It's never been easier for content creators to publish and distribute their work, but it's also probably harder than ever to get attention for that work. Taxing popular media to fund the community of mediocrities who fail to find a significant audience for their product is bad enough; I fear that there'll inevitably be a push to force media streamers to carry more of this stuff when there's still no uptake. That was the logic that drove CanCon requirements in radio and television. It largely didn't work, but it remains a sacred cow to those "cultural producers" who've been suckling from it for decades. Rent seekers extracting their rent is bad, but it's intolerable when they deny everybody choice in what they want to hear or view.
That’s debatable. The most successful Canadian musicians still headed south of the border to achieve that success, and commercial radio largely filled their CanCon obligations by playing those successful musicians, not the new acts that needed exposure.
Ironically, the most good government could be doing for the arts in Canada right now is literally promoting Canadian content: advertising it in ways that bring Canadian consumers into contact with *existing* Canadian artists, not funding the artists directly.
In typical statist fashion, no one in the government bothered to give a modicum thought to potential unintended consequences of the legislation, and concerns were swept under the rug as if the costs of the legislation would magically, this time around, not be passed on the consumer.
The CRTC has been retarded for as long as I've been aware of it and should be dismantled. ALL it does is protect incumbents and make the cost of everything it touches go up.
JT's government likes to pretend it's not subject to the laws of nature. It can't pay the price for it soon enough.
So it seems that although I never read the Liberal public relations daily called The Toronto Star, ultimately I still have to support it financially. And part of the task of selecting which disadvantaged individuals I support with my charitable donations has been taken out of my hands and entrusted to politicians and bureaucrats wiser and more caring than me. Thank you, Peter, for reminding us just how powerless and in need of guidance we are.
The only puzzling aspect of our legislators' strategy is why internet streaming companies have to be involved at all. Wouldn't it be simpler if we just sent our money directly to Ottawa, for allocation as the country's official regulators and philanthropists see fit?
This is yet another transfer from Conservative aligned folks to those aligned to the Liberals. Specifically those who do well in a meritocratic world to those who do not.
For those keeping score, this is yet another imposition of French cultural expectations onto the whole country. This particular demand comes from the Quebecois media class.
Decades. The same as it will take the next Ontario government to undo the damage Ford is doing. So we're screwed because no one has the patience to wait, and there are no leaders with a vision to implement and explain it with enough reasoning that voters will accept the growing pains. .
This particular damage? It's trivial to undo... if they want to.
Just kill the subsidies. Damage undone.
The catch is that they might not want to because certain media organizations are being kept on life support by this giant subsidy regime and as M&J, (MJ?) have noted, it might make them look bad if those companies go out of business while they're in government.
Undoing this damage is going to prevent the damage that's been delayed but is still coming at us.
If they are going to be a truly conservative government then that is just part of free enterprise. Governments should not pick winners and losers. They should create an environment where there are more winners than losers.
I don’t see a lot to suggest that they’re going to be particularly economically conservative. I see more evidence that they will go for whatever is popular in the given moment. Sometimes that will be conservative, sometimes not.
Witness their full-fledged support for the wealth transfer from working people who tend not to own homes to the richest demographic in Canada who are sitting on the largest pile of real estate wealth in Canadian history.
It’s economically asinine and not conservative in the slightest, but it’s a vote getter because baby boomers vote and so many people still have an outdated view of a pensioner someone who was trying to raise a family in 1940.
I take that support of the Bloc motion as a tactical political move not a doctrinal move. They were/are trying to paint the Liberals into a corner. Right now seniors for some reason are still the biggest supporters of the Liberals. Paint the Liberals as uncaring by voting against it works in an election campaign. They are also showing co-operation with the Bloc to gain some payback.
There are two parts to a vote. One is who has the policy platform you most agree with and two, aside from policy platforms, who will best deal with the unexpected in a way you generally agree with.
I’m not a Harper fan as he gave up on Senate reform after being rebuffed by the SCOC and then left vacancies that Trudeau filled to the detriment of any future Conservative government. He also could have moved on Supply Management a totally communistic, central planning system as he didn’t have support from Quebec anyway. In my view which party will move to eradicate the nanny state is the most important. We will never amount to anything as a country as long as we keep looking to government to prop us up.
