Canadian Culture

The U.S through its reputation has influenced the world through their pop culture to furthermore emphasize Canadian stereotypes. This in turn ruins Canadian identity, as this emphasization replaces original Canadian culture, and heritage, with exaggerated stereotypes.

The 1920s was an exciting time for broadcasting technology in the west; the possibilities of all that this era had to offer were infinite and with it came much needed regulatory policies. Radio and television broadcasting were at their infancy and no one knew how big this idea of instant, national connection would become. Soon after this, it became apparent that Canadians prominently turned their attention to American broadcasting and, in turn, overlooked their own. This piece of information sparked the birth of regulatory policies and the Canadian Broadcasting Act which would control percentages of original Canadian and foreign content to see to it that Canadians would not lose sight of their culture and that the Canadian broadcasting industries could stay in business. Then again, why should the government have say over what their people are allowed and not allowed to watch, listen to, or enjoy? As it is, times are changing and more and more people are able to download or stream movies to which the government has very little control over. Is the idea that the Canadian Broadcasting Act was originally implemented for, even still necessary? New media has taken over the world, social media is a constant, and even if attempted, people would not be able to get away from the hundreds of advertisements that they see each and every day. The essential control needed to keep Canadian content, culture, and industry thriving is found in the Canadian Broadcasting Act (CBA) to which

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 a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Similarly, if a country follows the lead of those around it for the sake of conformity, is it really its own independent, sovereign nation? Canada has been stereotyped as a follower rather than a leader, unlike its neighbours to the south, but when put under analysis this label holds little weight. In the past 100 years, Canada has developed its own unique set of values geared toward peace, freedom, and equality. These values shine through in the way Canada shapes its foreign policy. In such cases as the Cuban Revolution and the Rwandan genocide, Canada has proved itself to go against the status quo in order to do what it thinks is right.

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.

Secondly, closer ties to America helped us form a culture we know to this day. American media was playing through Canadian televisions and radios. In the late 1950s after Canadian’s pride and joy was aggravated by the “Avro Arrow”, Canadian aviation talent went to America and helped with the man landing on the moon. This influenced Hollywood to dedicate movies and T.V shows. Some of Canadian actresses and actors stared in the playing of Hollywood shows and movies, along with American actors and actresses. Canadians started watching more television which influenced Canadian buying behaviours, clothes, behaviours, food etc. American culture had slightly influenced Canadian culture through media. Also America has always been Canada’s number one trading partner. Gordon Morton McGregor, who was head of the Ford Motor Company of Canada Ltd., set up the largest automotive car company in Candaians. This car company gave many Canadians jobs since they were manufactured by Canadians however the parts that came in for the automobiles were from America. American goods were being transferred to Canada so they can manufacture cars. The Americans have a culture that is recognized as being luxuries and rich. By America trading valuable goods with Canada we gained recognition as Canada being a wealthy and luxuries country. Canada and America

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 country has a particular fingerprint they leave with their media, and this is no exception with canada. As a nation we have a cultural identity we reflect with out movies and T.V. shows. Although Canada has been swamped with american media, CBC stays true to its roots by having “almost 100% Canadian content, with a mixture of dramas, comedies, documentaries and news programs”. In particular, Mr. D is a Canadian show featured on CBC, it strongly represents CBC’s mandate by including a large range of diversity, strong canadian traits in the characters and a purely canadian crew adding to Canada's cultural identity.

Canada is considered to be a cultural mosaic, where all cultures are embraced opposed to a melting pot where it is expected to adopt one culture. Government regulated media is more favourable than policies based off of self-regulated solutions when addressing Canada’s media industries and cultural needs. Canadians place importance on national identity and without government regulated policies, the content in the media would have minimal Canadian information. According to the Aird Commission, when Canada’s media was operating through private enterprise, many stations expressed conflicting content, however, with state regulated media, broadcasting allows the nation to have a unified vocation. One unified message being sent to the nations citizens is more beneficial than multiple broadcasts on differentiated and insignificant information.

