Barry, thanks again for joining us on the rundown.

Oh, thank you for having me.

You wrote a re a piece recently for the Global Mail called Why We're Blowing a Generational Moment for Canadian Culture. What do you mean by that?

Well, I just kind of got to thinking about this elbows up sentiment that everybody is kind of wrapped around in. And you know, we've been very much told to like look at the grocery labels of where our orange juice is coming from and protect lumber and protect automotive and everything like that. like all these industries that need our support.

And yet there's not a lot of conversation about the one thing that makes Canadians Canadian, which is our identity, which is our culture. And we haven't really been protecting that or emphasizing it or even trying to marginally boost it.

Is that because it's hard to really define what Canadian culture is? I feel like this question whenever you're asked what is Canadian culture, people kind of try to grasp at its straws as to what it means.

I I think so, but I don't think we necessarily have to define what Canadian culture is. More so, what are the pieces that make it up? So, what what are the stories that we consume?

I mean, that's culture, right? So, what are the books that we read? What are the plays we watch? What's the art that we take in? What are the movies, the television shows on our screen?

Um, where do we get our news? Where do we get our ideas? And where does our imagination spark? That's all culture.

So, what are we doing to support all those different elements? You cite a poll that found Canadians overwhelmingly want their culture and stories protected. 88% saying that the country should support domestic television and film productions like the way they are encouraged to buy Canadian. But are Canadians actually doing that?

It's a difficult thing to measure, but if you kind of look in certain places, you can see hints of it. Um, you know, CBC Gem streaming viewership, there's a percentage increase. I think it was about 24% um from the past 6 months compared to the previous year.

Same with Crave, which is kind of the, you know, major Canadian streamer. Um although, you know, both of those services have a lot of foreign content on them. I

was going to ask. Yeah.

Yeah. [laughter] Yeah. So, and uh so it's hard to it's hard to really say, but I think that's also a problem that we're not really marshalling this sentiment properly. There's not this drive out there. And I feel if we started kind of speaking more about it and really kind of examining what we value in our day-to-day lives that makes us Canadian other than the things that we put on our grocery carts, then I think people would kind of come around to the idea.

What do you think the role is of like Canadian cultural institutions? You mentioned the CBC, but what do you think the role of of these institutions are in like a tariff war? I think that they're there to not necessarily, you know, talk back against the US or anything like that, but just to remind audiences, to remind consumers that, hey, these these are the stories that matter to us. This is what we're kind of fighting for.

U we're not going to engage in the fight, but we're going to remind you of what makes Canada Canada and why you feel so attached to the country. So let's talk about what stories we tell each other, what our imaginations run on, what enlightens us, what educates us, what entertains us at the end of the day.

Everything that kind of makes honestly like day-to-day living worth living.

Is it hard to unify behind, let's say, not to pick on them, but the CBC can considering that one political party uh is pretty outspoken about defunding it and then there's the government kind of sends mixed signals about its funding, right?

I mean, I think the CBC, if funded and managed right, can be a real weapon and a shield for Canadian culture. I mean, this is something that is so tied into Canadian identity more than anything else I think out there right now in terms of, you know, an established agency or something like that.

Canadians have strong feelings about the CBC one way or the other. So if we can marshall that sentiment into something good, into something positive, that would be great.

And yes, it is become this like center of polarization on the political spectrum. Um, but why I guess my question is for those who campaign on something of a defund the CBC motto, why do we want to get rid of something so easily that has been so long a part of our history?

And that can be managed again in a correct way if we just do it right. You know, one of the things that Mark Carney has said on the campaign trail is that in terms of per capita funding for public broadcasting, we're like 40% behind places like the UK or Australia or France, those are countries that seem to value cultural output more than we do in terms of the public purse. Why the hesitancy?

What about Canadian Heritage, which oversees Canada Council for the Arts and Telephone? what what's happened to their budgets?

I mean, they've also been uh on a downward slide and you know, Mark Carney gave that edict out across departments that you've got to trim 15% back from your budgets coming up. Um, and that is a big problem.

Canadian Heritage has seen their funding decrease and will see their funding steadily decrease if that mandate is kind of continued. And they oversee telephone, which funds so many Canadian films, basically every Canadian film that you've probably could think of.

