Peter, it isn't difficult to mock Canadians' affinity for American cultural exports or to mock the idea of a distinct Canadian identity at all. However, it isn't clear from your article whether you have any point of view about any of this. Should Canadians just crack a Bud, reach into our bowl of Doritos and blankly assimilate ever more deeply into American culture? Should we resist assimilation? Reading your article, my take away was smug contempt for the thin tea of Canadian culture, but spoken from the safety of an ironic distance from where any of this might take us.
I think that's crap. Collectively we get a say in where our country goes. We can thrum to the supposed excitement of American football. We can also relate to American culture the way Ukraine relates to Russian culture: something they used to be into in a big way but now see as rotten at its core.
At the best of times I couldn't work up the slightest interest in whether Kansas City won the superbowl or danced the flamenco in high heels. Now? I see the whole show as rotten. Our American brothers and sisters have elected a fascist-adjacent leader, and I want no part in any of it. I see the 43 per cent of young Canadians open to joining up with the US as a regrettable number, but certainly not a number that is fixed or inevitable. My 19-year-old son has told me he would be very happy to defend his country with his life and said that his friends all feel the same. It's not everything - just a couple of kids in a small prairie city - but it's not nothing either. I think if more Gen X and Boomers were willing to exhibit even a passing sense of loyalty to our country that their numbers would grow.
What we have is a North American culture and there is no use in succumbing to narcissism of small differences.
If you want to look at uniquely pan-Canadian loyalty, to what exactly? Mediocre health insurance? Passive aggressive niceness? CBC? Brazilian owned coffee chains?
You actually have to build a national culture first and that is almost impossible to do in a multiethnic country next to a much larger country. Ask the Belgians about their culture or the Swiss. We do have regional and provincial cultures, who doesn't love a good Ontario Ribfest, but too many mistaken Ontario culture for "Canadian culture." The Prairies don't even have maple trees let alone maple leaves and maple syrup for instance.
That's a good point regarding building a culture next to a Behemoth. Belgium and Switzerland are utterly dominated by the French culturally. Lots of Belgian artists are building great careers in France, the same way Canucks are flocking to the US.
I’ve lived here for almost twenty years, and it’s been apparent to me since my arrival that the CRTC was nothing more than a make work program designed to protect entrenched interests. More than ever it needs to be dismantled and the communications sector to be deregulated, perhaps replaced by another agency with extremely limited mandate and powers. But a complete dissolution is likely preferable.
The idea that mere plebes can’t choose which content they consume is a insult to human dignity.
The french have had a similar agency for decades with equally disastrous results.
Yes we have stupid laws that supposedly exist to protect Canadian identity. But those laws don’t exist to protect Canadian identity, they exist to protect certain favoured political connected businesses.
So it does not follow that the fact we dislike these laws means that we don’t have a true Canadian identity.
Your summary paragraph "So here we are in an economic war fearful that we could become the 51st state .......s into U.S. dollars at par" is so correct ... with one comment. It is not just the 18-34 year olds who feel this way. I am a senior woman who very much agrees with the 18-34 age group. I have worked for decades to provide for my family by educating my 3 children while saving for my retiring. This Federal Liberal government is all about wealth redistribution and as Canada is no longer a wealth creating economy this policy is totally unsustainable. Hopefully this Federal government will be gone at some point. However if by some miracle they are not gone at some point they need to get out of the way and stop trying to control everything and everyone as it has resulted in disaster. So so so fed up with the last 10 years of Liberals RULE!
In Matt & Jen's "Let's have a bat-shit crazy Canada' podcast, one of the sacred cows they proposed for goring was telecommunications. If we can open up our tv channels, cable networks and internet delivery to American owners, will the very notion of CRTC CanCon requirements have to disappear?
I've long felt it has been past its best-before date for decades. Expanding its internet content control via the Online Harms Act was, to me, a Hail Mary by JT & The Gang.
Let Pierre P dump the CRTC along with the CBC and let Canadians choose what entertainment content we consume. Re the non-availability of Canadian sports scores, perhaps there'll be a sports version of The Line in our future.
I won't say exactly how I am able to do it, but I circumvent the CRTC on a daily basis. I have "ways" to watch whatever I want, and frankly very little of it is American. Practically all of my viewing is sourced in the UK, which has far superior programming to anything North America can deliver.
I do not believe I am really offending the Canadian system, because probably 80% of what I watch does not have a Canadian rights holder. In other words, I am unable to buy this content through official CRTC-approved channels because no Canadian distributor has chosen to acquire it and make it available to me.
So, I lose no sleep over my free choice to watch what I want - when I want. After pouring tens of thousands of dollars into "approved" Cable TV subscriptions over the last 45 years I became tired of not getting value for money, and I am tired of propping up a system that exists only due to the hand of big government.
I will probably catch at least some of the Super Bowl, for some of the same reasons Mr. Menzies outlined in his excellent piece. But why would I not want to see the Puppy Bowl or the Budweiser Clydesdales and instead eagerly await stupid ads from The Brick or Tim Hortons? Because I do not like punishment, and offending my eyes and ears.
If I were living in Fort Erie or Abbotsford and had a good antenna, I would be able to grab the Super Bowl right off the airwaves from across the border - commercials and all. Doing so is possible - but I know if the Canadian regulator had a means of jamming it I would be barred from receiving foreign signals to protect some flawed notion of Canadian sovereignty.
And even though I am not subscribing to Canadian Cable TV any longer, I am most certainly still paying for it - with my tax dollars going to fund poor Canadian versions of other countries' programming, and poor Canadian versions from our own stables.
