Canadian culture is at a crossroads. For more than 70 years, Canada’s arts and media funding framework has remained largely unchanged, even as the country has become more diverse, more digital, and more disconnected from a unifying cultural vision.
Canada now faces a patchwork system riddled with duplication, inefficiency, and uncertainty of purpose – from the CBC to the CRTC, and from municipal arts grants to federal media funds. As geopolitical pressures rise and American cultural dominance intensifies, the stakes have never been higher when it comes to maintaining a strong Canadian culture.
To discuss this, Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow Peter Menzies – a former CRTC vice-chair and past publisher of the Calgary Herald – joins Inside Policy Talks. Menzies is the author of a new paper, titled Rethinking arts and media funding: A new vision for Canada. In it, he calls for a Massey Commission 2.0 — a reprise of the 75-year-old Massey Commission that set the course for Canadian cultural policy over the past three quarters of a century. He says it’s time for a bold rethink of how Canada supports its creators, institutions, and cultural sovereignty.
On the podcast, Menzies tells Peter Copeland, deputy director of domestic policy at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, that the idea of multiculturalism “has been confused,” and that he hopes to see a future Canadian cultural policy that “takes pride in our foundations.”
“There’s one thing to be multiracial, multi-ethnic, welcome people from all countries and backgrounds,” says Menzies. “But you also need to have a shared sense of identity.”
