I agree. The flaw in this appeal to polite lunacy is it means allowing men to be men. But Canada especially has slid overwhelmingly into the feminine, where passive aggressiveness, gossipy sniping and going along to get along rule the day. Look at the show The Traitors Canada. Nothing but whining and shame and a complete lack of confidence (with a few exceptions, namely, many of the men, and a few women). And don't get me started on Canada's Drag Race, the epitome of everything wrong with our cultural capital, Toronto.
PS - I'm a woman. And as a woman, I find some of the most horrific casual sexism to come from gay men. Maybe because your lack of intimate contact with us makes you even less likely to regard us as real people than do straight men? Just a theory.
I don't disagree with a general sense that Canada's overall self perception has shifted away from lionizing (what I would argue) is a healthy masculine stereotype. But labelling "passive aggressiveness," "gossipy sniping" and "whining" as "feminine"? Yeah, you can fuck right off with that.
May I quietly encourage you to look hard into your own (male, gay) peer groups and ask yourself honestly how "feminine" any of these character traits really are. I see plenty of that shit from men and women alike. JG
I take the point. The comment wasn't meant as being the end all and be all of femininity. Let's be honest too, the darker side of the feminine mystique does show up in the behaviours I listed, especially how woman can treat each other. And plenty of men exude this behaviour too, never mind how gay men have made it a badge of honour (ugh). So two things are true, the behaviours are not feminine per se, and they are the tactics mainly of women when in competition with each other.
The feminization of the culture as a whole and in education in particular seems to reliably run up against the charge of 'sexism' if raised and so tends to go unaddressed about its downstream effects that we see today (especially regarding reputational assassination and cancelling for criticizing the 'on the right side of history' ideology).
When the culture as a whole and in education in particular runs as solidly masculine as today's feminine, then the charge about maintaining it runs solidly into 'patriarchy'. Heads I win, tails you lose. You can see the problem.
But the particular selection of the most negative characteristics assigned only to 'women' certainly deserves a critical response - I too have noticed a higher than average, higher intensity of a, negative attribution stance amongst gay men towards women generally so it's good to read a pushback against that as well as reading that there really is a 'healthy masculine stereotype' from an accomplished woman. Thanks for that.
"Feminine" need not be negative, and feminine traits, like masculine traits, include both good and bad, and appropriate and inappropriate for certain contexts.
Nurturing, caring, empathy, agreeableness are also feminine traits (our English definition of the word - using it isn't sexism), of course not shared by all women or no men, which are all highly valuable in personal life.
But much less valuable in politics. Although Danielle Smith is doing a great job bringing these traits to bear on the trade dispute.
Some always refuse to see the shadow side, whether masculine or feminine. Gay men's release into the culture in the last 20 years, and esp trans in the last 5 years, has exposed everything all at once. Jen seeing sexism from gay men is nothing compared to what they do to each other, sadly.
I split my life between my farm in Harrow Ontario, and Kingsville/Amherstburg Ontario which are equal distant apart. Love the solitude, provides peace and oxygen for reflection and renewal.
It's very much a difference between the urbane (in a literal sense) and the not. Canada is increasingly less rural in attitude and culture, and it shows. Going along to get along is necessary throughout human society, but I think it fair to say that rural cultures have a bit more than it of urban ones, if only because urban ones CAN'T and function.
It's been ongoing for years, mind you. There's a landmark court case (Jobidon) where the distinction is quite sharply dilineated (it decides whether people can consent to bodily harm or not in the context of a fistfight. The 'urbane' side is of course horrified by the idea there could be a social good to smacking someone in the face, then spends about five pages trying to justify boxing being OK while hitting someone who calls your mother a whore isn't).
It's also the declining influence of Scottish (and Irish) culture. Being founded by Celts is a good way to create a country of polite lunatics.
The complete antithesis of the Canada that Trudeau, Singh and allied ideological thugs are trying to impose on Canada. More Shorsey less Trudeau et al!
Line subscirbers, this author, and perhaps our editors will likely scoff at what I'm about to say.
Sorry, but I can't like this piece, and frankly, I'm tiring of this theme from the Line.
The Line can take whatever editorial theme it chooses, and I realize I'm free to unsubscribe.
Having said that, as a mostly happy subscriber, I'm gonna comment critically on this subject.
I'm sure Shoresy is a great diversion (like Slap Shot) and likely quite funny.
However.
Embracing the Canadian 'unhinged asshole' stereotype will not work in the real world.
Americans are not and will not be more afraid of us if we playact like characters in Shoresy.
They will appropriately laugh at us, and carry on.
Canadian and Ontario taxpayers (that is, you and the rest of us) are paying for Shoresy:
Via Google AI:
The comedy series Shoresy is funded by a number of organizations, including the Canadian Media Fund, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit.
