debut Sunday night against the New York Rangers as the NBC Sports Network is taking to showing games on Sunday nights. Borque was scoreless in his Habs debut.

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Mark Giordano of the Calgary Flames has a wonderful story to tell: undrafted at every level, humanitarian, played in Russia. Giordano was the guest on CBC's "After Hours," but U.S. viewers on the NHL Network only got ½ of the program.

This wasn't an accident. The NHL Network deliberately didn't show 30 minutes (including commercials) from the program. Why? Have no idea.

The schedule for the U.S. cable channel didn't have anything earth-shattering in its way. The channel ran two viewings of the same "Oil Change" episode. NHL Network had 15 hours of NHL Tonight in a row.

Once again, we had to resort to watching After Hours online from cbcsports.ca. This is getting ridiculous. Some weeks, the second game isn't on. Some weeks, it's all there. This past week, the game was there, but not all of After Hours.

Anytime anyone from the NHL Network wants to contact us, we're here and we're listening.

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The newly renamed NBC Sports Network showed its first Canadiens game Sunday night, the first for the channel since November 21. Thanks to a snafu with my Comcast DVR, I missed the intro and the first few minutes of the coverage. 

The New York Rangers are so hot these days, the announcers had no choice but to talk a lot about them. Brian Engblom, the former Canadien, gave some good perspective on the craziness of the media coverage of Les Habs, in the context of the Cammalleri comments and trade.

In the teaser for the intermission after the 1st period, we were promised a segment on the Americans impact in Montréal. Sounded like a repeat of the segments NBC and Versus ran a couple of years when the Canadiens were hot in the playoffs. As insulting as the segment would be, the channel didn't air it.

You got the impression that Dave Strader and Brian Engblom watched some CBC Saturday night. They talked a lot about the Rangers game in Toronto. They mentioned the Hot Stove segment (featuring NBCSN's Mike Milbury). True, they could have watched all of that on the NHL Network. However, being in Montréal made it easy to watch CBC.

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In watching the third period Thursday night, the Montréal Canadiens seemed more concerned about trading Mike Cammalleri than beating Boston. The Habs were in a huge battle with their tough rivals in Boston, and went without Cammalleri in the crucial 3rd period. The fact that Gord Miller and Mike Johnson from TSN were talking about the Canadiens on the bench wondering where their teammmate was being traded.

The trade felt like a distraction in a game Montréal needed to win to keep up. Ironically, the major player the Habs got back (Rene Borque) wasn't eligible to come back, and only made his debut Sunday night against the New York Rangers.

During Saturday night's Los Angeles-Calgary game, Mark Lee reported that Cammalleri wasn't told where he was being traded because they waited until the Calgary game started so that Borque would have served that game as part of his suspension.

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The major sub-plot for the LA-Calgary game was the first meeting ever between brothers Darryl and Brent Sutter. Darryl was the coach and later GM of the Flames before being asked to resign. Reportedly, Darryl and Brent hadn't spoken for a year before talking just before this game.

On Saturday night, Darryl topped Brent.

This was a game on paper that should have been shown live. And the NHL Network is so afraid to do so.

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One Boston Bruins player who wasn't there on Thursday's game was Brad Marchand. As you may know, Marchand received a 5-game suspension for upending Sami Salo. Seeing a Boston player suspended was incredible; seeing a Boston player suspended for something against Vancouver was even more amazing.

The 5-game suspension was one more game that Aaron Rome got in the Stanley Cup playoffs; however, 5 regular season games aren't nearly as significant as 4 Stanley Cup finals games. Rome didn't mean to hit Nathan Horton; Marchand's play looked deliberate. Rome felt concern; Marchand falsely claimed self-defense.

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Mike Milbury hasn't completely disappeared from the CBC after all, though his visits will be via satellite in Connecticut. Milbury appeared on the Hot Stove feature during the first game Saturday night. His presence at a former GM was helpful in analyzing moves made by Canadiens GM Pierre Gauthier. Milbury thought it extremely bad to limit yourself to only a few destinations in trading a player. Elliotte Friedman talked to a GM who was surprised to see that Cammalleri was available.

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The Canadiens will have back-to-back appearances on the NHL Network next weekend. Montréal will be at Pittsburgh Friday night; the feed will either be TSN-Habs or Root Sports. The Canadiens will be the road team in Toronto for the primary Hockey Night in Canada game Saturday night.

San Jose will be at Vancouver on Saturday afternoon on the NHL Network. Given the 4 pm tipoff, we won't see all of the Hockey Tonight pre-game from the CBC. The cable channel will join Hockey Tonight in progress after the Sharks-Canucks. The feed will either be Comcast Sports Net California or Rogers Sports Net Pacific.

The NHL Network won't carry the Battle of Alberta — Calgary @ Edmonton — on Sunday. The unofficial reason is that the channel doesn't want to compete against the NBC telecast (Washington at Pittsburgh — yawn!). The channel used to show rebroadcasts on Sunday mornings, but has ruled that out for some reason.