Bruce Dowbiggin
Can Conned: Making Culture For Others

Is a television series shot in St. John’s about a police dog Canadian content?
Is a Hallmark romantic series shot in Toronto Canadian content?
Is Schitt’s Creek, starring top Canadian performers, Canadian content?
Is a Kevin Costner series shot in the Alberta foothills Canadian content?
For the purposes of attracting funding from federal, provincial and municipal governments they all qualify as Canadian content. Why? What distinguishes these popular entertainment vehicles as emblematic of the modern nation whose taxpayers fund the projects?
Look, we have no issue with Canada hosting a variety of profitable, popular film projects. We have family members who draw a paycheque from them. A healthy TV/ film/ theatre industry has much to recommend it.
Then why do we need to shroud it in the garb of Canadian culture? When it was Anne of Avonlea or even The Beachcombers there were recognizable Canadian themes and performers. Now, however, with the success of international marketing, Schitt’s Creek and Hallmark films are exemplars of a uni-culture, a smash-up of comedic tropes, romantic plots and cop shows that could come from anywhere.
Yes, they sell. But do they sell anything Canadian? (For these purposes Quebec has a unique argument for its distinctiveness.) Hardly. But that is not going to stop the gravy train of subsidies, grants and funds for Can Con. If Canadian culture is now like Canadian oil or Canadian cars— indistinguishable from any another— who’s to stop it? Not this federal government whose PM was pimped by the husband of CBC’s VP of English services in 2015.
Which brings us to the one exemplar whose entire raison d’être is reflecting the country. CBC. Yes, the Mother Corp, conceived in the flush of young nationhood, coming of age. Reaching from sea to sea-to-frozen-sea, the mandate of CBC is to reflect the fragile ribbon of a nation state hovering north of America. To get to the nooks and crannies no profit-based company would dare.
And for a long time CBC seemed to fit that mandate. CBC made shows that reflected the peculiarities of Canada. God knows no one else would do documentaries about ships passing through the St. Lawrence Seaway, the spring breakup in log-rolling season or lonely freight trains chugging through the Crowsnest Pass. It was earnest, dull. But it was Canada’s first marriage. These things happen.
But then Canada’s eye was caught by the sexy harlots of the entertainment industry in the 1960s. Like the love interests in Pierre Trudeau’s life, they were irresistible. Who had ever paid attention to Canada outside William Shatner as Captain Kirk? Suddenly Canada’s purveyors of culture dropped the first marriage and either headed south to hang with the cool kids or tried to make American-looking programming. Street Legal. DeGrassi Jr. High. DaVinci’s Inquest.
Gradually, CBC management began to see its real audience as a market like Hollywood or New York City, not Thunder Bay. It became obsessed with making saleable uni-culture entertainment. Often with Canadian actors and Canadian backdrops. But not so much that they would annoy Americans.
As the entertainment department morphed in the era of Trudeau the First, CBC clung to its news and current affairs departments as the tease when they went to Ottawa for funding. To be distinctive the news division recorded the boring bits of Canadian-ness. Our multi-party systems, our healthcare, our equalization schemes. We give you notwithstanding clauses. You give us millions. (Then billions.)
But then CBC was overtaken by an emerging private broadcast side and social media. There were others who could do election nights and November 11 memorials, sifting through the stuff that had always been CBC’s exclusive. By the time Trudeau the Second emerged, CBC television was a husk, a shell to be filled in as budgets allowed. Hell, they sold the Hockey Night in Canada brand to Rogers.
In this state, Skippy saw an opportunity. Many Canadians still had affection for CBC, long after they stopped watching it. Why not promote his globalist garbage and Woke insanities inside CBC? Shove aside trusted names and reputations? Pump the unions’ agendas? Disguise what had once been journalism with a veneer of government DEI policies?
Just for good measure, have the CBC executive director do her job while working from New York City. Oh, and cut the regional outlets to the bone.
Only problem is that people are finally noticing that CBC is now a state-sponsored outfit engaging in imitation journalism. Twitter supremo Elon Musk applied a state-funded tag to CBC’s account. (In response to CBC huffing and puffing, Musk reduced CBC government funding from 70 to 69 percent in the tag.) Unlike the Canadian-content racket— that makes money— it serves no purpose.
Now, Conservative leader Pierre Poilièvre has made it an article of faith to take a blade saw to the CBC budget, hacking as much as a billion from the operating funds. Let the private side have an open shot at filling the gap. Get CBC’s foot off the neck of social media and advertising.
Unsurprisingly, there are howls of protest from those who contend that CBC is still relevant. Columnist Sandy Garrasino sniped on Twitter, “Remember that Poilièvre would give his eye teeth to have the notorious liars at FOX reporting on Canada. He doesn’t hate bias at all. He hates real reporters.” Here’s Max Fawcett taking one for the team: “Pierre Poilièvre wants to destroy the CBC… Why? Because as recent polling shows, the less informed Canadians are, the more likely they are to support his party.”
Strongly worded memo to follow. Problem its that the time servers in Ottawa are the last to know it’s over. Two percent of the population considers CBC still relevant after stunts like shivving Wendy Mesley in public. Keep radio. Take a hammer to CBC.ca. Can the Can Con. Let the other guys have a chance.
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Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, he’s a regular contributor to Sirius XM Canada Talks Ch. 167. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his new book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via http://brucedowbigginbooks.ca/book-personalaccount.aspx
Bruce Dowbiggin
The Game That Let Canadians Forgive The Liberals — Again

