Ben: Hey, what's up? Holo, everyone, and welcome back to another episode of Simply PodLogical, a Simply Nailogical Podcast. Cristine: Yay! Ben: Today's episode is brought to you by one of our favorite Canadian companies: David's Tea. Iced tea is probably the best drink on the planet.
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Cristine: Body-loving benefits?
Ben: Body-loving. Cristine: Should I bathe in the tea?
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Ben: They are. Cristine: Because they're the only company that I could find that makes a beautiful holographic one. This one is like two-tone. I think it's new for summer. And I just love, you know, holding it, because then my nails match.
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Ben: Yeah, the weather has finally gotten warm here in Canada, so we can finally make some iced tea. Cristine: Um-hmm.
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Cristine: Yeah, it's only for a limited time, eh? Ben: Eh?
Cristine: Eh?
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Ben: Eh?
Cristine: Aww, I love my life. Ben: So today's episode is about Canada. We've seen this topic requested a lot. People are very curious. And I think we should point out that I think being Canadian's a pretty big part of our identity. It's something we talk about a lot. And most of the people watching I think are aware that we're Canadian, but a good proportion of the audience--the majority of people listening or watching this--are American, right?
Cristine: Are not Canadian, yeah. Ben: I think about 60% of the audience are American the last time I checked your demos. Cristine: I think it's about 60 and then only 8% (of this podcast audience, anyways) is Canadian. Yeah. Ben: Yeah, and then the rest is kind of sprinkled all over the place. Cristine: The rest is everyone else--who we love.
Ben: Yeah, so a lot of people had questions about Canada. I think there are a lot of myths about Canada that people wanted cleared up. So we got a lot of questions. I don't think we need to ramble on too long in the beginning here. I think we should just get right into some questions from you guys about, uh, myths, myth-busting about Canada, questions about Canada, and also we could probably get in a little bit to why we have chosen to stay here in Canada as opposed to pulling the classic YouTuber move of moving to L.A. as soon as you get a number of subscribers.
Cristine: It's "aboot" time.
Ben: "Aboot". Cristine: No one actually says that. So that was the first stereotype.
Ben: I've never met someone who says it. But okay, let's just get into it. All right. First question, from "pastellcantspell:" "Is bagged milk an actual thing?" We actually saw this question a lot. So let's just get it out of the way, right up front. Have you ever ... do you drink your milk out of a bag, Cristine?
Cristine: Currently? No.
Ben: No. Cristine: All the milk we buy now is in a carton.
Ben: Yeah, but ... So it is true that milk comes in bags in Canada, it's just like not the only way of getting them.
Cristine: Yeah. But growing up, that's all ... that's the only way we drank milk, because as a family of four we had ... bought the like giant two-liter bags - there was four that came in a pack and it is a little bit cheaper to get that much milk at one time. Ben: So you would buy a bag of milk from the grocery store that has three bags inside it and each ...
Cristine: Yeah. Ben: in total they're four liters of milk.
Cristine: Well, it's actually much less waste, because it's just a bag of plastic--like a thin bag of plastic--that you put in a reusable plastic pouring container. Ben: Jug. Container.
Cristine: Jug. So you reuse the jug. So it's kind of better for the environment, although like there is the thin plastic that holds the milk itself.
Ben: Yeah, and you need to have a jug. I know a lot of people think this is bizarre and I don't even think it's all of Canada. I think it's more East-coast Canada,
Cristine: Is it? Ben: like Ontario and Quebec, I believe, and I looked into this at one point because I was confused about it. So people used to get milk in glass. There used to be like ...
Cristine: Milkman!
Ben: The milkman used to come and then you never really knew if your dad was your real dad, or maybe your mom had an affair with the milkman.
(Cristine laughs.) Ben: You know, that was just how it was ...
Cristine: That was the joke.
Ben: in the 50's.
Cristine: It wasn't the postman, it was the milkman. So I guess when they changed from glass to plastic packaging of milk in the 60's, around the same time Canada switched over to the imperial, sorry, to the metric system from the imperial system of measuring things and I gather or I've heard that it was easier to adjust sizing with like plastic milk bags than it was to adjust the standard sizes of cartons. So I think that has something to do with it
Cristine: The one criticism I do see which we totally didn't do any justice was, "How the hell do you pour it out of a plastic bag without spilling it everywhere?" And I remember in a video we posted on Simply Nailogical like three years ago, I bought a bag of milk--which I haven't bought in like ten years--just as a joke to humor the American and international audience and then I poured it and it actually spilled everywhere. Ben: Yeah, it was a ... there is a technique to cutting off just the right amount of the corner of the bag ...
Cristine: And then you have to spill it at a certain angle, because if you go too far the bag folds and then just spills everywhere. Ben: Okay, this is a long answer for ...
Cristine: Is that where the expression ...
Ben: a question where ... The answer is "Yes, we do get milk in bags." Cristine: Is that where the expression "Don't cry over spilled milk" comes from? Canadians?
Ben: Well, I mean, you could spill bagged or cartoned milk. Cristine: I guess. But it is easier to spill in a bag. Anyway. Ben: Maybe if it was like "Don't spill a bag of milk." Cristine: Sorry, I spilled a bag of milk. Ben: All right. Second question and by far the most common theme we saw: "Do you find it ridiculous that the U.S. still does not have universal healthcare?" And, yeah, the fact that it is a majority American audience, I don't think it's a surprise we saw a lot of this question. It's a very hot topic at a lot of ... at the top of a lot of people's minds in the states right now, and you have two presumptive presidential candidates neither of whom are advocating for this, even though the polls I see coming out of the States I think a majority of people do advocate for universal healthcare. Cristine: Yeah. We haven't lived the American life, obviously, of understanding the struggle of what it's like to have to pay to just go see the doctor and for your general health. We are so used to just not having to think about that. Of course, there are some things that you pay for. Like you end up paying for part of your glasses prescription. Or part of your dentist you may end up paying for out of pocket.
Ben: Yeah, absolutely.
Cristine: But, right. So it's not like ... Ben: Just to be clear, it's not like everything is covered. Cristine: Not everything in Canada is completely free and then some things depend on you can get better insurance than the standard provincial healthcare.
Ben: Yeah, through employment or ...
Cristine: Right? So there are options. Yeah. But I guess the the core point is though like we can't relate ...
Cristine: Right.
Ben: and it just seems super bizarre to us this idea of someone having to make a financial decision about do I get medical treatment for something like at a hospital or can I not afford to?
Cristine: But it's not even just treatment. Like I've talked to nail bloggers about this before. I used to be friends with a lot of nail bloggers and some were from the States.
(Ben: In the States.)
Cristine: So we just kind of swap like life stories while we were bored. And I just remember someone, I think it was from Georgia, just explaining to me that she didn't want to go to the doctor at all, because going to the doctor just to see what her runny nose or her sore throat was would have cost her like a couple hundred dollars just to visit a doctor. Ben: Just these basic things.
Cristine: So what happens is people are deterred from going just to get a health check. And so whatever their issue may be, whether it's nothing or something really serious, they just keep putting it off and then they're not getting the preventative care that they need, which ultimately in the end can make someone a lot sicker and things end up a lot worse. So that's something we don't have to think about, but when I talk to our American counterparts or friends, I realize how privileged we are that that is not a strain on us. Like we don't have to think about our health in that way.
Ben: No. I mean, it's not to say the Canadian system is perfect though, right? There are a lot of people in Canada who are on long waiting lists to get a family doctor, because otherwise you basically have to end up waiting at these clinics and with incredibly waiting lines ...
Cristine: But that makes sense: when healthcare is made available to everyone, it is going to be a bit harder to access. That's just ... Ben: Yeah. I just ... I don't want to put this idea out there that the Canadian system is perfect.
Cristine: Is perfect, yeah. Ben: Yeah, although I should say a lot of Canadians ... I think our healthcare system is a sense of pride for a lot of Canada like ...
Cristine: Mm-hmm. Ben: Like in the last ten years, the CBC--the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation--had a competition like American-Idol style: you can like call in to vote. And they are trying to find out "Who was the greatest Canadian ever?" and I'm pretty sure the winner was Tommy Douglas, who was a politician from I think the like the 50's and 60's, who was the Premier of Saskatchewan, I believe. But he is widely recognized as one of like the fathers or one of the most important political figures in why we have universal healthcare in Canada. So the fact that like there was a popularity contest for who's the best Canadian ever came down to the guy ...
