Our bus hit a polar bear. Someone was giving the bear CPR and my head was stuck in its jaws and no one was helping me. Seriously.
Fear. Absolute fear. How did I get myself into this situation?
Well, I signed up for it, a Level One improv class at the Tett Centre in Kingston.
I was a longtime fan of Whose Line is it Anyway so when I saw the ad for improv classes pop up on my Facebook feed I thought ‘Why not’?
I sent the payment, put all the dates on my calendar, told my wife I would be busy Tuesday nights, poured myself a tall glass of red wine and thought to myself “What have I done….?’
The class will probably be filled with quick-thinking Queen’s students… and me. I’m almost 62. I forget people’s names, I can’t think of the right word now and then, I never remember where I put my wallet and keys and the list goes on.
Now I’m going to be put in odd situations with people I don’t know, with no prep time, and have to make a 3-4 minute scene flow seamlessly by blurting what comes to mind first! “Don’t think” they tell you, the gold is what comes out first. Oh, and it helps if you get a few laughs along the way. No pressure at all.
It turns out there was no pressure.
I wasn’t the oldest in the class which for some reason made me feel good.
And there was laughter. Every class. We laughed with others and we laughed at ourselves.
Reader’s Digest had a section called Laughter is the Best Medicine. Turns out it’s true. Laughter is a wonderful thing. Studies around the world have shown laughter boosts immunity, lowers stress hormones, decreases pain, relaxes your muscles, and can help prevent heart disease. Those are just the physical benefits. Mentally, laughter eases anxiety, tension and stress, and can improve your mood. It checked a lot of boxes for me.
Improv was a great way for me to challenge myself, but more importantly, a great way to laugh at myself and at others sweating it out on stage!
For two hours a week I gave no thought to divisive politics, inflation, how to survive retirement, or the long list of social issues we hear about on our daily news feeds. I just laughed. I highly recommend it.
I hope that polar bear is doing okay.
Jon Begg is a communications specialist, husband, father, grandfather, and fisherman who’s been telling jokes and laughing all his life.
Do you wish sometimes you never grew up? That you were still a child, with no worries, responsibilities, or never-ending to do lists in your head, just the prospects of a new day of exploratory play and learning?
I found I was mourning the loss of my inner child a bit yesterday when I toured an absolutely amazing facility, the Child Care Centre in Sharbot Lake as part of the 50th anniversary celebrations of Rural Frontenac Community Services. The Centre was founded by my dear friend Audrey Tarasick who served as the Centre’s director for a decade in the 1990s. As part of the celebrations, the Centre dedicated a bench in the playground to Audrey who passed away last year.
As I toured the Centre, I could feel Audrey’s presence in every kiddie cubbyhole, reading nook and painting cranny. There were tiny wood tables and chairs, a big circle carpet with trees and clouds, and toys everywhere. Audrey loved children and she had the unique ability to see the world through a child’s eyes and let children guide their learning by letting them play, explore and take the lead.
I saw artwork and toys and banners with messages like “Learning is messy business,” “Creativity is messy and we are very messy”, and “Every child is an artist”.
It made me wonder why, as adults, we hate mess and seek out organization and structure, and what impact this has on our creativity, happiness, and ability to learn and play?
I bumped into Marcie Webster who has worked with RFCS for 34 years and who remembered me from the days when I brought my two girls to her play groups. She shared a story about one of her first few days at work. A child had mixed some red paint with yellow paint and Marcie had said to the child, “Try not to mix the colours”. Audrey asked her why she told the child that, and Marcie said so the paints would be intact for the next child. Audrey replied, “But the child was exploring and learning like a scientist. Let them learn.”
Early in my career, I worked as a copywriter for an educational toy company, Discovery Toys. Their motto was “Play is a child’s work” and their belief was children learned through exploration and play. Because I had to write about the toys, we would play with them every day. I literally was paid to be creative with the toys and play. It was a great job.
