# The Most Canadian Thing Ever… **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 13, 2023, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025 "2023-09-13T03:31:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/21 "2023-09-14T16:10:59Z")
You make him sound like Santa Claws. ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/22 "2023-09-14T16:30:55Z")
The Kids in the Hall did it a little . . . different. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/23 "2023-09-14T16:31:57Z")
I remember being a bit surprised hearing the “Littlest Hobo” theme referenced in the Irish TV Show “Moone Boy”. I guess it was more popular around the world than I thought. > [@Was "The Littlest Hobo" pin the UK or Ireland?opular](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-the-littlest-hobo-pin-the-uk-or-ireland-opular/717282): > > I was watching some episodes of “Moone Boy” this week, and in one of them (Boylé, Boylé, Boylé) Martin Moone is trying to hitchhike back home. In the background, [the theme to “The Littlest Hobo”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgGKSjiw0HQ) is playing. Of course, being a Canadian of a certain age I recognized the song instantly. But was that show popular in either the UK or in Ireland, to the extent that people would recognise the theme song? ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/24 "2023-09-14T17:11:57Z")
Was there any Hockey in Littlest Hobo? If not, it cannot claim the title. Sorry, eh. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/25 "2023-09-14T23:04:10Z")
Indubitably! ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/26 "2023-09-14T23:07:22Z")
Episode 16, 1980, Hobo helps a young boy prove to his mother that you don’t have to play a rough sport like hockey to have courage. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2023, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/27 "2023-09-14T23:31:14Z")
Yea, the first thing that came to my mind was Bob and Doug McKenzie. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/28 "2023-09-15T10:33:59Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I guess it was more popular around the world than I thought. It was popular in South Africa in the 80s. The contemporaneous series, not the earlier one. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/29 "2023-09-15T13:05:02Z")
Did Hobo ever protect the Canadian Strategic Maple Syrup Reserve? My Canadian exposure was the Red Green Show, we share the same (actual) name. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/30 "2023-09-15T18:24:01Z")
It isn’t a TV show. But this is a very Canadian example of theft and punishment. April 1st? Still happened. > **[Canada’s ‘maple syrup heist’ thief must repay millions for sweet stolen goods](https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/apr/01/maple-syrup-heist-theif-ordered-repay-stolen-goods-canada)** > > Perpetrators siphoned syrup from barrels stored in Quebec’s strategic maple syrup reserves and replaced it with water ---
**Author:** ![FluffyBob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecb155/32.png) [@FluffyBob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FluffyBob)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/31 "2023-09-15T19:30:17Z")
Maybe littlest hobo was very Canadian in its poorly produced awkward attempt at american TV. I have to agree with Hogarth though that Hinterland Who’s Who blasts it out of the water as farcas distinctly Canadian. Perhaps the young folk don’t remember? [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/LwWHk8azaAc/hqdefault.jpg "Hinterland Who's Who - Loon") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwWHk8azaAc) ---
**Author:** ![gregorio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/fbc32d/32.png) [@gregorio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gregorio)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/32 "2023-09-15T19:42:49Z")
Of course we know Hinterland’s Who’s Who. Sheesh! [https://youtu.be/NBfi8OEz0rA?si=dGXr7VG45eseoJQk](https://youtu.be/NBfi8OEz0rA?si=dGXr7VG45eseoJQk) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/33 "2023-09-15T21:58:29Z")
There is little more Canadian than weak attempts at that unique American combination of ambition, overconfidence and deep cluelessness. Canadians _still_ talk about Stockwell showing up at a press conference by jet ski (gawsp!) or how politicians looked awkward in socks or big cowboy hats. Sure, films about carving canoes and letting them float to the sea, or log waltzing might be other good Canadian examples. And you have to learn about moose and snowy owls somewhere. But a televised game show with a top prize if $50 or secondary “dinner for two” is the very Definition of Canadian boombastics. Dogs stealing paintings is also a great answer. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/34 "2023-09-15T23:07:37Z")
