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Outgoing CRTC Head Says Technology Is Eroding Canadian Culture
Patchw0rk F0g writes "Canada's outgoing CRTC head, Konrad von Finckenstein, has some choice words for his successor: Internet and wireless technology has disarmed federal regulators of their weapons to protect cultural identity. The retiring Finckenstein cites over-the-top broadcasting, new Internet technologies and (perhaps most importantly) the fact that the CRTC is antiquated and can't keep up with these emerging technologies as factors in the (still)-growing culture-loss of Canada to the U.S. 'We have now moved into an era where the consumer is in control, and where thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, you cannot control access any more,' he said in one of his last interviews."
"Technology is eroding the iron hegemony of Bell and Rogers! Sheeple Canadians are starting to wake up and realize they are being bent over a barrel and are getting restless!"
The CRTC is an unelected, largely unaccountable old-boy's club for power-players and lobbyists from Bell and Rogers. The CRTC's only mandate is protecting the duopoly of Rogers and Bell, nothing else.
This is a guy who's trying to stop the wheel of time from turning.
Why is the US pointed at as the reason for their culture loss? I'd agree that the internet is causing some culture loss, but you could also counter by saying it is causing culture gains. I know personally my life has been impacted by the culture of different nations due to the readily accessible nature of information on the computer. In my house you would think it more Asian than American due to the internet.
I also see this at my kids school. Both in style of dress and the behavior of the kids.
While I do agree that it is important to know where you come from, I don't think it is wrong to embrace other cultures. In essence isn't that pretty much where all culture stems from, the exchange of ideas?
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
The consumer ( aka normal people) are in control of their own decisions about information and culture?
Oh no, whatever will we do.
âoeTolerance applies only to persons, but never to truth. Intolerance applies only to truth, but never to persons.
'We have now moved into an era where the consumer is in control, and where thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, you cannot control access any more'. Sounds kinda butthurt to me.
Nobody says, "Hey lets go out for some Canadian tonight."
Konrad von Finckenstein
Anyone else read "von Frankenstein"?
I'm a native born white Canadian living in one of the most multicultural cities in the world and I can't stand the CRTC. Living here for 25+ years, I don't even know what Canadian culture is, let alone why we need a bureaucracy to defend it. The only people the CRTC are serving are hacky television writers whose shows get put on CBC and cancelled a year later. They are completely out of touch with reality and need to go.
If the dollar is an "I owe you nothing", then the Euro is a "Who owes you nothing." - Doug Casey
As a Canadian, here's the solution I'd suggest:
Stop trying to force Canadian content on Canadians!
If the content is good and provides something consumers want then it'll be a success. If it's Canadian-created filler crap then it won't, regardless of how forcefully it's stuffed down our throats.
And don't claim that Canadian content can't be successful on it's own because that's just bullshit. Just look at the music industry to see lots of Canadian content that's successful south of the border for the most glaring example.
'We have now moved into an era where the consumer is in control, and where thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, you cannot control access any more,' he said in one of his last interviews."
You say that like it's a bad thing, Konrad.
Trailer park boys.
“We have now moved into an era where the consumer is in control, and where thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, you cannot control access any more,”
And thank God for that. What country does this guy think he lives in? I'd expect that in communist China but in Canada? Ouch.
I suppose it's just one more example of a government being unhappy about losing control of the minds of its people. In all honesty, if Canadian content can't compete with American then it deserves to lose.
Basically Canada is still going through issues trying to figure out what it means to be Canadian. A large part of how many Canadians seem to define themselves as as "not American" hence the "little brother" syndrome I talk about. They are like a little kid who is saying what they are is the things the big kid is not.
This isn't such a problem for the average man on the street, of course, but it is a big issue for the government and various folks. They have a real issue with trying to decide what it is to be Canadian and protecting that. There are even things like laws requiring a certain amount of content on TV and radio to be Canadian in origin.
Ok, I forgot to mention Drake, who is a lovely blend of wrapper and Canada's values. It's almost comical when compared to the US gansta/thug rapper image.
Slashdot's rate-of-post filter: Preventing you from posting too many great ideas at once.
Canadian what?
Internet and wireless technology has disarmed federal regulators of their weapons to control cultural identity.
FTFY.
There's no scientific consensus that life is important.
"We have now moved into an era where the consumer is in control, and where thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, you cannot control access any more,' he said in one of his last interviews."
Good. Out with the old, in with the new. Seeya, sucker.
I would like someone to define "Canadian culture" for me, because I can't seem to find a single one that you can call "Canadian."
Is it English Canada or French Canada, or is it Polish, Scottish, Chinese, or Malaysian?
That's not to even bring up Greek Town over by Queen St East.
Ouzo for everyone!
--
BMO
Canada is a colony of the crown, much like Australia. It is primarily a British-US culture save for some belligerent Frenchies in the East. Canada's original culture was North America Indian including Eskimos (Inuit), which have been marginalized by western culture. Canada's best comedies are take-offs of British shows (Canda's worst Driver) and their original stuff "Corner Gas" is marginally funny. (Kenny vs Spenny, Kids in the Hall, etc successes are short-lived) Anyone sufficiently funny winds up in the US (Lorn Micheal's, Micheal J Fox, etc) however these people are more "American" than Canadian.
Don't get me wrong, I love Canada. But the culture isn't original, it is derivative at best, copied at worst.
Canada hasn't been a colony since 1867. What makes Lorn Michaels and Michael J. Fox more American than Canadian? If anything, can you not say that American culture is affected by Canadians?
http://astutehosting.com/
People like konrad makes me puke. I can`t believe someone or a bunch of people (the board of crtc perhaps ?...notice the lack of capital letters in crtc...they don`t deserve it) supported that guy. With that kind of talk and thoughts towards canadians, Internet and the whole technology no wonder why the canadian technology is so retarded and back in the dark ages. I'm a canadian and I'm ashamed of what my country thinks about technology. The bad part in in this Konrad is not the only one who thinks technology is going to fast and they can't keep up; just look in the political world. They don't give a positive feedback too. FFS, everything is in place to give more culture to canadians, the technology is there, the brain is there, the creativity is there but almost no one is using it yet. Since when did you go in a school and used technology properly ? Hell, most technologies are blocked in schools, most people in schools (ie: teachers) don't know what to do with the Internet or hell technology all together. No one wants to use it. By the way, Konrad doesn`t know squat about culture. He could start raising his fist to his own government and give more money to the cultural department...seriously. In my province, the only culture we learned was the american indians in the early ages in Quebec. I mean, don`t want to piss anyone off but i don't care about that alone. I want to know more about the political world..well anything to do in our age...give me culture..not only math, my language and some idiot philosophy classes. A whole world exists out there.
