Canadian Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Canadian Society - Essay Example Being Canadian means realizing that one's forefathers were the original anti-Americans. Our ancestors rejected the American revolution and they favored Great Britain. Canada faces the onslaught of Americanization. The late Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau one time likened Canada to a mouse sleeping with an elephant, who fears that the tiniest move of the elephant may crush him. (Adms, 26). Being Canadian means being cognizant of the American dominance in the economy and politics. About 85 per cent of exports and imports are to and from the United States. The US is Canada's largest foreign investor in Canada. In the area of culture, Canadians are eager consumers of American television, cinema, popular music, magazines, books, fashions, and fast food. The common theme is evidently "birthright," or national sovereignty. The debate over the utilization of Canadian natural resources was spurred by fears of an insatiable American appetite for Canada's water, oil, timber. There are efforts to preserve the Canadian wheat, dairy, and poultry marketing board monopolies from competition by cheaper U.S. products. Most importantly, serious concerns over American cultural domination of Canada led to a series of exemptions for cultural industries were written into the CUFTA and then to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In particular, the CUFTA and NAFTA agreements had enshrined Canada's right to impose "Canadian content" requirements on radio and television, restrict foreign investment and ownership, and to permit government subsidies of cultural industries such as publishing, music, and cinema. Evidently, there was a fear that, in an unfettered market, Canada would be swamped by cheaper, more popular, American music, film, and the rest.There is an economic argument for the cultural protection of the Canadian film industry. Hollywood movies can easily enter the Canadian market. Hence, it is important that the local films are protected. Two arguments are relevant: either the aspects of Canadian culture that are represented in Canadian film would not flourish if Canadian film did n ot exist, or that Canadian film itself is worth protecting for its own sake. These arguments provide a rationale for a subsidy for the Canadian film industry. These efforts are essential for the preservation of an economically fragile national culture and with fewer impediments to individual choice, by using direct subsidies. In short, Canada would be better advised to foster its culture via subsidies than by restricting or taxing cultural imports.The purpose of this cultural subsidy is to help producers and consumers. In other words, national culture is meant to engender a common and unique experience within the "territory," The most important motivation for Canadian cultural protection policies: the widely shared sense of fragility of national identity itself. The Anglo-Canadians are metaphorically "90 percent" Americanized. This of course heightens the urgency of preserving the remaining "10 percent" of difference. A significant dimesion of Canadian cultural protection is restric tion of foreign ownership in the print and broadcast media, such as newspapers and television.Canada has been met with remarkable successful in engendering its cultural industrie