Canadian film lovers have to appreciate a Canadian promoting a Canadian film on a U.S. talk show. Nina Dobrev was on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Monday night promoting Run This Town, a saga on the Rob Ford crack video while he was the Toronto mayor.
Unfortunately, from everything we've heard, Run This Town isn't a good film. Worse than that was Robyn Doolittle's role being cast by a man.
I'm glad they're rewriting the fact that it was a female reporter who investigated Rob Ford. Why have a woman be a lead character when a man could do it? Ammaright? https://t.co/Nx3holhuZW
Robyn Doolittle, now with The Globe and Mail, was with the Toronto Star back then. Doolittle was one of three journalists who saw the Rob Ford crack video.
Writer-director Ricky Tollman, in his feature debut, reduces Doolittle's significant journalism career into Bram (Ben Platt), a recent college graduate forced to work on lame entertainment stories.
Mena Massoud (aka Aladdin) is cast as a special assistant to Ford. Dobrev plays a new hire at Ford’s office who discovers an extremely toxic work environment.
British actor Damian Lewis plays Rob Ford with prosthetics described in more than one review as looking like Mike Myers as Fat Bastard in the Austin Powers films. American actor Jennifer Ehle plays a major character in the film.
Run This Town features more Canadian talent further down the call sheet, including Scott Speedman, Gil Bellows, Lauren Collins, David Eisner, and Hamza Haq.
As we saw with Argo, telling a true-life Canadian story can get lost in sensationalist storytelling. The Rob Ford crack video story would make a great movie. We have serious doubts that Run This Town tells that story. We also have concerns that Americans might think this is the real story. "Rob Ford" and "crack video" will always go together. That story would be worth knowing.
Glad that The Daily Show and other shows are willing to promote Canadian film. Let's hope that extends to better Canadian films.
Run This Town will be available in theatres in select U.S. and Canadian markets and on demand this Friday.
video credit: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah/Comedy Central; YouTube/Elevation Pictures Twitter capture: @robyndoolittle photo credit: Run This Town film
"A British and American couple, both unemployed, are seeking to emigrate to Canada despite having no real skills to offer the country, early reports indicate. British and American media have said that an American actor and her husband have the intention of living in the country on a semi-permanent or permanent basis.
"The actor has found some previous work in Toronto which may help her immigration and work permit applications although Citizenship and Immigration Canada has not identified acting as an in-demand trade."
The Beaverton captured the Harry and Meghan saga of potentially living in Canada better than any serious article.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are looking into living part of their lives in Canada. British Columbia seems to be a more specific target since the couple and new son, Archie, spent the holidays on Vancouver Island and Markle has been spotted this week in Vancouver.
We've seen quite a bit of coverage about the hurdles the couple would have to go through to live in Canada part time. As lovely as that coverage has been, there is one huge consideration. None of those concerns apply if the royal family spends less than 6 months in Canada. Everything gets more complicated if they stay beyond 6 months.
The couple doesn't have to stay in England for 6 months provided the family travels elsewhere.
Having a lot of money and staying within the guidelines makes living in Canada rather easy. The family won't get help from Canada outside of security costs. Their pounds will go further in Canada. The pound has been trading lower thanks to Brexit. Still, the pound is trading at approximately $1.30 U.S. and $1.70 Canadian.
The awkwardness of having them in Canada would come with working in Canada. As we've learned, the standard is high in that you have to be supremely qualified that no Canadian could do what you do. Actors and hockey players, among others, get special dispensation.
Markle does have work experience in Canada having worked on Suits in Toronto. She would have an easier time working in Canada than the prince would.
Prince Harry could do some of his royal work while in Canada. The country has more of an issue with taking jobs in Canada as opposed to people with overseas jobs being physically in Canada.
Canadian snowbirds in the United States have limitations on how long they can stay in the United States. Unlike Americans in Canada, Canadian snowbirds have to be concerned with spending enough time in Canada to keep their health insurance.
