Canadians

No. 1 Virginia: Matt Cockerton. Oshawa, Ontario. Fr. A No. 1 Virginia: Garett Ince Oakville, Ontario. Jr. M/A No. 2 Syracuse: Cody Jamieson. Six Nations, Ontario. Sr. A No. 2 Syracuse: Stephen Keogh. Toronto. Jr. A No. 6 Johns Hopkins: Zach Palmer. Oshawa, Ontario. Fr. A No. 10 Loyola. Alex Peaty. Victoria, B.C. Grad. GK No. 11 Hofstra. Jay Card. Caledon, Ontario. Jr. A No. 11 Hofstra. Adrian Sorichetti. Whitby, Ontario. Fr. M No. 15 Cornell. Jesse Gamble. Rockwood, Ontario.

Regarding Leon Reinstein's letter castigating Sen. Barbara Mikulski for leading the effort to defeat a Senate amendment making it easier to obtain drugs from Canada ("Mikulski wrong to oppose Canadian drug imports," Oct. 25), I would like to share a concrete experience I had. From the United States, I bought an order of 90 Nexium pills that cost me $561. But from Canada I was able to buy 84 of the same pills for just $93. That's less than one-fifth the cost of the drugs in the U.S., or a more than 80 percent discount.

U nited States college lacrosse teams don't have to travel far anymore to find Canadian lacrosse players because the Canadians are finding them. Take Johns Hopkins freshman midfielder Zach Palmer, for example. Blue Jays coach Dave Pietramala discovered Palmer on a three-minute highlight film Palmer sent Pietramala a little more than a year ago. On Tuesday night, Palmer, from Oshawa, Ontario, scored three goals and had two assists as No. 7 Hopkins defeated No. 19 UMBC, 16-10.

Less than four months after a Maryland Historical Society employee uncovered a cultural property heist called "truly breathtaking" by national archivists, one of the men charged in the scheme has pleaded guilty. Jason James Savedoff, 24, admitted Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore that he and co-defendant Barry H. Landau, 63, conspired to steal and sell valuable historic documents from museums in several states, including Maryland, New York, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.

O , Canada, it wasn't supposed to go down like this, was it? All that "Own the Podium" talk at the Vancouver Winter Olympics - how's that worked out so far? Not so good, eh? The men's hockey team's 7-3 rout of Russia in the quarterfinals Wednesday night notwithstanding, I see that according to the latest medal standings, Canada is in fourth place with 15 medals. "Blown the Podium," one Vancouver columnist called the disappointing haul. "Own the Odium," another columnist wrote.

TORONTO -- Canadian voters are going to the polls today to vote on whether their national constitution should be amended according to a sweeping set of proposals written in hopes of keeping the country united.This is the first time Canada has held a nationwide referendum in half a century, and emotions are running high. One recent opinion survey found that 87 percent of adult Canadians are planning to vote.TC Legally, the referendum is non-binding. But as a matter of practice, no Canadian politician will be able to overlook whatever signal the public sends.

SALT LAKE CITY - Near the conclusion of this dreary game, a group of young men wearing Canadian hockey jerseys rose to their feet from their seats near the Belarus net and added a little noise to the arena by singing their country's national anthem. They were celebrating Canada's 7-1 victory over Belarus in a men's hockey semifinal, and also a berth in the gold-medal game tomorrow against the United States. Although yesterday's game was the most one-sided and least entertaining of the medal round, Canadians had much to sing and cheer about at the E Center rink.

OTTAWA -- Canada, renowned for its willingness to place its uniformed men and women in the cross-fire of other people's wars, finds its military in a weakened state, its combat units stretched to the limits of their capabilities."

Canada is threatened with dissolution if voters in that country do not approve on Oct. 26 -- in each of 10 provinces -- a constitutional revision agreed to by the federal and provincial prime ministers and native leaders in August. Were the Canadian rule of unanimity applied here, the United States could not have ratified or amended the Constitution and would not now exist.Canada is reeling from rejection in 1990 of the Meech Lake accord for constitutional revision after it was ratified by eight of 10 provinces representing more than eight-tenths of the voters.

TORONTO -- What explains the profound differences between cities in the United States and Canada, nations with such intimately related history and cultures?Kenneth Greenberg, a Toronto urban planner also active in St. Paul, Detroit and other American cities, has a catchy explanation.When Canadian towns were formed, he told the recent Conference on the New Urbanism meeting here, the Mounties went in first, staked out streets, checked out the water supply, and when they were sure everything was ''safe,'' let the settlers in.But America's was the way of Wild West movies: Settlers moved in, everyone scrambled for property, and when things started going awry, someone would suggest, ''Maybe we need a sheriff around here.

