Canadian Crossing

2022 Canada Day notebook

Today is the 155th anniversary of the establishment of the Dominion of Canada with Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia. The Dominion of Canada would keep the Union Jack for almost 100 years after the creation of Canada. Older people remember when July 1 was called Dominion Day.

We focus in on a few stories of note in our Canada Day notebook. Celebrate safe, perhaps with a Caesar and a Nanaimo bar.

Canada to finally lift pre-arrival COVID-19 tests for air and land border crossings

CanadianCrossing.com border crossings coverage

American travelers to Canada still need to use the ArriveCan app. This is true for land border crossings, something of great concern for border town mayors on the Canadian side. Ugh.

We have noted the significant difference in naming Kraft Macaroni and Cheese (U.S.) versus KD or Kraft Dinner (Canada). The U.S. version will soon change to Kraft Mac and Cheese.

As far as we know, there is no inherent difference between the products, though the Canadian version is likely made with better made Canadian cheese.

There is a grand difference in Canadian accouterments with KD such as hot dogs and ketchup.

You can see the Canadian version (left) or the new U.S. version (below). Which looks better to eat?

Barenaked Ladies mentioned Kraft dinner in the song If I Had a Million Dollars from the Gordon album from 1992.

We wouldn't have to eat Kraft dinner / But we would eat Kraft dinner / Of course we would we'd just eat more / And buy really expensive ketchups with it / That's right all the fanciest Dijon ketchups mmm mmm

If I were eating Kraft Dinner in Canada, I might use Canadian-made French's ketchup.

Remember the whole French-Heinz ketchup battle? Funny part is that Kraft and Heinz are now corporately married

Feeling more nostalgic than hungry, here is the (temporarily) reunited Barenaked Ladies performing that song at the 2018 Junos after being inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame.

Canadian cities are legalizing alcohol in parks (Cross Country Checkup from CBC Radio One)

There are 2 primary images of public drinking. People leisurely drinking wine with a picnic in a park. People drinking out of bottles in paper bags. People want the former but not the latter.

The pandemic set limits on drinking because of the viability of crowded bars being open.

Your humble narrator has seen people in Amsterdam and Rome drinking outside and having that be not a big deal.

Being able to selective drink in public would bring Canada closer to its European cousins and away from the puritanical United States.

We are big fans of @brittlestar, and we are honoured that he sent us a video tribute as Canuckle wraps up! CHECK IT OUT ⬇️🇨🇦👍 #ThankYouEh pic.twitter.com/MNpgxAsPN0

— Canuckle (@CanuckleGame) June 27, 2022

We meant to write about Canuckle, the Canadian version of Wordle. Same concept: 5 letter word, 6 guesses. The Canuckle word would have some tie to Canada. Some days, the word was fun. Other days, words such as "brier" threw me off.

Turns out today is the last Canuckle, at least for now. As you may know from our Twitter feed, we love playing Canuckle. Have been glad to give it some love and hopefully encourage others to learn a bit about Canada through guessing the words. The correct letters showed up in red, which was also cool.

Today's game is Game 142 on Canada Day. You can play the previous games through its archives.

If we get news of a comeback, we would be thrilled to pass that information along to our readers.

Also fans of Brittlestar, if you aren't following him. Really good Canadian sensibility.

2022 CFL Week 4 preview

The CFL is playing on and around Canada Day for the first time since 2019. The BC Lions were in Ottawa, the nation's capital, last night. The Edmonton Elks are in Hamilton tonight to take on the Tiger-Cats. The league is even playing on the night of the U.S. holiday yet the game is not on U.S. TV. Tonight's game is on ESPN+. All the games are on TSN in Canada.

The Toronto Blue Jays are at home for Canada Day, unlike Victoria Day. The team plays Game 2 of a 5-game series against Tampa Bay. Today's game has a 3:07 pm EDT start. Rogers Sportsnet has the game in Canada. The MLB Network has this as the backup game in the United States, meaning Boston and Chicago. The U.S. channel has been reluctant to use the Rogers Sportsnet feed, opting to use YES (Yankees) and NESN (Red Sox), even in Toronto.

Former Toronto Raptors star guard Kyle Lowry will have a street named after him in Toronto. The street will be at Don Mills Crossing, a new development in the northeast section of Toronto. We just celebrated 3 years since the Raptors won the 2019 NBA title.