Canadian Media Fund: Participates in the production of Shoresy
Northern Ontario Heritage Fund: Provided funding for seasons two and three of Shoresy
Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit: Participates in the production of Shoresy
Ontario Creates: Participates in the production of Shoresy
Production companies:
New Metric Media: Produces Shoresy in partnership with Play Fun Games and Bell Media
Bell Media: Developed Shoresy for Crave
Oh, New Metric Media and Bell Media are private firms, right?
Well, kinda sorta not really. Both are funded on multiple fronts by federal and provincial taxpayers.
I kinda think the whole production of Shoresy is a fine example of Jen Gerson's Octopus Economy.
It's not an example for Canadians to follow.
My point is, it's time to get a bit more serious about where we are at as a country.
Trump is simply a mouthpiece for what might be a fundamental shift in the world order if the Trump's Team 'America First' initiative succeeds in what they openly say they are going to do.
Listen to this recent Full Comment podcast (worth your time - the guests on this episode have an analysis that should be strong coffee for Canadians):
Doug Ford and Chrystia Freeland's 'how Canada will fight Trump' narrative is laughable and horrifying. Canada needs to stop acting just like Donald Trump and start negotiating with other business and government leaders around the US that may not even realize where Trump and his team are going. American States have a lot of power to slow and even stop Trump's initiatives if they understand where it's going and disagree with it enough to do so. It they don't, or if they agree with Trump, frankly, we're toast.
In the meantime, instead of threatening a trade war with the US, we should be earnestly and strenuously requesting an immediate and early start to renegotiation of CUSMA (USMCA) and be prepared to negotiate on dairy, telecoms, airlines, and other protected industries in order to try to salvage an economic partnership with the US. We should also (finally) pull our weight on the border, defence, and law enforcement, for our own benefit as well as theirs. Pointing out their flaws in these areas is irrelevant - this is not an equal partner we are dealing with.
If we don't, and the other business and sub-national government leadership in the USA does not sway Trumps team to back off, Canada is well and truly screwed.
A friend sent me that podcast and, while I have little time for the National Post or Brian Lilley, I can't recommend it enough. You are correct that those guests know what they're talking about on a deep level. It turns out that there are a lot of oddballs in the Trump crowd that have a whole different worldview than, shall we say, sane people. America as a "victim" of the post-war Pax Americana? The kooks at the end of the bar now have jobs in the White House. Yes, the guests say the Liberals have no idea what they're facing but they also point out that the Conservatives don't either. The next couple of years are going to be rough.
As for Shorsey being a welfare product, the money and tax breaks given to the film industry brings in a lot of foreign money and feeds a whole lot of people downstream. I'm in the film and TV business and there's lots wrong with it, especially on the English Canadian side, but don't forget lots of welfare goes to other "marginal" industries like the oil industry and the auto industry and almost every other industry. What about the billion $ Trudeau sent to Alberta to deal with their unremediated wells that the oil companies fobbed off on the taxpayer by ignoring their license obligations.
My take away from this article and the Line’s most recent podcast was that every example of toughness was someone actually backing up their words with action, or in some case, not talking at all, but just taking action. The idea being that for a decade at least we’ve degraded into all talk, all symbolism and no action and no capabilities and this is a problem. Say what you will about Shoresy and the team, but action-taking is not something they shy away from.
Most countries in the rest of the world & many states in the U.S. offer some type of tax incentives for film/television. The tax credits offered are based on the labour spend by productions & therefore funded by the taxes paid by those working in the industry - the tax credits are not coming out of the pockets of ordinary tax payers.
> Americans are not and will not be more afraid of us if we playact like characters in Shoresy.
I don’t think anyone thinks they will be afraid of us. The issue is respect. A strong man can respect a weaker companion who stands up for himself including against his friends if they cross certain lines.
It may be trite, but I think it’s clear that the US does not respect obsequiousness.
I’ve been getting the feeling that most people in Ottawa haven’t been in rural Canada for a long while. Put a few drinks in us, get us around the table and we aren’t the refined, buttoned collar, limp handshaking folx they want us to be. I’ve got stories. Most people have stories. Maybe we need to collectively be telling those stories to find our way forward.
How Mr. Heimpel could write this without reference to the Freedom Convoy is utterly beyond me. As Shoresy and the Devil's Brigade perfectly illustrate the Canadian identity on screen (Keeso had a tooth removed to play Shoresy - top that for polite lunacy), the Freedom Convoy perfectly illustrated it in real life. Reread the whole piece while thinking about the Convoy: every bit fits.
