In Canadian history it is quite evident that we are greatly influenced by the much stronger nations around us. Therefore our content in Canada is sometimes overshadowed by other cultures, particularly with regards to the United States which has a great influence on our cultural industries. Pierre Trudeau expressed the feeling Canadians have about this coexistence: "Living next to you is in a way like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly or temperate the beast, you are affected by every twitch and grunt." . Some may argue that Canada should not continue to develop regulations to protect its cultural industries. However, I will argue that Canada should continue to develop some regulations to protect its cultural industries. It is extremely important for a nation to promote and preserve its culture because if we don't preserve our culture now the Canadian people will not have a sense of nationalism or feel like they belong to anything. Cultures are important in a country because they help bring a nation together because they give the people of a country something to relate to. We need it especially in Canada because, given Canada's relative population compared to the rest of the world, we are an easy target for cultural penetration by foreign countries. Countless rules and regulations have been imposed on everything from issues like foreign acquisition of Canadian publishers to the minimum standard of Canadian content on radio. Therefore, despite the protections, we must further promote and protect at least some semblance of the original identity. The concept of continentalism, which is the sharing of a continent between more than one nation, can be very detrimental to our ongoing struggle to transmit our culture but... middle of paper... espoused by the much more influential nations without no cost. Given the growing interest in the Internet, we need to be rigorous with these regulations as well, because if we don't, our future generations will not have the same opportunities that older generations had and this would be due to the fact that we could not support our industry cultural when we had one, opportunities like being exposed to the market outside of Canada because we will have lost that privilege just because we have now been lax with our regulations. The government may have some conflict due to trade agreements such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), but it is the government's responsibility to continue to maintain the unique Canadian identity that Canada has developed through its various cultural industries.