Toronto's Hot Magazine Culture Threatened By Coming Trade Rules

You can hear it on the lips of Canadian politicians as they move to legalize same-sex marriag, which enjoys overwhelming public support. You can read it on the editorial pages of the newspapers, which advocate for expansion of child care and foreign aid. And, perhaps more palpably than anywhere else, you can sense this attitudinal shift in the burgeoning independent press that thrives in Toronto, Canada's cultural epicenter.

Consistently thoughtful, bold, and witty, Toronto-based magazines always figure prominently in the annual Utne Independent Press Awards (Jan.Feb. 2005). This year, they made an especially strong showing, garnering 10 nominations and taking home two categories (The Walrus for Best New Title and Musicworks in the category of Arts/Literary Coverage). The reasons for this relatively recent creative surge are as varied as the magazines themselves...

...There's also something going on that's harder to quantify: a sense that the city has finally stopped comparing itself to other places and fallen in love with itself. "Toronto has a sense of self-confidence now that wasn't really here before," says Shawn Micallef, a contributing editor at Spacing, a new Toronto publication passionately dedicated to covering the city's urban landscape...

...The Canadian Magazine Publishers Association has an aggressive government-backed campaign to promote "genuine Canadian magazines". Many of the association's member publications display the campaign's red maple leaf on their covers, and the web site ( www.genuinecanadianmagazines.ca ) provides descriptions and ordering information for more than 150 titles.

Toronto may have North America's hottest independent magazine scene right now, but its future is not so certain. Canadian magazines are heavily dependent on government support, and trade negotiators in Washington, at the behest of giant media and entertainment conglomerates, have targeted cultural protectionism (local content requirements, government media subsidies) as a new area for deregulation in upcoming negotiations at the World Trade Orgranization and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Their hope is to force governments to privatize valuable state-run television and radio properties, which are protected under current trade rules. That could spell the end of Canadian-content rules (imagine Rupert Murdoch or TimeWarner buying the CBC), as well as national subsidies for private media, including magazines. To keep abreast of the issue, check out Public Citizen's Global Tradewatch ( www.citizen.org/trade ). And, when you're at the newsstand, don't forget to buy Canadian. [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on May 9, 2005]

Note: Maple Leaf Rags www.genuinecanadianmaga... www.citizen.org/trade