I can imagine an American watching Son of a Critch on the CW Network seeing VOCM as the radio station where Mark Critch's dad works. Their inner dialogue being like "they created a really fake radio station for a TV show."
Except VOCM is a real radio station in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador.
U.S. station call letters start with W east of the Mississippi River and K west of the Mississippi River (with some grand exceptions). Canadian station call letters start with C. So why are there stations in Newfoundland that start with the letter V?
Newfoundland wasn't a part of Canada until 1949. When the province joined Canada, stations such as VOCM, VOAR, and VOWR that broadcast before becoming part of the country were allowed to keep their call letters.
VOCM is at 590 AM in St. John's with a news/talk/classic hits format. There is a VOCM-FM at 97.5 FM in St. John's that plays classic rock with a rebroadcaster in Clarenville at 100.7 FM.
VOCM has rebroadcasters in Corner Brook (570 AM), Gander (650 AM), Stephenville (870 AM), Grand Falls-Windsor (620 AM), Clarenville (710 AM), and Marystown (88.3 FM).
The VOAR signal belongs to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Newfoundland & Labrador with a bunch of rebroadcasters throughout the province. The primary VOAR-FM is licensed to Mount Pearl.
VOWR is at 800 AM in St. John's with a Christian radio format.
There is a rebroadcaster called VF2095 at 100.9 FM in Natuashish that rebroadcasts CFGB-FM, the CBC Radio One station in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Newfoundland and Labrador.
You can listen to these stations via the Internet and various apps if you want to hear a station's call letters starting with V.
The vast majority of Newfoundland and Labrador radio stations start with C. The only 2 TV stations in the province also start with C and are licensed to St. John's: CBNT (Channel 8) is the CBC station and CJON (Channel 21) is the NTV (Newfoundland TV) station, carrying mostly Global programming.
I took this picture in 2015 when I was in St. John's. I knew VOCM was a thing yet when this was literally in front of me, I couldn't resist the desire to get a photo.
They likely report on moose-related traffic accidents. You see road signs for moose crossings. Fortunately, the only moose I saw in Newfoundland was on my plate at a restaurant in Petty Harbour.
Son of a Critch continues into the fall on the CW Network in the United States. Seasons 1-2 are available in Canada via CBC Gem and Season 3 will run this winter on the CBC.
photo credits: Son of a Critch/CBC Comedy; me video credit: Son of a Critch/CBC Comedy
Alex DeBrincat is an American hockey player. The Ottawa Senators had a chance to get DeBrincat from Chicago for 3 significant draft picks. Unfortunately, after a year in Ottawa, DeBrincat had to be traded to try and get some value instead of nothing if he left for free agency. The Senators traded DeBrincat to Detroit (he's from Michigan) for far less than they spent to get him. The Red Wings signed DeBrincat quickly to a 4-year extension.
This is sadly a struggle for Canadian NHL teams to lure talent north of the border. We've heard stories about taxes, difficulties in reuniting families, different school systems, the French language in Ottawa and Montréal. The Alex DeBrincat story includes an odd twist we hadn't anticipated.
The Senators play in Kanata, a suburb well west of downtown. The team would love to build a new arena in LeBreton Flats in the downtown core.
Turns out one of the issues DeBrincat had in playing in Ottawa was the lack of a Chipotle in the west end of Ottawa. There is a Chipotle in downtown Ottawa in the CF Rideau Centre on the map above at 50 Rideau Street. That would be decently close to the new potential arena in LeBreton Flats.
Ottawa GM Pierre Dorion joked about getting another Chipotle location when DeBrincat was not happy knowing there were no nearby locations where the team played and practiced.
DeBrincat, 24 and 25 in all of this saga, might have wondered about this strange land, meaning Canada, where one could not easily score Chipotle food.
DeBrincat will be in the Detroit area, which has a few randomly scattered Chipotle locations. There are no locations within a close range of Little Caesars Arena, where the Red Wings play. Perhaps DeBrincat will live in a Detroit suburb near a Chipotle. Maybe Detroit management will convince Chipotle to have a location near the downtown Detroit arena.
