Maybe it says something about Canada itself that in the end, a history magazine couldn’t hold onto its own history as it was announced last week that The Beaver, Canada’s history magazine since 1920, would change its name in April.
The magazine started as a newsletter by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1920, but like so many other parts of what was once an iconic Canadian company, couldn’t withstand the march of time and technology.
For 90 years, The Beaver had a proud name but one which was increasingly hard to hold on to. In the information and technology age, the name had become not just a joke, but was holding back the magazine from an online presence, without which it couldn’t survive.
Canada’s National Historical Society president Deborah Morrison admitted that among women and those under 45, the name was a turnoff, but why does it seem like we’ve become a nation of snickering teenagers and worse, celebrity worshippers?
It’s hard to imagine a major American news network turning over a flagship show to Beyonce, but that’s what happened in Canada recently when the CBC turned over its morning news show, ‘The Current,’ to Shania Twain.
When former American Governor Sarah Palin recently signed as a commentator with Fox News, Globe and Mail arts and entertainment columnist John Doyle, (also known for his penetrating foreign affairs analysis) noted that Palin and Fox were a perfect combination of “ignorance and stupidity.”
However Doyle, as well as the rest of the media and country, was curiously silent when Twain, after showcasing Canada in the eyes of the world while interviewing Jordanian Queen Rania Al_Abdullah, headed off to her next stop as a celebrity judge on American Idol.
While she normally doesn’t like it well enough to live here, Twain is back in the country on her latest ‘I love Canada tour’ as she attempts to resurrect her career and while she was the symbol of the affluent 90s, looks out of date in an age of terrorism and recession.
When she vaulted to stardom in 1995, Twain was a sensation by daring to bare her belly button, but today is tame or worse, dull, beside protégés such as Lady Gaga and the Pussy Cat Dolls.
With her celebrity status fading, Twain looks like someone who 30 years ago would have been a regular beside Paul Lynne in one of the corners of ‘Hollywood Squares’
Nothing lasts forever, it’s true, but it’s probable that in 90 years, Twain’s memory won’t be as much a part of Canada’s identity as The Beaver is today or at least once was.