With the Americans winning the first game 3-1, a sense of panic crept over Canada as it headed to Game 2 in Boston. Losing a political battle with Trump was bad enough, but losing hockey bragging rights heading into a federal election was catastrophic for the Family Compact.
“It’s also more political than the (1972) Summit Series was, because Canada’s existence wasn’t on the line then, and it may be now. You’re damn right Canadians should boo the (U.S.) anthem.” Toronto Star columnist Bruce Arthur before Gm. 1 of USA/ Canada in The 4 Nations Cup.
The year 2025 is barely half over on Canada Day. There is much to go before we start assembling Best Of Lists for the year. But as Palestinian flags duel with the Maple Leaf for prominence on the 158th anniversary of Canada’s becoming a sovereign country it’s a fair guess that we will settle on Febuary 21 as the pivotal date of the year— and Canada’s destiny as well.
That was the date of Game 2 in the U.S./Canada rivalry at the Four Nations Tournament. Ostensibly created by the NHL to replace the moribund All Star format, the showdown of hockey nations in Boston became much more. Jolted by non-sports factors it became a pivotal moment in modern Canadian history.
Set against U.S. president Donald Trump’s bellicose talk of Canada as a U.S. state and the Mike Myers/ Mark Carney Elbows Up ad campaign, the gold-medal game evoked, for those of a certain age, memories of the famous 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the USSR. And somehow produced an unprecedented political reversal in Canadian elections.
As we wrote on Feb. 16 after Gm. 1 in Montreal, the Four Nations had been meant to be something far less incendiary. “Expecting a guys’ weekend like the concurrent NBA All Star game, the fraternal folks instead got a Pier Six brawl. It was the most stunning beginning to a game most could remember in 50 years. (Not least of all the rabid Canadian fanbase urging patriotism in the home of Quebec separation) Considering this Four Nations event was the NHL’s idea to replace the tame midseason All Star Game where players apologize for bumping into each other during a casual skate, the tumult as referees tried to start the game was shocking.
“Despite public calls for mutual respect, the sustained booing of the American national anthem and the Team Canada invocation by MMA legend Georges St. Pierre was answered by the Tkachuck brothers, Matthew and Brady, with a series of fights in the first nine seconds of the game. Three fights to be exact ,when former Canuck J.T. Miller squared up with Brandon Hagel. (All three U.S. players have either played on or now play for Canadian NHL teams.)
“Premeditated and nasty. To say nothing of the vicious mugging of Canada’s legend Sidney Crosby behind the U.S. net moments later by Charlie McEvoy.”
With the Americans winning the game 3-1 on Feb. 15, a sense of panic crept over Canada as it headed to Game 2 in Boston. Losing a political battle with Trump was bad enough, but losing hockey bragging rights heading into a federal election was catastrophic for the Family Compact. As we wrote in the aftermath, a slaughter was avoided.