We are poking a bit of fun at DeBrincat but Canada is a different country than the United States. There are a few Whole Foods and no Trader Joe's. Toronto and Vancouver can offer more "American" options than Winnipeg or Edmonton. You could find more interesting Mexican food in Ottawa than a Chipotle but that would seem foreign in a lot of ways to a young American hockey player.
Your humble narrator lives a mile from a Chipotle. Don't give that too much thought since I mostly cook at home. If I lived in Canada, I would find new places to enjoy certain foods if I were trying to make a new place feel like home. Then again, I am not an American hockey player searching for well-known Mexican food.
Friends of mine have a son who just played American football in southern France. He did very well on the gridiron. There must have been a cultural shock to being in a different country. Maybe he was hungry for Chipotle or some other American food. He was there to get a chance to play the game he loves and have a new cultural experience. Playing football in southern France; Playing in the NHL in Ottawa. Not the same but a new experience for those who can appreciate something different.
We noted last month that Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown had been on leave from the court over misconduct allegations in a Scottsdale (AZ) area resort in late January.
Russell Brown has resigned from the court. The resignation means a halt to the Canadian Judicial Council (CJC) investigation into the matter since the council can only investigate complaints against federally appointed judges.
Brown's resignation came just before the CJC could have launched an inquiry. In a statement, Brown said the CJC probe "may continue well into 2024." That would be a delay in "nobody's interests — the Court's, the public's, my family's or my own."
"I have therefore decided that the common good is best served by my retirement, so that a replacement judge can join the court in time for its busy fall term," Brown said.
Justin Trudeau will pick his replacement, who must be from Western Canada. That definition could include British Columbia.
Brown had been a controversial pick by Stephen Harper in 2015 close to election time. He served on the high court from August 31, 2015 until June 12, 2023.
Once Brown's successor is picked, Justin Trudeau will have 6 out of 9 appointees to the bench. Stephen Harper ended up with 8 appointees before losing the 2015 election. Andromache Karakatsanis (retirement date: October 3, 2030) and Suzanne Côté (retirement date: September 21, 2033) are the only Harper appointees remaining as puisine justices, though Trudeau promoted Richard Wagner, a Harper appointee, to chief justice in 2017. Harper appointed Wagner to the court in 2012.
New Brunswick had one of those pandemic elections where the party in power got a larger majority. Blaine Higgs of the Progressive Conservatives (PC) called a snap election that was held on September 14, 2020.
We figured things were rather quiet in a normally sleepy (sorry) New Brunswick. Well, that changed quickly.
Policy 713, designed to protect LGBTQ students, allows for students to be called by names and pronouns that they choose. Premier Blaine Higgs wants to change that policy to require students under 16 to ask parents permission to make those changes.
Higgs has said if students are fearful or object to informing their parents of their change in preferred name and pronouns, they can work with guidance counsellors or school social workers and psychologists.
4 PC ministers and 2 PC backbenchers voted with the opposition for a Liberal motion for more consultations. The motion passed 26-20. Afterward, Dorothy Shephard, minister of healthy and inclusive communities, resigned from cabinet. Shephard got up and left the chamber after the premier said in the legislature that gender dysphoria has become "trendy." She noted his leadership issues in her resignation, not just with Policy 713.
Shephard is the third minister to resign from cabinet: former education minister Dominic Cardy resigned in October 2022 and is now an independent, and former deputy premier Robert Gauvin resigned in February 2020 and now sits as a Liberal.
The current Policy 713 is effective and protects children in those circumstances. We can't imagine New Brunswick has a setup where guidance counsellors, school social workers, and psychologists have that many billable hours to spend with kids on this concern.
We watched the interview (above) with Higgs and Rosemary Barton on Rosemary Barton Live. Barton talks about how Higgs is talking about his personal beliefs as policy. While Higgs denies this, the interview tells us something else entirely.
The Liberals and Conservatives retained 2 seats each in 4 byelections Monday night.
The Conservatives did retain the seat in the Oxford riding in Ontario. The path to get there was a bit unusual. Arpan Khanna won the seat to replace Dave MacKenzie. MacKenzie's daughter Deb Tait ran and lost the nomination to Khanna. There were allegations of wrongdoing and being a "parachute candidate" against Khanna.
