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Take a look at "This hour has 22 minutes" and their very funny Interview of David Wilkins.. Click on "Shaun Majumder" in show #8.
--jeffk++

Expedient.ca

Him: "Look honey, we'll have dinner in San Francisco, then a cruise on this cruise ship, where I'll push you off the bow, then wipe down the rail, report you missing, and collect the insurance."

Her: "Wow, we're going to San Francisco!"

Announcer: You can book your travel, hire your hitman, get your rubber gloves, establish your alibi, all through Expedient.ca

It also bears mentioning that Canada has one of the best political satire shows on television. The producers were smart enough to make sure the show runs right before CBC's evening news.

It got so popular, in fact, that politicians lined up to appear on it in mock news features that made fun of them. After looking at the polls, the found that a politician who could take a joke was way more popular than one who couldn't.

This will *never* happen in the US, of course.

It's sad though, because being able to laugh at yourself is a good way to stay sane.

Sounds like a sketch regularly shown on This Hour Has 22 Minutes or Air Farce (Can't remember which because I always watch them one after the other).

-hadohk

I think it is worth mentioning that some of the most popular Canadian television production is political satire, Canadians are quite familiar with the genre.

For starters, This Hour Has 22 Minutes, and Royal Canadian Air Farce. Both of these are shown on CBC TV, the CBC being the federal government sponsored media group (TV, AM/FM/SW radio) similar in design but smaller than the BBC.

Ads in Norway is 5 min.,which reach the annoying state pretty fast.

But a single commercial break in the show usually is not enough for me to get more coffee, check my email, go to the john, check the other channels, have dinner, or s*x etc etc. There is so much to do during a commercial break! The best shows consist of a single long commercial break, so I can actually get some stuff done!

"I'm sorry we burnt down your White House during the war of 1812. I see you've rebuilt it. It's very nice." (Anthony St. George)

While I realize that your knowledge about your neighbours is on a par with that of a autistic goat, one hopes that you are at least aware that Montreal is not a part of the good old USA, and indeed is a part of a foreign country: Canada.

Understanding that Americans, unlike the rest of the world, belive that their laws should have extra-territorial applicability, I can see how you might want to apply Patroit or DMCA to the actions of Canadian citizens in Canada.

That being said, and with the knowledge that Canadians are notoriously polite and friendly people, I can only say "I'm Sorry".

Sincerely,
A humble Canadian peon

Here's the direct RealPlayer link.

I'm Sorry.


You forgot the URL: Colin Mochrie as Reporter Anthony St. George offers a public apology to America.

Next if US'ers moves here they'll be paid in Canadian dollars. While you'll live well in Canada it's a big pay cut from the US, especially when you add taxes on top. Furthermore prices in Canadian cities have started to rise and while they don't compare to NYC, Boston or SF they're still shocking the natives and expensive in local terms.

Finally there are the cultural differences. While visiting Toronto or Vancouver may feel very familiar to a US'er that changes when you actually live here (Montreal is immediately obvious as being different.) There're the little things like brands being different, everyone being that one notch politer, and Curling being a real sport. There's also a dearth of ghastly evening news (you'd think Canadians are the world's worst drivers from watching TV news until you realize there aren't as many shootings and other violent incidents for the if-it-bleeds-it-leads stories) and lots more interest in international events.

However there are even more important differences. One is the Quebec issue. This is where I live but it comes up everywhere across the nation: French language laws, government policies, separatism, and the economic shock-waves every time Quebec threatens to leave.

Other significant differences:

• Little separation of Church & State with things like religious lessons in schools.
• However by-and-large Canada is more liberal then the US and does have far fewer of the extreme right-wing biblethumpers.
• Canada doesn't place individual liberties above all else; the general good is at least as important.
• The Provinces are stronger politically then US States and there's a lot more Federal/Provincial jostling.
• Strong social policies often more in line with European models then US.
• Political parties that don't map at all onto the US model.
• Socialized Medicine (services are generally good in spite of the horror stories often heard in the States.)
• Establishing credit across the border can be difficult, sometimes very difficult.
• Lots of technology comes out later in Canada (wireless Palms) or not at all (TiVo.)
• While Canadians get US TV & somewhat radio there are lots of programs, acts, and personalities that are big in Canada but unheard of in the US. Some are programs like "This Hour Has 22 Minutes" and others are bands that make Top-10 in Canada but never rise above Top 500 in the US.