When it came time to take a photo of Audrey’s family on the bench, instead of sitting normally, one of her great-grandsons hung upside down with his legs flopped over the back of the bench (his family later asked him to “sit properly” for an official photo). I snapped a picture of Walt upside down and thought, “Audrey would have loved that.”
This week’s #HappyAct is to break the chains of adulthood and let your inner child lead this week. Just be messy and explore. You’ll never know what you may learn–or how much fun you’ll have doing it.
Photos: Main: Marcie Webster, one of the longest-serving employees at the Child Centre in Sharbot Lake in her EarlyON play group room. Above: Walt having fun and exploring upside down on Great Grandma’s bench.
If you’re looking for a fun and interesting way to spend a morning, go to an auction.
Yesterday, Dave and I headed out under grey cold rainy skies to an estate auction on Maple Road, just north of Odessa. It was an antique and collectibles auction of a local farmer featuring horse gear and memorabilia, but with lots of interesting household antiques, prints, books, and tools.
The auction company was Snider and Sons, and what made this auction particularly interesting is it was their father who had passed away, so the sons who were the auctioneers had first-hand knowledge and commentary on many of the items.
Some people might balk at bidding on the cherished possessions of a family member who has passed, but I’ve always taken the opposite view, taking comfort in knowing these precious antiques and treasures will be loved and become a part of a new family’s home for generations to come.
There’s always so much to see at an auction, starting with the treasures themselves. There were antique baskets, cowboy and bowler hats, snowshoes, rugs, horse bits, drill bits and wrench sets, stamps, and books under the main tent, and more garden and farm tools on three wagons out in the yard.
I had my eye on a cast iron rabbit, a unique wood carving of an Indigenous chief and eagles, some signs, including a No Fishing sign I wanted for the lake where our geothermal coils are in the water, and some antique oil lamps.
I was bidding on this unique wood carving but it ended up going for more than I was willing to pay
Sometimes there are items that nobody knows what they are; sometimes there are items you haven’t seen in years, like the stoneware bed warmers called “pigs” that sold yesterday for $10.
These stoneware pigs were used as bed warmers in olden days
Then there’s the people. You get “all kinds” at an auction, from serious collectors, to local farmers, and casual bidders like me who just love a good auction and turn up for fun. There was one couple who bid only on tire-shaped ashtrays and cigarette lighters (they had a whole box of them by the end of the auction), a younger woman and older fellow who got into a bidding war whenever antique horse bits were on the auction block, and a guy who wouldn’t bid on anything over $10.
The fun thing about an auction, unless you’re an expert or a collector, is you never know what price things will go for. Some box lots can go as low as $1, but then a pair of wrenches (these ones were rare Comet and Oxo wrenches) went for $75. I was surprised when two small sleeves of stamps went for $370.
There is a noticeable excitement in the air when rare or big ticket items come up for bid. At yesterday’s auction, the biggest items were Black Horse Ale collectible statues that went for $1,500 and a custom display of antique horse rosettes or pins that went for $3,100. The crowd applauded after the bidding ended.
If you’re new to the auction game, there are some things you should know. First, not all auctions are alike. The ones we like best are estate auctions, where you can get a glimpse into the person’s life and the contents are from one home (some auction houses will combine lots).
Always get a bidding number even if you’re not sure you want to buy anything. You don’t want to be unprepared if something comes up you want to bid on.
A good auctioneer will signal what an item is worth and what they hope to get in their opening chant. The first amount they say is what it’s worth, the next amount is closer to what they are hoping to get, then they’ll come down to where people want to start bidding. So they may say, “$100, do I hear $100, $50, do I have $50, $25…” and maybe starting as low as $10, but if the auctioneer started at $100 and dropped it to $50, there’s a good chance the item will go for between $50-$100.
In the end, I only walked away with my no fishing sign, $10 well spent for a morning’s worth of entertainment.
This week’s #HappyAct is to go to an auction, but hurry, before it’s going once, going twice, sold!
