Last night saw the debut of Big Break: Prince Edward Island, a taxpayer-supported reality show airing on The Golf Channel. A channel that, by some demographic incident, is included in my cable package. So I watched.
From the initial hoopla you might think that the show actually had something to do with Prince Edward Island. After watching the first hour I can confirm that, short of some quick establishing shots of lobster boats and a lighthouse, it does not.
Big Break is a show about golf and the narcissistic young people who play it. While it was shot at the Mill River course in western PEI, you never actually get to meet any real Prince Edward Islanders, nor, indeed, see much of PEI off the golf course. You might as well be in Dearborn for the paucity of “Islandness” in the show.
I’ve got nothing against golf and the people who play it — although I’m not certain we should be trying to attract the “soulless people with time on their hands” demographic that the contestants seem to represent — but surely there must be more to a golf vacation on the Island that what we’re showing on the screen. If there isn’t, we could save ourselves a lot of annoyance and degradation if we just re-sold Dearborn tee-times and offered a shuttle service.
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Comments
well said - I cannot believe
well said - I cannot believe how much $$$ and promotion we have put into golf at the expense of many other natural PEI attributes — When I see the amazing and well done New Brunswick and Newfoundland tourism ads compared to the PEI ads I have to cringe — we can do much better than that
I agree. PEI taxpayers
I agree. PEI taxpayers should not be wasting money on subsidizing the Golf Channel.
This is as silly (and sad) as federal taxpayers subsidizing $500,000 for a yacht to race around the world with decals for Cape Breton Island on it.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/N…
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-…
And L. is correct - we can create equally tasteful and attractive tourism ads as Newfoundland and Labrador or New Brunswick. We just need some talent at the Department of Tourism who can actually do the leg work for this.
While I don’t necessarily
While I don’t necessarily disagree with your post, I don’t think its fair to say “I’ve got nothing against golf and the people who play it” and at the same time refer to them as “soulless people with time on their hands”. I think golfers can have a soul.
I know many golfers with
I know many golfers with souls. The particular “soulless people with time on their hands” I was referring to was the contestants in the Big Break who seem to be the least attractive examples of the golfer breed.
some golfers have less soul
some golfers have less soul than others including many who watch the golf channel
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