Canada’s federal Liberals have become experts at squashing competitiveness, maintaining mediocrity and stoking inflation in the entertainment industry.

It’s basically a two-pronged approach

  • Insist that all networks, traditional and online, broadcast a certain percentage of Canadian content
  • Tax successful digital services 3% of revenues to (allegedly) support the production of Canadian content
Teenagers doing a makeshift highschool play

The outcome?

  • More lousy Canadian shows forced down the throats of Canadians. Seriously, most of these are like high school plays, they’re so bad.
  • Less choice for the good stuff we really want to watch. Content created outside of Canada, that is.
  • Higher costs. Tech firms will raise prices in Canada to compensate for their losses, driving up inflation.
  • Further antagonized relations between Canada and the US. The US is already exasperated with Canada because Trudeau’s Liberals want a free ride with national defense–that is, leaning on the US instead of fixing our currently laughable capabilities.

TV shows and movies should be watched because they’re good enough to be watched. Diverting funds to Canadian producers and artists will not teach them how to compete in the broader marketplace.

It’s like buying a teenager a bicycle instead of encouraging them to earn enough money to buy one for themselves. Or put differently, let’s say a kid sells really awful lemonade. It’s so bad nobody wants to buy it, even on a stinking hot day.

But the Canadian government wants to reward that kid for selling lousy lemonade. It wants to give them more cheap lemon powder along with a fancier-looking lemonade stand.

The result?

More lousy lemonade. The kid never changes his or her ways. And we all pay for this essentially socialist handholding that rewards mediocrity among a trendy group of politically correct, in-the-know folks who make a living out of riding the wave of free government grants.

Whatever happened to the timeless wisdom of not giving a fish but teaching someone how to fish? The waters are deep out there. And Canadians need to learn how to compete the hard way, just like everyone else who makes it on their own.