It feels like it’s been raining cats and dogs and elephants this spring. The grass and yellow dandelions in the yard are a foot high, the plants from the garden centre sit shivering in our driveway, and muddy shoes lay strewn across the front porch caked with mud. Everyone I talked to is fed up with the rain.
It begs the question, how does rain affect our happiness and mood?
Rain can make some people sad or depressed. We can’t (or won’t) get outside to do the things we enjoy which puts a damper on our mood. This is true and well-documented for people who are more prone to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in the winter months. Lack of sunlight decreases the production of serotonin, a neurotransmitter proven to help regulate anxiety, happiness, and mood.
But you may be surprised to learn rain can have a positive impact on our mental health and happiness and there are some of us who love the rain. They even have a name: pluviophiles. For these people, rain can be rejuvenating, calming, and restorative. Let’s dive into the science.
When it rains, negative ions are released. These are odourless, invisible molecules which are created in moving water. When it rains and water hits a hard surface, the drops break up and pick up a charge. If it is a negative charge, it can generate electrons that can be picked up by molecules in the air, such as oxygen and carbon dioxide, forming negative ions. Research on the effects of negative ions indicates they boost mood, relieve stress, and give us more energy.
Then there is the impact on our olfactory senses. The earthy scent after a rain has a name too. It’s called petrichor, from the Greek words petra, meaning “stone”, and ichor, meaning “the fluid that flows in the veins of the gods”. Petrichor includes a chemical called geosmin, which is made by bacteria in soil. Inhaling it can have a calming effect.
I personally love the sound of rain. On a rainy day, I’m quite happy to sit in my screen porch and listen to the steady drumming of the raindrops on our steel roof. Relaxation and meditation videos use the sound of rain and buildings include features such as artificial fountains and indoor waterfalls for their relaxing sounds and calming effects.
There are even benefits to the grey skies that come with rainy days. With less light, the body tends to produce more melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep, helping you rest better.
And yet we tend to be wet blankets when it comes to rain, hiding ourselves indoors until the stormy skies pass.
If you live on the West coast or in Great Britain, you make the best of the rain, dress for the weather and get on with your day.
I once spent six weeks in England and Scotland in November and December. It rained almost every day. That didn’t stop the intrepid Brits. The streets of London were bustling with shoppers, brollies in hand, and the parks were filled with young families with babies in strollers covered in plastic and little ones dressed in bright yellow and red raincoats, splashing in puddles.
Sure, there were days I was tired of the grey skies and panda-sized puddles on the slippery sidewalks, but I remember the wonderful feeling of coming in from the cold, and warming up with a hot cup of tea or enjoying a pint in a cozy pub with some friends.
This week’s #HappyAct is to become a pluviophile and get out for a walk in the rain. Time to go, I see the sun is starting to come out…
One of the greatest skills you can learn in life is when to say yes and when to say no.
This applies to parenting, volunteering, work, relationships, and the list goes on.
Some career coaches would advise you to always lean in and say yes when tapped on the shoulder to take on a new role or responsibilities at work. Not at the cost of your happiness.
There were at least three times in my career when I was offered a different role not in my chosen field of communications that would have given me broader management experience where I said no. Would I have advanced further in my career? Probably. But I know for a fact I would have been miserable and to this day I’m grateful I made the right decision for me and for my family to be happy.
I’m now a retiree and one of my retirement pledges was to help my community more. I’m still navigating what this looks like. I’ve started volunteering at the community garden once a week that supplies our local food bank and Meals on Wheels programs, just finished my annual seedling fundraiser for the Sydenham Lake Canoe Club, and worked a shift for the Verona Lions for their annual Victoria Day voluntary road toll. I was very happy to say yes to all of these volunteer jobs.
I also have greater clarity on what I’ll say no to. I refuse to do another garage sale—they are just too much work (ironically, Dave volunteered at one yesterday morning), and true to my retirement pledges, I’ll never sign up for something where I have to be on Zoom or in meetings a lot. Been there, done that.