“In the rematch for a title created just weeks before by the NHL the boys stuck to hockey. Anthem booing was restrained. Outside of an ill-advised appearance by Wayne Gretzky— now loathed for his Trump support— the emphasis was on skill. Playing largely without injured Matthew and Brady Tkachuk and McAvoy, the U.S. forced the game to OT where beleaguered goalie Craig Binnington held Canada in the game until Connor McDavid scored the game winner. “
The stunning turnaround in the series produced a similar turnaround in the Canadian federal election. Galvanized by Trump’s 51st State disrespect and exhilarated by the hockey team’s comeback, voters switched their votes in huge numbers to Carney, ignoring the abysmal record of the Liberals and their pathetic polling. From Pierre Poilievre having a 20-point lead in polls, hockey-besotted Canada flipped to award Carney a near-majority in the April 28 election.
The result stunned the Canadian political class and international critics who questioned how a single sporting event could have miraculously rescued the Liberals from themselves in such a short time.

While Canada soared because of the four Nations, a Canadian icon crashed to earth. “Perhaps the most public outcome was the now-demonization of Gretzky in Canada. Just as they had with Bobby Orr, another Canadian superstar living in America, Canadians wiped their hands of No. 99 over politics. Despite appeals from Orr, Don Cherry and others, the chance to make Gretzky a Trump proxy was too tempting.
We have been in several arguments on the subject among friends: Does Gretzky owe Canada something after carrying its hockey burden for so long? Could he have worn a Team Canada jersey? Shouldn’t he have made a statement that he backs Canada in its showdown with Trump? For now 99 is 0 in his homeland.”
Even now, months later, the events of late February have an air of disbelief around them, a shift so dramatic and so impactful on the nation that many still shake their heads. Sure, hockey wasn’t the device that blew up Canada’s politics. But it was the fuse that created a crater in the country.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
Bruce Dowbiggin
Don & Rick: Canadian Icons, Mixed Messages, Lasting Impacts

“Well, Tim, this is our last show. . . . Thanks everybody for listening and toodaloo,” 91-year old Don Cherry allegedly on his final podcast episode.
Once upon a time in a public broadcaster far, far away there was an identity crisis. Who should we be as we enter the 21st century? We depend on government for our financing, but our audience relies on people who hate government.
At CBC that argument could be summed up by two figures on the TV network. Rick Mercer. Don Cherry. Both were brilliant communicators, masters of the craft of holding eyeballs. But they represented diametrically opposed audiences. Mercer was the glib political voice of This Hour Has 22 Minutes. Cherry was the bombastic voice of Hockey Night in Canada, as Canadian as the brown beer stubby.
Mercer was worshipped by the folks in the C suite and liberal media. With his searing walking shots he lanced egos and asked uncomfortable questions. He called out sacred cows. Yet there was never any doubt in CBC’s upper reaches about whose side he was on in the culture war at CBC. He was safe.
Cherry was the unpredictable occupant of Coach’s Corner, the bombastic voice of white anglo hockey culture. He was abrasive and unforgiving. His first-period rants beside his Topo Gigio Ron Maclean were must-watch for the demographic. They also, it seemed, constituted must watching for his critics.
[Confession: I was one of his critics, paid to be so. We tangled often over his act. He ripped me in the 2004 NHL playoffs, alleging I said he was insincere about kids with cancer. During the infamous 1987 World Junior brawl he said I was a coward who wouldn’t defend his own kids in a fight. etc. He sicced his bots on me. While I disagreed with much of what he said, I defended his right to say such things. My beef was mostly with HNIC which refused to allow any dissent to Cherry’s act on the show . It was a noisy one-note symphony.