Battlestar Galactica, SG......
I'll back up your point about successful Canadian content here in the US. I've also noticed an interesting side-effect of the CanCon rules . . . There's a hell of a lot of CanCon on American TV. A lot of it is pretty good, and you wouldn't notice it except for the northern accents (which don't vary that much from northern states) and an occasinoal "eh", more frequent on documentary/reality shows (e.g. anything with Mike Holmes) than on works of fiction.
www.wavefront-av.com
Many governments around the world are trying to control the internet, to stifle the democratization of information and access. In the end they will lose.
Apparently I've been wrong since 2003. Kenny vs Spenny is somehow "culture."
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
There is more to it than that; we're more socialist, and less warlike. We have a smaller percentage of visible blowhards among our citizens travelling the world as tourists. We don't have isolationism or protectionism as a political philosophy. We don't (and honestly, couldn't if we wanted to) support puppet dictatorships to further our own ends.
Of course, the USA is a big place. So is Canada. Both countries have a wide variety of cultures within them, and I'm speaking only of the 'international persona' of the two nations.
Also, 'Eh' went out of style a long time ago. And we have milk in bags.
They aren't losing to American culture, American media makes "anti-culture" defined by self-interest, reactionary thought, celebration of ignorance, 0-empathy thinking, and vengeance over justice.
"If any question why we died, Tell them because our fathers lied."
no the newfies have there own bizarre culture to, inbreed though it may be, no one can deny that they are unique. for people who have never heard of newfoundland think red necks with less brains and guns, mixed with more irish and 200 years of inbreeding
---Saying gnome 3 is better than windows 8 not so much a compliment as it is damning with light praise.
As a Canadian I say this: (as has been discussed many times before)
- What is Canadian identity? First of all we need to accept that we IDENTIFY very strongly with the US (culturally, economically, strategically). So denying it does not grant us identity, just makes us look like hypocrites. The strongest Canadian values we have are our (misunderstood) compassion and generosity. Many times I have witness how Canadians jump to help in times of need without hesitation and I recognized that as truly Canadian.
- There are way more important issues for the CRTC than being the cultural champion for our society (that is actually the job for Heritage Canada http://www.pch.gc.ca./ We have a pressing need for guaranteeing communication access to all Canadians (internet, phone, cell phone) as a competitive service and not serving special interests groups (Bell, Rogers, Shaw, etc). Monitoring profanity and violence is non existent in radio and some tv shows, surprising for a conservative government. More access to diverse cultural (and political) views from varying parts of the country.
So in essence, the same ridiculous quotes from the Harper government to distract Canadians from the real issues and convince them of the virtues of his schemes.
Does Anachronox count? The universal currency used in that game is the Canadian dollar.
Oh, the horror.
Did he actually manage to make that sound like a bad thing?
I got to thinking about why other places preserve their culture in person and online despite being online and it's pretty obvious. It's not the internet's fault that everyone in Canada is too far away from each other to maintain sufficient interaction to preserve their culture. Speaking two main languages across the country probably doesn't help either.
...the fact that the CRTC is antiquated and can't keep up with these emerging technologies as factors...
Doesn't that say it all?? Here's my solution: disband the CRTC and use the money to fund local bands/artists. Maybe setup a new "record label" that is a little more in-tune with society of today, not of yesteryear. There's a lot of things we could do with the money! (Our money mind you!)
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
All the posts I'm reading are "Canada has no culture". Seriously?
Of course Canada has a culture; Quebec has a more unique example, but for English Canada there are a lot of cultural similarities between their culture and the United States' culture, so most of those characteristics are subsumed under the US cultural umbrella. Canada's resulting perceived culture is more fragmented, less in your face than other cultures. We could easily lose these fragments and become more 'international' (though most English speaking Canadians get information from english speaking countries, so that means the US and UK mostly). All nationalist cultures will face this in the coming years.
The question, really, is does this constitute a problem? It's a question of identity: 'what cultural groups do you identify with?'. Nationalism has a very real hold on our identity. We need that feeling of belonging to something, and everybody is born into a nation. However, online experience has already show us that 'virtual reality' provides that feeling of belonging and the groups with which we identify and to which we belong have changed drastically. This is a fragmentation of previous groups, and of course the previously established cultural groups are going to fight back.
Of course, the results of this fragmentation remain to be seen. Maybe it's better to belong to a group that all your neighbours belong to so that we share something in common with them, and some weak nationalism has a greater value then we currently understand. Maybe the explosion of smaller groups will allow a stronger connection within the group while a weaker without. I personally think that both are useful, and that Canadians should want to understand their culture, just as all other nations should want to understand their own culture. Having to legislate it in fear of losing it shows mistrust on one side and disinterest on the other, an ugly combination.
It would appear that the Canadians are eroding Canadian culture by choosing American products(is it even logically coherent to be able to erode 'your' own culture? Is it even logically coherent for a population as large and geographically dispersed as Canada to have 'a' culture?).
Lest my opening mislead, though, I would argue that the technological developments that the CRTC flunkie is complaining about are eroding the CRTC's ability to 'protect' 'Canadian culture'; but they are also eroding any need(we can argue about whether there ever was one; but there is a framework for arguing that there was) for that ability at the same time and by the same means.
Traditionally, 'culture' came in two flavors: small-scale, organic, locally-produced stuff, which is produced spontaneously, for basically nothing, for some mixture of pleasure and local consumption. Interaction with any broader market is limited; but capital costs are virtually zero, and operating costs are subsistence level. The other flavor, substantially newer, was the 'national culture' which really only existed in a coherent sense with the advent of modern printing technology, reliable mail, radio, TV, national distribution networks for recorded media, etc. This stuff is almost exclusively produced as an economic matter(even if some author or violinist or something does it for the love of the art, it ain't getting printed, taped, or mass-distributed unless some bean-counter says so). Its production and distribution tend to be moderately to heavily capital intensive, fairly centralized, and with considerable economies of scale.