I'm with you Brent. We cancelled our Cable TV subscription a number of years ago. All of our watching since then has been online and as you do mostly Brit
Canada gets a daily Tsunami of Americana that has diminished our sense of self and pride in our institutions. Your points about Canadian Broadcasters ignoring Canadian sports is spot on. It’s a bloody sad state of affairs ain’t it?
Canada could have had British Government, French Culture, and USA Ingenuity, but we ended up with French Government, USA Culture, and British Ingenuity. 😑
You may be correct Peter. However those that accept statehood blithely are also those who have no idea of our own history. They might have learned some of it at one time but they certainly did not retain it.
Or, Grube, having learned that history and being able to tell it to my a) adult children and b) grandchildren (who a) never learned it in school; and b) likely never will hear about/learn it in school) I think that we are now long past the time when we can rescue the situation. Therefore, perhaps we should simply give up on this preposterous fake country.
There is no such thing as a citizenship of convenience. We suddenly are forced to look seriously at something that was a joke. I suspect if it was a dollar-at-par trade, the vote to take the deal would be very very close, and more than likely, statehood.
We're in a terrible spot; largely through our lack of action. Tomorrow, it appears; if you believe the lunatic, we're entering a new world. I suspect we will miss the simplicity and security of today.
I'm guessing from your post you're not in favour of joining the US. For what it's worth, I think the offer of accepting C$ at par with US$ is just O'Leary jangling his car keys in front of a baby. We might get to swat at them for a while and giggle at the thought of how much our assets might increase. However, the American government is never going to let us drive away the car. Statehood would always be on their terms, not ours.
No, I'm not. But I also don't think we're going to be given the choice. We're going to be given terms or suffer the consequences. If the SFB president isn't lying again, those start tomorrow. (SFB as always meaning shit for brains)
David, there might, indeed, not be a citizenship of convenience (good phrasing, by the way) but is there a citizenship where there is "no core identity" as posited by the Face Painter who was supported by ever so many of my fellow citizens (not me) in the last three elections?
Put very differently, it seems to me that the group who supported the "no core identity" party are the ones who are now protesting most loudly. Come on, guys, you can't have it both ways! I, for one, have moved on and accept your first assertion, that of "no core identity." Are you telling me that you lied to me then or that you are lying to me now? Either way, you are lying sometime.
Ken, I have no idea what you're talking about. I had hope for Trudeau in 2015, and SNC ended that relationship. He has devolved into a screen door on a submarine; utterly useless. But the reality is we've had a vacuum of true leadership and accomplishment for decades. We've been "mailing it in". That just ended.
I may well have used the phrase "no core identity" somewhere, but have no recollection of where or in what context. It doesn't ring a bell at all. So I really don't know where you think I'm lying about anything.
My point was that I think a whole lot of Canadians who took their citizenship for granted have woken to a brand new world that scares the shit out of them. We're facing a threat we've never experienced before. Change is terrifying when it's imposed on you. We're Austria in 1938.
I apologize, David, I did not make clear that I wasn't accusing you of lying, not at all. I was accusing the folks of "no core identity" etc. at the federal level, their supporters; you know, the ilk [always a good word, no?] but I was not accusing you.
Screen door on a submarine! I haven't heard that one in many years.
No, we are not Austria in 1938 and this is not anschluss. Personally, this Albertan's thought is, "So, Donnie, what are you offering?" If he doesn't offer what I find attractive then I, as with many of my provincial brethren will continue as before until we do find something more congenial.
You are correct that the current situation does scare the shit out of ever so many but the problem is that so, so, so many of them refuse to accept the responsibility for why we are here. It's someone else's fault, you know! It is the fault of the orange man! If the orange man were to go away, those same Canadians would simply go back to their torpor and continue stealing from Alberta.
Anyway, again, I apologize if it appeared you - and it seems to have done so - that I was accusing you.
Good to know my senility hasn't kicked in full force...yet :)
We'll agree to disagree on where we are. I think our future as a country is directly tied to how much pain Trump wants the US to suffer in the name of his goals....which could be as simple as punishing Trudeau for some perceived slight. Same thing he'll do to Zelensky.
I think we're here for at least 3 decades of no leadership, of vision for the country; just a desire to give away anything it takes to stay in power. The concept of responsible government is dead in Canada, which is why instead of honesty, we get a new social program paid for with borrowed money. The Conservatives are just as guilty.
But thanks for the clarification......I was more lost than usual.
The difficulty with democracy is that our worsers (NOT our betters) in high political office are able to promise the populace "free" stuff. "Free stuff" is really stuff that we all pay for which means that it is not obvious - except to those that are even marginally thinking about things - that it is not free.
Or, put differently, the politicians stay in power by offering bread and circuses but then send us the bill for those bread and circuses.
As for three decades of no leadership, I infer that you are talking about the NEXT three decades. I cannot comment about that time frame except to offer to data points: a) I will be dead of old age - thankfully, if you are correct; and b) if it is three decades of no leadership, why on earth would this country stay together other than the possibility that those worsers so screw up the country that the US wants nothing to do with us?
No, I'm talking about the last 3 decades. Trudeau, we've covered. harper sold us to China and the Saudis. Chretien made his books look good by downloading costs to the provinces. Mulroney gets credit for a free-trade deal....which is effectively DOA now. None of them seriously addressed the military. They just handed out "free stuff".
