I am the Egg Man

June 5, 2010 5:42 PM

The Canadian National Magazine Awards were presented last night in Toronto Ontario. The Yukon based "Up Here" won the prestigeous Magazine of the Year title while the bulk of the honours went to "The Walrus".

Gold winning articles from "The Walrus" include:

• Essays: "The Age of Breathing Underwater" by Chris Turner
• Humour: "A Film For Would-Be Immigrants" by Pasha Malla
• Investigative Reporting: "Fly At Your Own Risk" by Carol Shaben
• Personal Journalism: "Cause and Effect" by Lynn Cunningham
• Politics and Public Interest: "An Inconvenient Talk" by Chris Turner
• Society: "The Most Hated Name in News" by Deborah Campbell
• Spot Illustration: "An Arboreal History According to the Guild of St. Luke" by Lauchie Reid
• Travel: "Walking the Way" by Timothy Taylor

Other award winners available online include:

• Business: "Robert Milton Has a Lot of Baggage" by Derek DeCloet, Report on Business magazine.
• Columns: "Travels in Narnia; Mongolian Invasions; The Great Comeback" by Dave Bidini, Maisonneuve.
• Arts & Entertainment: "The Jesus Show" by Katrina Onstad, Toronto Life.
• Science, Technology & the Environment: "Sh*t Happens but You Move On" by Matthew McClearn, Canadian Business.
• Health & Medicine: "Superbugged" by Stéphanie Verge, Toronto Life.

posted by talkingmuffin (11 comments total)

And here I thought it was going to be about Paul McCartney insulting President Bush. Well played.
posted by scalefree at 7:10 PM on June 5, 2010

All this (what I've sampled, anyway) is good Canadian stuff. Not Stephen Leacock "Banks Rattle Me" good (that comes from a simpler time, and should be judged in context). But plain speakin', irreverent, dry, hoser humor and commentary. Shit Happens but You Move On indeed. I'm proud of this kind of thing. Although British newspapers put us to shame in this regard. We try.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 7:20 PM on June 5, 2010

Like the NMA homepage says, Up Here is based in Yellowknife, which is in the Northwest Territories - not, per the FPP, the Yukon. Which itself underscores the need for more coverage of the North, I guess.

It's still better than Maclean's error last week, when an article referenced "Inuvik" instead of "Nunavik". Kinda similar spelling, but seriously like 3500 kilometres wrong.

Northern pedantry aside, there is some excellent stuff here. I remember being struck by the piece on Robert Milton when it was first published. We don't tend do personal takedowns particularly well in Canada, but that was a very fine and balanced insight into a guy who is still a divisive corporate figure in this country.
posted by ZaphodB at 8:02 PM on June 5, 2010

Just so you know, Chris Turner, double Gold winner, is MeFi's gompa
posted by sauril at 8:52 PM on June 5, 2010 [2 favorites]

I kinda miss RoB magazine. It's really great business writing.
posted by GuyZero at 9:23 PM on June 5, 2010

A film for would be immigrants is totally insane. Also insanely hilarious.

BLOOD EXPLOSIONS!
posted by Alex404 at 9:40 PM on June 5, 2010

And here's another clue for you all/The Walrus was from The Pas.
posted by mreleganza at 11:51 PM on June 5, 2010

Wow, MacLean's only managed to pull down 1 silver and a bunch of honorable mentions despite being, by my own estimation, one of the most widely circulated news-mags [-rags?] in Canada since forever. They better get on that, guys, or I'm going to have to find a new source of kindling for my fireplace.
posted by Kirk Grim at 10:35 AM on June 6, 2010

MacLean's never does well -- it doesn't tend to publish the kind of work that attracts medals, because it is newsy, not magazine-y.
posted by girlpublisher at 4:09 PM on June 6, 2010

I'm amazed at how many mentions Swerve has- that's the Calgary Herald's Friday mag. Compare that to the one the the G&M puts in its Vancouver edition (7 Days)- which is nowhere to be seen.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 8:34 PM on June 6, 2010

I laughed the first time I pulled Swerve out of a Calgary Herald because the idea of that paper trying to put out a 'cool' mag was hilarious and also lolcanwestglobal. The joke was on me though, because once I started reading it I realized that it actually wasn't that bad. Nowadays, I read through it almost every week.

Now The Walrus is a fantastic magazine that every Canadian should buy a subscription to. Double backflip omega congrats on those golds, gompa.
posted by threetoed at 9:07 PM on June 6, 2010