Some people say yes to everything. They are the heroes and backbones of every workplace and community. I admire these people, but I am not one of them.
Here’s the wonderful thing about saying yes. When you say yes to the things you enjoy, you feel good about your contributions and are far more confident and unapologetic about saying no to the things that won’t bring you joy.
Sometimes it all comes down to timing. There are periods in our lives when you want to do more, but you just can’t. You have enough on your plate. During those times, it’s okay to say no. The day will come when you can say yes again.
This week’s #HappyAct is to learn when to say yes and when to say no. And whatever your answer is, always prioritize your happiness or the happiness of your family in the decision.
Pictured above: My neighbour Odin and I working the Verona Lions road toll. All the money raised goes back into the community. Learn more about volunteering with the Verona Lions. Below: volunteers at the Grace Centre garden with the garden coordinator Josey Cadieux (Dave was whipper snipping and didn’t want to be in the picture). See this article in the Frontenac News for more on the garden.
My brother is a desert person. There’s something about the light and landscapes of places like New Mexico, Utah and Nevada that speaks to him. Since I live on a lake, and am a water baby, it will come as no surprise to you that I’m a beach person.
And while Canada is blessed to boast three coastlines, all with stunning scenery, I have long since realized that I will always need to be or live on interior lakes where I can swim.
Here are ten interior lakes in Canada that hold a special place in my heart:
Big Hawk Lake: I’ve been visiting this beautiful lake north of Minden, Ontario since I was a teenager. The lake is on a popular canoe route and is dotted with pretty islands and bays and has several interesting features including rapids, a historic log chute, a rockface known as the three chiefs, rocks for cliff jumping and even a totem pole.
Lake Moraine: There is a reason why this picturesque lake in Banff National Park in Alberta was featured on our $20 bill. When you round the corner from the short hiking trail, your breath is literally taken away by its stunning turquoise blue colour and mountainous backdrop. (The colour is unique to glacial lakes and is caused by rock flour that is produced as glaciers grind against bedrock and is carried by glacial meltwater into the lake). Substitute any mountain lake in the Rockies or BC.
Red Lake: Anyone who has spent time in northern Ontario will understand why Dave’s father calls this region God’s country. Located where the road ends off the TransCanada highway near the Manitoba border, Red Lake is a fisherman’s dream, spanning 165 kms of islands, bays teeming with walleye, northern pike and muskie. The constant drone of float planes taking off from Howie Bay serenade you while on the water, but can make swimming in Red Lake hazardous!
Mazinaw Lake: Bon Echo Provincial Park houses this second deepest lake in Ontario, famous for its impressive 100 metre high Mazinaw Rock. While the rockface itself is magnificent, it’s the ancient pictographs painted centuries ago by the Algonquin and Anishinaabe peoples that are said to have spiritual meanings and qualities that attract people to the cliffs.
Georgian Bay: With more than 30,000 islands and grey granite sculpted shorelines, Georgian Bay is a boaters dream. Every time I’ve spent time in this beautiful region of Ontario, I fall in love all over again with its greenish blue waters, unique shorelines and undulating waves that stretch for miles and miles.
Lake Superior: The granddaddy of the Great Lakes, Lake Gitche Gumee is massive, majestic, and magical. It can be peaceful, calm, and breathtaking on a nice day, and dark, menacing and deadly on a stormy day. Take the Lake Superior Circle Tour, a 2,000 km route and enjoy the magnificent views and natural wonders. Be sure to take a slight detour to Mackinac Island just south of Sault Ste Marie.
Lake Memphramagog: This stunning lake in the Eastern Townships straddles the Quebec/Vermont border and offers picturesque mountain views. Legend has it that a sea monster inhabits the lake! Spend an afternoon strolling along the boardwalk in Magog or in the pretty town of Newport, Vermont which Dave and I explored last fall on our way back from the Maritimes.
