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If You Like Fox News, You'll Hate Canada (And Canada will hate you in return)
The American Enterprise ^ | September 2, 2003 | Marni Soupcoff

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, You’ll Love Howard Dean.” His point was that the far left Democratic Presidential candidate’s collectivist leanings on issues such as healthcare and taxes bear a strong resemblance to the near-socialist government setup in nearby Canada. Indeed, Dean’s surprising popularity is a good indicator of the trend amongst many left-libs in the U.S. to openly envy, admire, and aspire to Canada’s 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, I’m here to pose an important question to these liberal Democrats: How free can a people be if they’re 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 Canada’s 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 it’s 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? There’s 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 Canada’s Much Music network. Funny stuff? The CRTC is not going to let Canadians watch America’s Comedy Central because they’d probably realize what absolute crud is shown on the Canadian Comedy Network (man cannot live by SCTV reruns alone) and they’d never tune in again.  

It’s 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. It’s just the American stuff the cultural puritans at the CRTC can’t stomach.

-snip-

(Excerpt) Read more at theamericanenterprise.org ...


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; Extended News
KEYWORDS: canadianlife; communism; foxnews; homosexualagenda; islamicagenda; lifeincanada; speechcontrol
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To: quidnunc
extensive social safety net and universal health care system

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!

21 posted on 09/02/2003 4:07:18 PM PDT by Snake65 (Osama Bin Decomposing)
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To: Snake65
But on the other hand, the streets were clean. Just like Moscow!

I bet the trains run on time too, eh woodsnake?

22 posted on 09/02/2003 4:15:51 PM PDT by wizardoz (Bomb Hollywood!)
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To: mc5cents
mc5cents wrote: Did I read that correctly, they can arrest you for selling DirecTV dishes up there? I mean, if I lived there I couldn't the NFL Package? WTH! Oh Canada!! Glorious and Free?? I don't think so.>

But you'd get to watch the Canadian Football League.

23 posted on 09/02/2003 4:44:54 PM PDT by quidnunc (Omnis Gaul delenda est)
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To: steplock
Whether or not Cinemax is better than HBO, is not the point.
24 posted on 09/02/2003 4:49:52 PM PDT by TaxRelief (Demand equal rights to vandalism for all vehicle types!)
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To: quidnunc
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!!!

25 posted on 09/02/2003 4:51:25 PM PDT by mc5cents
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To: TaxRelief
Not to worry, I have been having this off & on debate with a world-wide group on the TRUE restrictions of sattelite receivers and programming.

So far, Everyone around the world thinks that they can receive everything uncensored via sattelite.

This includes, Canada, UK, Australia, NZ, India, Indonesia, etc. They all claim total freedom.

I tried telling them - try to build your own dish/receiver and see how fast someone shows up to check out their progress.....
26 posted on 09/02/2003 5:08:30 PM PDT by steplock (www.FOCUS.GOHOTSPRINGS.com)
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To: quidnunc
There are satellite services. The Daily show is shown in Canada. Complete NFL packages are available as well as all the other sports. The NFL local broadcast rules extend into Canada.
27 posted on 09/02/2003 5:11:38 PM PDT by xp38
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To: Snake65
I was just in Toronto over Labor Day Weekend for the World Science Fiction Convention.

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.

28 posted on 09/02/2003 5:42:52 PM PDT by JoeFromSidney
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To: steplock
Cinemax is 10000% better than the cr@p on hBO What? You don't like all the butt sex happening on HBO?
29 posted on 09/02/2003 5:55:55 PM PDT by Malsua
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To: Malsua
Don't watch cinemax after 12 am
30 posted on 09/02/2003 6:51:17 PM PDT by John Will
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To: SunStar
Plenty of people do it though. "Grey" market programming is a booming industry, and it works both ways. For a few years, I had a Bell ExpressVU mini-dish with some really good programming. It's not illegal to have in the USA, but Bell won't authorize you with an American address. You need a third party to provide you an address and handle your programming, and many places do for about $70/year.
31 posted on 09/02/2003 6:54:19 PM PDT by July 4th
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To: StarFan; Dutchy; Gracey; Alamo-Girl; RottiBiz; bamabaseballmom; FoxGirl; Mr. Bob; xflisa; lainde; ..
FoxFan ping!

Please FReepmail me if you want on or off my FoxFan list. *Warning: This can be a high-volume ping list at times.

32 posted on 09/02/2003 7:50:11 PM PDT by nutmeg (Is the DemocRATic party extinct yet?)
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To: nutmeg
Thanks for the heads up!
33 posted on 09/02/2003 10:02:32 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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To: quidnunc
Just when you think the Evil Empire has been defeated, the Union of Canadian Socialist States (UCSS) pops up on our own border. How long will it be before their very own KGB starts assinations in the USA?
34 posted on 09/02/2003 10:16:11 PM PDT by Jeff Gordon
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To: quidnunc
Was in Ottawa last weekend.

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)

35 posted on 09/03/2003 1:49:45 AM PDT by Steely Tom
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To: wizardoz
The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a little like that too. Nice folks, but when they're not actually speaking a lot of them just sit with eyes glazed over like puppets with their strings cut.

I dare you to come up here and say that, flatlander. ;-)

36 posted on 09/03/2003 6:39:01 AM PDT by an amused spectator
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To: Alberta's Child
For all it's flaws, it's hard to knock Canadian TV when it comes to hockey. When I was living in Calgary the Stanley Cup Finals could be seen on any one of four stations -- CBC (English), CBC (French), the local Calgary station, and the Spokane, Wash. affiliate of whichever U.S. network was carrying the game.

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.

37 posted on 09/03/2003 7:23:07 AM PDT by Timesink
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To: Steely Tom
Many dish antennas in Ottawa. On houses, on apartment balconies. If they're illegal, not too many are following the law.

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.

38 posted on 09/03/2003 7:28:35 AM PDT by Timesink
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To: quidnunc
This is going to be such an interesting world-revolution...
39 posted on 09/03/2003 7:32:15 AM PDT by Porterville (I spell stuff wrong sometimes, get over it, you are not that great.)
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To: steplock
Is it illegal to build your own receiver in the USA???
40 posted on 09/03/2003 7:35:14 AM PDT by Porterville (I spell stuff wrong sometimes, get over it, you are not that great.)
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