We sent you Celine Dion as well. I am not telling you who we held back on that one.

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Summer of ’16, Homer was in Toronto for a weekend baseball series between the Jays and the Rays, and they were giving out FREE BEER (taste of some local microbrew). Homer semi-inadvertantly cut in line, and you’d a thought he’d taken a wiz on the Queen or something like that, the way numerous people immediately pointed out the errors of his ways. Homer immediately went to the back of the line, rather than risk getting kicked out of the country.

If people really do stand in line for FREE BEER, they’re a different breed than those of us south of the 49th parallel.

By the way, Canada gave us Justin Bieber but kept the Hip. You guys definitely got the best of that deal.

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I really do know how to spell alley correctly. Not certain why I didn’t.

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It was the attitude of Torontonians combined with the reality of Canadian politics for many generations. I think the current crop of Torontonians may be more humble… it wouldn’t take much. Politically, the rest of the country, especially the west, felt Toronto and it’s issues dominated Canadian politics to the exclusion of the remaining regions. Alberta took over much of that role during the Harper years.

Most Canadian cities are clean but Toronto earned some extra fame in that regard when an American film crew, having deliberately strewn trash around an ally before filing, went to lunch only to find their trash had been picked up (I may have details wrong but the story is fairly well known) while they were away.

Trump will add it to the poison pill list for NAFTA.

I was too early for the TH. I am more a fan of TheWeakerthans and John K Samson (I have had more exposure because they are local) but TH do have some great tunes and “Wheat Kings” is definitely on of them. It is a tragic song about a man who spent most of his adult life in prison for a crime he didn’t commit. Ironically, the man who was a key witness against him was likely the real culprit.

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GTA envy? Toronto is great. It’s sorta like New York City, if run by the Swiss. It’s clean. You mind your manners and don’t cut in line. You don’t litter. There’s incredibly good food, especially in the ethnic neighborhoods. The subway system is clean, even though they have food courts down there, because you don’t litter. And the little downtown airport lets you actually walk from the plane to your hotel or the Rogers Centre (formerly Skydome). It used to be all boring and Anglican and all that, but – like Hogtown – that’s all ancient history.

By the way, the Brits burned the White House in the War of 1812 in revenge for what we did to York (Toronto’s name back then). We even stole the mace from their old City Hall. But FDR gave it back to Canada in 1934, as a “goodwill gesture.” Not sure if Trump wants to steal it back, though.

Homer loves Canada. He’s been working on the bucket list, and has done the True North from sea to sea…from Vancouver to Halifax, and has enjoyed every mile…..er, kilometer. Condolences, though, on the loss of Gord Downie. A terrible and tragic loss of a great poet and songsmith who wrote the soundtrack of the lives of two generations of Canadians.

It’s probably a good thing that the Tragically Hip never made it big in the U-S, save for the border regions of upstate NY, Michigan, and the like. They remained Canada’s band, and their songs were uniquely and proudly Canadian. Other than New Orleans is Sinking, of course. They were terrific in every sense of the word. Those of us who were fans of The Hip knew it was coming (Gord died of brain cancer, the same type that John McCain has), but that doesn’t make it any easier.

“…Wheat Kings and pretty things,
Oh, that’s what tomorrow brings.”

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