# The Canadope Café, 2014 Edition: In 3-D! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 1, 2014, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612 "2014-01-01T05:07:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 59
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1161 "2014-06-02T13:58:03Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > This is interesting. The local AM radio here in Ottawa is much better than CBC. I listen to both, and the quality of the hosts on CFRA are much better than CBC. I’d give you Mark Sutcliffe but I find the CFRA announcers all come across as angry men - I can listen for a few day but then I’m just exhausted. It’s a weird experience. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1162 "2014-06-02T14:25:09Z")
I prefer dispassionate, rational, unbiased interviewers who are knowledgeable of the subject matter, keep it in perspective, include all sides of the issues, put all sides to critical analysis, and neither let the interviewees get away with non-answer answers nor primarily use the show to promote the interviewer’s opinion. CBC radio news and current affairs programs tend to be very good with this, whereas I find private broadcasters – particularly phone-in show hosts – tend to be less so – often far less so. I’m not interested in listening to interviews that that are little more than amplifications of the interviewer’s opinion (the TV analogy being the insightful Steve Paiken v. the ranting Ford Nation/Nancy Grace). I prefer shows that are directed to the “Hmm . . . that’s something I need to learn more about,” than the “Fuck yeh” crowd. It’s not surprising, then, that when I visit a large market city and am surfing the radio dial, I usually end up on CBC. ---
**Author:** ![Malthus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Malthus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malthus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1163 "2014-06-02T14:50:49Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > Honestly I do not begin for an instant to understand this excuse. > > A successful TV show more than pays for itself. This is how TV works; you make a really good show, and lots of people watch it, and then companies will pay you tons of money to advertise their products during that show. It’s worked for decades. if CBC makes shows people want to watch, people will watch them and the CBC will have more money. > > AMC didn’t get government funding to make “Breaking Bad.” FOX doesn’t get government funding to make “Family Guy” (and the producer of the same show also got no government money to make the new “Cosmos.”) HBO didn’t get taxpayer dollars to make “The Wire.” Those shows were made by companies who knew quality TV could make money back by being good TV, and it worked. There’s nothing stopping CBC from trying that except their resolute opposition to trying anything interesting, edgy, or new - or for that matter, making something that’s just popular. I mean, I have no idea why such a horribly unfunny show like “Big Bang Theory” is as commercially popular as it is, but it is, so that’s an option too. > > I do not for a single instant believe more funding would make CBC TV better. An extra hundred million wouldn’t motivate them to come up with the next “Breaking Bad.” It would motivate them to come up with still more schlock like “Murdoch Mysteries” and “Little Mosque On The Prairie.” My impression was that “Murdoch Mysteries” was very commercially popular. ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1164 "2014-06-02T17:31:19Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I car pool 2 hours to work every day with two other guys. We don’t get paid for travel time. We’re not the only ones. Ontario has sucked the life out of manufacturing jobs with high energy costs, The bankruptcy of Nortel in the Ottawa region has flooded the market with highly-qualified employees and every job posting has hundreds and hundreds of qualified people applying. > > Finding a job in Ontario, in the high-tech sector at least, is a fucking nightmare. I know people who have been looking for 2 or 3 years now with no offers. I think I need to clarify what I was trying to say; if you have the skillsets then a job in the oil patch can afford you the ability to work in Cold Lake/Bonnyville/Conklin or Ft Mac while still living elsewhere. Of course that will require you to live in camp, often two weeks on/two weeks off and depending on where you plan on going, a 3 hr drive to Edmonton on one of the most dangerous highways in Canada to fly home, whereever that may be. The oil co.s often pay the flight but not the drive. That two weeks away is 12 hr days and your family life is on hold. If that’s something you can deal with, the money is great! If you are fortunate enough to have a job where you can drive or be bussed to work every day, then some companies will provide you with a co. vehicle as part of your duties and some pay you for your travel time; some don’t. The patch pays so well because they realize just how difficult keeping highly skilled individuals in such an environment can be. While I commiserate with your day drive **Leaffan** , does your job require you to be in near constant exposure to H2S, potentially explosive atmospheres and large bits of equipment that can ,at the very least, maim you? Most of the above mentioned jobs require you to work in an environment that is hazardous, noisy, outdoors, with long hours far away from home. Of course, if you are management the story is somewhat different. I’m only trying to point out that for most people, that money is good, but don’t think it’s easy money by any stretch. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1165 "2014-06-02T17:33:05Z")
And Little Mosque on the Prairie did quite well, and went either went into syndication or will be syndicated in France, Switzerland, francophone African countries, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, United Arab Emirates, Finland and Turkey. United States of America, Mexico, Spain, Argentina, Venezuela . . . . In short, it was/is a commercial success, but nothing stellar. There elephants in two corners of the room that assertions of letting the market decide tend to avoid. 