Though Night Raiders is set in a future dystopian world, the story is really about the reality of residential schools told in a way that may seem more approachable for a film.
Harbouring any minor is a crime in this dystopian world. The age to start in the faceless academy has gone from 5 to 4 years old. This doesn't stop Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) and her 12-year-old daughter Waseese (Brooklyn Letexier-Hart) from surviving in the bush for years. When Waseese gets her foot caught in a bear trap, Niska has to decide whether to surrender her daughter for her health.
They rename Waseese as Elizabeth, which relates back to the reality Indigenous people had in Canada. Niska works to get her out of the academy. She runs across Cree people, of which she is one, who are working to help kids find a better life.
The fact that Niska struggles with her Cree language is entirely relevant to the reality of those taken away to residential schools.
Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers and Brooklyn Letexier-Hart are tremendous on screen. The cast features Violet Nelson, who co-starred with Tailfeathers in The Body Remembers When the World Broke Open, and Gail Maurice, who was in Trickster, a show Goulet worked on as a consulting producer.
The film also features New Zealand actor Alex Tarrant and American actor Amanda Plummer. Night Raiders is a Canada-New Zealand co-production. Taika Waititi is one of the executive producers on the film.
Night Raiders succeeds mostly when you are aware of the history of Indigenous people in Canada. Danis Goulet, who wrote and directed her first feature film, has a lot to say, and most of it works.
The dystopia part of the film is where the film struggles. The whole kidnapping of children in a dystopia society is handled poorly in the script. Everything is so gray so the impact gets lost. They are bad and that is all. Level 16 and Code 8, very different Canadian films, each gave some logic behind a dystopian world, something where Night Raiders fails.
Niska is given a choice, a second opportunity. This point in the plot feels hollow and 1-dimensional, serving as a very unneeded distraction.
Goulet does pound home some points in case you don't know the history. Still, a good sized section of the audience is not going to know the symbolism before or during the film.
The film struggles as a pure dystopian film, but is better if you know the background of Indigenous children in residential schools.
Night Raiders made the Toronto International Film Festival Top 10 list for 2021. The film has been featured in theatres in Canada and available on demand in the United States.
video credit: YouTube/Movie Coverage photo credit: Night Raiders film
We mention the Independent Spirit Awards mostly for the Best International Film category as a comparison to the Academy Awards for Best International Feature Film.
As we went through the 37th Independent Spirit Awards nominations yesterday, we noticed a few Canadian entries.
Michael Greyeyes shows his extensive versatility by getting nominations for film and television.
Greyeyes got a nod for Best Male Lead for Wild Indian. His fellow nominees are Clifton Collins Jr. (Jockey); Frankie Faison (The Killing of Kenneth Chamberlain); Udo Kier (Swan Song); and Simon Rex (Red Rocket).
Greyeyes also got a nomination for Best Male Performance in a New Scripted Series for Rutherford Falls. His fellow nominees are Lee Jung Jae (Squid Game); Olly Alexander (It's a Sin); Murray Bartlett (The White Lotus); and Ashley Thomas (THEM: Covenant).
The cast of Reservation Dogs will get an award for Best Ensemble Cast in a New Scripted Series. The awards will go to Devery Jacobs, D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Lane Factor, Paulina Alexis, Sarah Podemski, Zahn McClarnon, Lil Mike, and FunnyBone.
The show also received a nomination for Best New Scripted Series. The other nominees are It's a Sin; The Underground Railroad; We Are Lady Parts; and Blindspotting.
We know Jacobs and Podemski from previous projects. Alexis and Woon-A-Tai were also in Beans.
Shiva Baby (Emma Seligman, Kieran Altmann, Katie Schiller, Lizzie Shapiro) is nominated for the John Cassavetes Award, as defined by films made for under $500,000. The other nominees are: Cryptozoo; Jockey; Sweet Thing; and This is Not a War Story.
Les Oiseaux Ivres | Drunken Birds did not get a nomination for Best International Film. The nominees are Compartment No. 6 (Finland); Drive My Car (Japan); Parallel Mothers (Spain); Pebbles (India); Petite Maman (France); and Prayers for the Stolen (Mexico). We'll have more on this when the Oscars shortlist is announced on December 21.
The 37th Independent Spirit Awards is March 6, which is 3 weeks before the Academy Awards. The awards have traditionally been the week leading up to the Oscars. Hopefully, they will be back in the tent on the beach in Santa Monica, CA.
photo credits: Blood Quantum film; Shiva Baby film
Tekehentahkhwa is a Mohawk girl trying to get into a private school. When the person in charge can't pronounce her name, she says to call her Beans because everybody does.
Beans is a coming of age story for the young girl, trapped between Grade 6 and Grade 7, girl and womanhood, all in the summer of 1990 during the Oka Crisis.
This is a fictionalized version drawn from Tracey Deer's experiences that summer. Deer co-wrote the story with Meredith Vuchnich and Deer directed the film. You might know Deer from Mohawk Girls, which she created back in 2005 (original documentary) and 2014 (TV show).
