By Gordon Holmes
Special to Canadian of the Week

From Alberta’s Hart Family to Quebec’s Rougeau Brothers to Ontario’s Edge and Christian, the tradition of Canadian wrestling is full of larger-than-life personalities and unforgettable matches. We’ve been counting down to Wrestlemania XXVI by taking a look at the Great White North’s finest contributions to the squared circle.

Editor’s Note: The “Modern Era” is defined as the period of wrestling that exists from
SummerSlam 1988 to the present day. Why 1988? Because that’s when I started watching wrestling. I know, I’m lame.

Previous picks:
10. Andrew “Test” Martin
9. John “Earthquake” Tenta
8. Lance Storm
7. Christian
6. Chris Benoit
5: Trish Stratus
4. Owen Hart
3. Edge
2. Chris Jericho

1: Bret ‘The Hitman’ Hart
Height: 6’0”
Weight: 234 lbs.
Hometown: Calgary, Alberta
Greatest Match: Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin – Wrestlemania 13 – Submission Match

“If wrestling is so real, then why don’t they post the results in the Sports section of the newspaper?” – Gordon W. Holmes Jr.

That’s the comment my dad liked to hit me with whenever I brought up wrestling as a kid. You see, my dad hates wrestling. With a capital “H,” underlined, and italicized the man hates wrestling. He hates the hype, he hates the costumes, but most of all he hates the fakeness.

Quick Question: Why do wrestlers get slapped with the “fake” label but the Harlem Globetrotters don’t? Why should Fred “Curly” Neal be more respected than Bruno Sammartino?

But in the late ’80s when the then-WWF would roll into St. Louis, my dad would do what all dads who’ve ever taken their kids to Miley Cyrus concerts have done; he scored a few tickets, paid a ridiculous parking fee, and was bored for a few hours just to make his kid smile.

It was on one of those trips that I first saw Bret Hart wrestle in person. Don’t get me wrong: I was there to see Hulk Hogan ram the Big Boss Man’s head into a steel cage and “Macho Man” Randy Savage defend his WWF Title in a street fight against Bad News Brown, but I was also very excited to see Bret.

Quick Aside: My neighbor was convinced that Bad News Brown was going to bring a gun to the street fight because “Everything was legal.” Being a kid is great.

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Next to the Hulkster, Bret Hart was my favorite wrestler. This makes no sense because I was too young to appreciate technical wrestling and he was really only little more than one half of a mid-card tag team at that point.

But I do know this: When I’d wrestle my friends in my basement (then known as the Gordon’s Basement Wrestling Federation or GBWF), I went by the moniker Gordon “The Hitman” Holmes.

Legal Notice: Kids, don’t wrestle in your basement.

That’s why I never buy the knock that Bret didn’t have charisma. He obviously had something about him that drew a dumb kid like me in. Whether it was the contrast of his laid-back coolness in an organization of angry muscleheads or something else, he obviously had a lot of people hooked.

Now, odds are if you know anything about wrestling the first time you saw that Canadianoftheweek.com was doing a ranking of Canadian wrestlers you had Bret Hart pegged as the number one pick. And, the list of reasons why Bret deserves this lofty position were already discussed during last week’s Chris Jericho post.

However, if you’re new to this, I’ll lay them out for you…

• Bret was a five-time WWE champion back when that was an impressive accomplishment.
• Bret helped usher in the era of smaller, more technically sound wrestlers.
• While he may hate to acknowledge this, Bret was a big part of getting the freakishly successful “Attitude” era off the ground.
• Bret had amazing matches with a wide variety of talent. I chose Hart/Austin from Wrestlemania 13 as his greatest match, but could have easily been talked into Bret vs. Owen Hart from Wrestlemania X, Bret vs. Shawn Michaels from Wrestlemania XII, Bret vs. Davey Boy Smith from Summerslam ’92, or even Bret vs. Austin from Survivor Series ’96.
• Bret’s popularity (especially outside of the U.S.) was at or near the top of the heap during the ’90s.

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So, that being said, let me lay out one more.

It was about halfway through his match with the Honky Tonk Man that night that Bret Hart was whipped chest-first into the turnbuckles. Now, if you’re any kind of wrestling fan, you know that’s how Bret tended to take his corner bumps. It’s swift, violent, and very impressive.