Canada is in a huge jam right now. Many think it's time for Canada to end, and our leaders in politics and media alternate between servile and puerile.
Our only hope of survival as a nation is if the mass of Canadians reclaim their identity, honour those Canadian heroes who risked it all for their country's freedom and decency, apologize for the way they were treated, and ask them to stand forth, like Achilles from his tent, to save our nation with their courage, their joy, and their love for Canada. Again.
I was thinking about this in the last few days, as two separate stories in the news had a head-on collision:
- “Many young people think that the Holocaust is being exaggerated”
- “Holocaust survivors gather at Auschwitz for important anniversary”.
Our Jewish friends have secured many, many video and audio statements of people who survived the horrors of the Nazi death camps. Today, as overt anti-Jewish hate is seen everywhere, we have a lot more work to do.
I commend the brave Jews who fought through terrible memories to share their grief with mankind, but as our Canada seeks to find itself again I see a missed opportunity. Video interviews with Canadian soldiers who saw the death camps with their own eyes could have delivered a sense of purpose. A sense of purpose for a strong Canadian military presence and that alternatives to freedom and a proud democracy can conceal a hatred beyond comprehension.
Read a biography called “young Trudeau.” (Pierre) He went to an elite French college called Jean Breboeuf. The prevailing ethic thought which was universally accepted by the French Quebec Leaders of the time was that the Holocaust was an English (Canadian) lie. Premier Duplessis apparently repeated this about 1960.
Hoping that readers are aware of the proportion of Canadians who do not play hockey. Similar strong ethics to the hockey trope (resilience, grit) but different ways of expressing them.
For sure! I’d say there’s more enough of the good stuff laying around this land. Hockey just happens to be a handy symbol, even for those of us who’ve never played.
There are more Canadians participating in shooting sports than play hockey. But the Federal government and its bureaucracy are doing their best to socially engineer them out of existence.
I always had great success as a teacher - usually around Remembrance Day - asking students if they knew what Stormtroopers were. Sure enough, just about everyone recognized the iconic figures from Star Wars. When I asked on what real life soldiers their name can from, the door to their minds opened when they found out with a great deal of surprise that it came from those Canadians who did their part in a foreign war and helping create the nation these students called their own. A link. A real connection. A point of shared pride.
Each year, the discussions about this history imbedded a link between those who were here now and those who came before. I could see it. I could feel it, even at this micro level. I heard students talking afterwards in hallways and playgrounds.
This is what's missing these days between those who call themselves some kind of hyphenated Canadian and the nation they currently live in. Little real or personal connection of shared obligation and gratitude/respect between the two. Until these common links are re-established and institutionally held in value (it may very well be too late), these essential unifying stories, ideas, and principles - demonstrated so aptly and in real life with such quiet courage by both Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers and nurse Margaret Lerhe - must become 'common knowledge' and underpin common heritage'. Without these, Canadian character and the patriotism it fosters will continue to evaporate and, with it, the disappearance of any real sense of shared and common patriotism.
I tend to be on the pluralistic view of life-- "the good life" can be expressed and found in many forms. But ultimately as a nation state, we do need some common bedrock shoring up the inevitable and ultimately desirable disagreements among the populace-- without disagreement, there is stagnation. But without some common thread, we are not a nation. Is this it ? I dunno. Seems a bit manufactured, but sure. Just as long as we are starting to move beyond the 2020 "Canada as genocidal state, lets wallow in our sin" to something to build on, rather something to perpetually repent on. And please, whatever we do, don't trot out images on the Canadarm. Thats just really, really, really sad in 2025.
Never seen Shoresy, worn ice skates or even attended a pro-hockey game as this former Calgary-boy is a skier. Hockey is so flatland.
That being said and having lived in the US for over 20 years, the premise that Canada needs a stronger identity so that the country can be taken more seriously by Americans is both flawed and inherently Canadian. Americans value individuals. Gaining their attention requires being an exceptional, or at the very least, interesting individual. The key to trade negations will be cross border relationships between influential individuals.
Amen brother. We need our identity back. Tough, fair, polite, but ready to kick ass if need be. Don Cherry, Hayley Wickenheiser, Jean Chretien, Terry Fox, Michael J. Fox, Laura Secord - they are us. Not some effete caricature of latter day political correctness who can't even keep his word. Give me the Shoresys of this country any day.
Canada has been poisoned by the image of a simpering silk clad trust funded French Quebecker whose main accomplishment seems to be as an ESL champion when reading prepared texts. No wonder “we don’t get no respect”. Even lumberjacks and Mounties are better than what we have right now.
Really? Don't forget that simpering, silk clad trust fund guy punched the crap out of the toughest Conservative they had. Perhaps if the Conservatives had ran someone the average person could respect instead of Andrew Scheer, whose resume was even thinner than Trudeau's, Trudeau would not have won.