Kiawenti:io Tarbell, who worked with Tracey Deer on her acting debut on Anne with an E, stars as Beans. She starts the film being very timid. Beans wants to please her father and dotes over her younger sister Ruby. Her mother Lily wants her to get into that private school. Lily is also quite pregnant.
The coming of age story runs alongside how these characters live through the Oka Crisis of 1990. Her father is mostly off screen because the men are in a different place defending their land. Being at a supermarket and denied food because they were Mohawks. Hiding in a car as your windows are being smashed by people throwing rocks. Watching the police not care when the townspeople throw rocks at the cars with the Indigenous characters exemplifies why this film is important.
The cast includes Brittany LeBorgne (Zoe on Mohawk Girls) and a couple of members of the core group on Reservation Dogs: Paulina Alexis and D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai.
Kiawenti:io does a tremendous job with a mix of fear, curiosity, and yes, lust as puberty and hormones make their presence known. She offers that mix of maturity and childlike wonder. The film does a rather good job of balancing these stories.
We can't really talk about Beans without also mentioning Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, the documentary on the Oka Crisis from legendary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin. You can find the documentary via the National Film Board of Canada.
The documentary can give the background if you are curious about the Oka Crisis. English and French Canadians should know this story and likely don't. Americans, well, this will give some insight into Indigenous history in North America.
There is a back and forth in the film about what the white people say about the Indigenous people and vice versa. You hear a lot of "frogs" as some of the Indigenous characters refer to the French Canadians. Like in Rustic Oracle, you don't really hear the Indigenous characters speak French even though they live in Quebec.
This might seem like a small detail but this speaks to an isolation in living in that part of Canada and not knowing or speaking basic French words as needed.
Deer explains this in her Mohawk Girls documentary (2005). They spoke in English despite being in a French-speaking province. Deer said that the French was somehow seen as the enemy.
We rarely say this about a film but at about 90 minutes, the film is really short. The story goes by fast in a good way, surprised at how easy the story is to absorb.
Tracey Deer goes into her past to tell this story, leaving a lot on screen. As difficult as that must have been, the viewers are rewarded for her courage in telling this story. Tekehentahkhwa goes through a lot in just one summer, but what a summer that was.
A Canadian film doesn't need The New York Times level attention though the paper's review and coverage had high praise for the story and film.
Beans won Best Picture at this year's Canadian Screen Awards and won the John Dunning Best First Feature Film Award. The film was second runner up for the People's Choice Award at the 2020 Toronto International Film Festival.
Beans has played in theatres in Canada and is available on demand and in select theatres in the United States.
video credit: YouTube/FilmRise Releasing photo credit: Beans film
Hearing about missing Indigenous women and girls in a news report might not personalize the experience. Hearing an individual story in Rustic Oracle about a missing Indigenous girl might help people understand better.
Heather (Mckenzie Kahnekaroroks Deer) is a teenager about to graduate from high school. She shares a bedroom with her 8-year-old sister Ivy (Lake Kahentawaks Delisle). Heather argues with her mother Susan (Carmen Moore) like any other teenager. Heather hangs out with her friends. Susan doesn't know much because she works long hours. There is no father in the picture.
One day, Heather doesn't come home from school. She doesn't go to school the next day. Susan goes to the police. They don't seem all that interested in Heather's case.
As cruel and lazy as the officer is, this matches the behaviour of the authorities toward missing Indigenous women and girls in real life.
Susan gets tired of waiting for the police to do their job. She sets out to find Heather. Ivy wants to go along because she misses her sister. Susan is reluctant to bring along her other daughter. Ivy knows what the suspect looks like so Susan brings her along.
Ivy has trouble sleeping, the same dream about Heather. Susan is worried about Ivy also disappearing, insisting Ivy not go too far.
Susan's zeal is remarkable even for a film such as this. She gets help along the way from social agencies in the big city of Montréal.
Sonia Boileau brings us into this world in Rustic Oracle as writer/director, showing the frustration of really having no idea what has happened to her teenage daughter. Not lost on the audience is that the officers are clueless, lazy men while the social agencies are filled with women who are very helpful.
Some films would share with the audience the status of the missing person. Boileau knows not to do that here because the audience needs to see what Susan and Ivy see.
Brittany LeBorgne (Mohawk Girls) plays Hawi, a long-time friend of Susan. They reunite as Hawi helps Susan. We get to see a more relaxed person in the presence of Hawi. The scene in the kitchen helps us understand that Susan was once where Heather was and Ivy will be someday.
While there isn't a lot that happens, Boileau keeps the pace at a good rate. You don't lose track or get bored with what is going on. An intriguing dynamic, which ties back into Mary Simon, Canada's first Indigenous governor general. Susan, who lives in Quebec, knows English and her native language but doesn't know much French.
Boileau's initial feature, Le Dep (2015), was shot mostly in French. Simon talked about how she knew her native language and English but didn't have a chance to learn French when she was young.
