The Ugly Canada Thread

[O-tacular]

Not the absolute worst and by Laval standards it's beautiful!

The love boutique next door is what really uglies it up. Speaking of sex shops I remember seeing one while visiting Quebec city close to a decade ago that had a mannequin displaying what appeared to be male lingerie. All I could think was wtf!

[esquire]

Today's Winnipeg Sun included an insert advertising this Very Special Limited Edition Heirloom Quality Molson Canadian beer stein from London, Ontario's Bradford Exchange.

This beautiful stein is complete with the text from the "I AM CANADIAN" advertisement from 17 years ago or whenever on the obverse side. And you can even get it personalized with your name!

Yours for only $129.00 + $14.99 shipping + applicable taxes. Your great-great grandchildren will one day thank you for leaving behind this incredible piece of cultural heritage.

.

[niwell]

That looks like a bad garage sale find... Also the images look photoshopped onto the stein? Not exactly a promising sign.

And commemoration of a (terrible but probably very successful) advertising campaign? Something something late stage capitalism.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by niwell

That looks like a bad garage sale find... Also the images look photoshopped onto the stein? Not exactly a promising sign.

And commemoration of a (terrible but probably very successful) advertising campaign? Something something late stage capitalism.

That thing is in hilariously bad taste but it also makes me feel sad for anyone who would have bad enough judgment to actually pay that kind of money for it.

[Jaws]

Originally Posted by esquire

That thing is in hilariously bad taste but it also makes me feel sad for anyone who would have bad enough judgment to actually pay that kind of money for it.

I'd feel more sad for the person who received one as a gift. I don't think I could feign gratitude.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by esquire

Today's Winnipeg Sun included an insert advertising this Very Special Limited Edition Heirloom Quality Molson Canadian beer stein from London, Ontario's Bradford Exchange.

This beautiful stein is complete with the text from the "I AM CANADIAN" advertisement from 17 years ago or whenever on the obverse side. And you can even get it personalized with your name!

Yours for only $129.00 + $14.99 shipping + applicable taxes. Your great-great grandchildren will one day thank you for leaving behind this incredible piece of cultural heritage.

.

You just know it'll end up with other worthless crap at flea market antique stores decades in the future. No one will know wtf the I AM CANADIAN ad was or care. It'll just be another tacky knick knack worth more for the melted down metal than any design quality.

[O-tacular]

Originally Posted by esquire

That thing is in hilariously bad taste but it also makes me feel sad for anyone who would have bad enough judgment to actually pay that kind of money for it.

Some guy who came of age when that ad was popular and identified with it while he was getting shit faced on shitty beer no doubt. His name will be Gord, or Rob or Mike and he'll be a plumber or a used car salesman. His only escape from the fat wife and screaming kids is the nostalgia for that overplayed commercial and getting black out drunk on his LaZboy.

[O-tacular]

Oh no. I went down the rabbit hole and tried finding something like the man lingerie I saw in QC all those years ago...

The results are horrifyingly hilarious!

[GeneralLea]

Oh god......this is reminiscent of those porn shops in Europe...

[Black Star]

My wife would kick me out of the room if she saw this on me lol.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Black Star

My wife would kick me out of the room if she saw this on me lol.

Not if you also had that body, one suspects!

[Loco101]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Some guy who came of age when that ad was popular and identified with it while he was getting shit faced on shitty beer no doubt. His name will be Gord, or Rob or Mike and he'll be a plumber or a used car salesman. His only escape from the fat wife and screaming kids is the nostalgia for that overplayed commercial and getting black out drunk on his LaZboy.

Haha!!! Funny and believable.

And he probably thinks the beer he is drinking is totally Canadian and very un-American. Also feels like a King drinking out of that stein.

[GeneralLea]

For many...this won't be very ugly at all..but I don't care at all for those car-related businesses..especially something like at Yonge and Finch with those stupid TV ads playing. This is similar-ish to one of those places right in downtown Toronto..on Jarvis street, and when I walked there sometime last year, this thing made the area feel a bit more dingy/dumpy.

ANYWAYS, this car rental place or whatever with the two low-rise building on either side looks similar in some regard to a scene out of Detroit or the Bufu Egypt areas of San Francisco: [IMG]Hopefully will be redeveloped.... by Joshua Kennington Photographics, on Flickr[/IMG]

EDIT: Just realized the graffitti on the side with those two dudes smoking....I think the nicer part of this pic is just the main downtown offices and the sneaky CN tower..jeez

[vid]

That's a scene out of Detroit? Dude the nicer parts of Hamilton look worse than that lol

[vid]

Originally Posted by O-tacular

Oh no. I went down the rabbit hole and tried finding something like the man lingerie I saw in QC all those years ago...

The results are horrifyingly hilarious!

Straight men.

[GeneralLea]

Originally Posted by vid

That's a scene out of Detroit? Dude the nicer parts of Hamilton look worse than that lol

I mean the nicer parts of Detroit mkay

(To be fair...that could be a scene from anywhere...though it still looks ugly in face of how much Toronto is growing and gentrifying.)

[vid]

I was only in Toronto for a few hours last year, but I found it to be quite a bit more run down and neglected than I was expecting it to be. And that was on the bus ride from City Centre Airport to Union Station. And I started my trip in Thunder Bay.

So... You know...

And back to the abandoned Canadian Tire, this location is still owned by the company that owns most of Canadian Tires real estate. It closed in 2002.



Here it is in Google Earth 3D! The mall it's attached to is essentially dead, the only thing in it is a library. The entire building is on four parcels of land, each owned by a different company, because that's smart.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by GeneralLeeTPHLS

Oh god......this is reminiscent of those porn shops in Europe...

This is a great example of how the oft-debated-on-SSP Europeanity of Quebec is not always a good thing!

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by Martin Mtl

Laval, again.


https://www.instagram.com/p/BTp02Lpgqry/?taken-by=centrephotolaval


https://www.instagram.com/p/BS4tILxgh-p/?taken-by=centrephotolaval

It's actually not that bad.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by vid

I was only in Toronto for a few hours last year, but I found it to be quite a bit more run down and neglected than I was expecting it to be. And that was on the bus ride from City Centre Airport to Union Station. And I started my trip in Thunder Bay.

So... You know...

For such a prosperous and dynamic city, the inner suburban ring of Toronto (in the 416, but not downtown or downtown-ish) is surprisingly dog-eared. I am not sure I would even go as far as calling it run-down, and it's far from abandoned though. But it's not what you'd expect such a huge swathe of Toronto to look like. There is a huge amount of reno work to be done there, as I don't expect it will go in any direction but up.

BTW, having these types of areas look grungy isn't just a Toronto thing. You see it in most Canadian cities.