It’s important to note that the “generals” this time around — especially Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault — understand that what’s at stake this time is clearly unlike any threat that news media, and the millions of Canadians who rely on it, have ever faced before. In his public pronouncements, he has indicated that you can’t call in the cavalry to fight a high-tech war, especially when the other side has nukes. But not everyone sees it that way. Some are tempted to look at a new problem through an old lens. Over the last half century in particular, successive Canadian governments have effectively responded to threats to the Canadian cultural sector — including to news media — with innovative and comprehensive policies of special funds and Canadian content and production requirements. Purists have sometimes chafed at these policies, but they’ve been instrumental in nurturing and sustaining a vibrant cultural sector in the face of constant bombardment from the world’s dominant cultural superpower across the border. The fact is that our geography — a relatively small population strung sparsely along our border with the US — our broad cultural affinity with Americans, and the tremendous economic clout of American cultural industries all combined to make Canada uniquely vulnerable.