American Culture's Influence On Canadian Culture

Since the country’s conception in 1867, Canada has lived in the shadow of it’s southerly neighbour, the United States of America. Through the years, what started out as a country with very distinct culture has morphed and become Americanized. Historically speaking, American influence has had a great economical impact on Canada. Speaking about the Americanization of Canada, Pierre Trudeau, former Prime Minister of Canada, has said, “Americans should never underestimate the constant pressure on Canada which the mere presence of the United states has produced…” This pressure has changed the way Canadians live and conduct business. This pressure has Americanized the Canadian economy. American culture has a very far reaching effect on Canada with many trickle down effects. Americanization of the Canadian economy has lead to the American control of the Canada’s corporate structure, Canadian dependence on American capital, turned the Canadian economy into a mirror image of the American economy, and has led to loss of

Due the the geographic reason, Canadian culture is often seen as similar to the United States. For instance, language, political beliefs, food, religion and social well-being. I agree that most part of the American popular culture is being adopted by most Canadians because of the powerful media such as movies, films and books are produced by the American. Massey-Leveque, who is a chancellor of the University of Toronto, argued that “ Canada is cultural dependent in its ‘uncritical use of American education philosophy”(as cited in Gasher, M., Skinner, D., & Lorimer,R., 2012,p.196). Hollywood, one of the biggest and most famous film corporations in the world, is devastating part of the Canadian culture. The reason is that by multi-billion

Canada as a nation has been striving to characterize itself as more ?Canadian? for decades. This has included numerous struggles and events such as protests, bans, and the creation of the Massey Commission, to encourage national development in the arts, and support major companies like the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and National Film Board (NFB). However, this has not been an easy task for the Canadian government, as major influences from below the border (the United States) have been captivating the Canadian audiences by large. American media has had a momentous revolutionizing effect on Canada, even through efforts made to define Canada with its own cultural identity.

The Americanization of Australian Television is a sad and terrible thing. It is a process whereby ordinary Australians are bombarded every day with images of American lifestyle, so much that it merges almost unnoticed into their own lifestyle. It is a process whereby our home-grown entertainment industry is overwhelmed by the enormous powerhouse of the American economy, with drastic effects upon the modern Australian nation. Not only is Australian free to air TV being dominated by American produced shows, but a lot of the content on the Australian TV shows is sourced from America. American culture is part of Australian mass consumer culture, It dominates our television.

For example, most magazines focus on American celebrities and American trends. People’s magazine is very popular, with 3 527 541 copies paid and verified. It’s an American magazine that talks about celebrity gossip. Reader’s Digest is also quite popular, with 4 288 529 copies paid and verified. It’s a general interest family based magazine.1 There is also Twist, a magazine popular among teens. It teaches them about all the different beauty and fashion trends that are currently popular.2 However, these magazines almost never touch upon what’s happening in Canada, as people assume that what’s going on in the USA must also be happening in Canada. While that’s not completely true, events happening in the USA will likely affect Canada in one way or another. Pierre Elliotte Trudeau even stated, “Living next to the United States in some way like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even tempered the beast: one is affected by every twitch and grunt.”3 Finally, Canada covers a lot of what’s happening in the USA but the states don’t do the same with Canada. As Canadian author Margaret Atwood said, “The boarder separating the two countries is like a one-way mirror through which Canadians can see the United States but Americans can’t see

The 1950’s and 1960s were an era of new of new directions in popular culture. It was the age of rock n roll, hippies, and protest songs. Foreign influences from both Britain and Untied States an effect on popular culture in Canada. Although Canadian culture matured in the first half of the 20th century, 21ST Century Canadian culture is truly a reflection of historical events that took place between 1945 and 2000. To begin, in 1947 the US motion picture industry dominated Canadian film theaters, taking $17 million out of Canada yearly but the Canadian co-operation project came up with a solution. Also, the 1950s celebrated several programming firsts for television and radio, as well as ongoing technological development. Lastly the CRTC issued broadcasting licenses to Canadian owned companies. These events can be seen as defining moments in Canadian history, and shows Canada’s maturity as a nation.