Are you suggesting that just to win the conservatives will do unconservative things and divert money from the working aged young people to the rich old people, but feel bad about it?
Or are you saying that the conservatives are lying to us but you think you know what they will really do once they are in power?
If it’s the first, then what’s the point of conservatives?
If it’s the second, why should we believe anything they say?
Am I right to think that creators on YouTube and Substack, SoundCloud know they can get their creative artifacts distributed using a handful of editors, technicians, and writers ( if these roles aren't filled by the creators themselves.).
What this model does not do is create a broader infrastructure of managers and producers and 'executives'. These people are identified as political clients and a constituency which the CRTC is directed to protect.
Telling 'Canadian Stories' does not require this overburden.
Evidently Canadian businesses can't so much as burp without government protection and subsidies. See Rogers, Telus, Bell, Air Canada, West jet, all the cows, and every mainstream media propaganda paper/radio/TV channel. Heck, even our drug-addled, suicidal street people are subsidized. Being Canadian is not something to be proud of, anymore. Not that Turdo would notice.
In general, I think it makes the most sense to have broad based taxes. So in this case for any consumption outside of a few exceptions, the GST should apply to all goods and services. There is a means tested rebate for this tax, to try and not make it a regressive tax.
On the corporate side, I think we do need to think about how we tax the revenue of any business for their revenue earned in Canada. I won't pretend to know a lot about what is currently in place, but it would make sense that much like a personal income tax there would be a broad based corporate tax for all revenue earned in Canada.
One last complication in this scenario is the anti trust rulings that Google faces. In those types of situations, because of anti competitive behavior, if companies withdraw their services, there are not alternatives. If there was an alternative to Google for example, it would affect everyone less if they withdraw their services.
The liberals have never seen a tax they didn’t want to impose on Canadians only now, they’re being insidious imposing a tax and hoping Canadians will blame the platforms for predictable price hikes instead of our regressive woke government. Under the fake guise of protecting Canadian culture they’re just showing how inept, unimaginative and desperate they have become.
Politicians living in alternate realities seems to be all the rage these days. Functional media is in a death spiral; I say this noting Post Media fired Michael De Adder yesterday. Reliable information is critical to a functioning democracy. It's becoming much harder to find. I'm not sure there's a solution, but quality usually finds its way to the airwaves. Don't get me started on how stupid official bilingualism and appeasement of Quebec is.
And does the CRTC even have a reason for being now?
And a perhaps silly idea....what if you put a 5% surcharge on ISP's and used that as a media sustenance fund? It has lots of complications, and I'm thinking it applies to all countries. It takes the power of Google and the government out of the loop. OK, start flinging :)
That's the nature of markets. Old models die, new ones replace them. I don't for a minute believe the CBC or Toronto Star are not delivering lies and misinformation. I get outtakes of their anti-semitic propaganda every day. It is no longer Barbara Frum's CBC, sad to say.
The Line is an example of the replacement to be sure. I find it much more accurate because they have the time to filter and wait to put out accurate information. I don't think any of the major networks/papers are lying on purpose. The Star has always had a slant( I quit it completely because I couldn't stand Rosie Dimanno), but I still think the need to get the story out fast rather than getting it out accurately has killed peoples confidence in the media. Facts take time to become clear. The world is moving too fast to wait. I'd rather wait.
The only good news is that, in all likelihood, by the end of 2025 we will be rid of the current government and there will be a new government in the US, more attuned the to voice of the market rather than the voice of the Annex.
It's never been easier for content creators to publish and distribute their work, but it's also probably harder than ever to get attention for that work. Taxing popular media to fund the community of mediocrities who fail to find a significant audience for their product is bad enough; I fear that there'll inevitably be a push to force media streamers to carry more of this stuff when there's still no uptake. That was the logic that drove CanCon requirements in radio and television. It largely didn't work, but it remains a sacred cow to those "cultural producers" who've been suckling from it for decades. Rent seekers extracting their rent is bad, but it's intolerable when they deny everybody choice in what they want to hear or view.
It largely did for the music industry.
That’s debatable. The most successful Canadian musicians still headed south of the border to achieve that success, and commercial radio largely filled their CanCon obligations by playing those successful musicians, not the new acts that needed exposure.
