What’s in a name? That’s the sort of question that arises when you watch the Canadian Propaganda Piece I am reviewing this time around.

So this one starts out with some people (Europeans) walking until they are next to some other people (North American Natives, I would assume in Canada what with that being the point). So the Natives speak in some weird gibberish code* and the Head European asks his friendly neighborhood priest to translate. The priest informs the Head European that the Natives have invited them to the nation and it is called “Canada” and, yes, that’s right, this commercial is about the secret origin of Canada’s name. Anyway, everyone is happy to know the name of the nation except one guy: He’s not the priest and he’s not the Head European, so basically we don’t know who he is. We just have to imagine. Probably he’s the ship’s carpeter.

* I am 1/256 Wampanoag, so I am allowed to make this joke. (It’s my only race card, let me play it!)

Anyway this guy is so sick of putting down carpet on the ship that when a chance to show off comes up he is All Over It. Basically he’s like “I know that word! That’s not the name of the nation! The old man is just talking about the village down there!” but the priest stands by his translation and Canada is called Canada forever after.

Once again I’m sure that what we are seeing here is not an actual event that played out. Yes the name Canada likely comes from the word for village in some language (and I feel somewhat ashamed that I don’t know which), but it is a safe bet that the Pedant vs. Priest argument we see unfold here was made up solely for our benefit. And I am totally okay with that! This one has several lines I like to quote and would be easily recognized by others who grew up in the right era. Job well done!

I also like the music throughout this piece. It ramps up the drama of the whole affair, which is good considering this is a commercial where one group of people invite some other people in to talk and the closest thing we have to a conflict is a disagreement over what a word means. Not exactly a drama-explosion no matter how many . So the music plays throughout to keep emotions from dying. In a way it reminds me of the Irish Kids moment and my mind will try to tack on the upbeat jig from that one. Really, if they ended all of these with a jig there’d be a lot more happy endings.

Anyway, as I said, I do like this one. I’m going to give it Four and a Half out of Six Pieces of PDR’s Reviewing System Cake.

In other news, the comments section of YouTube is, as always, filled with idiotic arguments, in this case about how evil Whitey is for conquering the natives. Now I didn’t stray too far into the comments (I am a human being and we can only take so many YouTube comments), but I didn’t see any discussion of the real scandal in here: Note that the religious man is proven wrong and just flat out denies it. This commercial is CLEARLY trying A) to depict religious persons as stubborn and foolish, or B) Show that God intervened to make sure that Canada got the right name. That is obviously what people on the Internet need to be arguing about. (Edit: I’ve linked to an official video since the original post, so I don’t know/care if that argument is still in the comments)

Today we’re back in the days of the Second World War in Britain. The fog is so thick that it’s ridiculous to think of flying in it, but then someone does fly a delivery in and it turns out she’s a lady. She expresses a desire to one day get back to Canada and teach flying, then the narrator tells us that she did. Happy ending. This one seems pretty short, comparatively, but that’s probably because it essentially does the “Someone is coming in? In this fog?” setup twice. Not a great use of time, but I’ll never be upset with hearing shocked British officers saying “Hullo?”

Marion Orr comes across as really nice in this one. She’s doing her duty with a smile on her face and all she wants is get back to a simple life. The world would be a good place if it was stacked full of people like Marion Orr. Even ignoring for a moment the landmark of her being the first woman to do what she did, just seeing any person with this attitude achieve their dreams would be enough for me. If she happened to break any barriers while doing so, good on her.

I don’t feel anything in here is great to quote, but I still like it. I easily lump it into the “backbone” category I also put last month’s Heritage Moment into. Four out of Six Pieces of PDR’s Reviewing System Cake.

Unfortunately, though, somewhere in my youth I lost most of my memories of this Heritage Moment. Well, I didn’t “lose” them, really, they just managed to meld with another commercial I would have seen on television in my youth, also involving a meetup between people on an airfield:

This Oil of Olay commercial stuck in my head better, but I’m still more in favor of the Heritage Piece. For the record. Maybe if the guy Marion Orr had been talking to had been named “Bugsy Brown” I’d know more about Canada. Better luck next time, Canada!

Here we have another case where I know nothing about the Heritage Moment honoree excepting what the Heritage Moment tells me. I guess he is supposed to be someone I should know since his vision has circled the world and the company “still bears his name”, but I don’t know the guy or the company. Schoolin’ failed me again where television did the real work.

That said, I like Joseph-Armand Bombardier. Based on this propaganda piece at least. We have a bunch of kids thrilled that the store has got a new shipment of some sort of sporting equipment (those big hand paddles must be for… swimming? I guess? They’re like big webbed finger gloves?), but one kid is not interested. He’s got bigger plans in mind. He uses his money to learn about building stuff and inventing and he goes on to be Wicked Successful! Outtasight! I guess he invented the modern-style snowmobile and such, which is a good Canadian invention, so I approve. But I also like his attitude. He’s shown to be focused and driven, which is the kind of person I wish I was, so I want to be like him. Also, I like the way he pulls that one kid’s hat down over his eyes as he leaves the store.

