TV show brings out Canada's worst

National pride has circulated the veins of this country all year long as Canadians come together in celebration of 150 years since confederation.
There is much we Canadians should be proud of. We have our passive aggressive kindness, our obsession with burnt coffee water, all dressed chips and access to affordable healthcare.

Internationally, Canada has a reputation for kindness. So much so that in 2017, Maclean’s wrote an article debating whether Canada deserves that reputation.
Canadians are thought of as kind, nice, friendly, affectionate, considerate, loving and courteous, while also being humble about it.

When it comes to Game of Thrones, however, Canadians are malicious dirty rotten pirates who pillage without a care about the hard work of others.
For the past two seasons, HBO has named Canada as one of the leading countries in illegal downloads of its wildly popular show.

With the premiere of its seventh season July 16, Canadians are reminded once again how access to content without an archaic cable subscription is not a stepping stone of pride for this nation. In fact, it turns us into a bunch of criminals.

The cheapest way to legally watch Game of Thrones in Canada is to subscribe to a cable company’s “skinny basic” $25 subscription and add the $18 feature for HBO.

That’s at least $33 a month for a bunch of channels you don’t want – just to watch one show.
As a recent cord cutter, that’s out of the question. On iTunes, Game of Thrones sells each episode for $4.49, which was the option I was hoping to pursue.
To my surprise, however, I learned iTunes would not be releasing the episodes until the entire season has finished airing on HBO.

So, Canadian’s options are now to make friends with people who have a traditional cable subscription – which is constantly getting smaller – or take to the digital seas and become the very thing we’re notorious for.

In the Unites States, people can subscribe to HBO Now for $15 without a cable subscription.

Canada, however, is still tied up in broadcasting rights restricting options for its residents.

The CRTC should be taking Canada’s international reputation as digital pirates seriously. It’s not something to be proud of, but the underlining reasons that are taking its citizens there isn’t something to be proud of either.