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You know, there's a very simple remedy for that infusion of US culture: stop consuming it. Honestly, I don't see the point of kvetching about the predominance of US culture (in Canada or anywhere else), all while voluntarily (and voraciously) consuming it.
Heck, I live in the US, and I easily limit how much "culture" I partake in. Though it wasn't a conscious choice, I now watch so little TV (weeks can go by, and I'll realize that I haven't watched anything), that I can honestly say I haven't seen a single episode of the majority of popular and "critically acclaimed" shows. Don't feel I'm missing out on anything, either.
And I rarely watch Hollywood movies (those that are actually worth watching are rare, and I don't consider my taste in entertainment highbrow or anything. That's just how bad Hollywood movies have become, imo). Oh, and I'm not "old." I'm a youthful 40-something, so these aren't the complaints of an old curmudgeon.
So, turn off the TV. Stop going to see US movies. Cancel the Netflix. You're welcome.
Couldn't agree more!
Those who would agree that Canada is impacted negatively by the presence of television, movies or other entertainment originating from the U.S. just stop watching, downloading and otherwise convincing sponsors the market is there, and the problem, if indeed there is one, will solve itself.
Exactly. It's due more to insecurity than anything else. I actually still think Canada is quite different from the US but these differences are fading pretty quickly too, and it's most evident in people younger than 25 or 30. A good example is hockey losing ground among young Canadian sports fans.
Lots of teenagers are in hockey! And I mean tons. Hockey will never wane in popularity in Canada because of our long winter. Hockey culture is alive and well even in larger cities.
I think because you mostly spent time in Vancouver, which is the least Canadian city and more like a foreign resort town you think all these Canadian things are on the decline when they're actually not in other provinces.
You still haven't addressed why you think Canadian young people are becoming more American? All you mention is accent and media which is really insignificant as Canadians have always consumed American culture (nothing new) and as I said before our speech hasn't changed. It takes literally years for an accent to evolve or die off. It wouldn't just "disappear" within ten years. Has a southern drawl died off in the southern states? No.
I see no evidence of Canadians desiring to privatize healthcare, own guns, put restrictions on abortions or hike up tuition costs and privatize universities. If Canadians were moving towards an an American mentality those things would certainly be in the mix.
I think you need to better research our culture if you want to live here so badly. Why not try to visit? You could live in Canada as an American for up to 6 months. That would give you time to really get a feel if things.
Lots of teenagers are in hockey! And I mean tons. Hockey will never wane in popularity in Canada because of our long winter. Hockey culture is alive and well even in larger cities.
I think because you mostly spent time in Vancouver, which is the least Canadian city and more like a foreign resort town you think all these Canadian things are on the decline when they're actually not in other provinces.
You still haven't addressed why you think Canadian young people are becoming more American? All you mention is accent and media which is really insignificant as Canadians have always consumed American culture (nothing new) and as I said before our speech hasn't changed. It takes literally years for an accent to evolve or die off. It wouldn't just "disappear" within ten years. Has a southern drawl died off in the southern states? No.
I see no evidence of Canadians desiring to privatize healthcare, own guns, put restrictions on abortions or hike up tuition costs and privatize universities. If Canadians were moving towards an an American mentality those things would certainly be in the mix.
I think you need to better research our culture if you want to live here so badly. Why not try to visit? You could live in Canada as an American for up to 6 months. That would give you time to really get a feel if things.
Even if the OP is from Vancouver the WHL is huge and IMO the grittier tougher Westcoast version of Hockey IMO WHL is better then the , OHL, AHL and QMJHL ..then again I am from Vancouver and enjoy Vancouver Giants games at the old Pacific Coliseum
You know, there's a very simple remedy for that infusion of US culture: stop consuming it. Honestly, I don't see the point of kvetching about the predominance of US culture (in Canada or anywhere else), all while voluntarily (and voraciously) consuming it.
Heck, I live in the US, and I easily limit how much "culture" I partake in. Though it wasn't a conscious choice, I now watch so little TV (weeks can go by, and I'll realize that I haven't watched anything), that I can honestly say I haven't seen a single episode of the majority of popular and "critically acclaimed" shows. Don't feel I'm missing out on anything, either.
And I rarely watch Hollywood movies (those that are actually worth watching are rare, and I don't consider my taste in entertainment highbrow or anything. That's just how bad Hollywood movies have become, imo). Oh, and I'm not "old." I'm a youthful 40-something, so these aren't the complaints of an old curmudgeon.
So, turn off the TV. Stop going to see US movies. Cancel the Netflix. You're welcome.
Sounds like a boring life
Quote:
Originally Posted by valsteele
To be fair, it's sort of unavoidable since Canada has only about 1/8 of America's population. Though I guess they could balance it by watching more Asian and British shows or listening to more Korean and Japanese music.
Seems like to me the majority of Canadians don't give a crap where their tv shows and music are from and just watch what they like and you have a minority group of Canadians who take this way out of context and view this as some kind of insult to Canadian culture... even though they just want to watch some good tv shows and listen to some good music (many of which just happen to be American).
Going out of your way to watch something because it is "not American" just seems strange to me.
Well, having been born and raised in southwestern Ontario where a bulk of population was centered, I can only assume that along the top of Lake Ontario all would have had the same exposure to American TV we had from the very invention and initial sales of the device.
I can tell you that NBC, ABC, and CBS among a host of more local networks, were readily available on the old fixed wing antennas, and even more so on the later rotary heads.
I can assure everyone on here that if you were a returning veteran with some savvy, once you'd committed to the initial outlay of purchase of a set, very shortly thereafter you indeed went the additional mile and bought the tower with mast, amplifiers and all the rest of the bumph required to get as many channels as you could along with the added outlay of a "trap" to prevent the then powerful Barrie, Ontario station from over-riding all others.