Cristine: To the healthcare guy. Ben: who is one of the main people responsible for why we have public healthcare, I think says a lot about how much Canadians are proud of the fact that we have this. So ...
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: Yeah.
Cristine: It's something that I honestly took for granted for a long time, because I didn't really know and I remember being in University even like and starting to get things like birth control,
Ben: Yeah.
Cristine: you know, and after my student plan and what OHIP (which is our provincial government payer, I guess) for the ... any drugs that you need, I ended up paying like $5 or something a month, which I was like "Fine," you know. Like that was at the end of the day the expense I had to pay. But sometimes on the receipt it would show you what the "actual retail amount" was, even though you never paid that amount, and it would say something like $90. And I remember look-- "Who the hell is paying $90 for birth control?" And then as I, you know, learned things about the world ... Ben: You came out of your igloo and ...
Cristine: No, I didn't. No. But like it's just something that you don't think about, because it's something you don't deal with. So I did feel kind of like blinded to that, because no one was really telling me that, unless I was listening to like American news Ben: Yeah,. So I guess the answer is, yeah, we do kind of find ... like I'm not an expert in the American system, I'm not sure what Obamacare looks like and if it's a good or bad thing; I don't know if there's a hybrid system that makes sense and there are some unique things about America and the fact that the pharmaceutical industry and a lot of the research being done for drugs is happening there in ways it's not happening in the rest of the world. I think it's important to recognize there are some differences, but I'd have to think a country as great and wealthy as America should be able to take care of its most vulnerable people. Cristine: Yeah. And so to answer the question, I don't find it ... "ridiculous" wouldn't be the best word to me. I feel kind of like sad.
Ben: Yeah.
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: It's ridiculous in a sad kind of way.
Cristine: Yeah. Ben: All right, next question: "What are some Canadian slang words?"
Cristine: Slang. Slaaang. Ben: You know, when I saw this question, I actually ... I couldn't really think of any, because I guess it's our slang, so we don't really think of it as slang or I don't often think about the words I'm saying that would/might sound strange to an American. So I looked up a list of words and found something.
Cristine: Oh, yeah?
Ben: The obvious one that everyone knows is "eh?"
Cristine: I always say it.
Ben: You say it a lot. I say it a lot.
Cristine: I just played it up earlier, but I honestly do say it.
Ben: I say it. You can ... you can definitely hear me saying it in old videos. Cristine: Um-hmm.
Ben: And it's a versatile word in the sense that like you can use it to just emphasize the end of a sentence. Cristine: Or to confirm.
Ben: Or to make ... it's kind of like a question or like a confirmation. Ben: Like ...
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: "Hey, you know this is that, eh?" Like ...
Cristine: Correct? Ben: "You know that, right?"
Cristine: Right? Correct?
Ben: Right? Cristine: It's kind of like saying "right." Is it the equivalent of saying "right?", like in a more playful way, maybe?
Ben: Yeah. More friendly way maybe. Cristine: "I love you, eh?" "I love you, right?"
Ben: Sounds kind of weird. It's kind of hard to force yourself to do it. It should come naturally. Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: But a couple other ones stood out to me a little that I think only the Canadians will know, or you guys let me know down below. "Double double." If you want a double double, in Canada you know.
Cristine: It's from Tim Hortons with two creams, two sugars--coffee.
Ben: So our equivalent to Dunkin' Donuts is Tim Hortons. It's a coffee and doughnut chain named after a really famous hockey player.
Cristine: Do you want to know a funny story? My dad used to swim in Tim Horton's pool.
Ben: Oh! Wow. Cristine: Swear to god.
Ben: How have I never heard that before?
Ciristine: I don't know--you never asked. Ben: Okay. Tim Horton was a Toronto Maple Leaf, an NHL player, who was hugely popular and back in those days hockey players did not get paid much money at all, so those guys needed summer jobs when they weren't playing hockey. He was really smart and built this hugely successful Canadian franchise out of it.
Cristine: Giant coffee franchise. Yeah. So I think my dad knew his son or was the same age or went to school with him, so he swam in his pool at some point.
Ben: Oh, wow. Tim Horton ...
Cristine: Because Canada's just so small, that he literally swam in his...
Ben: Everyone knows .... We all know Tim Horton. Actually, he tragically died in a car accident, sad story. But, yeah, by all accounts, he was a great guy. Tim Hortons is now owned by like some Brazilian coffee conglomerate. So I feel like it still ...
Cristine: It's not really ...
Ben: has that like nostalgic Canadian thing Double double just means it's a coffee with two creams, two sugars.
(Cristine: Two creams, two sugars.)
Cristine: My dad always drank a double double. Yeah. Ben: All right. Here's another: look, "Loonies and Toonies." Cristine: That's obvious.
Ben: Does the rest of the world know what that is? So we don't have dollar bills. Cristine: We ain't got dolla dolla bills, but we got Loonies and Toonies.
Ben: Yeah, we have coins for one and two dollars. "Toque." What's a "toque," Cristine?
Cristine: Ah, a hat, for winter. Ben: Yeah, it's like a winter beanie to keep you warm in our cold winters.
Cristine: A toque, because that's from French, "en toque." Right? Ben: Yeah, I think there must be a French word.
Cristine: "Toquette" or something. Yeah.
Ben: Yeah. And then the last one, this is fun-- ... I wonder if people will get this. "Homo milk."
Cristine: Yeah, I know.
Ben: You know what that is, right? Cristine: But like, wait. So no one else other than Canada says "homo milk"? Ben: I've heard that that is a Canadian thing. Maybe on the East coast of the states they know it as well, but basically it's ... it is not homosexual milk it is ...
Cristine: It's not? Ben: homogenized milk.
Cristine: Homogenized milk, yeah.
Ben: So it's milk that is 3.25%. Which I don't know what kind of people are drinking that.
Cristine: Isn't that common in America, though, to have a higher percent milk? That's why I'm kind of confused.
Ben: Yeah, but you get like half and half and cream and like there are things that are much higher percentage than 3.25. I don't know what it is about the Canadian dairy industry that there is this like sort of in-between higher fat milk.
(Cristine: That specifically wanted [unintelligible] )
Cristine: And why they called it homo milk.
Ben: Well it's ... it takes so long to say homogenized, so like "Oh, go to the ... go to Loblaws and get me some homo milk." Cristine: We did used to say that,
Ben: Oh, yeah.
Cristine: but honestly, I never really drank homo milk.
Ben: I was the milk boy. I heard it all the time. Cristine: I never drank homo milk growing up. I always had 1 or 2% Just some personal preference. But, yeah, that is a thing. Ben: Okay.
Cristine: Although I don't think people say that as much anymore. Ben: No. Well, people just don't drink milk as much as they used to.
Cristine: Now they drink almond or oat milk.
Ben: There's no homo almond milk ... or ... yeah. Cristine: Makes no sense. Homogenized almond milk.
Ben: No. Actually, that could be something. Next question from "y3danielle:" "What is a Canadian stereotype that you live up to 100%?" Cristine: Ooh. Ummm. I say "eh" all the time. I'm always cold, because it always feels like winter and I'm always wearing sweatpants. Ben: You're always cold. But it's pretty warm now. It's nice weather.
Cristine: I'm still cold.
Ben: You're still cold.
Cristine: It's ...what month is it? May or June. Ben: Is that a female stereotype more than a Canadian one?
Cristine: Maybe.
Ben: Because we live through cold. A lot of Canadians live through cold [unintelligible]. Cristine: But I survive.
Ben: I wonder if that's why Canadians are a little more friendly. Because like we all know that for three/four months of the year we're going through some shit together.
Cristine: We're hibernating.
Ben: Yes, that's right. We don't see each other for the winters. Cristine: What stereotype do you live up to?
Ben: Ah. Yeah, I say "eh," too. I think the most cliché thing for me is I'm a big fan of hockey.
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: And I would say most men in Canada, If they don't play hockey, they are at least fans of hockey of following hockey, watching hockey.