Now, if you give any credence to the argument that the preservation of 'national culture'(to the degree that such an animal exists, and to the degree that such an animal is seen as "authentic" rather than as a bland, homogenous, destroyer of small-scale local cultures within the nation), Canada had a problem: traditional broadcast media and mass-market printed matter all reward capital investment and economies of scale(marginal cost of a paperback or an additional listener, fuck-all. Fixed cost of media empire or initial production, huge). Since the US is much larger, population wise, and modestly wealthier, it makes overwhelming economic sense that most of the 'culture' companies would be large US conglomerates producing 'American'(whatever that means in this context) culture tailored to appeal to American customers, and sold incidentally to anybody else who was interested. Thus, a competition between the 'Canadian' and the 'American' mass-culture businesses would likely favor the 'American' ones(the scare quotes are because, as businesses, the locations barely matter, they are probably both Delaware corporations operating as subsidies of multinationals headquartered at a P.O. box in the Cayman Islands, their 'location' just refers to their intended market). Now, America happens to have been historically superb at such contests(being reasonably populous, quite wealthy per-capita, and good at grabbing creative people from various messy collapses into war and mayhem of the 20th century); but the phenomenon isn't uniquely American, the same outcome would hold between any two nearby countries of sharply dissimilar market size with competing mass-culture industries.
However, the various effects of the internet(which do weaken the CRTC's abilities) also weaken the traditional dynamics of mass-culture sale. If the only way for something to hit the radio is because ClearChannel decides to put it there, Canadian music might have a problem. If technology radically reduces the cost of production and distribution of mass culture, it suddenly becomes much easier for the organic, local, semi-recreational, Canadian grassroots cultural producers to spread their stuff far and wide. Even if the means by which they do so are scary American companies, those scary American companies now exert much less cultural pressure. An American record label isn't going to
I'm happy to see that the CRTC has failed in their mission to shove their vision of "Canadian culture" down our throats so far. I'm even happier to see the CBC sweating as they are getting grilled by Sun News as to how they account for the billion + a year they get from taxpayers.
But I suppose since I'm not First Nations or Quebecuois, I'm just not good enough to be considered part of Canadian culture in their eyes.
If it were up to these guys, all that would be on Canadian tv would be Road To Avonlea and Corner Gas.
when the US introduced this guy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtILxBszyf8 to Canada, and it took off there like crazy :P
mov ah, 4ch
int 21h
Owing mainly to the global economy, everyone's culture has changed and every country has assimiliated elements of other countries. For example, the U.S. has a pretty strong following of Zen Buddhist philosophy imported from Japan and many alternative medicine ideas imported from Asia. Each country is almost becoming a small melting pot in its own right.
The Canadian content rules are outmoded: let's face it Justin Bieber and Michael Buble outsell a lot of Americans. And a few years back, you had Shania Twain, Alanis Morisette and Celine doing the same thing. Canadians are doing just fine.
So, can all Canadian radio stations please stop playing the same old Bryan Adams songs please!!
The culture that we have to pay twice as much as 100km south?
I guess I'll get flamed for this, but the only cultural difference from the US have to be (mildly) claimed by the french, the natives, etc.
Geographically and linguistically, it's too hard to distinguish if we were to forget about the borders (actually, even for the french and natives in many areas!).
What he really means is that the US is gaining more culture per round than Canada. They are just afraid of the culture borders being eroded because of this. What they need is a good Canadian culture icon so they can do a culture bomb.
While probably not the most amazing stuff out there, up here in Canada, my (asperger) son has found a venue for expressing himself thanks to easy access to music producing software, and actually has a chance at being heard thanks to free distribution sites like soundcloud and bandcamp.
I don't hold a lot of hope of the CRTC protecting his cultural expression. An open and free net is probably the only way he'll be heard.
I'm in my right mind and I have the answer to everything!
I think he's sending Canadian Culture to a very receptive U.S. audience, and in doing so, he's eroding our American culture of house building.
As the song goes, "He is Daaaaaangerous!" ;)
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Yeah. Catch it quickly, before poutine and polkas are a thing of days-gone-by.
Signed,
Robertson "Yes, I know that I'm dead" Davies
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
1) They still have hockey
2) They're still not American (except when remonstrating with an American for using the term to mean "of or relating to the US)
3) Some of them still speak French
Bonus: Evangeline Lily (who speaks French)
Looks like Canada's culture is doing just fine.
That's misguided at best. You make it sound like we are all hardcore hermits wearing hijabs.
Immigrants who want to live in Canada learn their culture, language and even learn to like hockey! It's no small task.
But don't confuse that with us willing to erase our mother tounge, religion or traditions, we couldn't even if we tried.
So where were your grand parents from?
Actually;
The Metis have a culture, as do the Innu (Eskmo is american slang and considered derogatory as it's associated with many stereotypes; for a synonym think n-word for African Americans); Canada is the only country on the planet where two warring factions which had been fighting for over 100 years, put down their arms and integrated; last I checked we are the only place on this planet that this has ever happened in recorded history. The battle between the English and French ended here; the U.S. up and had a civil war before hand but I would split too if I were taxed without representation.
Despite popular belief the French rattle sabres and talk of separation but it's only talk (over 60% are tired of the old separatists as they have only commited fraud and done nothing for Quebec, currently the NDP is a majority in QC, both ENGLISH and FRENCH are spoken in Quebec with the north and eastern shores as well as a number of townships bieng English; also every single show you've stated is a Horrible example of canadian culture; for our culture you need to come here; Go to St. Johns and Kiss the cod; Fish for Salmon on either the East or west coast and when you do hire a local guide; Go to downtown toronto and tell me how many language you hear? Or listen to the loons and frogs in any one of a thousand wilderness lakes; Mountian climb anywhere in BC or Alberta, hell visit the Calgary Stampede once in your life; The successes in our media per capita include people like Anjalena Jolie (She's from Montreal and there she's considered normal although I think the attractive women are due to the Cosmopolitan nature of that city); William Shatner, and others that are bastions of American culture in their own right. all you've done is taken the crap from the CBC at face value and said "Hey here's what a bunch of people consider Canadian..." That and demonstrated your clear ignronace of this country. Culture will exist regardless of the body involved; Our culture is unique; we speak a plethora of languages not spoken elsewhere; we do things that the americans don't understand and the birtish have forgotten; we also have lot's of traditions that you won't find unless you go into a pub here; and each city and town is diffrent. It's not derivative that would be stating that the U.S. is a deriviative of Britan (they are not as both cultures are vastly diffrent). Any linguist will tell you; isolate any group of people long enough and it's not just the language that changes...