1. Utter crap can be commercially successful, e.g. trash TV in the form of reality television (Honey Boo Boo) and talk shows (Jerry Springer). Hands up by those who want your tax dollars used to produce this sort of shit? 2. Shows that are very expensive to produce (Friends at $10 million per episode, Game of Thrones at $6 mil., Lost at $4 mil., as opposed to Little Mosque on the Prairie at $0.5 mil.) need to make it in the USA market to be commercially successful. Hands up by those to want your tax dollars spent to produce hugely expensive shows on the gamble that they will break into the American market and become commercially successful? Those two problems leave the CBC in the middle with scripted shows that more often than not are meh. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2014, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1166 "2014-06-02T17:56:17Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > That two weeks away is 12 hr days and your family life is on hold. If that’s something you can deal with, the money is great!. I’m an Ontario divorce lawyer, so I love the patch, but sadly for all the wrong reasons, for it blows marriages apart. The money is a huge lure (e.g. a second class stationary engineer in Ft. Mc making the same as an Ontario doctor), but it often comes at one hell of a family cost. ---
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2014, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1167 "2014-06-03T08:41:33Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > … There elephants in two corners of the room that assertions of letting the market decide tend to avoid. > > 1. Utter crap can be commercially successful, e.g. trash TV in the form of reality television (Honey Boo Boo) and talk shows (Jerry Springer). Hands up by those who want your tax dollars used to produce this sort of shit? > > 2. Shows that are very expensive to produce (Friends at $10 million per episode, Game of Thrones at $6 mil., Lost at $4 mil., as opposed to Little Mosque on the Prairie at $0.5 mil.) need to make it in the USA market to be commercially successful. Hands up by those to want your tax dollars spent to produce hugely expensive shows on the gamble that they will break into the American market and become commercially successful? > > Those two problems leave the CBC in the middle with scripted shows that more often than not are meh. Does it have to be an either/or proposition? Maybe the reason US entertainment is loved worldwide is because it involves both: it plays to the lowest common denominator (“Honey Boo Boo” and “Jerry Springer”) and the highest common denominator (PBS presents “A Night With the Boston Pops”). In between, it offers, “Friends,” “The Big Bang Theory,” and “CSI: Wherever.” What it does not do is to tell where it comes from. We know that Jerry Springer comes from the US, as does “CSI: Miami.” We know that the Boston Pops are from Boston, Massachusetts, USA. We know that “Big Bang Theory” is the story of a bunch of nerds in Pasadena, California, USA. The producers, writers, and so on don’t need to remind us that this story or performance takes place in Boston, Miami, or Pasadena. And so, we can get on with the story. It seems to me that Canadian productions have an overwhelming need to remind viewers that it is a Canadian production. In every Canadian comedy or drama production, there are superfluous references to the Maple Leafs, the Canadiens, Yonge Street, Robson Street, Peggy’s Cove, and Portage and Main, and the RCMP (or OPP, SdQ, or RNC as appropriate). All are guilty of this “Canada-down-the-throat,” approach; even “Little Mosque,” but also the very popular “Corner Gas.” I’d suggest that this “we need to prove we’re Canadian” approach detracts from the entertainment we’re trying to provide. I recall “Night Heat.” It was a cop show, set in an unnamed city, featuring two detectives from Mid-South precinct: Giambone and O’Brien. They were the focus of newspaper reporter Kirkwood, who reported their stories in the local paper. The series–which was filmed in Toronto and had Canadian actors–was picked up by CBS in the United States. But not once did the series refer to Toronto, the Maple Leafs, Yonge Street, French-speakers, Parliament, or Ottawa. It told typical police stories of muggings, robberies, murders, and so on. The setting might well be Anywhere, USA; or Anywhere, Canada. Or (except for the accents and the driving on the right), Anywhere, UK and Anywhere, Australia. And it was a good, entertaining police drama. Maybe we can provide quality entertainment to the world, if we stop feeling that we need to put a Canadian spin on it. David Cronenberg is an internationally-acclaimed Canadian film director, but I don’t see where his films ram Canadianism down a viewer’s throat. The same for Atom Egoyan and Norman Jewison. Maybe what we need to do is produce crap for the masses, and produce highbrow stuff for the longhairs, and not forget the middle. The CBC should not be telling us what to think–that’s what dictatorships do–but it should be challenging us, making us think, and entertaining us at the same time. And if that entertainment is nothing more than making us laugh or cry without reminding us we’re Canadian–well, so be it. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1168 "2014-06-05T00:54:19Z")
Holy crap, we have a guy out shooting RCMP officers in Moncton just a few blocks away from my house. I guess the city is on a bit of a lock down. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1169 "2014-06-05T01:19:56Z")
> [@Muffin](#): > > Generally, it takes money to produce top shows, unless you want to bottom feed with low-end reality TV or game shows. And children’s cartoons. I think it’s interesting how Canadian content rules have ended up being a big success for home renovation shows and children’s cartoons (and perhaps not much else). ---
