Desiring Canada

CBC Contests, Hockey Violence, and Other Stately Pleasures

By (author) Patricia Cormack & James Cosgrave
Categories: Sociology, Sociology and anthropology, Society and Social Sciences
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Paperback : 9781442613911, 272 pages, March 2013

Table of contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter One: Contesting Canada at the CBC

Chapter Two: “Always Fresh, Always There”: Tim Hortons and the Consumer Citizen

Chapter Three: “Our Game”: Hockey, Civilizing Projects, and Domestic Violence

Chapter Four: Peace, Order and Good Gambling

Chapter Five: The Funny State Apparatus

Conclusion: Minding the Gap

Notes

Bibliography

Description

What do Tim Hortons, Hockey Night in Canada, and Rick Mercer have in common? Each is a popular symbol of Canadian identity, seen across the country – and beyond – on television and in other forms of media. But whose definition of ‘Canadian’ do they represent? What does it mean to be Canadian? Do we create our own impressions of Canadian identity, or are they created for us? In Desiring Canada, Patricia Cormack and James F. Cosgrave delve into these questions, exploring the connections between popular culture, media, and the Canadian state.

Taking as their examples the popular CBC contests, Tim Hortons advertising campaigns, NHL hockey violence, television comedy, and the business of gambling, this lively, engaging book investigates the relationship between some of our more beloved popular expressions of national identity and the extent to which the interests of the state appeal in various ways through the popular media to the pleasures of citizens, thus shaping our understanding of what it means to be Canadian.