Heated Rivalry x Canadiana with John Batt
Definitively our most Canadian conversation yet!
In this episode of Material Girls, we once again take a look at Heated Rivalry — this time focusing on the Canadian-ness of the show. We were joined in February by sister of the pod, Hope Rehak, to think through the show's popularity as it relates to puritanism. This time around, we brought in John Batt (he/him), the brilliant mind behind the Instagram account @canada.gov.ca,* to help us think through the show as CanCon (Canadian content).
Together, Marcelle, Hannah and John consider what it means for something "to be Canadian." They broach the myth of Canadian culture as a monolith and do a historical deep dive on The Massey Commission to get a better sense of how CanCon became institutionalized as a nationalist endeavor. If you like Canada Corner™ you'll love this episode about Canadiana with Canadian treasure, John Batt.
"This is a great episode for someone who recently got into hockey." - Gaby Iori, someone who recently got into hockey
*If you don't know it already, go follow the account for curated stories from the obscure and often bizarre side of Canadian history and culture!
Related Listening
Heated Rivalry x The Puritanical Eye with Hope Rehak
Book 4, Episode 2: The Nation State (from Witch, Please podcast)
Trade Movies Podcast (clip mentioned by John Batt)
Works Cited
“Canadian Content.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Feb 8, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_content#:~:text=Current%20Canadian%20content%20percentages%20are,multicultural%20formats%20have%20lower%20percentages).
“Canadiana.” Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Mar 29, 2026. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadiana.
Litt, Paul. 1992. The Muses, the Masses, and the Massey Commission. University of Toronto Press.
Morrison, Catherine. 2026. “Culture Minister Says Hockey Romance Heated Rivalry Is a Cancon Triumph.” CBC. January 15, 2026. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/heated-rivalry-cancon-triumph-9.7046368.
“Peak Hockey Romance, Brought to You by Canadian Taxpayers.” 2023. Turbotax. 2023. https://turbotax.intuit.ca/tips/heated-rivalry-canadian-culture-funding?srsltid=AfmBOopyhhXtfaL9EN-cTEedVftFvXbkfs1oCdrNbNbWI_U1xD9embi3.***
To learn more about Material Girls, head to our Instagram at instagram.com/ohwitchplease! Or check out our website ohwitchplease.ca. We'll be back next week with a Material Concerns episode, but until then, go check out all the other content we have on our Patreon at Patreon.com/ohwitchplease! Patreon is how we produce the show and pay our team! Thanks again to all of you who have already made the leap to join us there!
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Material Girls is a show that makes sense of the zeitgeist through materialist critique* and critical theory! Each episode looks at a unique object of study (something popular now or from back in the day) and over the course of three distinct segments, Hannah and Marcelle apply their academic expertise to the topic at hand.
*Materialist Critique is, at its simplest possible level, a form of cultural critique – that is, scholarly engagement with a cultural text of some kind – that is interested in modes of production, moments of reception, and the historical and ideological contexts for both. Materialist critique is interested in the question of why a particular cultural work or practice emerged at a particular moment.
Music Credits:
“Shopping Mall”: by Jay Arner and Jessica Delisle ©2020
Used by permission. All rights reserved. As recorded by Auto Syndicate on the album “Bongo Dance”.
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