Ken, my experience is the 'no core identity' people are not the ones expressing vocal opposition to joining the US. My sense is many or most of those folks hate 'so-called Canada' too much to advocate for it now. Your 'either lying to my now or were lying to my then' binary sounds like you're caught up in some either-or thinking.
The people who are standing up for Canada are conservatives. Probably not in the sense you use the term, but people who are attached to and want to preserve important institutions that some appear ready to set aside. Some of these are nationalists on the left but also many - including myself - on the right of the political spectrum. Almost all of them are people who see the US taking a strong turn away from democratic norms over the last eight years.
Martin, I see a great deal with which to agree in your comment, but ...
I absolutely do think that many of the folks who are now so upset at the Trumpster and his antics previously were supportive of the Face Painter and his "no core identity" nonsense. They supported him through three elections and to now be upset at the "loss" of whatever thingy that is important to them in terms of Canada is to me hypocritical.
In turn, I am upset at how they and their leader, the Face Painter, have caused Canada to be incredibly diminished to the point that I see the absolute decline in democratic norms over the last nine years and the decline in pride in our country to the point that there is absolute hate for Canada among the populace.
I am to the point that I also see "no core identity" in Canada because these jerks have destroyed so much of it. For that reason, I do not see that there is a whole lot left to lose by calling it a day for this wretched country.
I live in Alberta and we have been so denigrated and the victims of legal theft and denigrated again. To say that I am a Canadian first is a lie; I am an Albertan who happens to be Canadian by accident of birth.
And, yes, I am definitely in and either/or situation.
As for standing up for institutions, which particular institutions do you stand up for which have not been denigrated by the Face Painter and his acolytes?
I think institutions like Parliament. The Governor General. The courts. The Bank of Canada. The King.
Note - I agree that the individuals governing these institutions have not covered themselves in glory. However, these individuals are not the institutions. The institutions have existed for - in some cases - hundreds of years. They have fallen into decline before and - if we preserve them now - will likely decline again. They aren’t like chow mien where, if someone spits in it, we just throw it out. To me they’re like an ancient church which, when it falls into repair, we repair and restore it, maybe add some rooms, maybe remove some others, but always building on the original foundations.
You mean the King, our head of state, who refuses to stand up for Canada against Trump?
As for those "standing up for Canada" the polling shows that they lean heavily older and Eastern. Modern Canada in many ways was built for Central Canadian boomers. The Trudeau's were just a manifestation and vehicle for the "Expo 67 Generation."
When the boomers are gone who will stand up for this version of Canada?
The very same king. Again, while the people involved - in this case, the royal family - are important, they are not the institution. The institution is something else and has lasted far longer.
I'm not necessarily predicting these institutions will endure, at least not on this continent. When the boomers are gone there might not be a critical mass of Canadians who wish to renew or reinvigorate our institutions. However, history is weird, as are people's attachments. Often people best understand the value of something when they face it's possible loss.
I am willing to bet my whole portfolio that if given a chance to trade CAD for USD at par the majority of Canadians under the age of 40 would gladly take it, and it wouldn't even be close. Canada hasn't been as generous to Millennials and Gen Z as it was for the boomers. Gen X at least got cheaper houses if not much else.
I'm willing to bet with a heavy charm offensive and money thrown around that Alberta would vote to leave, and that is more of an indictment on Ottawa than anything. After all, the same thing to keep Quebec in Canada worked.
Milo, you may be right but, then again, people might not be such simple creatures as you seem to think we might be. Ukraine is another "not real" country that almost everyone predicted would be a part of Russia by now. However, values - including democratic values- can persuade a lot of people that doing what is best for their wallets is not really what they want in the long run. Sometimes people keep their self-respect and fight instead.
Could Alberta be persuaded to leave with a charm offensive and a lot of money? Perhaps, but I'm from Alberta and you don't seem to have a lot of respect for us. Some people in our province are not attached to the federation. However, most of us are, and I think a large number of us would rather eat broken glass than join up with the US.
(And all this ignores the obvious - that the USA under Trump appears to be not-so-slow-motion train wreck. If life under Trump is rosy, that would increase the odds of defections from Canada. However, if things go to shit I think the window for defections will be narrow indeed.)
Comparing Ukraine to Canada isn't apples to Oranges, at all. One was already steamrolled in the past by Russia. One has a unique culture and language as well as a different religion. Russia also isn't prosperous. The other has the same language as it's neighbour, the same culture (what are you doing Super Bowl Sunday?) similar values and is next door to the world's wealthiest large nation and preeminent superpower. The US also has better wages and lower cost of living than Canada, it's not the same for Ukraine compared to Russia.
As for Albertans, I'm just reading the polling results. 43% are open to being persuaded by the US and it heavily leans young. I'd bet it also leans immigrant and wealthy as well. That's even before an offer is on the table and the impact of tariffs are felt. The US is an empire, this is what empires do. There won't be a referendum.
I suspect we'll be finding out sooner than anyone ever imagined. We are dealing with an irrational psychopath. There is no logic to anything he is doing except his desire to wiled unrestricted power.
A rational Congress? With Mike Johnson as speaker? I expect a nationwide abortion ban bill sent to the Senate within 6 months. I expect the oil industry to be thrilled when all environmental protections are removed.
In a period of 2 weeks, the US as we know it is gone. The media can't keep up. The justice system couldn't get Trump in a courtroom in 2 years. At the peace it moves, by the time anything gets to SCOTUS; where it will be green-lit, it will already be established.