The U.S.’ negative dominance has been so damaging to Canadian culture that the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, also known as the CRTC has had to step in and implement laws under the 1991 Broadcasting Act of Canada (Branch, Legislative Services). The CRTC says, “One of our goals is to ensure that Canadian broadcasting content meets the needs and interests of Canadians by delivering compelling, high-quality Canadian-made creative content from diverse sources on a variety of platforms (“Content Made by Canadians,” 2016). The role of the CRTC is to ensure that the United States, being the mega country that it is does not overshadow Canadian talent and does not limit the opportunities that Canadians may have when

The Australian television and media have become americanised through the influence of American media and television programs in Australia.

Ever since the 1950’s more of the American culture has been known to influence Canadian ways of living through the media.

Canada’s media industries have played a huge role in the Canadian culture. The Canadian culture has integrated with other countries forming a successful globalization. Many countries including the United States have contributed to the success in Canada’s media industries. The success of globalization between all of the countries was predicted by Marshall McLuhan and ever since his prediction, the world can be depicted as a global village. The global village can be viewed as a tool, a tool that is bringing the world together, despite the different languages, locations, and diverse cultures. With new technologies being developed more often, the communication skills between different countries are very successful. Canada’s diversity in their media and policies has established a global village with people around the world, allowing them to relate to the Canadian culture.

For many decades, writers and authors have accused the American influence on Canada as one of the reasons why Canada is losing its heritage, with one major aspect being the game of hockey. The institutionalization of American Culture began to take root in Canada during the late 1920’s and 1930s as technological advances, specifically the invention of the radio, allowed Canadians to enjoy American entertainment. American stations were much more reliable than Canadian ones, causing American sporting stations such as NBC and CBS to become extremely popular in Canada (Gruneau et al, 1993). As Canada was becoming intertwined with the United States (U.S.), it was becoming less of a satellite of Britain, which made it tremendously difficult for Canada’s elite to protect British ideals such as self-improvement and participating in sport for the game’s sake. (Gruneau et al, 1993). In the early 1940’s, after the great depression forced many franchises to dismantle, the National Hockey League (NHL) was left with six teams, which made up the famous “original six.” At this time, America had a strong influence on the game, as four of the original six teams were based in the United States, and all of the players in league were paid in American dollars (Gruneau et al, 1993). By the early 1960’s, televised sports were emerging in North America, and NHL players were becoming mainstream stars. Inspired by this, along with the threat of the NHL losing its television contract to the Western

If Canada wants to protect their national identity, they must all embrace each other’s cultures, instead of creating multiple broadcasts that preach one view or culture. Without state governed media, the dominance of US products in Canada would diminish its identity as a nation, fail to serve the public interest and create less profits causing more advertising and less content in the media. Government regulated media proves to be more favourable and beneficial than policies based off of self-regulated solutions when addressing Canada’s media industries and cultural

One of the major reasons that Canada needs public broadcasters to enhance democracy is because Canadians are heavily influenced by the media. One of the arguments against this notion is that Canada as a nation has been able to retain democracy before the introduction of media, according to Attallah (2008) there is no need for public broadcasting because democracy was able to thrive prior to the introduction of media (p.1). Attallah, however, has neglected the fact that the Canadian society like every other active society is forever evolving and changing. As we move into an era where the media plays a major role, it is imperative that our way of thinking about the society evolves as well. This means that though the nation was able to thrive without public broadcasting 2000 years ago, this is not the case now.

Riding a bike, writing poems, or even bouncing a ball, entertainment comes in many forms in every society, television is just one and has been influencing Canadians since it was showcased in 1938 in Toronto, for the Canadian National Exhibition. After first appearing, the progression of television, and the impact it has had over the past seventy-five years has been an interest for many sociologists, educators and researchers because it is constantly changing. Opinions and research of the impacts that television have on society are sometimes viewed as negative, whether it be regarding content, mental stimulation, physical health or many other factors contributing to the development of society. Other opinions and research suggests that television

Magazines are one of the most influential media to culture change especially to young people. When they read magazines they get to know how other people live, dress, entertain themselves and also how their religion differs with theirs. Canada is one of the countries which faced with problems of culture change due to the high content of foreign information in magazines from the U.S. The Canadian government felt the pressure heavily and noticed with great concern signs of culture shift or change in their people under the influence of these foreign magazines. They decided to take action and they imposed an 80% excise tax on all foreign magazines sold in Canada that do not contain at least 80% Canadian content. The 80% Canadian content went a long way in protecting their culture and values as a sovereign nation. The government argued that it was already competing with the U.S magazines and that split-run magazines gave the U.S an unfair