Ironically, the most good government could be doing for the arts in Canada right now is literally promoting Canadian content: advertising it in ways that bring Canadian consumers into contact with *existing* Canadian artists, not funding the artists directly.
In typical statist fashion, no one in the government bothered to give a modicum thought to potential unintended consequences of the legislation, and concerns were swept under the rug as if the costs of the legislation would magically, this time around, not be passed on the consumer.
The CRTC has been retarded for as long as I've been aware of it and should be dismantled. ALL it does is protect incumbents and make the cost of everything it touches go up.
JT's government likes to pretend it's not subject to the laws of nature. It can't pay the price for it soon enough.
This government has no idea what “unintended consequences “ even means.
Given a choice, I'd rather see the CRTC dismantled before the CBC. The CRTC has acquired way too much unwarranted scope creep
Both, but certainly the CRTC first. We need competition in all areas of telecoms.
This, right here.
Everything this government touches turns to shit, I'm afraid.
Canada is a country of government mandated rent seeking. Prove me wrong.
The License Raj
Can't be done.
So it seems that although I never read the Liberal public relations daily called The Toronto Star, ultimately I still have to support it financially. And part of the task of selecting which disadvantaged individuals I support with my charitable donations has been taken out of my hands and entrusted to politicians and bureaucrats wiser and more caring than me. Thank you, Peter, for reminding us just how powerless and in need of guidance we are.
The only puzzling aspect of our legislators' strategy is why internet streaming companies have to be involved at all. Wouldn't it be simpler if we just sent our money directly to Ottawa, for allocation as the country's official regulators and philanthropists see fit?
This is yet another transfer from Conservative aligned folks to those aligned to the Liberals. Specifically those who do well in a meritocratic world to those who do not.
For those keeping score, this is yet another imposition of French cultural expectations onto the whole country. This particular demand comes from the Quebecois media class.
How easy/difficult will it be for a future Conservative government to undo all of this damage?
Decades. The same as it will take the next Ontario government to undo the damage Ford is doing. So we're screwed because no one has the patience to wait, and there are no leaders with a vision to implement and explain it with enough reasoning that voters will accept the growing pains. .
This particular damage? It's trivial to undo... if they want to.
Just kill the subsidies. Damage undone.
The catch is that they might not want to because certain media organizations are being kept on life support by this giant subsidy regime and as M&J, (MJ?) have noted, it might make them look bad if those companies go out of business while they're in government.
Undoing this damage is going to prevent the damage that's been delayed but is still coming at us.
If they are going to be a truly conservative government then that is just part of free enterprise. Governments should not pick winners and losers. They should create an environment where there are more winners than losers.
I don’t see a lot to suggest that they’re going to be particularly economically conservative. I see more evidence that they will go for whatever is popular in the given moment. Sometimes that will be conservative, sometimes not.
Witness their full-fledged support for the wealth transfer from working people who tend not to own homes to the richest demographic in Canada who are sitting on the largest pile of real estate wealth in Canadian history.
It’s economically asinine and not conservative in the slightest, but it’s a vote getter because baby boomers vote and so many people still have an outdated view of a pensioner someone who was trying to raise a family in 1940.
I take that support of the Bloc motion as a tactical political move not a doctrinal move. They were/are trying to paint the Liberals into a corner. Right now seniors for some reason are still the biggest supporters of the Liberals. Paint the Liberals as uncaring by voting against it works in an election campaign. They are also showing co-operation with the Bloc to gain some payback.
There are two parts to a vote. One is who has the policy platform you most agree with and two, aside from policy platforms, who will best deal with the unexpected in a way you generally agree with.
I’m not a Harper fan as he gave up on Senate reform after being rebuffed by the SCOC and then left vacancies that Trudeau filled to the detriment of any future Conservative government. He also could have moved on Supply Management a totally communistic, central planning system as he didn’t have support from Quebec anyway. In my view which party will move to eradicate the nanny state is the most important. We will never amount to anything as a country as long as we keep looking to government to prop us up.
So I’m not clear on what you’re saying.
Are you suggesting that just to win the conservatives will do unconservative things and divert money from the working aged young people to the rich old people, but feel bad about it?