The CRTC, if it once had a purpose, does not seem to be functioning in a way fit for purpose. It seems to have fallen the way of other bureaucratic agencies whose mandates have not been updated and whose ranks have not been leaned out because we now have other priorities with the Canadian budget. One of my contracts interacts with this agency, and from what I witness the rules and regulations obscure rather than illuminate anything that might resemble 'Canadian Culture'.
If our economy continues its track down the gutter the way it's been going, US violence and social problems will pail in comparison to ours. I just don't think the Canadian people appreciate Canadians products and the provinces certainly do not work together to distribute those products. The US is BY FAR the closer ally to Alberta than Quebec. I want this to change. But it won't.
Wayne, you may "... want this to change ..." but I am totally indifferent as I think that any PROMISE to make such a change is just that: a promise. You know, like promising NATO to reach 2% while privately telling the NATO Council that we never will: a lie.
So, yes, the US is much closer to we in Alberta than I ever expect Central Canada to ever be. Why, you ask? Experience, my son.
What I find interesting is that there are so many people who talk about converting CAD$ to USD at par. That seems like the biggest pipe dream of them all. Employers wouldn't keep paying the current salary in USD as it pays in CAD. Converting Cad$ dollar for dollar to USD would lead to Canada being the most expensive place to live, plus there'd be the many thousands of dollars of healthcare cost burden on top of that. We wouldn't want to inflate the cost of living in USD, so it would be a fools errand to convert CAD$ dollar-for-dollar. (It sounds good on the surface, but it would actually hurt us because after that conversion, a USD would be a USD and our prices are FAR out of alignment with US prices - including housing and groceries and utilities. If the money supply was kept where it is now, then prices wouldn't change. If people had to convert their CAD$ into USD at the exchange rate, then prices and everything would have to be adjusted.
But I personally think Canada matters far too much to even engage in these what-if scenarios. I'm not about to carry water for Trump's ideas and I feel like the more we talk about this, the more realism it brings to the possibility - especially when there's this magical rose-colored glasses vision of not losing wealth or asset value in the process.
(I am paid 99% in USD, so I know what my income looks like in USD and CAD$. I have a generous contract that pays well. I would be able to afford health care and much more. I would also likely pack up and move south because as the Canada "state" was hollowed out be moving to the Southern parts of the US, the economy would likely not do very well. I'm also not cheerful about the idea of my province disappearing and suddenly being represented by one solitary governor for a landmass the size of Canada. That's ridiculous. So if that became the reality, I'd move to UT or CO. and enjoy appropriate cost of living rather than the inflated Canadian cost if we transitioned $ for $.)
Culture (/ˈkʌltʃər/ KUL-chər) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these groups.
Lets talk social behaviour. We do not have a gun culture anywhere near like the USA gun culture. Our children are not traumatized by going to a public school. Canadians are for the most part tolerant of immigrants and are not trying to put them in concentration camps (AKA Guantanamo Bay). We are not burning books by the ton like Florida.
Are Canadian teachers banned from teaching sex in our schools? I sincerely hope not.
Institutions: The president of the U.S. is currently trying to dismantle a number of their institutions. President Donald Trump ordered an across-the-board freeze on all grants, loans and federal financial assistance on Monday, January 27th. This caused so much confusion and havoc in U.S. society that they had to rescind this presidential order. That won't stop Trump from trying to destroy the current civil service.
The number of people appointed to cabinet positions that are totally unqualified for the position is stunning and a cause for serious concern among a majority of Americans (read the US substacks, read the editorial cartoons from the non mainstream media, listen to the talk show hosts). I am currently a Canadian snowbird in the U.S. I have had Americans come up to me and apologize for the behaviour of their president.
Canadian institutions are fairly stable and reliable. However a lot of our own institutions could use a good house cleaning. But burning them down is not the solution.
Trump is trying to destroy their institutions. Trump is seriously trying to set up a dictatorship. Do we really want to have anything to do with that.
Canadian judges are not beholden to a political agenda. The current US supreme court has been corrupted by big money. Do we really want that kind of system. The Canadian system of appointments to the supreme court is far superior than the U.S. system of appointments.
Trump is a menace to the democracies of the world. His latest threat to BRICS is a good example of his lack of knowledge and understanding of world politics. What would he do if the BRICS countries decided to use the Chinese currency. Invade India maybe Brazil..... Impose tariffs. They are already a major trading bloc.
And people at The Line are concerned about Canadians watching the Super Bowl.
You really need to get serious and find out what we can do to help our neighbours in the US fight this menace.
We also need to align ourselves more closely with Europe. Trade wise and militarily. The disruption to our current way of living is just beginning.
"Canadian judges are not beholden to a political agenda" Excuse me? You literally have former Justices who are on record stating they went into the job with a political agenda.
At this point if you're concerned about not being able to watch US ads on TV, you haven't been paying attention and shouldn't even be part of the conversation. Sit down...
43% of Canadians aged 18 to 34 would vote to join the USA ???? Young people are prone to making uninformed decisions that they regret and pay for the rest of their lives. 40 years ago, I voted Tory........
I mean... the value proposition for young people in Canada is increasingly bleak. If they offered me that deal I would be tempted, despite my overall feelings on the US.
Perhaps young Canadians aren't getting a great deal in Canada. Wages are much lower and cost of living is much higher. Less opportunities here for the young as well.
Peter, it isn't difficult to mock Canadians' affinity for American cultural exports or to mock the idea of a distinct Canadian identity at all. However, it isn't clear from your article whether you have any point of view about any of this. Should Canadians just crack a Bud, reach into our bowl of Doritos and blankly assimilate ever more deeply into American culture? Should we resist assimilation? Reading your article, my take away was smug contempt for the thin tea of Canadian culture, but spoken from the safety of an ironic distance from where any of this might take us.
