Keith Gottschalk
U.S.
Keith Gottschalk has written for daily newspapers in Iowa, Illinois and Ohio. He also had a recent stint as a radio talk show host in Illinois.
As a result of living in the high ground east of Cleveland, he grew up watching the CBC from CFPL in London. That, and the mishearing by his mother of his career choice at the age of 11 (“No ma, I said I want to be a comedian”) has made him something of a Canadaphile and perhaps one of the few Americans who can spot Rick Mercer on a crowded street, let alone Jack Layton.
He has tried poutine and loved it.
You can email Keith or check out his blog. 
All not well at the Wal-Mart
I'm kind of a freak in several ways. One of the things that makes me an oddball is I find grocery shopping to be a relaxing way of killing an hour.
There was almost a cool reassurance about those immaculately ordered aisles and the bounty of capitalism laid out before you. It was a signal that regardless of what was happening in the nation or the world, that there was always a sense of normalcy at the supermarket. Life went on, in abundance.
That feeing died today for me.
Now I don't live or work in Canada and I don't get to roam the aisles at Sobeys or Dominion so I don't know what the average Canadian is dealing with in terms of prices.