Opeongo Lake or any lake in Algonquin Park: There’s something about Algonquin Park that is special. When people think of a wild space, they think of Algonquin. Picture early morning mist gently rising off the water, revealing stately pines lining the shoreline and pure silence. It’s pure heaven.
Mackenzie Lake: Located near Lake St. Peter Provincial Park in Ontario, this lake and region is a snowmobiler’s dream in the winter with trails galore. Surrounded by cliffs, there is one concave rockface on the southern end of the lake that becomes almost mystical towards the end of the day when the light hits it. Patterns of light dance across the rockface and the water. Alone in a canoe or kayak, it’s one of the most spiritual places I’ve ever been.
Lake of the Woods OR Lake Muskoka/Lake Joseph: Okay, since this is supposed to be a top ten list, I’m cheating and combining the lakes that make up the “Muskoka of the South” and the “Muskoka of the North”, even though they are 1,600 kms apart. Beautiful, stunning and expansive, these lakes have become prime real estate. Take a boat cruise and spend time gawking at the million dollar cottages. Hey, you can always dream!
Bonus pic: Desert Lake or any lake in South Frontenac. Dave and I moved to this area thirty years ago because of all the beautiful shield lakes and its proximity to Kingston. When you’re paddling on the north end of Desert Lake on a bright sunny day, watching eagles perching on the tips of pine trees swaying in the breeze and loons feeding their babies beside your canoe, you feel like you’re in paradise.
Of course, every lake is special. I’m reminded of this every time I’m out exploring our pretty little lake in my kayak. This week’s #HappyAct is to spend some time on the water.
The sunlight reflecting off this conclave rock face on Mackenzie Lake at the end of the day is very spiritual. I’ve yet to photograph it in the perfect light.
Pog light campground in Algonquin Park
My girls paddling at dusk on Big Hawk Lake.
Featured photo above: Sydenham Lake at dusk in South Frontenac.
Is there any happier time of the day than happy hour?
It’s the perfect excuse to stop what you’re doing, especially if you’re working, take a load off, enjoy some cheap food you don’t have to make yourself, glug back some cheap drinks, and catch up with new or old friends.
On our recent trip to the Maritimes to pick up Clare from school, it was pouring rain on our final day in St. Andrew’s by the Sea. After seeing the sights through windshield wipers on high speed, and dodging puddles and downpours as we browsed the local shops, we dried off at the beautiful historic Kennedy House Inn where we were staying and popped downstairs for their happy hour from 3-5 for half-price wings and pitchers of beer.
As we played darts and watched the ball game on the big screen TV in their bar, we started chatting with the “locals”, most of whom had moved to this picturesque seaside town from Ontario in the past few years. It was the perfect way to spend a rainy afternoon.
“Happy hour” was born in the late 19th century, when social clubs in North America started planning activities in the late afternoon, such as dancing, quilting, games and lectures. They actually included the name “Happy Hour Club” in their titles.
In 1913, the US Navy adopted the idea of happy hour when a group of sailors who called themselves the Happy Hour Social started hosting twice weekly events aboard the USS Arkansas. The navy prohibited alcohol on ships, so the focus of the hour was on entertainment like boxing bouts, movies, and music.
It wasn’t until the prohibition years, the 1920s and 1930s when young people flocked to speakeasies to eat and drink at all hours of the day that alcohol figured prominently in happy hour.
Restaurants and bars quickly realized they could lure patrons in earlier in the day by offering discounted food and drinks before the busy dinner rush and the modern version of the happy hour was born.
In a cruel, cruel joke, I had just turned drinking age when the Ontario government decided to ban happy hour in 1984, claiming it promoted drinking and driving. The government relaxed its rules in 2019 and happy hour happily has made a comeback in the past five years. Now just about every bar or restaurant offers some kind of happy hour specials.
What’s your favourite spot for happy hour? Leave a comment and share the happy!
Tomorrow, Canadians will go to the polls in what could be one of the most historically significant elections of our generation.
