It's a good challenge. I won't ramble on. Your points are very good.
First of all, I'm not in favour of censorship and telling the public what they should or shouldn't watch. I believe the public should watch what they want to watch to be entertained. I believe entertainment is escapist, and it should be fun. They should be able to see whatever they choose. It's freedom of choice.
What we are urging is that there be a minimum amount of Canadian content available. Currently there is no requirement on television. If you look at the last week....
This chart is a month outdated, but for instance, here is Global's schedule for the last week of October, from Saturday through Friday. Its prime time hours are from 7 p.m. until 11 p.m. American programming is shown in blue; the red is Canadian. There is a half-hour of red in prime time, and there are twenty-six and a half hours of blue American programming in prime time. CTV shows a similar thing: blue is American, and red is Canadian.
In my home, the television is tuned quite often to entertainment that is non-Canadian-sourced. That's fine, but there needs to be a choice also available that is Canadian. Canadian jobs are dependent on that, and the Canadian economy. It's not just a cultural, airy argument—“Gee, isn't Canadian culture good”—it actually is about bottom line. It's about work.