There was even speculation of Prince Harry becoming Canada's Governor General. The National Post poll had 61% supporting the prince in that role. So many problems with that from the royal end, such as the awkwardness of a close blood relative representing the monarch, whether that be grandson of the current Queen or son or brother of those next in line. Let's talk about that from Canada's perspective.
The end of World War II brought a number of significant changes to have Canada be more autonomous from the United Kingdom. The Canadian Citizenship Act in 1947 created the designation of Canadian citizenship. Canadian passports were issued to Canadian citizens, as opposed to British subjects, the following year.
Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent advised Queen Elizabeth II days into her reign in 1952 to appoint Vincent Massey as the first Canadian-born Governor General. Every Governor General before was British; every governor general since has been Canadian.
Neither Harry or Meghan have a felony, DUI or otherwise. Whatever the platitudes about moving to Canada, having a felony would be a considerable concern.
Markle did have the distinction of spending $20 bills in Canada with the picture of her future grandmother-in-law.
Staying slightly more in the United Kingdom would be a warm gesture to the royals and make living in Canada a lot easier. I would be willing to live in their place in the 6 months where they don't live in Canada.
The Canadian media will be a bit star struck at the beginning. They won't be as awful as the British tabloids have been, especially to Markle and her late mother-in-law, Princess Diana of Wales.
Markle has enough time spent in Canada so the royal family doesn't need this blog to help them. They can read about Canada at CanadianCrossing.com with almost next to nothing about them.
photo credit: Facebook/Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, Vancouver video credit: Daily Show with Trevor Noah/Comedy Central
"If people aren't watching, then it doesn't matter."
Tatiana Maslany finally got on The Daily Show well after her success on Orphan Black. Maslany was promoting her current work in the Broadway play Network based on the 1976 film written by Paddy Chayefsky.
Maslany plays television executive Diana Christensen, the role Faye Dunaway had in the film. Bryan Cranston plays Howard Beale in the Broadway version.
"It's about fake news. It's about the way entertainment and news have become fused and the line is blurry and the people that we let go on television and speak and let their beliefs be what we then ingest."
Trevor Noah also referred back to her work and many accents on Orphan Black. Noah resorted to the stereotypical question about whether Maslany would be bored playing only one character.
Maslany was on the program to promote her role in the Nicole Kidman film Destroyer. The film looks pretty intense. Maslany joked that she did a lot of drugs while filming Destroyer.
Noah pointed out that Maslany is drawn to characters that nobody would want to play and have to find the human side.
At press time, there is no extended interview with Maslany. If that changes, this article will be updated. Last week, Noah had lost his voice so he had help from the correspondents. Noah had no trouble with his voice on Monday.
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah airs on Comedy Central in the United States and the Comedy Network and CTV in Canada.
video and photo credit: Comedy Central/The Daily Show with Trevor Noah Twitter capture: @tatianamaslany
The influx of refugees from the United States into Canada made headlines in 2017 but the rush north hasn't subsidized even if the headlines have disappeared. The Daily Show with Trevor Noah decided to tell that story in 2018.
Desi Lydec took the audience to the most dominant crossing where 90% of the refugees are crossing: at the point about 25 miles (40 km) north of Plattsburgh, NY into Quebec.
The audience got to follow the exact path in the preferred form of transportation, the same way a lot of refugees get to the crossing. The visual was very enlightening.
Lydec points out that 70-80 people cross each day at the illegal point on a dead-end road. The number of overall refugees stands at 20,000 in 2017.
As the cab comes up to the border, Lydec jokes and asks if that is Toronto. Even the cab driver knows it's not Toronto. The crossing is near Hemmingford, Quebec, rather close to Montréal.
Lydec said since the spot has so many crossings, there is now a permanent presence that she refers to as the "world's largest birdhouse."
"This is not a legal point of entry into Canada. If you want to enter into Canada, you have to go through Canadian Customs." — from the police on the Canadian side. The segment points out that the officers are speaking Canadian.
Lydec identifies a quirk in Canadian law that requires the refugees to cross at a point that isn't a border crossing. The quirk comes in the Safe Third Country Agreement between the two countries that requires refugees to make a claim in the first country where they arrive.
