Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
A small blue dog with an Australian accent has captured the hearts of people across the world.
She's the title character of “Bluey,” a kids' program consisting of seven-minute episodes that have enraptured children and adults alike. This week's release of its longest episode yet — at a whopping 28 minutes — prompted an outpouring of appreciation for the show, even from those who are neither toddler nor parent.
“Bluey” follows an Australian blue heeler who, along with her sister (a red heeler named Bingo), navigates the days between home and school. It's a favorite among children for its playful humour, but it also appeals to adults reminiscing about childhood.
“My childhood experience wasn't the greatest so I've always resonated with shows where life is good,” says Miriam Neel, who lives in Colorado. “The parents in ‘Bluey’ enable imagination and creativity and really get involved with their kids, and I wish I had those experiences.”
Neel is 32 and has chosen not to have any children of her own. She says the show has become part of her morning routine and is often a go-to choice for background noise when she is working from home.
“I'm not going to speak for the entire generation, but millennials find comfort in cartoons. It's what a lot of us grew up watching,” she said. “And if I'm going to spend time watching something I'd rather watch something that doesn't make me afraid of the world, like any of the ‘Law & Order’ shows.”
“Bluey,” which now boasts more than 150 episodes, premiered in Australia in 2018 and began streaming on Disney+ in 2020. It also has been adapted into a digital series where famous fans like Bindi Irwin and Eva Mendes read some of the popular storybooks, and a live theater show that travels around the world.
Coloured pencils sit around a drawing of 'Bluey' the Australian kids' television program character on a sketch pad Friday, April 19, 2024, in Phoenix, Ariz. (Cheyanne Mumphrey / AP Photo)
The show has also won multiple awards, including the Australian Film Institute Award for best children’s television drama every year since 2019 and an International Emmy Kids Award.
The series provides a child's perspective into morning routines, errands and chores, while also giving viewers a glimpse of what life is like for parents through mother Chilli and father Bandit.
This week's special episode, “The Sign,” explores the emotions surrounding themes that resonate with both children and adults — moving houses, marriage, infertility and relationships after divorce. In addition to these universal themes, the episode wraps up the third season with Easter eggs for dedicated fans.
Lindsey Schmidt, 40, says the show's continuity keeps her family looking forward to more.
“There are so many callbacks to previous episodes,” says Schmidt, who lives in Ohio with her husband and three children. “The shows that we watch with our kids regularly don’t reflect our lives like this show does. These anthropomorphic dogs feel just like us."
But there are mixed feelings about the ending of the episode — SPOILER — in which the Heeler family scraps their move. Some families who relocate often for work found it unrealistic. Meg Korzon, 31, is in the process of a cross-country relocation with her four children because her husband is in the military. It's her seventh move in 10 years.
“I was hoping it would be an episode that aligned itself with the realities of life, our lives, as a military family,” she says. “I was selfishly disappointed because it could have been an episode about change and growth."
But the show does not shy away from other difficult topics — and that is part of the charm for adults as well.
“As a parent you aspire to be as good of parents as Chilli and Bandit are as parents. They always have a great way of talking kids through issues,” Schmidt's 40-year-old husband John says, adding that the couple often refers back to episodes when trying to explain things to their children.
The series has touched on topics of aging, death and making friends as an adult. It also has introduced a character who uses sign language and another with ADHD.
Jacqueline Nesi, an assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University, notes that “Bluey” promotes self-regulation and conflict resolution for children and engaged parenting and patience for adults.
This image released by Disney+ shows a scene from the television series 'Bluey.' (Disney+ via AP)
“We see them working through some of the challenges that we, as parents, might be facing, too. And at the same time, they offer a nice model for different parenting skills — asking open-ended questions to facilitate kids’ creativity, using natural consequences when they misbehave, actively playing with them and letting them take the lead,” she says.
The show has also done a lot to expose children to the world of animation, flaunting different styles in the episodes “Escape” and “Dragon,” providing a near-voiceless episode in “Rain,” and breaching the fourth wall in “Puppets,” where the show stops briefly to zoom out on the creation of just a couple seconds of animated frames.
It's also credited with appealing to dogs — and not because the characters are the same species.
Research has said dogs have vision similar to red-green color blindness in humans, meaning their color spectrum is limited to blue, yellow, brown and shades of gray — which happen to be the colors of the Heeler family. There were more pets named Bluey, Bingo, Chilli and Bandit across the U.S. last year, too, according to Rover.
So it's fairly safe to say “Bluey” has appeal across species, as well as generations.
“I used to tell people what do ‘The Sopranos,’ ‘The Wire’ and ‘Breaking Bad’ have in common? They all have lower IMDb scores than Bluey. It used to anyway. I watched all these great shows, but I think ‘Bluey’ is still a favorite, maybe because I have kids. But I put it right up there with all of them,” John Schmidt says, admitting that he and his wife have watched the episodes without their children.
Schmidt says the episode tied a nice bow to end the season, and would be a perfect series finale otherwise.
“I get emotional about the potential of Bluey no longer having new episodes,” says Schmidt. “But we'll see.”
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Three people have been arrested and charged in the killing of B.C. Sikh activist Hardeep Singh Nijjar – as authorities continue investigating potential connections to the Indian government.
Pius Suter scored with 1:39 left and the Vancouver Canucks advanced to the second round of the NHL playoffs with a 1-0 victory over the Nashville Predators on Friday night in Game 6.
TD Bank Group could be hit with more severe penalties than previously expected, says a banking analyst after a report that the investigation it faces in the U.S. is tied to laundering illicit fentanyl profits.
A Quebec man who pleaded guilty to threatening Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Premier François Legault has been sentenced to 20 months in jail.
RCMP say human remains found in a rural area in central Saskatchewan may have been there for a decade or more.
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.
As Wegovy becomes available to Canadians starting Monday, a medical expert is cautioning patients wanting to use the drug to lose weight that no medication is a ''magic bullet,' and the new medication is meant particularly for people who meet certain criteria related to obesity and weight.
Drew Carey took over as host of 'The Price Is Right' and hopes he’s there for life. 'I'm not going anywhere,' he told 'Entertainment Tonight' of the job he took over from longtime host Bob Barker in 2007.
Alberta Ballet's double-bill production of 'Der Wolf' and 'The Rite of Spring' marks not only its final show of the season, but the last production for twin sisters Alexandra and Jennifer Gibson.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.