MacKenzie and Tait endorsed Liberal candidate David Hilderley in the byelection. Hilderley got a lot more votes than Liberals usually do in the riding.
Anna Gainey kept the seat Liberal in the Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount riding in the Montréal area. Gainey replaces the retired Marc Garneau, who was minister of transport from November 2015 to January 2021 and then shifted to the minister of foreign affairs from January to October 2021.
Gainey defeated federal Green Party co-leader Jonathan Pedneault in the byelection.
Conservative Branden Leslie won the byelection in the Portage-Lisgar riding in Manitoba. Leslie succeeds Candice Bergen, who had been the MP from the riding since 2008. Bergen served as the interim opposition leader in 2022.
People's Party leader Maxime Bernier ran in that riding, hoping to get enough far right-wing votes.
Ben Carr will take over for his father, the late Jim Carr, as the MP from the Winnipeg South Centre riding. Jim Carr died of cancer in December.
Peter Bevan-Baker has been the greatest provincial Green Party leader ever. The party formed the Official Opposition in the 2019 election. Now the Prince Edward Island Green Party needs a new leader.
Bevan-Baker will stay on as leader until a new leader is selected and will remain a MLA. Bevan-Baker said his decision to retire was largely due to personal reasons, how his life has been very unbalanced in recent years.
"This party has a really bright future if we don't panic," Bevan-Baker told Island Morning (CBC Radio) host Mitch Cormier.
I remember the night Bevan-Baker became the first Green to be elected to the assembly in 2015. He was a dentist before becoming a politician. Bevan-Baker ran in 7 federal or provincial elections before being elected to an office. Peter Bevan-Baker will be missed among the party leaders in Prince Edward Island.
The Toronto mayor race will be June 26. There are too many people to mention, except that Doug Ford has a candidate (Mark Saunders) and Olivia Chow, widow of Jack Layton, is one of the top contenders. The winner replaces John Tory, who resigned over an affair with a staffer. If we don't get a write-up next week, we will include this in our Canada Day notebook on July 1.
Editor's note:This article definitely talks about suicide and suicide attempts and may be triggering to some people.
We often watch films with certain themes where we don't have direct experience. A lot of us have no parenting experience yet we watch films about parenting issues and concerns. We were all children, after all.
I hadn't thought about the films I've seen where suicide was involved, and there were quite a few. A lot of them Canadian; some of them very American.
I did have someone, who was quite estranged from me, end their life recently at their own hands. Despite the estrangement, I feel quite a bit of pain from the act. This is complicated.
This isn't one of those self-indulging pieces where the author magically realizes the significance of a topic because what that person saw on the big screen now affects their life. Still, I wanted to examine this topic through a new lens.
Films that feature suicide can refer to a suicide attempt or the discovery of suicide or some other related matter. Some of this can be triggering if you have experienced a suicide of someone close to you. We apologize if this piece is triggering.
Heathers is more about murders made to look like suicides. This was the first film that entered my brain when I thought about this topic. The song featured in the above video also was in my head. I did see the film after 3 of my high school classmates had died, none of them by suicide. I wasn't triggered by that though many could be.
Other American films that leapt to mind: The Virgin Suicides, The Big Chill, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, the "black capsule" in M*A*S*H, Christine (as in Christine Chubbuck, the film with Rebecca Hall).
Close, the Belgium entry into this spring's Oscars for Best International Feature Film, also has a suicide in the film. A hauntingly beautiful film.
I did make a list of Canadian films that have suicide themes contained within the film. This is not a complete list.
All My Puny Sorrows
Our Loved Ones | Les êtres chers
Queens of the Qing Dynasty
Wilby Wonderful
Monsieur Lazhar
The Grizzlies
All the Wrong Reasons
Everything Is Fine | Tout est parfait
Cas & Dylan
1:54
Lost and Delirious
The Barbarian Invasions
Nelly
We have seen all of these titles with the exception of Queens of the Qing Dynasty and Everything Is Fine | Tout est parfait. We saw Ashley McKenzie's full-length feature debut Werewolf, an intense fictional film. Seeing that film makes me want to see Queens of the Qing Dynasty.
