Canadian Identity Essay
Canada. Often, when people think of this country, an image of a smaller, weaker, and idealised United States comes into their mind. The truth is that this generalisation is not entirely false. Canada is closely interdependent with the United States economically, militarily, socially, politically, and of course geographically. This often leads American directors, singers, and actors to overshadow their Canadian counterparts, causing Canadians to shy away from this type of business in fear of failure. Instead, Canadians are watching American movies and listening to American music while they are completely oblivious to the possibilities of what Canadians could have achieved in this industry. In order to change this system so that Canadians can
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Because of this, it is absolutely crucial that the Canadian collective identity does not get lost in or mixed with the American collective identity. One way to ensure this is to continuously affirm and Canadian values. In fact, one of the main differences between Canada and the United States lies within their values; Canadian value the “we” mentality of everybody working together whereas the United States values the “me” mentality where everybody works for themselves. There are many examples of Canadian music which emphasizes these values. Some of these includes Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up”, which utilises many voices singing together to create a powerful sense of harmony, and The Tragically Hip’s “Ahead by a Century”, which has a kind tone which accurately represents Canada. Sadly, songs such as these which help to reinforce what makes us Canadian are only being played for a measly 35% of the time, according to the current CRTC rules, and often during the hours where many listeners are not listening. If the new rule of having 60% of all music being Canadian music during prime hours was implemented, many of the people who listen to these radio stations would not become brainwashed with American ideals, but instead be exposed to the Canadian values like they have never heard before. I believe that because the Canadian music would be more listened to than any other type of music, it would spread Canadian values through the people and prevent a complete homogenization of the Canadian culture into the
Because of this, it is absolutely crucial that the Canadian collective identity does not get lost in or mixed with the American collective identity. One way to ensure this is to continuously affirm and Canadian values. In fact, one of the main differences between Canada and the United States lies within their values; Canadian value the “we” mentality of everybody working together whereas the United States values the “me” mentality where everybody works for themselves. There are many examples of Canadian music which emphasizes these values. Some of these includes Arcade Fire’s “Wake Up”, which utilises many voices singing together to create a powerful sense of harmony, and The Tragically Hip’s “Ahead by a Century”, which has a kind tone which accurately represents Canada. Sadly, songs such as these which help to reinforce what makes us Canadian are only being played for a measly 35% of the time, according to the current CRTC rules, and often during the hours where many listeners are not listening. If the new rule of having 60% of all music being Canadian music during prime hours was implemented, many of the people who listen to these radio stations would not become brainwashed with American ideals, but instead be exposed to the Canadian values like they have never heard before. I believe that because the Canadian music would be more listened to than any other type of music, it would spread Canadian values through the people and prevent a complete homogenization of the Canadian culture into the