The Athletic reported earlier this week that Rogers Sportsnet is ending Hometown Hockey after 8 seasons. The pandemic didn't help the situation. The move to Monday night was a noble idea but that didn't help as well. If yyzsportsmedia.com is correct, this is the first of many Rogers Sportsnet changes to NHL coverage in October. 

The Grand Seduction matches up well with Quebecois version

You might have seen The Grand Seduction (2013), the story of a small fishing village that has to draw in a doctor and convince that doctor to stay.

You might have seen La Grande Séduction | Seducing Dr. Lewis, the original Ken Scott film (2003) that is the same story though set in Quebec rather than Newfoundland. Scott co-wrote the English language version of the film.

If you are in Charlottetown this summer, you can catch the new musical Tell Tale Harbour, based on the Quebecois film La Grande Séduction.

Alan Doyle of the band Great Big Sea is in the production. You may remember his acting skills on display in Republic of Doyle (no relation). You can listen to Doyle with fellow Newfoundlander Tom Power recently on Q on CBC Radio One.

The films were pretty similar. Music from that part of the world is amazing. 2 musicals from Newfoundland: Tell Tale Harbour on top of Come From Away.

Thanks so much! What a time we’re having. https://t.co/38HBeuAJIo

— Alan Doyle (@alanthomasdoyle) June 24, 2022

Improving train travel options between the United States and Canada

2022 Canadian TV upfronts highlights

Season 2 of the Canadian TV show Departure involves a high-speed train from Toronto to Chicago. The concept of a high-speed ground option between those cities is pure fiction. Traveling from Toronto to Windsor would involve a infrequent train not much faster than a bus. Getting from Windsor to Detroit is complicated. Then there is the slow magic of Amtrak from Detroit to Chicago.

In the opening episode, the high-speed train flows smoothly out of Union Station in Toronto, flows through southern Ontario, and crosses some mythical structure over the Detroit River. The train stops to check passports, something that is often done in Canada before boarding a plane to the United States.

Traveling from Rome to Florence and back on high speed trains was an absolute joy. Getting from Brussels, Belgium to London, England in 121 minutes, like clockwork, was wonderful. That same joy should be found on trains from Toronto to Detroit and Chicago.

The Maple Leaf Train from Toronto-New York City, not nearly as fast, is back in business. The ViaRail service from Windsor to Toronto have recently returned to normal capacity, now 5 trains a day. Megabus is increasing U.S. bus service from Toronto as well as to other Canadian destinations such as Ottawa, Kingston, and Montréal. Megabus should look into a Windsor-London-Toronto route.

I discovered Cross Country Checkup many years ago on CBC Radio. This was in a time where I would be in Detroit, listening to CBC Radio One on AM 1550 (now on FM 97.5). Rex Murphy was the host back then.

The show had been in more capable hands with Duncan McCue and lately with Ian Hanomansing. Turns out Hanomansing is now the permanent host of Cross Country Checkup. He hosts the show from Vancouver where he anchors The National on Friday and Sunday.

The program airs Sundays live coast to coast to coast at 4 pm Eastern, 1 pm Pacific, and 5:30 pm Newfoundland time.

You can listen to the program on the CBC Listen app or download the podcast version.

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian TV coverage

CanadianCrossing.com television coverage

NBC is dragging out Transplant to the middle of summer. There is the end in sight. The season finale airs July 16 at 8 pm EDT. Hopefully, Season 3 is a smoother presentation.

Season 2 started 2 months after the CTV premiere in January. NBC gave the show a terrible timeslot and lifted the show for the May sweeps period.

The CW will run the final season of Coroner when the fall starts, but keep in mind that the CW starts fall when the weather is very warm.

CanadianCrossing.com film coverage

Summarizing Kenneth Welsh's acting career would fall embarrassing short. Welsh, who passed away on May 5, had a storied career on both sides of the border. His portrayal of Windom Earle in the U.S. TV show Twin Peaks made a significant impact.

Welsh was enjoyable in recent Canadian films such as Wet Bum (2014) and And the Birds Rained Down | Il pleuvait des oiseaux (2019).

