With glowing hearts: our nine favourite CanCon couples

Because there’s nothing we love more than canoodling Canucks, we’re thrilled to report a budding romance between Alison Pill and Jay Baruchel. OK, so they’re not quite at the McGosling fame level yet, but you do know them. Pill is the moon-faced young thesp who played the lone lesbian in Milk and currently stars as Princess Maud in Pillars of the Earth. And Baruchel played the really stoned guy who kind of looks like a hamster in Knocked Up. To mark the new match, we embark in search of our favourite true patriot pairings from now and the long, long ago.

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(Images: Pill, Gage Skidmore; Baruchel, gdcgraphics)

Avril Lavigne and Deryck Whibley

Proving that pop songs can sometimes be prophetic, the Sk8er Grl said “see you later, boy” to her hubby of three years back in 2009. Before it all went to overly eye-linered, spiky-haired hell, the two Ontario rockers (he’s from Scarborough, she’s from Napanee) were kind of adorable—that is, until they were kind of annoying.

Elisha Cuthbert and Sean Avery

The 24 actress from Calgary dated the pride of Pickering back in 2006, but the couple didn’t last long. Presumably because Sean Avery has too little class, as demonstrated when he publicly called out Cuthbert’s new hockey beau, Dion Phaneuf, for dating his “sloppy seconds.”

(Images: Avery, bridgetds; Cuthbert, darkchacal)

Jessi Cruickshank and Dan Levy
OK, so we can neither confirm nor deny that the former MTV co-stars have ever gotten it on. True, their onscreen chemistry is hot enough to have us wondering exactly what goes on after The After Show, but without proof of intimacy we’ll have to move on.

Neve Campbell and Matthew Perry

Nineties TV flashback! This party of two got together while making Three to Tango in 1999. She’s from Guelph; he was born in Massachusetts but holds dual citizenship and was raised in Guelph. If that doesn’t hold up to true Canadian standards, how about Neve’s lesser-known romance with a certain fedora-favouring Degrassi star?

Linda Evangelista and Bryan Adams

She won’t get out of bed for less than $10,000. He won’t stop singing about the summer of ’69. Kind of a perfect match, but not nearly winning (or local) enough to earn our top couple title.

(Images: Evangelista, Dave Gates; Adams, Marco Maas)

Feist and Kevin Drew
So how about a couple a little closer to home? These Broken Social Scenesters were quite the hot item before Feist entered the superstar stratosphere with her iPod commercial. We have no idea when they broke up or even if they’re still dating on the sly because, of course, they’re too cool to tell us.

Alanis Morissette and Ryan Reynolds

He’s currently getting on with life after Scarlett, but before Scar-Jo, Reynolds’ heart belonged to a far less likely (but far more Canadian) gal. In retrospect, we can’t believe we didn’t appreciate this odd coupling more while it existed. He, the hard-bodied action star, she the angry grrrl pop icon more likely to be seen in a nude bodysuit than a red carpet gown. Guess you really don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone. Ironic. Don’tcha think?

Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling

This brings us to our last CanCon couple, and our favourite of the bunch. Predictable, sure, but a brief stroll down memory lane—the smooch at the MTV Movie Awards, the nachos and beer dates at Sneaky Dees, The Notebook—only reaffirms our inclination to crown McGosling the greatest Canadian pairing since macaroni met powdered cheese product.