I wasn’t referring to his physical strength. Not the same as moral strength. And I was referring to Canada’s image. He could do yoga crow poses and show his chest like Hulk Hogan too. And his ESL skills when reading prepared texts are awesome. And yes the PCs did not do well electorally with some of their leadership choices. (voting tabulation “machine manipulations” ? -used by both parties IIRC). I did not see the charity boxing match but I did read an (Ottawa Citizen IIRC) article analyzing how heavy cocaine users were prone to nosebleeds which influenced the results.
There's a lot of nostalgia here and bemoaning the loss of what was. I'm a boomer and I feel it too. I think there are a lot of reasons for that. Our democracy has been so successful people can't imagine what it would be like without it so they don't realize how fragile it can be. Society is richer now and, therefore, life is easier. It's been said that adversity builds character and we don't have that much adversity anymore....for now. As for our cultural values not being celebrated...wouldn't it be great if we had a national institution that was dedicated to telling our stories, be it fiction or history? An organization that celebrated our culture to ourselves, old stock and newcomers alike, and to the rest of the world? In the 1930s Conservatives recognized the need for just such an organization. The called it the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or CBC. I know that there is a lot wrong with that organization now but, as I posted elsewhere, You don't throw out your family jewels because they are tarnished. You put some elbow grease into shining them up. Today's Conservatives say it's too expensive (even though most people spend more than the $35/year they pay for the CBC on streaming services) and want to shut it down. The reality is we need a Canadian broadcaster - or whatever will work in this technological era. Shutting it down is short-sighted and lazy. I heard of a Texas saying - it takes a carpenter to build a barn but any jackass can kick it down.
Agreed. The CBC shouldn't be shut down, the things that are currently wrong with it need to be fixed. CBC has the ability to deliver stories from all parts of the country to all parts of the country. Just because I live in the GTA doesn't mean that's all I want to hear about.
Funny you mention the movie "The Devil's Brigade". That's one of those movies my dad used to videotape on late night airings and watch with my brother and me (not uncommonly, also cutting off the ending of the movie by running out of tape or incorrectly setting the timer - a regular source of some consternation when the submarine is at the bottom of Tokyo Bay, the shore party is collecting vital data, and the corpsman who dropped out of medical school is about to attempt an appendectomy on a critical patient...) What pissed me off when I was only 10 or 11 was the way that the movie portrayed the American contribution to the Special Service Brigade as a collection of the dregs of the US Army, while the Canadians were shown to have been picked from the best of the best. In the end, they all form a successful elite unit, but the undertone was that American garbage and screw-ups were JUST AS GOOD as the best Canadians.
It's an old trope for Hollywood - the Americans always have to be portrayed as the greatest, and often given credit for accomplishing things that they had little or nothing to do with (examples: "The Great Escape", which was really a British endeavor. Ditto with the capture of an Enigma machine in "U-571", actually the work of Poles and the British, or the mediocre "1000 Bomber Raid" depicting the USAF pulling off something as a record first achievement which the RAF had historically done first and a lot earlier than the film's fictional depiction.) That's ultimately the problem with dealing with the American jingoism of Trump and MAGA: they're ignorant of much of the world outside of the US, and that ignorance feeds flawed ideas about America's role in the world.
When you produce the script and fund the film production, you get to tell your own story.
FWIW: A member of the Devil’s Brigade was raised near me, schooled in a one room schoolhouse and had the military skills to join the special unit. He came back from the war to an unassuming life as a car salesman. One of the nicest people you could ever meet.
Bang on! Great article! My son showed me Shoresy a few years back when they were getting started! I laughed hard,told him great stuff! Hockey has always been a big part of our lives. Teachs you how to lose,and go again. My son bought me a photo of Bobby Orrs hockey sticks for Christmas! I got choked up,for real!! Thank you for this,I needed this,pick me up. Starting to lose faith in Canadian kind.
Stuff like ‘Shoresy’ should be included in the Canadian citizenship preparation manual. At the rate at which we’re going the national identity will be unrecognizable within a couple more generations. In the major urban centres, anyway.
I agree. The flaw in this appeal to polite lunacy is it means allowing men to be men. But Canada especially has slid overwhelmingly into the feminine, where passive aggressiveness, gossipy sniping and going along to get along rule the day. Look at the show The Traitors Canada. Nothing but whining and shame and a complete lack of confidence (with a few exceptions, namely, many of the men, and a few women). And don't get me started on Canada's Drag Race, the epitome of everything wrong with our cultural capital, Toronto.
PS - I'm gay.
