Spry and His Plea about the States

Graham Spry is known as the father of Canadian broadcasting and one of the most successful activists of the 20th century. In the 1930s, about 80 percent of Canadians listened to American programs to learn recent hockey news and achievements (Basen, 2015).

However, the citizens outside Toronto and Montreal did not have access to Canadian programming at all. To promote cultural nationalism and underline the democratic potential, Spry, as the representative of the Canadian Radio League, talked to the parliamentary committee about the necessity of Canadian commercial broadcasting. This step helped to remove the influence of American interests on Canadians. It was the moment when the country did not want to consider itself as a part of the US field, but had to decide if it was the State or the States. Spry used Canadians’ passion for hockey to establish one of the most powerful broadcasting systems in the world.