I think that's crap. Collectively we get a say in where our country goes. We can thrum to the supposed excitement of American football. We can also relate to American culture the way Ukraine relates to Russian culture: something they used to be into in a big way but now see as rotten at its core.
At the best of times I couldn't work up the slightest interest in whether Kansas City won the superbowl or danced the flamenco in high heels. Now? I see the whole show as rotten. Our American brothers and sisters have elected a fascist-adjacent leader, and I want no part in any of it. I see the 43 per cent of young Canadians open to joining up with the US as a regrettable number, but certainly not a number that is fixed or inevitable. My 19-year-old son has told me he would be very happy to defend his country with his life and said that his friends all feel the same. It's not everything - just a couple of kids in a small prairie city - but it's not nothing either. I think if more Gen X and Boomers were willing to exhibit even a passing sense of loyalty to our country that their numbers would grow.
What we have is a North American culture and there is no use in succumbing to narcissism of small differences.
If you want to look at uniquely pan-Canadian loyalty, to what exactly? Mediocre health insurance? Passive aggressive niceness? CBC? Brazilian owned coffee chains?
You actually have to build a national culture first and that is almost impossible to do in a multiethnic country next to a much larger country. Ask the Belgians about their culture or the Swiss. We do have regional and provincial cultures, who doesn't love a good Ontario Ribfest, but too many mistaken Ontario culture for "Canadian culture." The Prairies don't even have maple trees let alone maple leaves and maple syrup for instance.
That's a good point regarding building a culture next to a Behemoth. Belgium and Switzerland are utterly dominated by the French culturally. Lots of Belgian artists are building great careers in France, the same way Canucks are flocking to the US.
I’ve lived here for almost twenty years, and it’s been apparent to me since my arrival that the CRTC was nothing more than a make work program designed to protect entrenched interests. More than ever it needs to be dismantled and the communications sector to be deregulated, perhaps replaced by another agency with extremely limited mandate and powers. But a complete dissolution is likely preferable.
The idea that mere plebes can’t choose which content they consume is a insult to human dignity.
The french have had a similar agency for decades with equally disastrous results.
I think this piece conflates two things.
Yes we have stupid laws that supposedly exist to protect Canadian identity. But those laws don’t exist to protect Canadian identity, they exist to protect certain favoured political connected businesses.
So it does not follow that the fact we dislike these laws means that we don’t have a true Canadian identity.
Very true.
Your summary paragraph "So here we are in an economic war fearful that we could become the 51st state .......s into U.S. dollars at par" is so correct ... with one comment. It is not just the 18-34 year olds who feel this way. I am a senior woman who very much agrees with the 18-34 age group. I have worked for decades to provide for my family by educating my 3 children while saving for my retiring. This Federal Liberal government is all about wealth redistribution and as Canada is no longer a wealth creating economy this policy is totally unsustainable. Hopefully this Federal government will be gone at some point. However if by some miracle they are not gone at some point they need to get out of the way and stop trying to control everything and everyone as it has resulted in disaster. So so so fed up with the last 10 years of Liberals RULE!
And I am a senior (of the male persuasion) who can echo pretty much everything that you say.
In Matt & Jen's "Let's have a bat-shit crazy Canada' podcast, one of the sacred cows they proposed for goring was telecommunications. If we can open up our tv channels, cable networks and internet delivery to American owners, will the very notion of CRTC CanCon requirements have to disappear?
I've long felt it has been past its best-before date for decades. Expanding its internet content control via the Online Harms Act was, to me, a Hail Mary by JT & The Gang.
Let Pierre P dump the CRTC along with the CBC and let Canadians choose what entertainment content we consume. Re the non-availability of Canadian sports scores, perhaps there'll be a sports version of The Line in our future.
I won't say exactly how I am able to do it, but I circumvent the CRTC on a daily basis. I have "ways" to watch whatever I want, and frankly very little of it is American. Practically all of my viewing is sourced in the UK, which has far superior programming to anything North America can deliver.
I do not believe I am really offending the Canadian system, because probably 80% of what I watch does not have a Canadian rights holder. In other words, I am unable to buy this content through official CRTC-approved channels because no Canadian distributor has chosen to acquire it and make it available to me.
So, I lose no sleep over my free choice to watch what I want - when I want. After pouring tens of thousands of dollars into "approved" Cable TV subscriptions over the last 45 years I became tired of not getting value for money, and I am tired of propping up a system that exists only due to the hand of big government.
I will probably catch at least some of the Super Bowl, for some of the same reasons Mr. Menzies outlined in his excellent piece. But why would I not want to see the Puppy Bowl or the Budweiser Clydesdales and instead eagerly await stupid ads from The Brick or Tim Hortons? Because I do not like punishment, and offending my eyes and ears.
If I were living in Fort Erie or Abbotsford and had a good antenna, I would be able to grab the Super Bowl right off the airwaves from across the border - commercials and all. Doing so is possible - but I know if the Canadian regulator had a means of jamming it I would be barred from receiving foreign signals to protect some flawed notion of Canadian sovereignty.
And even though I am not subscribing to Canadian Cable TV any longer, I am most certainly still paying for it - with my tax dollars going to fund poor Canadian versions of other countries' programming, and poor Canadian versions from our own stables.
