Justin Trudeau has taken a stand that Canadian media must remain off-limits to U.S. investment. The Globe & Mail reports (behind a paywall, via Conservative Tree House):
The prime minister also said his government won’t sign an updated free trade accord with the U.S. and Mexico if the deal doesn’t continue exemptions for Canada’s cultural industries, which aims to protect Canada’s publishing and broadcast industries.
That too was entrenched in the original Canada-U.S. free trade deal that preceded NAFTA. Giving up the exemptions would be tantamount to giving up Canadian sovereignty and identity, Trudeau said.
“It is inconceivable to Canadians that an American network might buy Canadian media affiliates, whether it’s newspapers or TV stations or TV networks,” he said.
“So we’ve made it very clear that defending that cultural exemption is something that is fundamental to Canadians.”
I actually understand why Trudeau wants this clearly protectionist measure to continue. Canadians fear absorption into American culture, and they fear that American-owned media would not understand their concerns, traditions, priorities, and interests. They want Canadians to get news and entertainment that is about Canadians. That is why Canada decades ago founded and funded the Canadian Film Board to produce moves about Canada.
Read the full story from American Thinker
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