Assumption of Inferiority
April 6, 2023
As a young child, as soon as I was old enough to understand what the initials C.R.T.C. stood for, I figured that Canadian television content must be bad. If the government is forcing your service provider to carry certain content or channels, it stands to reason that there must not be enough demand for it and therefore, not very good. Even at a tender young age, I understood that quality programming (or anything else for that matter) ought not to need government intervention to survive. I still carry that anti-Canadian TV bias to this day. With good reason in many cases.
I’d also like to relay a story from years ago when I used to watch the NFL. One of the commentators was talking about a winery former quarterback Drew Bledsoe owned. The commentator was puzzled as to why Bledsoe never put his name on the label, but Bledsoe said that if the wine was good enough, it should be able to sell without having his name on it.
Where am I going with this, you ask?
Take a look at the newest addition to our downtown. A Black Owned 905 Marketplace, right across from the Farmer’s Market.
Naturally, the St. Catharines Downtown Association is SOOOO excited to see this venture open a storefront. Of course they are. More recycled tax money for them. Maybe with those extra funds, they’ll be able to hire another bureaucrat to add to their burgeoning payroll so they can get busy and plan Fam Jam 2.0. I can hardly wait. But I digress.
This taxpayer-funded race-based storefront reminds me of the CRTC and its rules regarding mandatory Canadian content. It strongly implies that products or services peddled under this banner are inferior and can’t compete on their own without “help.” Of course, the notion that products or services from black vendors are of less quality than those of other vendors is absurd. But as a would-be customer, that’s exactly the impression I’d get.
Despite government claims to the contrary, Canadians are very accepting of people from all races and cultures. Racism is not a significant problem in this country. And for the most part, people don’t avoid vendors because of their race, creed or color. But government programs that fund and encourage race-based storefronts like these only serve to create a problem where one does not exist and discredit the very people they’re intended to help.
These kinds of things remind me of a quote I once heard from a fellow libertarian.
If the government were to declare a war on water, the Sahara Desert would be flooded.
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