Canadian Culture Analysis

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.

The recent Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications (CRTC) (2013c) 'Broadcasting Regulatory Policy on the Distribution of Canadian Category C national news speciality services' marks a new regulatory approach to distributing competitive news and sports programming in Canada. This policy is a response to Canadians' concerns over consumer choice due to program bundling and an inability to select news and sports programs on a stand-alone basis (CRTC, 2013c; CRTC, 2014). Based on the Commission's public notice on 'Regulatory Framework for Broadcasting Distribution Undertakings and Discretionary Programming Services', the new regulation demonstrates an effort to reduce national news and sports program regulations and to

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 is a democratic country. Canadians elect the parliament and the Prime Minister. But because Canada is a market economy, jobs, prices and the economic situation depends on big businesses. The fact that American companies own such a huge part of Canadian industry that it puts them in control of business in Canada. In other words a straight economical dependence, where Canadian people are no longer in control of things in their own country. A good example is a situation when American corporation buys a Canadian company. They take Canadian workers only for low paid positions. Most of the managers, accountants, sales executives who really control big business operations in Canada are Americans. Most of the times the specialists who work in American owned companies in Canada are also brought from America on contracts. In this case Canada is too depended to act the way it wants without support from the U.S.

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

Culture can be defined as the behaviours and belief characteristics of a particular social, ethnic,

Cultural issues are complicated ones to solve. Sometimes it is even tough to express opinions about them. It is an area where one has had to establish one's bona fides before weighing in. The audience has to be assured that the commentator loves Canada more or at least as much as the next person and is willing to stop at nothing to protect our culture. Trade consultants wanting to mine the cultural field are well advised to have a Can-lit or artistic icon as an immediate family member. Otherwise, they need not even bother hanging up a shingle.

Tremblay uses some significant points to establish his argument and prove his position and opinion. The first issue he raises is the presence of American programs on Quebec television, where he mentions that about one third of the total television supply is of foreign origin mainly American, which is not so bad but he does reveal that the presence of foreign products is much higher in Canada compared to the United States. He also states that during the evenings, between six o’clock and midnight, the situation is even better because “the proportion of Canadian content attains 73%”6. He mentions that the French-language television stations for the most part, respect the “Commission’s regulatory quota fixing a 60% minimum for Canadian content during prime time”7. The part that Canadians should be concerned with is the area of entertainment, particularly drama programming such as series, films and cartoons. He indicates that the percentage of drama programming broadcast produced locally by francophone Quebecois television stations decreased from 16.9% in 1982, to less than 10% in 1989, which is quite a significant plunge. An entertainment sector that is really vulnerable to American culture is the production of films. In 1990, Tremblay states that according to The Social Communication Board, compared to 55% American films, there were

The Canadian government identified magazines as an important touchstone of Canadian natural identify. If the government recognizes this as a national identify, then those who purchase it are showing loyalty to their father land and preserving their culture for the younger generation.

Rules revolving around Canadian Content (CanCon) have been set in place since the 1920’s. In 2005, revisions to the 1991 Broadcasting Act were made. Since this revision was made there have been further changes to the Act trying to create the best set of rules for CanCon to be broadcasted (Dewing, 2011). CanCon is an outdated concept that is causing consumers to switch to other forms of media. The CanCon rules cannot determine what is considered Canadian and they cannot keep up with the ever-changing forms of media. Canadian producers are only getting a slim portion of the industry even with the rules in place. Therefore CanCon rules should be totally eliminated.

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

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

Although Canada and the United States share the same continent, they are divided by their unique ideas and views. After WWI ,Canada broke its ties with Britain and new independent nation was born with a unique culture. This new culture developed through the Canadian citizens. As a Canadian citizen, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie helped achieve autonomy from Britain and solidify national unity at home. Canadian inventor ,Fredrick Banting ,maintained his culture as Canadian and contributed to the world through his invention of insulin. Many artists, authors, actors , actresses and athletes have played their part in Canadian culture. During the 1920s and 1930s, Canada asserted independence from Britain and the United States to develop

I suspect that the real motive of the Canadian government was not to protect Canadian culture in this dispute with the US. But rather, it seemed to concern more with political and economic factors. As appeared in the article, the Canadian government finally gave in and went on to settle the dispute (The Levin Institute, [1]). To me, that seems somewhat irrational to suddenly give up on one’s culture like they did, when the US threated to retaliate with trade barriers. As a speculation, I believe the dispute was motived by political and economic concerns. The Canadian government was attempting to defend the local media from a total domination by foreign media since it implies that Canadian businesses will be paying foreign corporations to have their products and services advertised on a magazine, even when local magazines have the capacity to provide the same type of service. Simply put, the concern seems to be related to the higher outflows of capital.

Each and every one of the world's many nations is unique in its own way. No two nations are the same in terms of the way they live. Whether it is driving on the right or left side of the road, pronouncing words a certain way or using hand gestures to communicate different meanings, each nation of the world has something that allows it to stand out. This uniqueness can come from certain religions, cultural practices, geography, history or from a multitude of other reasons. Despite this, a unique nation usually gains its originality and identity from its people. The way the people interact, live, work, play and have come to exist dictate how others perceive them as a culture. Canada is a provocative country with a divergent population.