Today is the first annual National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. September 30 is set aside to "honour Survivors, their families, and communities, and ensure that public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools remains a vital component of the reconciliation process" of the Indigenous population. This is according to the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action.
Manitoba, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island give the holiday official status; the other 7 provinces have varying degrees of acceptance.
Here's hoping the holiday gets more official acceptance in subsequent years.
The day has also been Orange Shirt Day in the past so you might run across this term. We saw the orange shirts in Vancouver on Friday the BC Lions of the CFL had as their way of acknowledging the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. TSN analyst Glen Suitor pointed out this was a rare time that they would wear something that represented one of the teams in the game.
Dustin Nielson and Suitor interviewed Phyllis Webstad on the legacy of the orange shirts. Webstad told her story of her first day at a residential school as a 6-year-old. She wore a shiny new orange shirt, bought by her grandmother. They took the shirt from her.
The ESPN2 audience got to see that interview in the United States. Americans know even less about residential schools than Canadians know about their residential schools.
The Ottawa RedBlacks had a Game of Reconciliation with the Edmonton Elks in the nation's capital on Tuesday. The Edmonton team recently changed its nickname to an animal from a racial slur against the Inuit.
From the CBC Facebook page: "Contributing CBC Art Director Emily Kewageshig, an Anishinaabe artist raised in Saugeen First Nation #29, redesigned the CBC logo marking the first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. Her work captures the interconnection of life forms using culturally significant materials from the land."
CBC television has extensive prime time programming for the holiday. All times are local; add 30 minutes to the time in most of Newfoundland.
7 pm Tonight's lineup starts with Through Our Eyes: Indigenous Shorts, a 4-part compilation of CBC Short Docs by Indigenous documentary filmmakers.
The new minority government needs to do more about the truth part of the truth and reconciliation. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is correct that his government has fixed more than 100 boil orders to bring fresh water to reserves. Everyone agrees that more needs to be done on the remaining boil orders.
You are likely working on September 30. You might be interested and not even living in Canada. There are a strong list of Canadian films, fiction and documentaries, that are an asset in learning more about what Indigenous people have been through over multiple generations.
TIFF recognized Alanis Obomsawin and a number of her films at the 46th Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month.
The TV audiences have seen Indigenous stories lately with Rutherford Falls (Peacock), Reservation Dogs (FX on Hulu), Mohawk Girls (Peacock via APTN and CBC), and Trickster (CW via the CBC).
We wrote a story earlier this year with a few titles we've seen that can be educational for those who want to learn more.
Hamilton and Montréal couldn't score an offensive touchdown last week. The Tiger-Cats kicked 5 field goals and added a Pick 6 from Simoni Lawrence. The Alouettes kicked 6 field goals and couldn't get a touchdown in any manner.
Calgary could only score 2 touchdowns in Hamilton while BC had 3 touchdowns in Montréal.
The Tiger-Cats crawled out of a rough start to a 3-3 record. The Hamilton schedule is in rather good shape. Hamilton and Toronto are tied at 3-3.
The lowlight in Hamilton was fumbled kick returns by the Stampeders and Tiger-Cats.
The Argos couldn't keep up as Saskatchewan returned to form as long as Winnipeg wasn't the opponent.
Taylor Cornelius struggled with 2 significant turnovers that led to majors in his debut for the Elks, not enough for a win against the top team, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
The Blue Bombers debuted a new kicker, Ali Mourtada, who missed 3 field goal attempts.
Only Montréal, Winnipeg, and Saskatchewan have started the same quarterback through the first 7 weeks of the 2021 season.
U.S. viewers might wonder where @sskroughriders game is. The game is actually on U.S. TV on #ESPNews. That was a genuine surprise. @espn@CFL
We didn't think ESPN would actually make up for the Labour Day fiasco. Then we saw that ESPNews picked up the Toronto-Saskatchewan game on Friday, which took us by surprise.
Turns out ESPN switched out the games, no longer carrying the Hamilton @ Toronto game on November 12 on ESPNews. This means the last U.S. TV game is on October 1, about 8 weeks before the playoffs. ESPN+ will be there to help, most of the time.
Don't want to keep kicking ESPN+ but this error message greeted U.S. based CFL fans at the beginning of both games on Saturday.
The fans in the early game missed the first BC touchdown. The fans in the late game missed the first 3 minutes before the Blue Bombers scored the initial touchdown.
There were some technical difficulties during telecasts from the TSN end.
We wanted to check if the awkward CFL starting times — the 2:45 windows — meant overlapping the end of one game and the start of another game. Couldn't figure that out because the Friday night game was on TV and the technical difficulties at the start of the Saturday game.
The BC Lions and Saskatchewan Roughriders will be wearing orange spatting as part of their uniforms in honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The federal statutory holiday on September 30 was recently established. The first 10,000 fans in attendance will receive a commemorative orange t-shirt. We wrote about the orange shirts that honour the residential school survivors.