Even my father thought so.

I’ll never forget the look on his face as he watched Bret crumple into a ball on the mat. As the referee checked on Bret, my dad even said, “Is he OK?”

When the Honky Tonk Man eventually pushed the ref aside and started kicking Bret in the chest my dad realized he’d been had. It was all part of the show. My dad laughed, feeling kind of silly for buying into it.

To me that was one of the best facets of Bret’s work, it was always kind of real with him. Be it his crisp moves or the way he’d sell weird things like a finger, you’d always buy it.

Even the way he won the World Title from Ric Flair supports this statement. Bret’s first reign started after a shocking win over the champion in a throwaway show that never aired on television. If wrestling were real that’d happen all the time. There’s no way a champion could dominate a top challenger 25 times out of 25 attempts on a wrestling tour.

So yeah, Bret getting my dad to believe (even if it was only for a second) didn’t make it into the St. Louis Post Dispatch’s Sports page, but it was certainly news to me.

Oddly enough, the paper didn’t even cover the news that Bad News Brown had shot “Macho Man” Randy Savage to death en route to winning the WWE Title. Or so I would lead my neighbor to believe…

Gordon Holmes is the wrestling correspondent for Comcast.net’s SlamCast wrestling coverage and the “Survivor” correspondent for Fancast.com. He was also trained to take a beating by WWE Hall of Famer Afa “The Wild Samoan” Anoa’i. You can follow Gordon on Twitter at twitter.com/gordonholmes.

As American politicians fumble around in an effort to bring health care to those who don’t have it, Canada’s system is being looked upon as an example.

Depending on which side of the issue you stand, the example varies from positive to negative, but the fact that remains that Canada’s unversial health care system, impefections or not, speaks volumes for its citizens’ willingness to care for one another.

This week’s Heritage Minute takes us back to 1937 and the small village of Myrnam, Alberta, where a young girl couldn’t be saved because the three beds in the local “service station” that acted as a hospital were all full. This led to an agreement within the town for its people to build and maintain a hospital that would be open to everyone.

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Robert Baldwin would later convince LaFontaine to take public office in Toronto, planting the seed for French-British cooperation that carries on to this day — despite some hiccups along the way.

“Canada’s existence owes much to the partnership of two moderate reformers: Louis Hippolyte LaFontaine and Robert Baldwin,” Historica Dominion writes. “By the end of the 1840s, Baldwin and LaFontaine had succeeded in convincing the British government that legislative power should rest in the hands of the elected assembly of the colony. Moreover, their historical compromise showed that French and English Canadians could work together to solve their political problems.”

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Modest contributions poured in and people gave all they could afford, Historica writes. “Others volunteered to work for free. At the end of the meeting, the community had $8000, enough to begin building the hospital.

“On July 28, 1938 the hospital was completed. Four years later, the community decided to provide all medical services, except hospitalization, for free, Hospitalization cost $2.00/day.”

Myrnam is one of the handful of local versions of community supported health care that eventually created Canada’s Medicare system in 1966.

Heritage Minutes are 60-second short films that are shown in between some TV shows in Canada — and they’re amazing. We’re planning to bring you a “Heritage Minute” every Thursday on COTW.

Enjoy.

By Gordon Holmes
Special to Canadian of the Week

From Alberta’s Hart Family to Quebec’s Rougeau Brothers to Ontario’s Edge and Christian, the tradition of Canadian wrestling is full of larger-than-life personalities and unforgettable matches. Join us every week as we count down to Wrestlemania XXVI by taking a look at the Great White North’s finest contributions to the squared circle.

Editor’s Note: The “Modern Era” is defined as the period of wrestling that exists from
SummerSlam 1988 to the present day. Why 1988? Because that’s when I started watching wrestling. I know, I’m lame.

Previous picks:
10. Andrew “Test” Martin
9. John “Earthquake” Tenta
8. Lance Storm
7. Christian

6: Chris Benoit
Height: 5’11”
Weight: 220 lbs.
Hometown: Edmonton, Alberta
Greatest Match: Benoit vs. Kurt Angle – Royal Rumble 2003

Editor’s Note: Truthfully, I wasn’t looking forward to writing this. I used to be a huge Chris Benoit fan. Now, I can’t stomach watching his work. That being said, the following article will reflect Chris Benoit’s work within the ring and not the horrific murder/suicide that occurred in June of 2007.