(Cristine: Yeah. You're right.) Cristine: People always thought it was weird that like I didn't support any team. They're like, "Which team are you on? Which team you play for?" And I'm like, "What do you mean 'play for'?" "Like which team do you like?" And I'm like, "I don't care." Like *I* was weird
Ben: Did a lot of the girls you grew up with, though, also care about hockey? Cristine: Yeah. They all loved the Sens or the Leafs ...
Ben: Oh, that's interesting.
Cristine: and I'm just like hmm. Ben: That's good, right? Because hockey's ... Hockey is ... this is a sensitive topic, but hockey has a reputation for having a culture that is a little doucheyguy-ey.
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: Like a little misogynistic and even racist to some degree, right?
Cristine: Is that not most sports? Ben: I ... yeah, you know what? You could say that about a lot of sports. And maybe in Canada we hold it to a different standard, because there's so much national pride about hockey that the fact that there is an ugly side to it ...
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: is more upsetting, I guess, to us. Ahh ... Cristine: What do you mean like ugly side? Ben: Just the fact like the locker room culture of guys talking about women and there's definitely racism in hockey to some degree. There aren't a ton of black people who play hockey. So there are definitely plenty of instances of people saying bad things on the ice or throwing things on the ice ...
Cristine: Hmm. Interesting. Ben: and we don't need to get into this too much but, yeah, there is kind of a conversation. There have been some recent stories that ... why this popped into my head but, uh, I think we all love hockey and want it to get better and I think it is becoming more inclusive and I think that probably applies to sports overall. Cristine: Hmm.
Ben: I like hockey.
Cristine: Yes. [Unintelligible] Ben: Next question from Chelsey: "What are some of the biggest political differences you see between Canada and the USA?" Cristine: Whoo, boy! Let me grab my iced tea.
Ben: No, like ... rather than comparing and saying something's better than something else, I think maybe it's better to ... Maybe some people don't really understand the Canadian political system. Like we don't have just two parties, right? And in the States ... In the States, I get the sense that people really treat politics like sports.
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: Like you're either on Team Democrat or you're Team Republican. Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: I'm not saying there isn't some tribalism or like "I'm on team conservative" or team liberal here. Like, yeah, that happens. People align themselves with and become members of political parties. But I feel like there's less of that going on here and we don't just have two parties. Like we have ...
Cristine: There is a third larger one ...
Ben: And not just those ...
Cristine: Well, there's five ... Ben: There's multiple.
Cristine: Five or six.
Ben: Yeah. So there's the Liberal Party, which is I guess the closest thing to a sort of moderate left-leaning party here. The Conservative Party is the one significant right-leaning party. But then there's also a party further to the left, the NDP. So they advocate for things like universal child care--like covering the cost of child care for everyone is like something they would care about. And then you have the Green Party
Cristine: The Green Party.
Ben: which ... they get a reasonable number of votes; they just end up not having a ton of representation in our Parliament because of our electoral system. And then you even have another party, the Bloc Québécois ...
Cristine: Um-hmm.
Ben: that specifically represents the interests and values of French Canada or Quebec ...
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: which is a pretty strange thing, I think, to outside observers. It would be like if you had a political party in the US who was like we're the Colorado Party and we specifically represent the values and interests of Colorado!
Cristine: Yeah. Or like ...
Ben: And like in a federal election you'd be voting for them. Cristine: there was the Texas Party and all Texas subculture we represent. Like that doesn't really make sense. Like, what? Ben: It's a little strange, but like I guess a big part of the Canadian identity is the fact that we have, within Canada, French Canadians see themselves and I think are recognized as like a distinct culture within Canada.
Cristine: Um-hmm. Ben: So it kind of makes sense to do some things to preserve that or for there to be some differences in that political process. Maybe we'll get into that a little bit later. Any other comments on the differences? Cristine: We don't have an equivalent of a Donald Trump here. Like someone that's kind of just an entertaining caricature ...
Ben: Don't jinx us.
Cristine: to watch. We almost did ...
Ben: Kevin O'Leary ...
Cristine: but it didn't work.
Ben: ran for the head of the Conservative Party ...
Cristine: And he was on ... is it Shark Tank? Ben: Yeah, a lot of Americans ...
Cristine: Dragons' Den.
Ben: will know that guy from ...
Cristine: Dragons' Den? Ben: I think both.
Cristine: Or Shark Tank?
Ben: He crossed over both. I think it started in Canada. I don't know which one's the Canadian one and which one's the American, but, yeah, he's that like "I'm Mr. Wonderful, money is everything, I'm mean to people." He's like kind of trying to be the Canadian Donald Trump in a way, on media anyway. Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: And, yeah, he kind of briefly flirted with running ...
Cristine: Running for the Conservatives
Ben: and once he saw he didn't really have a chance he kind of pulled out kind of quickly. Cristine: Yeah. But I saw ... I remember when he was running seeing articles like "Are we going to get a Donald Trump in Canada? Will this work?"
Ben: Sure.
Cristine: And then he eventually pulled out and then articles said why it didn't work. Why you couldn't fool Canadians to getting that kind of person in the lead.
Ben: Well, it's not like populist politics don't work. Like we had Rob Ford, Doug Ford popular in Ontario. Those guys are very populist, no-nonsense, "we'll give it to you straight" kind of figures. I should say, though, that there's sort of a difference in ... even our conservative party I think would look more moderate than what a lot of Americans recognize as the Republican party.
Cristine: That's probably a good thing to point out about the political differences. Ben: Yeah. Like ... so for example, the leader of the Conservative Party in Canada. They're looking for a new leader right now. They're having a process for that. People think that person can't be against abortion. Cristine: Right. Whereas in the States. That's not the case.
Ben: Probably not an issue. And that person can't be uncomfortable marching in a pride parade even, right?
Cristine: Right.
Ben: Those are things that to too many Canadians that would be seen as like way too socially conservative.
Cristine: Yeah. You're not going to win in an election. Ben: There's no chance they could win on a national scale.
Cristine: No matter which party, don't even bother here.
Ben: Yeah. Cristine: Yeah, so that's why this just strikes me as so different from America. It's just the social climate around issues like that that I thought we were well past, but we're not in other countries around the world. Ben: Have you seen the Handmaid's Tale?
Cristine: Yes.
Ben: It was written by a great, great Canadian:
Both: Margaret Atwood. Ben: Yeah.
Cristine: Yeah. I love that show. It's really well done. Ben: Speaking of Canadian arts contributions, from maddyp: "What do you think of Letterkenny?" Cristine: I don't know what that is.
Ben: Do you know this is, Cristine?
Cristine: No. Ben: You know what's funny? I think ...
(Cristine: What is that?)
Ben: a lot of Americans' exposure to Canada might be through television shows like this. Cristine: Okay.
Ben: So there have been a few somewhat successful Canadian shows in the last few years ...
Cristine: Is this related to the Red Green Show? [unintelligible]
Ben: No, that's a classic Canadian show. I wonder if people remember that. It was like at this lumber-- ... I barely ... I was a child and I remember seeing that on TV. Cristine: Yeah, I barely remember it either but it's like a stereotype of Canadian television.
Ben: Yeah, that's classic. That and Due South, a show about like a Canadian Mountie who ... I guess he goes to the States to like do his Canadian police [unintellgible]. Cristine: So is Letterkenny a show in Canada?
Ben: Letterkenny is a Canadian show. I haven't seen it, actually. I don't really know what it's about. But this, Schitt$ Creek is a recent Canadian show that I think has gotten a lot of international attention, Orphan Black a couple years ago. My favorite Canadian show ever is Kenny vs. Spenny, I know that [unintelligible] successful.
Cristine: That was really good. That would not fly today. Ben: It would not fly today. Some of the episodes like ... Cristine: Are just crazy.
Ben: do not ... like that could not be made today and probably shouldn't.
Cristine: Yeah. Ben: Like I don't know if you remember ... there's some stuff that goes on that show that's like shouldn't [unintelligible]. Cristine: I remember.
Ben: But some of the moments in the show are absolutely hillarious. It's about like two guys, one of them's like a do-gooder and the other guy is willing to cheat as long as he doesn't get caught and they're having weekly competitions to see who's better at who can pick up more girls and like who ...