According to the agreement, if a refugee is in the United States and then crosses into Canada, if that refugee crosses at an official border crossing, the refugee is automatically returned to the United States. Canadian law isn't preventing this; the Safe Third Country Agreement requires these tactics to get around the law.
Yes, the Daily Show is a comedy program but the U.S. audience needs to understand the role of its country as why this is happening.
Lydec takes the story like a jilted lover where America used to be the place where refugees would come and now that distinction goes to Canada. Or as Lydec puts it, "if mayonnaise was a country."
The show played a clip of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne welcoming Syrian refugees with Trudeau saying, "you're safe at home now." Lydec teasingly refers to Trudeau as Prime Minister Jon Snow from Game of Thrones.
When she talks to Armstrong from northeastern Nigeria, you get the impression that he understands that his family's best chance is Canada and not the United States. "America is a great country. But, with the way things are right now, we need a better life for ourselves," Armstrong said. "You're hoping for better things in Canada," Lydec replied. "Canada has opportunity," Armstrong said.
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah airs on Comedy Central in the United States as well as CTV and the Comedy Channel in Canada.
video and photo credit: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
Daily Show fans might have wondered why P.K. Subban was on the program. There was no book or film or current project to promote. But the Daily Show with Trevor Noah was a good opportunity for the non-hockey world to see the kind of person Subban has been.
Noah started with the $10 million donation to the Children's Hospital in Montréal. Subban mentioned Montréal specifically, Noah didn't. Noah asked Subban if he accidentally added an extra 0.
Subban noted that the hospital people came down the (Highway) 401 to his house and he had no hesitation in signing the papers. The rest of the interview on TV focused on the P.K.'s Blue Line Buddies program in Nashville matching underprivileged children and police officers in Nashville.
The extended interview delved more into how the Subban family got into hockey. Subban talked about how his father moved from Jamaica to Sudbury, Ontario when he was 12. His father grew up in a French neighborhood, so the Montréal Canadiens were big as were the Sudbury Wolves.
Noah pointed out that the Montréal Canadiens is not a creative name.
Subban talked about the homemade ice rinks and how his mother gave his father grief over the high hydro bills. Hydro bills in Canada are called electricity bills in the U.S. The oldest Subban gave a shout out to his brother Malcolm, who has played in the NHL, and Jordan, who is on his way up to the NHL.
Noah also brought up the turmoil over the trade from Montréal.
If you watched the interview on TV, please watch the extended interview shown above. There is very little Canadian content in the condensed version that aired on TV.
Subban was in New York City since the Predators were in New Jersey last night.
The Daily Show appearance would have been more intriguing if Subban was still in Montréal. The lopsided trade feels even more ridiculous with Shea Weber out injured, Subban going to the All-Star Game again, and the Canadiens very unlikely to make the playoffs this spring.
"We live in a world where there are always risks. And the question is how much do you want to live in fear of those risks. The best counter to the kind of radicalization and marginalization that we've seen in other parts of the world is to create an inclusive society where everyone, including and especially Muslim Canadians, have every opportunity to succeed just like anybody else." — Justin Trudeau on "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah"
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah played up its story on Syrian refugees in Canada as the "Battle of North America" with Hasan Minhaj vs. Justin Trudeau. We definitely saw parallels to the "60 Minutes" story on Trudeau.
An interview in the Parliament library, just like when Lara Logan talked to the prime minister in the library. The battle involving Minhaj and Trudeau with boxing gloves and trunks, just like Logan's trip to the Montréal gym where Trudeau boxes and showing highlights from the charity fight with Conservative Senator Patrick Brazeau.
The Daily Show doing a story on the Syrian refugees is nice, but a bit surprising. With Trevor Noah as host, Canada has drifted into the ether on The Daily Show. Noah did say earlier this month that he is "completely in love" with Trudeau. Maybe this is a turning point.