Chris Benoit was short, ugly, and terrible on the mic.

But when he stepped into the ring he was maybe the finest example of technical ability the industry has ever produced. There wasn’t a moment of wasted motion, every maneuver was fluid, every movement was crisp. Chris Benoit was a wrestling machine.

Even at his most popular in the winter of 2003/2004, Chris Benoit’s entrance didn’t elicit the kind of thunderous response that a Steve Austin or Shawn Michaels would receive. But once Benoit had a chance to win the crowd over during his match, he’d often receive a standing ovation – even in matches where he’d been defeated.

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A perfect example of this took place on Jan. 25, 2004 at the Royal Rumble. From our seats high atop Philadelphia’s First Union Center (now the Wachovia Center) my buddy Zach and I watched as the sold-out crowd was transformed from mildly entertained by Benoit to rabidly rooting for him over the course of the one-hour Rumble match.

Of particular interest were two young fans sitting in front of us.

The two youngsters had been disappointed earlier in the evening as Rey Mysterio (the subject of their many poster board signs) had a criminally short match against Jamie Noble.

As the Rumble started and Zach and I erupted for the Canadian Crippler the two kids looked at us as if we were nuts. We chatted them up and learned that their Rumble hopes were pinned on Rob Van Dam and John Cena.

They also thought Chris Benoit was “Boring.”

However, over the course of the event their attitudes (along with the attitude of the other 17,000 in attendance) changed.

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As the evening went on the 30-man Royal Rumble was eventually whittled down to a final six that consisted of Benoit, Kurt Angle, Rob Van Dam, John Cena, Chris Jericho, and the Big Show.

What it boiled down to was each of the other five competitors trying to eliminate the enormous Big Show. They tried as a unit. No luck. They tried one by one and had even less luck. Eventually, Show started to toss them out. First Cena, then Van Dam, then Jericho, then Angle. Finally we were left with only Benoit and Show.

How on Earth was Benoit going to get the better of Show after he’d just man-handled four other top names?

It looked like he wasn’t going to. When the Big Show pressed Benoit over his head and made his way toward the ropes, the crowd in Philly (and our two new friends) stopped breathing. Benoit managed to weasel his way around to catch Show in a front facelook. As Benoit used his weight to gain leverage the crowd picked up on what he was attempting and started to buzz. When Show’s feet left the mat and he teetered on the top rope the noise built. And when Benoit finally managed to dump his gigantic opponent to the floor the place collectively lost their minds.

Perhaps Benoit’s ultimate in-ring legacy is that of a man who was born a few decades too late. Benoit simply wasn’t made for today’s quip-laden promos and four-minute television matches.

Even the World Championship that Benoit would go on to claim after winning the Royal Rumble was seen as more of a career achievement award than an effort to push him as a top name. During his reign he’d constantly play second fiddle to the Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels feud. Eventually he dropped the title to up-and-comer Randy Orton and was shuffled back down the card.

But, that doesn’t take away from what the man could do from bell to bell.
Just ask two Mysterio fans I know.

Gordon Holmes is the wrestling correspondent for Comcast.net’s SlamCast wrestling coverage and the “Survivor” correspondent for Fancast.com. He was also trained to take a beating by WWE Hall of Famer Afa “The Wild Samoan” Anoa’i. You can follow Gordon on Twitter at twitter.com/gordonholmes.

Through rain, sleet, snow, or storage facility for 16 years.

We’re pretty sure Canada’s national postal service doesn’t actually share the U.S. Postal Service’s slogan, but its commitment to delivering the mail despite any obstacles is on display this week as Canada Post is vowing to deliver thousands of pieces of mail that have been stored illegal in a mail carrier’s storage facility for as many as 16 years.

Police didn’t discuss any motive as to why John Kobitowich, 39, formerly of St. Albert and now of no fixed address, is believed to have stolen all of the mail and stored it for so long, according to the Edmonton Sun.

Kobitowich is charged with theft of mail, possession of mail that is known to be stolen, uttering a forged document, personation with criminal intent and one count of criminal breach of trust.

“A number of people in the Edmonton area will receive mail dating back, in some instances, as far as 1993,” reads a statement issued by Canada Post on Thursday. “The mail will be sent with a letter of apology from Canada Post.”