Having worked with a Kiwi I can tell you NewZealand is also VERY diffrent than the U.K. or Austrailia; having lived with an Austrailian each of these cultures is unique; they share similar features but the "Values" each of these individuals maintained as a result of their respective backgrounds were as varied and individual as each of our DNA is. Even in england there are HUGE diffrences between the Irish; Scotts and British people.
It's like a shit tree.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Canadians didn't defeat the Nazi. The allies did in the first place. canadians did their share of help. For the propaganda part...I think that really depends where the education is because in my part, there wast any culture education. We were too poor. Our government cut on that..hell they cut everything.
You fail as a fake defender of Canadian values, as I Canadian I feel sorry that you swallow the government propaganda whole without questioning.
How far are you living from the American border? Why can't you move up north where you are needed most?
Globalization for the past couple thousand years have seems to be a factor in changing cultures for quite a while.
And there are always people who get pissed off by this natural effect.
You get those crazy Romans who take over a culture, if they didn't kill every man, woman and child, usually caused a portion of their culture to rub off to the entire roman empire, although the conquered people usually get the biggest culture shift. However if the mighty Roman Empire could be switched to Christianity, which has been a small sect in an outskirt territory. Putting all debates about religion aside it shows how globalization effects all cultures involved.
So now in the 21st century We have near instant globalization of ideas and products. So cultures are changing. They are not going away but they are changing and are being effected by outside sources. Americans know about the music and shows available in Japan, or in India, we can talk to people from these areas and make friends of them. Also vice-verse a lot of countries that are newer to globalization feel more threaten then others, because their culture has been isolated for so long that their culture has been the same for a long time, however forces are causing it to change. Ideas on morality, politics, and stereotypes are becoming more diverse and the culture is changing to either accept these new ideas or reject them... But these new ideas are out there to be thought about, and they are changing culture more rapidly then what everyone was used to.
Many Americans are threatened by the ideas from Asia and the Middle East, as well these groups are threatened by Western ideas. They put to call our ideas of morality and what is right and wrong.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
Canada could have had British Culture, French Cuisine, and American Technology. Instead, they settled for American Culture, British Cuisine, and French Technology.
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
It should say "Outgoing CRTC Head Says Technology Is Eroding Canadian Xenophobia"
As with France and the American South, "loss of Culture" is code for nationalistic prejudice and/or racism.
I see the mixing of cultures as a good thing.
New resources in Canada are being exposed (i.e. thawing out.) Canada can make a claim on Arctic resources which are now in a "land rush" due to also being exposed and explored. Canada is the largest country in the world in terms of landmass and is positioned to potentially have a milder climate to grow crops in when global warming/climate change severely disrupts the climate and weather of the US farming industry.
So we might as well make the "annexation" easier via cultural means instead of doing so via a crude, overt coup or invasion.
P.S. I'm not sure if I'm being funny or serious.
What makes Lorn Michaels and Michael J. Fox more American than Canadian? If anything, can you not say that American culture is affected by Canadians?
Nothing. There is no distinction between the American and the Canadian culture. Most people just call it the American culture because the USA makes up for 90% of it.
It was already hard enough to own a Canadian. And now escaped ones are now hard to tell apart from Americans.
There go my dreams of owning a maple syrup plantation.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
and maybe back bacon, too. or maybe not. hey, this old fart is whining about losing Canadian culture, eh. like, can't he find his toque or something? take OFF, hoser. just make, like, these IS and Ps end every sentence on the net thing with eh, then, eh. so that's our topic for today.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
It depends how you define "Canadian" content. Almost anything from SyFy, past and present, is made in Canada. Stargate, Battlestar Galactica, etc. A few network shows are too. Fringe, for example, is shot in Vancouver.
The question becomes, when is a show Canadian? Stargate was shot in Vancouver, with a Canadian crew, a mostly Canadian cast, Canadian writers, Canadian producers... The only thing distinctly American about the show was where the money came from. Does that make Stargate Canadian? Most people seem to think it does, and it tended to win the Spacey award for best Canadian show every year.
Content that might not exist if it weren't for the CRTC. Networks up here might just lazily buy the broadcast rights for US shows rather than look for anything original.
There is a lot that I don't like about the CRTC, but mandating Canadian content isn't so terrible. Especially since it is so easy for the consumer to watch or listen to whatever they want anyhow. The content rules really just provide incentive to create content in Canada, keeping the domestic industry operating.
Unfortunately, that same protectionist attitude that keeps small Canadian studios and artists going is also being used to protect a few big telecommunications companies from having to actually compete against the big bad US and European network providers.
FUBAR
Don't forget peameal! My fellow Americans, the Canadians have a delicious meat called peameal bacon, tastier even than Canadian bacon. We must acquire this product if we are to compete in the breakfast arena.
-- sudon't
Air-ride Equipped
If hockey's so cool, then why does "horse hockey" refer to BS more often than to polo?
Poutine? Isn't he the Prime Minister of Russia?
...that he's complaining the fact that expression is in the citizens' hands and thereforce culture is being lost, or that he's implying the idea that culture is derived from and only consists of media that's filtered through a large company.
Content being in the user's hands is actually a positive for culture. Culture thrives on the freedom of expression. Its very existence is predicated on it. The more widespread the particular instance of expression, the stronger the culture.
I can see why he might be complaining that U.S. popular culture is displacing Canadian popular culture (U.S. popular culture is by and large obnoxious and trashy in all respects), but that has nothing to do with either of his positions. Maybe instead, he should complain that parents aren't teaching their children properly, or that Canadian culture isn't well-defined enough for children to sufficiently differenciated it from U.S. culture. Both make more argumentative sense if he's decrying the loss of Canadian culture through the infiltration of U.S. popular culture.
