The Canada‐US border and culture: How to ensure Canadian cultural sovereignty

Abstract

Present means of communication, emerging technologies, and the specifics of cultural goods and services tend to confer on the Canada‐US border a virtual character. Such technological developments, increasing economic continentalism, and the application of existing international trade rules, all combine to make more problematic the preservation of a distinctive Canadian culture. What is at stake is the maintenance of a distinctive political community on the North American continent. A fundamental challenge is to preserve Canadian cultural sovereignty, understood as the ability to promote cultural industries. An exemption of culture from the purview of the North American free trade regime has proved inadequate. Canada is ever more dependent on the United States which has used its leverage to oppose cultural policies. American interests have also been reflected in multilateral trade provisions that do not allow for exceptions in favour of national cultural policies. Rather than the exclusion of culture from international economic regimes, what are required are compromises that would ensure the conditions for effective cultural policies. The instruments of Canada's cultural policy may have to be revised accordingly. As the cultural community has tended to be inward looking and to disregard the overall imperatives of Canadian foreign policy, a further challenge in terms of policy setting is to ensure a better coordination of the views of the cultural and diplomatic communities.