[-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.

[Canadian Volunteer]

I'll take a bit of issue as you may recall a little thing called CanCon. Without it, do you think Shania Twain, the BareNaked Ladies, Celine Dion (okay let's not go there on that one) would have hit the American radar? As far as Canadian programming being mostly excrable, that has more to do with Global and, to a lesser extent, CTV, trying to throttle the baby in the crib. But, as you point out, there's TPB, "This is Wonderland", "Red Green" and some other shows that more than hold their own. But, the problem is that incoming American shows are functionally subsidized, making it almost impossible to compete on a lvel playing field. The thing is, that the ball is slowly beginning to gather some momentum here and now isn't the time to be trying to turn the clock back 30 years. Everything American isn't gold and everything Canadian isn't crap. There are a lot of quality American shows simply because the industry down there has more money to throw at the wall to see what sticks. Nobody remembers the failures and the successes are trumpeted hither and yon as proof of the superiority of Hollywood. Bit disingenuous, wouldn't you say?