Things That Are Popular in Canada Right Now

…mostly based on a week of happily reading The Globe and Mail, Macleans, and watching the ads on CBC.

1. Criticizing a truly stupid and unconstitutional attempt by Quebec to ban government workers from wearing religious symbols (tiny crucifixes? oui! hijab? non).

2. Serving raw pork in fancy restaurants.

3. The Orenda, an incredible new historical novel about First Nations contact in the 17th century. Joseph Boyden, the author, is profiled here. Want to read it faster? Order it from Canada. Or buy his first novel, Three Day Road. Boyden is one of the most talented young First Nations writers in Canada, AND he loves Louise Erdich and Robertson Davies, so he's basically perfect.

4. Men buying sex toys. Which, by the way, there is nothing wrong with. Better living through sex-robot gadgetry for all!

5. Classy vegetarian-friendly eggplant tortes.

6. After 33 years of the Terry Fox Run, remembering the young man, who, for Canadians of a certain age, is still a legend and a cipher.

7. Benedict Cumberbatch.

8. And, in Things That Remain Timelessly Popular in Canada: hockey, Tim Hortons coffee, Trailer Park Boys, pot, the Barenaked Ladies, and using "buddy" in the third person. "So, I said to buddy, 'you were supposed to bring a two four!' and he just looked at me."