Canadian Crossing

Celebrating Canada Day 2016

Happy Canada Day 2016!!

Yes, the prime minister has made another media appearance, this time in comic book form. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is on the variant cover of issue No. 5 of Marvel's Civil War II: Choosing Sides that will debut on August 31.

The boxing motif that Trudeau is known for is part of the cover, posing in a tank and trunks alongside Puck, Sasquatch, and Aurora, who are members of the Canadian superhero squad Alpha Flight. The cover comes from Toronto-based cartoonist Ramon Perez.

The elder Trudeau, Pierre Elliott Trudeau, was in the Uncanny X-Men comic book in 1979.

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian politics coverage

We will have much more next week on Barack Obama's visit to Canada for the Three Amigos summit. The president gave a very relaxed speech about borders and values before the Canadian Parliament. The chant of "4 more years" from the House of Commons after the speech spoke volumes how Canadians and their representatives view the current U.S. president.

Trudeau joked about the bro-mance between the two leaders, preferring the term dude-mocracy. Either way, the leaders of these countries haven't been this comfortable in at least 20 years.

For a transcript of the speech, click here. Hopefully, you saw the speech either through CPAC or C-SPAN; check the Web site in your region to try and watch the speech online.

This was Obama's third trip to Canada in his almost 8 years in office. The February 2009 visit to Ottawa as well as the G8 and G20 summits in Huntsville and Toronto in Ontario preceded this visit. Presidents don't make as many visits as ones did a few generations back. In researching the state dinners story, turns out Brian Mulroney and George H.W. Bush spent quite a bit time together in both countries. Bush even went to the All-Star Game in Toronto in 1992.

Obama might have more opportunities to visit Canada once he leaves office in January. Obama's half-sister, Maya Soetoro-Ng, is married to a Canadian: Konrad Ng, of Burlington, Ontario. The president and Michelle Obama attended their wedding in Burlington and also visited Toronto and Niagara Falls.

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian society coverage

The O Canada English lyrics haven't officially changed. Parliament approved the changes to make the anthem gender-equal. The Senate didn't pass the bill in time but will take up the bill in the fall. If the House had not approved the bill, the discussion would have to start over again.

Since you will likely have a point in the next 3 days to sing O Canada, if you are doing so in English, try out the new words. Substitute "in all of us command" for "in all thy sons command." If you need help, follow along with Hedley lead singer Jacob Hoggard.

Canadian film review: My Internship in Canada

Each year, the folks at the Chicago International Film Festival show films from around the world, featuring a Canadian film around Canada Day. This year, My Internship in Canada got the nod. The Canadian political satire was a perfect choice given the Three Amigos summit.

The Stephen Harper lookalike PM reflects what was the federal situation when the film was made versus watching the film in the current political climate. A rare Canadian mainstream film acknowledges and celebrates the reality of the First Nations people. The politics of inclusion, and the frustrations that occur within that world, was accurately portrayed.

The post-film discussion was led by Kevin Tibbles, NBC News correspondent based in Chicago. Tibbles had covered domestic and foreign beats for NBC after a stint at the CBC. During his time at the CBC, Tibbles covered many stories, including the fall of the Berlin Wall and the first Gulf War.

His NBC bio notes his Canadian background:

"As a native Canadian, Kevin's reporting from Vancouver introduced the NBC audience to Canada's passion for hockey featuring interviews with Prime Minister Steven (sic) Harper, commentator Don Cherry and Wayne Gretzky. He also reported on the unique relationship Canada shares with it's (sic) American neighbor to the south; and has told the story of ordinary Canadians honoring their war dead along the 'Highway of Heroes'."

Tibbles did a really nice job explaining the current political climate. He even got a few people to applaud when mentioning that Justin Trudeau had welcomed 25,000 Syrian refugees, including greeting some refugees personally and supplying kids with badly needed winter parkas.

The audience was eager to have Tibbles explain how Canadian politics works; he explained that Canada is about "peace, order, and good government."

He even mentioned The Greatest Canadian TV series, Tommy Douglas, and the October Crisis.

CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage

CBC viewers can celebrate Canada Day with a 3-hour special starting at 11 am Eastern. The night wraps up with a Canada Day in the Capital 2016 special at 9 pm local time. You could watch the CFL on TSN.

2016 CFL Week 2 preview

MLB Network keeps its tradition going strong of showing the Toronto Blue Jays on Canada Day. Cleveland is in town for the weekend. The Blue Jays are in the hunt for a wild-card spot at this juncture in the season.

As we learned from the 2015 Canada federal election, foreign interference in an election is a frowned upon practice. Sarah Silverman sent out a tweet endorsing a NDP candidate and we all heard about Section 331 of the Canada Elections Act.

Section 331 of the Canada Elections Act gets attention south of the border

U.S. election law seemingly allows just about anything, but soliciting and accepting foreign donations is absolutely illegal. The Donald Trump campaign has solicited foreign donations from politicians from several countries.

