Conservative Leader Hopeful Wants to End CBC

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Conservative Leader Hopeful Wants to End CBC

Postby jon » Thu Nov 24, 2016 5:41 pm

Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch pitches plan to scrap CBC
Tory MP says public broadcaster should be dismantled to create more competition in media market
The Canadian Press

Conservative leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch is proposing to scrap the CBC if she manages to reach the Prime Minister's Office.

Leitch, whose leadership campaign made headlines when she proposed screening new immigrants for what she described as "anti-Canadian values," now has the national broadcaster in her sights.

While leadership rival Maxime Bernier has proposed reworking the CBC's mandate, cutting its funding and barring it from selling private advertising, Leitch goes much further.

She says the broadcaster doesn't need reform — it needs to be put out of business altogether.

She says it's unfair that while private media companies are struggling to stay afloat, the CBC is able to rely on federal subsidies.

Leitch says she would keep the parts of the CBC that provide emergency services to remote and rural parts of Canada.

Rejects calls for reform

"I strongly disagree with the stance taken by fellow leadership candidate Maxime Bernier and his call for CBC reform," said Leitch, who represents the riding of Simcoe-Grey.

"The CBC doesn't need to be reformed, it needs to be dismantled."

She said the media in Canada lacks a level playing field.

"For Canadian democracy to thrive, we need to hear from the different voices in the press," she said in a statement.

"So long as the CBC continues to distort the market by consuming advertising revenues and having its operations underwritten by the taxpayer, the market is uncompetitive."
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Re: Conservative Leader Hopeful Wants to End CBC

Postby 45 RPM » Thu Nov 24, 2016 8:37 pm

jon wrote:Conservative leadership hopeful Kellie Leitch is proposing to scrap the CBC if she manages to reach the Prime Minister's Office.



I don't think Kellie will have to worry about either happening.

Enjoy your 15 minutes of fame.
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Re: Conservative Leader Hopeful Wants to End CBC

Postby tuned » Thu Nov 24, 2016 9:03 pm

She's apparently a Trump supporter so that alone will give most Canadians the vapours. It's worth discussing getting rid of the CBC and their news channel. They both hoover up billions of dollars in direct and indirect taxpayer money. The same goes for a whole plethora of channels rammed down our throats including the Knowledge Network. I've had some dealings with the latter and their arrogance is worse than any I've encountered at any network in North America.
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Re: Conservative Leader Hopeful Wants to End CBC

Postby pave » Fri Nov 25, 2016 10:16 am

Rhetorical question: Is she freakin' nuts!?

Canadians love their pet CBC and will burn any politician who would even mutter about such a takedown.
Provincial Conservatives lost the last Ontario election because the leadership talked about cutting 100,000 jobs from the government payroll.
That he was going to do it through attrition didn't make it to the media.

The CBC pounced immediately, exploited the hell out of it and gave the guy horns, hooves and a tail.
He should have known better, too.

"Free chicken soup for everybody and public lynchings of Liberals!" is the way to go.
(Pretty good slogan, if anybody asks me.)

No. This is something that is done after a majority government is acquired.
Only then can the big and juicy surprises be sprung.

Too late now.
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Re: Conservative Leader Hopeful Wants to End CBC

Postby Talker » Fri Nov 25, 2016 12:44 pm

I've often spoken ill of the 'Mother Corp.' because of the uneven playing field for private broadcasters but we are not alone with our National Broadcaster.

Great Britain has the BBC.

Australia the ABC.

The USA has NPA (and PBS if you don't count the fund raisers).

After 51 years in the business I now cut the CBC some slack. They do provide a service in remote areas of our Nation. Perhaps running a satellite service for those regions would be a valuable. And a lot cheaper than operating transmitters and repeaters, with staff, in God-knows-where in the Arctic. With so much information available on the Internet, do we really need Mr. Mansbridge nightly at 10? Or, Hockey Night in Canada when there are so many sports channels available on cable for those that want them? And let's not forget the news gatherers and readers in local stations that DO need advertising to survive. Perhaps it is time for some changes in Government thinking.

I'll save my comments regarding the CRTC for another time.
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Re: Conservative Leader Hopeful Wants to End CBC

Postby jon » Fri Nov 25, 2016 1:42 pm

Historically, it is interesting to note that we are coming up to the 100th anniversary of politicians trying to kill the CBC, and its predecessors: June 1, 1923, the formation of the CNR Radio Department.

The most successful effort was by Prime Minister R.B. Bennett, who was elected on August 7, 1930. But all he really did is replace CNR Radio with CPR Radio.

At the other extreme, federal politicians from the 1920s until their mandate was rescinded in the late 1950s, tried to get rid of private broadcasters, and follow the British example of the BBC, which managed to keep out private stations until the Pirate Stations won the battle in the late 1960s.

Ironically, it was not a federal, but a provincial, government that managed to, for a few years anyway, keep the private stations off the air. Manitoba's government ran all the radio stations in the province in the late 1920s.
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Re: Conservative Leader Hopeful Wants to End CBC

Postby WheresFredTaylor » Fri Nov 25, 2016 6:18 pm

gtbell wrote: With so much information available on the Internet, do we really need Mr. Mansbridge nightly at 10? Or, Hockey Night in Canada when there are so many sports channels available on cable for those that want them?


Technically, CBC isn't paying a dime for Hockey Night these days, they're getting everything from Rogers. The issue people should be taking with CBC, regarding sports, is the money they shell out for the Olympics.
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Re: Conservative Leader Hopeful Wants to End CBC

Postby pave » Sun Nov 27, 2016 4:47 pm

Of course, people will miss the patronizing Parson Mansbridge - he of The Ministry of Truth.
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