This piece doesn’t rank high in the quotability department, though. That’s where it hurts. I guess “Hey, I can pay” is something, but it also represents where Joseph-Armand’s attitude can have downsides. The guy never said you couldn’t pay, Joseph-Armand. He said the tools weren’t for sale. This is probably because he was using them even as you were asking, you lunkhead! For my money, the real quote-line here is the nearly hidden “That is propequipment!” which is delivered just right to make me love it.

I can’t rank this one too highly. Four out of Six Pieces of PDR’s Reviewing System Cake. It doesn’t amaze or amuse as greatly as some, but it does its job and that is important. It is one of the Heritage Moments that builds the backbone of Heritage Moments. Solid showing.

I must add this though: Joseph-Armand made “a lot of money serving mass” apparently? What the chunks? Was I supposed to make money doing that? The Catholic Church owes me big time. Just sayin’. Just sayin’ make me Pope is all. Just sayin’.

What do we have hear? Two English-speaking gentlemen in the Sixties who have a problem. They gotta find space in Montreal to have a World’s Fair, but oh man, they don’t have room! But what if they build it on the water? Haha, how would that work? Oh, they can build an island. And they did. Happy ending.

Okay, this time out, I’m a little stumped. I mean, I do remember this Canadian Propaganda Commercial, I must have seen it in my youth enough times to absorb the information. I recognized the situation and knew the solution, but apparently my mind had managed to forget some of the details.

I didn’t remember it being black and white for example. I see no reason for it to be in black and white. I mean, is it done to evoke the era? If so, you’re kinda pushing it. 1963 still had black and white television as the standard, I believe, but I don’t think anyone associates the Sixties with B&W the way the Fifties were. And anyway, we’ve had Heritage Moments set during the black and white television era that were in color. And we’ve had ones set before that which weren’t told as books. There is simply no need for this “artistic” choice. You lose points for this, commercial. Also, the music is pretty ridiculous, but probably does fit the era for all I know.

Our gentlemen solve their problem by remembering that there are subway tunnels being built, so let us use that dirt for something, shall we? This I approve of. It is a useful synergy of resources. Well done, chaps. Two birds with one stone and all that. While it is almost certain that the conversation never took place in real life as it does here, someone had that idea and that is the point we’re trying to get across. Success there.

I don’t think either of these men is identified. The first line may say the name of one of them, but I can’t make it out. (I think it is “Hey Guy, we’re supposed to be at city hall.” But I doubt that the one guy who absolutely less French would be called Guy with that pronunciation.) A mayor is name-dropped at the end, but in all, I’ve learned basically nothing about any historical figures here. I guess I learned that Ile Notre-Dame was man-made (and that it exists), which I didn’t know. But that’s it.

Anyway, I can see Young-Me didn’t bother accurately storing this one in his brain. Not worth the effort. Two out of Six Pieces of PDR’s Reviewing System Cake.

Meanwhile, you know what we could all use more of? World’s fairs. Let’s get on that.

Now, I consider myself to be the sort of person who doesn’t make a connection with something just because it is from the same place I am. Just because a movie or television show or book or a band is made in, or by people from, Halifax, I don’t give things any extra credit for being from here. In fact, if someone is telling me about something and they bring up its local origins before convincing me of the thing’s quality on its own merit, I’m likely to hold it against the thing, telling myself that if it’s localness ranks so high in its importance, it must not have much else going for it. Unfair? Probably, but this is how I am (That is, always looking for something to complain about).

That said, I don’t think I can separate the Halifax Explosion Heritage Moment from my being born and raised in Halifax. I have no specific memory of when I first was taught about the Explosion, but there is a good chance this was the only Heritage Moment about an event I knew about before I saw it. In fact, it is one of the few that I can say with certainty I was taught anything about in school (Though, the Underground Railroad is another of those few. If I was ever taught anything about Irish immigrants to Quebec or the struggles of women trying to learn medicine, I don’t recall it. And I know for sure that the Canadian school system doesn’t teach enough about Superman.). So, as a child, it was neat to see this one.

It’s a simple story, Vince Coleman see that the ships are gonna blow, he warns everyone he sees to get as far away as possible, then he remembers a train is coming into town and he sends a Morse code message for them to maybe not come into town, on account of the explosion that’s gonna happen.

Someone sacrificing his or her own life to save others is always the sort of thing I like in a protagonist, so I’m behind Vince. I guess, in real life, some of the facts were not quite the same as depicted here, but the message he sent (“Hold up the train. Munitions ship on fire and making for Pier 6… Goodbye boys.”) does make it sound like he knew he was going out, but he still managed to keep his cool and get the message to the trains. So he’s a good guy, even if the commercial did kinda feel the need to fluff him up.

Still, historical accuracy has never been one of my criteria for these reviews. As an entity unto itself, the commercial tells its story quite well in the minute. We get the set up, the struggle to get the message out, the success, and the tragic end all at breakneck speed. As for quotability, I could see “C’mon Vince, C’mon” being the sort of thing I’d say if I knew a Vince (which would likely annoy Vince). But “C’mon, c’mon, acknowledge.” is the real star. If I’d been asked before re-watching, I would have been sure that line played a much bigger role. Anyway, we should all use it on computers when they’re taking too long to load and stuff.

So anyway, it’s entirely possible that there was a time in my youth when I would have called this my favorite Heritage Moment (with the possible exception of the Superman one), but that was just my regionalism. But still, I do like this one even looking at my new, bitter-about-everything eyes.