Ice Road Truckers

I had always been baffled about why this shot-in-Canada show, which I'd heard was such a big deal in the US and overseas, never aired on any of the Canadian networks. Then I got around to picking up a season one DVD set on eBay and the mystery was quickly solved. If you've ever done any serious winter driving on any of our worst stretches of highway (e.g., Calgary to Revelstoke at night with road conditions rated "poor") you've already experienced white-knuckle driving that's at least as scary as anything you'll see on this show. For the average Canuck, this series is about as exciting as watching people drive to the supermarket (in fact in most cities that's more likely to be a lethal proposition than is a trip up the Ice Road.) One thing I did appreciate, however, is that -- notwithstanding the stereotypical ice-and-snow motif that forms the obvious foundation of the program -- the producers give Canada a very fair, balanced, and generally positive portrayal. This is one of those rare occasions when we come off more as a modern economic powerhouse that just happens to have some very cold bits, rather than a nation of backwards, mostly frozen eh-sayers living in a 19th-century wasteland denominated primarily by beaver pelts, maple syrup and lumberjacks.