As it were, he just comes across as trying to assert that the natural number 1 is equivalent to the logarithmic.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
You know what impact the internet has had on _me_ as a Canadian? I found out about http://www.heroesofthenorth.com/, that's what. The internet allows Canadians to produce material and post it online for other people- including other Canadians- to watch. What a /tremendous/ surprise that the head of a government agency dedicated to dictating to Canadians what their culture is equates loss of government control with loss of culture. Weapons to protect cultural identify my ass; these are the guys who told the CBC to drop Air Farce and 22 Minutes, ffs.
No OS on the planet can protect itself from a user with the admin password. - Yvan256
A cheeseburger in every mouth and Netflix on every TV worldwide.....you will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
It's quite funny actually. They talk about technology eroding canadian culture but where do prominent canadian artists go to tour/work? In the United States, where we create laws that favor the US and disfavor Canada on culture and copyright, etc. Yet Canada has bent over backwards to the US when a dollar sign carrot was put in front of them in order to kill their own culture. In fact, signing DMCA-like laws in Canada has worked faster to kill culture than even the consumers could do themselves.
So much for protecting your own country's integrity, huh.
Enough already. When they say 'Canadian Culture' they mean 'The lack of choices so we can charge high prices'
That's all it is. They're mad that someone else is doing it cheaper so they can't get as much money as they want to gouge Canadians for.
They want restrictions to force Canadians to pay higher prices for products and a limited market to maintain it. If we have a wide open free range market for material, TV shows and everything else, you'll have...dun dun dun..competitors. They hate those.
Companies I have worked for said the US market can be difficult, because everyone is used to having choices and options available to them, so if you're not competitive in pricing, technology, and features, you won't make it.
Think about that, that's /exactly/ what my manager said to me at this company, based in Canada that Markets in the US.
That to me says - In Canada, it's not as hard because people have no choice but to buy your crappy products at higher prices.
Heck, we're a major oil supplier to the US, and yet our prices for gas are higher. Go figure. If anything the unification of culture by CHOICE is a good thing. Then finally people can start truly putting differences aside and advance globally.
As the parent notes, there is a lot of Canadian and other Anglophone nationals and productions on "American" TV. Let's examine two "American" shows: Fringe (Fox) and Revenge (ABC).
:). In a sense, they may have a point; we may all just be regionalisms of the global Anglo-sphere.
Fringe stars Canadian Joshua Jackson, and Australians John Noble and Anna Torv. Fringe is shot on location in that great American city Vancouver, BC for the last 3 seasons. The pilot was shot in Toronto and the first season in New York.
Revenge stars Canadians Emily VanCamp and Henry Czerny, It also stars Englishman Joshua Bowman and Englishwoman Ashley Madekwe.
The two biggest American films ever: Titanic and Avatar were made by Canadian James Cameron and stared, respectively Englishwoman Kate Winslet and Australian Sam Worthington.
So, what's that about Canadian culture? It would be no less ridiculous for US Americans to talk about pernicious Canadian or Australian dilution of US culture. Canadians may just have to reconcile themselves that there really is an international Anglophone culture that we all share and stop trying to define their existence by showing they are not American. Embrace the fact that Canada is part of a cosmopolitan Anglophone international super-culture. I'm sorry if reality upsets your inner Quebecois.
BTW, you have nothing to fear; according to the French, the US doesn't have a culture
It would be a grim irony if obsessing about your object of scorn brought about your untimely demise. Perhaps yoga or mild sedatives might be an option?
What's really funny is, the US has long since lost it's various cultures. When I was a kid, traveling meant meeting people who spoke differently, thought differently, people with different histories and cultures.
Today? There is little variance between a fast food restaurant in New York or LA, and there is little difference in culture along any route between the two cities.
I wouldn't be smug about any nation becoming like America, because we've lost much more than we gained in the last 50 years.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I don't get this. Most of the good American content online exists behind paywalls (that require a US address) or foreign blacklists. Sure, we can circumvent many of these measures, but the average user doesn't (I assume). My point is that American advertisers will happily take over from the CRTC in denying Canadians access to American content.
Personally, I don't get the point -- since many American shows are produced in Canada, doesn't that inherently make them "Canadian content?"
Price, Quality, Time. Pick none. What, you thought you had a choice?
Instead, we got: British passion, American culture, and French know-how.
I have never seen a US city consider making public services free on a holiday
Maybe you should look harder?
http://totaltrafficla.com/2011/12/31/free-bus-train-rides-for-new-years-eve/21231
http://www.sfmta.com/cms/malerts/SFMuniNewYearsEve.htm
https://www.google.com/search?q=free+new+years+taxi
For millenia, groups of people, as well as like-minded individuals everywhere, have been separated from each other geographically, which effectively prevented them from exchanging information and ideas. However, as separate groups they did all find unique ways of communication and entertainment, knowledge, arts and beliefs, which we refer to as language and culture.
Now there's the Internet, and all groups connected to it find themselves being drawn into a single global culture with English as a unifying language. Some folks, Konrad von Finckenstein among them, lament this development because of what's being lost, but what about the bad things we're losing and the good things we're gaining? All these separate languages and cultures are interesting, but they have also prevented us from communicating and understanding each other, which has all too often resulted in violence and bloodshed.
Therefore, if we find that the continued growth of the Internet leads to a loss of individual languages and cultures, but an increase in communication and understanding overall, then that's definitely not something we should try to stop.
Every once in a while, anthropologists find a group of primitive people living in a jungle somewhere without ever having had contact with the outside world. They jump at the opportunity to study such peoples, but there are now questions about whether is it is ethical to keep these people as isolated as possible just to preserve their languages and cultures; outside contact would certainly include many dangers for them, but also many benefits. Besides that, shouldn't they have a choice in the matter?
The same goes for Canadians, or any other less isolated but nevertheless culturally distinct groups around the world: it should be their choice in the first place, and if they choose to further integrate themselves into the global village, then that's also a good thing.
If we're arguing that Canada has become Americanized, then the biggest risk of this is that Canada will adopt the same type of idiotic, tech-blind, censorious legislation that is represented by SOPA and PIPA.
No worries there. PIPA declared Canada to be part of the US, so they've got us covered.
Alternately, the RIAA/CRIA is already trying to turn Bill C-11 into SOPA Canada. (My favorite part is the one where they can stop Canadian 'infringers' from ever using the Internet but somehow forgot to mention needing any proof beyond their own word. Those forgetful sillys!)
