TEAM CANADA

Two iconic homegrown brands join forces to make your cooler, and what’s in it, that much cooler

Canada is a country built on successful collaborations. French and English. Stick and puck. Bob and Doug. But what could be more Canadian — more perfectly encapsulating of our national interests and symbols — than the coming together of beer and ice? And, when that patriotic synergy comes from two of the country’s most respected brands, it’s a story that needs to be told.

The year is 1670. On the rocky shores of Lake Superior, a trader from the Hudson’s Bay Company — the nation-defining institution that has just been incorporated in London — jumps out of his canoe and drops his hard-earned pelts onto the spot where he’ll make camp for the night. He takes off his fur hat and wipes his brow. Parched, he looks to his pal in the stern of the canoe, who reaches into a lightly frosted cooler and tosses him an ice-cold beer. Or so the legend goes. In truth, it only took the Hudson’s Bay Company another 347 years to get the beer cooler thing down — but even that thirsty trader would admit it was worth the wait. In honour of Canada’s sesquicentennial, Hudson’s Bay Company reached out to Steam Whistle, one of Canada’s most iconic breweries. Founded 1998 by Greg Taylor, Cam Heaps, and Greg Cromwell, three friends who had the humble dream of brewing one of the best Pilsners in the world, Steam Whistle has become the de facto beer of summer, enjoyed at ball games, barbecues, and trading posts from coast to coast to coast. Together, the two distinctly Canadian brands have produced a range of limitededition beer-drinking accoutrements, perfect for making your summer days legendary, too.