This is a bit glib, but that's understandable. It's not a truly 'free market' for anything, and content is no exception. 'Free Market' idealism overwhelmingly

This is a bit glib, but that's understandable. It's not a truly 'free market' for anything, and content is no exception. 'Free Market' idealism overwhelmingly favours 'large open economies' because they'll basically gobble up smaller open economies next to them. Literally the only large industries that exist in open economies next to much larger open economies are those that are protected: Banking, Telecoms etc.. If laws were changed such that US companies could buy Canadian Telcos - then even if Canadian Telcos were way more efficient (they are not, but supposed they were), then US giants would eat the Canadian Telcos instantly. The deals would be signed literally the day the law passed. Sometimes local cultural resilience is enough, but it's not that common. In Italy, they don't go to Starbucks or have a lot of America food, because theirs is just better in every way. But in Tunisia, almost everything that Tunisians do is quickly getting replaced by Western products. It's weirdly easy to convince young minds in the developing world that 'all their stuff is stupid' next to Coke, KFC, McDonald's, Nike. It's almost shocking to see the inter generational divide in these places, with elderly people being of 'some culture' where the kids are almost 100% cheap copies of bad Western brands. Coca Cola has immense money and power to influence, lobby, market. There are a few specific Tunisians teas that are just 'local products' that don't have an industry cabal behind them. Eventually, they will be replaced by Coke. In Canada specifically what I have noticed is that multi-generational Canadians have some semblance of what Canadian culture is, they'll know Neil Young etc. but a lot of migrant kids, they don't have much of a basis. They are far more likely to buy into the most recent American pop culture trends aka Kardashians. Because Canada has high levels of migration, that becomes a unique problem. Distribution and creation of most content is hugely industrialized, people are not 'famous' because they write a good song, my god no - it's an industry. Getting on the talk shows, published articles, etc. all of that is a business. There are just so many factors that contribute to content and distribution they are hard to enumerate and they are mostly industrial, this idea of 'free choice' is barely applicable. I actually fully support CANCON rules for the same reason they have existed in the past. Not for most industries, but anything cultural, yes. And of course as long as people can actively chose to get the content they want as well.