And even if they somehow don't manage it, we'll be extending copyrights AGAIN anyway if we join the Trans Pacific Partnership because Ernest Hemingway's poor orphaned children need the money from the extended copyright to live. In their retirement homes.
And soon, just as in Civ IV, we're going to start seeing Canadian cities near the border changing allegiance to the USA. Pretty soon their whole country will fall to our cultural dominance, leaving just the capital city left as easy pickings for our Stealth Bombers, Modern Armor, Navy SEALs, and a few Axemen we never got around to upgrading. Once the entire continent is under our control we'll be well on our way to a Domination Victory!
But really, we'd better hurry, we only have another 38 years before the game ends.
Chelloveck
I give up on debugging. From now on, SIGSEGV is a feature.
If you think Quebec is the reason for this "americanisation" of Canada, you're living in a dream.
Well, I'd say we gained a lot in the last 50 years. It's just that it's in the waistline due to horrible food lobbying (not for me though, thankfully), which people are grossly unaware of.
Meanwhile, the US's culture is an amalgam of other cultures. That by definition, is their culture. Want to create $culture in an area? Go do it. Simple.
In all honesty those locations and other highly populated cities have the broadest variance in food versus the rest of the country, so I respectfully disagree on concept. Big cities are the definition of melting pot and where culture diversity tends to be the highest, even statistically. On this, you are backwards.
I sincerely pray that more and more countries rebel against the US - not through violence but outright rejection of our politics, because I don't see the US fixing that matter anytime soon, even when Lawrence Lessig and others points it out directly.
Actually I think the funny part is complaining that CANADIANS are eroding their own cultural by exercising their personal choice.
When an entire culture makes a choice, why would anyone presume to object?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Everything's derivative at best. I would argue that The Colbert Report and The Daily Show are derivative of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. I also wouldn't call shows like Kids in the Hall short lived when it aired for 6 years.
Saying Canada has no culture and that anyone of sufficient talent ends up in the US and effectively becomes more "American" than their country of origin is a pretty nonsensical statement. The NHL is filled with primarily Canadian players but most of the teams are American. Does that make all those Canadians playing in the US more "American"? Does it make hockey more "American"?
Canada's culture is one of individualism, tolerance and acceptance. The nation needed bilingualism to survive from it's very early stages and because it was much slower to be settled than the US, the native populations thrived much longer and had much more influence on Canada as nation. Multiculturalism is built into the foundation of the country, which can't be said of most other countries in the world (especially not the US which aimed to be a giant melting pot that assimilated other cultures into their own rather than preserve and nurture individual cultural groups).
The British aren't known for lumberjacks, beavers, poutine or long harsh winters the last time I checked. They had no Terry Fox, Tragically Hip, RCMP or Anne of Green Gables. For such a small nation Canada has produced a wealth of artists, musicians, authors, comedians, athletes, television shows and film. If you're blind to it, then that's a shame but Canada has culture and it's a lot deeper and more complicated than you seem to realize.
"We have now moved into an era where the consumer is in control" Thats a good thing! As a Canadian I am sick of this "protect our culture" bullshit. Culture is what the population makes it, not what the government decides it should be with censorship. I embrace globalization, enjoy media from all over the world and I watch a show because of its quality, not its nationality. I don't need the gouverment to scold me and say: "be more Canadian!". Beside, its not like there is a lack of successful Canadian artists and actors in the United-States.In the end, freedom of choice is worth the price.
If you think that's what I wrote, perhaps you need to take Basic Reading Skills for $100.00?
The CRTC is supposed to protect culture? Nonsense. How its mandate got extended to that is a classic example of "mission creep". It was supposed to be about licensing radio and tv broadcasters. The "Canadian Content" requirements are a joke. Example: Bryan Adams (a Canadian) is not considered "Canadian content" for purposes of air play.
It should go back to its original purpose - making sure that the public spectrum is allocated in such a way that broadcasters don't step on each others signals. The other function of the original CRBC (which was the antecedent to the CRTC), you can figure out from their own web site
Backwards, you say? Maybe I should explain in more detail what I meant.
Eating while traveling was a genuine adventure, when I was a kid. You had no idea what the next restaurant might offer. See, there wasn't a Mickey D at ever major crossroads. The cities had so many different foods available, a kid's head would spin, trying to figure out what to eat next. Podunk towns didn't have that much variety, but the Podunks changed from one region to another. Crossing a state line could be a culinary adventure.
Today? Yeah, the cities still have quite a variety, in comparison to all the little backwater towns. But, they certainly DO NOT have the variety that was available when I was a kid. New York has it's deli stands, but, where to go for a real Russian menu? Or, German? Slovakian? They used to be a dime a dozen, sprinkled among Jewish restaurants, Chinese, and everything else you could imagine. Not just in Manhattan, but out in the Bronx, in Brooklyn, and out on Long Island.
No, I simply cannot find the variety that existed when I was a kid. You have to actually search out anything different, and then your choices are rather limited.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
"'into an era where the consumer is in control, and where thanks to the Internet and mobile devices, you cannot control access any more". So previously you did controlled your own people!? Have a sit on an electric chair then!
just because businesses in your perspective may have closed, moved, or simply become less popular in $years since your last experience doesn't mean that the US is somehow a: lacking in culture or b: that those cuisines no longer exist. In fact, single lazy google searches of everything you referenced pulls up examples for all of them. I just spent 10 seconds on google and found places. Quantity can and will vary, as will quality. This is the nature of any business, let alone restaurants.
Just because of the corporations building shit on every corner with a profit motive doesn't mean local cultural businesses don't exist. Your thinking is just as generally inaccurate as the concept of Canada's "protect our culture" regimes. They are ignorant in the face of a global marketplace, which we have. Just because people are stupid enough to eat at McDonalds doesn't mean local restaurants can't possibly be in business too.
Quite. Not to mention the futiity of attemps to hold "culture" in some presumed state of purity or timelessness. Do Canadians (or anyone else) think that we should hold cultural practices of the 1700s, 1800s, 1900s? If not then where is the cutoff point? This is literal conservatism: holding up an idealised, reified, notion of national identity (that probably never existed) and saying this is who We are and We must not change, as to do so would render us not Us anymore. Where would any group of people get if they proceeded (receded?) like this? Not out the caves of Africa, that is for sure.
Fuckin' pea brained, retrograde, conservitives, dont they have the power to extrapolate their own backwards looking notions?
