Growing up, I wasn't even aware of Canada. I don't think I knew what Canada was until someone told me that William Shatner was Canadian. What do you mean, he's not American, I thought. I think that was the first time that I realized that everyone wasn't American or English or Japanese.
And then I bought an album by April Wine called Live at the El Mocombo and I was aware that there was music in Canada. I knew Rush was from Canada, but I didn't like them that much (okay, "The Temples of Syrinx" is pretty cool and I may have liked that before I bought the April Wine album, if you want to get picky).
But anyway, if you've looked at my profile, I list a song by The Weakerthans that I can listen to over and over. (I never bought any of their albums; the song is from Punk-O-Rama Vol. 9.)
And today there was a profile on them on the public radio station from something called The World, and I thought about things that I like that are Canadian. And there are lots. The first Canadian beer I ever had was Labatt 50, and the first Canadian woman I made love to was Catherine O'Hara (kidding, I know she' s like a queen there).
For someone who lives as far south as I do, I've grown up with a lot of Canadian influences. For more famous people you might like and didn't know were Canadian...
