Canada Day

We recently celebrated the 141st Birthday of Canada... yee, haw. In Prince George the temperature hit 30 celsius, which didn't seem supremely Canadian. I think that our nation's big day should be moved to winter, where it will seem more appropriate... celebrating things Canadian involves snow and ice, or it should at least be frosty... and not just the beer.

Of course, there were a lot of good Canadian songs on the CBC, which made me think a bit about Can-Con... having rules about the percentage of Canadian music played on radio stations made the Canadian music industry successful, without the severe diminishment of quality predicted on its inception.

One wonders when the bright folks who might make it happen will figure out that this system will work for Canadian movies, too. If theatres had to show even 20% Canadian content, then it will be in their interest to promote these films properly. Most movies get big audiences because people hear about them; if the public hears about a Canadian movie, they will watch it. If Canadian production companies prosper, they will be able to procure bigger budgets for new films; thus, eradicating the major complaint made about current productions.

If Nacho Libre [for one example among many... an egregiously un-funny piece of crap... it should have been good... c'mon, Lucha Libre is a supremely interesting (and amusing) phenomenon, and Jack Black is capable of a certain frenetically humourous charm] can garner an audience based solely on hype and turns a profit, then many Canadian films will be able to do so.