Cristine: But during all that they end up pranking each other or trying to upstage the other by doing certain like tricks or lying or cheating. So that's what makes it funny. Ben: One of those guys got hired by the South Park creators to write on South Park, Kenny Hotz. So that's the kind of humor. That might give you some more idea of what sort of humor ...
Cristine: It's pretty crude humor; it's pretty bad.
Ben: I should say in Canada I think people don't have the most positive outlook on Canadian content, because there are laws in Canada about how much Canadian broadcasters need to have Canadian content on the air. Like if you're a Canadian radio station, a certain percentage of what you play on the air has to be Canadian.
Cristine: Really?
Ben: Yeah. So that has meant in the past maybe these rules have changed over time, I'm not super familiar with it.
Cristine: Is that why we can't access Netflix U.S.? Ben: I don't know why that is. But anyway ... but for this reason I think a lot of Canadians kind of roll their eyes at a lot of Canadian content isn't very good. It was just sort of there to fill a quota. So I think Canada has made a lot of significant contributions to the Arts; I wouldn't say television is a place where you've seen a lot of success. I would say we ... there's some great Canadian writers, and maybe ...
Cristine: Singers. Ben: musicians, more than anything.
Cristine: Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne. Avril Lavigne, baby.
Ben: I mean Drake is the guy that probably comes to mind for most people right now. Cristine: Oh, sure. Yes, him, too.
Ben: Avril Lavigne.
Cristine: Avril Lavigne.
Alanis Morissette. Ben: But more classically like The Band and Neil Young. There're some great classic bands that a lot of people know that are Canadian, and I'm not sure how many people know that. But I haven't seen Letterkenny and neither have you.
Cristine: I have never ... literally never heard of it.
Ben: Well, you don't even watch TV, right? Cristine: No.
Ben: Just YouTube. Next question: "What has Canada invented? Maple syrup? Did they make bagged milk? Eww, why would you put milk in a bag?" Cristine: Did we make maple syrup? Ben: You can get maple syrup in Vermont. You can get maple syrup anywhere there's maple trees, I guess. Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: So we don't have a monopoly on it. Canada ... or we do have the monopoly on it, because Canada clearly makes the most maple syrup, especially in Quebec, actually.
Cristine: Um-hmm. Ben: But what has Canada invented? I'm not sure if it's a hugely long list. A few things come to mind. Cristine: Loonies. Ben: No, like ... the first wireless radio transmission happened in Canada, and I think was invented by a Canadian. Insulin: the scientific process for producing insulin to treat diabetes ...
Cristine: Really?
Ben: I think was a Canadian. Basketball. Maybe that's our greatest contribution to ...
Cristine: Basketball? What about hockey?
Ben: Basketball and hockey are both Canadian creations.
(Cristine: invented.) Ben: Yeah.
Cristine: Isn't ... aren't garbage bags? Glad garbage bags. Why do I know that?
Ben: I have no ... I haven't heard that.
Cristine: Trash bags were invented in Canada. Ben: Were trash bags invented here?
Cristine: Yeah, I think specifically Glad garbage bags. Ben: I hadn't heard. Oh, wow.
Cristine: Canada, you're trash! Ben: I learned something. Basketball, garbage bags ... Cristine: I'm sure there's a meme in there somewhere. Scented money.
Ben: You could ... you can google a list if you want to know more than that. From henloitsjess: "Is poutine as good as I hear it is?" Cristine: You have to say it like a Canadian.
Ben: "Pootin."
Cristine: "Pootin." Ben: No one says that. People say poutine.
Cristine: Yes, they do! If they speak a little bit of French.
Ben: We're not in Quebec now, okay. "I always hear about it, but have never gotten an account from an actual Canadian."
Cristine: All right, Ben, tell us. Ben: I mean it's not one of those things that's too hard to imagine tasting amazing, right? We're really talking about french fries, gravy and cheese curds. It has to be curds. It can't be like shredded mozzarella, melted. Cristine: What kind of cheese? Is it like hard, white cheddar?
Ben: Cheese curds. Cristine: No, but like what kind of cheese is the cheese curds? Ben: Honey, I'm not a cheese expert here.
Cristine: Is it goat's cheese?
(Ben: No, no.)
Cristine: Is it orange cheddar? Ben: It is a cheddar. I believe it's a white.
Cristine: So aged white cheddar.
Ben: Usually it's a white cheddar. i don't know what to say. I don't know how you make cheese curds.
Cristine: I don't know either.
Ben: I'm sorry. I'm sorry I don't know the answer.
Cristine: What makes it a curd? Just the shape? Ben: It's because it's squeaky. That's the most important thing. You should hear the cheese curd like squeak when you bite into it.
Cristine: That does not sound appetizing. Literally no one wants to try this.
Ben: Fries, melty cheese curds, and gravy doesn't sound appetizing? It's great.
Cristine: Not if it squeaks in my mouth. Ben: That's just part of the fun. I mean, it's a ... it's a French dish. It's like a classic. A lot of people have modified it over the years, so like you might add smoked meat to it ...
Cristine: Yeah, that's good.
Ben: or other ...
Cristine: Ketchup.
Ben: or onions and mushrooms. You don't ...
Cristine: Yeah, ketchup. Ben: I'm a purist. If I'm having poutine it is those three things. I would say it's not something we have a ... we try to eat healthier these days. Cristine: Yeah, I don't really eat much poutine.
Ben: Not eating a lot of poutine. Cristine: But I used to when I was in University Instead of going to get a slice of pizza after everyone was drunk, we'd go get poutine.
Ben: Yeah, yeah, no. Cristine: At the poutine truck.
Ben: A lot of people can relate to this. I spent many late nights at the Elgin Street Diner after a night of drinking out on Elgin Street and you'd end the night at like 3:00 in the morning ... Cristine: With a giant poutine.
Ben: A giant plate of poutine. Cristine: I feel like it's good, but it's not something I can have an entire serving of. It's just so much. Ben: Oh, yeah, you feel gross after.
Cristine: So many fries, so much gravy, so much cheese. It's like more than ... more than pizza.
Ben: Takes ... it takes a few years off your life. Cristine: Takes a few days to digest.
Ben: It's funny, I like ... there aren't a ton of foods that Canada is known for, right? Cristine: Beaver tails.
Ben: Beaver ... There's some desserts. Yeah, beaver tails. They're like, uh, ...
Cristine: Not actual beaver. Ben: No, no. It's like a paste--
(Cristine: It's not actual beaver.)
Ben: a flat oval pastry that you usually put like cinnamon sugar on. Cristine: Umm, so sugary. Yummy.
Ben: Butter tarts are a Canadian invention.
Cristine: Are they? Nanaimo bars.
Cristine: Nanaimo [unintelligile] Ben: I can think of a few desserts, but like what do we really think when it comes to food other than poutine?
Cristine: Anything maple. Ben: Kind of. Those are just sweets, though.
Cristine: Maple taffy! Come on, Ben, we made that in our backyard. Ben: I remember.
Cristine: I love maple taffy. I get it stuck my teeth all day.
Ben: When I think of like food in Ottawa, even, like .. I guess ... I guess we are living in a very multicultural society and what people like to say about Canada is ... People used to say in juxtaposition to the States that the U.S. is like a melting pot. So like different cultures come there and everyone sort of assimilates and it blends into like this new American identity. Whereas for a long time, I'm not sure if this is true, but we like to think of Canada as more of a mosaic: a cultural mosaic is the term they used to use, right? Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: It's the idea that like if a different culture comes here, it's not like they're abandoning that culture and expected to like assimilate into Canadian culture. They sort of ... they can maintain that culture here within the Canadian family, let's say, if we want to put a friendly spin on it.
Cristine: They complement the already existing mosaic of Canadian diversity. Yeah. Ben: Yeah, so for that reason, I think you , we ... like the best restaurant in Ottawa I can think of is like this Indian restaurant that I think is amazing. Or like I think the most common restaurant in Ottawa might be like these Lebanese shawarma restaurants.
Cristine: Shawarma, yeah. Ben: I think Ottawa might have like per capital ... per capita the most shwarma restaurants in North America at least. And it's amazing.
