Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!ubc-vision!fornax!chapman From: chapman@fornax.UUCP Newsgroups: can.politics Subject: Re: Free trade, Canadian culture, $$ Message-ID: <185@fornax.uucp> Date: Thu, 19-Feb-87 13:49:43 EST Article-I.D.: fornax.185 Posted: Thu Feb 19 13:49:43 1987 Date-Received: Fri, 20-Feb-87 06:35:45 EST References: <183@fornax.uucp> <741@looking.UUCP> Distribution: can Organization: Computing Science Dept, SFU, Burnaby, B.C. Canada Lines: 51 > In article <183@fornax.uucp> chapman@fornax.uucp (John Chapman) writes: > > > >"There is such a thing as too much free trade with the United States. > >According to a federal task force report, Canadians spend $1.2Billion > >a year on movies, but 90% of it flows out of the country and into the > >U.S. There it is used to finance the production of American films, > >which in turn shut Cnaadian films out of Canadian movie theatres, > >most of which are integrated with American distribution companies. > >Was a circle ever more vicious? > > > >..... >might reduce the American market share of distribution to %65> " > > "Ticket for Platoon, please." > > "No sir, you can't watch that movie! We don't allow its distribution here!" . . < brad gives mildly hysterical response to canadian content rules > . > > -- > Brad Templeton, Looking Glass Software Ltd. - Waterloo, Ontario 519/884-7473 Brad I think you have completely misinterpreted the intent of the editorial I quoted. The editorial is about film *distributors* not forcing Canadian content on anyone. I should probably have quoted the remainder of the editorial - but my fingers got tired :-). The points are simple: $1.2 billion is sucked out of the canadian economy every year - I don't know too many people who would think it's a bad idea to try and keep some of this (*our*) money in our economy rather than sending it south. Canadian culture is already at a disadvantage since the decisions about what movies will be available (and when) in our theatres are made by foreign nationals. Please don't bother trying to tell me it's all just controlled by the "market". A Canadian distributor (with control) is more likely to say "yeah let's show that for a week in March" than someone in Los Angeles. Hoever nothing was mentioned about barring American films from Canadian movie houses. If more of the film industries' profits remained in Canada it would be a whole lot more likely that fundng would be available for Canadian films. john