Thomas The Tank Engine gets a Canadian caboose

The children's programme Thomas the Tank Engine is embracing multiculturalism with some new international characters.

A new Canadian train named "Vinnie" is described as "a toughie, with a competitive drive" which "makes it hard for others to get along with him." – causing a collective Whaaaa?! from our audience. As panelist Ron James put it "That's the antithesis of Canadian identify! He should have been called Sorry!" 

Is it Doug?- Ashley Botting's very reasonable guess of the name of Canada's train

While Vinnie is off-brand, other new characters perpetrate stereotypes, with the Chinese train being described as "driven to achieve" and "make progress."

Panelist Ashley Botting took issue with this, saying "This was an opportunity for them to make the Chinese train just a regular guy who happens to be Chinese… and yet they went down the wrong path." – missing a clear opportunity for a "wrong track" train metaphor tie-in. 

Vinnie joins Carlos, the train from Mexico, Ashima, the Indian train and Raul from Brazil. The new trains make their debut this April in a Thomas the Tank Engine movie called "The Great Race" - which is either about a competition to see who is the fastest train, or who is the superior race. Hopefully the former.