Welsh did 2 episodes of Twitch City and 3 episodes of Due South. He played himself in an episode of Slings & Arrows. Welsh even appears in the final episode of the new season of Kids in the Hall.

photo credits: CBC News; Kraft Heinz Canada; Kraft Heinz; CBC Radio
Twitter captures: @CanuckleGame; @alanthomasdoyle

Youngest Canadian Juno nominee encouraging people to try new foods

The Junos, celebrating Canadian music, is a lofty goal for most Canadian musicians and singers. To get a Juno nomination is impressive.

Imagine being 4 years old and getting a Juno nomination.

Romeo, offspring of Walk Off the Earth members Sarah Blackwood and Gianni (Luminati) Nicassio, is part of a project called Romeo Eats. There are lots of videos where Romeo tries new foods. The family released the album Walk Off the Earth & Romeo Eats, Vol. 1.

Our sibling blog, BalanceofFood.com, appreciates the difficulty of trying new foods. They go more into depth on the project and what that could mean for enjoying food variety.

CanadianCrossing.com BalanceofFood.com coverage

CanadianCrossing.com food and drink coverage

You can find their videos on YouTube.

video and photo credit: YouTube/RomeoEats

CUSMA/USMCA punishes Canada for wanting to export baby formula

That media talks about baby formula shortage w/o knowing whats going on is amazing. Trump's USMCA restricted imports of formula from Canada, so we imported no formula from Canada in 2021, leaving us vulnerable to domestic shock. The shock hit when Abbott plant was contaminated.

— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) May 14, 2022

The United States has baby formula shortages. Canada makes baby formula and would want to increase its exports to the United States and please a top trading partner.

Too bad the dreaded, horrible, terrible USMCA (CUSMA) made this impossible.

From Fortune magazine:

"As part of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), negotiated by President Donald Trump to replace the North America Free Trade Agreement in July 2020, Canada agreed to impose an additional surcharge of $3/kg if the total volume of its global formula exports—not just exports to the U.S.—broke a certain threshold. That threshold is currently set at 40,480 metric tons for the current "dairy year" of August 1 2021 to July 31 2022.

"The new duties seemingly closed off Canada as a source of infant formula. The U.S. imported a grand total of zero tons of baby formula from its nothern (sic) neighbor in 2021, yet has shipped tons of domestic formula into Canada. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, U.S.-manufactured infant formula made up the largest component of U.S. dairy exports to Canada in 2021, accounting for 22% of all northbound dairy trade."

The crybaby toddler who somehow had a lot of power was rather vindictive toward Canada on multiple fronts. We didn't factor in baby formula.

Abbott accounts for nearly half of the domestic production of the U.S. baby formula market. The U.S. makes 98% of its formula domestically.

That is a problem with a February recall of Abbott Nutrition formula contaminated with bacteria from its Sturgis, MI factory. 4 infants became sick with bacterial infections; 2 of them died.

The irony is that United States standards are much more lax than Europe or Canada in terms of the quality of the formula. This isn't a matter of Canada or Europe formula meeting those standards because their formula exceeds the U.S. standards.

Podcast: Sarah Palin, Michelle Obama, and the politics of breastfeeding (BalanceofFood.com)

The United States lags behind the Western World on maternal elements, such as leave. Improved standards for women might encourage more breastfeeding. As much as we (and our sibling blog, BalanceofFood.com) endorse breastfeeding, there is a reality for baby formula that needs to be addressed.

Cheap pizza comes to Canada but at what cost

Canada milk producers threatened with invasion of cheaper American milk

Canadian milk holds a higher standard on milk, not allowing recombinant bovine somatotropin (rBST), an artificial growth hormone allowed in American milk. The anger by the crybaby toddler is over this difference in milk. If this were a baby formula shortage in Canada, importing formula from the United States would be a concern over bringing rBST into Canada.

Canada secretly passes heavily flawed CUSMA during the COVID-19 corornavirus pandemic

NAFTA 2.0, er, USMCA is a nightmarish trade deal for Canada

The party of the crybaby toddler is the party that is trying to take advantage of the political ramifications of the baby formula shortages. As little as we think of Canadian journalism, U.S. journalism is the grand leader of cluelessness. Kurt Eichenwald being a grand exception as noted in the top of the column.

