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Also available on The National Post’s The Ampersand!
Monday night marks the first live performance episode of Canadian Idol’s 6th season. The competition looks as tough as ever as 24 of Canada’s top singers from all over this awesome country fight to earn the seemingly useless title of Canadian Idol.
This year’s finalists feature singers from Ontario, Quebec, Alberta, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Newfoundland, British Columbia and Ontario. Looking at the Top 24, I can’t help but notice that my home province, New Brunswick, has been shut out yet again. That marks two straight years that not one officially bilingual singer has gotten through to the viewer-voting portion of the popular summer series.
Come to think of it, New Brunswick has never had a serious contender for Canadian Idol, which seems surprising seeing as how we are the home of such famous singers as Roch Voisine and….
Some New Brunswickers will argue that in Season 3 we had Casey Leblanc, who made it all the way to the Top 5. But those people are also from Nackawic and in the minority. The rest of us look at Casey like our own little Sanjaya: an okay singer who over stayed her welcome, thanks to a devoted voting population.
That voting population also tried to help Brandon Jones from Quispamsis, but he only made it as far at the Top 7, at which point he most likely returned to his job at the ever popular New Brunswick call centres.
But then again the voting process for Canadian has never really been all that fair has it? How can it be when some provinces have millions and millions of people while others celebrate reaching six digit-sized populations?
It seems odd to me that no one as ever really acknowledge how unfair the voting process is in Canada. Out of the past five seasons two winners have been from Ontario, two from Alberta and one, irony acknowledged, from Quebec. Which, correct me if I am wrong, are also Canada’s most populated provinces.
Maybe the show should be split up to make it fairer. The smaller provinces and territories (Yukon, Nunavut, NWT, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and PEI) should all team up for their own version of Under-Populated Idol. The eventual winner takes on the champion of Over-Populated Idol. The winner of that can be crowned the real Canadian Idol and collect their prize of low-rotation radio play and a lifetime worth of awkward conversations with Ben Mulroney.
At least for now, it looks like fellow New Brunswickers will just have to wait until maybe next summer to have our day in the spotlight. Until then, we’ll have always have the McLobster sandwich and Roch Voisine. Suck on that Ontario!
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I’m not really that special. There are thousands of people like me in Calgary. A Maritimer drawn to the big lights and potential of big bank accounts that our hometowns will never be able to offer.
Unless you’ve moved across the country you don’t really know what it is like to go from a cozy place like the Maritimes to a city of over a million. For us, a traffic jam is usually about 3 blocks and is usually caused by one of our drunken uncles. We don’t have dozens of radio stations. We have two. One plays Anne Murray, the other Nickleback (hey, we are still Canadian). We put up with a lot of changes that comes with the big city but sometimes when the opportunity presents itself we have to rush home on a plane to get a little taste of what most Maritimers miss the most: the food.
Of course there is the seafood. Lobster seems to grow on trees. We eat Salmon in our yogurt and don’t even get me started on potatoes. But that is obvious. The food I’m talking about isn’t the kind that is mentioned in the tourist guides, what I’m talking about is real food. Food that you can only get in the Maritimes, it’s so good that no matter what time of day it is you are thinking about it. I’m talking Calgary Stampede mini-donuts good. Yes I went there.
This past weekend I had the chance to go home for only a few days. There were several things on my to do list. I wanted to see my family, go on a boat, splash in the ocean and eat.
The first thing I had to eat was Greco Pizza. Ask any of us this question: “It’s 2am on 17th ave and you’ve had too much to drink, what do you want to eat?” Every single Maritimer will always say a Greco Party Pizza. And no, I’m not talking about the crap Greco that Air Canada serves. Real Greco Pizza is like what oil is to an Albertan. Yummy. It’s a square pizza of epic proportions. Mushrooms so waxy that you don’t even know what you are really eating. Crusts so greasy you shave your face before eating it for fear of grease build up in your beard. To give you an idea of what I’m talking about, last year I was home for Christmas for three days. My mom asked what I wanted to eat for my special meal. Without hesitation I replied: Greco Party Pizza. Yes folks, it’s better than a Christmas dinner.
Second on my list was Ruffles BBQ Chips. I have no idea why you don’t have them out here but you are missing out. These chips are like heaven in your mouth and even though I had 4 bags in the fours days I was home it was worth every trans fatty calorie.
Next is what most people believe to be a myth. The famous McLobster. That’s right, while you guys have the McRib, every summer us Atlantic Canadians get to enjoy a fresh lobster sandwich with our supersized fries and happy meal toys. It is has to be tasted to be believed, but trust me, I ate enough of them this past weekend to debunk the myth of the mysterious McLobster. It’s real folks. Real good.
So although we will still eat your Vietnamese food and we love Beef on a Bun as much as the next guy, we still love and crave our very own food. But is it enough to get me to move back to my humble abode? No. We Maritimers are a resilient bunch. We have made our homes amongst the Prairie dwellers and can now move throughout the province fairly un-noticed, until someone some poor cowboy asks us the eternal question: Starbucks or Tim Hortens? Then all bets are off. And you don’t want to mess with a generation of people who had to square dance in Gym Class. It just wouldn’t be fair.
>I think this is the first time I’ve blogged in my tux. Does that sound as dirty as I think it does?
So:
-I finally got my tux
-2 hours till wedding
-I’ve already had my McLobster
-I’ve lost $30 at the Casino
-We already go-carted
-And I’m falling in love with the maritimes all over again.
Getting on the plane back to calgary is going to be hard. Luckily I have a 3 day stop in Montreal.
Also, I haven’t been following the entertainment world, but I’m so pumped that Eric on Big Brother 8 and his creepy eyebrows are safe. And Jessica won HoH. Ohhh reality TV is oh so good.
Cheers!
>In case you missed it last Thursday, I will be on the Freeway and Meg Morning show again this Thursday (Aug 9th.) I’ll be calling in from Halifax around 10:20am (maritime time) which is 7:20am (calgary time)
You can listen live on the web at www.energy1015.com
Mmmm I’m so excited for a McLobster.
I’ve never been married or had a kid or even paid a bill on time but if I did, I can’t imagine any of those moments making me feel happier than I feel right now: McLobster is a trending topic on Twitter in Canada!
