BBC - Around the World - Ariel's 'Foreign Bureau' - 23 June 2004

by Gwen Jones McCauley, manager, programme sales, Canada, 23 June 2004

It’s another sunny morning in downtown Toronto and so begins the ever-present task of braving the rush hour into the office.

For those of us at BBC Worldwide Canada, the only BBC office in the ‘Great White North’, the commute to work can be as easy as a 20-minute walk down fashionable Queen Street or as challenging as a 90-minute battle from the burbs.

Toronto, with 4.5 million people, is Canada’s largest city, to which people flock with big dreams and in search of big money.

My big dreams brought me to Toronto and BBC Worldwide in 1998. Back then we were a lean operation of seven people. We’ve now grown to a staggering eight.

But a lot has changed in our business. The Canadian office opened in 1952 and has transformed over the years, housing tv, radio and education and training sales at various points in its history.

In the early ’90s, tv sales came back to Toronto from London. Not long after, a local library sales business was developed and a third party distributor hired to take over education and training sales. Business was booming – and still is.

We operate thriving television and library sales businesses to service the Canadian market, and maintain relationships with joint venture channels BBC Canada, BBC Kids and Animal Planet Canada.

As visitors consistently note, our office is probably the BBC’s best kept secret. Its hardwood floors, high ceilings and exposed concrete pillars are more resemblant of a personal loft rather than a corporate sales office – not to mention location, location, location.

Situated in the heart of downtown Toronto, it gives us access to great food, trendy shops and the best entertainment.

This year Toronto tied fifth with Helsinki and Stockholm as the world’s most desirable city to live in. Vancouver and Montreal tied first and fourth respectively which is why Canada is consistently voted best country in the world in which to live.

So, what does it mean to be Canadian?

To me, it means watching figure skating, curling and lacrosse and making hockey a religion. It means forever dispelling the myth that we have snow all year round, live in igloos and sleep in carved out caribou carcasses.

It means name dropping to non-Canadians about Celine Dion, Shania Twain, and Jim Carrey – to name a few.

It means apologising to someone who has just stepped on your foot, saying please at least once every sentence and opening every conversation with a flip comment about the weather.

Being Canadian means letting the world know that we invented basketball, Trivial Pursuit, the zipper, Superman and the green plastic garbage bag. Oh, and the only way to get from one coast of the country to the other in eight hours is by plane not car.

As much as I hate having to shovel my way out of winter just in time to sweat out an unbearable heatwave in summer, I’m one of eight people on staff who all consider ourselves very fortunate to be a part of the BBC without ever having to leave our own backyard.