The recent commotion caused by Alex Burrows denunciation of the actions he attributed to referee Stephane Auger caught my attention.

Many Canadians understandably regard hockey as Canada’s game, holding it near and dear to their hearts. Perhaps in hockey’s sportsmanship, teamwork and the generosity of spirit that underlies a team’s success they see a reflection of what it means to be Canadian.

Undoubtedly Canadians found the pettiness of spirit, the ‘it’s all about ME’ attitude and the total lack of consideration for others (in this case the fans) a disturbing reminder of just how americanized ‘Canada’s game’ has become.

Unhappily, I doubt that many recognized in this incident the highlighting of the creeping americanization of Canada  that has been corroding the Canadian Soul since the private broadcasting phase of the television age began.

As more and more private broadcasters entered the broadcasting business Canadians were subjected to more and more American programming. This programming has served to indoctrinate Canadians with the underlying principals of American life – Greed and Self-centredness.

This decades long barrage of Americanism has undermined Canadian values to the point our current Prime Minister is an American wannabe whose demonstrated goal is to replace the Canadians Ethical Rectitude with American narcissistic avarice.

It is to reverse this americanization of Canadian mores and allow Canadian mores to reassert and re-establish themselves as the underlying operating principals of Canadian society that the CRTC must not interfere in the Canadianization process that is currently taking shape in over the air broadcasting industry.

It is imperative that Canada  get actual local Canadian television and programming that reflects Canadian ethics and values to reverse the americanization of the Canadian Soul.

Despite the misrepresentation of their current “save local television” campaign, the private over the air broadcasters are not Canadian much less local.

Rather than Canadian television we have an American television programming rebroadcast system.

News programming, which should be an epicentre of Canadian values and ideas, is driven instead by the need for profit to feed the conglomerates which have come to own Canada’s media. News is not about ideas, discussion and goal setting but is about what sells – if it bleeds it leads.

Without CRTC interference Canadian over the air broadcasters and/or stations will have to reinvent themselves as true Canadian local television since over the air broadcasters will not survive (without CRTC interference) simply rebroadcasting American programming as is the current state of affairs.

The lack of viability of the current conglomerate media structure should, with the conglomerates failure, return control of television stations to local ownership.

The establishment of true local Canadian television and programming will help reclaim the Canadian Soul.

The desperate need for a restoration, a revitalizing, of the Canadian Soul is written in events occurring now in 2010 and throughout 2009.

Throughout 2009 the numbers of Canadians in need of help from their fellow Canadians to have shelter and food simply to survive grew at an accelerating rate.

In the months leading up to the end of 2009 there was story after story, report after report, concerning the increasingly (20% to 60% increases) large numbers of Canadians needing help just to find food to eat and to survive another night

The result of all this coverage? Charities, despite the well publicized large increases in the numbers of Canadians in need of help, did not make their targets and have had to carry their campaigns into the new year.

At the same time so many Canadians were left in need, other Canadians were spending an additional 3% this year over last year’s Christmas season on indulging themselves.

That’s correct, as the numbers of Canadians in need skyrocketed, those Canadians fortunate enough to be able to be generous were being less generous – except to themselves. How very American.

If Canadians do not want to continue to lose what it means to be Canadian, we must not just stop the americanization of the Canadian Soul but must actively seek to reclaim the Canadian Soul, our Canadian ethical rectitude.

We need to reverse the subtle process of indoctrination and americanization that our television broadcasters have enabled as an American programming rebroadcast industry, by allowing the market to force local ownership and Canadian programming and content.

We need tell Stephen Harper that if he wants to be an American he can immigrate; that we want to be Canadians, are proud to be Canadians and to not interfere with the Canadianization of the over the air broadcast industry currently underway.