PS - I'm a woman. And as a woman, I find some of the most horrific casual sexism to come from gay men. Maybe because your lack of intimate contact with us makes you even less likely to regard us as real people than do straight men? Just a theory.
I don't disagree with a general sense that Canada's overall self perception has shifted away from lionizing (what I would argue) is a healthy masculine stereotype. But labelling "passive aggressiveness," "gossipy sniping" and "whining" as "feminine"? Yeah, you can fuck right off with that.
May I quietly encourage you to look hard into your own (male, gay) peer groups and ask yourself honestly how "feminine" any of these character traits really are. I see plenty of that shit from men and women alike. JG
I take the point. The comment wasn't meant as being the end all and be all of femininity. Let's be honest too, the darker side of the feminine mystique does show up in the behaviours I listed, especially how woman can treat each other. And plenty of men exude this behaviour too, never mind how gay men have made it a badge of honour (ugh). So two things are true, the behaviours are not feminine per se, and they are the tactics mainly of women when in competition with each other.
The feminization of the culture as a whole and in education in particular seems to reliably run up against the charge of 'sexism' if raised and so tends to go unaddressed about its downstream effects that we see today (especially regarding reputational assassination and cancelling for criticizing the 'on the right side of history' ideology).
When the culture as a whole and in education in particular runs as solidly masculine as today's feminine, then the charge about maintaining it runs solidly into 'patriarchy'. Heads I win, tails you lose. You can see the problem.
But the particular selection of the most negative characteristics assigned only to 'women' certainly deserves a critical response - I too have noticed a higher than average, higher intensity of a, negative attribution stance amongst gay men towards women generally so it's good to read a pushback against that as well as reading that there really is a 'healthy masculine stereotype' from an accomplished woman. Thanks for that.
"Feminine" need not be negative, and feminine traits, like masculine traits, include both good and bad, and appropriate and inappropriate for certain contexts.
Nurturing, caring, empathy, agreeableness are also feminine traits (our English definition of the word - using it isn't sexism), of course not shared by all women or no men, which are all highly valuable in personal life.
But much less valuable in politics. Although Danielle Smith is doing a great job bringing these traits to bear on the trade dispute.
Some always refuse to see the shadow side, whether masculine or feminine. Gay men's release into the culture in the last 20 years, and esp trans in the last 5 years, has exposed everything all at once. Jen seeing sexism from gay men is nothing compared to what they do to each other, sadly.
So many stereotypes about the feminine in one sentence.
No, just trying to identify patterns
I won’t quote you back to yourself. You know what you wrote. I know a misogynistic comment when I read one.
Yawn. Labelling others and manufacturing narratives is so 2020
you said it.
Any cogent analysis or do names break your bones?
I’m fortunate to split my life between Toronto and the boonies and believe me they are two solitudes.
Same here - Vancouver versus the Cariboo.
I split my life between my farm in Harrow Ontario, and Kingsville/Amherstburg Ontario which are equal distant apart. Love the solitude, provides peace and oxygen for reflection and renewal.
It's very much a difference between the urbane (in a literal sense) and the not. Canada is increasingly less rural in attitude and culture, and it shows. Going along to get along is necessary throughout human society, but I think it fair to say that rural cultures have a bit more than it of urban ones, if only because urban ones CAN'T and function.
It's been ongoing for years, mind you. There's a landmark court case (Jobidon) where the distinction is quite sharply dilineated (it decides whether people can consent to bodily harm or not in the context of a fistfight. The 'urbane' side is of course horrified by the idea there could be a social good to smacking someone in the face, then spends about five pages trying to justify boxing being OK while hitting someone who calls your mother a whore isn't).
It's also the declining influence of Scottish (and Irish) culture. Being founded by Celts is a good way to create a country of polite lunatics.
The complete antithesis of the Canada that Trudeau, Singh and allied ideological thugs are trying to impose on Canada. More Shorsey less Trudeau et al!
Line subscirbers, this author, and perhaps our editors will likely scoff at what I'm about to say.
Sorry, but I can't like this piece, and frankly, I'm tiring of this theme from the Line.
The Line can take whatever editorial theme it chooses, and I realize I'm free to unsubscribe.
Having said that, as a mostly happy subscriber, I'm gonna comment critically on this subject.
I'm sure Shoresy is a great diversion (like Slap Shot) and likely quite funny.
However.
Embracing the Canadian 'unhinged asshole' stereotype will not work in the real world.
Americans are not and will not be more afraid of us if we playact like characters in Shoresy.
They will appropriately laugh at us, and carry on.
Canadian and Ontario taxpayers (that is, you and the rest of us) are paying for Shoresy:
Via Google AI:
The comedy series Shoresy is funded by a number of organizations, including the Canadian Media Fund, the Northern Ontario Heritage Fund, and the Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit.