Canadian and American cultural views were different which was proved because one is multicultural and the other is not. Canada was known as “mosaic” which means immigrants from any ethnic group were accepted here and were allowed to practice their religion. Therefore, they have a double identity ,meaning they are their ethnic group before a Canadian citizen as in Japanese-Canadian, Asian Canadian and so on . Whereas ,American culture was known as the “melting pot “, where they accept other cultures however they encouraged their citizens to give up their original culture ( Wells ,10 and 11 ). Canadian’s usually describe themselves as “NOT AMERICAN“(Wells,35) . Many Americans view Canada as a positive nation and as a better environment to live in then the United States . A legal sectary from Gastonia ,North Carolina said “Canada’s such a terrific place, I’d move there tomorrow if I could” (Wells, 35). This proves that Americans want to come to Canada since it is a safer environment due to it’s unique culture. Canadians are recognized as more modest, less aggressive and more down to earth then their southern neighbors (Wells,35).

Canadian’s have very diverse culture; we are one of the many countries that allow our citizen with several rights and freedoms. Canadian belief that citizens have the right of practicing any religion of our choice freely. Did you know that in Canada there are over 181 ethnic origins and over 93 languages spoken every day? With these origins come various traditions and celebration. To celebrate all these cultures Canadian hold heritage or culture fest every year in the summer. Canadians are allowed expressing themselves however they would like. Weather it is through art, clothing or literature; they can do it as long as it not hurting or offending anyone. One of the most valued arts in Canada is indigenous art. In school children learn about

“The Constitution Act, 1867 contained specific provisions designed to protect Quebec 's distinct culture and language” (Nicholson, 2003) Canada has always given guarantees to protect the Quebec culture, a policy would be nice but it is not an absolute must have as he portrays. Tremblay then moves on to say, that U.S Department of Commerce would like to deregulate the communications industry and how horrible this would be for Canada . He points out that once this happens the U.S will pressure Canada to do the same. Yet, he seems to forget that Canada is a sovereign nation that does not have to give in to U.S pressure. Canada sets its own policies without being influenced by others. It has and will always be this way. Quebec is already officially recognized as distinct, it is entrenched in the constitution. Simply put, it does not get any better than that.

One of the CRTC’s initial jobs was enforcing the Broadcasting Act of Canada, which stated that radio and television broadcasters must air a certain percentage of content that was at least partly written, produced, presented, or otherwise contributed to by people from Canada. This requirement soon became known as CanCon, or Canadian Content. Now, as time flew by, a principle concern was raised amongst a group of intellectuals and critics of the CRTC, a question that sparked a national debate: To what extent should the CRTC and CanCon play a role in today’s global world? Those that believe that the CRTC have a significant place in this globalizing world cite how CanCon prevents complete Americanization of Canada, protecting Canada’s culture, and gives exposure to Canadian content creators. On the other hand, the opposition side believes that the CRTC has no place, since CanCon gives not necessarily good content priority over better content just because they are Canadian, and also forces media outlets to make time for Canadian content that may not do well, thus wasting their time, and money. Personally, we believe that since it protects the culture of Canada, helps bring Canadian talent into the limelight, and gives consumers a more diverse selection, not just American music and films, the CRTC and its CanCon has a crucial part with Canada in modern day’s

Media such as journals, television, music and movies have influenced Canada’s culture in the past and continue to do so today. The Royal Commission on Publications, the Committee on Broadcasting and the Senate Committee on the Mass Media are all concerned with the fact that periodicals and broadcasting are dominated by American content (Smith, 2014, p.105-106). Due to the American’s dominance, the opinions and messages that are conveyed to the Canadians do not reflect Canadian culture, but more so American culture. It has an effect on the Canadians that are on the receiving end because their values and beliefs are altered based on what they hear, and their culture is starting to resemble more that of America than Canada. This is further proven when an observer in 1889 states: “American papers, magazines, books, periodicals, secular and religious, for children and for adults, fill Canadian homes...”

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