Balanceoffood.com Canada food policy coverage

Trade deals can be tricky when all involved parties are acting in free will. The CUSMA/USMCA trade talks were a shambles and the complete opposite of an ethical trade deal process. Innocent people get hurt when a trade deal goes this poorly.

Would Americans get an abortion in Canada?

We noted that Americans might drive to Canada to get an abortion. We can't condone, under any circumstances, the illegal importation of any product from Canada into the United States. We can point out that they sell baby formula in Canada.

American mothers who rely on baby formula should be able to access quality products without a monopoly and heavy-handed political tactics.

Twitter capture: @kurteichenwald
photo credit: Dairy Farmers of Canada

Cooking Channel picks up Back in Time for Dinner

The Back in Time for Dinner phenomenon started in the United Kingdom. The CBC ran its own version in 2018. The Canadian version featured a Canadian family with how Canadians ate in each decade from the 1940s through the 1990s.

Host Carlo Rota guided the Campus family: mother Tristan, a registered nurse, father Aaron, a multimedia designer, 18-year-old daughter Valerie, 17-year-old daughter Jessica, and 15-year-old son Robert.

The Canadian version seemed an obvious choice to work its way to the United States, even if that took until late 2021 and early 2022 to arrive on the Cooking Channel.

Canadians had to deal with more abrupt changes, compared to Americans, in their diet during World War II due to war rations. The war also started in 1939 for Canada and most of the countries fighting the war. The United States didn't join the war until after the Pearl Harbor attack in late 1941.

They have to work with kidneys in the early part of the 1940s episode. By they, we mean (sadly) the women. Tristan does the vast majority of the work with occasional help from daughters Valerie and Jessica. Though Aaron does a lot of the cooking in the modern version, he and Robert are banned from helping in the kitchen for the initial episodes.

Meat arrives in the 1950s along with some odd food trends of the day. Reading about how housewives put a salad in a gelatin mold is interesting; watching someone do this offers a broader perspective.

Tristan and Val made yoghurt with a yoghurt maker. They had to do this with conversion in the 1970s episode. This was the time in Canada where the country transitioned from imperial (the U.S. system) to metric.

They figure out converting litres to cups (a litre is slightly more than 4 cups) but had trouble with the temperature of heating the milk. They had difficulty converting 45°C to Fahrenheit. Tristan is a nurse in real life, where you would know that 37°C (98.6°F) is the body temperature. Rota adds a voiceover to say 45°C was 113°F not the figure they got.

The U.S. audience would learn, if they didn't already know, that some Canadians get their milk in a bag.

The ladies also have to work without the modern technology of a dishwasher, as an example.

The Back in Time for Dinner episodes have improvements within the episode so the end of the 1950s episode is closer to 1959 than 1951.

CanadianCrossing.com food and drink coverage

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian TV coverage

CanadianCrossing.com television coverage

Food is a key portion of the program mixed in with history and social impact. Tristan has a surprisingly good attitude toward having to be the dominant cook of the times. Valerie and Jessica are much less enthused to being there. In the 1950s episode, Valerie disappears for most of the episode. Then when she finally returns, Jessica isn't in that scene.

The men have more of a role in the kitchen as the episodes progress. Everyone involved has trouble adjusting to the technology of the past.

The program does present heightened trends as being "everywhere." A lot of people weren't eating quiche in the 1980s.

CanadianCrossing.com CBC coverage

U.S. fans can catch up on previous episodes from the Cooking Channel. The U.S. channel airs the 1990s episode on Thursday at 10 pm Eastern. Canadians can watch the episodes via CBC Gem.

photos credit: Back in Time for Dinner/CBC

Stanley Tucci has plenty of love for Toronto

Full Release with Samantha Bee, the podcast not the TV show, doesn't mention Canada too often. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee loves its sarcastic Canadian references, mostly because the TV show is about comedy and current events.

Stanley Tucci, who has shown his love for Italy thanks to his CNN series Stanley Tucci: Searching For Italy, was on the podcast with Samantha Bee some time ago (a little slow catching up for your humble narrator).

About 10 minutes into the podcast episode, Bee talked about growing up in Toronto around Italian families though not Italian herself. She loved the liveliness of the dinner table in those homes.