Minhaj highlighted the paranoia that passes for "information" on Fox "News" Channel. "There's very very little that we can do to prevent the problem of refugees permeating our border and coming in. It's very very scary," said Andrea Tantaros. "Thousands of Syrian refugees entering Canada will sneak across the U.S. border. Some of them will be ISIS supporters," said an unidentified FNC contributor.
The refugees running from the Syrian civil war are against ISIS because of the damage to their lives. Canada understands this; some in the U.S. do not. In Canada, there was a backlash because the Liberals weren't fast enough in getting 25,000 refugees to come by Christmas, settling for February to reach the goal. Minhaj pointed out that the 25,000 mark is roughly 23,000 more than the U.S. has brought into the country.
Minhaj talked to a few Canadians who were "more pissed off than any Canadians I had ever seen." Of course, they were upset because they feel more refugees should be coming into Canada. He noted the Private Sponsorship of Refugees Program allows groups of 5 of more people to raise money to bring in refugees. Private sponsorship has accounted for about 10,000 of the refugees.
In true Daily Show style, Minhaj played up the exaggerated threat. One of the women in the group responded, "We wouldn't blame all Syrians for that one Syrian. We don't blame all Americans for Donald Trump." That line got applause from The Daily Show studio audience watching the story.
The false perception that the Canadian border was a concern after 9/11 was slammed by Minhaj's facts. He said since 9/11, 0 terrorists have been caught crossing the border. If you go back almost 20 years: 2 have tried, and 1 of them was a refugee. Sure, he was caught and is serving 2 consecutive life sentences. Minhaj said instead of a 0% chance, the chances went up to 0.00019%.
"One of the great things about Canadian culture is we figured out that it's done by addition. So you take flavors and perspectives and experiences of the world and you create something better than the sum of its parts," said the prime minister during the interview.
Minhaj also talked to a Syrian refugee family in Ottawa. He is a dentist, his wife studied English literature. "I want to say thank you to Canada," said the wife. "Canada is my dream come true. The biggest difference is the safety we feel here."
She explained that not everybody in Syria is a terrorist. There are many good people in the country who don't like the war and don't like ISIS.
We saw clips of Trudeau greeting Syrian refugees and an exchange in a Tim Hortons with Canadians welcoming the refugees to Canada. That would have been a good detail for the segment to mention since that might not have been clear from the clips.
Minhaj borrowed a bit from the Barack Obama script for when Trudeau visited Washington for the White House State Dinner. He came up with a fake Stanley Cup as an incentive to promise not to accept any more refugees. Trudeau stated the obvious that it wasn't the Stanley Cup but "we're going to earn this fair and square next year."
The segment made an analogy with a "terrorist threat" since Nickleback released the album "Silver Side Up" on September 11, 2001. Trudeau mildly defended the band, a subject of scorn on both sides of the border.
The best/worst stereotype probably had to go with the idea of terrorists riding moose in an attempt to cross the border.
The Daily Show with Trevor Noah runs on Comedy Central in the United States and the Comedy Channel and CTV in Canada.
videos credit: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah photo credit: The Daily Show with Trevor Noah
If Tom Mulcair had won in October, the United States might still have had a White House State Dinner in his honour. But you imagine that the response wouldn't be quite at the level we've seen in the last few days with Trudeaumania 2.0.
Trevor Noah and "The Daily Show with Trevor Noah" had a bit of fun with that notion Thursday night. Noah and his team took the superficial elements of Justin Trudeau's attractiveness and applied them to his actual policies.
They played the "60 Minutes" clip of Trudeau going through all his previous jobs, cuddling with pandas at the Toronto Zoo, the boxing match where he defeated Patrick Brazeau, and finally, how Trudeau accepted 25,000 Syrian refugees.
The visual is Noah throwing red panties in the air and then eventually a red bra.
Noah was fascinated with the fact that Google is now autocompleting "move to" with "move to Canada."
With the State Dinner, he noted that a "Canada Party is respectful and ends promptly at 10:30 on the dot." That might seem like a stereotype but Canadians seriously know how to party with a 2-4.