Cristine: There's also some ... There's some good like Italian places, too. You're right, it is very ... like when I think of what types of food we have here, they're all kind of segmented by different heritage of types of food and different types of cuisine.
Ben: I think Quebec has a bit more of a food-scene identity, but other than that, I don't really think of stuff as Canadian food. There are some regions that have things.
Cristine: Um-hmm.
Ben: Like if you go out east there's definitely like seafood dishes that are, you know, unique to them.
Cristine: Seafood, yeah, yeah, yeah. Next question from Sarah LaPlante:
Cristine: LaPlante? Elle parle français? "Do you think that English Canada hates French Canada (as in Quebec)? I'm from Quebec and I feel like all Canada hates us, haha."
Cristine: Aww. Ben: Oooh. This is kind of a sensitive topic in Canada.
Cristine: On ne vous déteste pas. Okay, Sarah? Ben: No ... Yeah, I think the short answer is I don't think English Canada hates French Canada, but there is a lot of baggage and context to this conversation. Maybe we'll sort of like briefly get into it.
Cristine: Yeah. Ben: This isn't a conversation about the politics of French Canada. Cristine: How do we explain this to someone living in Iowa?
Ben: Yeah, so when European settlers first came over to Canada there were British and French colonies and then they fought and to really oversimplify things ...
Cristine: "And then they fought."
Ben: the British won, but they said, "Hey, New France area over here, you can kind of do your own thing to some degree."
Cristine: Hmm. Ben: There is definitely like a French identity and culture preserved within Canada that way.
Cristine: Yeah. Ben: In more recent history--and not that long ago, like I remember this as a ... I remember hearing about this as a kid-- I think in the early 90's, there was a referendum and Quebec (the Province of Quebec, where the French Canadians are), they had a vote on if they should separate from Canada and the vote was like 51% we want to stay to 49% we want to leave.
Cristine: Ouch. Ben: I think a lot of Anglo-English Canadians remember that, because it's almost like knowing your partner came like 49% close to breaking up with you and wanting to leave, you know.
Cristine: Yeah. Ben: So I think there is some mental baggage from that still even though like in contemporary Canadian politics there is really no discussion about Quebec separating from some-- from Canada. It feels like that was a long time ago. But I think there is sort of that baggage in the back of your mind and then I think Quebecers are very proud of their French identity within Canada, but I think they can also be quite sensitive to that French identity within Canada. So even at times where English Canada might have some valid criticisms or if an English writer in a big English newspaper would dare to talk about like corruption in French politics, I think French Canada is very sensitive to that sort of narrative or anything that could be perceived as insulting to Fr-- to the French identity in Canada. Anyway, I feel like I'm kind of treading on weird ground here, but I guess I should summarize it in the sense that I think a lot of English-speaking Canada really likes the fact that Quebec is a part of Canada and they bring a lot to the table, especially from like a cultural perspective.
Cristine: And a linguistic perspective. Like I like knowing I am not French but I learned how to speak French as a child and I still do at work sometimes I'll speak French and I like using it and it allows you to speak with more people. You can communicate in different ways. Obviously I'm not an expert at it, but ... I don't know if people know this, but in Canada, technically, according to certain laws, if you print packaging on a product like in order to sell something in a store, it has to have both English and French labeling on the product. Ben: So that's why like I don't think a lot of English Canada looks at our two official languages as a positive thing. Our government spends a lot of money translating things ...
Cristine: On translation, yeah.
Ben: and it puts a lot of burden on maybe like, you know, even small businesses in Western Canada that have no French population having this expectation of signage being in two languages.
(Cristine: Actually, that's a really good point.} When we were developing Holo Taco, which is based and made in the States, but when we were thinking about possibly maybe it comes to Canada one day, maybe it's sold in stores, I don't know.
Ben: Yes. Cristine: If that were ever to happen then legally we would have to change all of our packaging, change the bottle, and there would need to be a French translation of everything from the word "nail polish," to all the ingredients-- Everything.
Ben: Yes.
Cristine: So that's always something to consider if you're American trying to sell something in Canada. Ben: Yeah, it is, and a lot of companies want to expand to Canada ...
Cristine: And then they realize ...
Ben: and then realize, "Oh, wow, we have to change all of that." Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: So, yeah, there's a lot of that ... there's a lot of different roads to go down, but I don't think it's fair to say that English Canada hates French Canada. I think there is a very long and complicated history involved in that relationship.
Cristine: I mean, we can't speak for all of English Canada. We live in Ottawa, which is ten minutes away from Quebec.
Ben: Rob ... Rob from Red Deer. We don't necessarily speak for him. Cristine: We don't know Rob from Red Deer. Robert. Joe. Billy Bob.
Ben: That was more of an American name. But also, I think proximity matters, because we live and work ten minutes away from Quebec, so we often cross paths with people who live in Quebec just like they cross paths with people from Ottawa. So I don't think there's as much hostility when there's already going to be a lot of overlap. You know what I mean? Ben: Yeah.
|Cristine: So, we're kind of on the border anyways. I don't know how people far out, you know, [unintellgible]. Ben: Maybe French people just resent that technically the Queen is our head of state. Actually, I wonder: people probably don't know that. I saw another question, I don't think we included it, just asking like, "Do you have a president?" or like "What do you have?" And yeah, the most obvious answer or what most people think is like, yeah, we have a prime minister who's elected: right now it's Justin Trudeau. You've probably heard of him. But technically, you know, Canada was a British colony and even though it's in very much in a symbolic way, technically the Queen is still our head of state. And that's why ...
Cristine: That's why she's on our money. Ben: the Queen is on our money smelling like maple syrup. Cristine: You know, I don't mind having a woman on the money, though. So I'll take her. Ben: She seems all right.
Cristine: Her or a loon. Ben: If it was anything other than symbolic in most people's minds, though, I think a lot of Canadians would have an issue with it, right? Like we have a governor general who's basically the Queen's representative in Canada and in a very symbolic way like that will be the person who like has to call an election or something like that. But since the Statute of Westminster in 1932 or something like that Canada has really governed itself and has been independent in how it governs itself as a nation independent of Britain. Cristine: I kind of like our connection to the U.K. and Britain, though. Ben: I think a lot of people do and a lot of people care about the monarchy here for some reason still in a weird way. Cristine: Yeah, I don't really care about the hysteria around that. Ben: So what do you like about the connection?
Cristine: But I like tea I really like.
Ben: I was expecting like this serious answer. Cristine: I love the tea. Ben: I prefer Canadian David's Tea. Use code SIMPLY for 20% off for a limited time with the link down below. Cristine: Oh, yeah! Iced tea season. Use my code. Ben: Do you think the Queen drinks iced tea?
Cristine: Do you think the Queen drinks David's Tea? Ben: Maybe we should send her a care package.
(Cristine: Probably not.) Ben: She should. She doesn't know what she's missing.
Cristine: She doesn't know, Just Peachy? Oh, my god, that would blow her mind. It'll blow her crown right off. All right, next question "Do you eat a lot of macaroni and cheese?" From ilikebeansoup on Instagram. "I heard y'all do and I don't know if it's true or not?" We call it Kraft Dinner here.
Ben: So, yeah.
Cristine: Because that's the brand name is Kraft Dinner. Ben: Yeah, so Kraft Dinner is like this macaroni and cheese where like it comes with like this powdered cheddar.
Cristine: Yeah. Ben: I think a lot of Canadian kids have memories of that being like the cheap comfort food their parents would give them when they didn't have time to make dinner. Cristine: I ate it almost every other day in University.
Ben: It is a cheap way ...
Cristine: I had KD and I added extra cheese. I would shred in extra provolone cheese. Ben: You made me Kraft Dinner.
Cristine: Yeah. See?
Ben: For my birthday or something last year right? Cristine: Disgusting, I know.
Ben: People used to add ketchup to it, or like they'd cut up hotdogs and put it in. Cristine: Hotdogs. My dad always used to do that. Ben: Oh, yeah, we don't eat a lot of Kraft Dinners. Cristine: We don't eat it any more, really, but I did eat it for several several years of my life. Ben: Oh, my whole childhood I ate Kraft Dinner.