I'm with you Brent. We cancelled our Cable TV subscription a number of years ago. All of our watching since then has been online and as you do mostly Brit
Canada gets a daily Tsunami of Americana that has diminished our sense of self and pride in our institutions. Your points about Canadian Broadcasters ignoring Canadian sports is spot on. It’s a bloody sad state of affairs ain’t it?
Canada could have had British Government, French Culture, and USA Ingenuity, but we ended up with French Government, USA Culture, and British Ingenuity. 😑
You may be correct Peter. However those that accept statehood blithely are also those who have no idea of our own history. They might have learned some of it at one time but they certainly did not retain it.
Or, Grube, having learned that history and being able to tell it to my a) adult children and b) grandchildren (who a) never learned it in school; and b) likely never will hear about/learn it in school) I think that we are now long past the time when we can rescue the situation. Therefore, perhaps we should simply give up on this preposterous fake country.
There is no such thing as a citizenship of convenience. We suddenly are forced to look seriously at something that was a joke. I suspect if it was a dollar-at-par trade, the vote to take the deal would be very very close, and more than likely, statehood.
We're in a terrible spot; largely through our lack of action. Tomorrow, it appears; if you believe the lunatic, we're entering a new world. I suspect we will miss the simplicity and security of today.
I'm guessing from your post you're not in favour of joining the US. For what it's worth, I think the offer of accepting C$ at par with US$ is just O'Leary jangling his car keys in front of a baby. We might get to swat at them for a while and giggle at the thought of how much our assets might increase. However, the American government is never going to let us drive away the car. Statehood would always be on their terms, not ours.
No, I'm not. But I also don't think we're going to be given the choice. We're going to be given terms or suffer the consequences. If the SFB president isn't lying again, those start tomorrow. (SFB as always meaning shit for brains)
David, there might, indeed, not be a citizenship of convenience (good phrasing, by the way) but is there a citizenship where there is "no core identity" as posited by the Face Painter who was supported by ever so many of my fellow citizens (not me) in the last three elections?
Put very differently, it seems to me that the group who supported the "no core identity" party are the ones who are now protesting most loudly. Come on, guys, you can't have it both ways! I, for one, have moved on and accept your first assertion, that of "no core identity." Are you telling me that you lied to me then or that you are lying to me now? Either way, you are lying sometime.
Ken, I have no idea what you're talking about. I had hope for Trudeau in 2015, and SNC ended that relationship. He has devolved into a screen door on a submarine; utterly useless. But the reality is we've had a vacuum of true leadership and accomplishment for decades. We've been "mailing it in". That just ended.
I may well have used the phrase "no core identity" somewhere, but have no recollection of where or in what context. It doesn't ring a bell at all. So I really don't know where you think I'm lying about anything.
My point was that I think a whole lot of Canadians who took their citizenship for granted have woken to a brand new world that scares the shit out of them. We're facing a threat we've never experienced before. Change is terrifying when it's imposed on you. We're Austria in 1938.
I apologize, David, I did not make clear that I wasn't accusing you of lying, not at all. I was accusing the folks of "no core identity" etc. at the federal level, their supporters; you know, the ilk [always a good word, no?] but I was not accusing you.
Screen door on a submarine! I haven't heard that one in many years.
No, we are not Austria in 1938 and this is not anschluss. Personally, this Albertan's thought is, "So, Donnie, what are you offering?" If he doesn't offer what I find attractive then I, as with many of my provincial brethren will continue as before until we do find something more congenial.
You are correct that the current situation does scare the shit out of ever so many but the problem is that so, so, so many of them refuse to accept the responsibility for why we are here. It's someone else's fault, you know! It is the fault of the orange man! If the orange man were to go away, those same Canadians would simply go back to their torpor and continue stealing from Alberta.
Anyway, again, I apologize if it appeared you - and it seems to have done so - that I was accusing you.
Good to know my senility hasn't kicked in full force...yet :)
We'll agree to disagree on where we are. I think our future as a country is directly tied to how much pain Trump wants the US to suffer in the name of his goals....which could be as simple as punishing Trudeau for some perceived slight. Same thing he'll do to Zelensky.
I think we're here for at least 3 decades of no leadership, of vision for the country; just a desire to give away anything it takes to stay in power. The concept of responsible government is dead in Canada, which is why instead of honesty, we get a new social program paid for with borrowed money. The Conservatives are just as guilty.
But thanks for the clarification......I was more lost than usual.
The difficulty with democracy is that our worsers (NOT our betters) in high political office are able to promise the populace "free" stuff. "Free stuff" is really stuff that we all pay for which means that it is not obvious - except to those that are even marginally thinking about things - that it is not free.
Or, put differently, the politicians stay in power by offering bread and circuses but then send us the bill for those bread and circuses.
As for three decades of no leadership, I infer that you are talking about the NEXT three decades. I cannot comment about that time frame except to offer to data points: a) I will be dead of old age - thankfully, if you are correct; and b) if it is three decades of no leadership, why on earth would this country stay together other than the possibility that those worsers so screw up the country that the US wants nothing to do with us?
No, I'm talking about the last 3 decades. Trudeau, we've covered. harper sold us to China and the Saudis. Chretien made his books look good by downloading costs to the provinces. Mulroney gets credit for a free-trade deal....which is effectively DOA now. None of them seriously addressed the military. They just handed out "free stuff".
Ken, my experience is the 'no core identity' people are not the ones expressing vocal opposition to joining the US. My sense is many or most of those folks hate 'so-called Canada' too much to advocate for it now. Your 'either lying to my now or were lying to my then' binary sounds like you're caught up in some either-or thinking.
