And so the cracks are finally beginning to show.

Having seen a number of U.S. commercial producers dragged down in the wake of the economic downturn, the first signs that maybe Canada didn’t escape the pull are becoming visible.

In mid-April, one of the oldest commercial producers in the country, the Animation House – having been in business nearly 20 years and having produced nearly 900 animated commercials – closed its doors. The company’s founder Bob Fortier attributes the shop’s decline in no small part to poor board flow.

Then there is the really big news. The Partners’ Film Company, the granddaddy of Canadian commercial production houses, came this close to being sold to rival Avion Films.

While Partners’ has already been sold several times in its long history and the economy was not a factor in this near-sale, Partners’ president Don McLean continues to be very vocal about the problems facing producers.

‘When MacLaren phones and they want to do six commercials for Rogers AT&T and they have $60,000 to do six, it’s a very bad time,’ says McLean.

In a nutshell, he’s had enough. And so, with selling a less likely option, McLean has decided to call it a career.

The Partners’ cofounder has announced his retirement before and has yet to actually make good, but the point remains the same. McLean is frustrated.

And he’s not alone.

At issue is clients demanding that producers basically buy spots in order to keep their directors’ reels fresh. We’re not talking about Covenant House here; we’re talking major national corporations.

‘There’s sort of that kick ’em while they’re down mentality. ‘Hey, they’re starving, there isn’t a lot of work, we can get them to do a lot of work for nothing,” says Michael Schwartz, partner and executive producer at Avion. ‘We don’t need to support the Procter & Gambles of the world, they have enough money to pay for what they need.’

So the question, then, is why do companies in Canada that appear to be managing just fine continue to inflict body blows to commercial producers? One answer may lie in the fact that the U.S. economy remains on shaky ground and satellite offices or those with satellite office mentalities are still waiting for the other shoe to drop. This might explain why production is picking up but budgets remain tight.

Indeed, as the production community gathers to celebrate the year in commercial production at the 2002 Bessies, the sentiments of McLean and Schwartz are never far from the podium accolades and beer-soaked tributes.

With the Bessies, not to mention the Clios and Cannes upon us, it is a good time to ask: How can Canadians expect world-beating creative when homegrown clients seem unwilling or unable to ante up sufficient budgets.

If multinationals can get their spots done anywhere and Canadian clients aren’t supporting national production, where does this leave us in the creative spectrum?

Or maybe we should resolve ourselves to the fact that we are a nation of commercial-makers who excel at making good creative on the cheap and leave the cutting edge to the Europeans.

Meantime, we should prepare for a contraction of commercial producers.

Here’s hoping it’s not you.