Cristine: Powdered cheese: yum. Next question: "This is for Ben. What are the differences between the American taxes and Canadian taxes?"
Cristine: Please, do tell us, Ben. Ben: I don't know how much I want to get into this, but maybe I'll take it as an opportunity to say, there are ways we could have incorporated and shifted your online business to America or or outside of Canada and it would have given us a better ... it would have put us in a more advantageous tax position in some ways. We probably would have paid less taxes if we did that.
Cristine: Um-hmm. Ben: And we chose not to do that.
Cristine: For Simply. We're talking about Simply Nailogical. Like this podcast, my main channel. Ben: Yeah, your core business.
Cristine: My merch, all that kind of stuff, yeah. Ben: Yeah, a lot of people out there--like I don't know how easy it is to always find this out but-- but like on your packaging, sometimes it's Interesting to see what countries your brands are incorporated in, because if it's somewhere like the Isle of Malta or Ireland or somewhere weird like that, there's a very good chance they're doing that because those countries are very friendly ... Cristine: With the tax rate. Ben: to ... Yeah, they're very friendly to foreign companies setting up shop there to pay very low corporate tax rates. In Canada our corporate tax rates actually aren't that different than the US, but there are certain states where you pay a lot less state tax in the U.S. and, yeah, there's lots of clever ways you can try to pay less tax. But I think at the end of the day if you're following the law and paying your taxes like we do, unlike a lot of giant companies that don't, I think we like the idea that it's going to the country that gave us the opportunities it did and the country where we choose to live. Yeah, and this is for Simply Nailogical. So for the past five/six years, however long I've run this channel, we've been incorporated in Canada Holo Taco is different, because it's made and produced in the States. I just don't want people to get confused there. That makes sense that that tax is being paid in the States because the product is produced in the States.
Ben: Yeah, that's ... Cristime: Me, I am--I was--produced and I live here. So for my channel stuff, it's Canada. The structure of Holo Taco is a little complicated. I don't know if we want to get into it, but essentially, yeah, we end up having to pay American taxes on things before we pay Canadian taxes on things. Cristine: Um-hmm.
Ben: Yeah. Anyways, there's your tax content for the day. Cristine: But that's not the only difference. That was just for why companies might say that they're incorporated somewhere else. Ben: That is our perspective on it. This isn't "Tax Time with Ben." Cristine: No, but one good thing, I think--not a good thing, but just like one point and thing to raise here-- is that taxes are generally higher in Canada. So your income tax and also just tax on goods and services. Ben: It's more the goods and services. Cristine: So we go buy groceries or we go buy, I don't know, like a car wash or whatever and we might pay 13% on whatever. Ben: But not on groceries.
Cristine: Sorry, not gro-- Ben: But on most consumer goods, yeah.
Cristine: Up to 13%. That's in Ontario. It does vary by province. Some provinces are lower. But in the States, state tax can be as low as, what? Just a couple percent on some goods and services? I've seen some and I'm like, holy crap! Or when I go to Florida. I'm like, there's no tax on this, right? It's totally different. But what all of that does is, like if you pay higher taxes, generally that means you're living in a place that uses--in theory--uses these taxes to fund public services like healthcare here. So coming back to the health care conversation. We do not have to pay for most of our healthcare because we are paying higher taxes. Ben: Yeah, yeah, that healthcare is being paid for somehow.
Cristine: By us.
Ben: It's people paying their taxes, yeah. Cristine: Right. So that's I think the biggest difference.
Ben: Yeah, and the tax rate does get pretty high; like in Ontario, the highest tax bracket you are paying more money in taxes than you are earning: it's slightly over 50% once you get into highest personal income tax bracket. Yeah.
(Cristine: For income tax.) Cristine: Lots of differences. Ben: Next question. "I need to know if it's actually as cold there in Canada as people say or the stereotype." Cristine: I mean, it's ... Canada's a giant place. Ben: It is. Actually, if you look at where people live within Canada, a shocking number of people live very close to the southern border with the US, and that's not because we like cuddling up to the sleep ... elephant sleeping in the same bed as us. It's because yeah, it's warmer down South. Cristine: Right.
Ben: It's actually nice also like for the trade and everything like that. But, yeah, so the northern parts of Canada that are remote and super cold, far less people live there. That's where it's like the same as Alaska or the same as, you know, the other northern places you think of; yeah, it's freezing. But even in Ottawa here like we have pretty freezing Cristine: Winters, yeah.
Ben: Yeah. Cristine: I'd say it's like cold for six months of the year.
Ben: It's maybe the most like legit reason we would think of not wanting to be in Canada year-round.
Cristine: Is just how cold it is, yeah.
Ben: Just how cold the winters are. From quina_quen_qu: "How are the Native Americans in Canada represented in the government and general cultural in Canada? I am part Native American myself and I have family that live up in Canada on reservations. Here in the US we are highly under-represented so was curious as to how to as how Canada compares." So we wanted to include this just because we thought it would be a missed opportunity or we would be remiss not to acknowledge this part of Canada for having a podcast about Canada.
Cristine: Um-hmm. Ben: It's a really heavy topic and one that I don't think either of us feel super comfortable ... We're not incredibly knowledgeable about this topic, but we should at least acknowledge that similar to the U.S., the First Nations people that were here before Europeans, there's a long and dark history of those people being colonized by European settlers that we live with to this day. If I could say anything about it, and I know this is an incredibly low bar, I'd like to think that in Canada there is at least a bit of a national conversation going on about what it means: about what reconciliation is and what it would mean to reconcile with that history, in a way that I don't really get the impression ... I'm not under the impression that really happens in the U.S. as much. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. And you could just say it's just lip service, but I think it's fair to say that we have a prime minister now who, no matter what you think of him or agree with him politically, I don't think he's just talking. I think he does give a shit about this issue.
Cristine: And just for some context, I think it's 5% of the Canadian population is indigenous, which means First Nations, Métis, or Inuit, and there is a long history of oppresion, residential schools and just social harms. That is very well-- I mean, I can't say whether it's well done or not-- but it is recognized at least in our government and I think in broader Canadian context. I think most Canadians understand. I remember even being taught about this in high school. It is part of a Canadian history books to understand the harms done to indigenous people and the ongoing ... the ongoing conversations to try and repair things and make things better, because it's ... especially for Indigenous women right now or the past few years there's been a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women. So it's something the government is working on, but more than that I think most Canadians know that that is an issue here. Ben: Yeah, and it's a super tricky topic in that like there have been inquisitions and inquiries into things, but at a certain point like the conversation has to be about like what concrete actions can be taken and I feel like that's still lacking. But neither you or I on this podcast are going to be able to have a real conversation about that, I don't think.
Cristine: And we're not really in the best position to, because we are not indigenous, so it's something that is hard for to speak on or for. So I'd recommend if that's an issue that you're interested in, to go, you know, look up some websites, look up for indigenous ... Ben: Yeah, I mean, I'm sure you can find stuff online about Canada's history. A lot of Canadians don't know Canadian history that well, right? But I feel like this is an issue that a lot of Canadians are very well aware of. From mckynleebeth: "Do you get noticed by fans a lot in Canada?" Cristine: Well, Canada's so small, so everyone just knows who I am. Ben: Well, so, what do ... you said 6% percent of your ... 6-8% of your viewers are Canadian? Cristine: Eight percent of my viewers are Canadian, but I do think, although I can't confirm this because YouTube doesn't provide viewership data by province so I can't infer a rate of how many people actually subscribe to my channel.
Ben: Are you over-thinking this?
Cristine: Yes, I am. But my suspicion is that on a rate basis that more Canadians know who I am than Americans Ben: Yeah, that's probably true. And you've had some coverage in Canadian media that you haven't had corresponding coverage in the U.S. media, I would say, like that Maclean's piece.
Cristine: Yeah. Ben: And, yeah, you get ... we both occasionally get stopped or someone will walk by us in the street and just sort of wave, but I feel like Canadians are polite. I think that stereotype is mostly true. So I feel like we haven't really had any bad encounters. It's usually like people a little too shy or wanting to be polite don't really stop us as much as they sort of like give us a wave or like we noticed that they like, "You're that person I see on the internet!" and they just kind of keep walking.