We don't know of any specific current Canadian MPs, but former Prime Minister Kim Campbell tweeted that she had received the solicitation e-mail from the Trump campaign.

The U.S. does not have a strong institution such as Elections Canada. The Federal Elections Commission might punish the Trump campaign, and that's a big might, but the punishment, if any, will be light.

"If they do not agree to a renegotiation, then I will submit notice under Article 2205 of the NAFTA agreement that America intends to withdraw from the deal.”

Speaking of the Republican presidential nominee, someone clearly mentioned Article 2205 of NAFTA to Trump. While he has ranted against NAFTA in previous speeches, this is one of the few times in the entire campaign where he has been remotely specific. While I can cite chapter and verse as to problems with NAFTA, this mentality of negotiating a better deal parallels the United Kingdom thinking a better deal with the European Union is right around the corner. Neither will happen.

If anything, Canada has much more to complain about NAFTA than the United States.

CanadianCrossing.com NHL coverage

We try and avoid talking NHL transactions in the off-season, not worrying about them until early October. The Montréal Canadiens had denied shopping around defenceman P.K. Subban. These statements turned out to be false.

The Canadiens traded Subban to Nashville for Shea Weber. Straight up. No other compensation.

In the NHL, you don't trade a 27-year-old for a 31-year-old (Weber turns 31 before the season starts). Older and slower plus more money over a longer period of time. If you think Les Habs is so close to the Stanley Cup, you might justify the trade, but still no.

You also don't trade good guys, on and off the ice. They don't come much better than Subban.

Weber and Subban were Olympic gold-medal teammates for Team Canada. Weber is a very talented player. 29 NHL GMs would have made that deal from the Nashville standpoint. Las Vegas has no GM and even that team would make that deal. Only Marc Bergevin made that deal. Canadiens fans will have to live with the one-sided trade for a decade to come.

Edmonton got way too little for Taylor Hall, going to New Jersey Devils for defenceman Adam Larsson. Today launches the NHL free agent period; Steven Stamkos aside, things have to get better … as long as someone takes away Bergevin's phone.

photo credit: The Canadian Press/Ramon Perez
Twitter capture: @AKimCampbell

Pearls Before Swine gives shout-out to Montreal

Stephan Pastis was supposed to go to Toronto. He did research for the trip but ended up in Montréal.

Pastis is the creator of Pearls Before Swine, which runs in more than 750 newspapers with an estimated 17.6 million readers a day.

He loved his trip so much that on Monday and today, we got the fruits of his time in Montréal.

In today's strip, Pastis proclaims that Montréal makes the best bagels. New York begs to differ on the bagels question.

"When you talk to people about that you're going to Montréal, everybody has the same reaction back where I live (San Francisco area). They go, oh, either 'I've always wanted to go' or 'I've been there and that's the greatest.' " — Stephan Pastis in an interview with 375 MTL.

Pastis ran through a number of food-related items in the interview: Schwartz's and the bagels.

I've done everything Pastis mentioned in Monday's strip. Well, I've walked, not biked, through the Plateau. But Pastis got to do something I still haven't done in Montréal: go to a Canadiens game at the Bell Centre.

Pastis had really good seats, right next to the Habs penalty box. He described being closer to the ice than the guy in the penalty box.

"There are so many great diverse neighborhoods that you could spend a whole day if not the weekend, going to the cafes, going to the bars. That's what I look for in cities. Most big American cities don't have a good walking area. But here you have so many different little neighborhoods. And that's great. That's the kind of thing that would make me want to move to this city. Except for the snow. I understand it snows. So we'll skip the months where it snows." — Stephan Pastis in that 375 MTL interview.

A major piece of advice I give people when they are going to Montréal is to experience downtown and Old Montréal, but then get out to the neighborhoods. Glad to see Pastis took full advantage of that advice.

Pastis described the friendliness of those in Montréal. I have found that to be true. I don't know if his French is better than mine, but assuming it's comparable, you can find similar levels of friendliness in Montréal with a modicum of French.

Having been in San Francisco in December, Je comprend Pastis desire to not be in Montréal during the snow.

We want people to visit Canada, even non-famous people. But we also want all of them, famous and not-famous, to appreciate all that Canada has to offer. I have had a few conversations with people who have visited Montréal, and weren't impressed because, in part, they didn't get to explore outside downtown. Everyone I have spoken to who have gone beyond downtown Montréal loves the city.

Though the United States is a large, diverse country, the country has nothing like Montréal.

In Monday's strip, Pig is very excited about moving to Montréal, mostly for the poutine. Someone should tell Pig about Au Pied de Cochon before he gets to Montréal. Pig would be very welcome there, but perhaps, a bit too welcome.

