A Retrospective Look at the CBC Regarding Notions of Nation-Building in Canadian Society
by Derek P. Rucas
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has been thriving in its television format for fifty years. It was in 1952 that it got its jump-start into Canadian culture in the form of the television set. During this era, the CBC’s mandate was more or less the same as it is today. The CBC was concerned exclusively with nation building and identifying with fellow Canadians regarding issues of heritage and sovereignty as a unified state. Among this primary mandate, the CBC also battled to refuse the permeation of American mass-culture within its jurisdiction. It is evident that although U.S. programming was frowned upon with regards to Canadian ideology, the CBC managed to allow influences from American television to penetrate these boundaries.
While
still in its infancy, the CBC had a specific mandate to promote Canadian content
to fellow Canadians. In Maurice Charland’s article Technological Nationalism,
he discusses the similarities between the construction of the Canadian Pacific
Railroad (CPR) and the coming of technology (more specifically radio) into the
Canadian household. Charland
compares the two symbols, acknowledging them as strong Canadian entities that
promoted rhetorics for nation building during similar eras in Canadian history.
The symbol of the CPR was exploited and carefully orchestrated to
construe a glamourized myth that Canadians could identify with.
Charland states that the railroad was specifically depicted in three
ways. 1) It represented the epic struggle that Canada needed to put
forth in order to compete economically with the rest of the world, 2) it
symbolized Canada’s strong political will to survive, and 3) the vigorous
motion of the steam engine represented power as it propels the CPR across the
country. (Charland 200)
However,
the CPR’s primary mandate was to connect both eastern and western Canada, thus
making Canadians feel unified with one another as opposed to the spatial
alienation felt prior to its construction.
Charland quotes Harold Innis by saying, “…[t]he history of the
Canadian Pacific Railroad is primarily the history of the spread of western
civilization over the northern half of the North American continent.” (Charland
199) Canada’s economic status
flourished upon its arrival.
Among
some of the most pertinent reasons the railroad was built include the
encouragement of immigrants to diffuse in less agglomerated regions of the
country (i.e. the mid-west and the west coast), it promoted easy movement, thus
making the Canadian military able to cross the country efficiently, Canadians no
longer needed to travel through the United States in order to get to the west
coast of Canada, and some would argue most important that the construction of
the CPR promoted patriotism amongst Canadians, lessening the gap between the
east and west coasts in hopes to provide Canadians with a sense of national
unity. (Charland 202)
A
couple of decades later, the CBC was introduced to Canadians, primarily in the
form of radio, then manifesting into television format in 1952.
CBC radio had problems in the 1920s with keeping its content one hundred
percent Canadian. Commercial
intents arose from private interests to change the mandate of radio
broadcasting. In the 1930s, issues
regarding American mass-culture infiltrating Canadian broadcast mediums were
flagged as a hazardous threat. Citizens
of larger Canadian cities were restricted to a limited selection of stations,
making it easier for American stations to penetrate their signals through
Canadian airwaves. (Harris ii,
vi) Eventually, governments
refused to fund radio broadcast because 1) American programs were overwhelming
the Canadian population with their mass-culture ideologies, and 2) governments
were not making any profits from this medium (unlike the profits made from the
CPR several decades before). (Charland 209)
It
was not until 1952 that the CBC came into Canadian households in a different
manifestation. Not only were
Canadians able to hear an auditory component of a CBC broadcast, they were now
faced with the visual component of the same broadcast; all projecting from a
modern, technologically advanced invention called the television set.
The
CBC was one of the first Canadian broadcasting corporations to emerge on
television while extending its services across Canada in both French and
English. It was understood early on
that Canadian programming needed to address issues and problems concerning
Canadian citizens and to continue to add pieces to the nation-building
infrastructure. Paul Rutherford
acknowledges this is his book When Television was Young.
He states, “…CBC television was a national service designed to please
as wide a spectrum as possible of the Canadian people, whether they lived in
Toronto or Rivičre-du-Loup, with programming that would reflect and enrich the
soul of the country.” (Rutherford 45)
One
method the CBC used to attract viewer attention (and more importantly, distract
them from watching American stations) was to fill time slots appropriately.
This was difficult because of the limited Canadian programming that was
offered compared to the abundant supply of American programming. Secondly, Since Canadians had a taste of the lush, high
production qualities of American broadcasting, the CBC was faced with the
dilemma of producing shows that would not pale in comparison. (Rutherford 87)
It was inevitable that the Canadian consumer was going to be attracted to
American programming, despite Canada’s attempt for nation building amongst
Canadian society with regards to its vast heterogeneous population.
The
CBC did an exemplary job of promoting Canadian culture to Canadians.
However, some of the shows broadcasted at this time encapsulated hints of
American mass-media. Some of the programs that aired on the CBC during the 1950s
included:
Howdy
Doody
This
American program originated in New York in 1945. It was remade for a Canadian audience and was now being
broadcasted on Canadian television. The
producers decided to create a brand new set in a Toronto studio and the showed
first aired in the fall of 1954.