Trump aside, I’ve been thinking of the key issues most Canadians are concerned about in 2025: the cost of living, affordable housing, mental health and health care, climate change, and the economy. I’ve been very fortunate to consider these issues from a new lens, thanks to a group of young PhD international students I’ve been working with as a proctor this past month at Queen’s University.
Two of the graduate students I worked with were from Ethiopia, one doing his PhD in rehabilitation research and the other in nursing. Another was from Syria, doing his PhD in nuclear engineering. They had all done their undergraduate and Masters degrees in different countries around the world and were extremely kind, bright, perceptive, and willing to share their thoughts and experiences of their time in Canada.
They all agreed Canada is a very beautiful, safe country and they particularly loved Kingston. They appreciated the hard work ethic of Canadians and the fact that we are a law abiding country. They did not like our winters!
Some of the things that surprised them is how expensive it is to live here, especially housing. (The one fellow told me he paid $900 a month for a two bedroom apartment in Germany where he did his Masters degree in a city the same size as Kingston. His rent here is $1,700. According to Studying in Germany.org, housing prices are 47% lower than in the US). They’ve also been surprised to see the number of homeless people and people with mental health and drug problems in Canada.
This led to a discussion on the shrinking middle class, a phenomenon that seems to be happening in all countries (my new friends said it was the case in Ethiopia and Egypt too).
However, the biggest culture shock and negative they’ve encountered is the individualistic aspect of Canadian society. We talked at length about child care, since my one new friend just had a baby and the other had two children and a wife here in Canada. They said at home in Ethiopia, child care is not an issue. If you need to work or go somewhere, there is someone—a relative, neighbour, or friend who will look after the children.
That led to discussions about seniors. Older people in their country are cared for and live with their extended families, unlike here in Canada where many seniors live alone or in nursing homes, and suffer from loneliness (see my blog post from a few weeks ago, “Battling the epidemic of loneliness”).
As we were discussing all of these issues, it occurred to me that if we simply went back to having multi-generational families living together, it would solve many of the problems in our society. There would be more available and affordable housing, and the cost of living would be offset by potentially multiple incomes in one household. People would be financially better off and happier, alleviating the strain on health care systems and improving people’s mental health.
If you study the famous “blue zones” in the world where people live longer, multigenerational living is part of their cultural fabric.
Where and when did we go wrong in North America?
In 2015, one of the best selling business books was a book called Weology: When Everybody Wins When We Becomes Before Me, by Peter Aceto, CEO of Tangerine bank. It was a book on the philosophy of leadership in business, but the concept of Weology is one I think we need to start embracing as a society to address these critical issues. Clearly what we’ve been doing up until now isn’t working.
A new party, let’s call it the Weology Party, committed to implementing policy that fosters a philosophy of taking greater care of each other and multi-generational living might just be the solution. From a tax perspective, this could take the form of tax deductions or income splitting for multi-generational households, not just spouses. There are currently tax breaks for people who have eligible dependents over the age of 18 and a tax credit if you are a caregiver for a spouse or senior, but we could do more. To foster this philosophy in our communities, the government could also offer tax breaks and incentives for volunteering.
Municipalities have started to make strides to make it easier for people to live together, allowing and promoting additional dwelling units on lots.
In business, the government could introduce policy to make it attractive for new start-ups to form as employee-owned cooperatives. There is a large corporation in Spain called Mondragon Cooperation that has 70,000 employees, annual sales of 11 billion euros and is highly profitable. They are committed to putting people before profits (for instance during COVID, instead of laying off employees, they reduced salaries across the board by 5%). The ratio of pay between employees and executives is just 6:1 (in Canada, the ratio is 210:1 for our highest paid CEOs and in the States, it’s even higher). This model is one way to distribute wealth more equitably in society, within the framework of a free market economy.
My new proctor friend who was a research fellow in rehabilitation was working with a professor who was researching the impact and effectiveness of formal versus informal supports for people with disabilities. Their theory is that informal supports are far more important in helping people with disabilities live full and rewarding lives. They are still in the research and data collection phase, but my guess is the data will show that informal supports, people supporting people, will be more important.
