Canadians

ATLANTIC CITY — The stabbing deaths of two Canadian tourists outside a casino hotel left tourism officials stunned and dismayed Monday, casting a shadow over the formal opening on Memorial Day weekend of the newest gambling palace and tripping up a $30 million-a-year campaign to rebrand and revive the sagging resort town. The two victims, women ages 80 and 47, were stabbed and killed during a robbery Monday morning outside Bally's Atlantic City casino hotel, just steps from where a police officer was sitting in a patrol car. Police declined to provide the names of the victims, or precisely where they were from, pending notification of family.

With the addition of righthander Scott Mathieson to the active roster, the Phillies now boast two Canadians (infielder Pete Orr is the other.) Only the Minnesota Twins (Justin Morneau, Rene Tosoni) and the Seattle Mariners (Erik Bedard, Michael Saunders) can say the same. The all-time leader in games played by a Canadian is 1,988 by Larry Walker. He's the hits and home runs leader, too. But Ferguson Jenkins is the only Canadian-born player in the Hall of Fame. He, of course, began his career with the Phillies in 1965.

Team Canada had it all covered. Months of meticulous preparation included even the smallest travel details. The roster carefully blended role players with stars. The Canadians had the leadership, the solid defensive system, the goaltending, the depth. But the gold-medal game will be played tomorrow at the Big Hat Arena between the Czech Republic and Russia, because there were two things Team Canada general manager Bob Clarke couldn't factor into his planning. Dominik Hasek and the Olympic format.

Talk about irony. Paul DiPietro, Canadian by birth and Italian by descent, plays for Switzerland's national hockey team because he married a Swiss woman and also plays for EV Zug in the Swiss League A. Yesterday, DiPietro scored two goals as the Swiss stunned Canada, 2-0, at Torino Esposizioni, giving the Swiss upsets of heavily favored Czech Republic and Canada in back-to-back games. "I am taking it all in right now," DiPietro said. "I'm enjoying the moment. I said I wanted to come in here and work as a team.

Just a bunch of cute Canadians in their 20s looking for love? Look again. Love and Human Remains unintentionally suggests that being single is a severe personality disorder. In this peculiar cross between Friends and a Freddy Krueger movie, we have seven characters in search of a situation - all menaced by a serial killer whose signature is ripping an earring through his prey's pierced lobe. Potential victims? The cynical waiter who used to be an actor (isn't it usually the reverse?

Barely half the players in the NHL are born in Canada, the lowest total in league history. The number of U.S.-born players is 14.1 percent, a 17-year low. There were 375 Canadians (52.3 percent) on Opening-Night rosters compared to 380 (53.2 percent) a year ago. There were 241 Europeans (33.6 percent) on Opening-Night rosters compared to 227 (31.8 percent) a year ago. There are 101 American-born players this year compared to 107 (15 percent) one year ago. Twenty years ago, the NHL was 81.8 percent Canadian, 10 percent American and 8.2 percent European.

TORONTO - Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Tuesday that he would not shift to the hard right after his Conservatives won a long-sought majority in Canada's Parliament. Monday's election marks a change in the country's political landscape with opposition Liberals and Quebec separatists suffering a punishing defeat. Harper said the Conservatives won their mandate because of the way they had governed so far, and he sought to allay fears that he would implement a hidden right-wing agenda.

The Americans will have to play spoilers. The Canadians should repeat. And the Czechs could be among the strongest teams at these Winter Games. The men's ice hockey tournament opens today as the United States takes on Latvia, while Canada faces Italy. Four years ago in Salt Lake City, Canada won the gold over the Americans in an all-North American final. That scenario is a long shot to happen again, given that the United States, which is in Group B, is such an underdog.

All right, so maybe September is too early to play hockey. But if teams always played hockey the way Team Canada and the Soviet Union did last night in Game 1 of the Canada Cup finals, 12 months of the sport might not be enough. In a game that veteran hockey observers at the venerable Forum rated one of the greatest of all time, the Soviet Union drew first blood in the best-of- three series with a 6-5 overtime victory. Alexander Semak's goal with 5 minutes, 33 seconds gone in the sudden-death period ended a classic that kept a crowd of 14,588 cheering and standing.

Eric Lindros might not be playing in the NHL this season, but he can play for Team Canada at the world championships if he wants to. Bob Nicholson, president of the Canadian Hockey Association, extended the official invitation to Lindros yesterday afternoon in Calgary, where the association's headquarters are located. Coincidentally, the Flyers have a couple of days between games here before meeting the Flames on Thursday. Michael Peca, who has not played for Buffalo this season because of a contract dispute, was also invited to play for Canada in the 17-day tournament, which begins April 28 and will be held in Germany.

