CANADA

Evening Star, Issue 19351, 10 September 1926, Page 11

CANADA

IS IT AiERICAHISED? ASSAULT OH PUBLIC TASTE “Is Canada becoming Americanised to a degree inimical to the imperial tie? Is Uncle Sam carrying the old German policy of peacelul penetration to lengths that threaten Empire solidarity f” Thus Mr R. S. Somerville, in the ‘ Empire Review,’ introduces a question not without interest to Australia. Canada herself is becoming very concerned, and lively discussions are taking place in the Canadian Press. The evidence for the affirmative seems to bo strong and varied. Geographically it is easier for Canadian trade to flow north and south across the border than east and west. The dominion consists of three settled areas divided by wide, unproductive bells. The eastern provinces find their natural market in Boston; Regina and Winnipeg, in Central Canada, are nearer to Chicago and St. P.aul than to Toronto and Montreal; Vancouver finds transit cheaper to Seattle than across the Rockies to Calgary and the central provinces. The American tariff and the Canadian sentiment for unity (which has built three transcontinental lines, two of them losing very heavily) have countered this tendency, and the policy of Imperial preference, begun in 1897, has done more.

But neighborhood is very close. The bulk of Canadian settlement lies within 200 miles of the border. Even more serious is the attraction of American “ big business ” to enterprising and ambitious young Canadians. But the most obvious processes of “Americanisation ” are those which may be described loosely—very loosely—as “cultural.” Seven million dollars a year are spent in Canada on American magazines. Press cable messages appear as they are colored for purely United States consumption, though since the inauguration of the Canadian Press Service Canada has been able to converse internationally in her own voice, as it were. But “ the comic strips, the full-page illustrations dealing with sex problems and domestic triangles, the silly fiction stories, and oven the crossword puzzles are all of American manufacture.” Ninety-nine per cent, of every 100 theatrical attractions seen in Canada are American in personnel and sentiment. Practically only “ made in the United States” films are shown. Now the development of radio has brought down on Canada a further deluge of Americanism in the form of jazz programmes and grandiose post-pran-dial oratory of the Independence Day type. Almost all of the moving pictures north of the border arc either owned or controlled by groups in New York, which are also supreme in the poduoiion end at Hollywood. The same coteries dominate the vaudeville and legitimate fields as well. . . . The result is that Canadian public taste has become saturated with American ideas. . . . Canadians who patronise the “movies” have to submit to seeing their country depicted all over the world as a land of ice and snow, of gunmen, cattle thieves, whisky runners, Indians, and a species of Royal Mounted Police removed as far as possible from the real specimen. They have also become accustomed to the British .aristocrat being branded as a card sharper or a fortune hunter, with a mental equipment which contrasts strongly with the intellectual brilliance of the great American hero. Truly it is a weird mental pabulum for a proud but helpless, people.

This has had an immense influence on Canadian taste. “ Canadians are gradually losing their inherited British reticence and dignity. They are learning to copy the Americans in their love for the spectacular, the donning of bizarre uniforms on special occasions, their unrestrained joy in gaudy parades, and their craze for organisations. Canadians have caught the craze for professional baseball, they applaud American actors, ride in American automobiles, idolise American movie queens, and under the compulsion of courtesy witness unprotestingly the American flag being carried through Canadian cities on every conceivable occasion. The nation which annexed the word ‘ America ’ for its very own is nothing if not aggressive.” Mr Somerville proceeds to analyse Canadian opinion. Complete independence is not regarded as feasible, but there is a strong current of nationalist sentiment which favors the separate negotiation of treaties, distinct representation at Geneva, and upholds Canada’s right to refuse to participate in a European war. Annexation to the United States is favored only by a few intellectuals, who see in this step a convenient solution of the problem of the National Debt, which, they think, is growing too Ia mo to bo carried by a population of 9,000,000 people. They cast envious eyes at the unparalleled, prosperity of the United States. But the people of British descent are solid for the maintenance of the Imperial connection, the thousands of families connected with the war feci a strong attachment to the Empire and no love at all for the United States, . . .

“Love and admiration for the Mother Land are inbred deeply, and not to be cast out lightly. If a plebiscite were taken it appears certain that Canadians would vote overwhelmingly in favor of remaining a partner in the greatest group of sister nations the world has ever seen. Tt is a restless and changing ora we live in, but love founded on esteem endures.”