"Toronto's really interesting. I love Toronto. Actually, if I were to move back to North America, that's where I would live. ... It's an amazing city."

Tucci said he thinks Toronto has the highest concentration of Italians outside Italy (4th behind São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and New York City). There are Italian pockets in Toronto: College Street West is the most prominent but certainly one of several areas, including Pelmo Park-Humberlea and Maple Leaf as well as Corso Italia on St. Clair Avenue West.

Stanley Tucci — Full Release with Samantha Bee (Earwolf)

Tucci mentioned Brothers, a tiny place near where he was staying to make a film about 4 years ago. Brothers Food & Wine did close in 2020 but that team is behind a new place called Restaurant 20 Victoria. Amusingly, the new space is even tinier than the old establishment.

Bee wraps up the talk about Toronto by asking Tucci about whether he loves Kensington Market. Tucci agrees with how great the neighbourhood and the city is for him.

Samantha Bee might be channeling Anna Maria Tremonti in her new podcast

Where to visit Canada in 2022

CanadianCrossing.com travel coverage

Vancouver gets a lot of love for the weather and outdoor activities. Montréal gets a lot of love for its amazing food and cultural aspects. Toronto doesn't get as much love. Tucci lives in London so maybe he is biased toward Toronto or has done movies in Toronto. Toronto is a great gateway city, especially if you are an American who has never been to Canada.

Despite the food havens that are Vancouver and Montréal, Toronto deserves some travel love for its food and culture options. Toronto is a very cosmopolitan city. Kensington Market is very cool. Travel wherever you want in Canada. Don't dismiss Toronto without a bit of research.

Full Release with Samantha Bee comes out on Tuesdays. Full Frontal with Samantha Bee returns Thursday on TBS and CTV Comedy Channel at 10 pm Eastern.

photo credit: Full Release with Samantha Bee

Canada's role in using seaweed to reduce methane in cows

Seaweed, cows, and Prince Edward Island: the idea of cows eating local seaweed and having that seaweed reduce the impact of methane that comes from both ends of cows.

When your humble narrator first heard the story, that story seemed too good to be true. Further digging showed there is great potential in such a simple solution that would make a sizable impact on climate crisis.

We explored this topic for our sibling blog, BalanceofFood.com, in greater detail.

How seaweed can reduce the methane output from cows (BalanceofFood.com)

Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia also gets a mention in the story.

CanadianCrossing.com food and drink coverage

CanadianCrossing.com science coverage

Your humble narrator has walked on some Prince Edward Island beaches. The seaweed involved came from far western parts of the province, a different area from where my bare feet walked on in the province.

The seaweed is Canadian food in a truest sense. I was thinking of dulse from nearby New Brunswick. Dulse is seaweed that is used in different kinds of food. Dulse is truly a New Brunswick food that I have had and enjoyed. A bit of an acquired taste but worth trying if you are in New Brunswick.

video and photo credit: CBC News

Letterkenny shows the U.S. audience the different ways to make a Caesar

We are in fact drinking Caesars. America you need more clam juice @BaronessIFC @aurorabrowne @carolyntaylord

— Jennifer whalen (@JenniferWhalen) August 3, 2017

Americans call the drink a Bloody Mary. The Canadian Caesar is a similar drink with enough distinctions. IFC seemed confused and transferred that confusion, forcing the Baroness von Sketch Show in 2017 to change the wording in a sketch from "Caesar" to "Bloody Mary." How embarrassing this was for IFC that some untalented programming idiot didn't think people could do an Internet search such as "what is the difference between a Caesar and a Bloody Mary?"

Fortunately, Hulu had no issue with Letterkenny doing an episode devoted to the Caesar in its many forms. By doing nothing, Hulu proved to be smarter than IFC.

The basic difference between the drinks is that the Caesar traditionally uses Clamato juice, an actual product with clam juice and tomato juice as well as high-fructose corn syrup (glucose-fructose in Canada) and MSG. The Caesar usually has more elaborate garnishes than you will find in a Bloody Mary.

We can't vouch for a lot in this Reddit thread but this proves most Americans don't know the difference.

IFC should applaud the unique drink that is a Caesar

Happy Holidays 2021 includes Season 10 of Letterkenny

The New York Times introduces Americans to butter tarts and more Canadian food

Celebrating the Caesar

Even among Canadians, there are variances on what can go in a Caesar. Here are the recipes from Season 10, Episode 2 Dealership.