ATLANTIC CITY — The stabbing deaths of two Canadian tourists outside a casino hotel left tourism officials stunned and dismayed Monday, casting a shadow over the formal opening on Memorial Day weekend of the newest gambling palace and tripping up a $30 million-a-year campaign to rebrand and revive the sagging resort town. The two victims, women ages 80 and 47, were stabbed and killed during a robbery Monday morning outside Bally's Atlantic City casino hotel, just steps from where a police officer was sitting in a patrol car. Police declined to provide the names of the victims, or precisely where they were from, pending notification of family.

DEAR ABBY: One of my friends, "Max," cheats at golf. He moves his ball closer to the hole on the green and "improves" his lie when he thinks no one is looking. I have tried to overlook Max's transgressions, but others in our golf group talk and joke behind his back. How should I go about stopping the problem without stressing our friendship? — Florida Golfer DEAR GOLFER: What you have described is considered a terrible breach of golf etiquette. What it shows about Max is a serious lack of ethics.

THE L.A. COMPLEX. 9 p.m. Tuesday, CW Philly 57. SUMMER ARRIVES a little early on the CW and with it, the Canadians. "Smash" meets "Melrose Place" in Tuesday's premiere of "The L.A. Complex," a guilty pleasure of a Canadian drama set in Los Angeles about (mostly) young people trying to make it in show business and, of course, with each other. Northern imports like ABC's "Rookie Blue" and CBS' "Flashpoint" have become one way U.S. networks keep the lights on between seasons when their cable rivals are at their most aggressive.

TORONTO - A government official said Saturday that a Canadian farmer has been released from a Lebanese jail after being held for a year on allegations he exported rotten potatoes to Algeria. Diane Ablonczy, minister of state for foreign affairs, confirmed Saturday that the farmer, Henk Tepper, was released from a Beirut jail. "Our government has been quietly and persistently working through diplomatic channels to resolve his situation," she said. "Canada's ambassador to Lebanon and consular officials displayed an unwavering commitment to assist Mr. Tepper.

The ultimate outdoor instruments will match pipes, literally, with one of Philadelphia's more celebrated indoor musical monuments at 3 p.m. Saturday when the Canadian Brass meets the Fred J. Cooper Memorial Organ at the Kimmel Center. The chief danger is that the two entities will get along all too well, once they find their common ground. Too much blend, and the musicians are lost in a cloud of music. Too little leaves holes. To that end, during a Thursday rehearsal the brass made demands that organists love to hear: Play louder.

The most worthless thing one can do at Niagara Falls is merely stop and look at the falls. If you don't get wet, you haven't gotten your time or money's worth out of your trip. For those who don't know their way around this world wonder, here is a Niagara Falls primer. Where exactly is Niagara Falls? There is a two-part answer to this question since there are the cities and the water. First, the cities. Niagara Falls, N.Y., sits across the Niagara River from Niagara Falls, Ontario.

FORMER PHILLIES reliever Rheal Cormier was selected to the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame yesterday. The best of Cormier's 16 big-league seasons came with the Phillies in 2003, when he was 8-0 with a 1.70 ERA, 67 strikeouts and 54 hits in 84 innings. His 683 games pitched for St. Louis (1991-94), Boston (1995, 1999-2000), Montreal (1996-97), the Phillies (2001-06), and Cincinnati (2006-07) are the second-most appearances ever by a Canadian, behind Paul Quantrill (841). Cormier, from Moncton, New Brunswick, represented Canada in a number of international events, including the 1987 Pan Am Games, the 1988 and 2008 Olympics and the 2006 World Baseball Classic.

Sarah Burke , a 29-year-old X Games star from British Columbia, died Thursday, nine days after crashing during a training run in Park City, Utah. Tests revealed that the pioneering freestyler, who helped get superpipe accepted into the Olympics, had suffered "irreversible damage to her brain due to lack of oxygen and blood after cardiac arrest," according to her publicist. Superpipe skiing will make its debut in the 2014 Sochi Games. A four-time Winter X Games champion, Burke crashed on the same halfpipe where snowboarder Kevin Pearce suffered a traumatic brain injury during a training accident on Dec. 31, 2009.

THE PROPOSED Keystone XL pipeline has received plenty of scrutiny, including in your Dec. 28 editorial. The U.S. State Department has conducted extensive studies of this project, now in its fourth year of review. The pipeline would definitely produce American jobs for American workers, and that is why it has broad support from U.S. labor unions. The Cornell University Global Labor Institute can hardly be considered an independent evaluator of this project when its own website details widespread collaboration with groups opposed to use of all oil in the United States.