Canadian Media Fund: Participates in the production of Shoresy
Northern Ontario Heritage Fund: Provided funding for seasons two and three of Shoresy
Canadian Film or Video Production Tax Credit: Participates in the production of Shoresy
Ontario Creates: Participates in the production of Shoresy
Production companies:
New Metric Media: Produces Shoresy in partnership with Play Fun Games and Bell Media
Bell Media: Developed Shoresy for Crave
Oh, New Metric Media and Bell Media are private firms, right?
Well, kinda sorta not really. Both are funded on multiple fronts by federal and provincial taxpayers.
I kinda think the whole production of Shoresy is a fine example of Jen Gerson's Octopus Economy.
It's not an example for Canadians to follow.
My point is, it's time to get a bit more serious about where we are at as a country.
Trump is simply a mouthpiece for what might be a fundamental shift in the world order if the Trump's Team 'America First' initiative succeeds in what they openly say they are going to do.
Listen to this recent Full Comment podcast (worth your time - the guests on this episode have an analysis that should be strong coffee for Canadians):
https://nationalpost.com/opinion/the-reason-trump-plans-to-crush-canada-that-our-politicians-just-dont-get
Doug Ford and Chrystia Freeland's 'how Canada will fight Trump' narrative is laughable and horrifying. Canada needs to stop acting just like Donald Trump and start negotiating with other business and government leaders around the US that may not even realize where Trump and his team are going. American States have a lot of power to slow and even stop Trump's initiatives if they understand where it's going and disagree with it enough to do so. It they don't, or if they agree with Trump, frankly, we're toast.
In the meantime, instead of threatening a trade war with the US, we should be earnestly and strenuously requesting an immediate and early start to renegotiation of CUSMA (USMCA) and be prepared to negotiate on dairy, telecoms, airlines, and other protected industries in order to try to salvage an economic partnership with the US. We should also (finally) pull our weight on the border, defence, and law enforcement, for our own benefit as well as theirs. Pointing out their flaws in these areas is irrelevant - this is not an equal partner we are dealing with.
If we don't, and the other business and sub-national government leadership in the USA does not sway Trumps team to back off, Canada is well and truly screwed.
A friend sent me that podcast and, while I have little time for the National Post or Brian Lilley, I can't recommend it enough. You are correct that those guests know what they're talking about on a deep level. It turns out that there are a lot of oddballs in the Trump crowd that have a whole different worldview than, shall we say, sane people. America as a "victim" of the post-war Pax Americana? The kooks at the end of the bar now have jobs in the White House. Yes, the guests say the Liberals have no idea what they're facing but they also point out that the Conservatives don't either. The next couple of years are going to be rough.
As for Shorsey being a welfare product, the money and tax breaks given to the film industry brings in a lot of foreign money and feeds a whole lot of people downstream. I'm in the film and TV business and there's lots wrong with it, especially on the English Canadian side, but don't forget lots of welfare goes to other "marginal" industries like the oil industry and the auto industry and almost every other industry. What about the billion $ Trudeau sent to Alberta to deal with their unremediated wells that the oil companies fobbed off on the taxpayer by ignoring their license obligations.
Points taken.
My take away from this article and the Line’s most recent podcast was that every example of toughness was someone actually backing up their words with action, or in some case, not talking at all, but just taking action. The idea being that for a decade at least we’ve degraded into all talk, all symbolism and no action and no capabilities and this is a problem. Say what you will about Shoresy and the team, but action-taking is not something they shy away from.
Most countries in the rest of the world & many states in the U.S. offer some type of tax incentives for film/television. The tax credits offered are based on the labour spend by productions & therefore funded by the taxes paid by those working in the industry - the tax credits are not coming out of the pockets of ordinary tax payers.
Points taken.
> Americans are not and will not be more afraid of us if we playact like characters in Shoresy.
I don’t think anyone thinks they will be afraid of us. The issue is respect. A strong man can respect a weaker companion who stands up for himself including against his friends if they cross certain lines.
It may be trite, but I think it’s clear that the US does not respect obsequiousness.
I’ve been getting the feeling that most people in Ottawa haven’t been in rural Canada for a long while. Put a few drinks in us, get us around the table and we aren’t the refined, buttoned collar, limp handshaking folx they want us to be. I’ve got stories. Most people have stories. Maybe we need to collectively be telling those stories to find our way forward.
How Mr. Heimpel could write this without reference to the Freedom Convoy is utterly beyond me. As Shoresy and the Devil's Brigade perfectly illustrate the Canadian identity on screen (Keeso had a tooth removed to play Shoresy - top that for polite lunacy), the Freedom Convoy perfectly illustrated it in real life. Reread the whole piece while thinking about the Convoy: every bit fits.