All My Puny Sorrows has suicide as a co-star while Wilby Wonderful has a more light-hearted approach to a suicide attempt. All My Puny Sorrows and Our Loved Ones | Les êtres chers were about generational suicide in families.
Anne Émond wrote and directed Our Loved Ones and Nelly. The latter film was based on a real-life person who did end her life.
Monsieur Lazhar starts out with a suicide. Cas & Dylan has that theme throughout with a terminal illness but the act comes near the end of the film.
All the Wrong Reasons doesn't show the suicide but the reaction is instrumental to Karine Vanasse's character.
Everything Is Fine | Tout est parfait deals with the reaction of the main character to 4 suicides.
1:54 has the suicide in the middle of the film. Lost and Delirious and The Barbarian Invasions have the act at the end of the film. The youth in The Grizzlies are surrounded by suicide. Queens of the Qing Dynasty reportedly starts out in the aftermath of a suicide attempt.
If you are intrigued for good or bad reasons to find more films on the subject, Wikipedia has such a list.
Quebec looked into putting a suicide content warning on films in 2011. That act ultimately didn't happen. Canada doesn't have a federal system for rating films, unlike the United States with the MPAA rating system. Provinces decide all of those elements for film distribution.
We don't generally object to such content warnings. We do wonder in films such as Close where the suicide is the twist in a film.
Filmmakers are often going to tell stories close to their heart. Suicide can easily be one of those topics.
Episode 7 of the Canadian TV series Three Pines showed the aftermath of a murder made to look like a suicide. Talk about the act can be a trigger for some people. Seeing the victim can be a trigger for a lot of people. All of our examples deal with suicide at different points in the process.
Newfoundland acting legend and former Codco member Andy Jones has a new one-person play Don't Give Up On Me, Dad about the suicide of his son at the age 28 after a long battle with mental illness. Jones joined Q and Tom Power to talk about Louis and the play.
My therapist mentioned The Bridge (2006), an American documentary on suicide jumpers off the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco Bay. I have not seen this film, though I gather from the description that this film might be quite triggering.
I do know from having walked that bridge that there are phones on the bridge for people to call for mental health assistance. That may not be a perfect solution but good to know that an option is there for those who need help.
In our original story, we noted that Karyn Dwyer's Wikipedia page noted that the actor had committed suicide. That passage is no longer on her page.
Her passing was tragic and far too soon, regardless of the reason. Suicide shouldn't have a stigma.
As a film reviewer who tries to remain objective, I won't stray from reviewing a film based on the topic. The film may trigger some emotion but that is to be expected. The pain might be a bit more real than it was before the event in my own life.
I don't want to trigger people about the topic. Some suicide or suicide attempt survivors throw themselves into the topic instead of fleeing the idea.
We will try to be sensitive whenever possible. When we reviewed Prey, we noted that film could be triggering for those who were sexually abused, especially by a Catholic priest.
Welcome to Victoria Day 2023, the unofficial start of summer in Canada. We gathered a few recent items of note and reflect on where Canada is at the moment. You don't have to be at the cabin or cottage to enjoy this notebook. Having a Caesar (or a virgin Caesar) and perhaps a bag of all-dressed or ketchup chips wouldn't hurt.
The Alberta election is a week today. Glad we got the decision that Alberta premier Danielle Smith breached the conflict of interest act. Smith's thought process sadly reminded us of the old Steve Martin joke about how he forgot armed robbery was against the law.
The primary story in the province this month is still the devastating wildfires, even with the election. The conditions are unfortunately ripe for wildfires. We've seen them spread beyond the province in Western Canada.
Can't wait for summer, except when wildfires are involved. Difficult to think about voting for Rachel Notley or Danielle Smith (not directly) when you might have to leave your home or already have evacuated.
We will have more on the Alberta election after we find out the results.
You likely have read about U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas receiving luxury gifts from billionaire Harlan Crow. Sadly, this will likely not results in charges or removal from the bench.
Canada Supreme Court Justice Russell Brown has been on leave since February 1 over allegations in Arizona that involve a physical altercation and allegations of unwanted touching of women.
