In the circumstances of the immediate proximity to the United States of America Canada is incrementally becoming overshadowed by the influence of American culture. There are two specific risks Canada is facing in this respect: decrease of diffusion of Canadian culture in the world because American culture pushes it back and susceptibility of Canada itself to the American popular culture which makes the country become less distinguished in cultural sense. Logically enough, Canadian government has taken and continues to take specific measures on which I will dwell in this paper. The primary among them are Canadian multiculturalism policy and a complex of protectionist measures of Canadian culture.
There is a dichotomy between globalization and multiculturalism. Therefore, there is no wonder that in response to the globalization of American culture Canada chose the path of the contrary strategy – of multiculturalism concept popularization.
In 1971 multiculturalism became the official policy of the Canadian government. Its core idea was the equality of all groups of citizens whatever their ethnic and any other background is. All of the groups of people were given equal opportunities to promote their own culture and therefore contribute to the creation of the diversity in the general cultural picture of the country. A good point of reference here can be such parts of the multiculturalism policy as confirmation of rights of Aboriginal people of Canada along with granting the two languages simultaneously – English and French – the status of the official ones.
As it is said at the official site of the Canadian government multiculturalism and diversity have become the national asset of Canada. People from all over the world are attracted to this country because they can share their values there and be constrained by virtually nothing in doing so. This fosters the reputation of Canada as of a country of self-expressing for everybody which leads to successful diverse culture that is targeted to outweigh the American globalizing culture.
Another tool, another set of measures, as it has been mentioned before, is the protectionism of domestic cultural products.
One of the specific measures taken by the Canadian government in this respect dates back to the 1950 when there was a legislative act adopted under the name National Film Act. The crux of the Act was that it increased the level of power inherent in the National Film Board to relocate finances and other resources to domestic film production and to restrict the volume of media production being influxed into Canadian broadcasting from the United States.
Another specific example may be the creation of the Canada Council for the Arts. This is an independent organ whose purpose is to monitor, develop and finance Canadian artists as well as to provide them with any promotion they need. Along with that the mentioned Commission is the organ that seems to be creating in the society the sense of diminishment of Canadian culture in relation to the American. This may be done in order to boost Canadians work more on their identification through culture.
Finally, a few words about radio broadcasting which is a very significant part of the Canadian cultural protectionism as well. IN 1955 there was a law passed that did several things: it introduced CBC as Canada’s single official broadcaster and imposed quotas on how much material and of what origin may be broadcasted. According to this regulation, since 1955 no less than 45 percent of the radio material had to be of the Canadian origin.
All of the above having been said, I once again come to the conclusion that Canada has two major levers in opposing American cultural globalization. These are multiculturalism policy and national culture protectionism.
Works Cited
Rinaman, Karen. Canadian Magazine Industry and Cultural Protectionism. N.d. Web. 19 March 2016.
“Canadian Multiculturalism: An Inclusive Citizenship.” Government of Canada. N.d. Web. 19 March 2016.
Frensley, Nathalie and Nelson Michaud. Canadian Media Semi-Globalization and Resistance to US Hegemony. The University of Texas at Austin. Universite du Quebec. PDF.
Robart, John P. Where Is Here? Canadian Culture in a Globalized World. Toronto: York University, 1996. PDF.
