Mondo Canuck: A Canadian Pop Culture Odyssey

David Kimmel teaches history and Canadian studies at Brock University in
St. Catharines.

English-speaking Canadians are fortunate that our most vexing national
problem has been the elusive task of identifying ourselves in cultural
terms. In the past, we have sought the answer in the realm of high
culture. Pevere and Diamond suggest a new venue, one that is closer to
all of us: mainstream music, sport, television, pulp fiction, politics,
comedy—in short, popular culture. This is where Canadian
distinctiveness shines through. Furthermore, the knowledge of our
contribution to global “schlock” can be a means of escaping what the
authors call “national victimhood.” Whether or not these claims are
valid, the result is a useful and fun book.

But it is far from perfect. First, the content is of mixed quality.
Sometimes it is good criticism, such as the feminist (albeit unoriginal)
reading of Anne of Green Gables. The authors also make some sharp
observations—for example, the fact that our self-image tends not to be
very sexy even though “babes” and “Canadian beefcake” have been
among our greatest exports. In places, however, the text fails to rise
above a basic “book-of-lists” style. Second, the authors focus too
much on the popular culture of the past quarter-century. Inspired by
Expo ’67, they claim that their generation “grew up in the high
beams of popular culture.” They take too seriously the notion that
Expo changed “the direction of a nation’s history.” This can’t
be true. Are we to believe that a single event so thoroughly molded our
sensibilities? Do the authors really think that pop culture did not
exist in any important way in pre-Centennial Canada?

Finally, the book’s tone is more ironic that it needs to be. The
authors provide, for example, a list of the 11 worst Canadian songs of
all time. Humor is certainly acceptable in a book like this, but one
result of such flippancy is an occasional tendency to miss the point.
SCTV’s Bob and Doug, for instance, were in their own way critics of
Canadian pop culture. Here they are unproblematically cited as an
integral part of it.

Mondo Canuck would be as rewarding in a college course as on the
nightstand.