Shawinigan Moments

(Originally released on April 30, 2025) Frank Ney. That name is infamous in British Columbia politics not because of his real estate efforts but because of how he as mayor put on a pirate persona and ruled over the lands of Nanaimo for over two decades. His terror led to forcing people to race boats made out of bathtubs with meagre engines between Vancouver Island and the City of Vancouver. In thi...

(Originally released January 29, 2025) Wipeout Canada! A single-season hallowed tradition. An entire television show was premiered on extended cable in 2011 showcasing Canadians being forced into near concussions and vomiting by running around on a hazardous endurance course. We watched three episodes of this show so you don't have to. Featuring Aoife! Check her out here! https://twitch.tv/postmpa...

(Originally released on October 16, 2024) Tim Hortons! The Canadian cultural icon that has managed to spread its tentacles worldwide has an origin in scams and treachery from a man who wasn't even named Tim at all in his life. Here we will complain about a lack of menued vegetarian food options, the discontinuation of bread bowls, and a theatre play with an awful story. You can follow along with t...

For a decade and a half, kids could tune into a channel available on basic cable and watch speedrunning video games. Or rather, maybe a few minutes of video games scattered amongst fifteen minutes of movie "reviews", expensive consumer hardware pushing, music previews, and everything that is either a top 5 or top 3, but never a top 10. Why is it called "Video and Arcade Top 10" then? Listen to fin...

Imagine if train nerds had built railways in this country instead of corrupt capitalists. Imagine if people had access to Transport Fever or OpenTTD and could actually imagine what it was like to build the railways. Imagine if there was actually a bridge to Vancouver Island and not a railway being built to where it wasn't intended to go. Imagine if there weren't thousands of kilometres of stone yo...

(Did you know this Patreon preview has been out for a month and that I forgot to hit "publish"?) Frank Ney. That name is infamous in British Columbia politics not because of his real estate efforts but because of how he as mayor put on a pirate persona and ruled over the lands of Nanaimo for over two decades. His terror led to forcing people to race boats made out of bathtubs with meagre engines b...

Choo choo! I am a train! All aboard! In this episode, Heather takes Tam on a small journey introducing the concept of the steam locomotive and railroads and how they were invented, built, and then eventually showed up in Canada including a big project to convince the a province to be made part of a newly-formed Dominion. We missed you all! It is safe to say that this is season 2. If you like our w...

Wearing clothes that his mother found for him, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is featured in the 1999 edition of Magna International's once-annual "@Stake: As Prime Minister, I Would..." book series complete with essays from great individuals such as Evan Solomon and Conrad Black.  Join us as we read through Pierre's essay that doesn't at all scream the likes of that annoying person you...

Wipeout Canada! A single-season hallowed tradition. An entire television show was premiered on extended cable in 2011 showcasing Canadians being forced into near concussions and vomiting by running around on a hazardous endurance course. We watched three episodes of this show so you don't have to. Featuring Aoife! Check her out here! https://twitch.tv/postmpanda If you like our work, check out our...

Wait. Are we a current events podcast now? Justin Trudeau has resigned and we're here to talk about him, his resignation, Pierre Polievre, the previous foes of Trudeau as Liberal leader, and thoughts on how progressives have not only gone nowhere in Canada but worldwide. Featuring guest, Kelly from the Canuck Is A Slur podcast!   https://linktr.ee/CanuckIsASlur https://patreon.com/CanuckIsASl...

It's Christmas and we're on a war... to give each other "presents"! In this episode, Tam and Heather discuss Canadian Christmas and the experiences they've both have had either through rampant consumerism, interactions with Crown corporations, public relations with the military industrial complex, or experiences with gender thanks to popular media. We're also releasing this episode a bit over a da...

Guns! In this episode, Tamarack hosts a topic about the Second Amendment (of the British North America Act) and its complete lack of relation to firearms in Canada. Far too many Canadians are uninformed of what actual legislation there is around gun ownership and it's time for us two queer leftists to discuss! And boy did we ever pick a week to release this episode. We've had to make some edits af...