Last week, we rushed the news on Chris Jones being back in Canada as a defensive consultant for the Toronto Argonauts. His first game won't be in Regina. Otherwise, everything else is relevant. Carry on.
Rod Smith and Duane Forde stayed in the east Friday in Hamilton and Saturday in Montréal. Rod Black went out west to hang out with Glen Suitor in Regina on Friday. Dustin Nielson joined Suitor in Edmonton on Saturday night.
Smith reportedly doesn't like to travel too much. Doing more east games would send Black out west at times. We have noted that Black and Suitor were better suited while Chris Cuthbert and Forde made a good combo.
No announcer will have to do back-to-back games this week. Will be curious who will draw those mid-week games in the east.
logo credit: CFL Twitter capture: @canadian_xing photo credit: ESPN+
Ste. Anne won the major 2021 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) prize as the Best Canadian Feature Film. Scarborough is the true winner of the TIFF 2021: finishing first runner-up for the People's Choice Award, winning the Shawn Mendes Foundation Changemaker Award, and getting honourable mention for Best Canadian Feature Film.
For the second year in a row, TIFF is not awarding the Best Canadian First Feature Film. The Twentieth Century from Matthew Rankin is the last film to win that award all the way back in 2019.
Ste. Anne is a feature debut from Manitoban filmmaker and artist Rhayne Vermette, who wrote, directed, and acted in the film. Vermette plays a mother who returns home to be with her daughter, who is being raised by her uncle and his wife. The film is a "deeply mysterious and alluring examination of home by way of places and people."
The trailer is the opening shot of the film with no words and a woman, presumably the mother walking through a field. Definitely no spoilers.
Scarborough is the story of 3 families struggling to survive in the Toronto area suburb. The film is based on the Canadian novel by Catherine Hernandez, who also wrote the screenplay. Shasha Nakhai and Rich Williamson make their feature debut in a film that "follows three interwoven families fighting an uphill struggle against debt, addiction, and job insecurity."
Danis Goulet is in good company with her feature debut with Tracey Deer (Beans) winning this award in 2020. Night Raiders is about a dystopian world where children are taken from their homes at the age of 5 and brainwashed in state schools. Niska (Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers) is a Cree woman who is part of a resistance movement to save her daughter. Yes, you are supposed to transfer this world to what really happened in residential schools against Indigenous people in Canada.
Zacharias Kunuk's Angakusajaujuq: The Shaman's Apprentice won the Short Cuts Award for Best Canadian Film. Kunuk is best known for Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner.
TIFF has its reasons for not selecting a Best Canadian First Feature Film. Yet 3 successful Canadian film winners were feature debuts. We understood last year why the award wasn't given but there seemed to be enough films to qualify in 2021.
Belfast from writer/director Kenneth Branagh won the 2021 TIFF People's Choice Award. Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog finished as the second runner-up.
The 3 films, along with Scarborough, were celebrated as part of the TIFF awards TV show aired on CTV in Canada and streamed through Variety outside Canada.
Denis Villeneuve won the TIFF Ebert Director Award for Dune. The French-Canadian director has drifted away from Canadian films for some time. The tribute package did cover Polytechnique and Incendies from his Canadian film days but the TIFF tribute ignores everything Villeneuve did before those films.
Rebecca Ferguson, who is in Dune, introduced Villeneuve before he received the award. Ferguson talked about how Villeneuve cares about you whether you are a big fish or a tiny minnow. Your humble narrator had a flashback to Maelström, which did feature a fish as a narrator.
We realize that Maelström and August 32nd on Earth doesn't fit where Villeneuve is from an "American" standpoint. Same for Jean-Marc Vallée, where his classic films C.R.A.Z.Y. and Café de Flore are invisible south of the 49th parallel.
Since Canadian film gets so little publicity, we wanted to call attention to the publicity:
Entertainment reporter Teri Hart, who often is on the Q screen panel, had high praise for Canadian films All My Puny Sorrows ("love, love, love") and Scarborough. Hart joined film critic Radheyan Simonpillai on the Q screen panel to talk TIFF 2021. Simonpillai talked about how a reduced focus on the glamour (due to the pandemic) draws more attention to independent type films such as Night Raiders.
Danis Goulet of Night Raiders talked with Matt Galloway from The Current. You really need to hear the emotion in her voice as she talks about the difficulties in telling these stories.
Bretten Hannam (Wildhood) is a Mi'kmaw filmmaker whose work calls attention to two-spirit and LGBTQ+ identity. Hannam was on Q. The film is set to open the FIN Atlantic International Film Festival in Halifax.
Catherine Hernandez (Scarborough) was on Q with Tom Power. Hernandez talks about how Scarborough is considered an afterthought yet she considers her creative work as a "love letter to this community that is resilient, hardworking — that refuses to back down despite being an afterthought to the powers that be."
