When CBC management postponed the broadcast of Prairie Giant, the Tommy Douglas bio-pic, they maintained it was because they didn’t want to influence the federal election.
But maybe their current timing isn’t much better. Prairie Giant wound up airing while Bob Rae was publicly mulling a run for the Liberal leadership, and media reports suggested he’ll campaign on a “unite the left” platform. And as Ish Theilheimer at Straightgoods.ca points out, Tommy Douglas is one of Canada’s most enduring reminders of why mice need an alternative to the cat parties:
Canadian politics is not like American politics because an actual movement, born out of need, gave rise to the formation of a popular third party that reshaped the national debate, even if it never won power. However much nostalgia the show may evoke, however tempting the notion of a former NDP Premier as Prime Minister, the program is not a good argument for a Bob Rae-led NDP-Liberal alliance.
