Toronto — Canada will never have a robust national culture on a purely volunteer basis and candidates in the current federal election campaign should be challenged on where they stand, says actor Paul Gross.
In remarks Tuesday to a conference of Toronto members of ACTRA, the actors' union, Gross offered a progress report on what has been called the crisis in Canadian TV drama.
"I think there is a case for guarded optimism," he said, noting that the Martin government in its last budget had restored the Canadian Television Fund to earlier levels while the federal broadcast regulator, the CRTC, has agreed to review the decline in prime time Canadian dramatic content on the airwaves.
Gross was also pleased at the commission's offer of an incentive — more advertising minutes per hour — to broadcasters who increase the number of home-grown dramas in their schedules.
But he maintained that the carrot must still be accompanied by a stick in order to deal with "the unholy mess we have found ourselves in."
He urged the actors in his audience to speak up at candidate meetings and force the issue of national culture onto the public agenda.
Gross said domestic broadcasters and producers have benefitted greatly from tax-dollar subsidies and the right to simulcast American programs but that they've forgotten their civic responsibility, that the price of such support is the obligation to tell Canadian stories too.
"The Canadian broadcasting industry exists at the pleasure of the Canadian people and it can be deregulated overnight and its protections, shelter and support would disappear and it is anybody's guess as to how long that industry would survive."
Gross has been one of the leaders in the fight to require broadcasters to offer more Canadian stories on the air.
He spoke to an audience of 500, including fellow actors Nicholas Campbell, Wendy Crewson, Peter Keleghan, Gordon Pinsent and Sonja Smits.