QUICKENING director Haya Waseem on working within the Canadian film industry:
“[In] Canada, this should be where all stories are celebrated and really embraced and I think it’s only just beginning to be that way.” #TIFF21pic.twitter.com/xaSfAwsQf2
2019 Kacey Rohl, Mikhail Ahooja, Nahéma Ricci, Shamier Anderson
2020 Madeleine Sims-Fewer
2021 Arooj Azeem, Emma Ferreira, Phillip Lewitski, Thomas Antony Olajide
Best Canadian Feature Film
I have added When Jews Were Funny to the films I've seen from this list. Since 2009, the ones I haven't seen were 2016, 2020, and 2021. We may never see the 2020 winner.
Best Canadian Feature Film
Year
Film
Director
2021
Ste. Anne
Rhayne Vermette
2020
Inconvenient Indian
Michelle Latimer
2019
Antigone
Sophie Deraspe
2018
The Fireflies Are Gone
Sebastien Pilote
2017
Les Affamés
Robin Aubert
2016
Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves
Mathieu Denis, Simon Lavoie
2015
Closet Monster
Stephen Dunn
2014
Felix and Meira
Maxime Giroux
2013
When Jews Were Funny
Alan Zweig
2012
Laurence Anyways
Xavier Dolan
2011
Monsieur Lazhar
Philippe Falardeau
2010
Incendies
Denis Villeneuve
2009
Cairo Time
Ruba Nadda
2008
Lost Song
Rodrigue Jean
2007
My Winnipeg
Guy Maddin
2006
Manufactured Landscapes
Jennifer Baichwal
2005
C.R.A.Z.Y.
Jean-Marc Vallée
2004
It's All Gone Pete Tong
Michael Dowse
2003
Les Invasions Barbares
Denys Arcand
2002
Spider
David Cronenberg
2001
Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner)
Zacharias Kunuk
2000
Waydowntown
Gary Burns
1999
The Five Senses
Jeremy Podeswa
1998
Nô
Robert Lepage
1997
The Sweet Hereafter
Atom Egoyan
The Hanging Garden
Thom Fitzgerald
1996
Long's Day Journey Into The Night
David Wellington
1995
Live Bait
Bruce Sweeney
1994
Exotica
Atom Egoyan
1993
Kanehsatake: 270 Years Of Resistance
Alanis Obomsawin
1992
Requiem Pour Un Beau Sans-Coeur
Robert Morin
1991
The Adjuster
Atom Egoyan
1990
H
Darrell Wasyk
1989
Roadkill
Bruce McDonald
1988
The Outside Chance of Maximilian Glick
Allan Goldstein
1987
Family Viewing
Atom Egoyan
1986
Le Déclin De L'empire Américain
Denys Arcand
1985
Canada's Sweetheart: The Saga Of Hal C. Banks
Donald Brittain
1984
La Femme De L'hôtel
Léa Pool
Best Canadian Feature Film (1991-present); Excellence in Canadian Production (1984-1990).
Best Canadian First Feature Film
Would love to find Love, Sex and Eating The Bones. Films are much harder to find in this category. My current streak goes back to 2014.
Best Canadian First Feature Film
Year
Film
Director
2021
no award given
no award given
2020
no award given
no award given
2019
The Twentieth Century
Matthew Rankin
2018
Roads in February
Katherine Jerkovic
2017
Luk' Luk'l
Wayne Wapeemukwa
2016
Old Stone
Johnny Ma
2015
Sleeping Giant
Andrew Cividino
2014
Bang Bang Baby
Jeffrey St. Jules
2013
Asphalt Watches
Shayne Ehman, Seth Scriver
2012
Antiviral
Brandon Cronenberg
Blackbird
Jason Buxton
2011
Edwin Boyd
Nathan Morlando
2010
The High Cost of Living
Deborah Chow
2009
The Wild Hunt
Alexandre Franchi
2008
Before Tomorrow
Marie-Hélène Cousineau
Madeline Piujuq Ivalu
2007
Un Film Sans Fusil Continental
Stéphane Lafleur
2006
Sur La Trace D'igor Rizzi
Nöel Mitrani
2005
The Life And Hard Times Of Guy Terrifico
Louise Archambault, Michael Mabbott
2004
La Peau Blanche
Daniel Roby
2003
Love, Sex and Eating The Bones
Sudz Sutherland
2002
Marion Bridge
Wiebke Von Carolsfeld
2001
Inertia
Sean Garrity
2000
La Moitié Gauche Du Frigo
Philippe Falardeau
1999
Just Watch Me:
Catherine Annau
Trudeau and The 70's Generation
1998
Last Night
Don McKellar
1997
Cube Vincenzo
Natali
As determined by the Toronto International Film Festival.
photo credit: @TIFF_NET; TIFF Twitter captures: all @TIFF_NET except for @_Nataleah video credit: TIFF
We extol about how much better Canada runs its elections and races compared to the United States. Leaders will talk on party differences instead of personal attacks.
American politicians can use the excuse of the months-long campaigns. Canadian politicians can be civil for 36 days.