When the sixth season of “Lost” kicks off on ABC on Feb. 2, it will mark the beginning of the end of one of TV’s most ambitious and compelling series.

And Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, native Evangeline Lilly has been at the heart of it along the entire journey. It’s been a heck of a ride for Lilly, who started her career as a model and had just a handful of uncredited, non-speaking roles in movies and TV shows before she uttered her first on-screen words as Kate Austen.

In the six years, the 30-year-old actress has become one of the more recognizable faces on primetime television, and she talked this week about how emotional the end of the show will be at the Television Critics Association’s winter press tour in Pasadena, Calif.

“Walking out here and watching that montage, I was saying to my castmates, ‘I am going to cry like a baby when this show ends,’ ” Lilly said, according to a report in the Edmonton Sun. “It has been so intense. For it to come to an end is going to be life-changing.”

If you want to give the show a chance, but worry you’ve already missed too much, check out this five-minute recap of the entire series:

An early morning report of breaking and entering at a business in Grande Prairie, Alberta, sent the Royal Canadian Mounted Police into action this morning, according to a report by the Edmonton Sun.

After following all the clues — the suspect broke in through a basement window and left before the mounties arrived — a fateful set of hoof prints helped the cops crack the case.

“The deer, as far as we know, didn’t steal anything,” Const. Ellen Archibald said.

Sort of…

With excitement building for the NHL’s annual outdoor Winter Classic, guest blogger Perry Espardinez takes us on a little trip down an icy memory lane:

This New Year’s Day, the Philadelphia Flyers and the Boston Bruins will square off in the Winter Classic, an NHL annual event that brings ice hockey out of the arenas and into the cold of winter. This regular season match tries to bring the sport back to its roots, plus gives sports fans something to watch aside from the usual New Years hangover helpers of parades and college bowl games.

Now, the NHL is considering a Canadian outdoor game each season, which should make us wonder why the Winter Classic isn’t already played in Canada.

In fact, it was … on a technicality.

The Heritage Classic, as it was billed in 2003, was the NHLs first regular season game to be played outdoors.

Hosted by the Edmonton Oilers, it was held on a rink set up at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton. The Montreal Canadians beat the home team 4-3 with 57,000 in attendance.

Keeping with tradition, the NHL plans to feature Canadian teams in an outdoor Canadian venue in the new annual outdoor game, which would start. All six Canadian NHL teams have expressed interest, but there’s been no announcement on when or where the game would be played.

The sixth season of “So You Think You Can Dance” comes to a close Wednesday night when a winner is crowned.

Choreographer Stacey Tookey didn’t have any routines in the finale, but the Edmonton native is nonetheless our choice for Canadian of the Week as she continued to break into the American version of the show this season after two seasons as one of the top choreographers on “So You Think You Can Dance Canada.”

After a promising start to this season, Stacey wasn’t available to choreograph for much of the season, but if the folks at Fox are reading this, here’s a message: More Stacey Tookey, please!

Stacey took some time last week to talk to me about being an inspiration to young Canadians, and being labeled by some as “the next Mia Michaels.” She also talked about why the judges on the American version of the show make her nervous.

Check it out:

Victor Balta: So, you don’t have any pieces in the finale. How do they even decide which choreographers they’re going to use from week to week?
Stacey Tookey: I don’t know, actually. A lot has to do with availability, I think. They’re constantly changing who they bring on and in what order. It’s just what they are feeling for that week, kind of.

VB: What has the transition from the Canadian show to the American one been like for you?
ST: it’s been definitely great for me. I was quite a smooth transition. I was surprised, myself, when they called me last season. I stepped in and got really good comments right off the bat, so it kind of shocked me a little bit. This season was great, and after (the first three episodes) I wasn’t available for the rest of the season. I’ve been conducting the “So You Think You Can Dance Canada” tour, so I’ve kind of been bouncing back and forth. I feel very blessed in how great I’ve been received here in the American show after the Canadian one.

VB: When Mia Michaels announced she wasn’t going to be on the show this season, a lot of people were call you “The Next Mia Michaels.” Did you hear any of that, and what do you think of the comparison?
ST: I have heard bits and pieces of it. It is crazy and, of course, super flattering. I’ve known her for several years, and I used to dance for her, so she is really close to my heart. So it’s such a compliment. I would love to step in to her shoes, and maybe go a different way, or a similar way. I feel like I’m inspired by all the people that I’ve worked with or trained under, or choreographed beside, so if people are seeing that inspiration, that’s really flattering.

