Seven days in a row whattup! Since I hadn’t been doing Saturdays, this is the longest streak of actual days for the NYT Crossword. Meanwhile I’ll be on a 250-day streak for overall posting when I hit publish on this blog post. I’m happy I didn’t forget to grab the congrats screen this time.

Also it’s important to note that this is a terrible attempt at a maple leaf in a grid. Children see this puzzle, for crying out loud!

I pulled out 18A Lex Luthor, to Superman: ARCHFOE because what a weird answer. I had been jammed up because I was fairly certain it was NEMESIS. It wasn’t. And knowing is half the battle.

This puzzle was about Canada. Why now? I don’t know. Canada Day is July 1. It’s June 13 today. Maybe it’s the exchange rate?

Let’s see.

July 1 is the 182nd day of the year. June 13 is the 164th day.

182 x .82 = 149, which is May 29. So no. The exchange rate would have to be at 0.9. I don’t even want to think of that possibility.

104A Six-time winner of the N.H.L.’s Art Ross Trophy, born in Saskatchewan: GORDI(EH)OWE.
108A “24” and “Suits” actress, born in Halifax: LESLI(EH)OPE.
4D Alberta city named for an eagle-feather headdress: MEDICIN(EH)AT.
10D Two-player game invented in Toronto: TABL(EH)OCKEY. I am a huge fan of table hockey. I used to play on New Year’s Eves with Nick Wenger who had (maybe still has) the game at home. I was stoked to score a goal, and I considered two a major coup. The last time I played against him, he blocked so many shots that I recreated part of Wayne Gretzky’s 3D Hockey IRL.

16D Seasonal destination near Quebec City: WINTERIC(EH)OTEL. Check out the snow cannons in the video below!

19D Program introduced by the Trudeau government in 1984, colloquially: FRE(EH)EALTHCARE. Yeah, but how are they doing at covid vaccine rollout? Only 4.6% of the population is fully vaccinated? Get it together, Canada! But don’t fault them for not being generous. They will donate 13 million spare doses to developing countries! Oh, wait, 7 million of those donated doses are reported Novavax that haven’t been approved in Canada. Welp! That seems like a good way to build confidence in Canada and trust in the vaccine process around the globe!

76A Like all the answers with pairs of circled letters, punnily: M(EH)DEINCANADA. But also meh-ed in America.

Finished this one in 55:57, mostly on my phone.