Erin O'Toole (Conservatives) lost it during the last week of campaigning. "I’d say he’s (Justin Trudeau) all talk and no action,” O’Toole said during a campaign event outside Ottawa. “But this is worse — a person so blinded by his own ambition that he can’t see the rot in his own party. A man who is not a feminist, not an environmentalist, not a public servant. A man who’s focused solely and squarely on himself.”
Trudeau is “privileged, entitled and always looking out for number one,” which is what he was doing when he called an election that's nothing more than a power grab, O'Toole said.
O'Toole has built up a persona of a kinder, gentler conservative, true or not. You could argue that what O'Toole said wasn't that bad. This was rather mean by Canadian standards. If O'Toole somehow wins a minority, he might feel compelled to apologize for this. If Trudeau wins a minority, O'Toole as leader of the opposition will look weaker.
Disagree on approaches, not personalities.
Conservative leader Erin O’Toole cancelled a scheduled interview with @CTVNews, for our series of sit-downs with party leaders running this week. He would not reschedule, unfortunately. (We had Justin Trudeau last night, Jagmeet Singh tonight and Annamie Paul in next few days.) pic.twitter.com/8TperRVeEV
We could start a political adage, "Look how a leader behaves in the final week of a campaign." Hiding is never a good sign. We blasted Justin Trudeau for blowing off debates in 2019 and Stephen Harper for blowing off more important debates in 2015.
O'Toole hiding from CTV can't be a good sign. That would be like Jagmeet Singh or Annamie Paul hiding from The Tyee.
Speaking of hiding, for the second federal race in a row, Doug Ford, premier of Ontario, has been in the unofficial witness protection program. Not sure whether that benefits Trudeau or O'Toole in key Ontario ridings, especially in the 905. Always find hiding to be intriguing.
We were highly critical of the use of a polling person to be the moderator of the only English language debate. We had issues with Shachi Kurl (president of the Angus Reid Institute) for her need to interrupt the leaders on a random basis and asking questions poorly (i.e., the Bill 21 question).
We like to offer solutions as well as offer criticism. Neetu Garcha of Global BC should be the moderator for the next English language debate. You might remember in the beginning of the campaign that we highlighted her interview with Erin O'Toole. We used that as a contrast to Global national anchor Dawna Friesen's lazy question on Twitter.
Garcha's name also came up in the last Short Cuts version of Canadaland. They were talking about an Justin Trudeau interview where Trudeau complained at the end that they didn't cover all he wanted to discuss. I wondered whether this was the same reporter as the one for the O'Toole interview.
For those who sometimes argue about whether we are a Trudeau apologist, we ask journalists to be tough on everyone regardless of their party status. Be good and consistent.
Speaking of inconsistent, Jayme Poisson of the Front Burner CBC news podcast took a look at the major parties platforms. Her take with Vassy Kapelos in 2019 was a disaster on multiple levels. They focused almost exclusively on the two major parties and treated the NDP and Greens with little time on the actual content and the majority of time beating up on those parties.
We don't hate listen to Front Burner but we do find if we know even a little about the topic in an episode, we learn very little new information. Imagine the gift of a news podcast devoted to a single topic and never really exploring that issue with any significant depth.
The 2021 version was better; still not great but better. First helpful thing: switch out Kapelos and bring in Ryan Maloney from the CBC. Huge improvement. Maloney was straightforward instead of the cynicism from the combo of Kapelos and Poisson.
Second helpful thing: group Liberals and Conservatives together. The 2019 version had a "major" party matched with a "minor" party so the "minor" party got very little time.
However, the Liberals and Conservatives episode lasted 28 minutes. The "other" parties episode lasted 21 minutes. That isn't even the appearance of fair. During the "major" parties episode, Poisson referred to the other episode but didn't say any of the other parties names out loud.
They covered the NDP and Greens platforms but Poisson said they wouldn't discuss affordability or climate change because those topics were covered (poorly) on other podcast episodes. Poisson's decision to cover a party without any current members in the House (think really right-wing) was "justified" because of their position in the polls. The polls, besides not being newsworthy, aren't a true representation of where they will finish with the voters and almost no chance of winning an actual seat in Parliament.
Front Burner got a lot better when other people were guest hosts late in the summer.
Erin O'Toole and the Conservatives took a page from the UK Conservatives playbook with the Dine and Discover program. While popular (perhaps too popular) in the UK, the difference is that the idea is a cheap, short-term fix for an industry that needs a lot more help. We covered this extensively for our sibling blog, BalanceofFood.com.
A month means 12 days of a 50% discount. A lot of restaurants in Toronto are normally closed on Mondays. Many restaurants are closed Tuesdays or Wednesdays during the pandemic. Restaurants that are struggling would incur costs offering cheaper food. A gimmick on top of more substantial policy is better than just a gimmick.
We also covered the impact of the upcoming Canadian election on Canadian content creators, especially Canadian film and Canadian TV. The impact on the CBC under Conservative rule. Bill C-10, warts and all. You can look up the platforms of the major parties via I Am Canadian Content and see where the parties stand on issues important to Canadian content creators.