Paramount has been playing all sorts of tricks with the UPN Voyager and Enterprise feeds at least since Mid to Late 1999, It's old news to me.

The interesting thing here is that the Enterprise Feeds sent to Canada, on Telstar 5 TP 16 for broadcast say on A-Channel don't have this

What we know is that this is lucurative, and people who can't compare the two will not know what it is that they are missing.

I suppose that these people will have to get a new name.

Rick Mercer goes down to various locations in the US and asks really dumb questions of people on the streets and even University students and profs. For example:

AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NY. On Canadians' care for the elderly: "We demand that the Government of Canada discourage the Canadian tradition of placing senior citizens on northern ice flows, leaving them to perish."

I just looked at the This Hour Has 22 Minutes web site, and apparently on April 1st at 9pm the CBC is airing an entire one-hour Talking To Americans special -- this will include the footage of George W. Bush showing that he doesn't have a clue who the Prime Minister of Canada is. So, if any slashdotters in Canada haven't seen that yet, here's your chance. ;)

On that note one of Canada's own news-spoofs asked George W. Bush what he thought of Prime Minister Poutine (The name of a popular meal here involving grease, french fries, grease, cheese, and grease), and George proved he didn't even know the name of Canada's prime minister!

Just checked my JamTV listings. The Daily Show is not available in Canada on cable. :(

I'll just have to be happy with This hour has 22 minutes. Also, this weekend is Rick Mercer's one hour special Talking to Americans Sunday at 9, keeping alive the grand Canadian tradition of mocking their neighbours to the south.

I've heard comparisons between This Hour and The Daily show. Anyone who's seen both have any comments about either?

Just checked my JamTV listings. The Daily Show is not available in Canada on cable. :(

I'll just have to be happy with This hour has 22 minutes. Also, this weekend is Rick Mercer's one hour special Talking to Americans Sunday at 9, keeping alive the grand Canadian tradition of mocking their neighbours to the south.

I've heard comparisons between This Hour and The Daily show. Anyone who's seen both have any comments about either?

E-mail is proably the best way to spread stuff like this I can think of.

A few months ago in Canada we had a really good example. During our last election, Stockwell Day (leader of the Canadian Alliance Party) said that if his party formed the government they would enact legislation wich would put any petition wich was signed by 3% of the electorate (about 350,000 people) to a referendum.

The nice people at This Hour Has 22 Minutes, a TV show on CBC that does political satire, put a petition on the web. It stated "We demand that the government of Canada force Stockwell Day to change his first name to Doris."

By 9:30 the next morning I had at least 5 e-mails from friends asking me to go and sign the petition, mnay of which had been forwarded 4 or 5 times. I know that I also sent this on to at least 10 people my self. If I rember correctly the petition was at well over 350,000 names by that afternoon, and well over a million in 4 days. It was really funny, his party didn't win, thank god, but it would have been great to see him run away from that promise.

I don't think the people behind this idea will have any problems getting to word out, its' so easy to forward a message like this to a ton of people. I understand they only need 8000 to actually do it, and I hope they pull it off. Man that would be sweet.

http://www.22minutes.com/realwrapper.php?target=do ris_day.rm

I would be bitching. Except top priority would be abolishing the EC. Our elections system is not fault tolerant, and we found the showstopper.

I like the Canadian method of voting myself: Everybody is counted by hand. From a nationally standardized ballot. The entire election cost CN$90M. Can't remember if that included campaigns, but still. And it all happens in 36 days.

Canada will know who thier next Prime Minister is on New Years Day (and be damned if its Doris Day), will we know who rightfully won the presidency for sure, with all our different ballots and standards of counting, by then, if at all?

"Canada Post is encouraging people to use regular mail instead of e-mail. And in a related development, Bell Canada is urging its customers to give up their telephones and go back to two cans and a piece of string." -- David Skoll