Monday, June 09, 2008

A Little Piece of Canadian Identity Sold to the Highest Bidder

What does it mean to be a Canadian is something I constantly ponder. It's something I probably always will. Canada hasn't existed as a nation for a long time. We're young and we're still developing our identity. A little piece of the identity that did exist was sold off today as CTV (one of Canada's big broadcasters of mostly American shows) bought The Hockey Theme song, which for the past 40 years has been synonymous with Saturday-night Hockey Night in Canada broadcasts on public broadcaster CBC.

Here's CBC's side of the story. Here's CTV's. Here's a guy playing it on his organ:



If you want to rile up our southern neighbors' patriotic fervor, you do something to the flag. If you want to see Canadians get pissed, you mess with our hockey traditions. Damn you, CTV for using your bottomless pockets. To make a lame wrestling analogy, it's like Triple H going and giving someone Undertaker's tombstone - you don't steal another's moves because it makes both of you look bad.

For those who don't know, CBC is a government-funded station. Canadian tax dollars fund it so there's limited resources. If they paid $3 million for a song, there'd be that much less money for health care, schools or lavish trips abroad for our politicians.

Here's hoping Stompin' Tom takes over the Saturday-night duties.


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