Canada is in a huge jam right now. Many think it's time for Canada to end, and our leaders in politics and media alternate between servile and puerile.
Our only hope of survival as a nation is if the mass of Canadians reclaim their identity, honour those Canadian heroes who risked it all for their country's freedom and decency, apologize for the way they were treated, and ask them to stand forth, like Achilles from his tent, to save our nation with their courage, their joy, and their love for Canada. Again.
Yes, we need our identity back.
I was thinking about this in the last few days, as two separate stories in the news had a head-on collision:
- “Many young people think that the Holocaust is being exaggerated”
- “Holocaust survivors gather at Auschwitz for important anniversary”.
Our Jewish friends have secured many, many video and audio statements of people who survived the horrors of the Nazi death camps. Today, as overt anti-Jewish hate is seen everywhere, we have a lot more work to do.
I commend the brave Jews who fought through terrible memories to share their grief with mankind, but as our Canada seeks to find itself again I see a missed opportunity. Video interviews with Canadian soldiers who saw the death camps with their own eyes could have delivered a sense of purpose. A sense of purpose for a strong Canadian military presence and that alternatives to freedom and a proud democracy can conceal a hatred beyond comprehension.
Read a biography called “young Trudeau.” (Pierre) He went to an elite French college called Jean Breboeuf. The prevailing ethic thought which was universally accepted by the French Quebec Leaders of the time was that the Holocaust was an English (Canadian) lie. Premier Duplessis apparently repeated this about 1960.
Hoping that readers are aware of the proportion of Canadians who do not play hockey. Similar strong ethics to the hockey trope (resilience, grit) but different ways of expressing them.
For sure! I’d say there’s more enough of the good stuff laying around this land. Hockey just happens to be a handy symbol, even for those of us who’ve never played.
There are more Canadians participating in shooting sports than play hockey. But the Federal government and its bureaucracy are doing their best to socially engineer them out of existence.
I always had great success as a teacher - usually around Remembrance Day - asking students if they knew what Stormtroopers were. Sure enough, just about everyone recognized the iconic figures from Star Wars. When I asked on what real life soldiers their name can from, the door to their minds opened when they found out with a great deal of surprise that it came from those Canadians who did their part in a foreign war and helping create the nation these students called their own. A link. A real connection. A point of shared pride.
Each year, the discussions about this history imbedded a link between those who were here now and those who came before. I could see it. I could feel it, even at this micro level. I heard students talking afterwards in hallways and playgrounds.
This is what's missing these days between those who call themselves some kind of hyphenated Canadian and the nation they currently live in. Little real or personal connection of shared obligation and gratitude/respect between the two. Until these common links are re-established and institutionally held in value (it may very well be too late), these essential unifying stories, ideas, and principles - demonstrated so aptly and in real life with such quiet courage by both Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers and nurse Margaret Lerhe - must become 'common knowledge' and underpin common heritage'. Without these, Canadian character and the patriotism it fosters will continue to evaporate and, with it, the disappearance of any real sense of shared and common patriotism.
I tend to be on the pluralistic view of life-- "the good life" can be expressed and found in many forms. But ultimately as a nation state, we do need some common bedrock shoring up the inevitable and ultimately desirable disagreements among the populace-- without disagreement, there is stagnation. But without some common thread, we are not a nation. Is this it ? I dunno. Seems a bit manufactured, but sure. Just as long as we are starting to move beyond the 2020 "Canada as genocidal state, lets wallow in our sin" to something to build on, rather something to perpetually repent on. And please, whatever we do, don't trot out images on the Canadarm. Thats just really, really, really sad in 2025.
Never seen Shoresy, worn ice skates or even attended a pro-hockey game as this former Calgary-boy is a skier. Hockey is so flatland.
That being said and having lived in the US for over 20 years, the premise that Canada needs a stronger identity so that the country can be taken more seriously by Americans is both flawed and inherently Canadian. Americans value individuals. Gaining their attention requires being an exceptional, or at the very least, interesting individual. The key to trade negations will be cross border relationships between influential individuals.
Amen brother. We need our identity back. Tough, fair, polite, but ready to kick ass if need be. Don Cherry, Hayley Wickenheiser, Jean Chretien, Terry Fox, Michael J. Fox, Laura Secord - they are us. Not some effete caricature of latter day political correctness who can't even keep his word. Give me the Shoresys of this country any day.
Canada has been poisoned by the image of a simpering silk clad trust funded French Quebecker whose main accomplishment seems to be as an ESL champion when reading prepared texts. No wonder “we don’t get no respect”. Even lumberjacks and Mounties are better than what we have right now.
