Blame Canada! It's Sudden Death for Punjabi Hockey Show

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a state run enterprise, has announced that it will be immediately ending its broadcast coverage of Hockey Night in Canada in Punjabi. For the last two years, the CBC had been producing broadcasts of its iconic program in Punjabi, which is Canada’s fourth most widely spoken language.

CBC network officials stressed that the Punjabi simulcasts were being eliminated due to budget shortfalls. But in 2009, of the one million Indo-Canadians, the alternative language broadcasts only attracted a regular audience of 10,000 viewers. A CBC spokesman noted that too many Punjabi viewers were switching over to the English language edition to remain viable. Perhaps they wanted to see Don Cherry. Regular Punjabi simulcast viewers expressed great disappointment and hoped that enough sponsors could be found to bring back the alternative language broadcasts.

There is some thought to bringing back Punjabi broadcasts for the Stanley Cup. But at least the internet preserves some segments of Peter Puck in Punjabi.

So there are limits on political correctness, even in the Great White North eh? It is gratifying to see that some immigrant groups are not Balkanizing and integrating into their adopted nation’s culture.