Noah did take a shot at the differences in education. The screen listed rankings based on math and science at age 15 with Canada at number 10 and the USA all the way down at number 28.
"Are Canadian voters just electing people straight out of The Expendables?"
Noah showed the shot of Trudeau and Brazeau side-by-side at the weigh-in before the charity fight. His reaction about Brazeau was that he should be guarding the door at a strip club.
Canadians know that senators are not elected, and that Brazeau has been a disgrace on several levels in his time in the Canadian Senate.
This is only the second time that the newest version of The Daily Show has done a segment on Canada. The show spent a few minutes on the Canadian election last fall. Click here to see that video.
The take on the prime minster's visit to Washington wasn't the only Canadian flavour on The Daily Show this week. Ellen Page was Noah's guest on Tuesday night.
They talked about Page's new show "Gaycation" on Viceland that explores how the LGBTQ community is treated around the world.
While catching up with what Ellen Page is doing is very cool, we miss the interaction with Canada. To be fair, they did mention the brief conversation between current Canadian Ellen Page and former Canadian Ted Cruz, though they didn't mention the Canadian connection.
We didn't expect them to talk about one of her latest films: "Into the Forest" with Evan Rachel Wood from Canadian director Patricia Rozema, though we wish they had mentioned the film.
The previous version of The Daily Show as well as brother show Colbert Report spent a lot of time on Page and her Canadian identity.
With Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Washington, and Americans interested in Canada this week, let's let Page sum up her fellow Canadians.
"There's a little more camaraderie of spirit, a little less fear, and take care of each other a bit more."
In that interview, Stewart noted that Canadians are "kind, down-to-earth, honest" and had glowing words for Page's home province of Nova Scotia.
"This is not to offend people in Canada who live in other areas, maybe the most beautiful area of Canada. It's pretty gorgeous."
To put you in the mood, here are some Ellen Page stories we've written, including those interviews.
Samantha Bee, the longest standing reporter on The Daily Show, was definitely one of the early contenders to replace Jon Stewart in the role. The consolation for Bee not getting the position was that she would get her own show on TBS.
After seeing the first 2 episodes of "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee," we know Comedy Central made a mistake by not picking Bee as the new host and TBS made a mistake by only having a weekly airing.
The second episode benefited from the timing of the death of Antonin Scalia, especially since The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and The Nightly Show were on vacation. Mocking the panic buttons from the press, Bee noted calmly that there is a provision in the Constitution for replacing Supreme Court justices.
The opening segment ended with Bee agreeing with Trump and feeling huge remorse. "OK, listen up creamsicle! We had a deal. You open your face hole, garbage spills out, I make jokes, I get to keep my comedy job. You're not allowed to make sense!"
In the first episode, Bee went off on a Kansas state senator Mitch Holmes, who wrote a dress code for the state capital, but only for women. Like Noah has an easier time with comedy on African-American issues, Bee does have a leg up on these types of stories.
The show is similar in format to The Daily Show. Like Noah, Bee does the anchoring standing up, though she has a pseudo podium that works well for her. The first 2 segments have been in studio where the final segment has been a field piece. The interview is definitely not missed on this show.
The first field piece was following around Jeb! like a German documentary. The piece was warm and funny; the pace had tones of the old old Daily Show feel to field pieces circa mid-2000s. The story almost felt like it belonged on Bravo back when Bravo actually showed arts programming.
The second field piece was the first of 2 parts on Bee actually traveling to Jordan to talk to Syrian refugees. We even saw part of the video where Canadians warmly welcomed Syrian refugees to Canada. Nice show of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with Syrian refugees once they came to Canada. The snark was saved for the politicians and pundits trying to scare people about Syrian refugees.
Admittedly, Bee worked on field pieces for The Daily Show for 12 years, but you feel this warm and happy, informed and entertained feeling that often is missing from the current crop on Comedy Central.
The show has some of the anger and angst from the old program, and doesn't sound any different than what we heard from John Oliver or Jon Stewart. The whole "female host" gets dealt with in the open to the show, though hopefully with time, that will disappear as humor isn't restricted to gender.
