[Canadian Volunteer]

Said YYZ,

"While I don't agree that the CRTC's attempts to protect and promote Canadian content are productive or useful, this does show that this is not about keeping certain viewpoints out of the Canadian market."

What makes you say that? What would you suggest as an alternative? Or do you really have any interest in hearing a Canadian voice on Canadian airwaves? Do you ever think of how different the broadcast spectrum would be if Canadian broadcasters didn't get all this subsidized product from the States?

And for the Americans here, how do you think you would react if 90% of the film and television that you see was from, say, England because the American networks found it much cheaper to acquire, even though the situations and characters didn't particularly reflect American values or situations? Wouldn't your nose be just a little out of joint and do you really think that Americans wouldn't go down a similar path as we have with the CRTC?

[-YYZ-]

What makes me say that is that despite the endless meddling of the CRTC over several decades, the private broadcasters in this country have never produced a significant amount of programming by, for and about Canadians. And what they have produced has been mosty execrable. Let's see, Canadian produced programs that I currently bother to watch: a grand total of one, the "Trailer Park Boys".

While limiting Canadians' freedom of choice greatly, the CRTC has never had any real success in promoting high quality Canadian programming that anyone would actually want to watch. Now, the CBC has done some good work over the years, and I actually support the CBC.