Rheos stand on guard for thee. There is no rock group more consciously or proudly Canadian than Toronto's long-running Rheostatics. So Canadian have the Rheos become that the foursome has been invited to Parliament Hill for Canada Day 2001 celebrations.

"That'll be nice," says Rheos' guitarist, author and hockey thinker Dave Bidini. "We find ourselves being recognized in those little parcels of culture, (with) people starting to turn to us a little bit, which is great . . . there was hope we could somehow make that transition."

The Rheos play Call the Office in London tonight, secure in their status as the CanRock icons with the most distinguished outside projects to their credit. Those include the Canada Day commission and a play based on their kids' book and recording The Story of Harmelodia. Then there is the music inspired by the Group of Seven and their soundtrack work, leading to a Genie for their tune, Claire.

Their new album is due out later this year. It's expected to include a political/protest song tentatively titled CCYPA -- which stands for something like Canadian Conservative Youth Party Alliance.

The band played it dirge-style last year during the Rheos' 20th anniversary tour at Call the Office, but CCYPA has taken on life of its own.

"Ultimately, the political party in that song is an invented one," Bidini says. "It's a composite of the right-of-centre parties in Canada that for a while seemed to threaten to dominate the politial landscape. . . . We're all concerned at the direction the boat is going in . . . because the country is so important of to us and because the things that we love of it are so precious. To be critical of it proves we care and we have love for the country."

No Rheo has done more for the band's identification with Canada than Bidini.

The author of two fine books will be working on his third in the summer of 2002. It will tell how the Allied liberation of one Italian town resulted in an enduring baseball legacy in the midst of a soccer-mad country.

Bidini's books are 1998's On a Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock and last year's Tropic of Hockey: My Search for The Game in Unlikely Places. Both books involve many laughs, quests, wise women, men in groups and typically Canadian self-doubts and triumphs.

His two great themes -- Canadian rockers and hockey -- collide in Tropic's hilarious account of a fight during a playoff game in a league for Toronto-area music bizzers. The unlikely combatants are Bidini and Blue Rodeo star and nice guy Jim Cuddy.

Riled by Bidini's run at a Cuddy teammate following an earlier game, the country rocker suddenly goes beyond ballistic. A Bidini check turns Cuddy into "a fist-swinging thug" in the writing Rheo's words.

Bidini is downed. He's trying to adjust to the fact he's under attack by this Blue Rodeo guy. Cuddy can't stop himself from rocking Bidini's world.

"He pressed the back of his hand against my helmet and ground my face into the ice like a man juicing a grapefruit. I felt the rink crush my nose and forehead," Bidini writes.