McKenna Dishes Border

PATRICK McKENNA talks about his guest starring role on tonight's episode of THE BORDER. (CBC, 9pm)

Patrick McKenna plays a great shifty guy. Fortunately, he takes that as a compliment.

"Yes, thank you," McKenna said with a laugh. "I think you kind of have to be shifty to be a Canadian actor. I list it under 'special skills' on my resume."

Well, McKenna's shiftiness comes in handy tonight for his guest appearance on the excellent CBC drama series The Border.

McKenna plays Donald Campbell, the Canadian external affairs minister. Campbell finds himself caught between an Arctic iceberg and a hard place, as the lives of some trapped Canadian sailors are turned into political bargaining chips.

"Denis McGrath wrote the episode and Denis and I are friends," McKenna said. "And Mark Wilson, who plays Moose on The Border, we've been best friends for over 30 years. So I think they put a little buzz in people's ears about me. You know, 'McKenna's available!'

"Because of Mark and Denis, I had been watching The Border and was a big fan. And it's such a great character, very Canadian in terms of meaning well, but somewhat misguided."

I'll have more on that episode a little later today, soon as I earn a blog-break by completing some serious outline stuff.