The people who are standing up for Canada are conservatives. Probably not in the sense you use the term, but people who are attached to and want to preserve important institutions that some appear ready to set aside. Some of these are nationalists on the left but also many - including myself - on the right of the political spectrum. Almost all of them are people who see the US taking a strong turn away from democratic norms over the last eight years.
Martin, I see a great deal with which to agree in your comment, but ...
I absolutely do think that many of the folks who are now so upset at the Trumpster and his antics previously were supportive of the Face Painter and his "no core identity" nonsense. They supported him through three elections and to now be upset at the "loss" of whatever thingy that is important to them in terms of Canada is to me hypocritical.
In turn, I am upset at how they and their leader, the Face Painter, have caused Canada to be incredibly diminished to the point that I see the absolute decline in democratic norms over the last nine years and the decline in pride in our country to the point that there is absolute hate for Canada among the populace.
I am to the point that I also see "no core identity" in Canada because these jerks have destroyed so much of it. For that reason, I do not see that there is a whole lot left to lose by calling it a day for this wretched country.
I live in Alberta and we have been so denigrated and the victims of legal theft and denigrated again. To say that I am a Canadian first is a lie; I am an Albertan who happens to be Canadian by accident of birth.
And, yes, I am definitely in and either/or situation.
As for standing up for institutions, which particular institutions do you stand up for which have not been denigrated by the Face Painter and his acolytes?
I think institutions like Parliament. The Governor General. The courts. The Bank of Canada. The King.
Note - I agree that the individuals governing these institutions have not covered themselves in glory. However, these individuals are not the institutions. The institutions have existed for - in some cases - hundreds of years. They have fallen into decline before and - if we preserve them now - will likely decline again. They aren’t like chow mien where, if someone spits in it, we just throw it out. To me they’re like an ancient church which, when it falls into repair, we repair and restore it, maybe add some rooms, maybe remove some others, but always building on the original foundations.
You mean the King, our head of state, who refuses to stand up for Canada against Trump?
As for those "standing up for Canada" the polling shows that they lean heavily older and Eastern. Modern Canada in many ways was built for Central Canadian boomers. The Trudeau's were just a manifestation and vehicle for the "Expo 67 Generation."
When the boomers are gone who will stand up for this version of Canada?
The very same king. Again, while the people involved - in this case, the royal family - are important, they are not the institution. The institution is something else and has lasted far longer.
I'm not necessarily predicting these institutions will endure, at least not on this continent. When the boomers are gone there might not be a critical mass of Canadians who wish to renew or reinvigorate our institutions. However, history is weird, as are people's attachments. Often people best understand the value of something when they face it's possible loss.
I am willing to bet my whole portfolio that if given a chance to trade CAD for USD at par the majority of Canadians under the age of 40 would gladly take it, and it wouldn't even be close. Canada hasn't been as generous to Millennials and Gen Z as it was for the boomers. Gen X at least got cheaper houses if not much else.
I'm willing to bet with a heavy charm offensive and money thrown around that Alberta would vote to leave, and that is more of an indictment on Ottawa than anything. After all, the same thing to keep Quebec in Canada worked.
Milo, you may be right but, then again, people might not be such simple creatures as you seem to think we might be. Ukraine is another "not real" country that almost everyone predicted would be a part of Russia by now. However, values - including democratic values- can persuade a lot of people that doing what is best for their wallets is not really what they want in the long run. Sometimes people keep their self-respect and fight instead.
Could Alberta be persuaded to leave with a charm offensive and a lot of money? Perhaps, but I'm from Alberta and you don't seem to have a lot of respect for us. Some people in our province are not attached to the federation. However, most of us are, and I think a large number of us would rather eat broken glass than join up with the US.
(And all this ignores the obvious - that the USA under Trump appears to be not-so-slow-motion train wreck. If life under Trump is rosy, that would increase the odds of defections from Canada. However, if things go to shit I think the window for defections will be narrow indeed.)
Comparing Ukraine to Canada isn't apples to Oranges, at all. One was already steamrolled in the past by Russia. One has a unique culture and language as well as a different religion. Russia also isn't prosperous. The other has the same language as it's neighbour, the same culture (what are you doing Super Bowl Sunday?) similar values and is next door to the world's wealthiest large nation and preeminent superpower. The US also has better wages and lower cost of living than Canada, it's not the same for Ukraine compared to Russia.
As for Albertans, I'm just reading the polling results. 43% are open to being persuaded by the US and it heavily leans young. I'd bet it also leans immigrant and wealthy as well. That's even before an offer is on the table and the impact of tariffs are felt. The US is an empire, this is what empires do. There won't be a referendum.
I suspect we'll be finding out sooner than anyone ever imagined. We are dealing with an irrational psychopath. There is no logic to anything he is doing except his desire to wiled unrestricted power.
You have to hope that at least Congress is rational. Especially when the special interests like the oil industry lean on him.
A rational Congress? With Mike Johnson as speaker? I expect a nationwide abortion ban bill sent to the Senate within 6 months. I expect the oil industry to be thrilled when all environmental protections are removed.
In a period of 2 weeks, the US as we know it is gone. The media can't keep up. The justice system couldn't get Trump in a courtroom in 2 years. At the peace it moves, by the time anything gets to SCOTUS; where it will be green-lit, it will already be established.