Cristine: Or I'll see, I'll get a tweet later in the day and someone will say, "Oh, I walked by you earlier and I didn't want to disturb you."
Ben: Yeah, "I was behind you in line at the grocery store."
Cristine: "I was behind you." "I saw you at Starbucks." Yeah, back in the day when we used to leave the house. But, yes, people do recognize me here and it's very sweet. Next question: "What are your thoughts on the idea that to be a successful YouTuber you have to live in L.A.?" I don't know. I mean are we unsuccessful?
Ben: Yeah. Well ...
Cristine: We're cancelled. Ben: You're leaving some success on the table. There are definitely opportunities that are open to people in L.A. that we do not have here.
Cristine: Yeah, for sure. Ben: I think we should acknowledge that reality. That said, and I think you agree with this, that there seems to be this expectation that like you get kind of big on YouTube and the default next step is like, "Okay, now I've got to move to L.A. and get a manager." And people do that ...
Cristine And be in a movie or something.
Ben: and then their content all just sort of becomes the same. Like, no, I'm just talking about like people making YouTube videos.
Cristine: Okay. Ben: If you're just like a vlogger of your daily life and your beauty routine, you don't have to be in L.A. to do that. And I find a lot of the time you see ...
Cristine: No, but there's more opportunities for collaborations and event parties there. Ben: There are, but I think a lot of viewers share this frustration that my favorite, you know, creator from small-town wherever moves to L.A. and then their content just kind of becomes like the content I see from everyone else Cristine: Yeah. Fair enough.
Ben: I think you lose something when you you leave your home town. Cristine: I think you lose something if you made your small town or whatever identity part of your channel narrative. Ben: That's true.
Cristine: Then you lose something and then viewers have the right to be frustrated with you. Ben: Yeah, I would say being Canadian is a part of your channel, but not necessarily living in Ottawa. Like you could be painting your nails in a basement anywhere in the world, I guess. Cristine: Right. But if I ... if we did just pick up and move to L.A. and then all of a sudden you started seeing me in people's Instagram stories at beauty event parties Ben: Uh-huh.
Cristine: And now ...
Ben: Would that be a good or bad thing? Cristine: I don't know. Like I don't think so. Like not that I don't like beauty world, like I do and I think it would be really cool to go to some of these events and we have, occasionally, when we've been in L.A., but is it the life I want to live on a weekly basis? No. Ben: Yeah, L.A. is a nice spot to visit. I don't think we'd want to live there despite the nice weather year-round. Cristine: But there are many, many cases of Canadian YouTubers who were successful who did move to L.A. and became, I don't know. Like is ... did they get more successful? Ben: I think there's opportunities. Like say what you want about Lilly Singh, but if she wanted to be the first bisexual woman of color to host a late-night talk show, that wasn't going to happen from her home in Scarborough, right? Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: So I understand. Like we're not begrudging or judging Youtubers who move to the States to pursue those opportunities.
Cristine: For sure. Ben: I would say I'm a little sensitive to the way those YouTubers communicate the fact that they're leaving Canada. Or when they communicate that they felt like they had to leave Canada. Cristine: Or that Canada sucks. "Fuck this place, I'm out." Ben: Well no one's really doing that, right? Cristine: No, but just ... that kind of feeling, that sentiment has come out in some people's departure work. Ben: Maybe that's unfair, too, because I think I sort of hold Canadian YouTubers a bit to a higher standard just because I'm proud to be Canadian and I like to think of Canadian society as a little less individualistic than the States.
Cristine: A little less narcissistic, maybe? Ben: Right. So when I see a Canadian youtuber who is narcissistic, I think that bothers me more. Or if I see a Canadian YouTuber leave Canada and like be celebrating the fact they get to leave, that kind of rubs me the wrong way. Like there's another really big creator from Ottawa who got successful at a really young age, super creative, great at editing and storytelling, but, yeah, I find her content like incredibly narcissistic and whenever I see it, I'm like this ... it just doesn't seem Canadian to me to be so self-absorbed and self-obsessed. And then when they did recently move to the States, the video they made announcing it was like, "You know, Ottawa, you're a bit of a small, shithole town that I got too big for, so I decided to leave and here's my going-away present: a big picture of my face on a billboard. And I just thought like, "Wow, that's like the opposite of what I want to think of a Canadian YouTuber being." Cristine: This is Elle Mills you're talking about. Ben: Yeah.
Cristine: Might as well just say it.
Ben: Everyone knows who I'm talking about. I don't know. Cristine: I think ...
Ben: She's young; I don't want to shit all over her ...
Cristine: Yeah. and there's far worse people on YouTube than her doing despicable things.
Cristine: Right. Ben: To me that just kind of left a bad taste in my mouth Cristine: Yeah, the leaving Ottawa and like almost giving the middle finger on your way out kind of thing. it was a little sour in my mind.
Ben: I don't think she thought it was that way, but like she's also someone who's kind of ...
Cristine: But isn't she also someone who built her popularity on being this small-town girl in this like town with nothing to do? "I'm so Canadian." Like, so that's kind of how she built her identity. Ben: I don't know. She built a brand through a very unique style. But like even looking at her old videos, it was a lot of like kind of like harassing her old high school. Like she's one of those people that's like a darling of YouTube and when I look at her content I'm like, this is kind of like a prank channel and like super self-absorbed. I don't know. I want to be sens-- I know people love her and really defend her. I'm not trying to say she's a bad person. We're not saying that. Cristine: No, we're just talking about her decision, as someone who lived in Ottawa, which we currently do, to leave and move to L.A. but make a video about how she was so happy she was leaving Ottawa. Ben: I think we're being overly sensitive, too.
Cristine: Maybe.
Ben: Yeah. Cristine: :Probably. Because we're biased Canadians. We're sorry. Ben: We're ... I'm sorry, Elle Mills. I'm ... I'm sorry. Cristine: But just to generally answer the question again, I don't think you have to move anywhere to be a successful YouTuber. Ben: Isn't that sort of the beauty of YouTube, too? Cristine: Exactly. Like you can do what you want as long as it's possible to do in a room anywhere. Like me painting my nails, I could in theory do anywhere. That doesn't mean that we're ... we're, you know, completely forgetting about the fact that we are missing opportunities. There were TV show--not TV shows--YouTube shows that I was invited to be on that we had to turn down twice over the past couple years because ...
Ben: There have been some TV shows . There ... Yeah, you've turned out some real opportunities ... Cristine: Because it just ... it didn't make sense-- It's also because I have a day job, but that's another reason-- but just being able to pick up and go to L.A. and go on the shoot in two weeks like isn't gonna happen for me living in Canada. If I lived in L.A. it would be way more manageable to go to these things, meet managers, get more brand deals, do some makeup collabs. Like that's not happening here. Ben: Which season of "Escape the Night" were are you supposed to be on? Do you remember? Should we ... are we supposed to say this? Cristine: I don't know. I don't think it was ... I don't think it's a secret, because I never did sign a contract, because I ultimately couldn't ...
Ben: Do it.
Cristine: couldn't do it. But ... Ben: Because you're like, "I got to work my desk job at StatCan." Cristine: But it is true. Joey ... Joey Graceffa did ask me if I wanted to be in I think it was season two or three, I can't remember. and then I actually asked my boss and it just ... it wasn't going to work out timing-wise. And then he asked me again the following year and I couldn't do it again. And I don't blame him for not asking me a third time. But like that's ... that's a really good example of kind of like a sacrifice, I guess.
Ben: Sure. But also like your anxiety, which you've talked about before ...
Cristine: Would have made it really difficult. Ben: I don't think you really kind of want to be on show like that, as flattering as it is to be asked.
Cristine: I probably would have gone but hoped that I died first, you know., Ben: Just lose the first competition on purpose.
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: Okay. Another question: "Have you ever thought about moving closer to ThreadBanger or Safiya? And is it true that you all love Tim Hortons? And does everyone hate Aunt Jemima?" Cristine: Well, love ThreadBanger, Safiya and Tyler. Fuck Aunt Jemima. Ben: We like our real maple syrup here. Yeah, and maybe this is a good question to end on; we've gone on a while. I know there's more. but we could do a whole other Canada episode. But, yeah, have we ever considered moving to the states? Not in any sort of serious way like we came close to moving or anything.
