Party on, Wayne!
Following Wayne Gretzky taking heat for wearing a MAGA hat at Mar-a-Lago, Wayne Campbell brilliantly wore T-shirt festooned with the message that Canada is not for sale on Saturday Night Live.
Make that Mike Myers, whose famous Wayne Campbell in the iconic movie Wayne’s World was built on his life of growing up in Scarborough.
Myers is all Canadian.
So, it was not a surprise he would make sure at the end of the show — filmed at the Rockefeller Center in New York — that he would make sure his pro-Canada shirt with a Canadian flag was on full display.
I remember seeing him outside of the taping of the Conan O’Brien Late Night show, which taped for a whole week in Toronto in 2004. He had a Canadian flag with him. On the show, he wore a Maple Leafs pin that a fellow Canuck at a gas station gave him.
“It’s called being in God’s country, Conan, get used to it,” Myers teased O’Brien. “It’s just a little better, Yankee boy.”
He drew a lot of laughs then.
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In those days, there seemed to be good will between Canada and America and lots of acceptance. During that week, Conan also had on Canadians Jim Carrey on and Michael J. Fox, as well as musical guests Stompin’ Tom Connors, the Barenaked Ladies and Nickelback.
But these are darker days now when U.S. President Donald J. Trump has threatened to put a 25% tariff on Canadian goods imported south and said he would use “economic power” to weaken the country with a view to making it a 51st state.
Needless to say with Canada’s sovereignty on the line, Myers display of patriotism couldn’t have come at a better time.
He took big digs at Trump and the world’s richest person, Elon Musk. In a skit Saturday night, Myers appeared in a funny spoof of the now infamous White House meeting that went south with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Who shows up at the White dressed as a garbage person?” said the mock president in the cold opening skit.
In came Myers with a chainsaw, jeans, a T-shirt and a ball cap dressed as Musk – lampooning the X, Space X, Tesla owner and DOGE advisor.
But it was the sign-off of the show where Myers let it be understood where he stands. While he is reported to hold American, British and Canadian citizenship, it doesn’t get any more Canadi.an than Myers.
And Trump, who plays Dr. Evil from the Auston Powers movies in this scenario, now knows that.
Welcome to Wayne’s World — Part 2.
While Wayne Gretzky has taken a tonne of misdirected heat for being at Mar-a-Lago on election night to support his long-time family friend, it really has been unfair since that was way before any of the 51st state talk.
Gretzky — equally as great a Canadian patriot — also expressed his displeasure to the president privately about his harsh words toward Canada. Trump even took to X to declare No. 99 a free agent on the issue.
The Great One has been smart to not feed his haters with any comments because he knows he can’t win either way. Both Waynes don’t like the idea of Canada becoming the 51st state. Both let Trump know that.
Myers way of using the Saturday Night Live stage to make his silent but not-so-silent protest was epic.
Time will tell if Trump thought it was as funny as the audience did.