Before European colonizers made their way to North America and subsequently the Great Lakes, an established democracy had already been built by the Haudenosaunee. Tamarack takes control in this two part episode series and Heather demonstrates her biggest blindspot in North American history. Heritage Minute: https://www.historicacanada.ca/productions/minutes/peacemaker We now have a Patreon! https:...

After having conquered the Atlantic, we now set our sights on getting radio signals across the country towards the Pacific. In this episode, we review "Le Reséau", a story about Canada's first microwave relay network which enabled Canadians to have wireless signals traverse the country, enabling us to see hockey players disappoint us nationally as opposed to locally. This system would eventually l...

Sending messages via radio is only a century and a quarter old now, but wirelessly it has existed in many civilizations going back many millennia. In this episode, we explore the challenges of sending messages globally especially across oceans and how proud Italian fascist, Guglielmo Giovanni Maria Marconi sent messages from the east coast of Ireland to the east coast of Newfoundland, but never re...

Tim Hortons! The Canadian cultural icon that has managed to spread its tentacles worldwide has an origin in scams and treachery from a man who wasn't even named Tim at all in his life. Here we will complain about a lack of menued vegetarian food options, the discontinuation of bread bowls, and a theatre play with an awful story. You can follow along with the video at the start using this URL: http...

Did you know that if you are good at drywall or stucco, you can split up a movie theatre so you can watch two movies at the same time in the same building? How about split it again and have three or four? Or thirteen? Or fifteen? In this episode, we learn how much we hate Cineplex and everything it is attached to in this country. Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/vancouver/comments/1emfvw9/i_c...

For a decade and a half, kids could tune into a channel available on basic cable and watch speedrunning video games. Or rather, maybe a few minutes of video games scattered amongst fifteen minutes of movie "reviews", expensive consumer hardware pushing, music previews, and everything that is either a top 5 or top 3, but never a top 10.  Why is it called "Video and Arcade Top 10" then? Listen...

Japan is well-known for being a place where many talented baseball players have come from. Prior to World War II, a team in Vancouver named the "Asahi" would bring a unique flavour of the game wherein instead of brawn they'd use brains.  However, due to the racist and unnecessary actions of the Canadian government during Second World War, these players alongside other Japanese-Canadians would...

For a brief period, Jackie Robinson, famed for breaking the colour line in professional baseball, had played for a baseball team in Montréal. In this episode, we describe how a man who was more focused on football and found himself discharged from the military, ended up being a baseball great, winning a World Series in Major League Baseball, and also a civil rights activist. Also forgive the three...

In the Second World War, women softball players were recruited from all over North America to help keep baseball in the public eye while many of the men were off fighting overseas. This is an episode where Heather speaks fondly of playing softball but also dives into the controversy surrounding early professional women's sport and how Bonnie Baker of Regina, Saskatchewan was embroiled in it. If yo...

Canada is a country that often struggles with its identity and yet somehow through compromise managed to adopt a flag of its own free from the symbols of its mother country. Did you know that we (sort of) shared a flag with the Americans? Or that Alberta is loosely responsible for a modern-day Canadian symbol? Or how about how we tried to do what the Americans did with their flag except somehow wo...

Maple syrup was originally invented in pre-colonial times by goddamned maple trees as a transportation system for nutrients, hormones and other necessities of plant-life. Also, the stuff is worth more than gold and we're not kidding. We also try out a bunch of chocolate instead of doing the news. Heritage Minute: https://www.historicacanada.ca/productions/minutes/syrup Shawinigan Moments is writte...

Did you know that Canada once had the ability to manufacturer planes that were rather cool and technologically advanced for their time? How about how we decided that storing nuclear weapons and building bunkers was a better option than building a plane? This is the last of a three part series! Listen to parts one and two before you get to this episode! Also, we know that we screwed up and said Q-s...

Did you know that Canada once had the ability to manufacturer planes that were rather cool and technologically advanced for their time? How about proposals to build airports every 50 KM? Besting the Americans by providing airmail before them? Or how we had the fourth largest airforce in the world at one point? This is part two of a three part series! Listen to part one before you get to this episo...