Don was durable, holding his prime position for decades, putting himself above the title many Saturdays with headline material. In the sea of pearl clutchers at CBC he stood out. While the suits above recoiled at his Canadian Legion catechism, they also knew he was an asset they could play when they went for funding in Ottawa. “See, we have all sorts of political views on the network.”
When CBC lost its HNIC franchise to Sportsnet Cherry became someone else’s problem. Eventually the Woke folk at Rogers tired of telling him to knock off the politics and cultural stuff. He was let go in 2019 for saying what he’d always said. Maclean then put in the knife to save his own hide.
Mercer’s highly rated act continued unabated till 2018. One of his most popular gigs— the one most likely to appeal to posh Canadians— was talking to Americans about Canada. It was brilliant in its simplicity. Go to famous colleges and universities to plumb the depths of their Canadian knowledge. Likewise, buttonhole well-known American politicians.

The topics were many and ridiculous. Should Canada protect the famous location Joe Clark’s Hole? What should Canada do about its melting national igloo? Could they congratulate Jean Chretien on a rare political feat called a “Double Double” in which he received support from both sides of the Canadian parliament.
He asked Al Gore about Canada moving the capital city from Kingston, Ontario to Toronto (Gore thought it smart). He convinced tourists at Mount Rushmore that the mineral rights to the mountain had been sold to a Canadian firm that was getting ready to drill for oil in Lincoln’s forehead.
He asked Americans to condemn Canada’s practice of euthanizing senior citizens by setting them adrift on Northern ice floes. In a famous moment, future President George W. Bush failed to correct Mercer when he referred to Chrétien as “Jean Poutine”
Mercer always said he didn’t think Americans were ignorant. Eighty percent had the right responses and those never made it to air. For the rest it was just that they couldn’t resist an open mike and having a take on things they knew nothing about. He had affection for them.
For Canada’s Left, insecure in its northern faculty-lounge, that subtlety was lost. Mercer’s routines reinforced a smug anti-American attitude in the Liberals and NDP base. All they saw was a nation of nitwits. “Look, what bozos!” The orientation of the fashionistas turned away from the U.S. to supposed European sophistication and societal controls for climate, population growth and Covid. Hello, Mark Carney.
This bias was reinforced by the increasingly self-loathing voices on the cable news of the American Left. Every GOP figure from George W. Bush till Trump today became a comic character. Canadian lefties adored it. As we’ve written often the snide attitude allowed Canadians to ignore that Americans were protecting them for free and keeping them rich. And taking the overflow from Canadian’s prized healthcare system.
This arrogance culminated in the March election where the mere mention of Trump sent Canadians fleeing back to a Liberal administration that was moribund after a decade of incompetence. It has an echo in Toronto’s Hockey Hall of Fame again declining to award Cherry the Foster Hewitt award as a legendary TV journalist. Love him or hate him he’s earned it. It’s arguable whether the aging Cherry will even be around to be chosen next year.
For sure his political impact will resonate for long after he’s gone in the populist resurgence in western Canada and elsewhere. If only Rick Mercer were allowed back on CBC to cover it.
Bruce Dowbiggin @dowbboy is the editor of Not The Public Broadcaster A two-time winner of the Gemini Award as Canada’s top television sports broadcaster, his new book Deal With It: The Trades That Stunned The NHL And Changed hockey is now available on Amazon. Inexact Science: The Six Most Compelling Draft Years In NHL History, his previous book with his son Evan, was voted the seventh-best professional hockey book of all time by bookauthority.org . His 2004 book Money Players was voted sixth best on the same list, and is available via brucedowbigginbooks.ca.
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