Canadians continually struggle to maintain an identity separate from that of our neighbour.

It is difficult considering, like Rome, right now the US almost seems to be the centre of the world, to have the last say on culture, fashion and politics. Certainly other voices are heard, but American voices are the loudest - and that isn’t a bad thing. The Americans earned their place in the world and stand as an example of freedom.

However, they aren’t always easy neighbours. It’s kind of like having a pretty nice house but living next door to a guy with a mansion, pool and Ferrari. Whose barbecue would you rather go to?

Mexico has some separation from American culture thanks to differing languages, but here in Canada we mostly speak English. No, this is not a cheap shot at our French citizens. Most Canadians are proud they live in what is supposed to be a bilingual nation, however it is a fact that us English speaking folks are pretty lazy about maintaining our high school French. And we outnumber them. In fact 22.7% of our nation is French.

So regulations have been made to insist that Canadian content is heard on our radios and seen on our televisions. Canadian singers, actors and the technicians who work behind the scene are given a helping hand to ensure the integrity of a Canadian product.

Most of us would agree that is not a bad idea.

Legislation that helps Canada maintain an identity - good stuff, right?

However, common sense has to come into play here.

The Burdett WI recently sent in a letter to the editor questioning the CRTC for licensing two more Canadian porn channels. Not only is society in a state where it is unlikely we need even more smut on the air, but according to CRTC rulings, these channels have to include a certain amount of Canadian content.

So when Canadians watch porn, they can be sure that they are seeing a certain number of stars who are home-grown.

Somewhere there is a group of grey-headed people with way too much time on their hands. They sit in their committees and think deep thoughts and decide important things. You sort of want to be a fly on the wall during their Canadian content porn conversation - well, not really. Most of us would rather hold on to our common sense and live in the real world where it is not a matter of whether or not there are Canadian porn stars on television - but rather no porn at all.