Prairie Giant

[Minstrel Boy]

The Tommy Douglas miniseries the CBC was too chickenshit to air during the election will finally be shown March 12 and 13.

trailer here

[Spazito]

1. Excellent! Thanks for the heads-up! n/t

[Minstrel Boy]

2. Globe and Mail's John Doyle on CBC's rescheduling :

Why? Well, as we know, the country votes on Jan. 23 and over at CBC HQ -- Fort Dork to you and me -- they've decided that the miniseries must be handled like some toxic substance and removed. CBC says, "It has been moved from Jan. 15 and 16 to March 12 and 13 -- because of the election campaign. We're concerned about the appearance of partisanship."

Yeah, right. The entire election campaign might be overshadowed by a miniseries about the life of the late Tommy Douglas. We are all that thick.

Worse, CBC still plans to air, next week, a scathing documentary about our medicare system. Called Medicare Schmedicare, it will air in prime time on The Passionate Eye. The documentary is promoted on CBC's own website as this: "Is one-tier medicare a myth? Have we been saluting its founder, the 'Greatest Canadian' Tommy Douglas, as an emperor who really has no clothes?" So, it's fine and dandy to tear a strip off the ideas of Tommy Douglas during an election campaign, but a miniseries which dramatizes his life must be pulled from the schedule?

...

The postponement and CBC's reasoning is an insult to all intelligent, thinking Canadians. Are we thought to be so unsophisticated, small-minded and childish in our thinking that we would move like lemmings to vote for the NDP because a TV miniseries told the life story of Tommy Douglas?

http://list.wayground.ca/pipermail/canada-activist/2005-December/000531.html

[MrPrax]

4. You probably read it...

But for others--here's an article by Donald Gutstein about the documentary 'Medicare Schmedicare':

Behind the CBC's Hit Piece on Medicare

Welcome to the CBC, the Corporate Broadcasting Company, disseminators of the propaganda video Medicare Schmedicare. This distorted and biased attack on our public health care system aired twice on the CBC in December, during the second week of the federal election.

The thesis of the program is that one-tier Medicare is a myth. Funny, I don't think I dreamt seeing my family doctor and heart specialist and I really believe I was operated on at Royal Columbian Hospital in New Westminster, all covered under the public health system and delivered in a timely and satisfactory fashion.

...

The villain in the piece by long-time documentary filmmaker Robert Duncan, is Tommy Douglas. Duncan claims "we've been swallowing the Medicare myth, saluting an emperor who has no clothes (over a picture of Tommy Douglas) … Big surprise Tommy, a parallel private system already exists."

The attack on Douglas is ironic because just before this program was broadcast, the CBC postponed for two months a mini-series on Douglas's life set to air a week before the federal election.

[AX10]

3. KICK, KICK, KICK!

[CanSocDem]

5. Just watched part 1....

...and I have to say I'm not impressed so far. CBC had nothing to worry about as this film is decidedly lacking in anything politically pertinent. It seems more concerned with giving face and acting time to all of the Canadian actors and technicians who so wanted to be part of this production and a big payday.

As a result, a powerful story is reduced to a series of vignettes that feature people; not the ideas and philosophy that make social democracy relevant. The producers seem to delight in embedding sound bites of the opposition claiming that the "CCF is communism", hanging the charge out there without explanation or rebuttal.

This production has so far, made no attempt to explain how and why a public health system works and that is it's biggest failure. Of course, I'll be waiting for Part 2, before I completely write this stinker off.........

[CanSocDem]

7. And then, part 2....

All in all, I'd have to give the production a failing grade. My reason is best illustrated by a scene in part 2 that had Douglas and his wife on a hill, at night, watching the farm lights come on across the valley. Irma said something like "Thanks to you, Tommy....." and the scene ended.

Only a Liberal analysis would create a scene like that in a production that had no intention of enlightening Canadians on the profound moral truth of social democracy. Rather than explaining how a publicly-owned grid road system beget a publicly owned power company, that opened the door to the growth of rural farm based industry and population, the writers concentrated on dazzling their urban audience with over-wrought emotionalism and collectible automobiles.....

To the movies credit, it landed some blows on free enterprise MEDICINE. Though the overall production reeked of caricature, I had no real objection to the over-the top portrayal of the AMA. One of the best lines was Tommy's faux sympathy for the AMA's realization that Saskatchewan would be "...saving lives at the expense of the stockholders". Pure and simple.

As a born and raised Saskatchewan native, I sometimes feel at odds with New Democrats from other provinces, who, in my humble opinion, lack the same Baptist-like commitment to social justice and co-operation that is Tommy Douglas, and is NOT portrayed in this movie. My suspicions were confirmed, however, last night when I phoned a friend.

As luck would have it, he was in the room when the producer, Kevin Dewalt, first heard about Tommy Douglas from Roy Romanow. My friend said Dewalt appeared not to have ever heard of Tommy Douglas up til then.

This movie barely scratched the surface of one of the most important political struggles of our generation. Tommy Douglas was one of the most important people of the 20th Century. Saskatchewan New Democrats are radical fundamentalists.

In closing, for the urban poseurs(just kidding), the reason there are old cars in abundance is because of progressive insurance policy, well maintained rural road system and a legitimate interest in conservation.

[Lisa]

6. ironic that the CBC back then didn't want to give him air time either!

They didn't know when they made the film that the January airdate would be cancelled ... just underlines how some things haven't changed.