Flashback: The beer around here
How a Canadian beer became trendy in the U.S. and party leaders' planes with room for the press in 2000
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The beer around here
A spokesperson for the New Brunswick-based brewer Moosehead said the company got an "overwhelming" response earlier this month to a new product. According to CBC News, the company marketed its 1,461-can Presidential Pack as "just enough Canadian lagers to get through a full presidential term."
Moosehead was noticed for its marketing prowess on CBC's The Journal in 1983. In Canada, the lager was not sold outside the Maritimes. But as reporter Leslie MacKinnon learned, it was an exotic specialty that was available in all 50 states.
"Americans love Canada, as you probably know, and they like Canadian beer," said Paul Lohmeyer, president of the import company. "And Moosehead seemed to say 'Canadian beer' faster than probably any product that we could think of."
Planes and parties
The Conservative Party of Canada announced last week that journalists will not be allowed to travel with leader Pierre Poilievre as he tours the country before the April 28 election. That's a break from a "decades-old tradition," according to CBC News.
In 2000, when CBC correspondent Saša Petricic explored what it was like for reporters on the campaign trail, viewers got a behind-the-scenes look at how the Canadian Alliance and Liberal parties accommodated journalists on their leaders' buses and planes. (He also looked at how the NDP, Bloc Québécois and Progressive Conservatives approached media coverage on campaign stops.)
"The process is dominated by the parties," said Globe and Mail reporter Paul Adams. "We're following them where they want to go, and for the most part, at least thematically, we're writing about what they want us to write about."
Preventing disaster
Looking to avoid spending money on U.S.-based streaming companies? CBC Gem has plenty of options, as do free streaming services available through public libraries and universities.
Hoopla and Kanopy both offer movies that go all the way back to the silent era and the heyday of Buster Keaton. He died in 1966, not long after making the 24-minute short The Railrodder with the National Film Board of Canada.
According to CBC's This Hour Has Seven Days, his last role was in 1965. "In the '50s, a nostalgic world rediscovered the Keaton comedy, and his comeback began," said host Dinah Christie. She then introduced a sneak peek at an accident-prevention movie Keaton made for the Ontario Construction Safety Association.
What's in store
CBC News recently described a supply chain for vintage apparel involving a B.C. warehouse that gets its stock from thrift stores, clothing organizations and charities across Canada. Dealing in cast-offs can have its challenges, as CBC in Nova Scotia learned in 1990.
Gargantuan gourds
"Starting with high-quality seeds is key to growing giant pumpkins and squash," a champion pumpkin grower from P.E.I. told CBC Radio's Island Morning recently. In 1989, CBC Halifax showed viewers how pumpkin seeds were profitable for local farmer Howard Dill.
Retail reinvention
A retail strategist told CBC News last week that recent troubles at the Hudson's Bay Company emerged because its stores had "become archaic." But the Bay was once an innovative place: in 1971, one of its stores held Manitoba's first self-serve liquor outlet, according to the CBC.
Always got time
Last week, CBC News asked, "Is Tim Horton's Canadian?" In 2004, another question about the coffee chain was percolating: did they really boost the caffeine in their java and add nicotine? CBC's Disclosure got to the bottom of the rumour with lab testing, and the answer was no to both questions.
