Jonathan Torrens seeks out the most Canadian thing ever in TV special - Action News
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Jonathan Torrens seeks out the most Canadian thing ever in TV special

When a country gets to be 150 years old, it's hard to find a new way to celebrate it.

Giant butter tart features in show finale

Jonathan Torrens finds there are so many ways to celebrate Canada, but so many of them have already been done. (CBC)

When a country gets to be 150 years old, it's hard to find a new way to celebrate it.

That's the lesson Jonathan Torrens learns in Your Special Canada, a television special where he tries to find a unique way to celebrate the country on its sesquicentennial.

The Charlottetown native returns to his hometown to complete this quest.

Patrick Ledwell is unimpressed with Jonathan of Green Gables. (CBC)

"We thought it would be great to set it in the place that both the country was born, and also that I was born," said Torrens.

"For me it was a thrill to come home, and the storyline that we came up with was I was trying to do the most Canadian thing ever. A Sir John A. Macdonald reenactor, played by local legend Patrick Ledwell, challenges me to come up with something new, because in his experience it's all been done."

'Dubious' attempts

Torrens tries celebrating as Jonathan of Green Gables, and by creating a diorama of potatoes dressed as the Fathers of Confederation. As Torrens's guide, Ledwell said he not very encouraging.

"I'm casting aspersions and maybe a dubious look at these failed attempts to rise to Canadianity on a high level," Ledwell said.

Torrens's final attempt at a new and unique celebration of Canada is to leap into a giant butter tart.

Your Special Canada will air Sunday at 9 p.m., and again on Canada Day.

With files from Island Morning