In the book, Why I Hate Canadians, the author relates a story of a car crashing off a California hill. Highway patrol finds only a woman wandering confused. Does not know her own name, where she is, how she got there. All they notice is she’s awfully polite and cooperative. On a hunch, they check to see if any Canadians are missing, and sure enough, it’s her. He ends the chapter asking just how deeply does this nature run in the average Canadian? Such that a severe head trauma, sufficient to cause you to not know your own name, yet you still remember your manners? ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/35 "2023-09-15T23:28:09Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > I pity da… felines? I love it when a bone comes together. > [@carnivorousplant](#): > > U.S. dog [Smoky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoky_(dog)) ran telegraph line during the Luzon campaign. [Owney](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owney_(dog)) the mail dog travelled around the world on his own. ---
**Author:** ![Atamasama](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atamasama/32/12961_2.png) [@Atamasama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atamasama)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/36 "2023-09-15T23:31:30Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > … was the TV show _The Littlest Hobo_. I never saw the show, but I did see a video talking about the show. Basically a short (less than 20 min) documentary on it. It was very interesting, I bet you’d enjoy it. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/xSnxnke0CDE/maxresdefault.jpg "WTF Happened to The Littlest Hobo (1979-1985)?") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSnxnke0CDE) ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2023, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/37 "2023-09-15T23:38:23Z")
I was once working emergency with an unusual case. According to the paramedic, an officer driving a police vehicle had somehow crashed into a building and sustained a head injury, which was witnessed, but we did not know most of the details. The officer was very polite. He had asked the paramedic “what happened”? The paramedic told him he had crashed into a building. The officer politely insisted that could not possibly be the case. Then he blacked out and so was transported to the emergency department. In the emergency room, he regained consciousness. He asked me “what happened”? I told him he might have crashed into a building. He politely insisted that could not possibly be the case before blacking out again. All the appropriate vitals, physical exam, lab tests and cardiac tracings were essentially normal. Trauma X-rays were normal. But he required a head CT. Because our small hospital had no CT scanner and he was potentially unstable, I had to accompany him in the back of an ambulance to get the CT at a hospital an hour away, intubating him if required. Bizarrely, he woke up, asked what happened, politely denied any involvement and then blacked out, with a similar conversation (though of course other questions were asked) seven times. The CT was fine, and he improved under observation. His follow up tests (carotid ultrasound, stress test, etc.) were also okay. He was Canadian polite. But it was bizarre how exactly he kept repeating himself, and fortunate the injury was not apparently more severe than a serious concussion. ---
**Author:** ![janis\_and\_c0](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/janis_and_c0/32/21_2.png) [@janis\_and\_c0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/janis_and_c0)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/38 "2023-09-16T00:32:11Z")
Sing a several people have nominated Bob and Doug McKenzie, which is what I was going to say. I will post this instead. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/2ic3xNfEP_o/hqdefault.jpg "Jim Carrey - Canada") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ic3xNfEP_o) ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/39 "2023-09-16T01:16:57Z")
I had the same thing happen to me. I got ran over as a soccer goalie. They sat me down at the edge of the field. When I didn"t move after the game, it was off to the emergency room and overnight observation due to: (repeated every 10 minutes or so) How did the game go? (we lost 6 - 0) A lot of rain tonight (yes) We really got killed! (yep) on and on, same questions Never did find anything wrong on vitals or x-ray (pre-scan). Next day, I was good to go back to the frat house. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2023, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025/40 "2023-09-16T04:53:30Z")
I heard a story, second hand, of someone I knew in college. He woke up in a strange place and asked “where am I?” A nurse said “read the note in your hand.” Sure enough, there was a note in his hand. It said: > [@](#): > > You’re in the hospital. > You had a skateboarding accident. > You’re going to be okay. COLLEGE FRIEND: “Why am I holding this note in my hand?” NURSE: “You’ve been waking up every 20 minutes and asking those three questions.” COLLEGE FRIEND: “How annoying for you.” NURSE: “You said that the last time.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-most-canadian-thing-ever/990025.md?page=3)