If You Like Fox News, You'll Hate Canada (And Canada will hate you in return)

The American Enterprise ^ | September 2, 2003 | Marni Soupcoff

[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-

[-YYZ-]

Hmmm, Global latched onto the rights for Fox News in Canada. Isn't their ownership one of the Liberal party's big supporters (that unholy alliance of big business and socialism). Maybe they grabbed the rights with no intent to broadcast in Canada, just to keep it and its conservative viewpoints out of Canada?

BTW, sorry for the earlier defensive comments about just staying in the US. I just get annoyed when people make what seem to me sweeping generalizations and paint Canada as being some sort of quasi-Stalinist nation. We're just a little ahead of the US in the creeping socialism department.

[doc30]

With respect to creeping socialism, it depends on the province :)

[wizardoz]

Sorry if I've insulted you, I like the U.P. just fine. Lake Superior is gorgeous... but I find the people somewhat peculiar.

[Allan]

In short
there is total freedom of speech
and information
in Canada
so long as you don't say anything
that offends anyone.

[BraveMan]

None taken. Being from the U.P., I have to agree with the assessment. &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp &nbsp ;0)

[Allan]

I'm surprised the Canadian gov't hasn't started to censor the web yet like red China(/sarcasm).

Just wait.(No sarcasm)

[Allan]

I do know it (FOX) isn't available in Windsor Ont, ot Toronto.

It isn't available anywhere. (legally)

[Allan]

Bump

[ronthecivil]

Ya, you got it. I lived in the states for three years, and I actually prefer the tv up here. Mostly because I prefer hockey over college football though....

P.S. I beleive we get fox sports, and if you get the digital cable, you can get a just as boggling amount of channels.

[ronthecivil]

Now, you just can't but US satellites systems in Canada!

Here's a news flash for all you trashing our evil communist cabal bent on keeping Canada pure, you can't get a Canadian system in the USA neither! This is a real disadvantage to those of you that just watch sports too!

[ronthecivil]

What the hell is thorazine?!?

[ronthecivil]

Oh, you can get the NFL package. Were not heathens up here!

[Dan from Michigan]

1/2 of the hockey viewers anywhere within 100 miles from Detroit will watch CBC Windsor over the US hockey telecast unless it's the local Red Wings crew carrying the game.

Not to mention Coaches Corner.....

[Dan from Michigan]

The Upper Peninsula of Michigan is a little like that too.

"Say ja to da U.P, eh?"

[Dan from Michigan]

flatlander?

I thought we were trolls.....:)

[pyx]

...but the situation is hardly as draconian or all-encompassing as you make it out.

Uhh... Mr./Ms. Toronto, try doing a web search on Google. Notice it saysGoogle.ca The "ca" limits your searches through a Canukian server. Try to buy or sell on eBay. Its a Canukian version - a reduced market.

The CBC is a "Crown Corporation". Owned and operated by your federal Liberal government in Ottawa. CTV is Canukia's second largest broadcasting network owned by Baton Broadcasting in YYZ ... err, Toronto. Baton Broadcasting is owned by the Bassett family. Douglas Bassett Junior runs the day to day operations. Douglas Bassett senior however, runs the day to day operations of Canukia's security and intelligence agency CSIS. Tell us there's no connection. Global Broadcasting (owned by Standard Broadcasting and Canukia's third largest broadcaster) is run essentially by two share holding families, one whom was the formerly into major government loans and the other is married into a not so distantly former Prime Minister's family. (And while this is being ignored, don't mention the Power Corporation, out of Quebec and who runs that.

Now I could go on about Stentor, Canukia's Government and Bell Telephone oligarchy that rules the telephone and cell telephone systems but, I sorta doubt you'd find anything wrong with that either. And I won't go on about your current unelected Prime Minister, Paul Martin who owns Canada Steamship Lines (Canada's largest shipping company) and the fact that every single ship in his fleet is flagged with an offshore flag.

You're correct. Its not that draconian, its incestuous. Its not that all-encompassing, its pervasive and incideous. And besides, Americans don't know squat about Canukia, right ?

[hosepipe]

LoL.....

[Calvin Locke]

I get 3 Canadian stations (one in French) on cable. They're great for watching movies that are otherwise tied up by certain US media companies.

That, and I can still watch a couple of US shows and minimize support for the US networks that I despise.
(Yes, I stopped watching other shows that aren't carried up North.)

Oh, and they do a much better job in showing the "minor" international sports and competitions.

The olympics were great too. I have to admit that the French announcers put much more oomph in to the broadcasts than the
either of the english offerings.

[wizardoz]

"Say ja to da U.P, eh?"

I think it's "ay" not "eh" ... ay?

[Eva]

When I visited Vermont this fall, I noticed that FOX was no longer in the regular cable line-up there, as well. I know that my relatives used to watch it, but for some reason it is no longer available.