Action was swift in that the incident happened on January 28-29.
We haven't seen updates of late as to how long the leave will last or whether action can be taken against Brown.
The incidents are different in nature but you do get the sense that the Canada Supreme Court cares about appearances on the court while the same is not true in the United States.
Russell Brown and Clarence Thomas do have one intriguing element in common: both were highly conservative judges at a really young age with little judicial experience. Thomas had not been a judge while Brown was only a judge for 2½ years in Alberta.
Brown is 57. If he stays on the court, he can be there until September 15, 2040, his 75th birthday.
There are a lot of Canadian TV shows coming this summer and fall to the CW. One of those "old" shows is Transplant, where Season 3 will be further delayed, as in 2024. Some of that is the writers strike in the United States. That strike may open the flood gates for more Canadian TV.
There is a new Canadian film with a following in the United States. Blackberry is about the Canadian phenomena with a phone with a keyboard.
Matt Johnson directed the film from a screenplay from Johnson and Matthew Miller about the rise and fall of Canadian tech company Research in Motion. American actor Glenn Howerton plays Jim Balsillie while Canadian icon Jay Baruchel plays Mike Lazaridis.
Canadians have great stories that should be told by Canadians. Let's hope for more opportunities like Blackberry and fewer like Argo.
Your humble narrator has not seen the film. Just odd that a lot of Americans can easily see this film in theatres.
The End of Sex played in U.S. theatres for a week. The film played in a couple of Chicago suburbs but not in the actual city, where more likely filmgoers would see this film.
Monia Chokri's new film The Nature of Love | Simple comme Sylvain is the lone Canadian film in competition at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. This film follows a wealthy woman who has an affair with a working class man.
The film is in the Un Certain Regard section, the same place as A Brother's Love in 2019. You might recall that Chokri directed and starred in Babysitter (2022). Chokri wrote and directed the 2019 and 2023 films.
CBC News has a nice wrapup of the overall Canadian presence at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival.
The CFL preseason starts today at 4 pm Eastern/2 pm Mountain with the Battle of Alberta as the Elks of Edmonton travel to Calgary to play the Stampeders.
The new CFL Preseason Live means all the preseason games are available online in the U.S. (online for 6, TV for 3 in Canada) though there is no on-demand option.
Gary Bettman's pet project has been a colossal failure in the greater Phoenix area. The latest is a sound rejection of a new arena in Tempe last week.
The argument in Glendale was that fans couldn't get to the arena. The local TV ratings are anemic, barely ahead of what a test pattern (ask your grandparents) would get.
The Arizona Coyotes need a new home and not in the desert. Salt Lake City, Houston, and Kansas City have been mentioned as possible relocation destinations.
The obvious choice is Quebec City and the Quebec Nordiques 2.0. Beautiful new arena, hockey history, fans who like and will support hockey. TSN's Pierre LeBrun, among many others, mentions that Quebec City doesn't have enough corporate money. The idea that the arena would be filled, lots more merchandise would be sold, and a great rivalry in La Belle Province isn't as valuable as corporate money in Salt Lake City is highly frustrating.
The potential ownership has been vetted when Quebec City put up a bid for an expansion team, a setup that was rigged for another desert city and away from an actual hockey city. Time to right a wrong and bring back the Quebec Nordiques.
Canada has a bit of copycat with corporate names for stadiums and arenas. Rogers has the MLB stadium in Toronto and hockey arenas in Edmonton and Vancouver. Scotiabank has the NBA and NHL arena in Toronto and the NHL arena in Calgary.
There is a satisfaction of referring to the large stadium in Toronto as SkyDome, the original name for the stadium. Exhibition Stadium was the home of the Blue Jays (MLB) and Argonauts (CFL). Its replacement has a corporate name (BMO Field).
Taylor Field in Regina, the long-time home of the CFL Saskatchewan Roughriders, was named for Neil J. "Piffles" Taylor, a World War I fighter pilot who served as president of the Regina Roughriders, the Canadian Rugby Union, and the Western Interprovincial Football Union.