Hicks
Base	Booze	Rimmers	Boosters	Garnishes
100% clamato juice	3 oz. vodka	lemon juice	dash of Tabasco	celery stick
		celery salt	dash of Worcestershire	dill pickle
		Montréal steak spice	shot of pickle juice	Slim Jim

Hockey players
Base	Booze	Rimmers	Boosters	Garnishes
50% clamato juice	3 oz. vodka	lime juice	Frank's Red hot sauce	dill pickle
50% tomato juice		celery salt	10 dashes of Worcestershire	pickled pepper
		Montréal chicken spice	shot of dill pickle juice	pickled egg

Hard to see a Caesar and not want a Caesar.

— Letterkenny Problems (@LetterkennyProb) May 18, 2019

Skids
Base	Booze	Rimmers	Boosters	Garnishes
50% clamato juice	3 oz. Beefeater gin	soya sauce	horseradish	Baffin Island jumbo cocktail shrimp
50% V-8		celery salt	lemon juice	Salt Spring Island Dungeness crab leg
		lemon pepper	Macarico piri-piri sauce	PEI Malpeque oyster

Women of MoDean's
Base	Booze	Rimmers	Boosters	Garnishes
100% clamato juice	2.5 oz. vodka	Louisiana hot sauce	Slappy Mama hot sauce	jalapeno-stuffed olives
	0.5 oz. moonshine	Old Bay seasoning	spicy horseradish	spicy dill pickle
		Cajun spice	spicy garlic dill pickle juice	black pepper habanero beef jerky

Those are some amazing combinations. The Women of MoDean's went a very spicy route. The use of moonshine was new to me. The Skids scored wonderful points mixing in some V-8. Their garnishes are supreme, very tasty, and extremely Canadian.

The hicks get points for using Montréal steak spice though 100% clamato would be difficult to take. The hockey players added extra protein with a pickled egg though surprised jerky wasn't a garnish. Not sure about Montréal chicken spice; hopefully the spice is from Portuguese chicken from Montréal.

Your humble narrator
Base	Booze	Rimmers	Boosters	Garnishes
100% tomato juice	2 oz. vodka	lime juice	10-12 dashes of Worcestershire	deep fried dill pickle spear
2 oz. clam juice		celery salt	shot of dill pickle juice	singular ketchup chip
		Montréal steak spice	horseradish	buffalo jerky

My arrangement has the taste of clam without the excessive ingredients that take away from the taste. Clam juice is easy to find. My version is weaker on alcohol though the episode did state that 2 oz. was the standard portion. Prefer lime juice to lemon juice. Buffalo jerky is a nod to the Prairies. The ketchup chip is a highly unique flair selection but feels Canadian. (Picture not included.)

CanadianCrossing.com Canadian TV coverage

CanadianCrossing.com television coverage

CanadianCrossing.com food and drink coverage

Both sides of the border can get on board with making a homemade Caesar. Nothing wrong with doing a virgin Caesar if alcohol does not fit into your life. You have some very good designs with which to start enhancing your drink making experience.

Jared Keeso & Jacob Tierney co-wrote the episode. Letterkenny was created by Keeso, developed by Keeso and Tierney, and directed by Tierney (who makes occasional appearances as Glen).

Letterkenny is available on Crave in Canada and Hulu in the United States.

Twitter captures: @JenniferWhalen; @LetterkennyProb
photos credit: Letterkenny/Bell Media

Canadian ads from fall 2021 NHL Center Ice free preview

Welcome to the world of Canadian ads from the fall 2021 NHL Center Ice free preview. This was a breakthrough in that the NHL hadn't started in the fall since 2019 thanks to COVID-19.

The preview only lasted 6 days and the ads aren't as exciting as some great ones in the past. Still, we found a few good ads and are glad to showcase them.

If you want the best in hockey or other sports or any group, you need to be open to all individuals, regardless of boxes to check off on a sheet. Open for inclusion, treating people that you don't know like people that you know.

Scotiabank introduces voices of doubt or uncertainty followed by the certainty of those people on the ice.

