Source : Hamilton Spectator

Some Canadians have always worried about the dominance of American culture in this country and some groups have always complained about it.

The question now is whether Canadian culture is very distinct from that in the United States. This question matters a lot to new immigrants like me who don't see a cultural clash between the two nations.

Most immigrants from South and Southeast Asia, China and the Middle East wonder if Canada is still bringing any new cultural influence from the U.S. They also wonder if Canadians and Americans aren't already sharing many common cultural values.

They see both countries sharing common language, lifestyles and attitudes, religion, food, music, art, literature and much more. What else is left? Perhaps, not much.

At this point, some of the critical groups may call me a naive immigrant writer and would challenge my ignorance about cultural differences between both countries.

Still, I would insist that despite seeing the fine line between some of our cultural differences, I clearly see Canada and the U.S. sharing major cultural commonalities. To me, there is nothing wrong in that and there is no need to worry about it.

Canada, being a modern Western society, should naturally be sharing a common culture with the similar Western society of the U.S., rather than with, for example, Pakistan or Uganda.

But I find the recent campaign by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting to be worrisome. This organization says its "mission is to defend and enhance the quality and quantity of Canadian programming in the Canadian audiovisual system."

It seems to me that the group is addressing more than that. It tries to alarm Canadians in its recent survey campaign by stating, "Our country's future is at stake".

The group says the top concern in potential privatization of the CBC is it would turn it into "the preserve of private broadcasters who could fill our prime time hours with American programming -- reflecting American culture, concerns and ideology."

Frankly, I couldn't get Friends' concern about American culture. As well as strong economic ties, the people of both countries share music, art, literature, travel and even their lives.

Many Canadian writers, singers, musicians, actors, models and artists divide their time, art and skills between both countries. Should we ask our writers to not write about New York or Las Vegas? Should we appeal our artists to not paint in Miami?

Or should an American musician living in New Brunswick not be expected to compose tunes influenced from south of the border?

These artists -- cultural messengers of both sides of the border -- are not very distinct from each other. In fact, they are exposing themselves to bigger audiences by writing or performing or creating out of same western culture. Canadian artists benefit because they can market themselves to a huge American population.

As well, in the wake of huge immigration to Canada during the last few decades, Canada has imported many other cultural influences from parts of the world other than the United States. For instance, Rohinton Mistry's short stories about Indian culture, Michael Ondaatje's Sri Lankan landscape in his works and Josef Scvorecky's fiction written from an Eastern European background, provide us with different cultural backgrounds.

If groups such as Friends of Canadian Broadcasting were to focus on improvements to the CBC without resorting to Americaphobia, they could be a lot more effective in proposing better programming.

Instead of being afraid of the influence of different cultures, we should talk about better utilizing that diversity in our national broadcasting venues.

Tahir Aslam Gora is a Pakistani-Canadian writer living in Burlington.

© Hamilton Spectator