Much of the country has probably paid scant attention to the debate over the 1,700-mile pipeline known as Keystone XL, which is proposed to connect Alberta, Canada, with Texas refineries. But in Washington, State Department review of the $7 billion project has become a messy affair, and the Obama administration is clearly torn over whether to support or reject it. On the one side are jobs, potentially thousands of them, tied to the construction of the pipeline, as well as the prospect of tapping Canada's tar sands to help meet America's energy needs.

Letter writer Cindy Schild, a spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute, claims the Keystone XL pipeline to bring crude oil from Canada is needed to create jobs ("Keystone XL pipeline is a step toward the future", Aug. 22). Environmental effects aside, this misses the larger point. After the short-term stimulus provided by construction of the pipeline, the project locks the U.S. into a long-term dependency on Canadian crude. We will have sent a negative signal to our domestic renewable energy markets while American energy dollars continue to leak abroad.

The latest owner of Laurel Park and Pimlico Race Course says the Preakness is the key to turning around the state's horse racing industry. Greg Avioli, who heads The Stronach Group's racing business, told state regulators Friday that the second leg of the Triple Crown isn't living up to its potential. The Preakness could make three times the $14 million in revenue it currently sees, he told members of the Maryland Racing Commission. To make that happen, The Stronach Group wants to build a modernized facility — which could cost as much as $200 million.

Olympian Michael Phelps has been dating a Canadian woman -- and swapping Weinergate-quality photos with her -- for more than two years, the gossip site RadarOnline reports. The site identifies Phelps' girlfriend as Montreal native Ashley Finestone, who displayed more wisdom than you might expect of a Phelps gal pal by declining to comment to a RadarOnline reporter. "Only him and I know what's really going on," she said. Can't wait until schoolmarm Debbie Phelps meets this gal. Maybe the Rosetta Stone pitchman should hook her up with some language-learning software first.

The head of the quasi-public city agency that negotiated a 2007 deal over a parcel of land near the city's planned slots parlor defended the handling of the agreement Wednesday, as the city approved a $1.2 million settlement to free the land for gambling development. Baltimore Development Corp. President M.J. "Jay" Brodie said high-ranking city officials were well-versed in the terms of the original deal with the developers behind the 11-acre Gateway South sports complex, including a clause that would require the city to repay the developers for studies they undertook in planning the project if the city terminated the deal.

Open Text Corp., a Canadian company, said Friday it completed its acquisition of Baltimore-based Metastorm Inc. for $182 million. Metastorm provides business process management software to government and commercial clients all over the world. Open Text said it plans to integrate Metastorm's process management software solutions into its own content management software offerings to customers. Open Text, which is based in Waterloo, Ontario, has more than 100 million users of its products in 114 countries.

QUEBECERS ARE the Canadians with no identity crisis. They know who they are and they know their roots. They are proud to be the only French-speaking majority in North America.And they know what they are not. They are not Americans. They don't have to keep convincing themselves of that. It makes them relatively pro-American.When Ontarians object to Americans taking over their job opportunities or swamping their culture, Quebecers worry only about English-speaking Canadians doing that.Canada, the world's second-largest country, is geographically unnatural, held together throughout its history by federal policy.

As the game of lacrosse spreads, so do the recruiting borders. More and more college coaches are going into Canada looking for the great equalizers on the offensive side of the ball. Delaware has two top Canadian offensive stars, and UMBC has one. Of the eight teams that will play in the Division I quarterfinals this weekend, at least five have Canadian gunslingers, with the top one being Duke's Zach Greer, who has pumped in 56 goals and has 22 assists for the top-seeded Blue Devils. The trend won't stop anytime soon.

None of the members of Tokyo Police Club were even alive when "Rock Lobster" was released. But just a day after the 30-year-old group the B-52s perform at the 9:30 club, this young Canadian foursome will take the stage at the Washington venue. The show is part of the headlining tour they began to promote the new album "Champ," following a supporting tour opening for the English electronic band Passion Pit. It's a sign, if anything, of the new New Wave band's mega-fast, five-year rise to success on the back of a bunch of tracks that, at least in spirit, are not that different from Schneider and company.