In the shocked/not shocked category, intercity bus travel did not come up in the campaign. For our friends at BalanceofFood.com, food supply and safety did not come up in the campaign. Indigenous issues hardly came up. We had the recent discovery of graves of over a thousand Indigenous children at residential schools. No one wore orange, if you know what we mean.
You likely have 2-3 issues of your own that the federal campaign did not address. Some of these issues could have come up in debates in local ridings. We know so little about these debates that could really give a sense of what is happening on the ground.
You might have a sense of what party could deliver on those topics. So much of the coverage is on the federal party leaders but Canadians vote directly for their MP (member of Parliament).
Those voters encrusted with a party or some who go back and forth but only between like minded parties (such as NDP and the Greens) may be confused by the idea of the "undecided voter." How can they truly be undecided? Are they "undecided" because they could get on TV such as being on Canada Votes: Face to Face.
The many voters who go back and forth between the Conservatives and Liberals is a real phenomenon. They are in other provinces not just in Ontario. As someone who has covered politics in Canada and the United States, those people always confuse me. When they vote, they are the swing factor in many key ridings.
Rosemary Barton was back with 4 undecided voters (down from 5 in 2019) for each party leader. The good news is that CBC News made the segments more fair than they were in 2019. Barton was reasonably tough on all the party leaders.
One key difference is that the audience was virtual on Zoom so we couldn't get a reaction to what the leaders said. Barton had to pass on how they were reacting.
Singh used the analogy of the tough fight to get universal health care to dealing with for-profit long-term care homes and pharmacare. What Singh could have mentioned is that universal health care advanced in a Liberal minority government (Lester Pearson) with help from the NDP (Tommy Douglas).
Trudeau got a great question from Ty in Bowmanville, ON that all of the leaders should have addressed. Did find it a bit odd that Ty lives in Erin O'Toole's riding. O'Toole is from Bowmanville, which I learned from watching This Hour Has 22 Minutes this week.
There were more "undecided voters" who were definitely leaning toward the party leader they were addressing. Paul had 2 of her 4 undecided voters say they had voted Green in the past.
O'Toole explained his childcare support slightly better than in the debates. He talked about the 75% support for those under $30,000. Getting that $30,000 figure took several rounds of questioning from Jason Hawkins of Toronto, who was excellent. Still not sure I get the whole plan and how supply of spaces will increase.
If you are looking for hear some of those highlights if you are pressed for time, Rosemary Barton was on with Jayme Poisson on Front Burner, her CBC News podcast, about the face-to-face sessions.
A lot of pressure on This Hour Has 22 Minutes for a singular election show in 2021. How well did the show deliver in its new timeslot of 8 pm local time?
Mark Critch had fun with Jagmeet Singh on his plane as well as Justin Trudeau. The Singh segment had some nice zings from Critch. The Trudeau segment had fun with the beard but otherwise not as sharp. Singh and Trudeau get what Critch is trying to do and they are in on the fun.
Mary Walsh as Marg Delahunty had fun with coming up with nicknames for all the party leaders. Delahunty handed a sword to Green Party leader Annamie Paul in a news conference in Ottawa.
The video (above) was a great highlight about what happens when Conservatives want to take away the clippity cloppity horse show (Heartland) on CBC.
Leonard Chan went on a "search" for Erin O'Toole in Bowmanville, ON. Chan had a great line about how O'Toole hates him because he was an environmental engineer and now works for the CBC. That would not have happened if O'Toole had accepted their invitation to be on the show.
The vote-splitting fake Conservative ad was sharply on point.
There were some misses: Aba Amuquandoh and Stacey McGunnigle sang a song about objectifying the party leaders and then shifted to about how one of them literally didn't know how to vote.
We loved the core of recent years of Mark Critch, Cathy Jones, Shawn Majumder, and Susan Kent. We know the show has had to be more diverse. Jones has been there from the start but left the show. Kent went away quietly as she has shifted more to acting work such as the Canadian film Spinster and Canadian TV show Pretty Hard Cases.
Majumder, part of that diversity, was fired in 2018 for reasons that still seem bizarre. Trent McClellan has improved since joining the show in 2017. Aba Amuquandoh just joined the show in 2021. Featured players Stacey McGunnigle and Chris Wilson started out on Tuesday.
By the time the next election comes along, this new core will find their voices and improve.
Canadians can watch that episode of This Hour Has 22 Minutes on CBC Gem. The Trudeau segment and the Heartland segments are on the show's Facebook page.
Not related to the federal election, Manitoba will have a female premier for the first time on or around October 30. The only 2 names on the ballot for the Progressive Conservatives are MLA Heather Stefanson and former Conservative MP Shelly Glover. Ballot isn't for the voters; party members will pick the next premier on October 30.
