blame canada

dirtyblueshirt

Netflix Exec: You’ll Keep Watching Our Movies, Even When We Don’t Offer You Many Good Ones

Longtime Netflix subscribers may have noticed that the selection of movies on the streaming service has shrunk significantly over the last few years, but customers keep watching movies anyway. That’s according to the company’s head of content, Ted Sarandos, who explained at a conference this week that people love to watch movies on Netflix no matter how large the selection. [More]

amanjo

Quebec Maple Syrup Cartel Increases Quotas To Prevent Black-Market Sales

We’ve told you before about the maple syrup cartel in Canada’s province of Quebec, to which the producers of most of the world’s supply of the sticky amber stuff belong. 72% of the world’s syrup currently comes from cartel members, and the group is about to have members increase their production, which could send maple prices plummeting. [More]

Canada Begins Phasing In Government-Mandated À La Carte Cable Today

Canada Begins Phasing In Government-Mandated À La Carte Cable Today

It’s been almost two and a half years since we last checked in with our northern neighbors in Canada about how their nationwide implementation of à la carte cable is going. Today is when the real test of unbundled TV begins: cable companies will be required to offer basic plans for $25 as of today, and even more radical unbundling will happen by the end of 2016. [More]

kramerst

Lowe’s Takes Over 13 Former Target Canada Stores

Last week, we learned that Walmart would be taking over thirteen former Target Canada stores and a distribution center. Today, home improvement chain Lowe’s announced that is taking over twelve store leases, one store that Target owned, and one distribution center. [More]

(Blue387)

Another Passenger Pees On Another Canadian Flight, Wants Everyone To Know

Last week, we shared with you the story of a man who learned that the Air Canada turboprop plane he was on had no restroom facilities only after boarding for the three-hour flight. Now another passenger has gone public and admitted doing the same. Not because she wants to brag, but because she wants to highlight the lack of working facilities in small airports on Canada’s east Coast. [More]

#FreeEmily

Woman Spends Harrowing 45 Minutes Locked Inside Department Store, Live-Tweets The Experience

When you try to leave a store only to discover that you’ve been locked inside and no one is around to help, many thoughts may cross your mind. “I’ve got to tweet this” probably won’t be one of them, but you’re not the Canadian writer who spent a harrowing 45 minutes or so locked inside a Hudson’s Bay store in Toronto. [More]

(Karen_Chappell)

Canada Post Ends Door-To-Door Delivery In Some Urban Areas, Hikes Stamp Costs

It’s nice to know that your neighbors are having similar problems to yours, even if their solutions are different. The current problems of Canada Post that involve pension funding and the expense of dropping mail on every doorstep are very similar to our experiences down here in the United States. Their solution is one that our postal service down here has pondered, too. [More]

Target Sells Demo iPad Pre-Loaded With Imaginary Lady’s Pictures And Contacts

Target Sells Demo iPad Pre-Loaded With Imaginary Lady’s Pictures And Contacts

A Canadian woman found the best Black Friday deal for an iPad at Target, a newcomer on the Great White Northern retail scene. She didn’t just get a tablet and a $115 Target gift card, but a bonus too: contact information and photographs belonging to another customer. Or so she thought. [More]

Coca-Cola Apologizes For Vitamin Water Cap Message Of ‘YOU RETARD’

Coca-Cola Apologizes For Vitamin Water Cap Message Of ‘YOU RETARD’

A Vitamin Water promotion in Canada played bilingual Mad Libs, pairing a word in English with a word in French for what were sure to be hilarious results. The end product was not so hilarious when the paired words were “you” in English and the French word for “late.” A woman whose younger sister has autism and cerebral palsy opened up the “YOU RETARD” bottle, and was offended. [More]

(kramerst)

Target Expands To Canada, No One Really Likes It

Target opened its first stores in Canada earlier this year and plans to take over some now-closed Zellers locations. Now that it’s about six months into their tenure north of the border, how are they doing? Canadians aren’t really warming to Target, as it turns out. [More]

Burger King Selling Cheesy, Gravy-licious Poutine To Canadians, Doesn't Bother To Ask If We Want Any

Burger King Selling Cheesy, Gravy-licious Poutine To Canadians, Doesn't Bother To Ask If We Want Any

Forget free health care and cool winter hats, the real reason to move to Canada is poutine, better known as french fries smothered in melted cheese and scrumptious gravy. So now that we’ve heard that Burger King was starting to offer this dish to north-of-the-border customers, we want to know: What about us? [More]

Make Sure Your Mobile Phone Doesn't Sneak Off To Canada While You're Sleeping

Make Sure Your Mobile Phone Doesn't Sneak Off To Canada While You're Sleeping

Tara’s stepson is part of her AT&T family plan. He’s young, so his account is fairly locked down: he can’t buy ringtones or games or even access the Internet at all. So why did his phone rack up $50 worth of data roaming in Canada, when he was 150 miles from the border at the time of the alleged downloads? Tara doesn’t know. Her stepson doesn’t know. And AT&T Wireless isn’t all that sure, either. [More]

U.S. Seizes Killer Chocolate Eggs At Canadian Border

U.S. Seizes Killer Chocolate Eggs At Canadian Border

The Kinder Surprise is a delicious chocolate egg that contains a small toy. They’re available pretty much everywhere….except the United States, which has banned them because the tiny toys present a choking hazard to small children. And people who like to swallow chocolate eggs whole, we guess. The CBC reports that a Winnipeg woman didn’t know this, and was almost fined $300 for attempting to bring a single $2 egg into the country. [More]

Netflix CEO: Americans Too Self-Absorbed To Notice Netflix Is Cheaper In Canada

Netflix CEO: Americans Too Self-Absorbed To Notice Netflix Is Cheaper In Canada

Earlier this week, Netflix finally did what the military hasn’t had the guts to do — invade Canada… with a streaming-only video service. But unlike most U.S. products that go across borders, the people in Canadaland are actually paying less than anyone else. But the CEO of Netflix isn’t worried about causing an uproar on this side of Niagara Falls. [More]