The man behind an iconic Canadian beer ad is back, 25 years later, with a new patriotic rallying cry.
But this time, it’s not about selling drinks.
Jeff Douglas, from Truro, N.S., became a national sensation after starring as flannel-wearing Joe Canadian in Molson Canadian’s 2000 ad “The Rant,” which was a huge success for the beer company and popularized the slogan, “I am Canadian!”
On Wednesday, a new video appeared on YouTube featuring Douglas, back on stage in flannel, this time defending Canada from attacks by U.S. President Donald Trump, before launching into a similar string of boasts about his home country.
“They mistake our modesty for meekness, our kindness for consent, our nation for another star on their flag,” he says into the microphone after showing photos of Trump. “And our love of a hot cheesy poutine with their love of a hot, cheesy Putin.”
Titled “We are Canadian,” the clip sees Douglas chest-thump about Canada with increasing intensity to applause from an invisible crowd, in front of a screen beaming bits of Canadiana, from ketchup chips to beavers to hockey players.
The video had more than 43,000 views on Douglas’s YouTube page by Wednesday evening, after being up for seven hours.
Douglas, who became a staple on CBC Radio in the years since the 2000 ad — he’s currently the host of Mainstreet Nova Scotia — said the video was produced by an anonymous collective of Canadian creatives and advertising professionals, all of whom donated their time and resources to get ‘er done.
It comes at a time of surging patriotism, when Canadians are boycotting American goods and booing the U.S. anthem at sporting events, amid a heated trade war with the U.S. and Trump’s threats of annexing Canada as the “51st state.”
Douglas talked to CBC last month about the 2000 ad’s recent resurgence in popularity, after it started turning up on TikTok.
He said he had fond memories of the beer ad and was glad to see it resonate with people, but that he had also learned more about the darker aspects of Canadian history in the years since, and worried about the country sliding back into “blind patriotism.”
While “We are Canadian” is just as fiery and unapologetic as the ad he made in his 20s, it does briefly acknowledge a more mature outlook on national pride.
“Are we perfect? No,” he yells, while the screen flashes an image of a Mohawk land defender facing off with a Canadian soldier during the 1990 Oka Crisis. “But we are not the 51st anything.”
It was the year 2000. Canada united behind a character named Joe in a television commercial for Molson beer. Twenty-five years later, the man who played him talks about how that experience shaped his views of Canada — and what he thinks now.