Second City Television decided to address the Canadian goverment's requirement that Canadian television had to have two minutes of Canadian specific references by letting Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas have free rein. Thus was born that ode to Canadian living, "The Great White North!" (Is that enuff Canadian fer ya, eh?) :)
The rest of Canada has it's own cultural identities. For instance, the "Mosaic" festival put on every year here in Regina, Sask, highlights all the various cultures that are around the city/province, including Chinese, Indian (from India, rather than "First Nations", or whatever we're calling them this year), Aboriginal, Ukranian, German, Polish, Irish, Scottish, Korean, and many many more groups, all who are more than capable of keeping their own culture, history and traditions without having it be mandated by law.
Quebec, on the other hand, is so scared and incapable of keeping it's own culture that is has to mandate rules and restrictions by law to prevent any outside influences creeping in. For instance, in Canada, public signage must be dual-language, English and French. In Quebec, any signage in English (Even if it's dual-language) will get you a hefty fine. Quebec has voted on separating from Canada several times, and each time the referendum failed. The problem is that some of Quebec wants to separate completely from Canada, but to keep the Canadian Government jobs, social security, healthcare, army, and money. They also asked France for their support, which was strongly denied.
You guys all have short memories or just don't know the history of the CRTC. It originally had an arms-length relationship with the gov't and could pass regs as necessary to protect Canadian cuture and also bring some order to the natural monopoly of the telcos and the wild-west broadcasters. It's arguably (obviously) important given our proximity to the monster-to-the-South but mostly needs to be around to protect us from ourselves given our damned colonial atitudes in this country that will sell out everything we own here to every big country or corporation from "far away" in a blink of an eye. Well, that was then... this is now, and the CRTC has turned into a toothless cow. Various corrupt governments over the years (this time, Harper and his reptiles) have tried to reign in the CRTC but the best leash was the Broadcasting Act of 1991 where the government (Federal Cabinet) got the power to overturn CRTC decisions it didn't like. You can argue "...serves the bastards right" but it also destroyed any ability of the CRTC to stop SOPA/PIPA kind of laws or make the Telcos behave. Too bad, but the CRTC was eviscerated a long time ago and nobody remembers the time when the broadcasters bitched endlessly about the CANCON (Canadian Content) regs but I saw it give a HUGE boost to the Canadian recording industry which is all the better for it. The film industry also benefited theoretically, but who can tell with the crap that producers, who exploited the good times, ground out. The real evil of corporate concentration happened after 1991 and the CRTC can't do anything about it now. It's long since rotted from the inside and is directed from the outside by the Darth Vaders that run the government. Could be way better... but then couldn't we all.
Actually, Military Historian John Keegan said in Fields of Battle: The Wars for North America, that the spread of chain establishments has done a lot to create a single unified American culture that strengthens the US and makes it less likely to splinter like it did in the 1860s or the Balkins did in the 1990s.
A person born in Mississippi who joins the Army and goes to Kansas and then Washington and finally to Alaska during their deployment have the familiar stores and restaurants so they don't feel as much like an outsider.
Keegan is a British historian and he observed how that ubiquity of chains in the US is so alien to a European that he saw it as a strength.
I live in Anchorage Alaska, we have Thai, Chinese, Nepalese, Indian, Mexican, Tex-Mex, etc all over the city.
Portland Oregon, where I used to live, a number of Russian, Ukrainian, German and even Indonesian restaurants, so in my experience, I don't really see this collapse of choices happening.
After the fallout of the American Civil War, 80 odd years after the American Revolution.
That's the export filter. Generally people only export the best stuff, so it tends to stand out. For every Kids in the Hall there were dozens of shows that were deemed not fit for export (for good reason).
I read the internet for the articles.
Even funnier is the fact that his own tenure at CRTC set the policy of openness on the internet of which he now complains:
From the wiki article:
Under his leadership, the CRTC decided in 2009 to continue to exempt from its regulation broadcasting content that is distributed over the Internet and through mobile devices.
Looking at his history, I think I'd be willing to overlook this semi ridiculous outburst, as the rest of his record seems rather impressive.
Disclaimer: I have stopped paying attention to Canadian politics some time around the death of John Diefenbaker, and I wouldn't know if this guy is conservative or liberal or even if those labels mean anything like what they do in the US.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
are considered culture?
Because that is all that the CRTC has done. They've allowed Bell and Rogers to hold the Canadian customer hostage.
No longer does the federal government get to guide what we see or read, and thus think. Nor are Toronto and Ottawa being culturally overfunded having any effect outside of those two areas. Eastern Canada is now free to resume its natral cultural relationship with the east coast of the US and into the Caribbean. And BC can continue its natural relationship with Asia. Alberta can resume pretending to be Texas. And central Canada can focus on themselves without dragging the rest of us along.
If anything this will make Canada more culturally diverse as there is no One Canada. (A single nation under two official languages.)
People like this are scary, especially when they are/will/were in power. Its all about using FUD in getting people to agree to being squelched and controlled. Only this time its with flag waving, not diaper changes.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Quebec no longer has a "distinct culture." The Internet already blew that away. Not that it was all that distinct beforehand. Back when the PQ first proposed regulating television to french-only broadcasts, they quickly shelved that because too many french-quebecers were huge fans of The Price is Right and Another World. Today it would be American Idol.
Quebec cannot join the US - the US doesn't want it. Quebec is financially finished. Where else in the world do you have someone earning $20,000 a year paying over $5,000 in taxes?
And this despite getting $100 a month for each person from the feds in "equalization payments" for self-inflicted harm done by chasing away jobs for more than 40 years.
1% of the population lost their jobs in the last 6 months of last year - and half of that job loss was in one month - December - the only place in Canada where that happened (everywhere else either stayed the same or increased employment).
The provincial budget has a huge hole blown in it and no way to fix it. Not when you already have the highest tax rates in the world, the 4th-lowest income of all the states and provinces (ahead only of Arkansas, Mississippi, and West Virginia), and a debt to gdp over twice as high as any state. Why would the U.S. want to be stuck with that?
Except for me, my sister, my mother, now my father (he just got his citizen ship), mother's brother, parents, aunts, uncles, etc and so on.
I'm a dual, I go to Canada every summer, and have for more or less my whole life. I get to see plenty of both cultures, and so I'm pretty confident in my assessment. Canadians still have a big problem figuring out what it means to be Canadian, and much of it is simply defined as "We aren't American."
