An American’s favorite Canadian pop culture contributions

Fresh off a Toronto trip! (Sore-ry if I forgot any.)

Bonjour! Just returned from a weekend in Toronto with my friend Liz and our guys, so obviously I have to show my appreciation for Canada and the Canucks.

In many ways, I look at Canada like damn, they’ve figured it out. They legalized gay marriage ten years before the U.S. did and have a much more generous maternity policy (as in, they have one!). Without Canada, we wouldn’t have “One Week” by Barenaked Ladies or “Call Me Maybe.” I can’t imagine my life without Nelly Furtado or maple syrup in it.

Perhaps my collection of faves isn’t the best of what Canada has to offer, but it’s what crossed over to the states and has stuck with me. Tell me what I missed, eh?

Views, get it.

Shania Twain’s ad libs

Shania has been through it (rough childhood, the affair between her husband and her best friend, serious vocal cord damage). Despite it all, she’s a pop country-pop crossover sensation, with a musical tic that once you notice it, becomes a fixation.

Shania starts every song with a tossed-off but enthusiastic ad lib unrelated to the lyrics that follow. Listening to her hit album Come On Over, you would think her record label made these mandatory. Beyond the iconic “let’s go girls,” she also ad libs:

• “Kick it!” on “I’m Holdin’ On To Love (To Save My Life)”

• “Aw!” on “Love Gets Me Every Time”

• “Cool!” on “Don’t Be Stupid (You Know I Love You)”

• “Here we go!” on “Whatever You Do! Don’t!”

• “Hit us!” on “Honey, I’m Home”

• “Shake it!” on “Come On Over”

Anyone else think Sabrina Carpenter’s newest single “Manchild” has Shania’s influence all over it?

Rachel McAdams

McAdams can do it all: romcom, dram, com, romdram. She has an amazing career, and she could’ve been the next Julia Roberts or Sandra Bullock but she’s too low-key, too Canadian. She understands work-life balance. You never see her get papped. Still, I love Rachel’s filmography and I’ll see just about any movie she’s in (sorry, 2015’s Southpaw with Jake Gyllenhaal).

Rach did these movies all IN A ROW:

• The Hot Chick 🙎‍♀️

• Mean Girls 👑

• The Notebook 💌

• Wedding Crashers 🍾

• Red Eye 🛫

• The Family Stone 🎄

She’s transcendent in Spotlight. Cunty in Midnight in Paris. Mother (literally) in Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret?

Ryan Gosling

I’ve already professed my love. I don’t care if he has fillers or whatever’s going on with his face lately. Still a classic beauty to me.

I always think about how he was supposed to play Mark Wahlberg's role in The Lovely Bones but he made the creative decision to gain 60 pounds for it without consulting the director Peter Jackson, who promptly fired him when he showed up to set looking different. Let 👏 Ryan 👏 act 👏.

The Rachel McAdams-Ryan Gosling MTV kiss

An American television moment made possible by Canadians.

If you’ve given up on finding love, watch this video of Rachel and Ryan accepting their MTV Movie Award for Best Kiss. They were dating IRL after The Notebook and even if this moment was a performance, you can’t fake their chemistry. Everything’s magical. Maroon 5’s best song playing. Her jeans and peplum bustier top. His period-specific Darfur shirt. Lindsay Lohan’s reaction (she is all of us). The way he carries her to the mic!

Also this quote from Ryan. 😭.

Virtue and Moir

Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir. You know them. That good-looking figure-skating team that we all assumed was a couple and were devastated to find out it’s platonic! They’re both married to other people. How is your body constantly touching someone else’s in intimate poses for 20 years and you feel nothing for them?? We’re talking his head in her crotch. They’re such professionals.

Ice dance hasn’t been the same since Virtue and Moir retired in 2019. Maybe society’s vibe shift we thought was caused by Covid was actually due to the dissolution of this duo.

Celine Dion

If you don’t already feel a deep fondness for Celine, not only from her songs, but also her personality, you need to watch this video from 17 years ago. What a kook. She’s an icon in so many ways:

• Eurovision icon

• Titanic icon

• Titanique icon

• Weird age-gap marriage icon (they met when she was 12 and he was 38…)

• Stiff Person Syndrome icon

• Spinning in an office chair icon

• Power ballad icon (“It's All Coming Back to Me Now” and “The Power of Love” 🤘)

I always think of that Kathy Griffin bit where she mentions going to Celine’s concert and before "Because You Loved Me," she dedicates it to “all of the parents and all of the children in the audience.” So, everyone. Genius.

