Canada Unlocked

In the past few days, issues surrounding lockouts have been receiving much atention in Canada. The NHL, having lost a whole season because of a lockout, started its regular season last week. CBC workes go to work in a few days after having voted to end a lockout that began last August.

Hockey Night in Canada on CBC is a decades-old tradition here in Canada, long predating our current multi-channel universe. People from across the country would tune in to watch the likes of Richard, Orr, and Gretzky. There was something distinctly Canadian about this tradition.

Yet the NHL and the CBC are in an unfortunate state of affaris today. Gary Bettman has been NHL commissioner for 12 years. He's credited with expanding the number of teams in the league in this time and for the expanded coverage the league now receives in the US. While this took place, fans in traditional hockey cities like Winnipeg, Hartford, Quebec, and Minneapolis/Saint Paul had to watch their teams leave for financial reasons and head for cities in the southern US where hockey isn't so much a tradition. Most of the franchises are now posting losses. The direction the NHL took under Bettman was major marketing. In ventruing into new markets, the league turned its back on those places were hockey trives naturally, and it may not have worked. While the lockout was a major topic of choice in Canada, Americans outside of those areas where hockey is a strong tradition by and large didn't miss the game. And the NHL is the only professional sports league in North America to lose an entire season due to a labour stoppage. For what? Bring the game back to people who appreciate it. Winnipeg never overcame the loss of the Jets, and anxiously awaits their return, although it's impossible to say what will happen at this point.

As for the CBC? It has been under attack for at least a decade. The right wing in Canada would like to see the CBC privatised, even though this would make Canada the only industrialised country without a public broadcaster. CBC's funding has been cut, and although it still produces valuable programming not available in any other major Canadian media outlet, it has been managed as a commercial network as opposed to a public boradcaster. During the NHL lockout, when the CBC would have broadcast NHL games it instead broadcast movies. Nothing wrong with that, except that the movies broadcast were already known American movies that aren't that hard to find if one wants to. Why didn't the CBC during that time do more to actively promote Canadian films and productions, especially given that most commercial movie theatres in Canada don't show Canadian movies? The CBC is not a commercial broadcaster, so intsead of trying to "compete" it should focus on telling Canadians about the world and each other, and it has the capability to do a wonderful job at it given that it shouldn't have to worry about how profitable its programming is.