The CRTC, if it once had a purpose, does not seem to be functioning in a way fit for purpose. It seems to have fallen the way of other bureaucratic agencies whose mandates have not been updated and whose ranks have not been leaned out because we now have other priorities with the Canadian budget. One of my contracts interacts with this agency, and from what I witness the rules and regulations obscure rather than illuminate anything that might resemble 'Canadian Culture'.
If our economy continues its track down the gutter the way it's been going, US violence and social problems will pail in comparison to ours. I just don't think the Canadian people appreciate Canadians products and the provinces certainly do not work together to distribute those products. The US is BY FAR the closer ally to Alberta than Quebec. I want this to change. But it won't.
Wayne, you may "... want this to change ..." but I am totally indifferent as I think that any PROMISE to make such a change is just that: a promise. You know, like promising NATO to reach 2% while privately telling the NATO Council that we never will: a lie.
So, yes, the US is much closer to we in Alberta than I ever expect Central Canada to ever be. Why, you ask? Experience, my son.
What I find interesting is that there are so many people who talk about converting CAD$ to USD at par. That seems like the biggest pipe dream of them all. Employers wouldn't keep paying the current salary in USD as it pays in CAD. Converting Cad$ dollar for dollar to USD would lead to Canada being the most expensive place to live, plus there'd be the many thousands of dollars of healthcare cost burden on top of that. We wouldn't want to inflate the cost of living in USD, so it would be a fools errand to convert CAD$ dollar-for-dollar. (It sounds good on the surface, but it would actually hurt us because after that conversion, a USD would be a USD and our prices are FAR out of alignment with US prices - including housing and groceries and utilities. If the money supply was kept where it is now, then prices wouldn't change. If people had to convert their CAD$ into USD at the exchange rate, then prices and everything would have to be adjusted.
But I personally think Canada matters far too much to even engage in these what-if scenarios. I'm not about to carry water for Trump's ideas and I feel like the more we talk about this, the more realism it brings to the possibility - especially when there's this magical rose-colored glasses vision of not losing wealth or asset value in the process.
(I am paid 99% in USD, so I know what my income looks like in USD and CAD$. I have a generous contract that pays well. I would be able to afford health care and much more. I would also likely pack up and move south because as the Canada "state" was hollowed out be moving to the Southern parts of the US, the economy would likely not do very well. I'm also not cheerful about the idea of my province disappearing and suddenly being represented by one solitary governor for a landmass the size of Canada. That's ridiculous. So if that became the reality, I'd move to UT or CO. and enjoy appropriate cost of living rather than the inflated Canadian cost if we transitioned $ for $.)
Culture as defined by Wikipedia:
Culture (/ˈkʌltʃər/ KUL-chər) is a concept that encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, attitudes, and habits of the individuals in these groups.
Lets talk social behaviour. We do not have a gun culture anywhere near like the USA gun culture. Our children are not traumatized by going to a public school. Canadians are for the most part tolerant of immigrants and are not trying to put them in concentration camps (AKA Guantanamo Bay). We are not burning books by the ton like Florida.
Are Canadian teachers banned from teaching sex in our schools? I sincerely hope not.
Institutions: The president of the U.S. is currently trying to dismantle a number of their institutions. President Donald Trump ordered an across-the-board freeze on all grants, loans and federal financial assistance on Monday, January 27th. This caused so much confusion and havoc in U.S. society that they had to rescind this presidential order. That won't stop Trump from trying to destroy the current civil service.
The number of people appointed to cabinet positions that are totally unqualified for the position is stunning and a cause for serious concern among a majority of Americans (read the US substacks, read the editorial cartoons from the non mainstream media, listen to the talk show hosts). I am currently a Canadian snowbird in the U.S. I have had Americans come up to me and apologize for the behaviour of their president.
Canadian institutions are fairly stable and reliable. However a lot of our own institutions could use a good house cleaning. But burning them down is not the solution.
Trump is trying to destroy their institutions. Trump is seriously trying to set up a dictatorship. Do we really want to have anything to do with that.
Canadian judges are not beholden to a political agenda. The current US supreme court has been corrupted by big money. Do we really want that kind of system. The Canadian system of appointments to the supreme court is far superior than the U.S. system of appointments.
Trump is a menace to the democracies of the world. His latest threat to BRICS is a good example of his lack of knowledge and understanding of world politics. What would he do if the BRICS countries decided to use the Chinese currency. Invade India maybe Brazil..... Impose tariffs. They are already a major trading bloc.
And people at The Line are concerned about Canadians watching the Super Bowl.
You really need to get serious and find out what we can do to help our neighbours in the US fight this menace.
We also need to align ourselves more closely with Europe. Trade wise and militarily. The disruption to our current way of living is just beginning.
"Canadian judges are not beholden to a political agenda" Excuse me? You literally have former Justices who are on record stating they went into the job with a political agenda.
At this point if you're concerned about not being able to watch US ads on TV, you haven't been paying attention and shouldn't even be part of the conversation. Sit down...
43% of Canadians aged 18 to 34 would vote to join the USA ???? Young people are prone to making uninformed decisions that they regret and pay for the rest of their lives. 40 years ago, I voted Tory........
"... Young people are prone to making uninformed decisions that they regret ..."
You mean like voting for the Face Painter three times?
I mean... the value proposition for young people in Canada is increasingly bleak. If they offered me that deal I would be tempted, despite my overall feelings on the US.
Perhaps young Canadians aren't getting a great deal in Canada. Wages are much lower and cost of living is much higher. Less opportunities here for the young as well.
It's all about opportunities in the end.
This piece just highlights another aspect in how Canada "isn't a real country."