Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney opened the Toronto Film Festival on Thursday night on a patriotic note as he lauded the late John Candy for standing up to bullies in many of his classic Hollywood comedy roles.
“In many of his movies there would have a been a scene, where John would pivot, having been pushed too far,” Carney recounted, before with a sly grin adding: “Don’t push a Canadian too far, someone richer, someone more powerful, someone more arrogant, I don’t know.”
Without naming U.S. President Donald Trump directly, Carney made veiled references to Canada and the U.S. negotiating a resolution of an ongoing tariffs war and a new trade deal that includes Mexico.
“We’re in a more dangerous, divided and intolerant world. In Canada, our sovereignty, our identity has come under threat. And when Canadians heard those threats, they channeled their inner John Candy. Elbow’s up,” Carney recalled with a hockey reference used to explain discontent with Trump’s tariffs war and annexation threats.
Carney’s address came ahead of TIFF’s opening night film, John Candy: I Like Me, a documentary about the late Canadian comic genius directed by Colin Hanks and produced by Ryan Reynolds.
“There was never any doubt about where this film needed to have its premiere,” Hanks told a Roy Thomson Hall audience when introducing his documentary. “It had to be the True North, Strong and Free, without a doubt,” the director added with words from the Canadian national anthem.
Deadpool franchise star Reynolds insisted Candy would have loved that a documentary about his life and career was launched in Toronto, his hometown, and that the film was playing in a theater, ahead of a streaming launch on Prime Video.
Reynolds also welcomed the world premiere taking place in front of the Candy family, including his widow Rosemary and his two adult children Jennifer and Chris, all of whom appear in the documentary.
“The fact that we are sitting in this room with those three, It feels like in some way they are all reunited, which is very special,” Reynolds added.
The Toronto Film Festival will run through to Sept. 14.