It's no surprise that American government officials could be a humourless lot, but it never occurred to me that their humourlessness would lead them to believe that the plot lines of Little Mosque on the Prairie are actually insidious forays into anti-American propaganda.

This just may be one of the most damning pieces of information in the Wikileaks documents for this simple reason: The Americans are on to us. In fact, seen through the proper lens, it's clear that there has never been a Canadian television program that wasn't a veiled criticism of Americans in general and their foreign policy in particular. The Little Mosque on the Prairie objection comes from it's portrayal of an immigration officer in an unflattering light when the main characters try to get visas. He's like a cross between John Cleese's Basil Faulty and Mr. Bean. Read between the lines, and you'll see that Canadians feel that American wheat tariffs are protectionist and aggressive. It's all right there. You just have to look.

Hopefully, American investigators won't start reviewing our whole programming history as I can't imagine our diplomatic relations, let alone our conjugal ones (although I won't say who's visiting who), surviving that kind of scrutiny. Because it's not just our family programming that shoots pointed barbs – I mean the entirety of The Beachcombers is a scathing indictment of the electoral college system and Molly's Reach was just a reference to the “reach around” necessary to get the Americans' attention.

And Mr. Dressup? Basically a prescient criticism of the American Military's 'Don't ask, Don't tell' policy. Finnigan, who only spoke by whispering in Casey's ear, symbolized all the silent voices waiting to be heard...

The Friendly Giant, when rearranging the furniture at the beginning of the show, was a metaphor for American's coming into your house and doing whatever they damn will please.

Now that Wikileaks has given us the 'heads up' on how close American's are to unravelling the entire CBC propaganda machine, it's time for 'Operation Riefenstahl' to begin. Let's get started burning all the evidence before the damage between our two countries becomes irreparable. 

Add Comment