Ivor Wynne, as in Ivor Wynne Stadium in Hamilton, was athletic director and dean of students at McMaster University.
Mosaic Stadium was also the last name given to Taylor Field. The new Mosaic Stadium is likely to be called that since that field only had that name.
The CFL has corporate names in Regina, Winnipeg, Edmonton (field only), Toronto, Hamilton, and Ottawa.
Vancouver has BC Place and the old Empire Stadium, though one of the Rogers arenas is in Vancouver.
Actors, regardless of gender, reach a point where they start playing parents onscreen. Character actors know this more than traditional leading actors.
Unfortunately, there has been a stigma in Hollywood over female actors and their decision to play mothers. The worry is that they won't be seen as "sexy" or "desirable" once they have played a mother.
The concept is a bunch of bull[droppings] since a woman's "desirability" shouldn't decrease a drop just for playing a mother. Also, men don't have this stigma and they aren't usually as involved with the children onscreen.
Rachel McAdams (she's Canadian) is playing Barbara Simon, mother of Margaret, in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. Without knowing (or caring) about her age, she would seem old enough to play a woman who has a daughter about 11 or 12. Not a stretch. Hoping Hollywood still thinks of her and other female actors as viable in the roles she is used to playing.
Natalie Portman rolled the dice on this topic a few years back when she played the mother of Jacob Tremblay's character in Xavier Dolan film The Death and Life of John F. Donovan in 2018. Portman's strategy might have been to play a mom in a film that might not have all that much traction in the United States.
Portman did a really nice job in that film. The scene where she is chasing after him on the sidewalk was highly powerful. As far as most of Hollywood knows, Portman never played a mom in a film.
I thought the film was better than most people thought, though I can feel their complaints about the film.
English Canada argues that they don't have a star system, and we generally agree. Quebec has its own actors, most of whom don't peek out into the English side.
Macha Grenon leaps into my head because I seen her play mother roles in English (The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom) and French (Familia). Grenon also played a mother as the lead in Nouvelle adresse on Ici Radio-Canada Télé. English Canadians might know This Life, which is the English language adaptation on the CBC.
Perhaps Grenon is known for doing well playing mothers and has that look. Plenty of American female actors play mothers and are often typecast in those roles.
We've seen Grenon play non-mother roles in French (Days of Darkness | L'Âge des ténèbres from Denys Arcand) and in English (Barney's Version).
Molly Parker is seen saying goodbye to her daughter as she goes off to university in Essex County. That isn't quite the same as she does very little mothering in the 5-episode miniseries this spring on CBC. Her character provides some work as a aunt, which is like a mother but not a mother. Parker does a number of U.S. based projects but again, few in Hollywood will know Essex County even exists.
Parker played the mother of Kit (Dylan Authors) in Weirdos (2016) from Bruce McDonald. Then again, her character was not going to win Mother of the Year.
Tatiana Maslany won an American Emmy and 4 (out of 4) Canadian Screen Awards for her roles in Orphan Black for 5 seasons. Sarah Manning was a mom to her daughter Kira (Skyler Wexler). Kira was smart enough to know which one was her mother, despite the clones. Cosima Niehaus did interact with Kira more than the other clones; Rachel Duncan, not so much.
Then again, with Maslany also playing Alison Hendrix, Helena, and several clones, maybe the motherhood part got pushed to the side. Siobhan Sadler (Irish actor Maria Doyle Kennedy) was more of a mother to Kira than Sarah was, having served as the foster mother to Sarah and Felix (Jordan Gavaris).
The Canadian system offers a lot more flexibility for female actors. Grace Lynn Kung, who is the lead in Wong & Winchester on Citytv, also plays a mom on Sort Of. Amanda Brugel played 7ven's mother on Season 2 of Sort Of. They aren't being typecast in Canada.
The hope is that Hollywood overhauls its view on female actors, especially lead female actors, to realize that playing a variety of roles enhances a female actor instead of diminishing them for playing a "mother."
