Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you, committee members and my esteemed panel. This is a real honour to be invited to communicate with all of you. I guess I also have the honour of representing the west coast, which is kind of cool.
I do host a television show that I created a long time ago. We went on the air in 1997. Our show, The Electric Playground, started as a weekly half hour about the video game industry. We were one of the first TV shows in the world to make it its mission to travel to video game studios all over the world, find out exactly who was making all these cool video games, and dive into their process.
It was incredible right out of the gate. It was a real honour to be invited to so many studios all over the place, but what I found during the course of production is that more and more of my work and my travel led me to studios in Canada. I became prouder and prouder of our country's contributions to the interactive entertainment sector.
We established a certain level of quality with our program, and we were able to keep our distribution growing. In 2008 we went daily. We are now the first Canadian television show that's focused on entertainment magazine-type content that's been distributed in broadcast syndication in the U.S. So I'm very proud of our company's growth, but it all started with our passion and our desire to really get into the video game industry.
One of the other things that has transpired through our connection or relationship with all the video game companies across this country is that I'm the co-founder of the Canadian Videogame Awards, and we're about to go into our fourth year. That is a great privilege. I wanted to be involved with the Canadian Videogame Awards purely to give back to this community and purely to honour the artists who make all these incredible video game products that I love to play.
In large part, I'm representing the fan voice, because I don't make video games; I cover them, and I talk to people who make them.
I want to one-up what Mr. Kelso said, because now we also cover movies, television shows, comic books, and all kinds of other media in the content we create. We talk to all kinds of really cool and prolific creators out there. I think video games are the most important medium and the most important and coolest art form that humankind has created. I think Canada not only is the best in the world at making video games, but the video games Canada produces as a cultural export are more important than any other media we create, more important than our music, our film, or our television product.
I think as part of this heritage committee, as part of talking about where we're going in the future with our observance of the importance of video games in our culture, we need to educate and recognize that a little more. As a society in this country, I think we need to be proud of the developers, the work they create, and the people they reach with this work.
Games like Assassin's Creed, Mass Effect, Need for Speed, and dozens of others reach millions of people, not just in our country but all over the world. What has become apparent to me is that people in our own country are a little unaware of the great depth, the great quality of work that's coming out of this country. I think when we have prominent events like Canada Day celebrations, or Walk of Fame-type celebrations, it's time to start including video games.
Obviously I have a desire to have the Canadian Videogame Awards grow in prominence and be recognized across the country in as wide a way as we possibly can. Certainly I'd like our programming to grow and be seen by more people as well. But I think it's really significant that we have reached this level of influence across the world with this art form. I think we need to recognize it as an art form. I think we not only have to encourage other companies from different countries to invest in our country, but I think we have to work with all the incredible talent all of these larger companies or mid-size companies have created with their on-the-job training. Let's encourage all those individuals who want to start their own firms to do that. Work with private investors. Try to shy away a little from the interprovincial competition that's happening right now. A lot of provincial tax breaks and credits are going on.
People are fighting for a little bit of attention. The entire country is something akin to what Hollywood's movie output was recognized for, as Mr. Kelso so elegantly said. I think we need to recognize that our entire country can create fantastic video games, and it doesn't matter what city you live in. I think developers should focus on where they want to live and live there, make the games they want to create, and send them out into the world. It doesn't matter if they are in a small town in Saskatchewan or in the Maritimes or in B.C. or Ontario. I think we have to get away from the fighting. We should think of ourselves as something like Hollywood, but across our entire country.
We make the best video games in the world, this year in particular, with Assassin's Creed 3, Mass Effect 3, Sound Shapes, Little Big Planet Karting, and Sleeping Dogs. The list is unbelievable. The world-class product that we are producing is something that every Canadian should be proud of.
That's all I have.