Bee wraps up the show with great appreciation for the audience. In the second episode, Bee did say a segment on women in the workplace had to be postponed because of the Scalia death story, so Scalia lived as he died, interfering in women's plans. The "Colbert Report" suffered from not having a good way to end the show most nights. An extra joke at the end is worth sitting through the last commercial break.
Bee has the advantage of working on this type of a show for 12 years, but needs to find her own voice. You can already see where this is heading and we want to be along for the ride.
"Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" airs Monday nights at 10:30 pm Eastern on TBS in the United States and in Canada on The Comedy Network. That makes for one of the few Canadians to have a late-night talk show in Canada, even if the show pokes fun at the United States and is not produced with Canada in mind.
In 2014, Bee got a chance to host, well, co-host part of The Daily Show along with her husband, Jason Jones. Bee and Jones could have had some fun co-hosting The Daily Show. We understand the reason (millennials) why Comedy Central, with Jon Stewart's blessing, went with Trevor Noah (millennials) but Noah is more likely to pull punches where a verbal joust is needed. While Bee and Jones hosted only one Daily Show, you definitely saw the potential.
Even if you are fast-forwarding through the commercial breaks, you can't miss the promos for "The Detour," the family comedy produced by Bee and her husband Jason Jones and starring Jones. The scene where Jones and his TV wife explain sex was painfully true, a bit over the top, and truly hilarious. And that was in the promo. "The Detour" premieres April 11 on TBS.
Bee has proven, even in 2 episodes, that she doesn't need a co-anchor or a desk. She brings just enough of the old Daily Show magic, a bit more swearing, and a Canadian perspective to U.S. and world events.
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Canada has a rich history of comedy, yet very few late-night talk shows north of the border. The Hour with George Stroumboulopoulos is the most obvious recent example. That was more of a talk show with very little comedy.
"Ed & Red's Night Party" ran on City TV from 1995-2008. Mike Bullard had a good run with Open Mike on CTV from 1997-2003 and his short-lived Global show from 2003-2004.
To be fair, CBC airs political humour with "This Hour Has 22 Minutes," though that is only 30 minutes per week. "Tout le monde en parle" certainly counts as an influential talk show on Radio-Canada. The Canadian version has been around since 2004, but is only on once a week. While the influence is strong in Quebec and French-speaking populations, not many from English Canada watch the show.
Late night is a good place to test out new talent. Currently, CBC runs Coronation Street reruns after the late local news followed by reruns of CBC prime time shows, past and present. CTV and Global would rather run late-night American shows. There is great potential for late-night Canadian TV success.
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Canadians don't often get to host a late-night show in the United States. The obvious reference is to "Thicke of the Night" which, despite the many jokes about the show, lasted 10 months from the fall of 1983 to the summer of 1984.
Even though your humble narrator was alive in those days, I don't remember seeing this show. Watching YouTube clips did not bring back any memories.
Research tells us that Richard Belzer, Arsenio Hall, and Gilbert Gottfried, among others, contributed to the show. So the program couldn't have been that bad, though parts of it were that bad.
Thicke got the opportunity to do the nighttime show based on the success of his daytime show, the appropriately named "The Alan Thicke Show" that ran on CTV from 1980-1983.
To be fair, part of why the jokes continue about the show that apparently few watched is that shortly after the run, Thicke enjoyed sitcom success with "Growing Pains." Hard to make fun of someone that few would have remembered. Also, Thicke has had a good sense of humor about the nighttime show and his career. His work on "How I Met Your Mother" was an opportunity to tie in with the Canadian references on the program.
The show was produced by Metromedia and syndicated on over-the-air stations. While syndication was very popular back then, late night was more difficult since most stations set their own lineups, so it really depended on where you live as to when the show would come on the air.
Tom Green had a late-night show on MTV that lasted about 15 months of new episodes in 1999 and 2000, and was a carryover from his show in Canada that first aired on Rogers Television 22 in Ottawa and late on The Comedy Network. The show was briefly revived in 2003 as "The New Tom Green Show."