Degrassi

The Degrassi I speak of is of course Degrassi: The Next Generation. I was obsessed with this show growing up because unlike American television, it goes there.

Emma caught chlamydia at the ravine. We were first introduced to Drake. JT got stabbed. Manny’s thong was hanging out. Paige dated a teacher. Rick put Terri in a coma. Kevin Smith made a movie at their school. It was Euphoria before Euphoria.

The two episodes that feature teenage Manny getting an abortion were of course not shown in the US. I was resourceful and managed to track down the screenplays on The N’s website message boards. Millennials are good at the internet.

Speaking of The N, shout-out to Instant Star and Radio Free Roscoe and music videos by Fefe Dobson and Skye Sweetnam. Oh god and that annoying Maria Mena song.

Gun control inspiration

Even though gun violence was a major storyline on Degrassi, Canada doesn’t have nearly the issue the U.S. does. Do we think it’s because they require background checks, safety training, and registration to buy most guns? Automatic weapons are banned, open carry is limited, and you can’t buy or sell handguns there.

Americans are obsessed with the Second Amendment and gun culture. NRA stans attribute our mass shooting problem to mental illness, violent video games, and a lack of community, but continue to make health care less accessible, destroy our social safety nets, and slash arts and culture funding.

Jealous and happy for Canada that they’re thriving in ways we maybe never will.

The Rob Ford drama in 2013

Not everything in Canadian politics is enviable. Remember in 2013 when there was a new Rob Ford headline every day? I got into Gawker around that time, and in case you forgot, Rob Ford was the mayor of Toronto and he had some trouble with crack cocaine.

I feel for anyone dealing with addiction, but you have to admit, this saga — Rob denying he smoked crack, getting caught on camera smoking crack, getting caught fighting, getting caught speaking in a Jamaican patois, and finally admitting to smoking crack — was hard to tear yourself away from. Rob continued to serve as mayor but didn’t seek re-election and has since passed away from cancer.

Alanis Morrisette

The two albums my mom always played when I was growing up: Shania Twain’s Come On Over and Alanis’ Jagged Little Pill. Two seminal influences. Whenever my hair gets a little too long and sort of ratty, it’s like whatever, I’m doing an Alanis thing.

“All I Really Want” is a perfect album opener, into “You Oughta Know,” which, idc if it's about Joey from Full House! It still hits. “You Learn” is my number-one Alanis song and among my favorite songs of all time.

I don’t know if Taylor Swift or Beyoncé or Olivia Rodrigo would be the diaristic songwriters they are without Alanis!

Little Italy (2018)

Here’s an appalling film I recommend you watch tonight!

When you think of Little Italy, you envision New York’s Little Italy, right? Well, this movie takes place in Toronto’s Little Italy with no acknowledgement of that. Everyone has New York accents anyway, and the whole thing appears to be sponsored by Air Canada and Starbucks.

Little Italy stars Hayden Christensen wearing the wrong shade of foundation with too-dark hair dye. He looks sickly. Emma Roberts is also in it because she has to uphold the Roberts family pizza movie legacy (made by the same director!). They have zero chemistry but are caught in a Romeo and Juliet-esque plot of feuding pizzeria families. In this interpretation, “thy drugs are quick” refers to a prank scene in which pizza is seasoned with weed instead of oregano.

You can watch Little Italy — where else? Tubi. It’s the Tubiest movie ever made.

Nickelback

I was raised white trash-adjacent, meaning my family was into Nascar, drank the Ed Hardy bottled Sangria, and listened to Nickelback, as well as all the bands that were basically Nickelback (Staind, Three Doors Down, Puddle of Mudd, etc.).

Back in college, Drew made this Elevated White Trash Rock playlist. There’s nothing elevated about it, except that it’s curated with songs we love. Are you honestly telling me you don’t love Far Away and Rockstar? If today was your last day, and tomorrow was too late… would you really not listen to some Nickelback?

When it cosplays as New York

Hollywood loves to film in Toronto and pass it off as NYC. This is the case for American Psycho and even parts of New York Minute. Sometimes I don't notice! But trying to pass off MONTREAL (gorgeous place) as New York in Scream 6 (the worst Scream) was insulting. We have eyes.

Avril Lavigne

Obviously her best song is “I’m With You” and it’s possibly the greatest song in the history of music. I’m so serious. You think it climaxes at “WHY IS EVERYTHING SO CONFUSING” into the “yeah, yeah-yeah, yeah-yeah” part Rihanna later sampled, but then she hits you with the most satisfying “I’M WITH YOUUUUUU”s.