Or are you saying that the conservatives are lying to us but you think you know what they will really do once they are in power?
If it’s the first, then what’s the point of conservatives?
If it’s the second, why should we believe anything they say?
I mean, it’s NOT going to prevent…
Am I right to think that creators on YouTube and Substack, SoundCloud know they can get their creative artifacts distributed using a handful of editors, technicians, and writers ( if these roles aren't filled by the creators themselves.).
What this model does not do is create a broader infrastructure of managers and producers and 'executives'. These people are identified as political clients and a constituency which the CRTC is directed to protect.
Telling 'Canadian Stories' does not require this overburden.
Evidently Canadian businesses can't so much as burp without government protection and subsidies. See Rogers, Telus, Bell, Air Canada, West jet, all the cows, and every mainstream media propaganda paper/radio/TV channel. Heck, even our drug-addled, suicidal street people are subsidized. Being Canadian is not something to be proud of, anymore. Not that Turdo would notice.
In general, I think it makes the most sense to have broad based taxes. So in this case for any consumption outside of a few exceptions, the GST should apply to all goods and services. There is a means tested rebate for this tax, to try and not make it a regressive tax.
On the corporate side, I think we do need to think about how we tax the revenue of any business for their revenue earned in Canada. I won't pretend to know a lot about what is currently in place, but it would make sense that much like a personal income tax there would be a broad based corporate tax for all revenue earned in Canada.
One last complication in this scenario is the anti trust rulings that Google faces. In those types of situations, because of anti competitive behavior, if companies withdraw their services, there are not alternatives. If there was an alternative to Google for example, it would affect everyone less if they withdraw their services.
The liberals have never seen a tax they didn’t want to impose on Canadians only now, they’re being insidious imposing a tax and hoping Canadians will blame the platforms for predictable price hikes instead of our regressive woke government. Under the fake guise of protecting Canadian culture they’re just showing how inept, unimaginative and desperate they have become.
Politicians living in alternate realities seems to be all the rage these days. Functional media is in a death spiral; I say this noting Post Media fired Michael De Adder yesterday. Reliable information is critical to a functioning democracy. It's becoming much harder to find. I'm not sure there's a solution, but quality usually finds its way to the airwaves. Don't get me started on how stupid official bilingualism and appeasement of Quebec is.
And does the CRTC even have a reason for being now?
And a perhaps silly idea....what if you put a 5% surcharge on ISP's and used that as a media sustenance fund? It has lots of complications, and I'm thinking it applies to all countries. It takes the power of Google and the government out of the loop. OK, start flinging :)
> what if you put a 5% surcharge on ISP's and used that as a media sustenance fund?
Not to put too fine a point on it, but what if you just paid for the media you want and kept your hand out of my pocket?
Alternately, if you want taxpayers to pay for the things you want to consume, it's only fair that taxpayers pay for what I want to consume.
I'd like to consume a pint of Guinness please.
I get that point. Mine is that media is dying because the internet has killed it's revenue stream while being a conduit for lies and misinformation.
The media I want is dying. That's my concern.
That's the nature of markets. Old models die, new ones replace them. I don't for a minute believe the CBC or Toronto Star are not delivering lies and misinformation. I get outtakes of their anti-semitic propaganda every day. It is no longer Barbara Frum's CBC, sad to say.
The Line is an example of the replacement to be sure. I find it much more accurate because they have the time to filter and wait to put out accurate information. I don't think any of the major networks/papers are lying on purpose. The Star has always had a slant( I quit it completely because I couldn't stand Rosie Dimanno), but I still think the need to get the story out fast rather than getting it out accurately has killed peoples confidence in the media. Facts take time to become clear. The world is moving too fast to wait. I'd rather wait.
Make that two, I'll join you.
Way ahead of you. Didn’t wait for the subsidy.
I DON'T want to pay an extra 5% on my already over-priced ISP!!!!!
No one does. Do you want reliable accurate factual news?
The only good news is that, in all likelihood, by the end of 2025 we will be rid of the current government and there will be a new government in the US, more attuned the to voice of the market rather than the voice of the Annex.
Defund the. CRTC as well as the CBC propaganda machine.
And it's not as if Canadians were getting ANY cheap deals on digital/communications services in the first place!?