Vancouver takes star turn in Rubio campaign ad that recalls the days of Reagan

Canada’s been making some real waves in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

First, Texas senator Ted Cruz had to deflect critics’ charges that his Canadian birth disqualifies his presidential ambitions under the U.S. Constitution’s natural-born citizen requirement.

Now, Florida senator Marco Rubio has included—accidentally, it appears—a skyline shot of Vancouver into his new presidential campaign ad Morning Again.

The ad, which makes a downbeat riff on the chipper 1984 Ronald Reagan classic Morning in America (which was itself skewered in John Carpenter’s 1988 film They Live), begins with the stock footage of Vancouver. Although a map of the United States is superimposed in the lower-right corner, the city’s distinctive Harbour Centre tower clearly is visible for several moments before segueing into scenes of a farm, a paperboy, a church, the U.S. Capitol, and, of course, Old Glory.

While Vancouver is well-versed in standing in for other cities in films and TV, this is the city’s first starring role in an American Presidential campaign commercial.