If you need laws and the treat of property seizure or prison to protect your national culture, your culture deserves to fall. Cultures need to survive on their own merits, and "cultural police" need to learn that dangling from a length of rope can be "cultural" too.
Everybody gets what the majority deserves.
Well, there are quite a few chains in US which are regional in nature - e.g. Jack in the Box, which would be a familiar sight for anyone on the West coast, but much less so in the East.
(e.g. anything with Mike Holmes)
I've always liked that guy.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled." Feynman
Taco Johns for Great Plains fast food Tex Mex, Taco Time and Burgerville for Pac NW fast food, etc.
I'm in Anchorage and we have two bases here, Olive Garden is opening today and morale on the bases is up because freaking Olive Garden is opening.
Also, sit down dinning chains with a branch up here generally have the restaurants in Alaska end up as the highest grossing and highest profit ones.
But places like Applebees, McDonalds, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, or even transregional places like Red Robin, Ruby Tuesdays all fit in with what Keegan was going on about.
Is the CRTC over its head? Yes. Are they the perfect example of a bureaucracy that has grown for absolutely no reason? Yes. Absurd waste of taxpayer's money. Yes.
A few Bryan Adams songs are not considered Canadian content because of a CRTC formula for Canadian music. Those songs if I recall were recorded in the US. I'll save the diatribe of reading the policy.
Basically, its a points system. One point if artisits is Canadian. One point song was written by Canadian. Minus one point recorded in the US. Mine one engineered by American.
To keep a radio license or avoid heavy fines, you need to air a certain number of songs considered Canadian according to the points above every hour.
Satellite radio and internet radio have been a great way to avoid this unnecessary regulation. And for those that hate Nickelback internet and satellite radio are a blessing (Thank you!). Nickelback is unfortunately a Canadian band and gives stations points for playing the song. Their songs are all on heavy rotation because of this.
And it just goes to show how pointless their points system is :-)
Technology is eroding government control of Canadian culture.
There is more to it than that; we're more socialist, and less warlike.
That's only because you have no money and no aircraft carriers.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
You're thinking of Confederation, when Upper Canada, Lower Canada, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick united for their common defence against the victorious north.
1763 was when Quebec was defeated leading many Americans to freak about the French (Catholics) being able to swear allegiance and join the government.
During the American Revolution lots of loyalists moved to Upper Canada and the Americans tried to take the Canadas by force. Washington was not very successful though.
The American Articles of Confederation included a special section on Canada, namely automatic membership in the Union.
So Canada has been around for a lot longer then it has been politically united and strictly speaking we only finished becoming independent in 1982 when the UK parliament passed a law saying they couldn't pass any more laws that pertained to Canada, and here's your Constitution.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
Perfect. You are the poster child of 'please don't vote'.
I love the anti-quebec contingent in Canada. A fountain of bullshit that would put Rev. Phelps to shame.
So, tomhudson, why don't you take this to the next level. Find out why your local politicians are so impotent that they cannot get the 'great special privilege' that Quebec politicians achieve so effortlessly. I don't think you will like the answer.
... was obsessed with "cultural identity"?
So culture is all about controlling access? Hmmm... There's some nasty truth in it. Basically that's what Nietzsche said...
Oh, the beautiful gloss of greality!
Actually, if anyone defeated the Nazis, it was the Soviets.
Stop the CRTC from approving every Tom, Dick and Harry US cable broadcaster from buying Canadian wire and air rights. End of problem.
The internet opens up my world to the BBC, Australian TV, etc. i.e. Other members of the Commonwealth. I watch very little of the US "reality" and "game show" drek. In fact, almost none.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I know bigbangnet didn't capitalize it at all, but sometimes British sources seem to capitalize only the first letter of an acronym. Nato instead of NATO for instance
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
how do you think IV compares to II?
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
Wish I had mod points.....
Thanks for saying exactly what I was trying to express.....
I will add that Canadians seem to be less polar than USians*. We have less disparity between rich and poor (unfortunatly this is changing...) less racial strife, more than two political parties...
*Since we are all from North America.
Point Taken
www.wavefront-av.com
Indeed. He seems like a real stand-up guy; the real deal, so to speak. I think it would be cool if more people set about the process of embarrassing their particular industries over the junk they produce. I tend to say that IT would be a good place to start, but the problem is that it is hard to convey the concept of "doing it right" to the layperson when it comes to IT. With general contracting work, it's something people can understand.
www.wavefront-av.com
Probably is the simple answer.
A more complicated answer would be, perhaps if you're going to visit a place you should learn the lingo, instead of assuming that every should learn English and have their signs in your language. Next time, take an English -> French dictionary with you. Or have 'net access on your phone and go to one of the many translation services.
I'll remind you that Canada, while supporting the US in Afghanistan, wasn't so keen on Iraq. As a nation, we've chosen to underfund our military, and we usually put our troops into a 'peacekeeper' role instead of that of an invader. I've lived in Canada my entire LIFE, and we're not as warlike as the Americans.
Yes, Canadians can be blowhards while abroad. More often it's Americans. We have a smaller percentage (and of course smaller absolute numbers) of our tourists who are loud and brash. Loud and brash isn't necessarily evil, but it can come off as arrogant.
Many Canadians do have resentment against the most recent waves of immigrants - especially if they form their own little closely-knit communities, don't learn English, and bitch about Canada not bending over backwards for them. OTOH, we also don't seem to have as much trouble with long term integration of different cultures as in the States. Given that our official policy is multiculturalism and the American policy is the melting pot, I don't find that surprising at all. Protectionism and isolationism have more to do with trade and how we feel about other countries in general.
I've travelled, mostly throughout the Commonwealth, but also to Mexcio and Central America. Mostly, people assumed I was a 'Yank' based on my central Canadian accent until I corrected them. In Australia, they then next assumed I was from Vancouver. Canada doesn't have a huge presence in the world given that we're right next to a nation with vaguely similar culture and the same language.
I suggest you shove your self-righteous attitude up *your* ass. I'm not anti-American, but the tone of your post has definitely inclined me to be anti-you.
Have you seen the mobile prices and plans in France? If only we could be so lucky. I don't know what their internet is like, but I'd wager it is cheaper as well.