Really? Don't forget that simpering, silk clad trust fund guy punched the crap out of the toughest Conservative they had. Perhaps if the Conservatives had ran someone the average person could respect instead of Andrew Scheer, whose resume was even thinner than Trudeau's, Trudeau would not have won.
I wasn’t referring to his physical strength. Not the same as moral strength. And I was referring to Canada’s image. He could do yoga crow poses and show his chest like Hulk Hogan too. And his ESL skills when reading prepared texts are awesome. And yes the PCs did not do well electorally with some of their leadership choices. (voting tabulation “machine manipulations” ? -used by both parties IIRC). I did not see the charity boxing match but I did read an (Ottawa Citizen IIRC) article analyzing how heavy cocaine users were prone to nosebleeds which influenced the results.
There's a lot of nostalgia here and bemoaning the loss of what was. I'm a boomer and I feel it too. I think there are a lot of reasons for that. Our democracy has been so successful people can't imagine what it would be like without it so they don't realize how fragile it can be. Society is richer now and, therefore, life is easier. It's been said that adversity builds character and we don't have that much adversity anymore....for now. As for our cultural values not being celebrated...wouldn't it be great if we had a national institution that was dedicated to telling our stories, be it fiction or history? An organization that celebrated our culture to ourselves, old stock and newcomers alike, and to the rest of the world? In the 1930s Conservatives recognized the need for just such an organization. The called it the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation or CBC. I know that there is a lot wrong with that organization now but, as I posted elsewhere, You don't throw out your family jewels because they are tarnished. You put some elbow grease into shining them up. Today's Conservatives say it's too expensive (even though most people spend more than the $35/year they pay for the CBC on streaming services) and want to shut it down. The reality is we need a Canadian broadcaster - or whatever will work in this technological era. Shutting it down is short-sighted and lazy. I heard of a Texas saying - it takes a carpenter to build a barn but any jackass can kick it down.
Agreed. The CBC shouldn't be shut down, the things that are currently wrong with it need to be fixed. CBC has the ability to deliver stories from all parts of the country to all parts of the country. Just because I live in the GTA doesn't mean that's all I want to hear about.
The chirping......I'd watch it just for the chirping. Same with Letterkenny.
"a couple ah hockey players come up the drive, ehh"
Funny you mention the movie "The Devil's Brigade". That's one of those movies my dad used to videotape on late night airings and watch with my brother and me (not uncommonly, also cutting off the ending of the movie by running out of tape or incorrectly setting the timer - a regular source of some consternation when the submarine is at the bottom of Tokyo Bay, the shore party is collecting vital data, and the corpsman who dropped out of medical school is about to attempt an appendectomy on a critical patient...) What pissed me off when I was only 10 or 11 was the way that the movie portrayed the American contribution to the Special Service Brigade as a collection of the dregs of the US Army, while the Canadians were shown to have been picked from the best of the best. In the end, they all form a successful elite unit, but the undertone was that American garbage and screw-ups were JUST AS GOOD as the best Canadians.
It's an old trope for Hollywood - the Americans always have to be portrayed as the greatest, and often given credit for accomplishing things that they had little or nothing to do with (examples: "The Great Escape", which was really a British endeavor. Ditto with the capture of an Enigma machine in "U-571", actually the work of Poles and the British, or the mediocre "1000 Bomber Raid" depicting the USAF pulling off something as a record first achievement which the RAF had historically done first and a lot earlier than the film's fictional depiction.) That's ultimately the problem with dealing with the American jingoism of Trump and MAGA: they're ignorant of much of the world outside of the US, and that ignorance feeds flawed ideas about America's role in the world.
I didn't take it that way. The best Americans were the mavericks and rebels, the ones who had to be made to fight, because that's who Americans are.
The best Canadians were the ones who volunteered to fight, with perfect discipline and great courage and skill, because that's who we are.
When you produce the script and fund the film production, you get to tell your own story.
FWIW: A member of the Devil’s Brigade was raised near me, schooled in a one room schoolhouse and had the military skills to join the special unit. He came back from the war to an unassuming life as a car salesman. One of the nicest people you could ever meet.
Bang on! Great article! My son showed me Shoresy a few years back when they were getting started! I laughed hard,told him great stuff! Hockey has always been a big part of our lives. Teachs you how to lose,and go again. My son bought me a photo of Bobby Orrs hockey sticks for Christmas! I got choked up,for real!! Thank you for this,I needed this,pick me up. Starting to lose faith in Canadian kind.
Stuff like ‘Shoresy’ should be included in the Canadian citizenship preparation manual. At the rate at which we’re going the national identity will be unrecognizable within a couple more generations. In the major urban centres, anyway.