VB: How are the judges different between the American and Canadian versions of the show? Who’s more likely to criticize the choreography?
ST: I haven’t had too much critique of my choreography by the Canadian or American judges, but I know that I’m more nervous sitting in the crowd at the American show, because they have been known to take down a choreographer or two. They’ll just say if they don’t like the routine, or say it’s the reason why (the dancers) are in the bottom. They can be a little more harsh, which I don’t think is a bad thing, to be honest, because it keeps the standards of the show up. Sometimes the way they say it is a little tough, but anything goes.

VB: And we can expect to see you back on the American version next season, right?
ST: I hope so. I haven’t heard otherwise.

VB: Now, you spent quite a while working with another prominent Canadian, Celine Dion, right?
ST: Yes, in Vegas. I was with her show the whole five years, from the creation of the show all the way to the closing day of the show and it was an amazing experience.

VB: Since you’ve moved to Los Angeles, what do you miss most about Canada?
ST: Oh, Canada! Well, I’m married to an American, but I miss being around Canadians. Canadians have this reputation of being really super nice people, genuine people, and it’s really true. There’s just this sense of community, I guess because there’s less people in Canada. But what I miss most is my family in Edmonton. I have a little sister who’s 17 years younger than me, and I miss her a lot. I don’t miss the snow in Edmonton, that’s for sure, although I’m going home for Christmas.

VB: What does it mean to you be recognized as a Canadian dancer?
ST: I’m so proud to be acknowledged as a Canadian dancer and choreographer, especially in the business here in the States, just because I’d like to inspire any young dancers in Canada and let them know they can do it. I think back to my youth and I couldn’t wait to get out of Canada and go to New York or L.A., you know, the grass is always greener. It was a hard climb for me, getting my visa, getting my green card, fighting against all kinds of dancers. But now to go back home and have young dancers come to me and say, “You paved the way and I believe I can do this now because you showed me how,” it just makes me proud.

VB: What’s one thing Americans should know about Canada or Canadians?
ST: That we don’t live in an igloo. That we don’t say “eh” after everything. That’s a really tough one, because there’s all these stereotypes. Oh, they need to know what a tuque is, first and foremost. Nobody knows what a tuque is in America.

Let’s see, I’m trying to think about the things that make me react the most, when people go, “That’s so Canadian.” I think we could get over the reputation of being passive and really sweet. We’ll fight hard for things we want, too. We’ll stand up and do what we’re proud of, for sure. But it’s mostly the little things — the “eh,” and people actually asking me if I live in an igloo.

Oh, one other thing: Americans should take one look at a map and learn all the provinces and the capitals. People always tell me, “Oh, I know the provinces. There’s Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver…” And I’m, like, “No, no, and no.” We share a border, and there are only 13 (provinces and territories).

VB: Last question, Molson or Labatts?
ST: Molson, hands down.

It is freakin’ cold in Canada.

“Edmonton International Airport was the coldest place in Canada,” Peter Spyker, a meteorologist with Environment Canada, told the CBC on Sunday. “It was -46.1 [Celsius] without the wind chill. I believe at one point it got to -58 with the wind chill.”

Our handy Celsius-to-Fahrenheit conversion tells us that was 51-below-zero without the wind chill, and 72.4-below-zero with the wind chill.

Nonetheless, the Canadian spirit isn’t broken. Here’s a passage from the CBC report, which can be seen in its entirety here:

On Saturday, Calgary police duty Insp. Rob Williams was travelling on the northbound Macleod Trail near the 22X overpass when he spotted what appeared to be a large, multi-vehicle collision.

In fact, several cars had screeched to a halt when a tiny kitten, searching for a place to get out of the cold, had wandered onto the busy road, which has a 80 km/h speed limit.

The scared kitten climbed up into the engine compartment of one of the stopped cars, Williams said in a news release, and several drivers tried to retrieve the kitten with no luck.

Working together after nearly 30 minutes in 25 C conditions, one man jacked up the front of the small car while another crawled underneath.

Williams pushed the kitten down through a tiny opening to the undercarriage where it was safely retrieved.

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