I wish there were a smart, funny, and especially cheeky word that rhymed with ‘convergence’, so I could smugly rhyme away, sapping the sauce from that self-important trisyllabic monstrosity. But I can’t think of one.

Convergence. There it is again, fizzing, undammable, into mid-consciousness, like those clever morsels of rock star gossip on Pop Up Video. I didn’t want to write about it, but now it looks as if I’ll have to, or it will pester me mercilessly, like the words ‘prime rib’ in a very funny radio campaign currently on-air. Or it will rattle around maddeningly like the contents of my recycling box when the local raccoons decide to play shinny by my back door.

But wait. Before we get to the wherefore of the c-word (unh unh unh, you addled fans of The Sopranos, not that c-word, this is a family newspaper), let’s look at the when, the when in Canada in particular.

Here we are, a country in which finally, finally, theatrical releases of the non-Porky’s, non-tortured variety are kicking audiences into gear and stifling the death-knell refrain, ‘oh it’s such a Canadian film.’ Take New Waterford Girl, sticking to screens beyond the hard-core art house circuit. People are now saying, ‘It was so good. And it didn’t really seem Canadian.’ People are impressed, even though Liane Balaban’s character does decide to quit Cape Breton for the glowing, sophisticated milieu of New York.

It is at this moment, when the odd Canadian film registers a resonant pulse in Canadian veins, that some of the most far-reaching convergence episodes are occurring. And the good news about the omnipresence of this benighted term is that in recent context, the c-word has been all about C-ancon.

bce bought ctv, CanWest bought Hollinger, bce did the do with Thomson. And last, but certainly not least, Corus proposed and Nelvana showed off the five-kilo ring.

Yup, it’s more than a little sad to see a company like Nelvana surrendering its maiden name after such a tough struggle to get it on the marquee in the heart-darkened entertainment biz.

Just because Nelvana was so coolly independent. When it was just three guys, an animation camera and an apartment. When Care Bears was most of what stood between them and old maidhood. When the Care Bears movie won the Golden Reel, when American nets came calling, when this Canadian company called entire Saturday morning blocks its own, but analysts let the stock languish, undervalued at $12.50.

Then again, success was persistence, the successes multiplied rapidly, the balance sheet took off and the takeover was inevitable. Good that Nelvana is betrothed to Canada’s Corus, since the pre-nup will specify extensive foreign travel for both, or a divorce for all.

For those planning to take on the world, united we stand (with eyes still aglow from the single life), Canadian we stay, and the c-word we grin, bear, and keep trying to rhyme.

susan tolusso

Editor