CanadianCrossing.com comic strips coverage

Darby Conley is perhaps the biggest fan of Canada among comic strip creators. The mastermind of Get Fuzzy has had regular shout-outs to Canada. Satchel the dog is from Canada. We're glad to see another comic strip creator join the fold, especially someone as great as Stephan Pastis.

comic strips credit: Pearls Before Swine
video credit: 375 MTL

Get Fuzzy on moving to Canada

Holidays are great for enjoying the comics, having more leisure time. So hopefully, you caught yesterday's Get Fuzzy comic strip on Rob's friends moving to Canada.

Of course, Bucky doesn't understand why anyone would move to Canada. Longtime readers of CanadianCrossing.com or Get Fuzzy know that Satchel the dog is from Canada, and the strip has had many homages to Canada.

I have tons of reasons why I would want to move to Canada, but what are some of the reasons why you would move to Canada? True, health care is high up there, but I have always found that the Canadian sensibility is similar to my sensibility.

We'll have to see where this storyline takes us in the days ahead.

Get Fuzzy takes on Canadian literature and the effect of Canadian cold

The Get Fuzzy comic strip plays a lot of homage to Canada, even the CFL has made it into the comic strip.

In case you missed yesterday's take on Canadian literature, Bucky Katt asks if Canadian literature encompasses anything other than a Leafs box score. Margaret Atwood would strongly disagree with Bucky.

Bucky, who isn't the brightest mammal, jumps to the conclusion that Canada is so cold that people have trouble functioning. If that were true, a lot of the United States would suffer the same consequence.

To be fair to Bucky, there is very little obvious evidence of Canada's impact on literature. Conley makes that point quite clear, amidst the humor.

Satchel the dog, who doesn't appear in this strip, has Canadian blood, as we have discovered in the past.

comic strip courtesy of Get Fuzzy.

Candorville adds Canadian flavor to controversial Arizona immigration law

Shifting away from hockey for just a little breather ...

Candorville has been taking a look at the controversial Arizona immigration law, and on Thursday, added a nice Canadian spin.

We theorized that Canadians weren't likely to be targeted by the new law, especially with one of Arizona's most popular athletes, Steve Nash, being Canadian.

But all of this comes on the heels of the possibility — and it won't happen unless a few hurdles clear — that Arizona may lose its professional hockey team. While the Phoenix Coyotes might leave — and it has nothing to do with the new immigration law — hockey teams usually have a lot of non-U.S. born players. Canadians, true, but also players from Scandinavia and Europe. Not to mention players from other teams who are visiting Phoenix to play hockey, and could face problems.

There is a fear that Canadians who don't fit the typical profile of Canadians could run into hassles, whether legal or not, in residing in Arizona. While Florida has the reputation for housing snowbirds — Canadians who live in warmer climates in the winter — there are Canadians who live in Arizona in the winter.

Those Canadians will have to make a tough choice if the immigration law in Arizona is upheld to be legal. On the surface, it would seem that the law has as much chance of being upheld as having a NHL team in Phoenix. Then again, maybe Canadians should rethink their residence in Arizona.

photo credit: Candorville

The size of the Great Canadian Novel from a comic point of view

This Fusco Brothers comic mocks the size of the Great Canadian Novel, as if it would be significantly smaller than the Great American Novel. Certainly not based on the size of the country, Canada is the second-largest country in the world, behind Russia.

True, from a population standpoint, Canada's population is about 11%-12% the size of the United States population.

If you took that to its ridiculous conclusion, a 300-page American novel would be about 33-36 pages for a Canadian novel. In 8th grade (as opposed to Grade 8), I wrote a 70-some page book for a class project.

As "slams" against Canada, this isn't that bad, and it's a little funny.

CFL gets publicity from Get Fuzzy

My friends tease me because I am into the CFL. Canadian football — where the field is longer and wider. There are 3 downs, not 4, and receivers can all move in motion before the ball is snapped. The CFL is much more exciting to watch than the NFL.

Get Fuzzy pays homage to Roger Aldag (a real CFL player), the Saskatchewan Roughriders (the defending CFL Grey Cup champs), and a cool sport. Also, when I am in Vancouver later this summer, B.C. will take on Saskatchewan.

Get Fuzzy on the Canadian flag

Today's Get Fuzzy takes on the Canadian flag. Bucky Katt makes fun of Satchel the dog because Satchel is originally from French Canada. Then again, Bucky makes fun of everything but himself.

comic strip courtesy of Get Fuzzy

Vancouver in spotlight on Boondocks

Vancouver got a shout-out on The Boondocks last night on the Cartoon Network. The show, based on the comic strip by Aaron McGruder, had an episode that wondered what would have happened if Martin Luther King, Jr. had been in a coma all this time (since 1968) and woke up to see the effect of his struggles on modern-day America.

In a climatic scene of the episode, he rails on the state of African-Americans today. At the end, he says something about not coming with you ... "I'm moving to Canada."

There is a shot of a newspaper in the future, showing Oprah Winfrey as the new president-elect and King dead in Vancouver at the age of 91.

Again, this is in the mind of McGruder, but it's a scenario that could have happened, provided King had been in a multi-decade coma.