‘I Am Canadian’ bellows the payoff line in a rousing new ad campaign, with a fervent young man fervently proclaiming the sometimes trite differences between Canadians and Americans. In cinemas, at the Oscars, the spots for Molson beer are having the forked-tongue effect pro-Can ranting can have on only Canadians. Some people are thrilled, and there is even a suggestion that some film audiences have risen for a standing O. Others, true to the stereotype of Canadians embarrassed by blatant self-affirmation, are dissing the ads on the Internet. Guess they don’t get jiggy with the point of the ads, which is to say not only is it ok to be Canadian, it’s ok to yell defiantly about it if you want. (The American director, ironically, says he enjoyed himself unabashedly making these spots.)

We should think about that. Yelling, that is. The culture around us has never been especially comfortable about shining bright lights on its successes, but we are improving. Now, will convergence, tech-clustering or any of the other over-hyped harbingers of the new economy erase those tentative gains by deeming Canadian content dispensable?

The Canadian Cable Television Association says, in its new e-tv background paper, that the coming ability of consumers to control and custom-fit digital content – from any source at any time – will undermine ‘the ability of national licensing authorities to restrict or control access to content.’ The ccta is also calling for further deregulation of small cable and phone systems in Canada. But need it mean that as telcos and cablers move onto the Web – and as they bring the casters with them – that a sense of us-ness will be obliterated? Is this hype or inevitability?

Phyllis Yaffe, former librarian, former head of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre and current president of Alliance Atlantis Broadcasting, says although she understands why the Rogers and Shaws and bces of the land need to get bigger, they can do so within a regulated structure. ‘I don’t think, regulation or not, that Canadian content can be sacrificed….It’s that cultural side of this debate that says the regulator must keep this aspect of the industry [healthy].’

But it won’t be easy. On the one hand, the crtc can keep requiring casters to air minimum content levels. But putting that content, where all content seems to be headed, on the Internet, is fraught with problems. Trina McQueen, executive vice-president of ctv, points out some thorny Net issues, including: how do we define national distribution rights where everything is seen internationally; how do we define exclusivity periods; how do funding agencies determine what is ‘national’ content; how much are Internet rights worth?

Muses McQueen: ‘When I look over the horizon – and this may be a risky thing to say – with everything that’s going on in broadcasting [and in production and distribution in general] unless we can get some kind of rapprochement, I think broadcasters are going to be much more interested in having their own production companies. Because owning the rights is one thing, but it’s not the only thing.’

Certainly, making the content online Canadian is not the only thing, but even in self-effacing Canada, it’s one thing.