My Canada includes Culture
Posted: 6/22/2004, 8:03 pm
Need another reason NOT to vote Conservative?
This is an interesting article...what do you guys think?
A Harper win is party stopper
He wants to scrap CRTC, for starters
ANTONIA ZERBISIAS
If the popularity of the red and white "Stop Harper" buttons at Sunday night's raucous MuchMusic Video Awards was any indication, nobody in the business is rocking to the Conservative tune.
I never did see who was handing the buttons out but, thanks to Canadian Idol judge Farley Flex, who fished his out of his pocket for me, I managed to score one. I could have kissed him — and, in fact, I did. Twice.
What a party. It didn't matter where you were, inside with the VIPs, in the tent where it was midriff-to-midriff traffic, in the parking lot with the kids who won tickets to the show, on Queen Street where the screaming fans roared at the sight of triple-winner Sam Roberts, or out there in televisionland, there was something to celebrate:
A Canadian music channel with Canadian music and Canadian talent and Canadian veejays and Canadian awards in a Canadian building which houses other Canadian channels (Citytv, CP24, Bravo, Star, Space, etc.) which employ Canadian journalists and Canadian producers and Canadian writers and Canadian camera crews.
Hundreds of people worked the awards show, from Patrick and Zach who were pouring those Moet blue martinis to the security guards and caterers.
In Stephen Harper's "Canada," none of this would have happened.
As we are slowly learning as the campaign wears on, his government might very well unravel the regulatory mechanisms that allowed the MMVAs to develop into the event they are.
Sure, entrepreneurs and visionaries such as Moses Znaimer, his original music programmer John Martin, and the Waters broadcasting family that controls CHUM had much to do with it all. And, admittedly, they had an uphill fight with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
But they also had the protection of the federal broadcast regulator that ensured radio stations played Canadian music, therefore creating a Canadian music industry, and that MTV was stopped at the border so that MuchMusic could get up and running.
The latest news to tumble off the Stephen Harper Conservative bandwagon reveals that, not only would he allow the raining down of more U.S. signals, but he would also scrap the CRTC.
That would hand over broadcast licensing directly to government — just like they do in banana republics where dictators decide who owns the TV stations.
Think about that. If, say, a newscast runs an unflattering report about el presidente, then yank goes the licence. And Conservatives now call CBC a "state broadcaster"?
You have to wonder how they'll be describing it next November when, given a Conservative victory at the polls, Harper gets to choose the next CBC president as Robert Rabinovitch's five-year term expires. Imagine that, if you bear the pain and irony.
Two things you could count on. One is, Fox News would be a shoo-in to acquire access to Canadian viewers — and let me re-state that I'm all for that. But I can also imagine a Conservative move to have it displace CBC Newsworld on the dial — especially after yesterday's visit to the CBC by former U.S. vice-president Al Gore.
Last month, he bought News-world International, which is programmed by CBC, and it seems he is interested in extending the relationship beyond May, 2005, when it ends.
No doubt Harper's friends at Fox, where he often appeared last year to rah-rah the war on Iraq, would hate to see Canadian programming on what will be a liberal competitor.
The other possible Conservative move would be to ensure that Al Jazeera is never legally available here. The independent Arab-language news channel, hated by the White House, just makes the U.S. look too bad for Conservative tastes.
Do I know any of this for sure?
No. But, judging by the Conservative record, it's a safe bet.
That record is playing the red, white and blues.
This is an interesting article...what do you guys think?
A Harper win is party stopper
He wants to scrap CRTC, for starters
ANTONIA ZERBISIAS
If the popularity of the red and white "Stop Harper" buttons at Sunday night's raucous MuchMusic Video Awards was any indication, nobody in the business is rocking to the Conservative tune.
I never did see who was handing the buttons out but, thanks to Canadian Idol judge Farley Flex, who fished his out of his pocket for me, I managed to score one. I could have kissed him — and, in fact, I did. Twice.
What a party. It didn't matter where you were, inside with the VIPs, in the tent where it was midriff-to-midriff traffic, in the parking lot with the kids who won tickets to the show, on Queen Street where the screaming fans roared at the sight of triple-winner Sam Roberts, or out there in televisionland, there was something to celebrate:
A Canadian music channel with Canadian music and Canadian talent and Canadian veejays and Canadian awards in a Canadian building which houses other Canadian channels (Citytv, CP24, Bravo, Star, Space, etc.) which employ Canadian journalists and Canadian producers and Canadian writers and Canadian camera crews.
Hundreds of people worked the awards show, from Patrick and Zach who were pouring those Moet blue martinis to the security guards and caterers.
In Stephen Harper's "Canada," none of this would have happened.
As we are slowly learning as the campaign wears on, his government might very well unravel the regulatory mechanisms that allowed the MMVAs to develop into the event they are.
Sure, entrepreneurs and visionaries such as Moses Znaimer, his original music programmer John Martin, and the Waters broadcasting family that controls CHUM had much to do with it all. And, admittedly, they had an uphill fight with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).
But they also had the protection of the federal broadcast regulator that ensured radio stations played Canadian music, therefore creating a Canadian music industry, and that MTV was stopped at the border so that MuchMusic could get up and running.
The latest news to tumble off the Stephen Harper Conservative bandwagon reveals that, not only would he allow the raining down of more U.S. signals, but he would also scrap the CRTC.
That would hand over broadcast licensing directly to government — just like they do in banana republics where dictators decide who owns the TV stations.
Think about that. If, say, a newscast runs an unflattering report about el presidente, then yank goes the licence. And Conservatives now call CBC a "state broadcaster"?
You have to wonder how they'll be describing it next November when, given a Conservative victory at the polls, Harper gets to choose the next CBC president as Robert Rabinovitch's five-year term expires. Imagine that, if you bear the pain and irony.
Two things you could count on. One is, Fox News would be a shoo-in to acquire access to Canadian viewers — and let me re-state that I'm all for that. But I can also imagine a Conservative move to have it displace CBC Newsworld on the dial — especially after yesterday's visit to the CBC by former U.S. vice-president Al Gore.
Last month, he bought News-world International, which is programmed by CBC, and it seems he is interested in extending the relationship beyond May, 2005, when it ends.
No doubt Harper's friends at Fox, where he often appeared last year to rah-rah the war on Iraq, would hate to see Canadian programming on what will be a liberal competitor.
The other possible Conservative move would be to ensure that Al Jazeera is never legally available here. The independent Arab-language news channel, hated by the White House, just makes the U.S. look too bad for Conservative tastes.
Do I know any of this for sure?
No. But, judging by the Conservative record, it's a safe bet.
That record is playing the red, white and blues.