Maggie
Muggins
Was
a show created by Canadian writer Mary Grannan and featured a young freckle-face
girl with long pig tails. This
program was originally broadcasted on CBC radio in the 1940s and later
manifested into the television program of the same name.
Many young girls watched it during the 1950s.
Background
This
was a weekly show produced by Cliff Solway.
It summed up pertinent issues in the news for the week and scrutinized
them in a weekly program. In 1961, Background
eventually reached prime time status.
CBC Concert Hour
This
program originated in Montreal and focused exclusively on serious and classical
music with an emphasis on chamber music. It
featured new promising Canadian conductors such as Wilfred Pelletier, Boyd Neel
and Roland Leduc.
Cannonball
This
show was a half-hour family drama about Canadian and American truckers who
hauled freight between the Canadian and U.S. boarders.
American actors Paul Birch and William Campbell were featured in this
program among Canadian actors such as Ruth Springford, Eric House and Cy Mack.
Cross
Canada Hit Parade
The
CBC borrowed the template from the U.S. weekly music variety show Your Hit
Parade and concocted a Canadian version of the popular countdown classic.
This program featured performances each week from Canadian artist such as
Wally Koster, Joyce Hahn and Phyllis Marshall.
La
Famille Plouffe/The Plouffe Family
Originating
on CBC radio in 1953, this adaptation of Roger Lemelin’s novel showcased the
ongoing life of the Plouffe family in Quebec.
It was later broadcasted on the CBC English affiliate between 1954 and
1959.
Window
on Canada
In
affiliation with the Nation Film Board of Canada, the CBC aired a half-hour
series presenting NFB productions that depicted different aspects of Canadian
life. (Corcelli iii, i)
Although
just a sample of what the CBC broadcasted during the 1950s, these programs
depict a clear range of truly Canadian programming, but also show influences
from American mass-media infiltration.
In
programs such as Maggie Muggins, CBC Concert Hour, La Famille
Plouffe and Window on Canada, it is apparent that the creators wanted
to engage the Canadian public with various different forms of Canadian art.
Although directed at different generations, (Maggie Muggins being
the one typically aimed at a child audience), all four of these programs were
created by Canadians, to promote Canadian nationalism in the form of stories,
music or films. For example, Maggie Muggins and La Famille Plouffe
were stories about Canadian people living in geographical regions across the
country; perhaps familiar to some of the audience members.
CBC Concert Hour focused on Canadian musicians creating different
types of music, while Window on Canada explicitly engages Canadian
audiences with Canadian-made films exploring different aspects of Canadian life.
Programs
such as Background discussed a political and economical outlook on issues
pertinent to Canadians. Its weekly
round-up of events occurring across the nation would educate Canadians living in
St. John’s on issues regarding west coast cities such as Victoria.
Similar to the Canadian Pacific Railroad in the early nineteenth century,
Background was one of the forefathers in Canadian television history that
promoted coast-to-coast relations with Canadians living at opposite ends of the
country.
Furthermore,
programs such as Howdy Doody, Cannonball and Cross Canada Hit
Parade helped to fuel nationalism, but at the same time, borrowed templates
from American programming to spark interest in the Canadian viewer.
Howdy Doody was originally created as an American production in
1945. Remade for the CBC, Howdy
Doody filled the daytime slot with a Canadian program, decentralized
from Canadian origins. Similarly, Cross
Canada Hit Parade borrowed its idea from the popular U.S. program Your
Hit Parade and marketed it to Canadians by using Canadian performers instead
of American ones. Finally, Cannonball dichotomized both Canadian and
American content into one program. By
casting both Canadian and American actors to play the roles of truckers crossing
national boarders, Cannonball did little in the way of portraying
Canadian culture to Canadian citizens, rather it nurtured the idea of a
Canadian/American melting pot of mass-culture that could easily be digested by
Canadian and U.S. citizens alike.
The CBC promoted rhetorics of nation building during the 1950s, as did the CPR several decades earlier. However, at the same time the CBC allowed for American mass-culture to intermingle with Canadian ideals. Perhaps television programmers believed it was undeniably easier to entice Canadians to watch CBC programming if hints of U.S. pop culture were hidden within program subtexts. In any event, this strategy proved to popularize many Canadian programs and kept CBC television in commission for the last fifty years. More and more American programming continues to infiltrate Canadian television stations, namely because their high budget productions attract audiences nationwide. Realistically, the funding that provides Canadians with national television is the same funding that will hopefully keep the CBC running for another fifty years to come.
Bibliographical Information
Rucas, Derek P. "A Retrospective Look at the CBC Regarding Notions of Nation Building in Canadian Society." Film Articles and Critiques. 7 Feb. 2003 <www.angelfire.com/film/articles/cbc.htm>.
transcribed by Derek P. Rucas
