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With a liberal political culture that is characterized by limited government, internationalism and an open society, Canada stands somewhere between France and the United States in its degree of cultural protectionism and overall intensity of cultural politics. The United States, of course, is the great cultural exception with a regnant popular culture that is able to indemnify its production costs over a populous and prosperous society which is largely immune to cultural expressions that do not project an American sensibility. In effect, the United States can afford to have a “cultural open-door policy” because it has little to fear from foreign competition. For Canada, however, cultural free-trade raises the specter of standing unprotected against the forces of American cultural annexation. This discussion will survey the debate over U.S. cultural imperialism and Canadian concerns for its cultural sovereignty with particular reference to the international trade agreements of the past decade.