Editor's note:We will have a comprehensive guide with all of our election notebooks tomorrow morning at 8 am Eastern/9:30 am in Newfoundland.
photo credits: CBC News; Global BC Twitter captures: @glen_mcgregor; @canadian_xing video credit: This Hour Has 22 Minutes/CBC
Tia is a Syrian refugee in Montréal who misses her grandmother, who is back in Syria, and has trouble making friends in her new world. She receives a book on life in the far north.
Soon, Tia discovers a portal in a building in the alley behind her uncle's grocery store. The portal takes her to Igloolik, Nunavut.
Tia meets Piujuq, a girl camping with her grandmother for the summer. Though Tia speaks Arabic and French and Piujuq speaks Inuktitut, the girls bond quickly in English.
Tia learns a lot about Piujuq's culture full of magic and myths. She then travels back to her world in Montréal. Her mother is very pregnant with her soon-to-be brother. The adults keep Tia sheltered from what is happening back home in Syria. The portal trips are an escape for Tia.
Lucy Tulugarjuk (director, co-writer) tells the story on the level of the girls. Tia Bshara (Tia) and Nuvvija Tulugarjuk (Piujuq) have a comfort and simplicity that makes you root for them easily. And yes, Tulugarjuk is the director's daughter.
The film tells the story from the kids point of view without talking down to them or making the story sugary sweet. The joy of the story is how the girls see the world, with openness and willingness to learn about each other. Though Tia learns a lot about Piujuq's world, not so much about the other way around.
Tia and Piujuq is a good family film though parents should definitely watch with the kids to explain the Indigenous spirits and the talk of war in Syria. The idea of children learning about a world different from their own is a beautiful theme. Perhaps southern Canadians would appreciate the people of the north if they could understand their world on this level.
video credit: YouTube/IsumaTV photo credit: Tia and Piujuq film
The Progressive Conservatives are back in charge of Nova Scotia for the first time since 2009. Tim Houston is the premier-designate, the first PC premier since Rodney MacDonald, who won in 2006.
Houston and his party ran on concerns over health care.
The anecdote of the 86-year-old Nova Scotia man made an impact. The man was in his driveway after breaking his hip waiting for an ambulance for more than 3 hours. A police officer took the man to hospital after what was supposed to be another 2-hour wait. The gentleman lived 5 km from Dartmouth General Hospital yet the ambulance was dispatched from 175 kilometres.
Houston might have the label of Progressive Conservatives but doesn't share some views with his fellow conservative premiers or the federal party.
The PCs won 31 seats compared to 17 for the Liberals, 6 for the NDP, and a single Independent (all numbers preliminary). The majority mark was 28 for the 55-seat legislature.
The general concession was that the race might be close, certainly not this kind of a flip for the PCs away from the Liberals.
Nova Scotia Premier Iain Rankin, who took office back in February, had a rough start to the campaign for the Liberal Party.
The Liberals picked Lesley MacKay to replace Robyn Ingraham, who ran into issues over “boudoir photos,” in Dartmouth South. Ingraham cited mental health issues for withdrawing but later said the party told her to lie about why she left. NDP incumbent Claudia Chender won the riding.
NDP leader Gary Burrill, the only veteran leader of the campaign, boosted his party's total at Province House in Halifax.
The NDP campaigned on affordable housing, especially permanent rent control.
Rankin pulled a classless move by starting his speech while Burrill was giving his speech. Every time a politician gets interrupted, they never run the whole speech. CBC News did an interview with Burrill to try and make up for that, something they don't usually do.
Nova Scotia has a significant Black presence in the province, something that hasn't been reflected in the legislature. Bringing back the Preston riding was designated to increase the likelihood of Black representation. All the major parties ran a Black candidate. Liberal Angela Simmonds will be the MLA from Preston.
Only 5 Black MLAs have ever been elected in Nova Scotia. Looks like 4 of the new MLAs will be Black.
There were 11 Black candidates, 3 of them from Preston.
The preliminary numbers have 15 women in the new legislature, up from 12 (with 4 new seats). The PCs had an increase of 4 women plus the new female independent while the Liberals lost 2 women in the election.
Some of the backlash against the Liberals was tied to the lobster fishing rights with the settlers and the Mi’kmaw. There were 2 Mi’kmaw candidates who ran in the election. Bryson Syliboy (NDP) ran in the Richmond riding in Cape Breton. Nadine Bernard from the We’koqma’q First Nation (Liberal) ran in the Victoria-The Lakes riding in Cape Breton. Neither of them won.
The turnout at the end of the night was given at 50.5%, down 2.9 percentage points from the 2017 election. The advance ballots still to be counted will boost that a bit.
The turnout was strong early in the contest. Elections Nova Scotia said a total of 75,367 early votes were cast compared to 32,935 at the same point during the 2017 election.
Those looking for a trend will note that this is the first pandemic election in Canada where the government changed parties. Perhaps this wasn't too much of a pandemic election after all. Nova Scotia reported 9 new COVID-19 cases on Monday with 24 active cases in the province.
The Liberals in Nova Scotia ran a poor campaign after being in power for 8 years. The PCs and NDP ran targeted campaigns.
