Don’t Defund The CBC – Just Purge The Woke Ideology

I understand the urge to defund the CBC.

On any given day, the CBC website consists of a dozen puff pieces and feel-good stories, along with four or five articles that read like transcripts of critical race and gender theory university lectures. A quick glance reveals that the CBC is currently promoting a documentary called Deconstructing Karen (“White women attend the wildest dinner party of their lives. The main course is a radically honest conversation on racism.”)

For years, the CBC Books lists have been thoroughly in sync with Canada’s state religion of diversity, promoting a kaleidoscope of titles written from the vantage points of different racial and sexual minorities. These minority authors tend to universally adhere to the tenets of woke ideology – the lists may be “diverse”, but contain no genuine variety.

The CBC’s television programming is in steep decline, summed up by the fact that 95.6% of TV-viewing Canadians do not watch CBC’s English language prime-time programming. With endless new options on streaming services, and most Canadians keeping up with news on their phones, shows like The National can’t compete.

The one bright spot is CBC radio, which is increasing its market share and – despite a noticeable left-wing bias in the choice of guests – regularly broadcasts interesting national and local stories. The call-in hours provide an avenue for listeners to have their voices heard on issues of the day, and all of the programs are refreshingly free of inane advertisements.

But an organization which receives over $1 billion in taxpayer funds every year shouldn’t just have bright spots – it should be world class.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre’s solution is simple: since the CBC is ideologically biased and produces little of value, he will cut off government funding for the English version of the CBC (he has promised not to touch Radio Canada, the very popular French side).

This reflects a wider defeatism in the Canadian conservative movement – public institutions are considered to be irredeemably left-wing, and the only solution offered is to cut their funding. But our institutions were not always the way they are now, and with sufficient political will can be shifted in other directions.

The CBC came about as a result of concerns in the late 1920s and early 1930s about the flood of American media content which threatened to overwhelm Canada’s fragile culture. The Aird Commission recommended the creation of a public broadcaster capable of “fostering a national spirit and interpreting national citizenship.”

The CBC’s predecessor, the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC) was established under Prime Minister R.B. Bennett. By no means a leftist, Bennett was known by the nickname “Iron Heel Bennet” for a 1932 Toronto speech in which he called upon his audience to “put the iron heel of ruthlessness” on the communist subversion which he believed was rampant in Canada.

Prime Minister Mackenzie King created the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) in 1936 as a crown corporation with better funding and organization than its predecessor. While King was a Liberal, he was not a leftist in the 21^st century sense of the word, and has been thoroughly disavowed by today’s woke left for his firm stance against mass immigration.

In its heyday, the CBC contributed much to what the Aird Commission described as “fostering a national spirit”. During the Second World War, its radio broadcasts were valued for their impartiality. After the advent of television, the CBC produced much-watched classics like Hockey Night in Canada (which holds the Guinness World Record as the longest-running TV sports program), The Fifth Estate, The Beachcombers, and the Nature of Things. Beloved children’s shows like Mr. Dressup, the Friendly Giant, and Chèz Helene are fondly remembered by many Canadians.

Just as in the 1920s and ‘30s, Canadian culture is still threatened by a flood of American content – many Canadians watch American politics like a reality TV show, and know more about the circus south of the border than they do about their hometown. As Canadian society becomes more fragmented and atomized, we remain in need of a public broadcaster charged with “fostering a national spirit”. The CBC in its current form does not serve this mandate – rather than discarding it wholesale, it should be reformed.

The first step towards genuinely reforming our national broadcaster would be to fire CBC president Catherine Tait, and appoint a president with a mandate to end the promotion of woke ideology and restore impartiality.

Defunding the CBC would implicitly acknowledge the perpetual left-wing dominance of Canadian institutions. Under this approach, all conservatives can do is ensure that institutions which work against the national interest get fewer tax dollars – the leftist slant of these institutions is taken for granted.

Restoring the CBC to its former glory by purging the ideological rot would send a clear message to Canadians that conservatives won’t rest until the fringe woke minority is dislodged from this country’s institutions for good.