George Stroumboulopoulos did a variation on The Hour on CNN that was handled so poorly by the U.S. cable news outlet that you never knew from week to week whether an episode would actually air.
My love for Canada is enough on Valentine's Day, but my love for Canadian women also runs deep.
Though I have written about my favourite Canadian women in recent years, I would love to find a Canadian woman who appreciates my love for her and her native country, and she doesn't have to be famous.
While I certainly don't want to ignore beautiful Canadian women on this special day, I thought I would try a different direction to celebrate my love for Canada in 2016 from stories over the previous year. Happy Valentine's Day!!
I love Cosima and Delphine and I will miss them in Season 4 of "Orphan Black" coming this April. To be honest, there wasn't much of the pair in Season 3. Tatiana Maslany and Evelyne Brochu gave us a really cute couple of 2 smart women who were similar and opposite at the same time. Cosima was a laid-lack American scientist; Delphine was French-Canadian who was also a scientist, tough but vulnerable.
I don't consider myself attached to onscreen couples of any combination, but the way they interacted was as believable as any couple I've seen on television. Their relationship felt real and honest and very comfortable.
The fact that the show and actors are Canadian made their relationship more cool because the portrayal wasn't self-conscious like some American portrayals might be, and the mix of English and French was a nice contrast to the language conflicts in the Canadian culture.
I realize that Cosima and Shay make their own version of a cute couple: Coshay, but I will always be Team Cophine.
I had a dream that I somehow became a Canadian senator, and thought "This is the perfect job for me." I like to travel throughout Canada, talk to people, listen to them, learn, do research, and debate over potential legislation to improve the lives of Canadians.
I enjoy being a journalist and enjoy writing. But I really thought being a senator would be well-suited to my interests and talents.
I respect that being a Canadian citizen is important to being a senator and not having citizenship in another country is also crucial. Surprisingly, the United States doesn't have this requirement since Canadian citizen Ted Cruz was elected to the U.S. Senate.
Even the idea of being unelected as a Canadian senator had some appeal: you could skip right to the government part without having to worry about fundraising or posterior kissing.
I do care about Canada that much that I would truly kick tail as a senator, and I really would have been unbiased to any Canadian political party.
Newfoundland had been this mysterious land, even after visiting its Maritime cousins in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The half-hour ahead time zone added to that novelty, but the attraction was going to be the warm and friendly nature of the natives from The Rock.
The people of Newfoundland turned out to be even friendlier than I had imagined. The couple that shared the dinner table in Petty Harbour. The woman who gave a tour for one of the House of Assembly, talked about the upcoming provincial election, and even offered a homemade chocolate chip cookie. The way this couple was ready to defend a pregnant lady when there was a potential fight in a restaurant. The customs officer who gave me travel tips to the province when I landed in Toronto.
The beauty and scenery, the unusual and amazing food were tremendous, but the people of Newfoundland were a true treasure. Getting to St. John's can be a bit out there in terms of travel but you will be glad you arrived.
This wasn't the best year for Canadian film. One of my favourite films from this year's Windsor International Film Festival — "Elephant Song" — came out in 2014. But the crowd at the festival and in Windsor make you feel good over being obsessed with film, especially Canadian film.
I would love to write more about Canadian film in this blog, and where I am, Canadian film doesn't come up much in discussion. In the Windsor festival, they often talk about films from other countries, including the United States. But they embrace my love for Canadian film.
The festival volunteers are always amazing and helpful. The quest for amazing film around the world grows exponentially each year. And the festival organizers and fans are spot-on in determining films that later on win Golden Globes and Oscars.
Vacationing in Windsor in November is not rational, but hanging out with these people to watch truly great films makes all the sense in the world.
So this wasn't the smoothest election in Canadian history. The 78-day journey felt a bit long, though not by American standards. And there was some concern that citizens would be denied the right to vote.