The Canada Council for the Arts uh supports artists of all stripes um in terms of funding. So what happens when we claw this back is we're going to have a generational impact because those sectors need more than anything stability.

It takes so long for a piece of art to make its way into the world. You know, a a feature film, we're talking three, four years in a very good case scenario from pre-production until, you know, distribution.

television series are the same. A book can take God knows how long. So, if we rob that, then we're kind of shooting ourselves in the foot because the next time, and this isn't going to be the only time that we engage in some kind of cultural war, cultural standoff with our neighbor to the south, we're just going to be that much more diminished.

I want to time stamp this conversation, but because we're talking before the the federal budget comes out, so maybe they'll announce some new funding for these institutions. I guess I wonder what you see as the economic upside to funding the arts.

Well, I I don't think you have to look too far as just look at the data. Um, you know, the cultural sector brings in something like 63.9 billion GDP. It employs 600,000 workers, both the artists and the artisans who support that.

So, this is not some kind of piddly little industry that can easily be plucked out of the economy without any harm. And then you only have to look at what the global impact of that is in terms of countries that are really committed to supporting their cultural industries.

Uh I'm just going to pull South Korea uh out of the hat, which about a decade ago significantly increased the percentage of money going to the arts and arts development. And now we see not only are they making billions in cultural exports, but in terms of soft power, South Korea is everywhere.

Squid Game is at the top of the Netflix charts in every country. K-pop

K-pop Demon Hunters will not I cannot get that song to stop playing in my house because I have children. Um, so we could really be a dominant force not only at home but abroad if we committed.

What about the online streaming act? I thought this was supposed to compel the streaming services to to put a lot of money into local productions. Is that doing anything?

I mean, that's exactly what it was designed to compel. Um, and you know, arguably it is philosophically the most elbows up piece of legislation that we have because it is very much saying, "Hey, all you like Hollywood giants who are trying to come in here and take all our Canadian subscription money and subsume our culture,

you know, maybe just pay your fair share. do what every other broadcaster in Canada has been regulated to do since time immemorial, which is support the production of homegrown content.

And of course, the Hollywood uh outfits being Hollywood have said no. And I've been, you know, very bullyish about it and have taken the Streaming Act to court and filed appeals. And what was once viewed as a piece of legislation that could really be the key to unlocking so much potential for the Canadian film and television industry going forward has been really held up and put in another kind of deep freeze situation.

I hear you on on, you know, the importance of of elbows up in Canadian culture. That said though, you know, when whenever there's an election, like the issues that always top the polls are like affordability, housing, crime, health care, like these are the things that I think a lot of Canadians think of as their their number one priority. So, how do you kind of make culture? How do you put that in that list?

I mean, it's not easy. And I don't, you know, I don't begrudge all those people who put all those priorities first because those are essential priorities.

But without the backbone of Canadian culture and identity, what are we really fighting for? Who are we? Why not just roll over and become the 51st state and, you know, h handle all those economic and crime and health concerns over there?

Um, are we fighting for ideas or are we fighting for identity? Well, when it comes to that identity piece, I mean, something that made me laugh this year was the Canadian Screen Awards. What won best picture?

Yeah. I mean, okay, so I have a big problem with the Canadian Screen [laughter] Awards because we had some of the top acting prizes. For instance, went to Sebastian Stan, not a Canadian, Kate Blanchett, not a Canadian. Jeremy Strong, not a Canadian.

Love all those three actors to death. They're great and they were great in those performances, but they're not Canadian. Um, and you know, I like many in the industry kind of had a little bit of a stink about it.

And to their credit, the Canadian Academy has gone in, reorganized the rules, and said you have to be a Canadian to have some of those prizes.

The Canadian Screen Awards, I love what they're trying to do. Like the CBC, there's a lot of problems there,

but let's take this opportunity right now when we're talking about this. We're talking about Canada as a thing versus the US as a thing and not, you know, rolling over. Let's use that moment to do something about it.

So, best picture shouldn't have gone to the Apprentice is what you're saying.

I mean, I I'm going to say a polite Yes. [laughter]

Well, Barry, thank you so much for joining us again. This was great.

Oh, thank you for having me.