TORONTO – ” “I’m going to defund CBC. Yes, I am going to do it. Very quick” …Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who according to all polls will be Canada’s next prime minister, has returned to talk about the mega-public funding to the CBC, confirming, in an exclusive interview with the Toronto Sun a couple of weeks ago, that as soon as he is elected he will take away $1 billion a year from the television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. 

“I’m going to defund the CBC. That’s my commitment. My commitment has been the same since I first said it at my very first leadership rally in Regina. I said, ‘We will defund the CBC to save a billion dollars.’ That was my commitment then, it’s my commitment now”, said Poilievre.

This, Lilley wrote in his editorial (here), does not mean closing or selling the CBC, but it means “they will get $1 billion per year less and they can stand on their own two feet”.

But this “threat” only applies to the CBC’s English-language services, not its French service (Radio Canada), and Poilievre explained why: “The first principle is this: The government should only do what people can’t do for themselves. Media can support itself in the English language in the private sector, because there is overwhelmingly a big enough market. Canadians can get English language media in abundance, more than they could ever consume. That is not true in the French language”.

In this new scenario, CBC – Radio Canada would, by an act of Parliament, retain a focus on French-language services with a still impressive subsidy of $400 million a year, while the “English” CBC would have to find a new way to pay its bills, including the massive bureaucracy at the top that “sucks” millions of dollars in bonuses (it is not clear for what merits) each year.

“Canadians who think we need CBC to tell Canadian stories – Lilley wrote in his editorial – clearly don’t watch the state broadcaster. CBC news, when they aren’t repeating talking points from the Trudeau Liberals, is filled with stories about American politics. The truth is fewer and fewer people watch CBC every year, which is why there are more and more people willing to back the idea of defunding the place”.

In 2023-2024, CBC – Radio Canada received $1.44 billion from the federal government and generated $493.5 million in revenue. Poilievre’s goal is to drastically cut public funding, by about $1 billion, asking the CBC – which would still receive, however, a portion of public funding for the French services – to stand on its own two feet as all the other Canadian publishing companies less fortunate – but perhaps more followed – than it.

In the pic above, Pierre Poilievre in a photo taken during a rally in Jonquière (Québec) and published on his Twitter X profile – @PierrePoilievre