**Author:** ![wolfstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d6d6ee/32.png) [@wolfstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfstu)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1170 "2014-06-05T04:30:56Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Maybe we can provide quality entertainment to the world, if we stop feeling that we need to put a Canadian spin on it. I haven’t heard of “Night Heat”, but there are a lot of cases where asking a Canadian TV show not to look Canadian is like asking a gay guy not to flaunt it. Sooner or later you either end up mentioning your boyfriend, or you’ve got to plan around ever saying anything to let on your identity. Two of the best dramas (IMO) I’ve seen that were produced in Canada were _North of 60_ and _Street Legal_. For the former, the setting was explicitly Canadian, featuring the relationships between native and non-native residents in a small northern community. You could have tried to anonymize that, but it would have taken all the realism out of it. The real dynamics of aboriginals and non-aboriginals, the isolation of the north, the opening up of communities as resource development goes on, and the distant authorities in Yellowknife and Ottawa, are much more interesting than ‘generic rural town has characters’. It’s a drama that tells a story about how people live together in a real society - our society - and it’s a story about ourselves that is worth telling. I think that’s the kind of thing CBC should do, because I doubt anyone else will. _Street Legal_, for its part, was more like a US courtroom drama, but featured political and social issues of interest to Canada (much as _Law and Order_ does in the US). It dealt with criminal and civil law as practiced and implemented in Canada, the role of the courts in light of the (then still fairly new) Charter, and even municipal politics of Toronto (arguments over what kind of development should be allowed on the Toronto Islands). That could have been anonymized into a generic legal drama, but it would have been less interesting, I think, and certainly wouldn’t have had the value of exposing a generation of Canadian TV viewers to Canadian legal principles. (The student teacher who filled in for my injured Grade 12 law teacher could sure have done with that, quoting to us as he did things he’d heard on _Law and Order_ that didn’t apply in Canada). So maybe every cop show is the same (though certainly _Due South_ showed that they could be different, and even commercially-viable), but there’s plenty of programming that would suffer if it was deliberately written to obscure its Canadian identity. I think there is really a value to telling stories that explain ourselves to ourselves - just as there’s a value to having our own literature. Maybe those Canadian-identified productions can be commercially successful abroad, just as US-identified ones often are internationally, but whether they are or not, I’m willing to support that kind of arts production. _Little Mosque_, I’ll grant, is an example where the blandness and genericness of its characters, combined with the topical theme of ‘integrating immigrants’ and ‘undertanding Islam’ make it sellable. I’m not sure how much they reference local details (I haven’t really watched it). ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1171 "2014-06-05T04:56:35Z")
WTF [Moncton](http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/06/04/gunman-on-the-loose-in-moncton-reports)? > [@](#): > > Three RCMP officers were shot dead and two wounded as an intense manhunt continued into Thursday morning in Moncton, N.B., for a man dressed in camouflage and armed with two high-powered rifles. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 9:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1172 "2014-06-05T09:28:31Z")
My neighbourhood is locked down and school cancelled. A nervous night. Here is hoping they catch the bastard soon. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1173 "2014-06-05T10:41:42Z")
Front page Breaking News on CNN. Not what I ever would have imagined for Moncton. ---
**Author:** ![Poysyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f4b2a3/32.png) [@Poysyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Poysyn)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1174 "2014-06-05T20:38:56Z")
Apparently Oromocto was locked down too - how is everyone? ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1175 "2014-06-05T22:05:40Z")
I hope they catch this freak soon. The pics on the news make it look like he executed two of the guys in their cars. Wow, just wow. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1176 "2014-06-05T22:17:32Z")
Being in lockdown is boring as hell. They’ve cancelled school for tomorrow so I’m letting my daughter stay up and watch bad movies (it’s been an all day Buddies movie marathon. Snow Buddies, Santa Buddies, eight year old have horrible taste in movies.) Hopefully the lockdown is lifted tomorrow as today was grocery day and the cupboard is getting bare. ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1177 "2014-06-06T00:39:38Z")
Well, I guess I’m glad CNN now has another shooting to focus on. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1178 "2014-06-06T10:46:39Z")
He’s been arrested: > **[CBC News - Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News](https://www.cbc.ca/news)** > > The latest news from across Canada and around the world. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1179 "2014-06-06T10:51:15Z")
One of the dead RCMP has been identified: Const. David Ross, married, father of 19 month old child, with another on the way. > **[CBC News - Latest Canada, World, Entertainment and Business News](https://www.cbc.ca/news)** > > The latest news from across Canada and around the world. ---
**Author:** ![Sparky812](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Sparky812](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparky812)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612/1180 "2014-06-06T11:13:13Z")
Sad, sad, news. My thought and prayers go out to Moncton and the families and friends of the victims. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612.md?page=58) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-canadope-cafe-2014-edition-in-3-d/677612.md?page=60)