Rachel McAdams playing the mother in the movie adaptation of a Judy Blume novel should be the catalyst that changes the Hollywood mindset toward female actors. Even when they get to play grandmothers, female actors are still viable in my film world.
photo credits: Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret; The Death and Life of John F. Donovan; The Year Dolly Parton Was My Mom; Orphan Black
Gordon Lightfoot died earlier this week at the age of 84. An amazing Canadian singer-songwriter with a 5+ decade career. The Order of Canada. Canadian Music Hall of Fame.
Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald might be your most favourite or least favourite Gordon Lightfoot song. Neither for me. Lightfoot had an amazing international career yet he kept Canada as his base. He also showed Canadian musicians that you could do both.
This won't be a typical obituary in the classic sense. Listen to the hits and pick out songs you may not have known, such as Cotton Jenny.or Canadian Railroad Trilogy.
Our tribute starts out with an offbeat look at Lightfoot as a prolific singer and songwriter. SCTV had this really funny skit where Lightfoot sings every song ever recorded. A very Canadian idea.
CBC Radio seemed like a good place to remember Gordon Lightfoot. The special Q episode devoted the entire show to the memory of Gordon Lightfoot, including an interview with Anne Murray. Murray McLauchlan and Tom Wilson were also guests on the program hosted by regular Q host Tom Power and Commotion's Elamin Abdelmahmoud.
Nicholas Jennings, who wrote Lightfoot the biography, was a guest on The Current with Matt Galloway.
He's been in my life as long as I can remember, first through his songs, then by writing about him through the decades. Proud to be his biographer. R.I.P. Gordon. Condolences to his wife Kim, his children, grandchildren, bandmates and friends. @lightfoot365#gordonlightfootpic.twitter.com/Xv2nOKUeCc
Peter Mansbridge on his podcast The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge will also look back at the life and career of Gordon Lightfoot. You can hear that on SXM Canada or wherever you get your podcasts.
I saw Gordon Lightfoot a few years back in person. I wish it was in Massey Hall in Toronto, where Lightfoot might have the record for playing the most dates of any artist there. The theatre was intimate. Lightfoot physically wasn't at his best but still put on a really good show.
I loved how much the fans knew the songs I did not know. You forget all the really great songs he had. Hits a plenty but simple songs I had never heard and still enjoyed. One of the radio guests pointed out there were lots of unreleased songs because he was so meticulous to make sure they were where Lightfoot wanted them to be.
"A must for huge Lightfoot fans and a nice primer if you only know the major hits."
If you think you know a lot about Gordon Lightfoot, you will still learn a lot about him from the 2019 documentary Gordon Lightfoot: If You Could Read My Mind. Saw the film at the 2019 Windsor International Film Festival. I know we say we learn a lot from documentaries. I had no idea and was blown away.
“I had the pleasure of meeting Mr. Lightfoot as a child – he spent the afternoon in the Gatineau Hills with my family, and it is a memory I will always cherish." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said this as part of his statement on the death of Gordon Lightfoot.
We tease about the prominent Canadians with the first name Gord or Gordon. We lost Gordon Pinsent earlier this year. We lost Gord Downie from The Tragically Hip in 2017. Gordie Howe passed away in 2016.
Ranger Gord (Peter Keleghan) was a part of The Red Green Show. Gord Miller is alive and a real person. There are 2 prominent Canadians named Gordon Sinclair.
Gordon Lightfoot might be the most significant of all the Gord and that is saying something in Canada.
The photo is of Gordon Lightfoot performing 100 Years Young, which was a CBC variety special celebrating Canada's centennial from 1967.
video credit: YouTube/westnyacktwins photo credit: Roy Martin/CBC Still Photo Collection; @petermansbridge Twitter capture: @nicojennings
We weren't planning on writing about the grocery rebate found in the new Canadian federal budget. BalanceofFood.com, our sibling blog, found the grocery rebate idea as a fascinating topic worth exploring.
Their research took them to Andrew Chang explaining the grocery rebate for the CBC News Explore audience. Chang left The National to do online journalism for CBC News Explore. His explanation of the grocery rebate on the whiteboard was journalism that was simple and informative. A good sign for Canadian journalism if the new service is doing that kind of work.