In the end, the turnout was higher than it had been, and Canada picked a new direction for the country. The increased interest, especially among young people and those from First Nations, was very hopeful for democracy everywhere. If the Liberals do make government more open and transparent, especially at the end of their run, then the 2015 election will hold even more significance.
This would be more of a valentine if either a) Canada Screens was available outside Canada and b) I lived in Canada. Increasing potential eyeballs to great Canadian films is something we believe in here at CanadianCrossing.com. Access to Canadian film, even in Canada, is difficult, especially if you don't live in Toronto. The price point is higher than the Netflix or Crave TV type purchases, but the expense of going out to see a film is still more than the prices offered by Canada Screens.
We knew that when the "Colbert Report" was leave the air and Jon Stewart would leave "The Daily Show" that the comedy references about Canada would drop off significantly. Canada is still funny but fewer funnier eyes are watching.
Trevor Noah has to worry about treading water much less to try and make a joke about Canada. Hell, Noah is still learning how the United States works.
Colbert is still alive with his CBS show but opportunities to mock Canada are fewer and much farther from his show on Comedy Central. We still have the memories of Colbert, Stewart, Samantha Bee, and Jason Jones. Bee's new comedy show, "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" makes its TBS debut this month. We'll have to wait and see if Bee can give us some Canadian humour, full frontal of course.
Part of why I started CanadianCrossing.com is that Americans don't know much about Canada. There was a reason why the 3 Jeopardy contestants waited until the end of Double Jeopardy to answer the category of Canadian cities.
The questions on the board were not easy to the average American (I did get them all correct), and Sergeant First Class Randy Pike lost $8200 in about 90 seconds.
At least Pike tried when he could, and did name other Canadian cities in his 3 wrong answers. The other 2 questions got no answer from Pike. Strategy prohibited the other contestants from answering, but chances are they didn't know either.
We know Alex Trebek knew the answers, because, well, he's Canadian.
For those who remember the Daily Show before Jon Stewart had his name attached to the show, Craig Kilborn used to do a segment called "5 Questions."
The segment consisted of asking odd questions that often related to an element in the career of the guest that day. Some questions were poignant, some had virtually no answer in a silly way. The questions and answers were designed to be funny not terribly revealing.
Stephen Harper has his own version of "5 Questions" on the campaign trail. Unlike the Daily Show guests, people are trying to get real answers to tough questions.
Harper will only take 5 questions at each event. This strategy cuts down significantly on follow-up questions, such as news stemming from the Mike Duffy trial. Since Harper is also answering questions in English and French, essentially Harper could be answering the same question in two languages and have that count as 2 different questions. We saw this at the press conference when Harper called the election.
You might be asking, "What if one of the questions is about why you only take 5 questions? Does that count as a question?" Yes, and yes. And that's 2 questions.
Canadian Press reporter Andy Blatchford did recently ask: "Why do you only take five questions at your campaign events?"
Harper's answer:
"I think you're all very aware of how we've structured our press conferences. This is a long-standing policy, it was cleared with everybody. And what's important to me is that we're able to answer a range of questions on a broad range of subjects. That's why every day I speak to a different topic."
5 questions is not much of a range, especially in 2 languages.
Local reporters get to participate in these events. However, local reporters only get to ask 1 of the 5 questions, and that question has to be local.
At that same press conference where Blatchford spoke up, there were only 4 questions. Craig Kilborn never would have done that. According to the report, there were only 3 national reporters there so only 3 questions were asked.
Harper limiting himself to 5 Questions isn't new in that he did the same thing in 2011. And Harper got a majority from that election.
We are happy to criticize any politician of any party who doesn't answer or severely restricts answering of questions from journalists. And there are times when Tom Mulcair and Justin Trudeau may take fewer than 5 questions or 0 questions. But there are also times when Mulcair and Trudeau may take more than 5 questions. Elizabeth May would likely enjoy taking more than 5 questions.
The arbitrary nature of 5 Questions was funny with Craig Kilborn. When Stephen Harper does it in an election cycle … again, it's sad for democracy.
