Canadian TV Content

I participated in a Radio Survey last month. I was happy to participate and have some influence in media. But the CRTC hearings continue on the future of Canadian content on our satellite and cable.

There are a few good ones for old f@rts my age, and many have been syndicated, like Little Mosque and The Border, but many more geared towards younger people.

CBC
CBC's The National continues to be my favourite news. We have given up getting any regional TV news. Just isn't worth it to the broadcasters, apparently. Most news is derived from Toronto sources, which really doesn't grab me. We read local papers, and hope for the best.
The Fifth Estate - hard hitting news for consumers. Great job.
The Border -great show about Canada and international relations. It is less about human relations and more about politics and illegal border activities.
Battle of the Blades - huge hit! Hockey players do pairs dancing with the pros.
The Rick Mercer Report (CBC)- Fabulous! I love this show. The humour around politics is witty and intense. He is on Facebook, and YouTube.
Some teachers are using Little Mosque on the Prairie (CBC) to teach Islamic studies in classrooms (really!). A bit flaky, and little actual curriculum content. It is losing momentum, and to my mind, the plot more like weak tea, and the jokes peurile.

Global
All US shows: House, 90210, Saturday Night Live, The Simpsons, Melrose Place.

Entertainment Tonight (ET), has a Canadian segment. (A bit fluffly for me!)
Project Runway - well, models competing? Dunno. But it is the Canadain alternative to America's Next Top Model.

CTV
So You Think You Can Dance Canada - this was fun, and garnered a lot of attention.
Their regular show are bought from the US: CSI, American Idol, Criminal Minds. Access Hollywood (like ET), Law and Order, Dancing With the Stars, Desperate Housewives.

History of Canada - such shame

I read a great post on a Vagabonde's site: 4. Destination: St Pierre et Miquelon

See also: Part 1 Destination: Saint Pierre et Miquelon Part two | Part 3

Valuable information, and incredible photos, about mankind's inhumanity to mankind on this post - in a current framework. The anti-French sentiment in the US is palpable. What a difference in Canada, with its bilingual status.

Our trip to Halifax, NS, helped me understand a bit more of Canada's history. The memorial to dead fishermen. The memorial for those on the Titanic.

Our terrible history in Canada, of treatment of First Nations Peoples, and the internment of Japanese-Canadians after Pearl Harbour, to name just two categories, bars us from any finger pointing, however. Those who died building the railroad across Canada, and the many, many Chinese who faced a head tax.

While some like to hold up the Underground Railroad to make the French and British settlers feel better, in fact very few blacks in the grand scheme of things sought sanctuary through this route.

For an excellent read on this topic, see Book Review: The Hanging of Angélique by Afua Cooper.
The story of the Underground Railroad is a proud moment in Canadian history, but Canada had 200 years of a history of slavery. We've even made a patriotic commercial about it.

For another good read:
Evangeline - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Tale of Acadie is a poem published in 1847 by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem follows an Acadian girl named Evangeline ...

Canadian Federal Election

My son-in-law, Jean-Luc , has been elected the Green Party Candidate in Ottawa-Carleton. It is very exciting! I have always had a keen interest in elections and the election process. As a teacher, we followed the electoral process carefully, for example: the Canadian Federal Election, Oct. 14, 2008. It was my last classroom, for the most part, and we really enjoyed the process!
See also:

Federal Election 2006

Ontario Municipal Election 2007

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I found this message in my mailbox and thought I would help spread the word!

Hello Blogging Canadians,

I am writing in the hope that some of you Bloggers might lend a hand in getting the word out about the new Canadian Political Twitter site http://politwitter.ca . PoliTwitter is a non-partisan service that uses Twitter to connect elected MPs and MLAs with their Canadian constituents with the goal of increasing engagement and promoting open government.

I would be thrilled if some of you could blog about the site and spread the message about getting MPs to join Twitter. I have a list of all the MPs not currently on Twitter that allows anyone to send emails encouraging them to join.
http://politwitter.ca/page/mps_without_twitter
There is also a timeline showing when each MP has joined Twitter:
http://politwitter.ca/page/timeline

Also for you bloggers Politwitter has a widget that you can add to your site with some copy & paste code. The widget shows Political twitter and is customizable. So if you are a Conservative blogger you could customize it to only show conservative tweets.
http://politwitter.ca/page/widget

Thanks for your consideration, I’m running this site not-for-profit, so I need all the help I can get!
- Trevor May
- http://network.canadaka.net/

You just want to be Canadian!

This is such a fun video. I wish them all the success in the world!