The money on the table for low and middle-income Canadians is a decent amount ($233 or $467 with seniors getting $225) but won't go too far given the current rising food prices. As our sibling blog noted, the American government with the GOP-led House won't even consider help for Americans unless the Democratic Party wins back the House in 2024.
Food prices are generally higher in Canada than in the United States due to a number of circumstances. Even higher if you consider the cost of groceries in the North, such as in Iqlauit in Nunavut. The Balanceoffood.com story includes links to podcasts that delve into the high food prices in Canada.
The new bleachers that are literally RIGHT at the visitors Bullpen… and a bunch of signs saying you can’t ask for autographs… pic.twitter.com/TfN4AU3sz8
The Toronto Blue Jays return home today for the 2023 home opener. Rogers Centre has the first level of renovations done. You've heard Ben Wagner and Dan Shulman talk incessantly about the changes to outfield seating in 2023. This is part of why the Blue Jays started with a long road trip to St. Louis, Kansas City, and Anaheim (with a 6-4 record).
The original plans included grass but that seems to have disappeared. SkyDome was a replacement for Exhibition Stadium when it opened in 1989. The dome was a huge success, unlike the roof at Olympic Stadium in Montréal.
The sad reality is the new changes at Rogers Centre might be the best MLB scenario for Canadian baseball fans. The history of MLB stadiums for Canadian teams is a miserable one.
Consider the 4 new MLB franchises in 1969.
Kansas City moved into Municipal Stadium, the old home of the A's and current home of the NFL team. The Royals got a new baseball-only stadium in 1973 where they still play. San Diego moved into San Diego Stadium, current home of the AFL Chargers.
Seattle moved into the minor league Sicks Stadium that never became terribly viable in the lone season of the Seattle Pilots. The franchise moved to Milwaukee where they had an old major league stadium in County Stadium.
Montréal had a couple of not so great options for the new Expos. The Autostade on Rue Sainte-Catherine E, just east of St. Laurent, was the home of the CFL Alouettes (1968–1971, 1973-1976). The Autostade could have been a truly intimate baseball experience. A number of factors led the group away from Autostade and onto Jarry Park, which was only supposed to be a temporary home for 3 seasons. That turned into 8 seasons.
Jarry Park was a single deck stadium without cover, quaint even for its time. Olympic Stadium hosted Les Expos starting in 1977. The sightlines were great for football, not as much for baseball.
Exhibition Stadium in Toronto, home of the CFL Argonauts, was the Blue Jays first home stadium. The fans had cover in the outfield seats but not over the 3rd-base side.
Comerica Park in Detroit and even Sahlen Field in Buffalo, permanent and temporary MLB stadiums near the Canadian border, offer more of what Canadian cities should have in a baseball stadium. The Detroit stadium's upper deck is too steep but the lower deck has wonderful sightlines, even from a pedestrian friendly view in centre field from outside the gate.
Not every stadium is going to be Wrigley Field or Fenway Park. Canada teams deserve a better viewing experience at a MLB ballpark on Canadian soil.
The practical nature of Toronto and land means revamping Rogers Centre. The improvements look great. Just the idea of not having home runs fall into a pit just past the fences is a substantial change.
I've seen the Blue Jays and Argonauts at SkyDome. I've seen Les Expos at Stade Olympique in Montréal. I've seen minor league baseball in Vancouver and Winnipeg. The Forum and Maple Leaf Gardens were legendary hockey arenas. Canadian baseball fans deserve a similar place for Major League Baseball.
Canadians should have an easier time finding what used to be the old Grade B maple syrup, ideally from Quebec. Americans could find the Grade B maple syrup, especially from Quebec, before the change. Since the classification brought everything to Grade A but with new descriptors, finding the good stuff has been rather difficult.
Our sibling blog, BalanceofFood.com explores the difficult search in the United States to score what is now known as Very Dark Strong Taste.
Maple syrup is an identifiable Canadian food that is enjoyed in the United States. Difficult to appreciate how good Canadian maple syrup if consumers have to struggle to find the truly dark stuff.
Back in 2013, Jason Jones (Canadian) had a bit too much fun exploring the maple syrup heist story for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. The Le Gros Jambon portion at the Montréal diner is worth the watch.
