Posted on 09/02/2003 3:07:22 PM PDT by quidnunc
A couple of months ago, columnist Doug Patton penned an article titled, If You Like Canada, Youll Love Howard Dean. His point was that the far left Democratic Presidential candidates collectivist leanings on issues such as healthcare and taxes bear a strong resemblance to the near-socialist government setup in nearby Canada. Indeed, Deans surprising popularity is a good indicator of the trend amongst many left-libs in the U.S. to openly envy, admire, and aspire to Canadas big government, model with its extensive social safety net and universal health care system. They marvel at Canada where people are free and taken care of.
Well, as a born and raised Canadian who has returned to her native land after a decade in the States, Im here to pose an important question to these liberal Democrats: How free can a people be if theyre not allowed to choose what they watch on TV?
You see, what Canadians really want to watch is American television. The professors and stuffed shirts who make up Canadas cultural elite do not like to admit this fact (CBC-loving Canadian nationalists will be the last people on the planet to notice that every remotely amusing Canadian ends up in Hollywood), but its true. Canadians thirst for timely episodes of Ozzie cursing a blue streak on The Osbournes. They crave the ability to flip on ESPN and catch a ballgame no one else is carrying. They long for the novel pleasure of watching current events discussed by right-wing pundits on a conservative-slanted network like Fox News. (Well, okay, maybe that last one applies mostly to members of my immediate family, but you get the picture.) Yet, in all of these cases, Canadian viewers are denied.
Why? It all boils down to the disturbingly powerful Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), a quasi government agency that regulates what can be shown on Canadian airwaves and decides which TV channels Canadians may access.
The CRTC has decided, in its infinite cultural wisdom, that American stations such as HBO and MTV are simply not healthy for Canadians because they would steal viewers away from Canadian television offerings. Music videos? Theres no excuse for a healthy Canadian teenage girl drooling over imperialist MTV VJ Carson Daly when she could just as easily be drooling over an equally young, attractive, vacuous Canadian VJ on Canadas Much Music network. Funny stuff? The CRTC is not going to let Canadians watch Americas Comedy Central because theyd probably realize what absolute crud is shown on the Canadian Comedy Network (man cannot live by SCTV reruns alone) and theyd never tune in again.
Its not that the CRTC is opposed to everything foreign, of course. The Commission is currently considering an application by Canadian cable companies to add Arabic language news network al-Jazeera to the selection of television channels available for Canadian consumption. Its just the American stuff the cultural puritans at the CRTC cant stomach.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanenterprise.org ...
Just saying it doesn't make it true.
I was just in Toronto over Labor Day Weekend for the World Science Fiction Convention. Heard lots of Canadians b!tching about their health care--women basically have to pay through the nose to get to see a gynecologist, and anyone requiring expert assisstance heads to the States. Also I tripped over panhandlers every thirty feet while walking through downtown Toronto.
But on the other hand, the streets were clean. Just like Moscow!
I bet the trains run on time too, eh woodsnake?
But you'd get to watch the Canadian Football League.
Yhoopeee!! 2 downs and punt. Chinese fire drills on offence. I don't think so. I want my NFL damit!!!
I was also in Toronto for WorldCon. I have a Sirius satellite radio in my car. I had figured the signal would peter out at the border, with maybe a little reception just on the other side. To my surprise, Sirius reception was good everywhere I drove in Canada, including up to the Martyrs Shrine on Georgian Bay. I imagine they can't sell receivers to Canadians, but the signal is there and comes in just as strong as in the States.
Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.
Never thought of the thorazine connection, but it sounds about right. My thought was that Canadians are sort of cattle-like. Comes to about the same thing, I guess.
Many dish antennas in Ottawa. On houses, on apartment balconies. If they're illegal, not too many are following the law.
Canadians are all right, I guess. It's just that they spend an awful lot of time thinking about America, and how they don't want to be like us. As a result, they make some rather strange trade-offs.
(steely)
I dare you to come up here and say that, flatlander. ;-)
The difference is that anyone in the US who wants CBC hockey coverage can sign up for the cable hockey package and get it, without the FCC worrying that we're being tainted by socialist Canadian ideals.
It's not dishes themselves that are illegal in Canada, just American dishes. There are at least two satellite companies in Canada that provide only Canadian Government-approved programming. Those are the ones whose dishes you're seeing ... 99% of them, anyway.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.