Cristine: No. Ben: But ...
Cristine: We can't. I don't think we even could just move to the Sta-- We're Canadian citizens. So people ask this like we could just pick up and move.
Ben: There's processes through which you could get work visas. I'm not saying we would permanently move there, but the idea of, you know, picking up for a few months in the winter and hanging out in North Carolina with Rob and Corinne. That sounds pretty nice to me.
Cristine: You hear that, Rob and Corinne? We're moving in. Ben: Or, you know, renting some nice place in Santa Monica for a while so we could be closer to some of our friends in the industry, like. I think one of the biggest barriers to that is just the fact that we have cats and traveling with cats is not something we want to do a ton of, right?
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: Like, yes, there's the job thing here, too, but we have opportunities to just like take time off work and ...
(Cristine: And go visit our friends.) Ben: we could just go visit for extended periods of time friends in the States. And, as time passes, I feel like I'm more inclined to doing that. I like the idea of that more and more. Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: And, you know, even the idea of ... a lot of Canadians retire with vacation homes in Florida.
Cristine: Like my grandma.
Ben: Yeah. And increasingly it's not only Florida, you know, like apparently a lot of Canadians are ending up in like Arizona now. Like kind of like their winter destination home's there. Like there's other places to go and like, yeah, you'll end up being there less than six months of the year, but the idea of us potentially having a getaway place somewhere in the States as we get older to escape winters ...
Cristine: As we get older and colder. Ben: Yes, you're already cold. You're just going to be colder and colder. So yeah, I like that id-- Do you think you could see that happening? Cristine: Yeah, I'm okay with it. The idea of like maybe for a month of winter we go to Florida or something ... I just say Florida because my grandmother lives there and I just know parts of Florida well. I don't really know the other Southern locations.
Ben: I'm not even a huge fan of Florida. Like, yeah, it's warm. It's just like the close, warm place Canadians go. Cristine: I like the outlet malls. Lots of savings and sales. Ben: Oh ... Cristine still loves a sale. Yeah, so I could see that. Cristine: But I think overall like we just like Canada. Like I don't ... I can't really imagine us actually living anywhere else. There's just so many things that I'd be ... I would be lost. Like drop me in the middle of middle America? Oh, my god! I may not survive. Ben:Yeah, I'm not saying we want to end up in like some random city in the middle of Idaho or something, I'm not suggesting that.
Cristine: Idaho. Why do we always use Idaho or Iowa as like the stereotype? Ben: Iowa. I'm sorry to people in Iowa. I always use an example of just like "generic American town."
Cristine: Because it just sounds so ... like sounds so opposite of Canada.
(Ben: Sounds so American.}
Cristine: Like "Iowa" is like the opposite of Canada. Ben: But I think ... we're happy in Ottawa. I find Ottawa's a good home base.
Cristine: Um-hmm. Ben: And if you were traveling to Canada, it's not near the top of my list on where I would suggest you traveling if you want to take a vacation here.
(Cristine: It's a government town.) Ben: It's a government town, but I find for us it's a good mix of ... like we're not the most adventurous people, I would say. It's a really good ...
(Cristine: Not this introvert.) Ben: home base. It's a good place where you have some of the benefits of being in a city. You have some of those amenities and services,. but it also doesn't have that giant city, "I'm just a rat in a maze" feel. Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: And I think we like that and we like the fact that, you know, in simpler times when this craziness is behind us we can go the airport and very quickly be in Florida or Asheville or L.A. or wherever else we want to go ... New York, you know,
Cristine: Yeah.
Ben: for business, too. So it's a good home base. But if you're just traveling to Canada, Where would you say? Where should people travel if they're coming to Canada? Cristine: People always say to go to B.C. Ben: Yeah, especially if you're on the west coast of the States, you can't go wrong flying into Vancouver. And you could very much have that experience of like big-city Vancouver and their sort of culture and food scene, but also you're a quick trek to Victoria Island, which is beautiful, and then you have the mountains right there. I think Calgary is increasingly becoming a recognized destination in Canada, because I think over time the city itself is becoming nicer, but more importantly you're an hour drive away from Banff National Park ...
Cristine: Banff, which we did go to ...
Ben: Lake Louise. Cristine: in the winter, and we want to go in the summer. Ben: I'm really eager to go back to Banff and Lake Louise in the summer months, something we wanted to do before this happened.
(Cristine: Did you know that they have a tea house there?) Ben: There is a tea house.
(Cristine: They have a tea house ...} Cristine: that you can hike to.
Ben: Uh-huh.
Cristine: But do you think that they have David's Tea, where you can use code SIMPLY for 20% off?
(Ben: We're really going to do this again?) Cristine: I don't think so, so I'm going to have to stick with this. Ben: I don't think they do either But ... Toronto: super big city, can't go wrong with that either if you want to see like the big city Canada has to offer. And then the East Coast. We have never been to the Maritimes. I've never been, yeah, to Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI. It's a whole other experience of Canada going on the East Coast if that's the kind of thing you're into as well. So I think Canada has a lot to offer and we haven't seen a lot of it. I'd like us to see more of Canada, too. Cristine: Yeah, we're not the best spokespeople for Canada.
Ben: Not at all.
Cristine: But we just did a whole podcast on Canada. How about that, eh? Ben: Yeah, did that give you guys a taste of what Canada has to offer and why we ... why we still live here?
Cristine: Well, I would like to thank David's Tea for sponsoring. Ben: Okay, enough David's Tea talk.
Cristine: No, because they are a Canadian company. They've expanded to the States. Like now they sell to American customers.
Ben: Yeah. Cristine: But for the longest time it was I think just in Canada, I think it's Montreal specifically where they started. Ben: Well, yeah. Well, we've ... they invited us to their headquarters in Montreal.
(Cristine: I know. We've been to their HQ in Montreal.) Cristine: But that's what's so cool about this and I'm just so happy to have them as a sponsor, so thank you, David. I mean ...
Ben: Actually.
Cristine: not David, but the team. Ben: Maybe I'll quickly add, too, I neglected to mention Quebec in that list of things. Like I've told people this before that I think in North America the closest thing you can have to a sort of European-style vacation experience would be to go to Montreal or Quebec City maybe even more so. Cristine: I've been to Montréal. Ben: Montreal is a very interesting city to visit.
(Cristine: It is nice. It's very hilly.) Cristine: And it kind of reminds me of at least pictures of what I've seen of Europe. You're right. Ben: A little bit.
Cristine: There's a little bit of that. Ben: Maybe Quebec City more so, but Montreal definitely has this sort of arts and culture where like you don't really feel you're ... It feels different than being in North America.
Cristine: And just for tourists, you can just go there only knowing English. You don't have to know French ...
(Ben: Yeah, you can get by.)
Cristine: to be in the big city of Montreal. Ben: In the bigger cities, yeah, you can get by. Cristine: You don't have to know French to just go to most tourist attractions in Canada. I think that's maybe a misconception ...
(Ben: No, absolutely not.)
Cristine: because people always ask me, "Do I need to know French to come to Canada?" and like No.
Ben: Absolutely not, especially if you're west of Ottawa. Cristine: Yeah, for sure.
Ben: Yeah. Anyways, apologies to Shane Dawson. We were going to have him on the ...
Cristine: Apologies. You're got to say "Sorry." Ben: Sorry. So sorry, Shane. We really wanted to have you on. We were going to talk all "aboot" your interest in makeup now Shane,
Cristine: Oh, my god.
Ben: Shane Gloss-son. But we'll try to get you on another time. Maybe we'll fly you out to Canada, you and Ryland sometime, and just, you know, I'll have a good old time with like the moose. The moose is on the loose. Ben: We love you, Shane. Thanks for watching, everybody.
Cristine: All right, everybody. Thanks so much for watching and listening ...
Ben: and we'll see you next
Both: Taco Tuesday. Ben: Sorry if we offended anyone in this episode.
Cristine: I hope we didn't. We're sorry if we did.
Ben: I may have. Okay, see y'all later.
Cristine: All right, everybody. Byeeee.
Ben: Bye.
Could you do a Timestamp because I would really like to see that, thanks!
Did he mention my wife Alanis too?