There was something equal parts comforting and invigorating about the multi-Grammy winner Sheryl Crow very publicly selling her Tesla last week then donating all the money to National Public Radio in the States—the equivalent of CBC, our own dynamic national public broadcaster much maligned by Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre.
“Comes a time when you have to decide who you’re willing to be aligned with,” she posted on Instagram. Indeed.
At least Sheryl didn’t use toxic X to post. Still, methinks her action would have delivered way more “pow” if she’d posted it on the decentralized, ad-free, self-described benefit corporation Bluesky instead of Meta’s Instagram.
From dumping their Teslas—along with Amazon, Facebook, and even their Costco and Netflix memberships—to penning op-ed articles and postings, people are showing the U.S. billionaire/oligarch tech bros along with their newfound messianic leader how they really feel these days. And, if it’s of any further comfort, it ain’t only Canadians—as proven by the Missouri-born Ms. Crow, along with Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat.
Westneat recently penned a “sorry” piece for his newspaper that also ran in the Vancouver Sun. “Americans have also been blindsided by Trump,” he wrote, largely in response to Pete McMartin’s viral opinion piece I mentioned last time in Pique. Besides apologizing for their impetuous bully of a leader, Westneat also reminded us of that inscription atop the stalwart Peace Arch monument straddling the Canada/U.S. border near White Rock: “Children of a Common Mother.”
Wonder how “mom” felt watching the kids and all the exuberant fallout after Canada beat the U.S. in the 4 Nations Face-Off. (Salut, Connor McDavid!)
Hard to picture that was also only last week, what with all the nasty news spewing out of the U.S. faster than a flood from a busted sewage line. And while we Canucks are understandably mostly reacting to the sovereignty threats and tariffs we face—yep, those U.S. tariffs are a-comin’ faster than a northbound CN freight train—they seem almost trivial in the face of other U.S. volte-faces. Like Russia’s horrific war in Ukraine and the entire post-Second World War order, to name two “small” ones.
Has all this got your heart pounding faster than a horse caught in the headlight of that same oncoming train? If so, we can take a little comfort in the flurry of very practical, and tempered public stances by some former prime ministers. (After all, there’s no Canadian like a mad Canadian!)
First, we saw that unifying public letter from five former PMs, from both sides of the aisle, urging us all to fly the beautiful red maple leaf on Flag Day Feb. 15—a day declared in 1996 but one most of us, in our usually mild mode, seemed to have forgotten. Stephen Harper subsequently followed that up with his own “Keep calm and stand on guard” urgings in a recent National Post piece.
All of this proud flag-waving and standing on guard “that only us command” (thank you, Winnipeg-born singer/songwriter, Chantal Kreviazuk) has been accompanied by a nation riding high on new spending habits. It’s been “Buy Canadian” all the way for weeks. (Again, see my last column.) And along with the exuberant flag-waving, it doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. In fact, even 10 per cent of Canadians cancelling U.S. vacations would cost the American economy as much as US$2 billion.
A BIT MORE COMFORT IN FOOD
It’s comforting to consider how all this new-found unity is strengthening our resolve and soothing our fevered brows, so let me add another spice to the dish, inspired by a recent reader poll on Pique’s own website.
“What’s the ultimate Canadian comfort food?” it asked, and more than 6,000 readers responded. The winner? Poutine, with just over a third of the votes. The perfect and perfectly Québécois comfort food of cheese curds and gravy over fries that popped up in Central Quebec in the 1950s, and Canadians across the country subsequently adopted as their own. One Montreal eatery serves more than 30 different varieties, so you’re sure to find a variation you like at Whistler. Like everything else in life, we all have our favourites, but Splitz Grill, Zog’s Dogs, Southside Diner, Black’s Pub and Hunter Gather all rate right up there.
Coming in second, that all-Canadian classic—the butter tart. Yep, butter tarts (with or without raisins) are Canadian, not British, like many think. The first known recipe dates back to 1900 in the Women’s Auxiliary of the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook. But I can tell you from experience that my mom makes the best ones in Canada.
Next—and a lot of Whistler lifties will connect with this because they basically live on it—is Kraft Dinner, a.k.a. KD. Now here we might get a little kickback because KD was simultaneously introduced in both Canada and the U.S. in 1937. Think cheap food in the Depression.
Today, Canadians consume 55 per cent more boxes of KD per capita than Americans, but KD is essentially an American product—invented by an American from St. Louis, Missouri. While it’s packaged in Quebec with Canadian wheat and milk, some ingredients are from the U.S. KD is complicated, much like Tim Hortons with its largely U.S. ownership and cross-border ingredients. But there’s no disputing Kraft Heinz is a U.S. company, owned by a giant multi-national headquartered in the U.S. So you might want to cross it off your all-Canadian shopping list, at least for now.
Rounding off the top Canadian comfort foods there’s tourtière, another Québécois classic; Nanaimo bars (yes, they’re from Nanaimo!); and those tasty-pastry BeaverTails, created in 1978 in beautiful downtown Killaloe, Ontario, and available in beautiful downtown Whistler today.
Got a hankering now for some more real Canadian comfort? You’ve got a lot of inspiration to keep you going, and as Sheryl sang back in the 1990s, “If it makes you happy, it can’t be that bad.”
Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning journalist who reminds you the Canada-Ukraine Foundation is one of the most effective ways to support the people of Ukraine. Roméo Dallaire agrees.