P.K. Subban has won gold for Canada in the Olympics, excelled for the Montréal Canadiens, and have truly given back to his community. "This is where we belong." Exactly.

Low-priced Canadian supermarkets is truly a thing, given the high food prices in Canada, even before a pandemic. No Frills is truly no frills. Boring as the colour yellow that dominates the company's marketing.

The Haulerverse transforms that mundane shopping experience. The anime is beautiful and you will love this commercial, even if you couldn't tell us 10 minutes later what No Frills is and what they sell.

Saving money is exciting but not this exciting in real life.

Canadian ads from spring 2021 NHL Center Ice free preview

Canadian government promos in the COVID-19 era

Canadian ads from winter 2021 NHL Center Ice free preview

I know Lynn Crawford is Canadian from cooking shows. Crawford is listed as an innovation kitchen chef for Tim Hortons. "For me, the only way to cook chicken is to slow cook it." We do love low and slow in the food part of the brain, but hadn't considered low and slow for chicken.

We know Tim Hortons gets dogged for quality but the company tries harder in non-donut related enterprises. The company should be under Canadian control and have top people concentrating on overall food quality.

Connor McDavid comes across pretty easily in this Rogers 5G ad. The technology is used in a practical sports element. The idea that McDavid or anyone else will get 5G in that spot in a relatively remote part of Edmonton feels like a pipe dream. Possible but not what anyone would get now, even a NHL superstar.

The exchange between McDavid and coach Sylvie Tetrault in Toronto felt real and not contrived. Often, you just hope the commercial isn't lame on the small details.

We should note that Rogers is on the nameplate of the new Edmonton NHL arena downtown.

This feels more like an ad for grass-fed beef and grass-finished beef than for A&W burgers. Fast food burgers in the U.S. and Canada are overcooked anyway so part of the joy of a grass fed and finished burger is lost in cooking past medium.

Dan Carkner, executive chef in Kelowna, BC, said grass-fed beef burgers are more delicious. We concur. Applying quality to fast food burgers feels unusual but nice. No U.S. major fast food company would promote the quality of the meat in their burgers.

An university education is still important in the economy. Promoting one still feels surprising. The mom asks about college and her son talks about learning "real time, video compression algorithms." Clearly, something his mother didn't learn in university.

Ontario colleges are recruiting those interested in learning more about smartphones, smart homes, and smart watches to do so at a college in Ontario.

CanadianCrossing.com advertising coverage

Thanks for checking out our collection of Canadian advertising.

photo and video credits: the companies themselves

Canadian ads from spring 2021 NHL Center Ice free preview

We unveiled the collection of Canadian ads from various NHL telecasts a bit differently in 2021. Grouping ads into Canadian government promos and highlighting less expensive pizza made for stories of their own. There is also the oddity of a mid-April free preview but not one at the end of the season. 2021 changes a lot in our world.

We did run a collection in early February from the beginning of the season, which was in mid-January and not because of a NHL lockout. Spoiler alert: the reason was due to COVID-19.

I haven't had a Harvey's burger in decades, not on accident or purpose. I do love the consistent message of the ways to top the burgers. Canadian fast food burgers tend to be dry since the law requires them to be overcooked. Toppings can't save a burger but they do help. Their ads are also funny and that doesn't hurt. Will think toppings next time I'm there.

I live near a 7-11. The 7-11 near me does not make food that looks this good. Especially during a pandemic, food that looks halfway decent and doesn't cost too much is more attractive than ever. This sandwich looks good enough to eat.

Growing up on a dairy farm in Canada has to be tough. This is a dairy ad but feels like more of an ad to encourage more people to be dairy farmers. That is a noble enough cause for an ad. The fact that the intended point of an ad — dairy — is interesting to watch.

Roll Up and Win is a very Tim Horton's and Canadian thing. The idea of doing so virtually isn't as much fun but is more practical. The idea of winning a car would help you get over the difference.

Canadian government promos in the COVID-19 era

Cheap pizza is now a thing in Canada

Most fast food lettuce is an afterthought. The lettuce goes into a salad or onto a sandwich. Wendy's Canada is excited because the lettuce is Canadian, grown in greenhouses with very little water and no pesticides. The lettuce being Canadian is significant due to the food safety recalls of lettuce grown in certain areas of the United States. Being grown in greenhouses will lead away from the issues affecting that U.S.-based lettuce, like not being grown near factory farm runoff.