Avril's got quite the dating history between Nickelback frontman Chad Kroeger, Brody Jenner, Wilmer Valderrama, and Tyga. People think she died and was replaced by a lookalike named Melissa. Like every other celebrity, including Shania Twain, Avril struggles with Lyme disease.

If I were an actor who needed a monologue for auditions, I’d go with Avril’s “rock chick” mission statement.

The dream of universal health care

Not without its flaws but can you imagine no copays or deductibles or denied claims or surprise bills after the fact? And everyone has access to it! Little to no financial stress caused by a medical emergency or routine care? What’s that like.

The Weeknd’s “Trilogy” album

I’ve never done hard drugs but these songs make me feel like I did, like I do. The Weeknd started as an anonymous indie artist but now seems dead set on being Michael Jackson or a film auteur? I’m one of The Idol’s ten fans and even I’m ready for his screenwriting & acting era to end. In the meantime, I’ll listen to “House of Balloons / Glass Table Girls” 🤌 and “The Morning” 🤌 and “The Zone” 🤌.

Big Comfy Couch

Please tell me you remember this show. I honestly couldn’t tell you what it was about. Couches? Clowns? I know there’s a clown named Loonette with a doll called Molly and cute dust bunnies under her bed, and she does those unforgettable clock stretches. Loonette could’ve branched out into workout DVDs with that flexibility.

THIS SHOW AIRED FOR 14 YEARS. No, really.

Some really fun one-hit wonders

One-hit wonders seem like an American thing, as if they’re the result of laziness or a lack of commitment to one’s music career. I think it’s more like sometimes magic happens and you can't recapture it. That’s probably the case for some of my favorite one-hit wonders that came out of Canada:

• “Steal My Sunshine” by Len. Who expected the Great White North to produce the world’s summeriest song.

• “Informer” by Snow. Bizarre. Does anyone know any lyrics to this besides “a licky boom boom down.” Don’t know what it means, don’t like how it sounds.

• "She's So High" by Tal Bachman. The perfect listen to pretend you’re in a ‘90s movie montage.

Beyond one-hit wonders, I remembered I have a whole playlist of some fave songs by Canadians.

A bunch of political parties

Canada has a multiparty political system. Must be nice! Liberal Party, Conservative Party, New Democratic Party, Green Party, others. Their conservative party is more moderate and less creepy than ours (supportive of universal healthcare and gun control, with more open-minded immigration policies).

Will the U.S. ever get there? In my experience, it’s never been worth the risk to vote third-party at the federal level.

When anyone’s ever mentioned Jill Stein to me.

James Cameron for one reason only

Titanic’s my favorite movie, which makes James the king of my world. He’s got a difficult reputation but he’s married to Suzy Amis, who played old Rose’s adult granddaughter, so he has to be somewhat charming. It’s disappointing that James has dedicated the past two decades and seemingly the rest of his life to Avatar films. I wonder what he might’ve made instead. Wish I cared about anything as much as James Cameron cares about those blue people.

The Canadian tuxedo

I never wear one because I overthink how much my denims should or shouldn’t match but I love this look on others! Casually cool.

Comedy legends

Martin Short, I love your work as Franck in the Father of the Bride movies.

Lorne Michaels, you seem like kind of a dick but what an impact on pop culture for the last 50 years.

Nathan Fielder, thanks for your input on aviation.

Catherine O’Hara and Seth Rogen, I’ve enjoyed every episode of The Studio.

Andrea Martin, you convincingly play Greek AND Italian (she’s in Little Italy btw).

Jim Carrey, you make me uncomfortable but you deserve some credit.

Mike Myers, it’s cool that Doctor Evil is your Lorne Michaels impression. Canada 🔄.

Indie music

What was in the water (or the bagged milk) that cultivated the rich indie music scene that came out of Canada in the ‘00s?

I’m talking Broken Social Scene, Arcade Fire, Metric, and Mac DeMarco. Remember Feist’s iconic “1234” music video (the sparkly jumpsuit! the choreography!) featured in that iPod commercial. More recently, there’s Grimes (love her music, if only she hadn’t linked up with Elon) and Alvvays. It gets cold in Canada, I guess teens spend their winters playing in garage bands.

🇨🇦

Can you tell I still haven’t watched Schitt’s Creek and I’m not a Belieber and I don’t care for poutine. Sorry, bye!