Which brings us back to election day. Make sure you vote. You won’t see the Weology party on the ballot this election, but perhaps some day we will. In the meantime, we need to all start thinking about what small changes we can make in our lives to move Canada towards a healthier (both financially and physically), happier, and connected society.
Quick Poll: Would you rather friends call or text in advance before they come for a visit or just drop by? Leave a comment with your answer.
Personally, I love it when people just drop by for a visit. Here are my reasons:
I love the joy and surprise of a spontaneous visit—it makes it more fun
If I know in advance people are coming, I feel obligated to clean and I hate cleaning—I prefer to visitors to just pop in and not worry about how the house looks
I like the sense of people coming and going—it makes for a joyful, happy house
Now for those of you who voted call or text in advance, I get it: you can make sure you’re home, have supplies in the house (beer, wine, munchies—but at our house there’s always beer and wine in the fridge), and you can suggest a time convenient for your schedule.
I’ll always prefer the spontaneous visit. Down east, where my friend Danette’s parents live in Antigonish, all the neighbours pop in anytime. You never know who you’re going to see each day and there’s always a laugh to be had. It makes for a wonderful community.
This week’s #HappyAct is to throw caution to the wind and drop in on someone unannounced. And remember, you can always bring the beer!
(The photo above is of me, Dave and my brother Don, one of our most frequent visitors. He doesn’t just drop in, but that’s because he lives three hours away!)
As a big fan and regular attendee of the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, I can attest that Canadian film is alive and well. I also believe now, more than ever, we must support Canadian arts and films.
There are local events happening across the country and several streaming services are highlighting Canadian films. You can find a list of local screenings near you at canfilmday.ca.
Here are ten great Canadian films to check out this week:
The Queen of My Dreams: a young Queer Pakistani-Canadian woman returns to Pakistan for her father’s funeral, learning about her mother’s past in this romantic comedy/drama. My favourite film from last year’s KCCF screenings. Now streaming on Crave, Amazon Prime and Apple TV+
The Swearing Jar: I loved this sweet romantic comedy about a high school music teacher who hires a guitar player to play at her husband’s birthday party. Watch on Prime Video.
Scarborough: Catherine Hernandez’s poignant novel is brought to life in this captivating film about children growing up in poverty in Scarborough. Now streaming on Paramount Plus.
Blackberry: Jay Baruchel portrays CEO Mike Lazaridis in this fascinating tale of the rise and fall of one of the greatest Canadian success stories. Available on CBC Gem, Prime Video and Crave.
Shepherds: this year’s opening night feature at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival is a stirring story of a Quebec man who decides to leave big city life behind to become a shepherd in France. Now streaming on Crave.
One Week: this 2008 film starring Joshua Jackson follows Ben Tyler who takes a road trip across Canada after being diagnosed with cancer and scored Jackson the Best Actor nod at the 2010 Genie awards. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video or Paramount Plus.
Peace by Chocolate: inspired by a true story of a Syrian refugee in Nova Scotia who is torn between his dream of becoming a doctor and his love for making chocolate. Watch free on Plex.
Just Friends: while technically not a Canadian film (it was an international production between Canada, US and Germany), this hilarious comedy featuring Ryan Reynolds and Anna Faris is still one of my favourites and will appeal to every Canadian who loves pond hockey, wintry weather and Christmas. Streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
You are Here: The Come From Away Story: this heartwarming documentary returns to Gander 20 years after this small Newfie town became a safe haven for travellers stranded in the aftermath of 911. The friendships forged will restore your faith in US/Canadian relations.
Meatballs: still a Canadian classic, this 1979 film about a bunch of goofy camp counsellors starring Bill Murray will leave you in stitches and chanting, “Spaz, spaz, spaz…”. Watch free on CTV with ads.
This week’s #HappyAct is to support Canadian film. Happy viewing!
Happy Act 