This might seem a bit cheesy to promote national lettuce, but I would feel better about this lettuce. Safer lettuce also helps keep the product going during food recalls.

The bagels are baked fresh daily. The freshly cracked eggs are a different story. Tim Horton's changed the recipe for its plain and everything bagels to be more flavourful. Sounds good but why were they that bad before now.

Given that the donuts reportedly are not baked fresh daily, maybe we should skip the donuts and go straight to the bagel sandwiches with the freshly cracked eggs.

We love Tim's but making a fast food breakfast sandwich sounds like a foodie's dream is comical. Make fresh donuts and we can talk.

Canadian ads from winter 2021 NHL Center Ice free preview

CanadianCrossing.com advertising coverage

This isn't the first time we have noted the campaign for eggs for dinner not being weird. We aren't wild about using such words as "weird." Eggs for dinner can be relatively normal. The idea of getting people to think out the breakfast box expands the use of eggs, a reason why advertising exists.

For those who might be fearful of going out and eating inside for dinner, this ad strikes a balance in doing so safely and still having fun. This might feel like fantasy for some.

video and photo credits: individual companies

Cheap pizza is now a thing in Canada

Pizza is considered a cheap food … in the United States. Pizza in Canada may be relatively cheap but expensive compared to the United States.

Over the many years we have tracked Canadian ads through MLB Extra Innings or NHL Center Ice, we have noticed the shockingly high prices of pizza in Canada. The pizzas in the ads didn't look that great and the prices were through the roof.

You would see side deals involving soft drink bottles and movie tickets to make the pizza seem not as expensive.

The usual explanation for why pizza in Canada is more expensive is the cost of high-quality Canadian cheese. This explains stories every few years about pizza cheese shenanigans in Canada.

There are conditions to get a pizza in Canada for $7.99 or a similar low price. You have to buy multiple pizzas or provide a code or know the sale is for a very limited time.

Little Caesar's is offering a classic with Crazy Bread for $7.99. Pizza Hut is offering a buy one, get one free pizza. Domino's is offering unlimited, 2-topping pizzas for $7.99. Greco is offering the $7.99 12" mediums when you buy 2 or more pizzas with regular toppings.

Farmers benefit more than consumers with Canada supply management

CUSMA | USMCA aka NAFTA 2.0 allowed cheaper, lesser quality American-based cheese to come into Canada. We don't know for certain, but that is the most logical reasoning behind the sudden arrival of cheaper pizza in Canada.

Domino's mentions Canadian cheese. Are the pizza companies using a mix of Canadian and American-based cheese? Are they using Canadian cheese only but desperate to lure customers over to pizza?

There is (sadly) the possibility that some Canadians don't care that their pizza cheese is American. They may think a cheaper price on a pizza in Canada is worth eating inferior cheese. They may like Canadian cheese but not at the prices they were paying.

Normally, your humble narrator would weigh in on the experience of eating pizza in Canada and compare this to the American standards. Unfortunately, due to an intolerance to mozzarella cheese, I am sadly not the expert. I can vouch for the Crazy Bread since there is no mozzarella.

Pandemic pizza is not a thing but can imagine that pizzas are more popular in a pandemic since you don't have to cook and pizzas come pretty quickly to your home. Having cheaper pizza is an advantage if you lost your job and/or CERB (and similar programs) not stretching far enough.

Canada milk producers threatened with invasion of cheaper American milk

BalanceofFood.com Canada coverage

As our sibling blog — BalanceofFood.com — would note, quality food does cost more. The question for Canadian dairy is whether the quality is worth the higher prices.

If our American readers crossed over to Canada to eat better quality cheese on Canadian pizzas, we wish you much luck in finding that once the border has reopened. Perhaps a local pizza chain might do better than a national chain.

CanadianCrossing.com trade coverage

The quality of food in North America is not as easy to find as opposed to Europe. You search more and you definitely pay more. Wages haven't kept up in North America so the pressure of cheap food is a reality for most people on the continent. Would be a shame to lose something that is of quality and distinctly Canadian thanks to a lame trade deal that dumped cheap cheese in Canada.

photo credit: Greco pizza
video credits: individual pizza companies