When the Junos are handed out in Halifax next week, there's at least one perennial Canuck contender who will most certainly not be in attendance.

Matthew Good, oft-maligned by the media for being short on temper and long on bluster, plans to continue his decade-long boycott of the ceremony, despite the fact he's up for best artwork design for his greatest hits collection In A Coma: 1995-2005.

Good says the Junos -- a body that saw fit to reward Nickelback and Kalan Porter with multiple nominations this year, while relegating Broken Social Scene, Hot Hot Heat and Metric to the alternative album ghetto -- are as out of touch with what's truly award-worthy as the foreign dinosaurs they keep lavishing attention on.

"They sell this thing like they're supporting Canadian music, but that's a joke," says Good, who -- it should be pointed out -- is a congenial and affable sort. "If Canadian record companies were worried about supporting Canadian music, that would be their priority, not U2 ... And until the focus of the Junos is (on actual talent) and not just glorifying the industry's false promotion of Canadian talent, it's just a f______ excuse to sell Dentyne gum."

Never a big fan of the industry's business-side machinations, Good continues to be baffled by the landscape of the Canadian music scene.

"A lot of unbelievable music is being produced ... and while it's not selling very well, it's definitely being recognized internationally for its integrity and creativity," Good says. "But the mechanism that has traditionally bolstered Canadian music to certain levels is just a non-entity right now."

Good himself is no stranger to the tempestuous relationship between art and commerce, his own career having seen its share of ups and downs.

Internal tension brought about the dissolution of the Matthew Good Band in 2001, but not before Good found himself stuck with the reputation of being difficult and disgruntled.

He's much mellower these days -- if no less vocal -- and while he's got two recent solo albums under his belt, the tour bringing him to Winnipeg tomorrow is one of his first chances in a decade to be on-stage by himself.

"It offers an opportunity to be able to present things in their barest format and talk to fans about what something is about and what I intended to do with it, as opposed to how it came out on record," he says

As for his future -- Good has to deliver one more album to Universal before joining the ranks of those who've officially fulfilled their contracts -- he's in no rush to record anything, and not sure of the form the album will take when he does.

The wait-and-see attitude also extends to his view of the industry -- which, in his eyes, can only get better.

"Independent music is going to keep growing," he predicts. "And I think a lot of bands are going to start to not want to do business the way it's been done. We're going to see a lot more of that late-'80s, early-'90s indie ethic that went on before."