Comedian Mark Critch shares why Canada is worth fighting for
His essay collection Sorry, Not Sorry will be out on Nov. 25, 2025
Comedian Mark Critch was writing a Newfoundland-set historical fiction novel when Trump's threat to annex Canada first surfaced.
At first, he thought it was more of a joke, "in that same way an older sibling might tease their younger sibling," he told CBC Books in an interview. But as the threats became more serious, Critch began to get frustrated.
That's when he asked his publisher, Penguin Random House Canada, if he could put his novel on hold and write an essay collection about Canadian identity and the rising sense of Canadian patriotism.
It's called Sorry, Not Sorry, and features 13 essays from different perspectives — including a seductive love letter in the voice of Donald Trump trying to woo Canada.
"Every one [of the essays] has a point and every one has a lot of heart behind it," said Critch. "I wanted them all to be different."
Critch also wanted to address Canada's sometimes reluctant patriotism and convince fellow Canadians that the country is worth fighting for.
"There's a lot of good in this country and there's a lot of things we have to work on. Our ability to work on those things is one of the good things about it," he said.
"I think we've been a naive and trusting country in a way that we put all our eggs in this one American basket. And now we're finding ourselves in a real crossroads of can we stand on our own? How do we stand up to this much, much bigger nation next to us? And I think we can do it, we should do it and we're worthy of doing it."
Sorry, Not Sorry, which will be released on Nov. 25, 2025, is Critch's sharp and humourous message of hope in this time of uncertainty.
"It's just checking in with everybody and saying I'm here, too," he said. "We'll get through this like we got through everything else."
Critch, a comedian, actor and writer from St. John's, is best known for his work on CBC sketch comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes.
He's also written two memoirs, Son of a Critch, which was shortlisted for 2019 Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour and made into a CBC TV series, and An Embarrassment of Critch's.
