The upside of that plate is that the "fruits and veggies" side is mostly veggies. There's a bit of an apple and some berries, but fruits don't have their own sections, as if they're some how vital, and it's not full of oranges and bananas. Also, the cereals and grains section isn't full of pictures of boxes--remember how those used to be a regular feature of these recommendations? Everything on that plate is real food. And there's no sugar, cookies, granola bars, etc.

Of course, it would look a lot better with all the extra grains and legumes moved to the grain section and the tofu moved in with the veggies, so you could see the real protein. That's very misleading. But I can't really imagine Health Canada getting away with telling people that right now. The vegetarian lobby is just too loud.

Overall, if you were already a generally healthy person in a healthy weight range and you followed the eating pattern recommended with the veggies and grains section, plus some good protein, you'd probably do okay. It's a fairly low-sugar plan and it might keep most people out of weight and health trouble. It won't fix existing health or weight problems, but it's not designed to do that.

It's the upper right quadrant I find the most worrying.

I'd love it if they had two plates--a regular one and one for vegetarians. The one for vegetarians could have all the beans and tofu moved to the other sections, and then just dairy in the quadrant--or nothing in that quadrant if you wanted it to be vegan. That would be more honest and realistic.