It was either that or the dreaded "Dad, how come Johnny can watch Howdy Doody time and I can't?"
If you were lucky enough to have an antenna in Vancouver you could get KVOS in Bellingham Washington, a CBS affiliate, but very local in programming including a lot of Canadian commercials.
...but that was it. You couldn't receive it anywhere else in B.C. outside the lower mainland.
Wiki is wrong when it states that people in Vancouver could get Seattle stations by antenna. The US had a hard time getting stations to Bellingham, that is why KVOS was started.
Besides Ontario, and perhaps English speakers in Quebec, I'd be surprised to see many other Canadians having access to ( besides the pocket in Vancouver ) US television in the early years before cable.
For example in 1951 Canada had 14,009,129 people. Ontario 4,597,542 a few thousand more than Quebec.
So even though the bulk of the population was centred there, it would be interesting to know how many people in Ontario had access to US TV. Also Quebec, with stats on English speakers who watched.
Then take those numbers, and Vancouver's and compare it to the population as a whole. My gut feeling is that we would end up with a number that is not the majority of Canadians, and even as low 40 percent, if not lower, had access to US TV before cable.
If anyone else remembers the days before cable in Canada and live outside of B.C., Ontario and Quebec, I'd like to know if you could get by antenna a US TV station.
I'm sure there's always been some American influence yup but it's been REALLY strong since NAFTA went into effect in 1994. Prior to the 90s/00s it was a lot more muted, today pretty much all Canadian pop culture is American. I'm sure plenty of Canadians watch shows like Duck Dynasty now, that would have been unheard of in the 80s for them to identify with American redneck culture to such a degree.
I think the influence goes deeper. It's not like the media influence of the United States only influences people's musical or clothes tastes in foreign countries, it also influences the way they think. I mean it's pretty obvious the success of Stephen Harper and his party is a direct result of American cultural influence. A culture that's fundamentally more conservative than Canadian culture.
Again, I truly believe it depends on the person, their interests, their education etc.
I don't believe the majority of Canadians are deeply becoming American. Are the French less French because they are one of the most passionate countries on the planet when it comes to American Jazz?
Stephen Harper does not reflect the views of the vast majority of Canadians. His party has never gotten more than 40 percent of the vote. Their standing is much less now.
His ideology and religious views are yes, extremely right wing a la US style. His getting elected in Canada....not sure if it's because of US influence, but believe it to be more of the result of our system of voting. Only people in his riding actually vote for him. Also, my personal belief is that it took some Conservatives in this country a bit of time to slowly realize that Harper was not your average Canadian conservative, but a new extreme, confrontational, dictatorial type of man. Your political opponents are no long that, but enemies which must be destroyed.
Same with the citizens that get in your way. You brand them terrorists, as he did with environmental groups trying to raise awareness.
In 1963 Terrace (northwest BC) started up a TV station, broadcasting in black and white. It serviced Terrace, Kitimat, Prince Rupert and a number of other small villages within range of the relay towers with antennas set up on mountain peaks. I'd say half of the programs were Canadian and the other half were American. But it was just one station, one channel. All the TV's available to us then were still black and white and we all had tall antennas on the roofs of our houses and rabbit ears on the TV's.
I remember visiting my sister in August of 1966 when she lived in Richmond, BC and they had cable vision then and got 12 tv channels on their new color TV. 1966 was when broadcasting of color TV was launched in Canada, although America had been broadcasting in color since some time in the 50's.
Anyway, my point here is that by the mid 60's about a third of what we watched was Canadian productions and the other two thirds was American productions and nobody had a problem with it. Nobody was concerned about having too much exposure to non-Canadian productions, everyone was happy for the increasing availability and variety of entertainment being produced. There was something for everyone. There still is, only now there's a lot more of it and I'm glad for that.
Again, I truly believe it depends on the person, their interests, their education etc.
I don't believe the majority of Canadians are deeply becoming American. Are the French less French because they are one of the most passionate countries on the planet when it comes to American Jazz?
Stephen Harper does not reflect the views of the vast majority of Canadians. His party has never gotten more than 40 percent of the vote. Their standing is much less now.
His ideology and religious views are yes, extremely right wing a la US style. His getting elected in Canada....not sure if it's because of US influence, but believe it to be more of the result of our system of voting. Only people in his riding actually vote for him. Also, my personal belief is that it took some Conservatives in this country a bit of time to slowly realize that Harper was not your average Canadian conservative, but a new extreme, confrontational, dictatorial type of man. Your political opponents are no long that, but enemies which must be destroyed.
Same with the citizens that get in your way. You brand them terrorists, as he did with environmental groups trying to raise awareness.
Stephen Harper is nearly universally hated by most people in Ontario (not sure about other provinces). His popularity has waned dramatically and people can't wait to get him out. We all know that last election was "fixed" most people I know wanted Jack Layton as a P.M (RIP) not Harper.
And in terms of Vasteele mentioning "Duck Dynasty" is wildly popular in Canada I say to him "are you kidding"? We aren't watching that crap up here. Those people would be considered hard core hicks. Reality t.v shows like "survivor" and "big brother" have been wildly popular in Canada since the early 2000's.
Vasteele is trying to make it seem like we're rapidly evolving into "Americans" and prior to the year 2005 we were all isolated from American TV shows and culture.
I hope you understand that we have similarities to the a United States but also many differences that are some times subtle at first to see buying you lived in Canada for more than a couple of years you'd begin to watch on.
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..then again I am from Vancouver and enjoy Vancouver Giants games at the old Pacific Coliseum 
