The Show: Ontario 150 commercial

The Moment: The back-patting

As a Toronto indie band sings the Ontario theme song “A Place to Stand,” we meet five characters, nonactors recreating versions of their real-life stories: A Syrian refugee in a head scarf packs her belongings; a gay man sits sadly at a kitchen table while his parents discuss him in the next room; an Ojibway teenager plants a tree with his father; a Vietnamese man holding a photo boards a plane; a newborn is cuddled by its African-Canadian parents.

Next we see them in Ontario: The gay man stands on a street with a rainbow flag; the Ojibway teen studies in a library; the Syrian girl meets her school class.

Then we see them succeed: The Ojibway teen leads a forestry crew; the gay man has a date; the Vietnamese man enjoys a meal with relatives. Finally they watch fireworks as the words “A place for all of us” appear onscreen.

Yesterday I wrote about U.S. propaganda. This 60-second ad is Ontario’s version. The Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport commissioned it to highlight the province’s 300-odd Canada 150 events and was so pleased with it they released it months ahead of schedule, in February. It and a 30-second version remain in constant rotation.

Is it a titch self-congratulatory, especially the Ojibway man’s storyline? Yes. Is its tag line, “A place for all of us” a pointed nose-thumbing to Ontario’s neighbours to the south, where a racist, homophobic, xenophobic stench currently fouls the air? Yes. Does the latter justify the former? You tell me.

The Ontario 150 commercial airs on all channels and YouTube. Johanna Schneller is a media connoisseur who zeroes in on pop-culture moments. She usually appears Monday through Thursday.