From D.K. Latta:
As someone who writes a lot about Canadian film and TV I had been thinking of writing a post titled something like: “It’s Okay to Dislike a Canadian TV Show.” There are people within the Canadian entertainment biz (as well as their fans) who feel the industry is so fragile it behooves critics to “get on-side.” And that you have to like particular shows or movies to be considered Canadian.
Which is complete and utter balderdash. Continue reading.
I hate Mr. D and Lost Girl quickly lost me too, but I love most Canadian Tv. When The Border, critical of the U.S., got dumped, and Flashpoint, American mimicry, continued widely hailed as top rated five star show, I wept. I chatted a Rogers rep one time pleading for more Canadian Content TV and he said most people call demanding to get rid of all Canadian Content shows and add more American shows. I wept at that too. To understand why Canadian Content TV gets such a bad rap, one has to dig thru history to learn some facts. When George Bush Sr was allegedly visiting countries to establish official permissions to overfly or even beef up the U.S. military bases in the countries visited in prep for the first Iraq War, a high-up Turkey Gov’t minister reported that the only reason Bush Sr visited Turkey was to order them to reverse that country’s new policy of mandating that 15 % of it’s TV content had to be Turkish. “Embattled Shadows, A History of Canadian Cinema 1895-1939” by Peter Morris 1st published in 1978, updated in 1992, includes documented proof that from the very beginning the U.S. entertainment industry set out to deliberately and systematically destroy all Canada’s attempts to establish a healthy and thriving Canadian Content industry of our very own. Those critics in Canada of all Canadian Content are either Americans, or American-wannabees, or saying what they’re paid to say for a paycheque. The huge emigration to Canada of American Vietnam War Draft Dodgers of the late 1960s early ’70s killed that era’s emergence of a lot of excellent Canadian Content. As a result of all this most of the best of Canadian performers have been and still are forced to seek employment either in the U.S. or in things done in Canada that are American oriented. In the U.S. of the 1880s most school books, magazines, newspapers, novels, et cetera, were British oriented. Which is why at that time the U.S. finally mandated that no less than 85 % would thereafter be American oriented. And they set out to do likewise to the rest of the world. But that’s all changing now. They no longer can dominate like they used to. India actually has the world’s largest industry these days. Why should Canada not do something likewise, at least for Canada. 2017 is Canada’s 150th Birthday and I say it’s way past time Canada at least mandate that the majority of ‘content’ in Canada seen, read, heard by Canadians, be CANADIAN CONTENT. Today we have the people, the skills, the expertise, the infrastructure to make it happen. So, LET’S DO IT, DO IT NOW, EH !
Wowza. Now that’s what I call a rant. I, personally, haven’t read the National Post in years because it is a right-wing Eastern/Central Canadian paper and as a Westerner, I disagree with much of its articles. I know that in the Toronto area, from my time working there, that people are very much Americanesque (as in things American are considered superior to things Canada). I guess it’s because of Southern Ontario’s proximity to the big Eastern cities–where I live in the prairies people get pretty anti-American and there is much more of a Canadian superiority complex. Anyhow, considering how many Canadian shows there are on tv, there could have and should have been more of an attempt made to make a top 10 list for a supposedly national newspaper. Another thing, is that international shows, such as one of the many British gems we can find on Netflix right now, could have made the list instead. Oh well, it’s not as if my sentiments about the National Post have changed over this.
I suppose my comment was a good rant but I mostly thought of it as a “Call To Arms” –